Caveat Emptor: Rowers for sale on Craig's List/Internet

[Ergmeister]

I'm seeing a significant uptick in bogus scam ads for Concept 2 rowers Craig's list and internet "gym equipment" sites. Typically, the bogus ads use new product stock photos only; have only a description and don't say anything that explains why it's being sold like most of the legit ads normally do; and the deal is borderline too good. I keep a close eye on CL for rowers and I'm seeing a lot of ads that are all the same offering a new C2 with PM4 for $700.00

Make sure you know who you are dealing with when consider anything from CL because scammers are out in force with freeing your money on their agenda. Key alarm triggers are no verifiable location, stock photos, no phone numbers, and no real identity; gym equipment companies that advertise on Craig's List only; and a copied stock item description.

Caveat emptor.

[Cikan Vuz]

Yes, you are so right!

I saw an ad on the internet at www.xfitnessequipmentonline.com for a Black Model D for 599 and free shipping (though they did charge a dollar for shipping at checkout). I thought SCORE and paid via Google Wallet as they had you do.

As soon as I paid, I knew something was wrong as when I went back to www.xfitnessequipmentonline.com, the rower was still in my "cart" even though I had a receipt. I tried to check order status, it said I had no order. I started looking around the website for a "contact us" link; there is none. I went to my receipt, which had means to email them and sent them an email asking for shipping information (as their website had stated it would be provided at checkout but wasn't), they never replied. The next day, I called the number on the receipt. All I got was a voice-mail set-up message. I called Google Wallet and was told to wait longer. I hung up and did a map search of the address and it is a house in a rural town in Texas, not a business. I did an internet search using different wording and found complaints against the company for the same thing I was having issues with, only back then they had been using PayPal. So I called Google Wallet and got a claim going. As soon as I filed the claim, I received an email saying my item had shipped but they did not include any carrier or tracking info. I emailed and asked it and to date, no reply. Google Wallet emailed saying they were in contact with the seller and to allow 3 business days for them to contact me. Em, no; in this day and age of electronic communication, that was not happening as there no longer are wagon trains and the Pony Express.

Finally, I got my bank involved and we did a three party call, where in Google Wallet let it slip they too have not been able to get in touch with the seller (even though they emailed me 3 days straight that they had) so my bank hung up and honored my dispute. I also closed my card and had a new one issued as Google Wallet said they would recharge me until the seller had proven they had not shipped the item. I was like WTF? They have to prove to me they HAVE shipped it, not to you that they haven't. LMAO I filed reports with that local police dept, the FTC and IC3 and I told Google Wallet they need to shut down that seller using them as a payment processor as they are enabling a scammer. And to my surprise, Google Wallet wrote me back and confirmed that they could not reach the seller and were shutting them down since all the evidence I provided them did point to the site being a scam site. Sure enough, if you go to www.xfitnessequipmentonline.com as of this writing and put something in the cart, it still says to pay via Google Wallet, but when you click checkout, Google Wallet says "Oops! Unfortunately, this merchant no longer accepts payments through Google. We apologize for the inconvenience." So, the seller is shut down for now until they can find another payment processor. It would be nice if they just got shut-down all together though.

If anyone tried to purchase through that website, I hope you got your money back or now will.

[OarConsequences]

And for others looking to buy, Cikan Vuz has good tips for steps you can take to ensure the seller is legit. Of course it's best to do these steps before making the purchase.

[Cikan Vuz]

Arrrrgh, ye matey be makin' good sense...

LOL

darn pirate day.

I did searches first and found no bad feedback and I didn't check for contact info on the site itself; I was just so darn happy to finally be buying my own rower that I was a fool rushing in.... LOL

At least others can learn from my mistake =])

[fishbust1]

What a nightmare.

[RIsurfer]

Why is there not a buy/sell/trade section on this site, so that users who are upgrading can provide others with an option to buy their old machine?