Outboardparts Internet Scam Artist Rips People Off By Shipping Empty Boxes When Orders Placed Online Sarasota Florida

Vince

Thanks for the great suggestion and insight.

OK. Now I will take that breath.

One thing I can say. I have never had such an enjoyable business. My customers have been great to deal with, even when there is a problem. Somehow the idea of a sheriff being called on me just really made me mad. I could understand it coming from someone who does not know better but this person was in law enforcement.
I work long and hard. There is no time clock.

I have had 2 other memorable instances when a customer was immediately rude (never threatening) and lots of instances where the customer understood that things could go wrong.

The two other instances ended up with the customers being customers for a long time afterward.

One of them now has the name of my business advertised on the side of his boat.

Somehow it was the sheriff pursuing statement that I got stuck on.
Also I can't understand why the package can't be looked at by anyone.

When people don't get ugly right out of the box I usually send them a replacement part without any hesitation and then work out the details later. The season is short and I get it. This resulted in a huge file of customers that thanked me. Only once had a customer not returned a part that was ordered or shipped in error. It's actually amazing to me how responsive and trustworthy my customers have been.

This was the first time that I ever had anyone give me ultimatums, and go on the attack like this. It really hit a nerve.

Don

Vince

Thanks for the great suggestion and insight.

OK. Now I will take that breath.

One thing I can say. I have never had such an enjoyable business. My customers have been great to deal with, even when there is a problem. Somehow the idea of a sheriff being called on me just really made me mad. I could understand it coming from someone who does not know better but this person was in law enforcement.
I work long and hard. There is no time clock.

I have had 2 other memorable instances when a customer was immediately rude (never threatening) and lots of instances where the customer understood that things could go wrong.

The two other instances ended up with the customers being customers for a long time afterward.

One of them now has the name of my business advertised on the side of his boat.

Somehow it was the sheriff pursuing statement that I got stuck on.
Also I can't understand why the package can't be looked at by anyone.

When people don't get ugly right out of the box I usually send them a replacement part without any hesitation and then work out the details later. The season is short and I get it. This resulted in a huge file of customers that thanked me. Only once had a customer not returned a part that was ordered or shipped in error. It's actually amazing to me how responsive and trustworthy my customers have been.

This was the first time that I ever had anyone give me ultimatums, and go on the attack like this. It really hit a nerve.

Don

Vince

Thanks for the great suggestion and insight.

OK. Now I will take that breath.

One thing I can say. I have never had such an enjoyable business. My customers have been great to deal with, even when there is a problem. Somehow the idea of a sheriff being called on me just really made me mad. I could understand it coming from someone who does not know better but this person was in law enforcement.
I work long and hard. There is no time clock.

I have had 2 other memorable instances when a customer was immediately rude (never threatening) and lots of instances where the customer understood that things could go wrong.

The two other instances ended up with the customers being customers for a long time afterward.

One of them now has the name of my business advertised on the side of his boat.

Somehow it was the sheriff pursuing statement that I got stuck on.
Also I can't understand why the package can't be looked at by anyone.

When people don't get ugly right out of the box I usually send them a replacement part without any hesitation and then work out the details later. The season is short and I get it. This resulted in a huge file of customers that thanked me. Only once had a customer not returned a part that was ordered or shipped in error. It's actually amazing to me how responsive and trustworthy my customers have been.

This was the first time that I ever had anyone give me ultimatums, and go on the attack like this. It really hit a nerve.

Don

Vince

Thanks for the great suggestion and insight.

OK. Now I will take that breath.

One thing I can say. I have never had such an enjoyable business. My customers have been great to deal with, even when there is a problem. Somehow the idea of a sheriff being called on me just really made me mad. I could understand it coming from someone who does not know better but this person was in law enforcement.
I work long and hard. There is no time clock.

I have had 2 other memorable instances when a customer was immediately rude (never threatening) and lots of instances where the customer understood that things could go wrong.

The two other instances ended up with the customers being customers for a long time afterward.

One of them now has the name of my business advertised on the side of his boat.

Somehow it was the sheriff pursuing statement that I got stuck on.
Also I can't understand why the package can't be looked at by anyone.

When people don't get ugly right out of the box I usually send them a replacement part without any hesitation and then work out the details later. The season is short and I get it. This resulted in a huge file of customers that thanked me. Only once had a customer not returned a part that was ordered or shipped in error. It's actually amazing to me how responsive and trustworthy my customers have been.

