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Archive 2014 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming

  
 
matthewm
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p.2 #1 · p.2 #1 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


MikeW wrote:
while beating the dead horse about paypal gift, I hope you get your money back. I got scammed in the past, is very frustrating to think these low lifes still get away with it. Why was BostonGregs account locked? Thought he was pretty stand up :/


Yeah... I don't do the PP Gift thing unless I've dealt with the person before or if I'm REALLY comfortable with it. There are some guys on here with hundreds of feedback and sometimes if they meet me at my asking price, I'll do it gift just to help them out, even if they didn't ask for it. I know that's dangerous, but I'm kind of a trusting person. I didn't know this guy from Adam's house cat so I used regular PayPal.

I hope they can still retrieve my money even if he's long gone. We pay fees to PayPal just for such things, I would think, but you never know.

I'm going to call my bank tomorrow and just let them know what's going on and that this is a fraudulent transaction. Perhaps they'll just do a chargeback and let PP eat it.

As for BostonGreg... I think it's because he chimed in without any sort of constructive criticism, put a laughing emoji and then basically told us we were fools for believing this guy was scamming us. I feel like if we were wrong about this, he would have responded by now to my complaint via PayPal.

I hate that BostonGreg got mixed up in this and hope his account will be restored. It's easy to take the high road in situations such as these. I would hate to see a longstanding member lose their place her for a momentary lapse in judgement. That happened to me at the Ruger Firearm Forums. Basically, I called someone out for saying something completely out of line, made a bad call on saying the wrong thing and they booted me permanently.

Perhaps BostonGreg can get his membership reinstated here without too much fuss.

As for this Brutigo fellow... Well, we all know where he can go. !



Mar 16, 2014 at 04:07 PM
MikeW
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p.2 #2 · p.2 #2 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


I've never seen someone sidelined on here, hopefully that is the case...it isn't a gaming forum after all!


Mar 16, 2014 at 04:13 PM
matthewm
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p.2 #3 · p.2 #3 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Just messaged "Brutigo" on eBay... It's not him. After this message, the guy messaged me again and said he derived his eBay name from his real name and that it definitely isn't him on here. He has a record of buying and selling a LOT of computer stuff... Not camera equipment.

"Brutigo" here linked me to that eBay account, but it's not him. I think you should definitely take it up with PayPal as the whole thing was fraudulent right from the get-go. They may be able to at least lock his account down or keep him from getting another one or something...

Here's a screengrab of my convo with the real Brutigo (he responded in about 30 seconds):



Mar 16, 2014 at 04:23 PM
susi
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p.2 #4 · p.2 #4 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


I was wondering that as well, been PMing Greg about the 85 f/1.2 .. is he able to see PMs when locked ?
BTW, I have also checked our ebay verifications before and found them fraudulent, just not a good reference.



Mar 16, 2014 at 04:38 PM
matthewm
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p.2 #5 · p.2 #5 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


susi wrote:
I was wondering that as well, been PMing Greg about the 85 f/1.2 .. is he able to see PMs when locked ?
BTW, I have also checked our ebay verifications before and found them fraudulent, just not a good reference.


Susi,
You can get in touch with Greg through his website. Just click on his little icon and then click the "WWW" button and contact him via his personal folio site (which is very nice, I might add).



Mar 16, 2014 at 04:45 PM
susi
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p.2 #6 · p.2 #6 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


matthewm wrote:
Susi,
You can get in touch with Greg through his website. Just click on his little icon and then click the "WWW" button and contact him via his personal folio site (which is very nice, I might add).


Thank you Matthew



Mar 16, 2014 at 04:47 PM
matthewm
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p.2 #7 · p.2 #7 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Still waiting on PayPal... The seller didn't respond to the dispute so I was able to escalate to a claim late last night. Now, PayPal is requesting a response from the seller and giving him until March 28 to do so. He hasn't responded to me since last Thursday... I'm not sure why they think he'll respond now.

Anyway... It's just a waiting game for now. I mentioned about the OP's issues with this seller as well in hopes that maybe they could issue a refund for him as well. We'll see.



Mar 19, 2014 at 08:36 AM
BostonGreg
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Thanks Matt for the kind words. I made the mistake of sending a brand new member (w/zero feedback) software and allowing him to pay me once he installed as I believe most people are honest and I do this for established members. Once the software was sent, he claimed he wasn't able to download (total BS-all my software is direct from Adobe) and flagged my account. Fred followed protocol and locked my account while he looked into it. Guy was a total imbecile and trying to get something for nothing. Needless to say, my account is back in good standings. I work very hard to pay for grad school and my new mortgage and would never take advantage of anyone. I definitely learned a lesson and will never deal with brand new/zero fb members again.

