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BUYERS BEWARE of this SELLER!

Discussion in 'Sites' started by MeMing, May 17, 2012.

  1. #1
    his username is "lcdman"

    for details, check my posts on his thread here:

    http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2462164

    Long story short, he is dishonest.

    Buyers should always beware. Never trust screenshots alone! Always do a screenshare or teamviewer session to see the proofs that sellers send you. Else you want to end up with a site that earns $1/day instead of $250/month!

    Again, do screenshare and teamviewer of seller's earnings and traffic as proof!
     
    MeMing, May 17, 2012 IP
    Vikz likes this.
  2. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #2
    Just so people will know, this deal has turned from bad to worst.

    Long story short, the seller has not been the most honest person to deal with. I have already messaged a moderator on here and for everyone to know, here's my message:

    "Hi,

    I hope all's well at your end. I'm sure you guys are quite busy and my message isn't really going to help that fact. But I'm hoping one of the modz can give some time with my $500 issue if that's even possible.

    I just bought a site from a user named "lcdman". The thread is here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2462164

    Long story short, I believe this man is dishonest. On the thread, here are his details:

    Monthly UV: 55,000
    Monthly Earnings: $250

    Although he did mention to me that traffic and earnings have dropped recently because he doesn't have the time to update it anymore and that the earnings has now been steady at $4-7/day so I trusted him and "his proofs" of screenshots although I would have wanted to see a teamviewer of his adsense account but he said the adsense account is not his but of "his partner" so I took his word for this (I bit the bullet that's for sure).

    Before I paid him $500 in full, he was quite available to answer questions, etc. You can see this behavior in our PMs, After I have paid him in full, he takes a lot more time to get back to me.

    After trying to get the site back on track after the move (putting 2 quality posts per day since Monday this week), the earnings still barely gets to $1/day. I asked him what this is about and that I told him I should update the thread for this sale to take into account the "reality" of this site so people would know that what he has been saying isn't actually the case and he started threatening me that he will tell the moderators about my attitude for accusing him as a "lier".

    I didn't mind him at first but he keeps insisting that he will do so and I'm tired of waiting so I'm trying to let modz know for him.

    He keeps insisting that I don't bother him anymore with this and such but I told him I will continue to update people so they would know the reality and if he wants me to stop bugging him about it, he give back my money and take his site back.

    I of course don't want to do this but I too want to get what he mentioned otherwise, this deal would never have happened.

    I hope somebody from the Modz can help out. He is now telling me that he will give access to the modz to all his proofs - something he didn't bother giving me when I asked it from him earlier.


    Thank you for your time."
     
    MeMing, May 17, 2012 IP
  3. kevydesigns

    kevydesigns Well-Known Member

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    #3
    Thanks for the info.
    I guess you have to be extra careful when you are dealing with money online.
     
    kevydesigns, May 17, 2012 IP
  4. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #4
    That goes without saying.

    Again, for buyers, make sure you view proofs through screenshare or teamviewer.

    lcdman is accusing me that I have destroyed the site now. lolz

    Maybe he things putting akismet plugin to stop the 50 spams getting to my mailbox a day because of this site destroying?

    Or maybe, just maybe, he thinks cleaning up the footer with irrelevant links (SEOPRESSOR, etc.) is destroying a site?

    What do you guys think?
     
    MeMing, May 17, 2012 IP
  5. amirk

    amirk Well-Known Member

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    #5
    Well, to be honest it was your fault too. I don't want to make a judgment on this case because it needs more studies and researches, but you must ask for all the documents and proofs before completing a deal. Also you were too greedy to buy this website, because nobody will sell a website making $200 a month for only $500. So that was an alarm to you but you ignored it.

    By the way, how did you transfer the money to him? I hope you have done it via PayPal. If yes you can start a dispute against him otherwise you have to search for another solution.
     
    amirk, May 17, 2012 IP
  6. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #6
    You are quite right that I have ignored the warning signs even given my experience in buying sites (that's all I do here on DP).

    However, you have to understand that he PMed me the "honest" truth that his site isn't earning that much anymore and that it's only earning $4-7/day nowadays because he has no time for it. Given that, I thought it was "ok" already.

