Beware of scammer Thrillbilly
06-25-2006, 08:53 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 3
Beware of scammer Thrillbilly
Buyer beware. I thought I would warn all you potential buyers out there when dealing with this guy onthe HUNTINGPA.com forum who goes by the name of Thrillbilly. Apparantly he's also a MOD there and my account was almost instaneously banned the minute I posted this on that site.It's even more surprising being that he is a MOD for that forum that he is also not a man of his word.
I initially wentto that site to post a wanted ad for a boresighter, hoping to get a used one at reduced cost, and I got a response from Thrillbilly. To my disappointment, my first experience with that site is a negative, and I am only sharing my experience soothers won't bescammed as well.
Here is how it went, in chronological order. If anyone is interested in getting more detail, feel free to PM me your email address.
Apr 28 - got a response from Thrillbilly (Rob Gratson, Dunbar PA, 724-277-4630) saying he has a boresighter he can sell me and even gave me a phone number.
Apr 29 - I called his number and no one answered, so I left him a message that I will contact him by PM's on this site. We communicated through PM's and we settled on a price and I told him I would get a money order out to him either that day or the coming Monday because he apparantly did not have Pay pal. I had asked him to help me mark the package as a "gift" since it is such low value, which would help expediate it thru customs without any additional fees and he said he had no problems shipping to Canada (where I am located) as asked and has shipped to Canada many times before.
Also, he mentioned that it was packed and ready to ship the minute he receives my MO. That same day, I went to the bank and post office and mailed him a Royal Bank money order. For those that don't know, Royal Bank is one of the largest financial institutions in Canada.
May 8 - Rob emailed me and said he received my money order and to keep an eye on the mail for the boresighter, implying that he has or will be sending it soon.
Later that same day he emailed again saying that his bank will charge him more than it's worth to cash it, something to do with an international MO code his bank had. I couldn't understand it and offered to try to resolve the situation somehow.
May 9 - Rob again emails back and says his bank wants $35 to cash it and told me he already mailed my MO back that day and that would be the end of the deal. I thought that was inconsiderate, first of all, to just send it back without discussion and one-sidedly decide the deal was off.
May 10 and 11 - I offered other methods of payment including paying by paypal to anyone he knows personally close and the 3% paypal may charge for transaction fees, and finally got agreement to continue with the deal if I were to send him a Post Office MO once I received my original Royal Bank MO back.
May 18 - Sent Rob an email inquiring about why I haven't seen the Royal Bank MO come back yet if he had sent it out on May 9th. He responded that his wife kept it in her purse for a couple of days and that I should see it within a few more days. He also inquired why he did not see my Postal MO yet and I clearly responded that I will not be sending that out until I see the Royal bank MO come back.
May 26 - Inquired again why Royal bank MO has not come back to me yet. I told him I had purchased the Postal MO and is waiting for my original to come back. This is the response I got:
"Dont worry bud. We went ahead and sent the MO and boresighter together in good faith. The honest reason for the delay was the fact that my bank held the MO.They thought it might have been a fake but they were wrong. Then they still wouldnt cash it! They are a bunch of jerks and I am changing institutions. I should have been more up front with you but didnt know how to say "They think its fake and are holding it"..Kind of an uncomfortable situation. When Jane gets home. We will send you a scanned copy of the tracking info for you. She has it with her at her mothers today.
Thanks Chi and Please understand.
Rob"
May 27 - Given this response, I accepted his explanation and inquired about why the banks may have thought the Royal bank MO was fake. I did not get a response to this question.
May 29 - I inquired about a tracking number mentioned on May 26 and got a response that he forgot international shipments don't offer tracking numbers and told me to call the Dunbar post office and ask for Gerald to confirm that it got shipped. I did not call the post office and just took his word that it got shipped.
June 5 - I finally received my original Royal bank MO back in the mail but no boresighter as he mentioned on May 26.
June 6 - I emailed Rob to confirm that he had sent the MO and boresighter in two separate packages and if so, when he may have sent the boresighter out. I was wondering to myself why he would do that if he had intended to send the boresighter first in "good faith" as he mentioned. I also decided that I would hold off sending the Post office MO to him until I received the boresighter.
June 8 - No response up to this point so I PM'ed him with the same question on this forum.
June 9 - He responsed saying that his email went down because he had a hard drive failure and was down for a few days. He confirms the boresight was coming separately and went out 2 days after the MO and that I should see it either today or the next day.
