Advice about non-receipt of coins from online dealer

I am hoping that I can get some advice on how my school should best handle a situation with an online coin dealer.

I am an elementary school teacher who started a coin-collecting club for my students last fall. We were able to purchase the supplies through a grant I received from a local charitable organization, and the money from this grant paid for the coins, flips, and storage boxes for the students. We had twenty students participate in last year's club, and each student in the club ended up taking home about 100 world coins, flips, a storage box, and I think, an appreciation of numismatics. They really were thrilled with the experience and with the interesting coins that they got to keep.

This past April, I was happy to hear that I received another grant to continue the coin-collecting club. I decided to purchase this year’s coins through another coin dealer because the last lot of coins (25 pounds for $300) that we purchased had many modern duplicate coins and little geographic diversity (one of the goals of the club is to teach students about other countries through coinage). So, I looked on eBay and found a world coin dealer who specializes in country and region specific coins. The dealer is ranked on eBay as a “Top Seller”, and has over 99.9% feedback based on over 13,000 reviews. So, I thought I would contact him to ask if he could provide us with the coins for this year’s club.

I contacted him via eBay (I know that is not something that eBay likes), and he contacted me at my school email account through his Gmail address. I explained that our elementary school would like to purchase these coins for our coin-collecting club, and described the issue that I had with the previous lot of coins that we purchased. This dealer said that he could provide our school with the coins we would need for our budgeted amount – it would be fewer coins per student, but he would assure that the coins would be geographically diverse. He even offered to Skype with my students to discuss his experiences as a collectors and dealer. So, all was well – or at least I thought.

He sent me a quote via email, and our school mailed him a $350 check in May to his business address in Lacey, Washington. He cashed the check on June 7th, and emailed me that he would ship the coins by Priority Mail within a week. We did not receive the coins, so I contacted the dealer via email the following week to ask about the shipment’s status. The dealer apologized and said the coins would be ready by the end of that week. Two weeks passed, and the coins were still not shipped (it is now mid-July). I thought I would give him some time in case he was backlogged, and contacted him again via email in August (about a week before at the start of our school year) to inquire about the order. He said that he is still working on the order, that the coins are just about ready to be shipped, and he asked again for my school’s address. I once again gave him our school’s address, and hoped for the best. Admittedly, my faith in the dealer had faded somewhat by that time.

Now, here we are one month into our school year, and our school has still have not received the coins that we purchased from this dealer. After speaking with my principal about the matter, I contacted the dealer via email on September 15th, and in that email stated that by September 20th our school needs either UPS/FEDEX/USPS confirmation that the coins have shipped, or a full refund of the $350. I have had no response from the dealer. I tried to contact him again through his eBay account, but had no response that way either. I do have his phone number, and will try calling him from school on Monday – maybe that is the way I should have tried contacting him in the first place. Maybe "the check is in the mail", but I am beginning to wonder how this will all go.

I see that the dealer is still very active on eBay. Maybe his business is such that he is just too busy to accommodate us. If that is the case, I am happy that business is going so well. But needless to say, I am disappointed that this coin dealer is so unresponsive, especially since he knows that these coins are for elementary school students.

As I said, I will call him on Monday, and hope for the best. But what are your thoughts if there continues to be no response from him? Am I maybe missing something here? How long should our school wait to receive the refund? Should we send him a certified letter demanding the refund? Should I see if there is a BBB in Lacey, Washington and file a complaint? What would you do in this situation?

Jonathan

 

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Honestly, and I know its hard being captain obvious, but you should never send a check in such situations. You contacted the man around Ebay, so you have no Ebay protection. If the results of the transaction are ever in doubt, only submit money with a credit card or what I do, a paypal transaction paid with a credit card. This gives you protection in case the seller does not deliver.

BBB does not really do anything. Does the dealer advertise he is a member of PNG or ANA? You might have luck going through those organizations.

