Well, it was only a matter of time before this happened to me (long)

Since I started building RVs my wife always asked me why I was so trusting of people. I kept telling her that the aviation community was somewhat different than the general population and that the love for aviation kept the majority of people from doing shady things. She experienced time after time the kindness and fairness of the aviation community. Well until now?..

About 6 months ago my dad called me and asked me if I was ready to do my interior. I was not ready but he told me that this lady he knows does a very good job and she was starting her own business. My dad has helped her out a few times due to work (she was in his region). I gave her a call and we discussed what I wanted to do with my interior. We agreed that we would use my RV as her ?show model? and she would come out to CA from OK to install all the interior parts. We agreed that I would show progress of the interior on my website and would help her break into the RV world.

We would talk daily, sometimes twice a day. I put away what I was doing and started concentrating on the interior. I spent a long time figuring out how to do all these thing that I really did not need (or want) because she wanted to do a good job with her ?show model?. The total for the work would be right under $2,500. She asked me to send her half of the money upfront so she could buy the materials. So I did that via a Money Pak (per her request). Then the calls were fewer. So I figured that she was working on stuff. I would ask for pictures of the progress and I would get excuses like? my computer is down?, or ?I don?t know how to download them from the camera I need to wait on the computer tect to help me?.

She then asked me if I could send her the rest of the money so she could buy a machine that would allow her to make better/faster stitches. I talked to my wife and she was not ok with it but we agreed to send the rest of the money because this was going on for too long. After she received the money, the calls stopped. The day before she was supposed to come to CA to install the seats, she ?fell down and broke her hip?. Then ?she was not allowed to have a phone at the hospital?, ?her computer had a virus and could not answer the emails?, and the last one was ?she was in the hospital again having a hysterectomy?. Throughout this process I was very nice to her. I felt bad, after all, she was my dad?s friend and he personally recommended her. She could not be lying to me or worst yet taking advantage of me.

I finally had enough and told her if my stuff was not at home by 2 weeks ago I would take legal action. She begged me not to do that and sent me a box. After returning from a family funeral I decided to open the box. What an expected surprise. 1 piece of leather and 2 pieces of aluminum. I called her and of course she did not answer. She sent me an email telling me that her helper sent out 3 boxes on the same day and he messed it up. She would take care of it and she was working hard to make everyone happy. She asked me to send the box to the rightful owner. So I did that at my own expense ($50, she would pay me later). I gave her another deadline and she missed it.

I was out all my money, time invested and the parts I made. I was upset about the money but furious that she would take my airplane parts and plans and not return them. Yesterday I received my parts. Nothing else. So now I am only out $2,500. Lesson learned for me and my wife.

I am not going to release any info on this lady yet. I need to analyze my legal options and don?t want to ruin my chances of getting my money back. Oh by the way. The person that I sent the box back to was one of her family members or boyfriend. She has 7 aliases with UPS and ships from many different addresses. That means that I am not the first person she has done this to.

Is anyone out there savvy about things like this? I would like to teach this person a lesson so this does not happen to anyone else, even if it cost me more money than the money I lost already.

I'm sorry Axel. Is there something your dad can do?

AX-O said:

Since I started building RVs my wife always asked me why I was so trusting of people. I kept telling her that the aviation community was somewhat different than the general population.

Click to expand...

Sounds like she is" general population" and not part of the aviation community.


Mail fraud comes to mind.................

Time for the Oklahoma RV posse to swing into action. A knock on the door might help, or at least diminish the feeling of anonymity and safety of distance.

brand your calves...

Most folks are honest & worthy of trust.

I've learned the hard way some are not.

Like the old rancher sez "trust everybody but brand your calves..."

Dave
-9A out of Ph 1

first you must remember she is not your friend, she is not even your dad's friend. Friends do not treat other friends this way. She is a parasite business and preys on others.

One method of recovery, which doesn't sting to bad financially:

Send her a ceritified letter, requesting a complete refund within 30 days. In this letter also state you WILL be taking legal action in the event of non compliance. Accept no excuses! While you are waiting for the 30 days to expire, organize your paperwork and get the appropriate juristiction paperwork for fiiling a small claims action.

