In January I was looking for a birthday present for my daughter who would be turning 13 in early March. Figuring I had a decent amount of time, I looked on e-bay, and found something that she would like - a remote controlled hovercraft offered for "presale for mid/late february shipping" by an individual listed as "onsale365".
Not being new to e-bay, I took the time to check this guy's feedback out, and even asked him a couple of questions about this hovercraft by email to see how long it took him to respond. Responses were immediate, and I ended up placing a bid for his auction that ended on 01/29. I paid him by PayPal immediately upon receiving an invoice on 01/30 ($57.95). That was the last time I saw my money, or what I purchased with it.
I sent several e-mails, but Mr. Pena had vanished. I kept checking the e-bay feedback, and no significant negative feedback was there until mid February. According to the feedback replies, it appears Mr. Pena had lost his passport and was outside of the United States.
Mr. Pena seemed adamant that because he was out of the country, he could not reply to emails from paying customers. This is curious, since with an AOL email address, if he could get into e-bay and leave responses to the negative feedback that was being left, he could definately reply to email as well!
Finally, on 02/28/03 I had enough and left my own feedback to that effect. Not wanting to be taken for a ride, I immediately initiated chargebacks through PayPal. They said that they had found in my favor, but could not recover my money (it appears Mr. Pena had spent it all!)
Numerous e-mails and phone calls to Mr. Gregory Pena went unreturned, until 03/09/03 when I got the following reply:
"Dear Bidder I appologize for any lack of communication. For the last month, I was basically stuck outside the US and was unable to e-mail anyone. As for the hovercrafts, they have begun shipping and all will be shipped out by next week. Please do not e-mail us for a tracking number as we are just concentrating on shipping orders out as quickly as possible. Once again, I appologize for any inconviniences. Regards, "
Not having heard from him for the next week or so, and knowing that it takes no more than 4 business days to receive a package from California, I tried one more time to call him during the week of 3/20/03. HE ANSWERED!!! Not only that, but he assured me that the hovercrafts had already been shipped, and that I would be receiving it by the beginning of the following week!
I was happy, and still had hopes of salvaging my daughter's birthday.in the meantime, I had spent more money to make sure that her birthday was not a total disaster, although she was nearly in tears when she found out what was going on... A life lesson I guess..: (
Well, that week came and went, as did the next. Phone calls to Mr. Pena were now not going through, since according to Nextel, that number was no longer in service.
I had finally had enough. I sent him an email and let Mr. Gregory Pena know that I now wanted an immediate and complete refund, or I would be contacting the authorities.
I GOT A RESPONSE! Here it is:
"Mr. Gregory Pena dba Onsale365
Mr. Pena,
Since you have not made any effort to contact me, or provide the hovercraft that I PURCHASED and PAID IN FULL FOR on 01/30, and since your Nextel phone is no longer in service, I hereby notify you that I no longer want the hovercraft, but a FULL and IMMEDIATE REFUND. I am now in the process of contacting the authorities and would urge you to pay attention to this demand for a refund, as further ignoring this will result in fraud charges being brought against you. When I spoke to you by phone on or about 03/20/03 you assured me that my hovercraft HAD ALREADY BEEN SHIPPED. I gave you the benefit of a doubt, but it appears that too was an outright LIE. Mr. Pena, you have one final opportunity to resolve this issue before the police, FBI and attorney general's office become involved. The ball is now in your court. Your actions from this point on will directly affect the outcome.
Hello
Number one, that auction was a PRE-SELL for MARCH shipping! There has not been any wrong doing other than some slow communication. Let me know your FULL NAME and the method you paid. I had someone working here who is gone for another week, so I need to look up everything myself and it will take time.
Do not threaten me with the authorities! As said before, there is no one stealing, just poor communication, and many IDIOTS who do not read ALL OF THE AUCTION DETAILS!"
So now according to Mr. Pena, I am an idiot for not reading all the auction details. Well, here is an exact copy of the auction details as written by Mr. "IDIOT" Pena himself:
"Thank you for stopping by! Retail up to: $120 our price: only $39.95! You save almost $80!!! Please read on. We are offering the HIGHEST quality remote control Hovercraft at an incredible price!!! ONLY: $39.95 shipping! (Ebay special) At this price we are making very small profit, however we want to get the word out of the High Quality of our Craft, and also popularize these.
