Shakeydeal
New Member
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2022
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I am not a regular member here, but I was given permission by a moderator to make this post. I will not get personal, only give the facts.
captainbeefheart, who is a member here, is also a member on the Klipsch Community forum. He has offered a great deal of technical advice on that forum just as he has here. He seemed like a very nice guy, very personable. When the subject of amplifier builds came up in the forum, myself and another forum member reached out to the captain to initiate a build for each of us. This was in early February 2022.
Initially it was supposed to take a couple of months, three at the most. For full disclosure, we only paid for the parts up front. He was doing this as a favor because he likes projects such as this. It was my intention (and I conveyed this to him) to pay him a handsome "tip" for building the amp. So I sent him 1000.00 in three payments. I used F&F instead a CC (my mistake) so he wouldn't have to pay a fee to receive the money. This is something I wouldn't normally do, but we had several long PMs and exchanges on the forum and I felt like he was trustworthy. There was a thread regarding the amp build on the forum in the beginning, but I think it's gone now. So yes, I was a gullible participant in this. In 30+ years of buying and selling on the internet, this was my first negative experience.
At first, things seemed great. There was good communication about the process. I sent the first payment on 2/9/22 and the last payment was made on 4/3/22. After that, things got a little dicey. There would be weeks between emails and sometimes he wouldn't respond unless I reached out several times. At the time of the last payment, he promised it would be ready in two weeks. When that didn't happen, the next promise of shipment was by the end of May. No luck. Then on 6/13, said it would ship in a week. So you get the idea.
To be fair, the design did change a few times at my request. So I understand the missed ship dates in the beginning. The summer and fall went by with excuses of illness, house fire, family surgery, issues at work, etc. I tried to be as patient as I could and just let it play out.
In November, a moderator on the klipsch forum reached out to me and the other individual to ask what the status of the amps was. This had been an item of discussion in the forums and members were constantly sending me PMs to ask about the progress. During this time, the captain sold some other items on the forum and didn't follow through with shipping. Complaints were made in the forum and to moderators so they now had him on their radar. Eventually he returned the money to the other members, but this took a couple of months.
So in early December we asked for a deadline of 1/5/23 to ship the first amp (mine) with the other amp soon to follow. According to the captain, mine was about 90% complete at that time. He not only agreed to the deadline, but even said he would like to get it to me by Christmas. Well 1/5 came and went with no shipment. The excuse was long work hours. We went back and forth on this a few times with more promises to ship. The next day, then the next, then by the weekend, etc. Until finally he just stopped communicating. No reply to texts or emails, no answer on his cell phone. I realize now that my money is gone. I've only seen one picture of the amp several months ago and nothing since. I have asked for more detailed pictures several times since then with no luck. So I'm not even sure the amp exists.
So my only hope is that no one else suffers the same fate. I'm sure he will materialize again here or somewhere else with a new screen name
captainbeefheart, who is a member here, is also a member on the Klipsch Community forum. He has offered a great deal of technical advice on that forum just as he has here. He seemed like a very nice guy, very personable. When the subject of amplifier builds came up in the forum, myself and another forum member reached out to the captain to initiate a build for each of us. This was in early February 2022.
Initially it was supposed to take a couple of months, three at the most. For full disclosure, we only paid for the parts up front. He was doing this as a favor because he likes projects such as this. It was my intention (and I conveyed this to him) to pay him a handsome "tip" for building the amp. So I sent him 1000.00 in three payments. I used F&F instead a CC (my mistake) so he wouldn't have to pay a fee to receive the money. This is something I wouldn't normally do, but we had several long PMs and exchanges on the forum and I felt like he was trustworthy. There was a thread regarding the amp build on the forum in the beginning, but I think it's gone now. So yes, I was a gullible participant in this. In 30+ years of buying and selling on the internet, this was my first negative experience.
At first, things seemed great. There was good communication about the process. I sent the first payment on 2/9/22 and the last payment was made on 4/3/22. After that, things got a little dicey. There would be weeks between emails and sometimes he wouldn't respond unless I reached out several times. At the time of the last payment, he promised it would be ready in two weeks. When that didn't happen, the next promise of shipment was by the end of May. No luck. Then on 6/13, said it would ship in a week. So you get the idea.
To be fair, the design did change a few times at my request. So I understand the missed ship dates in the beginning. The summer and fall went by with excuses of illness, house fire, family surgery, issues at work, etc. I tried to be as patient as I could and just let it play out.
In November, a moderator on the klipsch forum reached out to me and the other individual to ask what the status of the amps was. This had been an item of discussion in the forums and members were constantly sending me PMs to ask about the progress. During this time, the captain sold some other items on the forum and didn't follow through with shipping. Complaints were made in the forum and to moderators so they now had him on their radar. Eventually he returned the money to the other members, but this took a couple of months.
So in early December we asked for a deadline of 1/5/23 to ship the first amp (mine) with the other amp soon to follow. According to the captain, mine was about 90% complete at that time. He not only agreed to the deadline, but even said he would like to get it to me by Christmas. Well 1/5 came and went with no shipment. The excuse was long work hours. We went back and forth on this a few times with more promises to ship. The next day, then the next, then by the weekend, etc. Until finally he just stopped communicating. No reply to texts or emails, no answer on his cell phone. I realize now that my money is gone. I've only seen one picture of the amp several months ago and nothing since. I have asked for more detailed pictures several times since then with no luck. So I'm not even sure the amp exists.
So my only hope is that no one else suffers the same fate. I'm sure he will materialize again here or somewhere else with a new screen name
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