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Site Announcements and Feedback => Announcements/Feedback/Suggestions => Topic started by: gutsack on Fri, 01 December 2017, 17:51:31

Title: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: gutsack on Fri, 01 December 2017, 17:51:31
User Feng (https://geekhack.org/index.php?action=profile;u=9194) ran a group buy which turned out to be fraud. He never delivered to most recipients, never refunded, etc. Most people have lost hundreds of dollars to this GB, he has disappeared. In the year since he ran it, he ran other group buys, continued to post here, is active semi-regularly on GH. I'm suggesting he should be banned, and his sub forum should be removed.

Group buy was here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=83442.0

(Sorry if this is not the appropriate way to broach this, but I reported that thread to mods several times, but since Feng is the mod for that forum, it might simply go right to him to ignore.)
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: tofgerl on Sat, 02 December 2017, 13:57:29
Define "most". I received mine.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: FFevo on Sat, 02 December 2017, 15:12:23
I never received my order, which cost hundreds of dollars. I contacted Feng many times over the course of the last year. At one point he responded to tell me my order would ship by the end of the week. That was many months ago and he hasn't responded to me since.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: japanitrat on Sat, 02 December 2017, 18:26:54
I ordered three and received three. However, I do know at least one person who hasn't received anything .. be it the product or communication, afaik.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: ghostjuggernaut on Sat, 02 December 2017, 23:01:44
I will bring this up with the team and we will start a discussion re: Feng.

Thank you for letting us know, we aren't always everywhere on the site and reports are one of the best ways to bring issues to our attention.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: lac29 on Sun, 03 December 2017, 09:09:11
I ordered and received mine, and then sold it to another member.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: Fearian on Sun, 03 December 2017, 11:39:04
I received mine, but it had a faulty/poorly soldered USB port that I had to fix.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: edsucks on Sun, 03 December 2017, 20:18:16
I have at no point received my order either.
A laundry list of false promises and straight up lies, combined with a complete and utter lack of communication from Feng led to $327 going down the drain, with not much hope left that I, and other participants, will ever get what we paid hundreds of dollars for.
Unfortunate events like these only serve to create divide and mistrust in the community, and I definitely agree with other users on the suggestion that some sort of action is taken against him.
Hopefully freezing his ability to post GB threads and/or advertise his products on GH will motivate him to wrap up this well overdue group buy.
It's at the very least better than nothing.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: ctzn_voyager on Sun, 03 December 2017, 21:07:18
I have not received my order, and have not heard from feng for months.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: w0odyallen on Mon, 04 December 2017, 00:14:42
Different group buy here: https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=74678.0

I ordered two sets that he confirmed back in june he had received. Since then there has been zero word even though we've been bugging him about it. Very unprofessional IMO.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: daskeybo on Sun, 24 December 2017, 16:00:31
If you ban a scammer then you will never receive product.  How about allowing only one Group Buy at a time for a Group Buy leader?
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: Puddsy on Sun, 24 December 2017, 18:49:24
If you ban a scammer then you will never receive product.  How about allowing only one Group Buy at a time for a Group Buy leader?

the internal rule is two at a time
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: FFevo on Tue, 10 April 2018, 12:43:22
So nothing is ever going to come of this?
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: jdcarpe on Tue, 10 April 2018, 13:22:02
So nothing is ever going to come of this?

What do you want to come of it? That he get banned? How would that help the people who didn't receive their orders? For one, it cuts off even the hope of communicating with him via the forum.

I know it hurts. I've been scammed before, too. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do, except not spend money you can't afford to lose. :(
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: Blaise170 on Tue, 10 April 2018, 13:29:17
It makes me think of this knife sharpening place I sent some knives to last year. Every time I call I get no answer and they ignore almost all of my emails. When they do respond they just say "it will be shipped in a few days". It sucks and I wish I could do something about it, but I can't make a trip all the way to the west coast just to retrieve knives...
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: FFevo on Tue, 10 April 2018, 13:40:36
So nothing is ever going to come of this?

What do you want to come of it? That he get banned? How would that help the people who didn't receive their orders? For one, it cuts off even the hope of communicating with him via the forum.

I know it hurts. I've been scammed before, too. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do, except not spend money you can't afford to lose. :(

I don't know what should happen.  He definitely shouldn't be allowed to start any new groupbuys until he has made good on this. 

I never spend money I can't afford to lose... but that doesn't make this okay. 
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: jdcarpe on Tue, 10 April 2018, 13:57:14
So nothing is ever going to come of this?

What do you want to come of it? That he get banned? How would that help the people who didn't receive their orders? For one, it cuts off even the hope of communicating with him via the forum.

I know it hurts. I've been scammed before, too. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do, except not spend money you can't afford to lose. :(

I don't know what should happen.  He definitely shouldn't be allowed to start any new groupbuys until he has made good on this. 

I never spend money I can't afford to lose... but that doesn't make this okay. 

Has he started new GBs since this thread went up? All GB threads must be approved by a moderator before going live, so I doubt they would allow that to happen if they know about it.

I do agree he should lose his vendor status and forum...

And, no, it's not okay at all. It's pretty f'd up, I would say.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: gutsack on Wed, 30 May 2018, 14:04:10
He started FOUR group buys in the time since starting and failing to deliver the Smart68 group buy:

https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=89804.msg2431370#msg2431370
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=88117.msg2379764#msg2379764
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=84428.msg2252377#msg2252377
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=84354.msg2250065#msg2250065

He should absolutely have vendor status revoked and his forum revoked, but frankly, I think he should be banned from running group buys on GH. The idea that "if you ban him, how will these people get their goods" is silly since it has been 2+ years and he continues to post once a year saying, "Oh, right, I'll ship these soon!". It's not acceptable. He took hundreds of dollars from many people and never delivered, he should not be allowed to continue starting buys here at a minimum. From my perspective, if you scam people out of money you should be banned from GH entirely, but I'll settle for no group buys and vendor status revocation.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: chuckdee on Wed, 30 May 2018, 20:51:47
I think he meant has he started any since you reported him.  Those were all started quite a bit before the report.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: Puddsy on Wed, 30 May 2018, 21:00:57
I think he meant has he started any since you reported him.  Those were all started quite a bit before the report.

^
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: gutsack on Wed, 30 May 2018, 21:25:04
Gotcha. I just want to prevent him from scamming people in the future, or appear on GH with status that gives the impression he's reputable.
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: xondat on Wed, 30 May 2018, 21:25:44
I think he meant has he started any since you reported him.  Those were all started quite a bit before the report.

^

I know I'm doing the exact same thing...

But this is a new level of low effort man
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: Puddsy on Wed, 30 May 2018, 21:27:23
I think he meant has he started any since you reported him.  Those were all started quite a bit before the report.

^

I know I'm doing the exact same thing...

But this is a new level of low effort man

gotta get my 2 cents in
Title: Re: Ban and forum removal suggestion after fraudulent group buy
Post by: chuckdee on Wed, 30 May 2018, 21:48:29
I think he meant has he started any since you reported him.  Those were all started quite a bit before the report.

^

I know I'm doing the exact same thing...

But this is a new level of low effort man

gotta get my 2 cents in


You'd really pay 2 cents for that? ;)