I also wanted to apologize for being insensitive on this thread. Maybe what happened to me was some bad karma. I truly thought this was not going to turn out to be a scam and thought the seller was just a little slow. Unfortunately, this didn't turn out to be the case. I wonder if these guys actually create profile names to match Ebay members with perfect feedback-as to backup their story. Hope you're able to get your money back!



Mar 30, 2014 at 10:20 AM
susi
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p.2 #9 · p.2 #9 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Greg, so sorry that happened to you, I tried to contact you about the lens on your web site and kept getting an error message when I hit 'send' on the reply form. Sorry we couldn't communicate . Best wishes to you!


Mar 30, 2014 at 03:17 PM
matthewm
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p.2 #10 · p.2 #10 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Greg... Glad you're back man! No hard feelings at all. It sucks that the lot of us got sucked up in a bunch of newbie drama. I agree that we all had to start somewhere (I didn't always have 100+ feedback), but I will definitely be far more cautious when dealing with new people, people with zero or negative feedback and people that respond to WTB ads without a history on FM.

I think Fred has done a brilliant job with this forum... Far more so than many other forums, but even he can't weed them all out.

Just as an update, I did end up getting my money back. All $430. It took over 2 weeks for PayPal to do their thing, but they finally did and all is well. Brutigo lost his account privileges and is probably doing the same thing elsewhere on the web. Just glad Fred took action quickly and eliminated him from the boards here.

Stay alert guys and gals!



Mar 30, 2014 at 03:24 PM
samcracc
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p.2 #11 · p.2 #11 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Glad to hear you got your $ back. Paypal has always been good to me, but I have heard some horror stories.


Apr 08, 2014 at 06:03 AM
matthewm
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p.2 #12 · p.2 #12 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


samcracc wrote:
Glad to hear you got your $ back. Paypal has always been good to me, but I have heard some horror stories.


Thanks. I've never had an issue with PayPal, but other people have. Guess I'm lucky. What irked me about the whole process, though, is that I had ample evidence that he was scamming people and they made me wait a few days after opening the dispute to escalate to a claim (even after not hearing from him for a few days already) and then when I escalated to a claim, they made me wait another 10 days to give him time to respond.

It seems, to me at least, that if the guy didn't respond for 3 days prior to the dispute (after lying), and then another 3 days (for the dispute) that they would give maybe another 24 hours or so before closing the claim. If I were a seller on PayPal and I got an email that a dispute had been opened against me, I'd respond immediately (or as soon as humanly possible).

All PayPal did was allow this idiot the opportunity to take his money and run. Their Dispute/Claims process is completely backwards.

I guess all's well that ends well though. And I ended up using the refund to buy a much better lens than what I was going to buy from Brutigo anyway.



Apr 09, 2014 at 08:01 AM
shworl
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p.2 #13 · p.2 #13 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


I use PayPal for a lot of purchases, and I have never sent payment as a "gift", and I never will. If the word "Gift" is used, just ignore it and offer regular PayPal. Any legitimate seller will say "OK".


Apr 09, 2014 at 08:12 PM
werds
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p.2 #14 · p.2 #14 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


matthewm wrote:
Thanks. I've never had an issue with PayPal, but other people have. Guess I'm lucky. What irked me about the whole process, though, is that I had ample evidence that he was scamming people and they made me wait a few days after opening the dispute to escalate to a claim (even after not hearing from him for a few days already) and then when I escalated to a claim, they made me wait another 10 days to give him time to respond.

It seems, to me at least, that if the guy didn't respond for 3 days prior to
...Show more

Actually if the money is in the account PayPal freezes those funds as soon as the claim is started. If the funds are not in the account I have seen them attempt to take it from the persons connected bank account (they have never done so to me) Also bank transfers take at least 3-4 business days so the seller would have to have tried to take the money out right away.

I am familiar with the process as I once had to deal with a buyer who tried to scam me as the sell on a purchase (basically bought item, royally messed it up and then waited until the LAST day to file a dispute to do so without once having contacted me about it. Then they only contacted me after they filed the dispute with some rather nasty threats).

In the end PayPal sided with me the seller but I understand the mechanisms and the waiting game from both perspectives now because of that one incident.

My only frustration with PayPal to date is how long they hold funds after I sell something on ebay... but that is because I do not sell often on ebay...



Apr 10, 2014 at 12:14 PM
restinginlove
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p.2 #15 · p.2 #15 · Anyone buy something from brutigo ? Think they're scamming


Wow, this is scary! My username is my ebay name and I do reference it (since its where I have the most feedback). I am happy to respond to a message on ebay to verify that me and that ebay account are the same person. But I'm pretty trusting and before reading this wouldn't have thought that someone would not only lie about that but derive their username from a random ebay account to rip people off. That's terrible!

OP and others, I hope paypal works things out for you, and soon! I'm sorry to hear about this.



Apr 13, 2014 at 01:49 AM
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