Paid by Venmo and not received item. Any recourse?

[dwb7272]

I have done hundreds of deals with zero issues. I think my luck has run out. I posted WTB post for iron shafts. A member contacted me, gave me a good deal but said he only takes Venmo. My kids use this but I never have. I signed up, paid him and now I think I have been scammed. He was quick to respond via text but I have been getting runaround. He says shipped but will not give tracking number. He has not responded to last 2 messages. On this site, he has 0 feedback and has not been active since March 16. I have contacted Venmo and waiting on response. I feel stupid but never, ever had problems here. Until certain, I don’t want to give out member name but will. I would like for a moderator to contact me to help with my options. I think this guy is bad news but I don’t want to jump the gun. Any help from people who use Venmo would be great. Thanks

[larciel]

mark it as a lesson learned and move on. and do tell us the ID of the Word not allowedhole so we can blacklist it. Although I feel he will not be returning here under that name.

[dwb7272]

Yea I agree. I am only out $125 so it could be worse. I will post ID but let me give it a day or two. There might be a legitimate reason but after pressing him for info, he has not responded. I would have not done the deal but he told me he won credit at a golf shop that was not needed and would rather discount shafts to me so he could get back some cash. The company is legit and is about 30 miles from me so I knew such a place existed. I do not have my location in my profile so not sure if this was just a coincidence or not. But the times I talked to him in the beginning the phone number coming up is out of New York and I live in Texas. He told me shafts were on back order which I understood . He finally told me they were shipped but would not give me a tracking number or an order number so that I could call place directly. So let me see if anything happens in next day or so. But he has not been active here since a few days after I bought the shafts. He has no feedback but be did have a few posts and discussions.

[endy]

Maybe try and look him up on on social media and message him through there. That might scare him into being honest if he really is being deceitful.

[dwb7272]

Ok. Thanks.

[Olde Maroon]

Please consider posting his username immediately and invite him to this thread. If he has a legitimate reason, he can come to the thread and explain or he can talk to you and you can tell us it's all good. If he's a scammer, you might be saving someone else in the meantime.

 

As for the situation, did you try calling the club and asking if they could help put you in touch with him? It might be enough if you leave your contact infi and ask that they pass it along to him. If nothing happens from there, you could explain to the club and that might bring other options. Good luck.

[Krt22]

You got scammed. Any user that "only" accepts venmo should be reported to the moderators immediately.

[jschwarb]

Venmo, ugh. It's for millennials to split the check.

[Olde Maroon]

> @Krt22 said:

> You got scammed. Any user that "only" accepts venmo should be reported to the moderators immediately.

 

It's crazy. People are putting it in their BST ads. I agree that if you ask for payment without buyer protection you should be suspended. It is not appropriate for this venue. If I went to a store and they told me they'd only sell me something if I paid cash without a receipt, I'd report them for shady business practices. To me, this is the same.

[bobcat88]

Yeah you're kind SOL with Venmo. I accidentally sent a payment to a username that was one letter off from a friend of mine's username and after contact the guy a couple times just figured I'd never be seeing that money again. Thankfully it was only about $15 for skins that day.

[KC13]

Ouch! I had a transaction where they asked me to pay Venmo to avoid fees. I politely replied, "PayPal only", they agreed, and then I sent payment with a little extra to cover the fees. I really wanted the item and its was less than $5 extra. Always protect yourself my friend. Best of luck!

 

- KC

[dwb7272]

Ok. His ID is 8iron175. How do I invite him to this topic? Thanks.

[Joker91]

Put an @ in front of their name. @8iron175

[bobcat88]

> @KC13 said:

> Ouch! I had a transaction where they asked me to pay Venmo to avoid fees. I politely replied, "PayPal only", they agreed, and then I sent payment with a little extra to cover the fees. I really wanted the item and its was less than $5 extra. Always protect yourself my friend. Best of luck!

>

> - KC

 

Agreed on this point. If a buyer is that concerned about the fees they should ask for an additional 2.9% on top of what they think the item is worth to cover them.

[dwb7272]

Ok. @8iron175

[gibbiesmalls]

You should have known he was lying with that username..... lol

 

 

[dwb7272]

You are correct sir.

