How it all has gone down
Ok, I'm updating this information with screen shots, as Ronda sent me an e-mail saying she was turning this site over to her lawyer. If only I believed that she could afford a lawyer.
So here goes, I got a second chance offer for an item on eBay:
I didn't look too closely at Feedback scores or Payment Options, my bad.
However, I was soon presented with an invoice and location to send payment:
So I e-mailed back and forth, can I pick up local as Humbe is near where I live, can I use a check, don't you take PayPal. All answers were No.
So I went and got a money order from my bank. The girl there recommended that I get my name put on the Money Order Pay line as a precaution if something went bad with the transaction. Kinda prophetic:
So I went to the Post Office on February 9th and mailed the money order, Certified, Return Receipt.
On February 12th, she filed an Unpaid Item Claim against me on eBay:
On February 13th, I got the card back in the mail informing me that payment had been delivered on February 10th:
So we had this little cat and mouse of, I don't have your payment, I sent you the payment and someone signed for it in the eBay dispute console. Then on February 16th, she set the item as unpaid with a strike. (3 days sooner than she should have been able to do this no less.):
She also closed her account. Then later she made her feedback hidden:
It was at this point that I began to suspect that I had been scammed. So I went to work, looking for Ronda.Here are the steps I used to find her, that you can use to find others if you have similar problems:
1. E-mailed every user on eBay that I could find that had left her negative feedback.
2. Looked for the real address and phone number for this account using Google to search. Reducing the search to the address and city without a box # or other info yields a ton of addresses using the PO Box company she was using. If you do a Google search you can find it too.
3. Used the information that came back to broaden my search. This is how I found out she really lives in Iowa. Found a ton of stuff about her.
4. File a complaint with the USPS.
5. Immediately filed a dispute with eBay for nondelivery to cover all my bases.
I then e-mailed her, letting her know that I knew who she was, and that if she would get me my money back, or my game, I would go away. If not, I would become her worst nightmare. (Guess which one she chose.)
I also sent her a nicer message in the eBay console, with a similar offer:
She didn't take the offer. So I went after her. This web site, and did other things to help let folks not to get trapped like I did by her and her schemes.
After much effort and being patient, I got lucky, and I got my money order back, mostly from involving the USPS:
Even after all of this, she continued to lie to me, saying that the item was shipped in the Dispute Console:
Then she followed with a message saying she did not have my address:
Hmm, sent it to me, but does not have my address.
Finally, the post that she has found my blog and it would be shut down. Looks like she just got one post removed. Anyone good at searching the internet can find this information using the Google Cache or Internet Wayback Machine.
As for forwarding the blog to her lawyer.A) Lawyers cost money. She seems to be the kind of person that doesn't have much.
B) She lives in Iowa, and would have to file a Civil complaint. A Civil judgment in Iowa does not bother me, as I don't live there.
C) She could file in Texas. But Texas has pretty good laws on the books protecting your property against Civil Litigation. I don't have any assets that can be taken in Texas.
D) What is she going to do with a lawyer? All the information I published was freely available on the internet, none of it was a secret, I got it all from searching Google in an intelligent fashion. I've go to pretty good lengths not to defame her, and present facts. I'm allowed a certain quantity of conjecture in my comments, and don't think I've overstepped that. Finally, I have the evidence, presented here, that shows her duplicity and lack of interest in an honest transaction. I've got lots more information printed and filed away if I am ever contacted by an attorney in this matter.
E) I've already run this by a lawyer, before I started, so I have a pretty good idea where I stand.
Now, this is Ronda's chance again. I'm willing to drop it now. If you give up now, I won't spend any more time on this. if you don't give up, I will continue to fight. I'm resourceful, and will use my resources as necessary. Drop it and the posts to this blog will stop, and it will fade into oblivion over the next few months. Don't drop it, and I will keep posting about it and the spiders that search the net will continue to keep it high in the Google search for Ronda Strauser. Your choice.
posted by The Dren @ 11:52 AM
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