Complaint Review: Auction Sources - Russell Smith

I came to the described below agreement with Russell Smith and Jacob Dienelt representing Action Sources Co.

All contacts were made through phone calls and e-mails.
Smith and Dienelt organize shipments of cell phone antenna boosters from China.

I act as an intermediary between buyers and Action Sources Co. The buyers transfer payments to my bank account and I transfer their money, keeping commission, to Russ Smith and Jacob Dienelt .

Action Sources order goods from China manufacture and than arrange air deliver to the buyers directly.

3 buyers wire-transferred and 2 buyers sent their payments through PayPal on my bank account. As agreed, I had to transfer customers' payments to Russell Smith and Jacob Dienelt.

On June 26/02, July 8/02 and July 9 /02 I made 3 wire transfers of $5,460, $5,300 and $2,650 respectively directly to Russell Smith's bank account to pay for 500,000 units for 5 clients' orders.

On July 12/02 I made a payment of $2,730 to Jacob Dienelt's account through PayPal to pay for 100,000 units for 1 client's order. In total I transferred US $16,140 to Russ Smith and Jacob Dienelt to pay for 600,000 units of antenna boosters.

The boosters had to be delivered in 2 weeks upon receiving the payments.

None of the six buyers received cell phone antenna boosters yet. Each of them bought 100,000 units and paid for air delivery. Shortly after receiving the last payment Dienelt and Smith started accusing each other in theft.

I made a number of phone calls to Dienelt and Smith, sent many e-mails, but was not able to clear the situation out. Smith kept promising to send the boosters and pretended to be very cooperative.

He kept promising to send the boosters and resolve the situation quickly. Later on Russell Smith refused to communicate with me any further telling me to deal with Dienelt and convincing that Dienelt took the antenna boosters and the money.

On July 26, 2002 Smith gave me the name and the phone number of his attorney.

Dienelt promised to ship 300,000 antenna boosters to 3 buyers. He was not able to provide me with confirmation of shipment, just promises to send the antenna boosters tomorrow.

I had to recall one payment of $2,730 for 100,000 boosters that I made through PayPal. Now Dienelt says he has no obligation for me whatsoever, but willing to refund $2,400 that Russ paid him for 200,000 units (for 2 customers).

PayPal was not able to recover the payment. As of today Dienelt does not respond on my calls at all.

On August 6, 2002 Mr. Steven L. Terry, Mr. Smith's attorney, sent me an agreement.

Needless to say that in the agreement Smith was dictating his will and his terms different from what we agreed on at the very beginning of whole deal.

You can see how in the e-mails he promises to send me 500,000 units.

In the agreement Russ Smith agrees to send 300,000 units by sea in exchange for me releasing him from any demands or claims.

My request to compensate the customers for the difference between air and sea shipment was ignored. I do not want to release Smith from any demands or claims as he is promising to send 300,000 units only.

I transferred payments for 500,000 units of antenna boosters directly to Smith's account. This is what he owes me for. I need full refund.

Mr. Steven L. Terry was not very cooperative. He was not replying on my faxes , phone calls, even hanged up sometimes.

Finally, on August 14 Terry returned my call and said he could not get in touch with Russell Smith and therefore cannot do anything. Terry also said he no longer represents Mr. Smith.

I sent a couple of e-mails to Smith. On August 15 Smith replied with the following message:

Mr. Steven Terry is my attorney, and after communicating with me today has decided to continue working on this.

Please contact him at your convenience to discuss.

Russ

It's a circle. Smith refers to Steven Terry. Terry says he does not represent him any more. It is all just buying more time for Smith to complete his scam and disappear.

Later, on August 27, 2002 Russ Smith disapper.

There are many other people who got ripped of by Auction Sources, please feel free to email with questions.

Nick
Richmond Hill, Ontario