You were burnt, but now you owe to others to spread the word. Good luck!

My advice...small claims court. Many times just the service of the court papers can jar someone into cleaning up their mess. Sometimes not.

Small claims means no lawyers, so if you have all of your paperwork in order (emails, letters, cancelled checks, photos, etc.), and it sounds like you do, then you're pretty much assured of winning if it gets that far.

Of course, the court will encourage you to reach a settlement, and that's fine, too.

And lastly, you'll still have to collect your money...and that can be hard, but there's a process for *that*, too, and you can drag their butt back into court for that, at which point it becomes much more serious (you can garnish wages and bank accounts, it gets reported to credit agencies, etc.).

You may be able to file in your local jurisdiction, as well, forcing them to come here (which of course, she won't do, so you win by default).

Good luck, and let us know what happens. AND...publish the name so other people can avoid getting ripped off, as well.

Danny7 said:

I'm sorry Axel. Is there something your dad can do?

Click to expand...

My dad has called her and obtained the same answers dhe gave me. I asked my dad to stay out of it. I don't want to take any chances in case this gets ugly.

fl-mike said:

Time for the Oklahoma RV posse to swing into action. A knock on the door might help, or at least diminish the feeling of anonymity and safety of distance.

Click to expand...

That was one of my first thoughts but I don't want to involve anyone else. I need to figure out a way to do this the right way.

hydroguy2 said:

You were burnt, but now you owe to others to spread the word. Good luck!

Click to expand...

In due time I will. For now my advice is to stick with advertisers on this forum for interior needs.

Flying Scotsman said:

My advice...small claims court. Good luck, and let us know what happens. AND...publish the name so other people can avoid getting ripped off, as well.

Click to expand...

Looking into small claims. As soon as this is resolved you bet your backside that everyone on VAF will know all her particulars.

Postal Inspector Service

You are correct about the aviation community. It is made up, for the most part, of honest, enthusiastic people, who generally display much integrity. In 46 years of flying I have had only two experiences that made me temporarily lose faith in fellow aviators. That said, if the woman interacted with you in any way through the US postal system you might consider notifying your local office of the US Postal Inspector Service. Their mission is to investigate all fraud that involves use of the US Postal Service. They are quite efficient and handle daily the type of fraud that you unfortunately experienced. Don't lose faith in the aviation community because of this incident.

Allen
RV4 343AS

Sorry to hear it, Axel. It's infuriating that there are people like this around, aviation community or not. I would suggest that you attack this on two fronts:

1) Fight to get your money back, and possibly additional compensation for the wasted time and trouble she's caused you. As others have said, small claims court is probably the best avenue for this.

2) Brand her as the criminal that she is, to punish and hopefully prevent her from defrauding others in the future. Exposing her publicly within the RV community may keep her from doing it again within the RV community, but it'll do nothing to prevent her from running other scams outside the RV community. So aside from the civil claim, I would also file a criminal complaint. I'm not sure what would be the appropriate charge or jurisdiction (hopefully someone with more legal background can chime in), but clearly there was deliberate fraud here, so I have to imagine that criminal laws were broken. And perhaps federal laws kick in, since this occurred across state lines? Bottom line, this woman should not get out of this without a criminal record.

Good luck, Axel.

AXO

There are two types of issues when business turns bad.

Bad business people who are good people but cant run a business well.

Or those that are just bad and crooked.

Apparently you are sure she is the second? If that is the case I would put her name, address all details out there for others to see. Its not like she will really sue you...make a point and letter everyone know she is a bum.

I have never had a bad experience with anyone in aviation or through these forums until oct. Someone who was promoted through here has my $185 and has kept promising and promising with NOTHING. So... they are out there. I choose to believe my person will come through some day. We are pretty lucky to have a hobby with such standup folks as we have. Look at oshkosh. Hundreds of thousands of people almost no litter, very few cops...just good people. But...buyer beware I guess. Very sorry you got ripped.

