Online Vendors and Order Canceling Part 2!!!

[iamfishman]

So, I gave it some time to see if they would follow through and they didn't.

Allow me to back up though.

A little over a month ago, I came across a site called mnmagic.com.  On this site I found 4 cards at $35 each that I wanted to buy.  I immediately put them in my shopping cart and tried to pay by paypal for my purchase.  The site wouldn't let me, but they did allow me to send a check.  I was worrisome of this because of recent incidents of card values rising from incredulous business like mentioned in the other thread.

I sent a check and waited.  I called the company during that week to verify if they had received the check.  I wasn't able to get ahold of anyone, especially the owner Mr. James Drake.  After the week though, I saw that the check cleared my bank.  "Fantastic" I thought...I will be getting the cards.

I waited and waited some more.  I sent a few emails and made a few calls but no one returned any of my messages in either medium.  About a week ago I went to MNmagic.com and to my dismay, the site was down.  Upon a little google work, I found a story of another gentleman who had tremendous problems with this same company and eventually got a refund.  It was a response to his live journal post that gave me this information as well as Mr. Drake's name and phone #.

Present day, I don't have the cards, haven't received a refund, and can't get ahold of James Drake.

By the way...the cards were 4 Strategic Planning!

What should I do?  Does anyone know James Drake?  Since payment was accepted and cashed, do I have a legal case(if so, I think I may want to pursue it)?  Any help would be appreciated.

[Meddling Mike]

Sorry to hear about that Ray.

I'm not a lawyer or anything, but I can't see how you could not have a case, he took money in exchange for goods and never provided the goods or a refund.

The bigger question is whether the $140 is worth your time to file the paperwork and so forth; which might be what they're counting on.

[Apollyon]

You might want to consider talking with the police in his town and seeing if they can just talk with him. Going the criminal route might be something to consider, rather than the civil route. A discussion about the merits of spending time in federal prison for mail order fraud might enlighten him as to the proper method of shipping cards.

[mike_bergeron]

So, I gave it some time to see if they would follow through and they didn't.

Allow me to back up though.

A little over a month ago, I came across a site called mnmagic.com.  On this site I found 4 cards at $35 each that I wanted to buy.  I immediately put them in my shopping cart and tried to pay by paypal for my purchase.  The site wouldn't let me, but they did allow me to send a check.  I was worrisome of this because of recent incidents of card values rising from incredulous business like mentioned in the other thread.

I sent a check and waited.  I called the company during that week to verify if they had received the check.  I wasn't able to get ahold of anyone, especially the owner Mr. James Drake.  After the week though, I saw that the check cleared my bank.  "Fantastic" I thought...I will be getting the cards.

I waited and waited some more.  I sent a few emails and made a few calls but no one returned any of my messages in either medium.  About a week ago I went to MNmagic.com and to my dismay, the site was down.  Upon a little google work, I found a story of another gentleman who had tremendous problems with this same company and eventually got a refund.  It was a response to his live journal post that gave me this information as well as Mr. Drake's name and phone #.

Present day, I don't have the cards, haven't received a refund, and can't get ahold of James Drake.

By the way...the cards were 4 Strategic Planning!

What should I do?  Does anyone know James Drake?  Since payment was accepted and cashed, do I have a legal case(if so, I think I may want to pursue it)?  Any help would be appreciated.

Ray, can we get some info on this one: where does James do business (city, state) and is his site related to any others? (does mnmagic fall under a larger magic site?)

Not communicating with someone is awful.  We had a long discussion about this at myriad last saturday, and the one thing everyone agreed on that taking payment, and refusing communication is just the worst business practice ever.

[Apollyon]

Ray, can we get some info on this one: where does James do business (city, state) and is his site related to any others? (does mnmagic fall under a larger magic site?)

Not communicating with someone is awful.  We had a long discussion about this at myriad last saturday, and the one thing everyone agreed on that taking payment, and refusing communication is just the worst business practice ever.

That's not business. That's stealing.

[mike_bergeron]

That's not business. That's stealing.

I agree. It seems the intent was never to sell the cards at any price, but make a quick steal, especially if the site is suddenly "down".

[Anusien]

#1) Call your bank and tell them that the check was part of a fraudulent transaction and see what they can do.
#2) You probably can just get him in small claims court.  It will cost you a small filing fee.  Chances are he won't even both to show up.
#3) Or, you can call the cops.  Since he didn't ship, I think it falls under the category of mail fraud.

[afig]

I believe Jusin "Googs" Meyer is closely associated with James Drake and most likely sees him in person on a semi-regular basis. Not sure if he posts here often or if at all but he would be a good lead to get that money back. I'm not suggesting that these people are ripping anyone deliberately, I'm just sayin'.

Good Luck.