This was the first time that I ever had anyone give me ultimatums, and go on the attack like this. It really hit a nerve.

Don

Everyone who is in business with the public eventually runs into people like Tammy and Matthew. It has happened to me and it's not pleasant. The way to deal with them is totally unemotionally. Think of Tammy as a flat tire on the road of life. Fix the tire and get back on the road. I personally would refund her $50 and move on (while making d**n sure my business never accepted another order from them). I can understand if your principles won't let you do that, in which case don't make a refund and move on anyway. Lose your emotional attitude (yes I know it's justified) because it's hurting you way more than them. Once they see you aren't playing anymore, they'll go find their next victim.

BREAKING NEWS.
International scam mystery solved. Consumers save millions!

At first, Sgt. Matthew Searles was content just to threaten a Florida businessman with a sheriff pursuing him but when his wife Tammy got involved she exposed a simple packaging or shipping problem for what it actually was

A major international fraud ring being led by a Hungarian spy.

It all started when the sergeant ordered 4 spark plugs, Honey, order these plugs for me please, he said. Then she ordered the spark plug wires by mistake. However the plot thickened after the subject package arrived empty.

First, to make certain that no insider could tamper with the evidence, it was sequestered. Even UPS was implicated in the plot so Tammy never allowed anyone to see the box. After all, her word was directly from the mouth of Allah. No one could ever question her judgement. What she says is the direct incantations of a holy entity. If she said it then God spoke, or Allah or a medicine man or the kid next door. The drop shipper was a liar, the UPS driver was a liar, the order taker on the Internet lied, but it all came clear. No one ever needed to verify anything. Even though it is common practice with every problem shipment in the USA for UPS to initially look at a problem package, when Tammy spoke all normal procedure went out the window. Her judgment was superior to all. He word was the word of GOD.

Then the sergeant saw the first clue. A big break in the case finally appeared. The God of truth and vengeance spoke to him.
There was a trail of sand at the sergeant's front door. He immediately said where I come from this is called FRAUD.
He gave the company 48 hours clean up their act. When they did not comply he unleashed his wife on them. YOU WON'T SCAM ME, she said. I have a clue. Things just don't add up I did not miss my Prozac this morning and the hair on my back is standing up. That is a sure sign that something is wrong she said.

Her first moves were to alert the Internet community of the international fraud. Since millions upon millions of people were ordering spark plug wires in rush shipments, and because of her vast media experience, she was out to prove to her town just how clever she was. She would save the world from further damage with her timely alerts.

She put her warnings out to the world via the Internet and stopped the international scam dead in its tracks. The power of the Internet is truly fantastic!

It was the sand trail clue that led to the entire ring of fraud artist to be exposed!

The deed was very hard to figure out but finally her dogged determination exposed the ringleader and his two accomplices. She followed the sand to Florida and investigated all aspects of this corporation. She checked phone numbers and addresses. She compared everything and drew conclusions that could only be call miraculous. The little voices in her head kept giving her revelation after revelation. Ah this is indeed the work of a scam artist.! What every else could it be. Certainly it was not a mistake that this box arrived empty. This was called FRAUD where her husband came from and a Scam where she came from. She swore an oath to God Almighty that she would purse these perpetrators on behalf of her husband.

Here is what she discovered.

There were two inside men, at two other corporations involved in the rip-off.

The order was placed on the Internet. Then the Internet vender would fax the order to the country's largest distributor of parts.

There was an inside man at the parts warehouse. Instead of putting the parts in the box he would pocket them and fill the box with sand. His cut came when he resold spark plug wires at the local flea market.

Then the box arrived at UPS where they verified the weight of the box. It was put on an airplane and shipped across country.

However, the second inside man worked at the airport. He was the silent partner of a devious Hungarian spy. He very quickly grabbed his camouflaged Makita drill and drilled a small hole in the box. The sand slowly trickled out and the package would arrive empty. His share of the recovery was the insurance settlement from UPS for loosing the part out of the box.

The inside man at the shipping company's warehouse is the one that confessed to the plot. He was short of college funds for is immigrant daughter and the massive amounts of settlement money was puttying her through deep fried Italian pie baking school. The success of his part in this was evident when they interview her in her dorm room. She had been stuck there since she enrolled in college! Not only was an international fraud ring broken up but also she was put on a diet after Jerry Springer paid to knock out a wall and had her transported to the local hospital. So Tammy also saved a woman who was trapped in her dorm since the inception of this scam in 1983 when this fraudulent company incorporated.