June 18 - Still no boresighter showed up yet. I emailed him to tell him straightforward that if over the next week the boresighter does not show up, I shall let other know not to deal with him as I think he is a scammer.
June 25 - Still no boresighter!!!! With the many excuses and over 1.5 months from the original agreement, I still have not completed this deal.
Anyone thinking of dealing with this guy should have second thoughts if you want to save frustration and your money.
I have had to purchase 2 money orders for this guy which is money out of pocket for me even though nothing transpired. I highly doubt he even had a boresighter to sell in the first place. I think the only reasons I got my original bank MO back as a saving grace was because the bank probably did want a transaction fee to cash it for him and I had told him I would be sending him a Postal MO as a replacement but only after I got the bank MO back.
So consider yourself forewarned. I'll be posting this at other sites too on the off-chance others may end up dealing with this character.
I initially wentto that site to post a wanted ad for a boresighter, hoping to get a used one at reduced cost, and I got a response from Thrillbilly. To my disappointment, my first experience with that site is a negative, and I am only sharing my experience soothers won't bescammed as well.
Here is how it went, in chronological order. If anyone is interested in getting more detail, feel free to PM me your email address.
Apr 28 - got a response from Thrillbilly (Rob Gratson, Dunbar PA, 724-277-4630) saying he has a boresighter he can sell me and even gave me a phone number.
Apr 29 - I called his number and no one answered, so I left him a message that I will contact him by PM's on this site. We communicated through PM's and we settled on a price and I told him I would get a money order out to him either that day or the coming Monday because he apparantly did not have Pay pal. I had asked him to help me mark the package as a "gift" since it is such low value, which would help expediate it thru customs without any additional fees and he said he had no problems shipping to Canada (where I am located) as asked and has shipped to Canada many times before.
Also, he mentioned that it was packed and ready to ship the minute he receives my MO. That same day, I went to the bank and post office and mailed him a Royal Bank money order. For those that don't know, Royal Bank is one of the largest financial institutions in Canada.
May 8 - Rob emailed me and said he received my money order and to keep an eye on the mail for the boresighter, implying that he has or will be sending it soon.
Later that same day he emailed again saying that his bank will charge him more than it's worth to cash it, something to do with an international MO code his bank had. I couldn't understand it and offered to try to resolve the situation somehow.
May 9 - Rob again emails back and says his bank wants $35 to cash it and told me he already mailed my MO back that day and that would be the end of the deal. I thought that was inconsiderate, first of all, to just send it back without discussion and one-sidedly decide the deal was off.
May 10 and 11 - I offered other methods of payment including paying by paypal to anyone he knows personally close and the 3% paypal may charge for transaction fees, and finally got agreement to continue with the deal if I were to send him a Post Office MO once I received my original Royal Bank MO back.
May 18 - Sent Rob an email inquiring about why I haven't seen the Royal Bank MO come back yet if he had sent it out on May 9th. He responded that his wife kept it in her purse for a couple of days and that I should see it within a few more days. He also inquired why he did not see my Postal MO yet and I clearly responded that I will not be sending that out until I see the Royal bank MO come back.
May 26 - Inquired again why Royal bank MO has not come back to me yet. I told him I had purchased the Postal MO and is waiting for my original to come back. This is the response I got:
"Dont worry bud. We went ahead and sent the MO and boresighter together in good faith. The honest reason for the delay was the fact that my bank held the MO.They thought it might have been a fake but they were wrong. Then they still wouldnt cash it! They are a bunch of jerks and I am changing institutions. I should have been more up front with you but didnt know how to say "They think its fake and are holding it"..Kind of an uncomfortable situation. When Jane gets home. We will send you a scanned copy of the tracking info for you. She has it with her at her mothers today.
Thanks Chi and Please understand.
Rob"
May 27 - Given this response, I accepted his explanation and inquired about why the banks may have thought the Royal bank MO was fake. I did not get a response to this question.
May 29 - I inquired about a tracking number mentioned on May 26 and got a response that he forgot international shipments don't offer tracking numbers and told me to call the Dunbar post office and ask for Gerald to confirm that it got shipped. I did not call the post office and just took his word that it got shipped.
June 5 - I finally received my original Royal bank MO back in the mail but no boresighter as he mentioned on May 26.
June 6 - I emailed Rob to confirm that he had sent the MO and boresighter in two separate packages and if so, when he may have sent the boresighter out. I was wondering to myself why he would do that if he had intended to send the boresighter first in "good faith" as he mentioned. I also decided that I would hold off sending the Post office MO to him until I received the boresighter.
