Duped by a forum member

[werebear]

Dear Preferred Member,

If you have fallen on hard times and can't send the tobacco, please don't be ashamed. I was in the same position nearly and woodsroad helped me out. I had no job and no source of income and still joined the box pass. I thought I would get the box around Christmas and use a gift of money to buy tobacco and ship the box, well I found out that I would be getting it much sooner and didn't have anything to put in. I immediately contacted woodsroad to remove myself from the list. To shorten the story some, he put stuff in for me so that I could take from the box. Another member sent me 4 or 5 tins of baccy. So whatever is going on, be safe, be healthy, and be joyful. We will understand when you come back.

Sincerely,

Stephen "Werebear" Witt

 

[rickpal14]

Ah yes, I remember so many years ago when myself and several others were all deprived of our money by a fairly well liked, active and respected forum member and pipe maker. In the end the total was roughly calculated at several thousand dollars. I feel lucky to have only lost $80 on the transaction. The member turned up almost a year later with a thread stating something along the lines of, "Sorry, life issues, health problems, touch base with me and we will resolve the outstanding orders." We all did, never heard from him again. Maybe he had problems and I certainly don't wish anyone poor health. The thing is, during much of the time he was not on our forum, he was posting regularly on several other non-pipe forums. I kept the receipt for the money order on hand for a long time as a constant reminder.

I remember him well Brewshooter. Unfortunately I was taken for a pipe also......

 

[fnord]

DPV:
PM sent.
Werebear, what an incredibly classy post. We've all been down and out at one time or another: emotionally, financially and even spiritually. Your kind words just made my day, or evening, whatever. And, Stephen? I hope your new gig is going well.
I know you'll pay it forward when you can, bub.
Fnord

 

[woodsroad]

Stephen, it was my pleasure to lend a helping hand.

 

[delro]

To OP- your an honorable man to give him the benefit of the doubt, and not jump the gun posting his name everywhere. Good for you brother

 

[olewaylon]

No offense but you got ripped off, I don't see what the point of this thread was unless you were looking for a pity party. I don't care if you out the member or not but not having money to ship the tobacco is not a legitimate excuse.

 

[pipebaum81]

olewaylon, I think the point of the thread was to weight the options of what to do if put in danielplainview's position. How we conduct ourselves defines who we wind-up being. Honor, mercy, retribution and understanding are at all at play here. You not caring whether the member is out’ed or not tell us a bit about you and is different than those feeling strongly to out. So who is right‽ I think there we find the importance of this post. All very interesting stuff.

 

[olewaylon]

Pipebaum, my point is that before the OP posted he probably had a good idea that the member he traded with had burned him. What was the reason for all this if he isn't going to out him? Obviously the OP's point is to out the member. Why pretend that there might be some miraculous outcome that the negligent trader turns out to be honorable in the end. I apologize if my original comment wasn't transparent enough. Its been 4 months lets call it what it is.

 

[ravkesef]

I'm not going to be his charitable as some others here. This man excepted delivery of a pipe when he knew he was unable to send the return merchandise that was to have been sent in trade. Any honorable person would've said something on the order of: "I'm sorry, but not right now. funds are a bit short. ". The fact that he arranged for the pipe to be sent to him means that he was being knowingly deceptive, i.e., a crook. The matter how you look at it, he acted dishonestly and those of our forum brethren who are trying to make excuses for him really need to realize the terribly dishonest thing that this man did. Don't waste your sympathy on him – – you're good people, but your pity is misplaced. And yes, this man really does deserve a public shaming.

 

[sablebrush52]

Pipebaum, my point is that before the OP posted he probably had a good idea that the member he traded with had burned him. What was the reason for all this if he isn't going to out him? Obviously the OP's point is to out the member.

I don't see this as necessarily true. The OP's point may have been to present his dilemma in the hope of getting some feedback or support. Or the point may be to remind the other party that this situation exists and that the possibility of being outted also exists if he doesn't take action to make good. Ultimately, once outted, there is no leverage. Outing is the last resort, not the first one.

 

[wyfbane]

If this plays out as it looks like it will, I just want to know the name so I don't do business with him/her. I have some stuff for sale and don't want to get burned.

 

[andrew]

I don't see this as necessarily true. The OP's point may have been to present his dilemma in the hope of getting some feedback or support. Or the point may be to remind the other party that this situation exists and that the possibility of being outted also exists if he doesn't take action to make good. Ultimately, once outted, there is no leverage. Outing is the last resort, not the first one.

My thoughts exactly, eloquently put. This case calls for reserved judgement I think before rash decision making. Things come up, the member may have had the money then fallen on hard times. The thing that's the casebreaker is if they haven't been active either.

 

[danielplainview]

Incase anyone hasn't seen the Duped Redux post, I'll post it here as well. I've been in contact with the moderator in private. Which is what I should have done in the first place. I've taken the advice of the guys that run the site. I wasn't looking for pity or a handout. I originally posted this to scare a response out of the recipient. From the response of the forum, bad deals are a very rare occurrence on PipesMag. No one has been burned since October which is when I sent the pipe out. I highly doubt he has been laying low seeking his next victim. The mods have his name and if anything else happens I'm sure they will deal with it swiftly. After nearly 700 posts, this is the first one I regret.

 

[iamn8]

I've been think a lot about what's been said here and I'm in complete and total agreement with Gigger. The honorable thing to do in situations such as this is to return to beating up on Peck.

 

[ssjones]

This seems like a good time to close the thread.