I don't of course know how much money was involved.  A significant amount, I suspect.

You can (1) Call a lawyer, likely not going to help much but will cost money, (2) Call the police in the state where you bought the vehicle.  Not likely to help, but may put a little pressure on the guy regarding covering his ass better next time he decides to practice fraud, and (3) write it off as a lesson learned.

DMc

---- "Jack R." <jack007@COMCAST.NET> wrote:
> A lot of great suggestions were made here.
>
> So sorry to hear you are having problems with your purchase!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> craig cowan
> Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 8:25 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Buying advice
>
> I appreciate all the advice, particularly the first half of the advice I
> recieved before buying it at noon....
> : )
>
> To be fair, his "bad reviews" were from 2 people, they were frequent, and
> they were resolved. They were resolved in a satisfactory way that Everett
> let him back on thesamba and even wrote a little thing acknowledging that
> this bad review was not very valid. The reviews in question were in regards
> to a guy that bought a split window bus PROJECT from him, only to find it
> had rust. Seriously? That's expected I thought.
> And the other review was in regards to shipping a large item (I think it was
> a middle seat) to Tailand, and it took SURPRISE.... more than 2 weeks.
> So to give the man some credit, his slate may as well be clean. This stuff
> happens, particularly if you sell alot of stuff.
>
> Anyway, for the last week i've been talking to the guy and getting really
> good vibes about him. He's been very helpful and I sincerely think I am
> getting a wonderful deal. The sad part of this situation is that I had a
> deadline with which to pay him the money which was today, as he's closing a
> house (he's been upfront about that since day 1). The reason being, my price
> was 1/3 the cost of what he had another buyer lined up to pay, cash ready,
> that could make the deadline. He was going out of his way to be nice to me,
> since we agreed upon a price first.
>
> He now has my money, and I have an email correspondence with him listing his
> personal information, contact information, and a stated (though still
> unofficial) bill of sale which includes the VIN number, pictures, and a
> description of the conditions.
>
> The vehicle is in Portland Oregon.
> I am "planning" to have it shipped. I would however LOVE to drive it home.
> Any volunteers to do some work on it for me : ) ????
> I could have it shipped to you.... you could make it work...... I could fly
> out....we could hang out..... i could have an adventure driving it
> home...... : )
> Just throwin it out there.....
>
>
> Thanks again guys!
>
> -Craig
> '85GL turned WESTY
> BOSTIG In the back
> '87SUNROOF SYNCRO
>
> On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 6:13 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <
> scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Roger,
> > thanks for mentioning me.
> > I sure hope it works out for the guy buying the van, whatever happens.
> > I'm glad he posted.
> >
> > Scott
> > www.turbovans.com
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Roger Whittaker" <rogerwhitt1@GMAIL.COM>
> > To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> > Sent: Tuesday, July 06, 2010 10:35 AM
> > Subject: Re: Buying advice
> >
> >
> >  dear far and away
> >>
> >> there are a few choices to make here
> >> 1. send money ... laugh or cry later
> >> 2. Go to see the guy and make purchase in person ..
> >> 3. fly to oregon and if you dont like the van ...go see scott in medford
> >> and
> >> buy one of his
> >> 4. you in PA already .. go see chris and drive away with all his junk ...
> >> store it and then go get what ever you like from who ever and you already
> >> have all the parts you need
> >>
> >> 5. send money ... hire other to pick up vehicle ...
> >> 6 Rebuy already purchased vehicle from the scammers again and again from
> >> various online ... send money now ... get goods later people ...
> >> 7. Fly to england and go to the brickyard there to purchase ... send
> money
> >> in GBP before you go so you can loose twice as much in exchange rate
> >> 8. buy a delicia
> >> 9. buy a toyota
> >> 10 take a holiday on a cruise ship $$ are the same spent and adventure is
> >> more controllable as onboard casino is set at 60 % house 40% guest
> >>
> >> yours
> >>
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 6:40 AM, craig cowan <phishman068@gmail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>  I'm working on closing a deal today on a sunroof syncro that's in Oregon
> >>> (I
> >>> am in PA). Anyway....
> >>> The buyer has asked that I just transfer money via a wire transfer in
> >>> full
> >>> to his bank account which i normally wouldn't be overly hesitant about
> >>> but
> >>> realize this would not afford me any type of fraud prevention should
> >>> anything happen. I asked him a few days ago what assurance he can give
> me
> >>> that this is going to be a fullproof transaction and his response was
> >>> that
> >>> should it go sour for any reason, just bash him on thesamba.com. Since
> >>> he
> >>> runs a VW restoration business almost entirely through thesamba, it
> >>> seemed
> >>> like a just response. Well..... I went and checked him out on the samba,
> >>> and
> >>> he's already been bashed enough. He's been banned close to 10 times
> >>> (under
> >>> different names), there are pending fraudulant claims and arguments
> >>> occuring
> >>> between he and buyers. Luckily, there are also great reviews of his
> >>> service
> >>> being above and beyond the call of duty. So this has me at least
> slightly
> >>> concerned, any suggestions?
> >>> Paypal may be an option, does that award a great deal more security?
> >>>
> >>> Furthermore, I don't recieve a bill of sale via the mail for at least a
> >>> week
> >>> after I give the guy all my money..... indicating that I don't actually
> >>> own
> >>> the car, but have given aside all my money. I asked that he send me an
> >>> email
> >>> with his full name, address, the VIN of the car, and which contains
> >>> agreement terms....should I need to press charges later. Does this sound
> >>> like a reasonable thing to want? Am I fair in wanting something like
> this
> >>> BEFORE I pay? He seems to indicate (and I can see this point as well)
> >>> that
> >>> no actual change of ownership agreements ever occur untill after
> >>> purchase.
> >>> Sadly he's been pretty tricky with emails, so I have my concerns (Though
> >>> he's easiliy reached via the phone and a wonderful person to talk too.
> He
> >>> seems to be really interested in helping me out).
> >>>
> >>> Thoughts?
> >>> I'm very excited about this purchase, but very concerned now.
> >>>
> >>> -Craig
> >>> '85GL turned WESTY
> >>> BOSTIG in the back
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> roger w
> >> From Proverbs:
> >> Under three things the earth trembles, under four it cannot bear up: a
> >> servant who becomes king ...
> >> ----------------------------------------------------------
> >> Explore printed work at: http://www.prliving.ca/
> >> View the growing list of video work at:
> >> http://revver.com/find/video/?query=LastonLastof&search_on=owners
> >>
> >
> No virus found in this incoming message.
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> 14:36:00

--
David McNeely