"Seller": Dave Whitmore. FM nick: eagle..i
"Buyer": Myself.
Items: Gitzo CF tripod (2540EX) and Acratech V2 ballhead.
This is a neutral feedback.
As I don't live in USA the first question I asked is whether he will be willing to ship worldwide. He said yes and we continued the e-mail conversation. We started talking in December 2007. At February 2008 I paid him (he quoted the price, I accepted without any argument) but he never shipped the items. He "suddenly" discovered I live in Israel and asked for more money to cover the shipping costs. As I told him twice before that I live in Israel, I refused and demanded that he either ships the items to me at the agreed price or return my money. No reply whatsoever. One month later I opened a dispute at PayPal and thankfully got a refund. BTW, a direct contact with Fred revealed that he was unable to help in any way.
So, to sum it up:
The good: He was very communicative at first and returned my money in the end.
The bad:
1. He went silent after the request for more money.
2. He refused to send me the items at the price he himself set.
3. For one month I lived in fear. Did I lose the money?
The ugly: My belief in the purity of the B&S forum was tainted. I had several flawless deals beforehand which went smoothly.
Happy shooting,
Yakim.