I ordered a 383 short block from Eric Parrish, e-bay store, Parrish enterprises, e-bay ID "sbc_engine_builder. com". I was promised a comp cam, melling oil pump, an harmonic balancer, lifters, Cloys timming set, timming chain cover, JE forged pistons, and Eagle forged crank. I recieved a block not decked, a strocker crank that I can't identify,with rods that appear correct (Eagle), correct pistons, a GM cam, GM timming chain. None of the other parts were included. I paid via pay pal. Even though I had been told the engine was shipped two weeks after i paid $3550, it shipped after 3 weeks. Pay pal wont do anything if you complain 21days or later than the payment date. The seller avoided using e-bay, billed me directly through pay pal, so e-bay would not help. As soon as I had paid, Parrish stopped answering e-mails. I got his phone #, but it is never answered no matter how many times I let it ring. Parrish has a 99.6% positive rating on e-bay, but negative comments are "private", and can't be read. His listings ask buyers to e-mail him before bidding.
Be carefull when buying on e-bay. Don't do business with sellers who keep feedback private. Always buy "through e-bay", but find a local engine builder to deal with if poss. DON"T buy from ERIC PARRISH, PARRISH ENTERPRISES, sbc_engine_ builder.com. If you have to order a motor, or short block, get refferences from forum members who had a good experience buying. I wish I had.

 

good to know

 

wow... call the police in the area you are doing business with. This is fraud.

 

one thing i THINK you can do, is to email everyone on ebay that you notice bids on something he lists and warn them off. At least, I have gotten emails occasionally from people where i have bid for something from a bad seller. Doesnt get your money back, but can be somewhat satisfying. After having dealt with car parts people on ebay, i learned to go local. but i did waste a lot of dough. So, I feel your pain. It seems ebay gives no help, and paypal very little. The only way to purchase is on credit card, and then dispute the payment.
Good luck.

 

You said it all right there. Private feedback should NOT be permitted on Ebay. Why have feedback at all, if you can have it private???

 

Tell him you're gonna email that info to everyone who bids on his motors until he reimburses you.

It should be EASY to ruin somebody's ebay business with a little effort, since you have access to every single one of his customers before the purchase. Set aside fifteen minutes, two days a week, and paste your message to every bidder on every auction of his.

You can set his sales up as a favorite search to minimize clicks.

You'll enjoy it I promise.

 

Sounds easy but you can do that only once. Unless the seller is a complete moron he'll start listing his auctions as private and then you can't access the bidders!
I know because I did it to a dishonest seller 2 years ago and ever since he lists all of his auctions as private. I still check on him occasionally.
I complained to ebay about private auctions and my particular transaction and as usual nothing was done. They say private auctions are at the discretion of the seller!
Where is this Parrish located? Maybe someone can pay him a friendly visit!

 

join www.corral.net and look in the lounge and contact a gentleman by the username of Lashlarue...he thrives on this kind of thing and hopefully if you ask nice enough he'll help find you some really helpful info...and you just might get some kind of compensation back from this piece of **** scammer

 

**if a payment was made through or with a credit card, you call and fax a letter to them and challenge the charge as not getting what you paid for and that the ad was misleading.

the card company will investigate the issue and if you can prove what the facts are, you will not have to pay the bill on your charge. if you have the mdse., you can then negotiate with the seller to send you funds to pack and ship the item back to him.

you give him a reasonable time certain to retrieve his mdse or you will discard it or in any way do with it as you please being that the seller failed to act in a reasonable time and thus forfeited the item.

you MUST give a time certain and i would not only e-mail the seller but, send certified mail to his address (if known). in a court of law that is called "due diligence" and should absolve you of any liability. he winds up being "out" and not you.

 

Had an "almost" similar experience....just not on Ebay.

I contacted Tommy Morrison (yes,,,THE Tommy Morrison) to build me an engine. After 3 1/2 MONTHS of empty promises (and a 50% deposit) I finally turned it over to my lawyer.

Seems that since I had done my business via the internet, and it was across state lines, that I was eligible for TRIPLE damages.

He finally settled for sending me the components. He owed the Feds so much money in back taxes that my lawyer told me to settle or get nothing...I had a local machine shop do the work.

You might want to check it out for yourself. Make the settlement contingent on HIM paying your lawyers fees...if they don't show to the hearing (like Morrison did) then they give you a default judgement. You can file liens against everything they own...eventually you will get your money back. I would have done the same, but Tommy had 28 suits filed against him by the US government...and they get their money first.

Sorry to hear about your crappy situation, but you MIGHT get out of it ahead if you play your cards right.

Good luck...

 

Yes, Paypal will do nothing for you if it's outside Ebay. I bought a small ticket item outside Ebay. It was actually from an Ebay seller. He had a listing of a similar item, and I asked him on Ebay if he had the one I needed. He said yes and I paid him with Paypal outside of Ebay. He send the wrong item, and simply ended contact with me. I've never had a problem getting my money back from an item bought inside Ebay. I traced the guy down and he then gave me a refund no questions asked.

 

I live 2 hours from this guy. If it will make you fell better I could go and burn his place down. I was going to have them build me a engine but not now.

 

Jonny - not a good idea to publicly threaten that kinda action... if he sees this, and likes the idea, you become suspect #1.

I have intentionally made no reference to the action, so if you do the right thing, and edit it, it won't survive you.

 

Thanks for the feed back. I used a visa check card, and have resd that you don't have the same protection as with a credit card, but will check it out. Mabey I will get an attorney? I like the idea of emailing bidders, but I had the idea of listing my short block for sale using the same wording as Parrish Enterprises, and describingv the situation, and offering to sell it for what I paid. Hopefully, ebay bidders will see, and read it. I would not want anyone to do anything illegal to retaliate, as it is just not worth it. I'm so busy trying to get my car back together, and work, and other things that I don't want to spend a lot of time on this. I have considered a small clims law suite, but it takes time, and effort to be succesful in court, and collections. Thanks again. I will keep the thread updated from time to time

 

I like the idea of posting it for sale. I would also do a website to bitch about him.

contact the local police in his area, where ever that might be, and file a police report against him for fraud. Submit to them all the required documentation, or at least copies and photographs, to back up the complaint.

many of the check cards now come with much of the same level of buyer protection that regular CC's have.

good luck.

 

Yeah, ebay is a good and bad thing. A good place to rip people off and a bad place to get ripped off. I sold some 12" Subs a few years back. 1 was known blown and the other was fine. I sent them out and the PO f*ed them up...bad. The guy pinned it on my fault and I was out the money and speakers. Paypal sided with him and would not even listen to what I had to say. Point being is sometimes no matter how careful you are you sometimes get screwed. Sorry to hear about it though. You can allways create a false Ebay ID and bid on his stuff and give him - feed back. I have seen a guy on ebay do this alot and he has positive feedback even though under his profile he has 3000 negitive and like 5 positive. He just reports the false auctions to ebay then he is cleared. Good luck on getting a refund bro

 

Want to get ripped off? Buy through EBay. EBay sucks IMO.

 

I have 265 feedback and have had at least 300 transactions and only about 4 of them were unpleasent. Great place to sell stuff and depending on what your buying its a great place to buy. IMHO

 

I would call the police, but I know he is in Illinoise, but not where. Jonnymac knows. Mabe I can get his address from Jonnymac. I'll check the cc card. I don't know how to do a web site, & I,m not sure how this would help. Thanks

 

The anonymity of Ebay lures some sellers into fraud. Some don't care about their reputation. Ebay employs many investigators to fight fraud and has enlisted the help of the FBI.