    But still, I trusted this guy too much by trusting the "screenshots" he has shared. Now, he is telling me that he will give modz here access to his and his "partner's" adsense and google stats to prove he isn't lying. Isn't he a smart one? I asked for this before but he said, "I don't have access to adsense because it's my partners..." blah blah blah...

    And yes I paid through paypal and I have contemplated filing a dispute over this however, I didn't do that as I want to make this work out.

    So now, I've been having my staff post 2 quality blog posts on this property and sharing them on social networks to see if it "ever" gets to where he said it was earning.

    I still have a couple of weeks before the 40 day time frame to file a dispute. Am I still right about the 40 day time frame to file a dispute? Has anybody filed a dispute on buying a website before?
     
    MeMing, May 17, 2012 IP
  7. walter1970

    walter1970 Well-Known Member

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    #7
    If it is too good to be true, then it is too good to be true. I feel for your predicament. Some people thrive on "stealing" others hard earned cash. It has happened to me before and sadly I let it go. I'm a soft touch lol...
     
    walter1970, May 17, 2012 IP
  8. log0008

    log0008 Active Member

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    #8
    Thanks everyone for letting everyone know!
     
    log0008, May 17, 2012 IP
  9. malky66

    malky66 Acclaimed Member

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    #9
    Did you pay using your paypal balance or with a credit card, if its a credit card you can and should claim it back through your credit card company, paypal always side with the cc company and will return the funds to you.

    If you used paypal balance you should still dispute it but the chances of getting your money back is very slim.
    Im sure the 40 day timeframe is correct.

    Good luck.
     
    malky66, May 17, 2012 IP
  10. robo-cop

    robo-cop Active Member

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    #10
    here is a little tidbit about pp disputes with digital goods. if you call paypal and speak with someone on the phone you most likely to win the dispute. But, you did get your site files it's just not making what he says it makes. good luck with your dispute
     
    robo-cop, May 17, 2012 IP
  11. daeng palopo

    daeng palopo Member

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    #11
    Teamviewer can answer what's a real prove.. so, becarefull.. so dont pay anything if you never see by live prove.. I hope you get the better bro.. GL
     
    daeng palopo, May 17, 2012 IP
  12. SKULL

    SKULL Prominent Member

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    #12
    Anther note to note is hes has only 3 itraders http://forums.digitalpoint.com/itrader.php?u=559729 and with the info in the thread he gave for a site he set bin of $1,200 http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=2462164 was not a good move from you, i can say he did tell you the traffic and rev had droped and he was now making only earning $4-7/day nowadays , so he was not lieing about the rev going down, if your earning $1 a day with a little bit of promotion you should get your money back in no time , but all i can say is why deala nd give $500 to somone that gives litte info in thread and with 3 i-traders, not a good move.
     
    SKULL, May 17, 2012 IP
  13. DomainMagnate

    DomainMagnate Illustrious Member

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    #13
    tl;dr anyone, what's the deal? Were the screens faked or site got hit by some g update or just made up figures with no proofs?

    I looked at the site couple weeks ago and exchanged a few pms with the seller, but something didn't seem right, so I quickly decided not to pursue this. I see lots of sites every week, so don't really remember what it was now.
     
    DomainMagnate, May 17, 2012 IP
  14. Laceygirl

    Laceygirl Notable Member

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    #14
    Mr. Meming. I'm going to try really hard not to offend you but before you buy you should know what the heck you are doing.
    I'll show you right here.
    Let's say, for example, you are interested in buying dinosaurfact.net (one of my sites) I tell you that the keyword it ranks for is "dinosaur facts"(and offer a bunch of other keywords it ranks for) and give you screenshots of revenue from adsense.
    Do you do nothing? Of course not.
    -You check where I'm ranked.(I'm first)
    -You go to the adwords keyword tool. (It says 27,100) global searches
    -You take 27,100 divide it by 12 to get the monthly total (2258 per month)
    -You do that with the other say......5 keywords and now you have a estimated total of traffic(Example: 12,000).
    -You compare your traffic total with the total it shows on his screenshots. It won't be perfect but it should be no lower than 30% of your number. Most times its higher because of unmentioned traffic.
    -You the google analysics stats and do more math using the chart that shows the Search engine traffic(what you know now) to the % of the referral traffic(what you will find out).
    Now you have a total of, for example, 52,500/UV per month.