[Dasenergi]

Now if it was @8iron200 then you would be good and for sure a legit wrxer. Sorry you got shafted! Terrible that there are so many dishonest people these days. Thanks for posting his handle.

[Swisstrader98]

Golden rule; never use Venmo. Zero recourse.

[dwb7272]

Yes I have already closed the account. Not trying to diffuse part of the blame from myself, but I guess what bothers me more is it happened on this site. When I first joined I was skeptical about me paying for something with hope item would be shipped. This was way back when not sure pp was so buyer friendly. But I was never so wrong. The members on this site that I have dealt with are on such a higher level than general population. And I hope others would say same about me. As stated in first post, I have been buyer and seller on so many deals here and have had nothing but great success with each transaction. Now off to buy more shafts and hope for different outcome.

[dwb7272]

Hey guys. I have sent a couple of texts to the seller, last two not really proud of but did make me feel better. lol . But wanted to pass on his phone number that was used when I received a text and we actually spoke before the deal was made. The number showing on my caller ID was 585 378-4856 from Olean NY and the Venmo name I paid was Ed White. If posting this is not allowed, please moderators you can delete. Reason I am doing this is this guy has 0 feedback but did have several posts. After he got paid by me he strung me along for a couple of weeks. If golfwrx bans him, I think he could easily open another account and what he does is reach out to those with WTB ads. I don't think he sells because he probably doesn't have anything to sell. He is very convincing as when I was hesitant on the deal he assured me he was not going to scam me and again he came up with Dallas Golf which exists and his story sounds legit . This may be a burner phone but just wanted to let know if you are dealing with someone with this phone number, he is not legit. Thanks.

[dwb7272]

I don't know if this is right place for this post but since this is the history of my deal gone bad I will post it here. I placed another WTB post for iron shafts and had a member, @Sfd732, message me saying if my ad was another attempt since I was scammed. He told me if it was, he had a set of KBS pulls that he would pretty much give me for any offer. I asked him to give a price as I felt bad offering anything other than value. He came back with an extremely low price and after payment was made, had them shipped a couple of hours later. THIS is what this site is about and if I have anything he ever wants that I am selling, and I do sell often, I will definitely pay it forward. Great member and just wanted to pass it along.

[irishmpk67]

I too have been scammed by this same individual. Same exact scenario. My purchase was for $230 and I have not received anything for the “Venmo” payment. Was hoping to find better news when I searched his name, but now I appear to have been scammed. If anyone has some insight, please PM me.

 

Had higher hopes for this site since I have had great experiences up to this point.

 

Irishmpk

[dwb7272]

I was wondering why he kept stringing me along since as soon as I paid, there was nothing I could do. Then I realized he was using this site to do this and when we finally figured it out, he was done. Did he tell you he had credit at a place you knew about?

[NDGolfer13]

I had someone ask me to pay with venmo. Told him I only did PayPal and it was crickets after that. I probably got lucky. Maybe we should have a pinned thread to post those who ask for payment through services with no buyer protection. I never pay f & f or through a SVC that doesn't protect me. Sorry to the op that he got scammed

 

I also hope the feedback system returns.

[magnus7319]

Sometimes it takes being burned to learn not to gift PayPal or use Venmo. There’s a reason it’s not allowed to be advertised in Ads. Sorry you got burned but it could always have been worse. I’ve been there man, when I was a new member. Some lessons are more expensive than others.

[irishmpk67]

dwb...

yes....He said he had credit at Dallas Golf that he was trying to use....straight up scammer! $230 down the drain!

[deadsolid...shank]

It appears that asking for a Venmo payment in an ad should be an automatic ban.

 

I sure hope the feedback comes back soon. I’ve backed off the BST since it disappeared. One small transaction that went well, but I’m not pressing my luck. That feedback score, while not perfect, is a valuable tool.

[GoIrish17]

I really hope that returning feedback to the BST is a high priority. It’s the wild wild west there now.

[Sfd732]

Glad I could help out in the end, though, it sucks you got scammed in the first place. I do concur the BST is a bit sketchy at the moment.