Warning: Avoid Member S14life

[gilber33]

If user S14life messages you that he has parts available, or knows someone that does, ignore them.


He messaged me that he knew a guy in Illinois who had ellipsoids for sale and gave me his contact information: John denvir jonnypaul1999@gmail.com


After going back and forth, seeing some pictures, we agreed on a price and I sent him payment through venmo (my first and last time using it). The payment went to his "cousin". Then he couldn't get the money to his bank, then he was going to refund me, then he disappeared. This was over the course of 2 weeks starting at the beginning of November. I filed a dispute with my bank and they got the money back from Venmo.


Fast forward to today. I get a message on tapatalk from a user Hollifield that he has Ellipsoids for sale, but in parentheses next to his user name is (S14life).



I run with this. I send him a text (phone number is 507-591-7938), he has the lights, sends me a picture:




He's in Minnesota. Great. I google image search the picture he sends me and it was taken from an ebay listing for Ellipsoids in Florida:



I call him out on the whole thing, he plays dumb and eventually gets flustered and tells me to "Get another buyer".


If this should go in another area of the forum, or if someone finds this inappropriate, delete it, remove it, whatever. But this guy fucked me out of $220 for two weeks and then tried doing it again.

[Reichart12]

Sucky situation. Venmo never seems like a good idea to purchase parts with. Also are ellipsoids really mid 200s? I thought that was smiley territory and ellips were like 160?

[gilber33]

Sucky situation. Venmo never seems like a good idea to purchase parts with. Also are ellipsoids really mid 200s? I thought that was smiley territory and ellips were like 160?

I'm looking for OEM US Ellipsoids; those are the prices of the Depo aftermarket sets. I just want them to be plug and play and not deal with the wiring. If I can't find a set, then I'll get Depos again.


And Venmo is a terrible app to use for purchasing parts. I have never used it before, I was not aware that there is zero buyer protection. If you send money to the wrong person, you are shit out of luck. Venmo says if that happens, message the person and ask for your money back.

[JasonC]

Looked at S14life profile... Here is what comes up, the email is christinebartell0044@gmail.com list their e30 as a 2008, and their IP is out of Atlanta, GA but they have their location as TX.

I'm going to ban and IP ban as it is a scammer.

[JGood]

Damn, they're getting pretty good. There's a few red flags in that process, but I probably would have went for it too, if it was something I needed.

Do you still have the back and fourth conversation from either contact? Would be nice to see, just to know of things to look out for.

[TimeMachinE30]

Looked at S14life profile... Here is what comes up, the email is christinebartell0044@gmail.com list their e30 as a 2008, and their IP is out of Atlanta, GA but they have their location as TX.

I'm going to ban and IP ban as it is a scammer.

Well done.

[Rennsport]

I'm looking for OEM US Ellipsoids; those are the prices of the Depo aftermarket sets. I just want them to be plug and play and not deal with the wiring. If I can't find a set, then I'll get Depos again.


And Venmo is a terrible app to use for purchasing parts. I have never used it before, I was not aware that there is zero buyer protection. If you send money to the wrong person, you are shit out of luck. Venmo says if that happens, message the person and ask for your money back.

Venmo was designed for friends to easily send money to eachother, not as a purchasing platform. I use Venmo on a regular basis with my friends but would never even consider using it to purchase something.

[gilber33]

Damn, they're getting pretty good. There's a few red flags in that process, but I probably would have went for it too, if it was something I needed.

Do you still have the back and fourth conversation from either contact? Would be nice to see, just to know of things to look out for.

The guy was so committed to it that it was hard to tell it was a scam at first. I also google image searched the pics he sent me the first time and there were zero hits.

Venmo was designed for friends to easily send money to eachother, not as a purchasing platform. I use Venmo on a regular basis with my friends but would never even consider using it to purchase something.

Right. I'm fully aware of that now. Like I said, it was my first time using it.