June 8 - No response up to this point so I PM'ed him with the same question on this forum.
June 9 - He responsed saying that his email went down because he had a hard drive failure and was down for a few days. He confirms the boresight was coming separately and went out 2 days after the MO and that I should see it either today or the next day.
June 18 - Still no boresighter showed up yet. I emailed him to tell him straightforward that if over the next week the boresighter does not show up, I shall let other know not to deal with him as I think he is a scammer.
June 25 - Still no boresighter!!!! With the many excuses and over 1.5 months from the original agreement, I still have not completed this deal.
Anyone thinking of dealing with this guy should have second thoughts if you want to save frustration and your money.
I have had to purchase 2 money orders for this guy which is money out of pocket for me even though nothing transpired. I highly doubt he even had a boresighter to sell in the first place. I think the only reasons I got my original bank MO back as a saving grace was because the bank probably did want a transaction fee to cash it for him and I had told him I would be sending him a Postal MO as a replacement but only after I got the bank MO back.
So consider yourself forewarned. I'll be posting this at other sites too on the off-chance others may end up dealing with this character.
06-27-2006, 09:14 AM
#5
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Ohio
Posts: 1
RE: Beware of scammer Thrillbilly
I usually never step in on this kind of stuff but I dont think this is the right thing to do to someone. Let me get this strait.
You sent MO
Tbilly Tried to cash it and was hit with a large charge to do it.
Tbilly returned the MO to you.
Your are only out the cost of two Mo's and he is out the shipping of the Mo back to you. Move on.
I would have done the same. It turned out to be a nightmare deal. I hadsimilar issues with both a MO from Alberta and one from Ontario. Both went south real fast. Lesson learned.
I have dealt with Thrillbilly on 3 differant occasions for a few high dollar items in the past and never had an issue at all. He even sent one to me recently before he recieved payment.
Thanks,
Mike
You sent MO
Tbilly Tried to cash it and was hit with a large charge to do it.
Tbilly returned the MO to you.
Your are only out the cost of two Mo's and he is out the shipping of the Mo back to you. Move on.
I would have done the same. It turned out to be a nightmare deal. I hadsimilar issues with both a MO from Alberta and one from Ontario. Both went south real fast. Lesson learned.
I have dealt with Thrillbilly on 3 differant occasions for a few high dollar items in the past and never had an issue at all. He even sent one to me recently before he recieved payment.
Thanks,
Mike
06-29-2006, 04:27 AM
#6
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Ohio
Posts: 7,876
RE: Beware of scammer Thrillbilly
He just said to beware. Nothing wrong with that given the experience.
Shipping across the borders is a pain these days. Have a friend who comes to the states to pick up things from me and when shipping to me. Just easier and sometimes the only way.
Shipping across the borders is a pain these days. Have a friend who comes to the states to pick up things from me and when shipping to me. Just easier and sometimes the only way.
07-18-2006, 11:57 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Lancaster pa
Posts: 3,015
RE: Beware of scammer Thrillbilly
well, I have been a member of this site and the other for quite some time and have dealt with Rob (aka thrillbilly) before as well. However, my experiences have been the total opposite. He was a great person to deal with and I have never had any issues with him at all. In fact, if it wasn't for him and another member over there I would never have gotten my story published in the Pa game news. I personally can't believe that he would intentionally try and scam anyone but everyone is entitled their own opinion which is why I wanted to make this post stating mine. Sorry to hear about your experience over there but the site as well as thrillbilly have always been good to me.
08-03-2006, 10:49 AM
#8
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location:
Posts: 66
RE: Beware of scammer Thrillbilly
redlinepower,
I'm sorry to read about your misfortunate experience. I agree with the other posters that this had to have been an isolated incident. As a business owner MO for shipping over the border and overseas can be costly for all parties involved in the transaction. As a general rule I reccommend a credit card or ATM for online purchases, it provides protection, restitution and protects your privacy. Don't let this situtaion taint your views, the transaction never transpired. Perhaps you can recover incurred expenses with some type of a trade.
I'm sorry to read about your misfortunate experience. I agree with the other posters that this had to have been an isolated incident. As a business owner MO for shipping over the border and overseas can be costly for all parties involved in the transaction. As a general rule I reccommend a credit card or ATM for online purchases, it provides protection, restitution and protects your privacy. Don't let this situtaion taint your views, the transaction never transpired. Perhaps you can recover incurred expenses with some type of a trade.