Gun Trade - Lost Gun Advice

[Patron God of Pirates]

Ask him to forward you the original e-mail. Why he would go to the trouble of turning it into a PDF is odd.
The suspect thing to me is the subject line:
(No Subject)

I just looked at the 20+ e-mails I have on file from USPS and none of them have no subject.

[Frizzle Fry]

Ask him to forward you the original e-mail. Why he would go to the trouble of turning it into a PDF is odd.
The suspect thing to me is the subject line:
(No Subject)

I just looked at the 20+ e-mails I have on file from USPS and none of them have no subject.

This one I just got does!















I did that on my cellphone using GIMP. It took four minutes. And I got the categories lined up properly, too!

[Levi]

That looks like a scanned printout of an email - very easy to fake! I could make that with MS Word alone, print it, and scan it.

Of the errors I can see, it lists the number of packages under "Pickup Time", the weight under "Total Packages" and the location under "Weight".

Beyond that, "any other use of the email by you is prohibited" doesn't sound authentic.



Ask him to forward it to you... Not a scan, not a screengrab, forward the actual email.

This is definitely a scanned image. If you zoom in on any of the text or images they have "fuzzy" edges, this is called aliasing, it is an a artifact of taking an image of a physical copy. If you took a pdf copy of the email you should be able to zoom in and still have crisp defined edges on everything. Not to mention, there are a couple spots that are either stains on the paper or spots on the scanner glass, and I see at least one hair on there too.

While not a smoking gun, this looks fishy to me too. I would not accept this as proof of shipment. He needs to forward the actual email to you.

[Dayspring]

Keep in mind guys - not everybody has a full version of Adobe - he printed the email & scanned it in.

[Dayspring]

Ask him to forward you the original e-mail. Why he would go to the trouble of turning it into a PDF is odd.
The suspect thing to me is the subject line:
(No Subject)

I just looked at the 20+ e-mails I have on file from USPS and none of them have no subject.

He forwarded it from Hotmail to his Outlook account so far as I can tell.

[Flatliner333]

FYI...I feel your pain, though not a marker I recieved my USPS package from a trade deal only to find Major parts missing and the box looks like it's been through hell and back and then re taped. The shipper estimated $30 shipping in the deal but only spent $18 and he did not get insurance on it .

[Justus]

Yeah, on top of that the email says there were 3 total packages picked up by USPS on that date. Any of them could have been your package, or NONE of them could be your package. There's nothing to link the confirmation number on that email to your package tracking number.

Best bet is that your package never got picked up. It wasn't one of the 3 boxes with a total combined weight of 15 lbs.

Only the seller knows how many boxes he set outside on his porch, and whether any of those boxes had an address label with your name on it.


EDIT: And if those emails are automated at the time of pickup, then why did it take two days for it to get sent? Pickup date was allegedly 12/14, and the email was allegedly sent to him on 12/16. When USPS sends me emails, I get them within 2 minutes of a scan or tracking number issuance, not 2 days.

[Frizzle Fry]

Yeah, on top of that the email says there were 3 total packages picked up by USPS on that date. Any of them could have been your package, or NONE of them could be your package. There's nothing to link the confirmation number on that email to your package tracking number.

Best bet is that your package never got picked up. It wasn't one of the 3 boxes with a total combined weight of 15 lbs.

Only the seller knows how many boxes he set outside on his porch, and whether any of those boxes had an address label with your name on it.

Let's see the tracking #s for the OTHER two boxes.

[Justus]

Dayspring, we're not hammering on you for this. Hope you know that. We're just extremely skeptical of this seller's claims to you. It's not adding up.

I'm afraid you're giving this guy a pass because you really hope you haven't been scammed. But the fact that he's apparently making it your problem, and isn't being proactive about making it right, speaks volumes.

I've been in those shoes before. Mine's not a Nigerian Prince story, but it's close: Ages ago when I was selling off my Playstation2 on eBay, a guy from New York bought it. In an email he told me that he was going on a mission trip to Nigeria and wanted it shipped to the Mission there. He sent me a bogus Western Union Moneygram and told me to ship. I was naive, and the confirmation email looked okay, so I shipped. There was something off about it, but I didn't want it to be off. I wanted the deal to be done. So I overlooked it. Luckily, my postal carrier didn't. Instead of shipping it off to Nigeria, he brought it back to my apartment and had a chat with me about all the scams he had been seeing. I waited another couple days and the scam flushed out. Due to a very observant postal carrier, I didn't lose my PS2, and was able to file a claim with eBay for sellers' expenses and then relist it. I got lucky.

Regardless of whether this is a scam or it's just a case of USPS gone stupid, I want it to come out okay for you.

[Frizzle Fry]

Justus, good point.

Dayspring, we all love you man, and we're worried you're getting screwed for being a nice guy. I'm sorry if that came off as anything else.




Basically what we're saying is you don't mess with the Day Wang.

[OPBN]

Who the hell leaves packages sitting on their porch to get picked up??? I live in BFE with little to no traffic by my house and would never dream of leaving a (assuming) $400+ package sitting waiting on the postman. I run most packages up to the post office regardless of value. Only exception being, I will occasionally put things in the mailbox, but I can literally see them from my desk as I'm working. Other times I will just put the flag up and the mailman knows if nothing is there I have a package inside the house that won't fit and he waits for me to bring it out. Small town convenience I know but still....

I also agree about the modifying the marker prior to you getting your part of the deal. Seems fishy. Too many things scream BS to me.

[Levi]

Dayspring, we're not hammering on you for this. Hope you know that. We're just extremely skeptical of this seller's claims to you. It's not adding up.

I'm afraid you're giving this guy a pass because you really hope you haven't been scammed. But the fact that he's apparently making it your problem, and isn't being proactive about making it right, speaks volumes.

Yep! Same here. :)

Even if he's not scamming you, it was his responsibility to deliver the package into the hands of the USPS. If your package disappeared off his doorstep before USPS picked it up that is his responsibility. He could have made the choice to go into a post office and hand it across the counter, it sounds like he left it unattended on his doorstep instead. Unless you were told beforehand that this was going to be the case, that was his choice and it should follow that the responsibility and consequences for that choice should also be his.

[Patron God of Pirates]

Keep in mind guys - not everybody has a full version of Adobe - he printed the email & scanned it in.

I'm with the rest of the pitchfork and torches mob here. Why on earth would he print an e-mail, scan the printout, then e-mail it again? I'm sure there is an explanation for it. But that is the problem here, many things that require an explanation.

[skipdogg]

I agree with others. Sounds sketch.

[Dayspring]

Yep! Same here. :)

Even if he's not scamming you, it was his responsibility to deliver the package into the hands of the USPS. If your package disappeared off his doorstep before USPS picked it up that is his responsibility. He could have made the choice to go into a post office and hand it across the counter, it sounds like he left it unattended on his doorstep instead. Unless you were told beforehand that this was going to be the case, that was his choice and it should follow that the responsibility and consequences for that choice should also be his.

Not giving ANYBODY a pass here. He's actually be very communicative w/ me over all this. (though, not much to talk about at this very moment)