Everyone made their fortune in this fraud / scam ring. The Internet vendor would receive all the cash. He paid for the 2nd day shipping, then he paid for the minimum order fees to the marine distributor, and he paid the 2nd day charges to UPS.
When UPS charged him a one pound minimum shipping fee and the vendor charged him five dollars minimum order fee, he usually lost money on a small order. All the money kept going to UPS and the supplier! There had to be some way to get the money back from UPS.
Normally he provided rush deliveries of small parts as a service to his customers, even though he lost money on every order under $60.00. But, once he thought up this clever scheme to resell the tiny parts and have the accomplice resell the parts at the flea market, he was able to retire.

Unfortunately, now his retirement plans are ruined and he has been taken away by the local sheriff just as the ever vigilant sergeant and his wife had predicted. His scam business lies in ruin and was offered to the Navaho God of Vengeance and Retribution.

Just goes to show you. When a sheriff and his wife threaten you, pay attention or they will certainly find you out to be a scam artist and a fraud without any reasoning being necessary.

Tammy, there are several issues here.

Issue number 1. You and your husband started the e-mail buy calling me a scam artiest. Your husband's initial communication included a time deadline and a threat to have me personally pursued by the local sheriff. This is not the way to get someone to cooperate. These were immediate personal attacks. This is a threat and also amounts to extortion by a police officer. He has indicated he was willing to have another police department pursue me personally for a package that I did not ship from my location. One of my suppliers, Pro Marine, packed and shipped this package. I have given you the feedback from them.

Pro Marine shipped and weighed the package. UPS billed my company for 1 pound and also noted the actual weight of the package at pound.
Since this package was a drop shipment from another marine supply company, and since it UPS took it and it had the proper weight how do you keep coming up with the idea that I, personally, decided to scam you. I get billed for the parts in this package, I get billed for the package itself and I get billed for the shipping from UPS.

You are supposed to be some type of a journalist. Do the material facts not interest you?

I am 60 years old and have never been told by anyone that if I don't do as they say they will send a sheriff after me. My corporation has existed since 1983. Do you think we have been sending people empty boxes all these years?

This is the real problem. The very e-mail contained the words Frauds and then laid out the groundwork under which I will operate my business. If I did not comply then your husband who represented himself as being in law enforcement said he will have the local sheriff go after me personally for something that I had nothing to do with.

How do you expect people to react. Do you think that extortion will get favorable results? Your e-mail immediately accused me of running a scam.

Should I show you how civilized people contact me when something is wrong? Anyone knows that if you immediately push someone they will push back. A police officer should know better than anyone not to push people around.

The initial complaint from your husband was clearly and without a doubt a letter sent to intimidate me.

2. Our policy and procedure to rectify a problem is on the web site. It applies to all our customers. The customer can't threaten any employee and receive any satisfaction. Your husband was WAY out of line. His threats to turn have the local sheriff pursue me are wrong. He, of all people, should know that. The sheriff goes after criminals. Lost, damaged or shipping mistakes are not criminal actions. Most likely he has violated departmental policy and federal law governing law enforcement officers when he did this.

3. There has NEVER been an instance where I received any money from UPS. That claim of your is so far out. Do you also see flying saucers? A CRIMINAL conspiracy to seal the money for 4 spark plug wires?

A normal person does not see everything as a conspiracy. Common sense will tell you not to attempt to intimidate the person who will solve your problems. Even if your husband was upset he should know the difference between a mistake, criminal and civil action.

4. I have never seen this package and UPS, not you, needed to see it. You will not allow UPS to look at it. I can't see it, UPS can't see it and everyone is supposed to just jump because you and your husband say so, threatening to have me pursued by police. For 4 spark plug wires?

None of this would have happened if you and your husband had asked only one time nicely to look into this matter. That is the key to this problem.


You state: The box was sealed over with the label and was not damaged on arrival. It could not have been opened without tearing the label, therefore the box was shipped empty.
NOT TRUE PER UPS AND THE SHIPPER. IF A BOX IS DAMAGED THEY WILL TAPE IT UP THEMSEVESAND COMPLETE THE DELIVERY.