 

There's is an Internet agency that you also can file a complaint . For the life of me I can't recall the name ,however I'm sure with a little research on line you'll be able to find the name and go after the seller.
I may be incorrect but at the amount you have stated in your post is considered grand larceny on the Internet .
They do have an investigation into your complaint as well as history of the seller.
I had to deal with an e bay seller years ago over a item purchased . I'm sorry to say my efforts were not fruitful in getting my money back . However again what was it caused the seller to be red flagged . It is a long process but again was worth going through as it was successful in putting the seller on the radar for his actions .
True not much of a return for my loss but still put a stick in his spokes from trying to rip off other honest buyers.
The agency is a federal government run police agency .
I'm sure if you Google the right searches you'll find it.
I hope this works out for the school and a full refund can be obtained .

 

That sucks.... lots of time and effort wasted. Yes, call the BBB.

 

Sad deal. I would call him first.

Good ideas.

 

Have you spoken to your supervisory structure about throwing the weight of the school itself behind the effort? From the sound of it, the seller has not just defrauded you, he's defrauded a school system. This is something which would make a wonderful political football for an enterprising local politician to run with....

 

Another great idea. I love it.

You might even try calling the attorney general of the state. They will help a school. They might even call the dealer instead of just sending out a letter.

 

The capitol region coin community is not that large. There are two retail shops in Lacey, one of which is primarily sports cards. PM me the name and I can probably put you in touch with somebody who knows him.

 

Yes, I absolutely had reservations about sending a check at first. But I was going with the odds that a dealer with such a great history on eBay would honor the transaction one way or another. The big attraction for me was that he specializes in country and region specific coins at prices that fit the club's budget. Unfortunately, his eBay page does not list that he is a member of PNG or the ANA.

 

Thanks. I will give him a call on Monday, and if he answers will be diplomatic about the situation - I don't know what his side of the story is.

 

Thanks for that offer. I don't want to malign him here, I just want the school to get its refund so we can make other plans for the kids. I am not sure if he is a brick & mortar dealer. I'll PM you in a few minutes.

 

I would agree with not saying his name here, but also agree that someone who might know the dealer is the best option at this point.

Always remember some people, (thankfully not all), are only as honest as required. Ebay feedback is great if you buy on Ebay, but not necessarily anywhere else.

I would take @Burton Strauss III up on his generous offer.

 

I had thought about contacting the local paper/news station, but I am not quite there yet.

 

Contact his Congressman!

 

Good. In a conflict with potential legal ramifications, the astute litigator ensures the other side has a crystal-clear understanding of the possible courses of action long before those courses are embarked upon. There's a non-zero possibility - given the seller's volume - that the principal has an underling who has drastically dropped the ball, and has no idea of the amount of kindling being piled under his butt.

 

I'm actually shocked that any dealer would be so stupid to try to screw a school.
Makes me wonder if he did not have the coins and is trying to buy what he needs to fill the order.

 

This is what I would suggest. If he has a b&m shop and after you have contacted him, notify him that if he has not made your student's whole by a certain date, that you will contact a local news agency in Seattle to notify them of a local scammer who prey's on elementary schools. I think that would get a fire lit under his @ss faster than any kind of legal ramifications.

I for one, would have made your order a TOP priority. What you are doing is very important to our hobby and will only help him and other dealers in the future. I want to thank you for starting the club you did at school. It is so nice to hear something like that.

 

By all means call him first. Hope springs eternal that he is doing something good for you and it takes longer.

 

One further thing you can do is contact the postal inspector's office. I see you're located in New England by your profile info, and the dealer is located in Washington. You might have grounds for a mail fraud investigation if all else fails.

That said, I wouldn't get my hopes up. Law enforcement isn't going to be terribly enthusiastic about a $350 case, unless you can play up the "think of the children" angle (which, normally I disapprove of as a tactic, but, in this case it's appropriate).

Random thought: maybe we could organize a drive to make this year's coin club a success? I, for one, wouldn't mind paying it forward a bit to introduce kids who are about the age I was when I discovered coins to the hobby.

 

Dude, he has aggregoiusly and knowingly maligned you, an elementary school and children! Stop being so nice and thinking he will just do the right thing and that he's a decent guy etc. This is an ethically challenged individual to say the least. Time to throw some weight around and stop playing nice. If I lived up there I'd be confronting him personally for you