OK Small Claims

General FAQ for OK Small Claims are at:

http://www.okbar.org/public/brochures/sccbroc.htm

Good luck,
Mike

We had the same problem when we went to do our back seats. We had to rebuild the seat backs because the guy wouldn't even return them.

I would contact the internet fraud department of her local PD. Also, as was mentioned before, call the postal inspector since this was also mail fraud.

Beware the MoneyPak

A big RED FLAG should always be when someone insists that you use a MoneyPak. Thieves like these "MoneyPaks" because there is no charge back risk and no traceability.

The caveats are out there....

Doing business with a stranger that has no background is always iffy.

I bought my first turbine Air Tractor from what was thought to be a reputable dealer, only to discover that the engine was making metal ON MY FLIGHT HOME! 30 hours later a gearbox rebuild and engine teardown set me back over $30,000...yep, they're out there.All this from an unreported wire strike.

Best,

All,
is there anyone out there that can help me with this? I am not smart on legal matters. I want to file a small claim on this lady however; I think I am going to have to do it in Oklahoma and not my home county in California. Any help or guidance with this would be appreciated, not only by me and my family but also by all the other aviators out there that will not have to deal with this mess.

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/small_claims/index.shtml

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims/

it looks like you need to clarify if you had a written agreement she has broken, or if it was verbal. After that you can use the automated form to help you write a demand letter

http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp/smallclaims/collection/index.cfm?ltrtype=generaldemand

My.02--

Axel---I think that I can speak for those of us in "small businesses", trying to get things started, and break into the RV community. The vast majority of us are honest people, sometimes working 2 jobs to make ends meet, or, to to fulfill a dream of having our own businesses. In my case, we saved for many years to buy equipment, inventory, and have tried to get our orders out in a very timely matter. I think that 99.8% of the businesses that are on this forum are like that.
Some of us "small businesses" are having to rely on some "word of mouth" advertising for a while, until volumes are sufficient enough to be able to put an ad on the forum, which is certainly my intent. However, at this point I weighed the cost of advertising against the cost of adding inventory to better serve my customers. The customers won out---right now.
I cant speak for every other business on here, but I think it would have been criminal to say "send me $4500 so I can buy a crimper to build your hose assemblies." Same with this lady. If she didnt have the necessary equipment to do the job, she wasnt in business. What if Van said ---"along with your order, attach another check for $50,000 so we can pay for our CNC punch press". NO, they reinvested in their company to make things better.
I've found that communication is the best policy----but when communication starts sounding like a stall tactic, something is generally wrong. From a personal standpoint, the ony time I wasnt able to do a quick turnaround on an assembly was a very special order assembly, and the customer was made aware of the situation, both through email AND a personal phone call. Sometimes when we rely on outside vendors an occasional backorder can happen. But, to consistantly put off a customer is bad business, and it does make it harder for those of us trying very hard to break into the RV community. For some of us, it isnt a job---its our futures.
Perhaps a visit to this lady is in order. Just my opinion--others may see this differently. I sincerely hope you recoup your money--
Tom

Mail Fraud??

WingsOnWheels said:

I would contact the internet fraud department of her local PD. Also, as was mentioned before, call the postal inspector since this was also mail fraud.

Click to expand...

Since he used MoneyPak, this could only be considered mail fraud if communication was done via the US mail. Best to speak to the post master at your local post office if you did send money or communicate via the mail.
Years ago, I had a problem like this. I won a dutch auction for computer items on EBay [to a dealer, not a private individual]. I paid via USPS money order. I never received the items. Communications with the seller were all stall tactics. Eventually, communications failed. Contacting other winning bidders, I found that most had also not received their products.
Once I filed a complaint with the USPS, I got my product within 10 days. Turns out the post office was able to trace the seller. He had moved from Chicago to California after the auction. The threat [by the USPS] of 3 years in a federal prison persuaded him to make good. The USPS rocks!

Charlie Kuss

Unfortunately all COM has been via email and phone calls.

Danny7,
Thanks for the info. I have seen the majority of those links but not the last one.

I have only bought items from two people noted on this forum recently. Max $50 USD. On one, I was sent the item before I paid by check so the seller relied upon my honesty. The bad thing is that the mail was way slow in getting the item to me. Perhaps a week or ten days for something that should have taken 2-3 days. It was not my fault but I was concerned that my integrity would be questioned.

The other I sent a check. I did not care if the guy waited for my check to clear.

Bottom line is that I never heard of MoneyPak until this thread. I do not use PayPal, which may not provide any protection for something...maybe services.

It appears that good ole checks and credit cards may offer the most protection in the event of the rare bad merchant.

Did you save the emails and/or voicemails?

I would try enlisting a lawyer local to her. Make sure you have all your ducks in a row ready to pounce before you tell her it's coming though.

AX-O said:

Unfortunately all COM has been via email and phone calls.

Click to expand...

Axel, that is still okay. The main point is that it appears you?ve been able to document the money sent to her for product and services not rendered, and the e-mails especially will bare this out, instead of it all just having to rely totally on oral.

Your best bet does sound like the Small Claims Court. It looks like a slam-dunk for you. But just because you win, doesn?t mean they will pay. When they don?t, which happens often, this is when you may have to get an attorney. One option is garnishing her wages, but perhaps she doesn?t have active employment. You can get a writ of execution against the defendant?s personal property or some kind of a lien on it. Hopefully, this woman has some real property like a house, car, etc, and that property means something to her. Unless she plans on being a pauper (or already is one) for the rest of her life, seems like she would want to pay up.

If you haven't seen this link yet, it goes into more detail of what you and your attorney will need to do to collect it if she still chooses not to pay.

http://research.lawyers.com/Oklahoma/OK-Collecting-the-Judgment.html

I can understand you not wanting to get your dad involved. I?m sure he already feels bad about this since he recommended her. At some point though, I hope you expose this woman on who she is, so that it might prevent her from doing this to others.

Update for those that care about this.

My local Police department just called me. Apparently this lady is on parole. Her Parole officer has been contacted and he knows what is going on. The local Police department made an agreement (without me) with the parole officer. She has until Monday to provide the money to her parole officer. The parole officer will mail the money and send me a tracking number. If that does not happen, things will get really bad for her. Charges were filed.

I Don?t want to talk about my evidence yet. And I promise that as soon as this is resolved, I will post her info.

AX-O said:

Update for those that care about this.

My local Police department just called me. Apparently this lady is on parole. Her Parole officer has been contacted and he knows what is going on. The local Police department made an agreement (without me) with the parole officer. She has until Monday to provide the money to her parole officer. The parole officer will mail the money and send me a tracking number. If that does not happen, things will get really bad for her. Charges were filed.

I Don?t want to talk about my evidence yet. And I promise that as soon as this is resolved, I will post her info.

Click to expand...

Glad to hear it's going in the right direction for you. I'm sure your dad feels terrible over the whole ordeal. Live and learn!

AX-O said:

Update for those that care about this.

My local Police department just called me. Apparently this lady is on parole. Her Parole officer has been contacted and he knows what is going on. The local Police department made an agreement (without me) with the parole officer. She has until Monday to provide the money to her parole officer. The parole officer will mail the money and send me a tracking number. If that does not happen, things will get really bad for her. Charges were filed.

I Don?t want to talk about my evidence yet. And I promise that as soon as this is resolved, I will post her info.

Click to expand...

while this is starting to get bad for her, i feel you are in a much better situation. when criminal charges get filed, you can show how much you lost and she will have to pay that back or face longer penalties. it is usually slow slow slow, but it usually spits out the money in the end

i got ripped off by a con man a while back. After doing some research I discovered that he's already got one felony conviction and is back to his same old tricks. It's very difficult to get the cops to do anything in these kinds of cases because prosecutors don't want to go to trial unless it's almost a slam dunk.

My solution was to set up a web site that I hope will put pressure on the guy and even more important hopefully prevent others from being ripped off. I have had several people thank me for saving them thousands. In one case the guys got taken for $40k but were looking at another $200k when they found my site.

I don't put any interpretation on the guy's actions, which could subject me to his making legal claims against me. All I do is document the facts which I could demonstrate to be true in court if it ever came to that.

Here's the site in case you're curious: http://www.texliner.info

Here's another one, where I won in small claims and they still refused to pay: http://texascustomdecks.info

In both cases I bought domains that are the same as their .coms but using .info.

I've stayed out of this discussion pending a situation I had being resolved. I won't mention names because I don't care to get into a public argument with the other party about it. Doug has been emailed about the situation and can do any policing he deems necessary to prevent future occurrences. Anyway, all I had was my canceled check and emails inquiring about the shipping. On the advice of a lawyer friend, I finally gave an ultimatum and then contacted the other party's local police department. They contacted the seller and just today I have my money refunded.

Small claims is almost out of the question as you have to file at the location of the defendant and usually have to appear yourself. A lawyer appearing for you would be expensive anyway. Then, even if you win the judgment, there is no guarantee you would get paid. Here is a good small claims FAQ.

Pursuing the criminal angle can be a better way to go. While you would not get any compensation if a case goes to trial, often the other party will complete the deal to avoid prosecution. YMMV.

Never again!

Sorry that happened. I am very trusting as well but building a plane is hard enough. I used a local hot rod shop for my seats and I regret that more than anything. I should have used Flightline or another respected or known company for my interior. It turned out but took all the energy I had to get the seats complete. I used Flightline for my carpet and side panels and was so thankful how easy and great it fit. Now there are even more options out there.

I learned the hard way as well about paying for anything up front with the Direct 2 Avionics fiasco. To order Cheltons from them they required payment up front. I was lucky and kept calling day after day and finally received everything before they went completely under. I had a friend that received only one screen. It was a stressful and frustrating time.
In building your RV don't pay for anything until the product is in the vendors hand ready to ship. Stein is great this way for avionics, he has everything ready to ship before sending any cash.

Good luck on getting the cash back.

Take a deep breath and....

move on. I know you don't want to hear that but I'll bet if you sought advice from a lawyer he'd tell you $2,500 is just not worth all the stress and aggravation you are going to put yourself through. From what you wrote the odds of you getting anything but a larger ulcer seems remote.
Do I sound like a guy who's been there and done that?
Don

Eric,

You are my hero!! I hope that you are made whole from this and wish you the best. Your actions to make others aware are EPIC and are a testament that the "little guy" DOES HAVE POWER!!

I used Youtube to convince Hyundai to buy back a car that had, in my opinion, a safety flaw with its hood (improper hood manufacture that made it bounce excessively). I fought for 4 months with them and documented everything. I posted my issues on EVERY website related to this car and it exploded! Every model of this car had the same issue. I mentioned this to Hyundai and they ignored it and even told me that it did not exist. Sooooo...I put a camera on the fender of my car, drove down my road at no more than 50 mph, videoed the hood bounce, edited and posted it on youtube and then linked to it like it was my job! Within a few weeks, thousands of people had seen it and mentioned their hood did the same thing. I then sent a link to Hyundai telling them what was going on and they could watch the "view" numbers increase daily. I told them I linked the video to every site I could think of. Within a week, they offered to buy the car back to which I agreed. They also wanted the video down and I asked them why. No response. I removed the video per the agreement but continued my campaign to get the hood fixed.

The little guy won!!!!

eric_marsh said:

i got ripped off by a con man a while back. After doing some research I discovered that he's already got one felony conviction and is back to his same old tricks. It's very difficult to get the cops to do anything in these kinds of cases because prosecutors don't want to go to trial unless it's almost a slam dunk.

My solution was to set up a web site that I hope will put pressure on the guy and even more important hopefully prevent others from being ripped off. I have had several people thank me for saving them thousands. In one case the guys got taken for $40k but were looking at another $200k when they found my site.

I don't put any interpretation on the guy's actions, which could subject me to his making legal claims against me. All I do is document the facts which I could demonstrate to be true in court if it ever came to that.

Here's the site in case you're curious: http://www.texliner.info

Here's another one, where I won in small claims and they still refused to pay: http://texascustomdecks.info

In both cases I bought domains that are the same as their .coms but using .info.

Click to expand...

I don't pay a new vendor up front unless they are

extremely well known(ACS/SteinAir/GRT, etc.) or local. Local vendors can and will rip you off too, but less likely, especially if they have lots of family in the area and have been in business for 10 yrs or more. I paid $1124 for a wood burning stove along with 60 other customers, they went bankrupt the next week. They were from a town about 45 min away. I was on the evening news because that is where we saw their ad. I went to their local courthouse and they said I would have very little chance of getting any money back. They lived in an RV and owned nothing. I did get a "free" iron kettle that is still sitting on my stove 10 yrs later today with hot water in it.

When a vendor ask for money up front on a "special" order that they could never sell to anyone else that is one thing. But on a common item their is no reason for it. I do hvac and would never charge up front. If I can't get their equipment from my distributor on credit until the end of the month then I should not be in business anyway. Good luck on the rest of the build.

Wayne Gillispie said:

I do hvac and would never charge up front. If I can't get their equipment from my distributor on credit until the end of the month then I should not be in business anyway. Good luck on the rest of the build.

Click to expand...

I've do HVAC too. For 40 years and 27 on my own. But during those years, I have been stung a number of times. I do require 50% when I deliver the equipment............if it's not a contractor, that I've been doing business with, for a long time. And even if it is a contractor, I still like the percentage ASAP. That makes me feel a lot better!

L.Adamson --- RV6A

Axel,
I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this. I would suggest to EVERY builder of an RV aircraft to only purchase through vendors who are on Vansairforce.net or through Van's directly. These vendors are tried and true. They would not be in business long if they are scammers because the whole RV community would know about any wrongdoing within one day of an infraction. All of us "old" guys have had this experience at one time or another. Learn from OUR mistakes. Before an online or mail purchase, investigate the vendor with a search engine.
Woodmanrog
Turtle Wood Designs

Post

Hi Ax

I tried to reply to this thread a couple of weeks ago but was in the mountains in China (its probably the only place there that doesnt have smog).
Its difficult to email out of china anyway.

OK so I am a retiredenlish cop with a law degree, my wife is a dual qualified lawer English and Chinese Law and Ok the law is different in America but it follows English law principles........... and my advice was going to be go to the Police as this is without doubt a case of deception.

It now seems you have done that and are getting some results which pleases me no end.

Keep up the good work and the excellent photos....... my 4 should be flying this year so hope ypou make it soon too.

mr woodmanrog

I assure you that there are several small vendors on this forum that provide an honest product and service, and dont have the advertising budget (yet) to buy ad space on VAF.

woodmanrog said:

Axel,
I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this. I would suggest to EVERY builder of an RV aircraft to only purchase through vendors who are on Vansairforce.net or through Van's directly. These vendors are tried and true. They would not be in business long if they are scammers because the whole RV community would know about any wrongdoing within one day of an infraction. All of us "old" guys have had this experience at one time or another. Learn from OUR mistakes. Before an online or mail purchase, investigate the vendor with a search engine.
Woodmanrog
Turtle Wood Designs

Click to expand...

Tim, I'm with you 100% on that. The internet really does empower the little guy. Similar to your case, I bought a new 65" Toshiba HDTV about twelve years ago. Back then it cost me something like $7k. There was a problem with the display and Toshiba was giving me grief. I documented everything, set up a web site and in short order everything was taken care of.

Pave Tim said:

Eric,

You are my hero!! I hope that you are made whole from this and wish you the best. Your actions to make others aware are EPIC and are a testament that the "little guy" DOES HAVE POWER!!

I used Youtube to convince Hyundai to buy back a car that had, in my opinion, a safety flaw with its hood (improper hood manufacture that made it bounce excessively). I fought for 4 months with them and documented everything. I posted my issues on EVERY website related to this car and it exploded! Every model of this car had the same issue. I mentioned this to Hyundai and they ignored it and even told me that it did not exist. Sooooo...I put a camera on the fender of my car, drove down my road at no more than 50 mph, videoed the hood bounce, edited and posted it on youtube and then linked to it like it was my job! Within a few weeks, thousands of people had seen it and mentioned their hood did the same thing. I then sent a link to Hyundai telling them what was going on and they could watch the "view" numbers increase daily. I told them I linked the video to every site I could think of. Within a week, they offered to buy the car back to which I agreed. They also wanted the video down and I asked them why. No response. I removed the video per the agreement but continued my campaign to get the hood fixed.

The little guy won!!!!

Click to expand...

woodmanrog said:

Axel,
I'm so sorry that you are having to go through this. I would suggest to EVERY builder of an RV aircraft to only purchase through vendors who are on Vansairforce.net or through Van's directly. These vendors are tried and true. They would not be in business long if they are scammers because the whole RV community would know about any wrongdoing within one day of an infraction. All of us "old" guys have had this experience at one time or another. Learn from OUR mistakes. Before an online or mail purchase, investigate the vendor with a search engine.
Woodmanrog
Turtle Wood Designs

Click to expand...

Woodmanrog:

I had a bad experience with a vendor that advertises on VAF and have told others OFF FORUM. I know of at least three engines that they have lost sales of because of my off list warnings. I lost almost $3,000 on work they did. My work order was for Inspect and Advise. If inspection is good, overhaul will all new parts. I paid for labor, haz mat disposal fee, and all new parts.

Ended up buying NEW Cylinders from A.E.R.O. that advertises here.

Let the buyer beware on everything. Some engine vendors like AeroSport, Mattituck, Barrett, and America's Aircraft Engines have been excellent for the RV community. Others have not.

Persistance

I lost 35 dollar on a car parts deal in high school. It bothered me for years. In retrospect, 35 bucks for the lesson I learned was well worth it. You pay tuition for college and lessons in the facts of life cost you as well. I can't imagine why you kept sending money after the deal started to go south except that it was out of respect and honor for your father. Reason enough to keep going. It's just like Donnie Braso and Al Picino.
The person you were dealing with was extremely good at what she does, which is of course lying. I've been around those types before.
Lots of people, much smarter than me, sent Bernie Madoff millions.
I admired your persistance!

Well I told you I would post her info when this was resolved. So here it is.

Last week I received a check from Jena (the lady in question). It came via postal service direct from her and not her parole officer (as promised). It was a cashier check and not a money order as I requested. I deposited the check and called the local police department. After a few days the checked cleared and I called the local police department again to let them know that this was resolved. The local officer said he was happy that it all worked out and told me that no charges would be file against her because she paid me back. I told him that I did not want this to happen to someone else and he said he doubts it will. As a result of this problem, her parole officer started looking into her current lifestyle a little deeper. Then they kept finding more and more violations on her part. The local officer said she has some major legal problems now and that my issue is miniscule compared to what she is facing. Karma I guess. So just in case you care to know.

Names
Jena Shelton
Gina Shelton
Jena Dunton
Jena Wilkerson
Jena Wilkinson

Phone Numbers
580-480-5538
580-301-7081
636-1259
405-636-1259

Addresses
15839 South CR 208 Altus OK 73521
421 East Tamarack rd. Apt 115 Altus OK 73521
308 West Broadway St. Altus OK 73521
PO BOX 95942 Oklahoma City OK 73143
817 South East 69th St. Oklahoma City OK 73149

Email Address
[email protected]

Congrats, Axel! Good to see justice prevail every once-in-a-while.

Violating probation / parole means she is going back to jail, where she belongs.

A lot of guys would have not pursed it like you did. Good work Alex.

Proud of you-

Axel--
you have made it easier for those of us wanting to do business on VAF--
Tom

Go buy a lottery ticket

You are one lucky hombre. These stories rarely end like this.
I am glad for you.
Don