A couple of months ago, my company`s trusted ‘79CAT finally collapsed. The cost of repairing it would have been higher than its value. With not enough money for a new one, I had to go used. I did not think that the endeavor would cause so much trouble.
I mean, you see ads in the newspaper all the time, but the ad does not say things like “it’s in fact a junk” , “looks like it served in the war”, “hydraulics are a mess”, “rust is about to eat it”, “pics taken 5 years go” and so forth.
I contacted a guy I found on craigslist. The pictures he posted looked good and he told me that the pics are 2 days old. We agreed to meet. The thing looked great, like it was barely used. I was really OK with it. The guy asked for a deposit and promised to ship it at my site. I wrote a check for the deposit and went back. It seemed ok to me, but I did not have a clue what the guy was about to do. Or better yet, don`t. After that day he stopped answering my calls, and a day later the phone was disconnected. So, I went back to the yard. Two policemen and 3 furious people were there too. Turns out they were robbed too.
The guy used to be the security man there and he decided to make a buck for himself. Some people are really stupid. He was caught a week later but the money was gone.
After becoming a “fraud victim”, I tried to find a service that would protect me from such unfortunate events. I got onleaders.com from a partner in California. I was kind of skeptic at first, but I got a decent unit at for a good price.
It was delivered and we released the money only after we did a full check on the paperwork and the hydraulics. The service looked very reliable. I believe that a service such as this should be used for any high value items purchased from out of state.
Originally posted 2011-06-06 10:24:42.