So you decided this is fraud. You see this to be a money-making conspiracy, and apparently you are also the only expert in shipping problems. Everyone is just supposed to do what you and your husband say, how you and your husband decide it should be or they go to jail and you will try to damage their business with false reports.
All this in spite of the facts that you were provided with shipping weight from UPS and information from the company that has billed me for the parts they sent to you.

You also believe that all companies abandon all operating policy and do exactly as you see fit. They jump when you say jump and they just do whatever you want when you insult, degrade, intimidate, extort and slander them. You and your husband must think that you are very important in your small town. Does everyone do what you say?

I guess the company that delivered the package has nothing to do with it, just some guy that passed paperwork via a fax machine to some multi million-dollar company is somehow also instructing them to eat your parts. Then they falsify records to bill me for the parts and UPS then falsifies the weight of the box. We have all conspired against you and you alone since there has never been a payment from UPS to my organization as you suggest
They are all in this together!

You want me to take your word for the professional examination you did to the box? Yet you will not allow anyone else to see the box?

Here is what I think.

Your husband told you to order spark plugs. His first e-mail says spark plugs.
Did you order the wrong part? The order was for 4 very small wires. Did you throw out the wires while you were looking for spark plugs? Are you afraid to tell your husband? Your initial e-mail indicated, to me, that you were afraid of your husband's reaction.

We have actually had people (who cooperated) look into the packing and find the part they ordered.

If the box was empty as you claim what was in it then that had weight? Two different companies weighed the box. The guy at pro-marine remembers this order because they did not have a small enough box for this order.
Did you also know that an order for 4 spark plug wire does not make any sense? UPS charges for 2nd day delivery at a very expensive rate. That is not money in my pocket, that is paid to UPS. They are the only company that made money in this fiasco. Yet you decline to let them see the box. The shipping company charges me a penalty charge just to box and invoice me for such a small order. UPS will not bill me at the pound that the showed as the Actual weight but bills me at a more expensive rate to handle such a small package.

You did not look into or consider anything before you went off with your empty box conspiracy theory.

It's a simple business here. I fax the order to a warehouse. That warehouse is some other company, not mine. Yet you and your husband chose to immediately slander me, accuse me of fraud, demand unreasonable service, and attack my company on the Internet.

There is absolute no common sense shown in your actions and none of this would have happened if you and your husband had been nice to begin with.

So you actually think that if you immediately slander someone you will get your way and your husband actually thinks that since he is a police officer he has the right to threaten police action.

I don't think this is a minor matter. I think that police officers do not have the right to use their position to bully people around for personal business or personal gain and your actions from the very firs e-mail we slanderous and threatening. You have turned your actions from idle threats to actions that can damage a corporation any you did this on baseless assumptions. Your are deliberately trying to damage my business from the very first communication and now you have shown actions to back up this damaging behavior.

You have also refused to let anyone see the package that is working for the company that delivered it. Instead you have decided to attack me personally and attempted to extort money using the Internet.

You have not shown any good judgement from the beginning. You went off on conspiracy theories and accusations. Then you expect me to take your word for something when absolutely nothing in your behavior represents the behavior of a well-grounded person. Yes, I think there is something very wrong with your behavior, cynical outlook, and immediate anger. Like you have never ordered a box of anything before and had anything go wrong.

I'll bet you do this in every aspect of your life. If you don't like the way your meal is cooked you attack the waiter.

Your husband needs to apoligize to me personally for his actions, he was out of line, then we talk about remidies.

Outboardparts.com owner Don Stiber still refuses to refund our money and we still have not received the parts we ordered. He tries to minimize it by saying it was "only" four spark plug wires for an outboard boat motor, but the truth is he has kept nearly $50 of our money for "only" four spark plug wires.

He has continued to harass us because we filed a complaint against him. I have asked him to stop contacting us unless it is to issue a refund, and yet he continues to send e-mail after e-mail, insulting and threatening us.

It is easy to tell what type of business practices he employs when a customer asks for a refund and he calls the customer "nuts" and then posts their personal information on the internet.

The box was sealed over with the label and was not damaged on arrival. It could not have been opened without tearing the label, therefore the box was shipped empty. As I wrote to Mr. Stiber, I won't make UPS part of his scam or make them pay when outboardparts.com should be issuing the refund. It doesn't matter if it's drop-shipped or not (if he really does ship merchandise at all), the point is that we paid money for boat motor parts and didn't receive them.

