Spying Beast

So back in mid December, I was taking the advice of a few of my vette-bros, and decided to look on Ebay for a new or slightly used procharger. It's basically the Jew in me that needs to feel like I'm getting the best deal in the world.....

ANYWAYS, I found this guy who had a "brand new" ATI procharger complete kit for sale, starting bid of 3499. with free shipping. WHAT A BARGAIN!

SO anywho, I bought it, paid for it on the 20th of December in hopes of getting it here before the end of the year, and having it installed on my long weekend of New years. That's where things went down hill.....

I contacted the seller requesting that he inform me of the shipping status/intentions, and he said that he didn't have it "with him", and that he had to get it from his storage facility after the holidays. I informed him that this was unacceptable, and to refund my $ ASAP (red flags everywhere). He then expressed that he meant after Christmas, not "the holiday(s)", then proceeded to tell me that he would be shipping out my receipt the next day (X-mas eave). I asked what the relevance of sending a receipt was, but didn't hear back from him that night.

The next day (X-mas eave), a got home from work at about 2pm, immediately checked my emails, and found that he shipped his receipt via Paypal with a tracking # attached. BING BING BING BING BING! Now I've figured out his scam.... His Paypal account wouldn't allow him to withdraw the funds because of the large dollar amount until the item had been received by me with a tracking # confirmation (remember the receipt?). What a dirt bag! He had planned on having me sign for the receipt, grab my 3500.00 and run for the border.....GAH!

I immediately contacted Paypal and informed them of the circumstance. They assured me that I was 100% covered for the full amount, and suggested that I simply file an item not received claim when the receipt showed up, and they would sort out the rest.

That same afternoon I called the sellers bluff, and told him that I was on to his scam. BINGO! I had my money back in my Paypal account before I could press the refresh button.

He has had three such auctions total for similar prochargers, all with the same M.O.

Below is his explanation of the reason for sale:

This system was purchased with the intent of installing it on my C6 but unfortunately some events in my life are causing me to sell the kit and many other parts purchased for my cars in need of some extra money and need it to go as soon as possible. My loss is your gain. It is complete and still in the box as if it were new from procharger. It is the LS2 HO Intercooled kit with the P-1SC-1 head unit and comes complete with fuel injectors, fuel system, and tuner. The P-1SC-1 is self contained self oiling head unit so no need for drilling into oil pan to run oil lines like with some supercharger systems. This is a great looking polished kit that can add some serious power to your corvette. It is for a six speed but I'm sure would work fine for automatics as well just the tuner may not be compatible. It comes with a 6 psi pulley which produces 615hp on a stock C6. It fits the LS2 on the C6 from years 2005-2007 but may fit other years and LS model engines; not sure on details but would check with procharger. Feel free to ask any questions.


He had one for a C6 that I bought, one just recently for a C5, and another for a older model Firebird. His Ebay name is nhustlar12, and he is a true scammer. Someone bought the Firebird model just after my auction ended, and I've yet to see any feedback for the guys wrong doing. I personally am making him squirm around a bit for wasting my time and trying to scam an old man before I leave him a negative, but trust me.....it's coming!

So yea, buyer beware. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is....

Peace,

Keith

pennys58

Sorry to hear about this! Too much of this going on and there is little being done to deter it. Where was the guy from? On another board, a scam has been going around on Craigslist, and they tracked him down to New York. Good luck.

John

Spying Beast

Funny you said that, he is from Pittsford N.Y. And his name was Nicholas Rusin.

pennys58

ERIK GELLER
47 CLINTON ST
BROCKPORT, NY 14420
(585) 637-2092

+/- 20 miles apart

Do you have his email?

Spying Beast

I sure do, it was something like coolkid@ gmail.com or something like that...

I've been watching his auctions for the last couple of weeks, and I'll post link the next time one comes up. I'm sure his attempt at selling the C5 blower was one meant to avoid me seeing it as I was only searching for a C6 kit. It wouldn't surprise me if the two were one in the same, or at the very least scam buddies...

pennys58

Atleast you got your money refunded by Paypal, many are not. Thanks for the heads up!

Flash99

What a loser.... Yeah my motto if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is, well unless its a KB Twin Screw Blower...

Robert56@RNS

God I hate these freaking bastards. Seems Pay=Pal has enough info now to put a stop to this guy? What did his past sales look like?
Robert

Z06wanted

atleast you didn't lose your money.

0Taylor@DallasPerformance

Another good reason to buy from your the supporting vendors

NYC6

Z_Rocks

Give Andy a call

Oh Boy, Andy is going to kill me

saplumr

You can lose your shirt with paypal if you pay for an item out of your checking account or funds from you paypal account. The best thing is to always pay through paypal with a cc. At least if you get a crook for a seller you can have your cc holder get your money back.

drivinfast

Another

Andrew-NY

I have a paypal account and I'm pretty sure they cover us against fraud whether we paid with a CC or checking account.

saplumr

There is no possible way paypal can recover money once it has been paid out of a checking account or cash funds from a pp account. I've been through it.

Spying Beast

Provided that your purchased the item through Ebay, and are a "confirmed" member, you are now completely protected against fraud. Basically Ebay had to change their policy regarding fraud because it was fast becoming a safe haven for crooks & shady dirt bag sellers. I don't know how long it would take to get my $ back from Paypal, but it would have been refunded eventually.

Outside of Ebay is a completely different story though. As Saplumr said, if you pay cash out of your checking account, your screwed... I've bought & sold maybe 15k of Ebay stuff over the last few years, and it wasn't until the past few months that they started protecting the buyers. I still pay with my CC so that I can get my free Hawaiian Air Miles AND protect myself.

PEACE!

Andy@A&ACorvette

I can put together a slightly used ECS kit together for you (actually,it will have a brand new head unit) for something in that price range.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Sylvain

This guy is still on the road he tried to sell me the same supercharger today.
I was looking at the same auction on Ebay and I did asked him a question and he got back to me today asking for any offers from me to buy it.

thanks guys

aTX427

I hate fleBay - the last time I tried selling something I got a virus uploading a picture. Took me down for 2 days trying to remove it. Ended up needing to rebuilding my laptop from the OS up.