Once you try it, you will be HOOKED! They are SO much fun for ALL ages! Compared to other brands such as "The Edge", our unit is much better! We have much longer lasting batteries, very high quality control, and best of all. EVERYTHING IS INCLUDED!
You can purchase additional battery packs and accesories, however everything you need to start with comes complete! NOW FOR THE DETAILS: Amaze your friends with this radio-controlled hovercraft! It jets over surfaces on a cushion of air - just like the real thing!
Three separate powerful motors shoot pressurized air downwards and provide the power to blast over snow, water, glass, carpet or even the living room floor. This craft does not perform well on shaggy carpets. It performs GREAT on slick surfaces and water! It is extremely fun in pools, lakes (chasing ducks), etc.
The Kadi Hovercraft is supplied with three powerful motors, rubber air-bag skirt, dual-drive props with safety cages, top-mount air compressor; dual-stick, three-channel radio control transmitter with lift-cut button; owner's manual.includes 9.6V LITHIUM ION (NOT NI-CAD / WHICH THE CHEAPER MODELS USE) battery pack and quick charger. Using the highest quality of batteries which we provide, will have this Hovercraft running TWICE as long as our competition!
Runs on Ice, Snow, Sand, Water, and just about any flat surface The speed of the Hovercraft is APP: 4 MPH on the water, up to APP: 8-10 MPH on slick cement, marble, ice. Even on an asphalt street, you can get these to go up to 10 MPH! It all depends on the grade, and the surface. This is an extremely FUN gadget!
Please take advantage of this great deal and order yours today!!! The range is up to 200 feet!!! Great specs! App: 16 inches long, 12" wide, and 4-6" tall (when the cushion inflates, the craft rises) very easy to operate! With just a turn of the power-up knob located on the craft, you are ready to "fly". When you turn this bad boy on, it sounds like you are turning on a high powered vacuum cleaner!
Due to the West Coast Port strike delays, we are offering these as a pre-sale for mid/late February shipping. Shipping and full insurance for this item is $18 in the Continental US. Hawaii, Alaska, Apo's and International bidders are welcome, however please e-mail us prior to bidding to agree on shipping costs.
We gladly accept checks, money orders, or credit card payments through Paypal. We are verified Paypal sellers! This is an Ebay special! We sell these on our Website for $59.95 and that is about HALF the price other websites sell theirs for.
Please visit our website through the "about me" link. There you will obtain more information and many photos. These come in different colors, however due to Ebay's rules on "Dutch" auctions, we can not offer certain colors. We will do everything possible to ensure happy customers! Once again, this is an ntroductory "Wholesale" price. Please take advantage of this offer. These will go back up to our normal retail price very soon!"
I don't see anywhere in this where it indicates MARCH shipping! If it said so, I would not have purchased this, since, once again, it was FOR MY DAUGHTER'S BIRTHDAY IN EARLY MARCH!
Having had enough, and having been contacted by serveral other victims of this scam, I decided to take action. I filed a complaint with the Attorney General's office, and contacted Mr. Pena's web host where he was still listing these hovercrafts and let them know what kind of business practices he was guilty of. I had also earlier filed a fraud complaint at e-bay (Mr. Pena is NO LONGER REGISTERED at e-bay under "onsale365"). It appears the web host paid attention, since "www.onsale365.com" now returns an error.
Mr. Gregory Pena, if you are reading this, let me re-iterate. I have made NO threats to you about getting the authorities involved. Only promises that I intend to carry out (and AM CARRYING OUT). All you need to do to make this all stop is IMMEDIATELY REFUND MY MONEY, AND THAT OF THE OTHER PEOPLE YOU RIPPED OFF!
What fries me about this entire fiasco is that it would appear that Mr. Gregory "Onsale365" Pena is specifically targetting kids (I know of at least two other cases where this hovercraft was to be a gift for a child!) I would be interested in hearing other's accounts of their dealings with Mr. Pena, and whether ANYONE has actually gotten the product they paid for, or their money back. Please take the time to post your feedback on this matter.
Thanks for your time, and i hope no one else gets scammed like this!
Alex
Rochester, Washington
U.S.A.
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