All we want is to have either received our merchandise or a refund. That is not unreasonable to ask.

While accusing me personally these people are to stupid to understand that this shipment was drop shipped from the largest marine supplier in the US. She actually thinks that somehow there is a criminal conspiracy to rip her and her husband off for 4 spark plug wires. She does not understand that I did not see the box, I faxed the order to my supplier and they packed and shipped it. UPS weighed the box in their facility. If there is a problem then UPS is the first people to look at the box. She refuses to call UPS and nstead demands outrageous solutions. Somehow she sees this as a personal thing. Very unstable mentally.

our policy is clear in the web and you must see it at least 4 times before you reach the order page. (http://www.outboardparts.com/errors1/returnpolicy.htm)



The man who ordered 4 spark plug WIRES complained to my by e-mail, as well as his wife. He then seemed to think he had ordered spark plugs in his communication.

We have a standard policy listed on the web site that explains wrong item and exchange procedures. Rather than follow procedure, this individual threatened me personally to pursue me with criminal charges in his initial communication and then ordered me to do what he said immediately. He is a training officer with an Arizona Sheriff's department. He made specific threats of pursue me using the Sarasota Sheriff to do it. His wife threatened to ruin my business reputation. Every communication from them threatened or accused me personally. When asked directly to apologize for his remarks the officer has not responded.



In his initial threatening complaint he claimed he had ordered spark plugs when in fact the order was for 4, 7-inch long spark plug wires. Between he and his wife they immediately accused me of being a FRAUD, a scam artist. I have saved all communications and have issued a written complaint to the local county commission where he operates.



The package was packed and shipped by another company. UPS has documented the package weighed pound. They ship millions of dollars of product monthly for hundreds of vendors.



The company that drop shipped the product is the largest after-market Marine supplier in the United States.

I have asked the customer in 7 separate occasions to call UPS and let them handle the claim since it is all about shipping. In every instance UPS has the insurance and is also the first response to a packaging problem. The wife has refused to cooperate, and instead continues with a litany of derogatory remarks and threats to damage my business

In short these people are either nuts or wanted product fast but did not want to pay the cost of the 2nd day shipping they had paid and instead decided to extort or intimidate me personally into giving them money.



Now it's time to sue them for damages.

here is how she behaves:



Subj: Re: response from the company that actually shipped the items.

Date: 5/4/2007 9:28:55 AM Pacific Daylight Time

From: XXXXXXXXXXbug@yahoo.com

To: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sent from the Internet (Details)





UPS can be responsible for damaged or lost items, not for boxes that were shipped empty. I will not transfer your responsibility to UPS just because you think you can get away with making a larger company pay for it.



she was responding to this e-mail from me:



XXXXXXXX@aol.com wrote:

The website has my e-mail on the very first page.

This is a Florida corporation. With several addresses.

The package came from a return package address set up with UPS.

The phone number on the website is a business line in existence or over 30 years.

When you called and wrote it was after business hours in the East.



If there is a problem then UPS is the first determination. A step that you are unwilling to take.



There are hundreds of problems resolved by my company in the past years.

Not once did someone's initial e-mail include ultimatums and threats.



I have outlined a very simple procedure. UPS needs to be contacted first.



Don Stiber



in the officers first communication he issued ultimatiums, threats and seemed to think he ordered spark plugs when he only ordered wires.

Here is his first contactact with me





Subj: sparkplugs

Date: 5/3/2007 3:41:51 PM Pacific Daylight Time

From: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX@co.navajo.az.us

To: mailto:xXXXXX@aol.comdXXXXXXXr@aol.com

Sent from the Internet (Details)



This is in reference to order# 8615. On Tuesday, May 1st, I ordered 4 spark plugs for my outboard motor. I paid an extra $25.00 for two day shipping. On May 3rd, I received an empty box with a crumpled piece of paper. This is usually called fraud. I hope it was just an error on your part and that the parts I ordered are being shipped right away at your cost. I also expect my shipping costs to be reimbursed as soon as possible. If I receive no reply by 48 hours, I will contact the sheriff's department in your area and pursue charges against you. Please reply as soon as possible.

Sgt. Matthew Searles

Navajo County Sheriff's Office

Training Division

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX