Do not deal with smalljoes.com ever, he ripped me off

[Renegade]

this was the last thing i wanted to do but he has left me no choice but to share this with all of you and i hope you all decide to never put yourself in my situation.
take this as a warning--- DO NOT DEAL WITH COREY STINSON FROM SMALLJOES.COM AND HERES WHY!!!!!!!

i have been collecting gijoes ever since i was 4 years old and recently i came into some money problems so i decided to sell a huge bulk of my collection. so i contacted a few gijoe sellers and asked if they would be interested in buying my collection, corey stinson from smalljoes.com decided he was interested and we came to a deal within a couple of emails that we were both happy with. and here is what the deal was.
i was to send him my collection and he had a full list of what was included and when he recieved the items he was to send me a $1400 money order, a few items in trade and he was also to pay for the shipping to him. that was our agreement.
so i package everything up in bubble wrap and foam pieces to the amount of 13 big boxes and he gave me his fed ex account number to send it under, and so it was sent. the deal was as soon as he recieved the items from me that he would send my stuff off right away. he sent me an email saying he recieved my items and he would go through it right away and then get right back to me. weeks went by and no response from him, then he said it would be soon. then more weeks went by and still nothing. i kept sending him nice emails making sure to watch what i say and still no response from him. so then i decide it is time to go and see the police, they give me some advice and i proceed and then he finally responds to me saying that he just recieved the bill from fedex for over $800 for the shipping and he calculated that it should only cost around $400 so he would take that amount off what he owed me. i said NO WAY that was not our agreement. so i call fed ex and after being on the phone with them almost 2 hours i get them to reduce the bill to around $400. so i email him back and no response from him again. weeks go by again with me sending him an email or 2 everyday and finally he responds saying that he sent me partial payment and he would not be paying me the $525 difference that fedex over charged him. i explained to him AGAIN that i took care of it and he doesnt seem to care.
i DID recieve the partial payment from him and the trade items but he still owes me a tiny bit over $525 cash and will not return my emails or phone calls. i have called fedex again to confirm that they gave him the credit for the extra shipping and they did way back on november 15th.
so this is a warning from me to all of you to not deal with smalljoes.com because this being my first experience with him and not a good one. it has been over 3 months and he still owes me money. i have talked to lawyers about this and showed them all of the emails and they say that it is very clear that he owes me and i should preceed to court with him but i keep giving him the benefit of the doubt and i am hoping that he will come through on this and be a man. if not i WILL take him to court.
i have also contated the better business bureau and they have contacted him but he is not responding to them either, so what does that tell you.

[NotCool]

I am a regular shopper at Smalljoes.com for everything from toys to comics. In all my years and multiple purchases every year...not a single issue. In all my experiences from dozens of sites there are few I would shop at and even fewer I would bring repeat business too. Smalljoes.com is one I have learned to trust!

Your language was a little strong for Corey and the site we all frequent.

You sold and entire collection from age 4 for just $1400?
I may have paid more, but I didn't get contacted...NotCool.

[just_joes_by_mike]

Pay no attention to "notcool". None of his response was valid to the issue you are bringing up!!

I don't think your beef really has anything to do with us regular joe collectors or the smalljoes.com site. I don't know if you tried to sell your collection here? then I do understand wanting to post this. What you need to do is proceed to small claims court for this one. It sounds like you have a legitimate verbal contract for the sale of your items. He has not paid you the full amount, so let a court of law decide. If everything is as you claim it to be, should be a slam dunk for you. GL.

[cageyJG]

Renegade, three months?! Man, so sorry you got snookered like this. It appears what you're saying is that even though FedEx overcharged shipping by ~$400, Corey stated he would pay you $1400 and he arbitrarily decided to reduce it to suit him, because he felt he was wronged. Do I understand correctly?

You are a valued member of our site who has repeatedly try to communicate with this questionable buyer. At this point, I would take it up with the Missouri AG and solicit their advice in seeking redress/damages. Smalljoes does business via this website with a documented history of bad business and ignoring good faith communication; this is absolutely an appropriate place to post. If Mr. smalljoes is so immaculate, surely it wouldn't be a big deal for him to descend from his sky palace and address your situation.

Good luck, Renegade.

[Corey Stinson]

Ah, yes, well there are always two sides two every story, aren't there?

Yes, I did agree to buy his collection, yes I have received it, and yes this individual will be paid in full eventually. To understand why he has not yet been paid in full you must understand the multiple missteps and failures to follow instructions that he has taken throughout the process.

The first occurred after we agreed to the transaction and shipping details. He spent nearly two weeks dickering back and forth with me over actually getting the product shipped (I won't get into the details). As a result, by the time he finally got it shipped, it ended up being sent to my old warehouse address and I was subsequently right in the middle of a major warehouse move. I had to stop everything I was doing and arrange for the collection to get redirected to the correct (new) address. [At my expense I might add.]

Because of his shipping delays, I opted not to process his collection for about two weeks while I focused on completing my warehouse move and shipping all of my customers' orders which had been slowly backing up during the downtime. Mr. Hawbolte came unglued, safe to say he did not agree with my priorities at this time and sent me a lengthy series of highly insulting messages accusing me of theft, threatening me with police arrest (laughable), BBB reports, etc. etc. Let us say that this did not motivate me to prioritize Mr. Hawbolte over my other customers.

It was actually a stroke of luck that I delayed processing the collection and paying him, because in so doing I discovered that he had shipped the entire collection by the FedEx method that I SPECIFICALLY INSTRUCTED HIM IN WRITING ***NOT*** TO USE, even explaining why. I thus ended up with over $800 in additional shipping charges applied to my FedEx account. I held Mr. Hawbolte responsible for this error and deducted the difference from his payout, mailed him the check, which he has subsequently received.

In the meantime Mr. Hawbolte has successfully managed to blame the situation on FedEx and gotten them to agree to issue a partial refund on the shipping charges. While I am quite satisfied that the problem was created by Mr. Hawbolte, if he can wheedle FedEx for the difference that is fine with me.

I have explained to Mr. Hawbolte that when I receive the refund from FedEx, and am satified that is is permanent (per *my* FedEx account rep), I will issue his remaining funds. I will freely admit that I am in no hurry to complete this process as a result of the ridiculous and paranoid threats that Mr. Hawbolte has sent me on nearly a daily basis, all over issues that he created, threats which I am in fact now ignoring completely.

I should probably mention that even had Mr. Hawbolte shipped the collection with FedEx Ground as originally agreed, I still incured several hundred dollars in excessive shipping charges due to his foolish packing job - for example, shipping one box with only two figures in it. The cost of shipping on that box alone exceeded by a factor of 10 the value of the items inside. I blame this situation on myself and in the future I will simply not offer to pay any shipping charges on any international collection that I buy. I figure if the seller is responsible for the charges, they may spend some additional effort insuring that they are shipping in a cost-effective manner.

I fully expect Mr. Hawbolte to come back and deny many of the things I've stated herein. I have no intention of further debating them. Let the internet masses judge the situation as they will.

[Corey Stinson]

P.S. caseyJG, could it possibly be more obvious that you have some sort of axe to grind?

[Grunt]

Gents,

This issue is clearly between Renegade and Corey/smalljoes.com. Everyone else needs to stay out of it.

[Renegade]

notcool i am VERY glad that you have had good luck with him as i am sure that many many others have had great luck with him as well.
BUT i am simply sharing my experience with him on a simple transaction that did not go well and i have the proof in my emails to prove it.
i did not make this post to start any sort of a debate, i am just simply letting the public know that i have a situation here and i have to get the police and possibly legal action against him and i do not want to do that but i will if it comes to that.
if you were in my position from day 1 with him on this deal you would understand.
thanks and have a great christmas.

[bluebikerboy1]

unrelated and mods I appologize.....

that said how did you get fed ex to lower there rates after the item was shipped and recieved? especially by half?
Did you take it to a independant shipping office and they jacked the rates up or was it the local fed ex kinkos deal?
Ive never gotten them to discount at all let alone half.....
in anycase i am sure corey will make this right and wish you the best......

[NotCool]

Renegade,

I was not trying to debate you, rather show you that there is hope. A sound seller will work it out with you. Even here there have been those who have come up short on their deal and later it worked out for all parties:

http://forums.yojoe.com/bad-traders-...n-success.html

Pay no attention to "just mike". None of his response will prove productive or financially beneficial for you. Small claims are not as simple or effective as you would hope. IF you file, what venue? The defendant could easily file a motion to change venue (forum non-convienience law) then you have to travel to him. Then what of the fees? In some counties it costs more to file a case with a local clerk than the amount you could collect. Can you collect your Attorneys fees? Only if there is specific "prevailing parties" language in your agreement. Law enforcement? If only they would be so responsive. Verbal agreement, at best argumentative. I have tried that and lost.

Your best effort would be to try and reason with him. Open a dialog that is not threatening or public. There is much more opportunity for resolution without the posts. With any luck this thread will catch his attention and prove to be a means to "open the door" towards a resolution.

As far as my “response to your issue" not being valid. It was my experience, many positive ones, that validates not all of us regular joe collectors have had the same experience as yours. With luck, you too will see some sort of positive outcome.

A positive outcome however will not come when other members fan the flames and cry "court of law/slam dunk"

Let’s not take the cheap shots its NotCool.