Conned at hardwarezone


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tsdh

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Jul 8, 2002
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I would like to seek opinion;
Around 3 weeks ago, I saw someone put an ad in hardwarezone, selling P4 cpu + motherboard + memory + HDD. I called up the seller, and after some negotiation, we agreed on the deal. The seller confirmed that everything are in working order and giving one week personal warranty. We met at the seller's housing block lobby.
But after I got back home and tested the items, only the memory is fine. The motherboard problem, mouse and keyboard can not functioning, while the HDD is totally die (not even detected by BIOS). The next morning, I immediately called the seller, and he promised to replaced it. The next day I called him again, and again almost everyday. He always gave many reasons, and avoiding to settle the problem. And until today, he never honor all of his promises to settle, nor he accept my suggestion for a refund.
In this kind of buy-n-sell, must a buyer take all of the risk? (in other word: can I sell a spoilt item, describing it as working and giving personal warranty without honoring it?)
Should I make a police report?
 

I've been thru this before. Since you are meeting him at his block you should have asked him to go to his place a test the stuff first before paying. I don't think there is anything much you can do. Just take it as a lesson for any future deals in any buy and sell. I know I did.
 

go to his house......and settle with him once and for all.....call him no use la....
 

smells funny when he says meet you at his house lobby and not in his house to test if it works? :think:
 

jbma said:
I've been thru this before. Since you are meeting him at his block you should have asked him to go to his place a test the stuff first before paying. I don't think there is anything much you can do. Just take it as a lesson for any future deals in any buy and sell. I know I did.
Most of the time I would respect the seller's privacy and he does not look like a crook.
This case lead to my concern: people can intentionally cheat without the worry of being prosecuted.
 

Drudkh said:
smells funny when he says meet you at his house lobby and not in his house to test if it works? :think:
Like it or not, most of the time people would only meet a stranger without inviting him/her to his unit, especially in a condominium. (The seller who conned me stay at a condominium in upper bukit timah).
 

report to the police loh. it is fraud.


but blame yourself.. why should you trust any stranger?
 

loupgarou said:
report to the police loh. it is fraud.


but blame yourself.. why should you trust any stranger?
i believe that's part and parcel of buying/trading 2nd hand goods. it happened many times in HWZ, countless.
 

Agree that it is a lesson learnt. But this does not means that we should condone such cheats by accepting that the fault is in us & let him get away scott free.

Report it as a police case. Report it to CASE. Post his nick, address in HWZ. Write in to ST Forum. Do whatever you've to, to get your money back. Even if you can't get it back, at least others will know who this cheat is & he will have a harder time trying to cheat again.

Please do not believe that there is nothing you can do except to blame yourself & learn the lesson. You can do all of what I'd mentioned. Whether will they or not, its another issue, the main issue is, we should not let cheaters get away scott free!
 

i suggest u ask for a refund personally at his house or threaten him with a police report or some sort.. you are the victim ultimately.. this type of person should be arrested & put to jail.
 

tamade said:
Agree that it is a lesson learnt. But this does not means that we should condone such cheats by accepting that the fault is in us & let him get away scott free.

Report it as a police case. Report it to CASE. Post his nick, address in HWZ. Write in to ST Forum. Do whatever you've to, to get your money back. Even if you can't get it back, at least others will know who this cheat is & he will have a harder time trying to cheat again.

Please do not believe that there is nothing you can do except to blame yourself & learn the lesson. You can do all of what I'd mentioned. Whether will they or not, its another issue, the main issue is, we should not let cheaters get away scott free!

Report to police for what??? You don't even have his name or even his address. He just change his nick and it's business as usual for him. Like I said I've been through this before and wasted my time and effort trying to get my money back.
 

jbma said:
Report to police for what??? You don't even have his name or even his address. He just change his nick and it's business as usual for him. Like I said I've been through this before and wasted my time and effort trying to get my money back.

yeap!
He got issue receipt? :think:
 

jbma said:
Report to police for what??? You don't even have his name or even his address. He just change his nick and it's business as usual for him. Like I said I've been through this before and wasted my time and effort trying to get my money back.
I have his name and address (as he introduced himself), but that information may or may not be true, I did not check against his IC.
Probably tamade was right, I should do whatever I can do to make the cheater's life difficult. Doesn't matter whether I get my money back or not, but it should send a signal that cheating is not acceptable as part & parcel of buying 2nd hand goods, otherwise cheating will become rampant.
 