    With this site you would've caught it in a second because his traffic stats would be way lower and there would be WAAAAY too much traffic unaccounted for. Then you could've asked him more questions about where the traffic is coming from to find out that he will just ignore you because he's scamming.

    But you didn't do any of this did you. No backlink check, no checking for rankings, etc, etc.

    Let me tell you something if I was to ever sell my Dinosaur site for say $32,000 when you came up to buy it I probably would not even accept to deal with you because you are so reckless.:)
     
    Laceygirl, May 17, 2012 IP
    nut legend likes this.
  15. matt_62

    matt_62 Prominent Member

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    #15
    and i thought i was the only person who repeatedly throws money into the wind with nothing to show for it.

    i gotta say it is heart wrenching when you get it wrong and get stuck with a bad deal, whats makes it worse is that if you ever go to sell it, your highest offer on DP will be $5.

    Thankyou for the warning. I would highly recommend you try to do a reversal via paypal and if successful, push back the domain name and site.
     
    matt_62, May 17, 2012 IP
  16. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #16
    Tried to file a paypal dispute just now and got this;

    "We're sorry, but this transaction cannot be disputed because it is not a purchase of goods or services. Please contact the recipient directly."

    So I guess none of us here has ever gone through a dispute by buying a site?

    @Lacygirl

    Thank you for all the maths and whatnot however, my business is in internet marketing. I have been in business since 2006 and run a 10 man staff onsite.

    That said, adwords keyword tool are mere "basis" of traffic and there's no guarantee you will get those figures that's why I don't care when people here would say "500,000" searches worldwide/US per month. Based on my experience, the figures here will not really reflect the actual traffic regardless of your SERP placement. And that's from the 100s of campaigns I have managed.

    I checked on his "proofs". You know, the ones he has provided (now that's stupid of me come to think of it but I have bought 5 properties through DP already and had no problems at all so I thought, why be extra careful now?). I really should stick to my standards of asking for a teamviewer session.

    YOU SHOULD TOO. Again, teamviewer the proof else you'll end up with a site like the one Mr. Roman Okeeve Rigele whose Paypal Account is using the email address: lallou30@yahoo.com who says he is residing in Egypt and his Skype location is in Canada.

    @Skull

    Regarding his iTrader, he got me real good with his "check my iTraders bro... I got 20 positive feedback, etc.). I have checked all of this and know he has been getting feedback from buying and selling vouchers for like $5. I knew this was just loose change compared to our $500 transaction. Still, I bit the bullet given my experience with other reputable sellers on here.

    Should I call Paypal?
     
    MeMing, May 20, 2012 IP
  17. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #17
    View Profile for lcdman
    Join Date: Mar 11th 2010
    Last Activity: Today 2:13 am

    He's always online so buyers beware! He's probably on the prowl again for some quick money from your hard earned ones.

    Again, do teamviewer sessions of the proofs everyone!
     
    MeMing, May 20, 2012 IP
  18. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #18
    On another note, tried to get a hold of a Mod here but so far no luck.
     
    MeMing, May 20, 2012 IP
  19. nut legend

    nut legend Well-Known Member

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    #19
    Did you pay by paypal gift?
     
    nut legend, May 22, 2012 IP
  20. MeMing

    MeMing Member

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    #20
    No. I paid by clicking on "send money" then "personal" or something like that. Then "payments" owed. No option to get back my $500 now for sure. So all I have to do is make the best of what I have been screwed. Life goes on. :)

    But this should serve as a warning to all buyers here.

    It should also be a part of the list of things to do for buyers (hopefully the sticky on the sites buy & sell section will accommodate this suggestion).

    Never ever trust screenshots alone. Don't trust all the data sellers post on their threads. Check it for yourself through teamviewer or any desktop sharing application.

    If you can, pay through escrow. I lost $500 trying to save $50 on escrow fees.
     
    MeMing, May 22, 2012 IP