Somebody owes you money

[sho'nuff]

I have this one gentleman who recently since July of this year, disappeared without any communication who still owes me approximately $700 for a couple of pairs of shoes i shipped to him back before summer. His account he uses for ebay is idle (he purchases alot of shoes on ebay besides from me, but his activity during summer through now is idle) and I have attempted to call him on his phone and couple of emails but seems like they are not used by him anymore even though his vm greeting still exists. I have tried to make contact with him at his work but found out he left his work during the summer.

Now $700 is a large sum for me at this time. I am not angry at all, I am more so concerned what has happened to him as he was one of my best shoe buyers in the past 1.5 years. He bought everything from john lobbs to santonis from me. And always always paid up. He is not the type to run away from having to pay this amount to me. I am just very concerned about what has happened to him as we had a very friendly social relationship over the phone and email.
He is a very nice older gentleman who works in finance/banking.

Now i am considering this amount to be a loss. I just hope one day he does take the time to contact me but i cannot fathom what has happened to him. I heard he is ok and still alive (from someone at his work), but no other details as i won't press it with them anyways for stuff they are not supposed to reveal.


***
That said, well, misery loves company of course. Anybody have any large amount of money owed to them (not by family members or very close friends, doesnt count for me),
via some business transaction or something but you have basically counted it as a loss?
Anyone to share your stories?

 

[Stazy]

Personally, no, but my dad has gotten screwed over in a few memorable incidents. I won't mention any dollar amounts so as not to offend conne.

 

[Ambulance Chaser]

Why did you ship the shoes before receiving payment?

 

[sho'nuff]

Originally Posted by Ambulance Chaser

Why did you ship the shoes before receiving payment?

i know that is sort of my fault (or all my fault) but i try to gauge the buyer's intent and persona before i transact with them, and usually, and for most people ive dealt with here on sf, i trusted enough to send items before receive pay. im a proponent against paypal as much as i can , and to encourage somebody to buy something from me, i will honor a check or money order and will still send out the item on his word that he sent out payment.
and so far on styleforum, i have had absolutely no problem with anyone .

this person i have dealt with over 1.5 years (not an sfer), and in the beginning things were a more formal of course, received confirmation of payment and then shipped out.
but as he purchased lot more stuff from me, and as i wanted to move stuff more quickly, he would promise a payment by end of month or something etc, and i would still ship his stuff out , and the relationship became more on a friendly casual basis.

and i still believe he is a man of integrity and honest dealing, i am just very afraid something may have happened to him i cant imagine what it it.

the last couple of shoes he did promise to pay in july but no word in july and up to now. i think something happened to him. i hope nothing medical, or an accident or leave the country or anything.

 

[unpainted huffheinz]

An acquaintance owes me a couple hundred or so and has dodged payment for almost two months. The other day I see them and they say 'Did you get the check I mailed you?'. I said no, but that I would look for it in the mail the next few days. An hour after this encounter I realized I have never given this person my address! The classic 'the check is in the mail' routine!

 

[nootje]

Originally Posted by sho'nuff

He is a very nice older gentleman who works in finance/banking.

The answer was there all along...

And yeah, I do have people that owe me money.. But most has been repaid and I dont loan anything anymore, learned from that(about a 1000euro lesson). The last one (luckily) was stupid enough to sign a loan contract, so when he said he did'nt want to pay up, i turned it over to a collection agency..

 

[scarphe]

did you ship to his hoem address? if so you know where to go to get the money.

 

[Nouveau Pauvre]

^ Good call.

Sho - I can handle it, I take 15 percent, no questions asked. PM me for details.

 

[sho'nuff]

no i always shipped to his place of employment at the time when he worked there.

that is fine thanks for the help, i would take on your offer if this were some punk malicious ebayer!

 

[mr.loverman]

that's why most people secure payment before they deliver on goods/services

 

[sho'nuff]

no sh*t sherlock

 

[Gravitas]

In any other case, I would say, "give an inch, \tand they are gonna want all six inches! take a yard."

 

[Orsini]

So a once good customer is no longer at his former place of employment, where all correspondence was sent, and does not respond to voicemail.... Possibly, he has been taken ill, although if he had stopped checking his voice mail I would expect that eventually it would become full and would no longer accept messages. The fact that you do not know his where his residence is complicates the matter. It does not seem like there is much you can do.

 

[Xericx]

Lent a fired co-worker $200 a week after he got canned. He was really struggling. Just kind of wrote it off. It'd be nice to get it back for an impulse purchase or a good night on the town. He even called me like 6-8 months later to pay me back when we were to grab drinks, but then he kind of disappeared again.

 

[sho'nuff]

Yeah I just wrote it off as a loss. I m just here to hear other stories.

You lending a coworker in need some money is philanthropically investing though. Mine was just a failed business transaction.