Bro, I kena it before twice. But fortunately the sellers were nice enuff to refund me my moola.

Go back to the fella's house, demand an explaination without being overly confrontational. He might have had unintentionally cheated u without even him knowing it himself since the stuff might be in working order before he passed it to u. Go to his house, test it out and show it to him that it is indeed spoilt. If he gives u the, "Too bad, done deal. Your par sar" thing (low chance since you are in HIS HOUSE), there are his parents and siblings. ;)

But den these kinda things happening too often over there liao, I prefer not to sell things over there. The crowd's here more matured, responsible and trustworthy. So far so good. No bad experiences, yet. :)
 

jbma said:
Report to police for what??? You don't even have his name or even his address. He just change his nick and it's business as usual for him. Like I said I've been through this before and wasted my time and effort trying to get my money back.

I think you overlooked a point. The thread starter has the seller's mobile number. Regardless whether the line is a post-paid or pre-paid line, the telcos will have the owner's particulars. So, please do not think that you don't have any means to find the seller again. Of course if he is using a stolen SIM card, thats another story.

Going to the telcos won't help since they've to safeguard their customer's privacy. But once you make it a police case, they will have to work with the police. Then the owner of the line could be found, & the threadstarter can verify if its the same person. Then the issue can come to an end.

I guess you tried your best to get your money back fruitlessly & felt discouraged over it. But we really shouldn't let our money be cheated without taking any actions. Remember, you did try (even if you failed). So you shouldn't be discouraging others from trying, if he also failed, at least he tried. What makes you so sure he won't ever get his money back?

Just try. Whats the harm? Or you could choose to suffer in silence while the cheater lives happily.
 

Caveat Emptor. Definitely applies to all 2nd hand purchases. Onus is on the buyer and not the seller to make sure the item is in good working order.
 

U tested the parts one by one 1st before assembling?
Or you assembled 1st before testing?

It may be your fault.
I once shorted the mainboard, & everything on it spoilt. Including graphics card & everything else conencted.
So maybe it's not his fault after all...

No point here listening to one part of the story only.
Why point fingers at someone else without knowing the whole story?

.
 

Really? caveat emptor is not a legal principle by the way.

Anyway doesn't the Sale of Goods Act provide that where goods are delivered without a chance for examination, the buyer is not deemed to have accepted the goods until he has a reasonable opportunity to examine the goods?

anyway for this case, best is to report police liao for cheating case.

You might want to consider AReality's post first before doing so.

Stoned said:
Caveat Emptor. Definitely applies to all 2nd hand purchases. Onus is on the buyer and not the seller to make sure the item is in good working order.
 

tsdh said:
The seller confirmed that everything are in working order and giving one week personal warranty.

The next morning, I immediately called the seller, and he promised to replaced it.

Let us all look back to tsdh's first thread. These are the 2 important points he raised. Of course we're only listening to his side of the story for now. Since we don't have the other side's story. So inorder to listen to both sides's story, the best way is to meet up & talk it out.

If the seller is not a cheat, he has no reasons or fears not to answer calls or not to agree to meet up. Anyone would be eager to prove his integrity & honesty by meeting up to clear up any misunderstanding, unless that person has the intentions to cheat.

I think a lot of suggestions had been given, ultimately you call the shots, since you're the one who paid for the stuffs.

Perhaps you could test all the parts again. The simplest & free way to verify is to seek help from a friend/relative who has a working PC, you just need to swap the parts 1 by 1 to check if they work. Best is you have a spare working PC to test with.

Once confirm, go to the seller's home & try to talk to him nicely & see his response. If he refuses to honor his deal & promises, then just go straight to the police. If he does honor, then close the matter.

Its really up to you to decide what to do.
 

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