Money down the drain?

[howlet]

Hi All,

 Ive been working on my custom DIY panels and all was going well until my wife tried to reorder new supplies for my laminated panels.

 We have been dealing with the same supplier for approximately 2 years. He once frequented this forum under the username tornado6 and maybe others. I'm not sure if I can mention his real name however he is the author of the solar module instructional CD, Livingoffthegrid. He is a well seasoned RE expert with RE websites of his own.

 I admire this person immensly because he truely cares about each of his customers.

 My wife Tammy placed an order for EVA and Tedlar on one of several websites that he sells his supplies on. She also paid for the supplies through paypal.

 After about 3 weeks I became worried about the needed supplies and I started trying to communicate with him through several email addresses that he has used over the last 2 years. No help.

 I hope that a fellow Fieldlines user may have a way to get in touch with him. I really dont want to spend money, ($311), for nothing. Be sure to contact the seller before you place and pay for an order, (namely ecrater.com).

 Most of his websites aren't current at the moment, such as livingoffthegrid.org., which has me worried that there may be something wrong with tornado6.

Any help is appreciated!  Jeff & Tammy  

 

[fungus]

I don't know about him , but if you do have no luck at all you can raise a dispute with paypal and try to get the money back .. if that helps?

[snowcrow]

  Jeff, you could try reaching him through his eBay postings, if you haven't try that already.

Blessings, Snow Crow

[howlet]

Hi Fungus, Thanks for the advice. I've already contacted paypal and Paypal Plus, which is a credit card that my wife made the purchase with. Paypal has tried to contact him with no luck. I'm reasonably sure that I'll get the money back but I'd rather have the relationship that I once had with tornado6.

 This has me worried because this is out of character for tornado6. He always answered every email in the past and he was always very cordial and helpful.

Again, thanks for the response. Jeff

[howlet]

Hi SnowCrow, tornado6 pulled his store account with ebay. He said that the fees were kind of unreasonable.

 He had 2-3 other sites that he also listed with, I went with ecrater.com.

Thankyou Snowcrow,

Jeff

[howlet]

Experience has lead me to believe that A majority of upstanding potential customers are understanding when a supplier is facing difficulties either procuring or distributing a certain product.

 Most people are trusting and patient when problems arise, especially when a supplier takes a small amount of time to explain that either the product is unavailable or will not be delivered within a reasonable amount of time.

 Leaving someone in the dark about the status of a situation does not even come close to a responsible business practise, and taking a patrons hard earned money while knowing that this is what you are planning is... well I guess cold hearted to say the least.

 I have surfed the net trying to give the supplier the benefit of the doubt. The supplier ,tornado6 or king8756 has done this on more than 1 occasion, fairly recently. One customer reported an experience very similar. Several more had less that kind words for livingoffthegrid.

 The instructional cd and the other products that I have purchased from his place of business over the last 1.5-2 years led me to believe that he was a man of integrity.

 I could go on and on about this but it would be a waste of all of our time.

 Acting as if you are concerned about Mother Earth and your brothers & sisters for the sake of a few dollars,(or perhaps many dollars) is disheartening. This is the last that I will mention this. I'm sounding like a whambulance and it takes more than a flim flam to get my blood boiling.