Steven
Studio City,#2UPDATE Employee
Sun, March 08, 2009
PLEASE NOTE THE TYPO I MADE IN THE TITLE OF MY POST, IT SHOULD HAVE READ: "THE WRITER OF THIS POST HASN'T TOLD YOU THE WHOLE TRUTH"!! SORRY! Steven Karlson
Steven
Studio City,#3UPDATE Employee
Sun, March 08, 2009
Dear Consumers: My name is Steven Karlson. I am the Sr. VP of Operations at SellYourBoatNow.com The gentlemen that wrote the posting you have been reading above, has conveyed his side of this story. After reading it, I believe it would be best for me to set the record straight (regarding this "incident"), once and for all. On 2/4/09 our website received the email below, requesting a free book value quote for a boat. (We removed part of the typed phone number to protect this person from continuous phone calls after internet posting): ________________________________________________________________________ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Contact Form. From: [email protected] Date: Wed, February 04, 2009 5:33 pm To: [email protected] Name : Damon Phone : 845-787-5xxx Phone 2 : Length & Make of Boat : 21.7 Trophy Year of Boat : 2000 Price You feel boat may be worth : 5K U.S State Boat is in : AL Are You a Buyer or Seller : Buyer how did you find this site : Web Email : [email protected] Engine make & other Comments : Boat has no Motor but is in fair to good shape ________________________________________________________________________ The author of this post failed to mention that we then provided him the free book value quote he requested. A portion of the reply email containing the free value quote is below: ________________________________________________________________________ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: RE: Contact Form. From: [email protected] Date: Thu, February 05, 2009 2:56 pm To: [email protected] (If you don't see our invoice allowing you to sign up...within the hour...Check your Junk/Bulk/Spam mail folder!!) VALUE IS $6212....... ________________________________________________________________________ We have taken the liberty of considerably shortening the book value email we sent back to this person. This was done because the remainder of the email talks about a perspective buyer we believed we had available for that particular type of boat. There was no reason to include that portion of the email in this posting. The book value response email above is only posted here, to establish for you the reader, through viewing the time/date stamp and opening content, that we did reply to this person with a free boat value quote as our website promises to do. We never charge anyone for a book value quote. We send them invoices and charge them to ADVERTISE their boat on our website. We did make one very obvious mistake. You may notice that the person who sent us this book value quote request email, described themselves as a "buyer". The author of the post you have read above is correct that we do not provide free book value quotes to buyers. Our customer team quite obviously failed to notice that the sender described themselves as a buyer, and sent him a quote anyway. As stated earlier the remainder of the content in the book value quote response email our company sent, went on to explain to the sender that: a) We have a buyer we believed would be interested in the boat b) And that the sender can sign up for our boat advertising services through the PayPal invoice we had sent him as well. Our websites FAQ's page explains that approximately 40 percent of the time that we receive a book value quote request...We have or know of a potential buyer for the same make and model boat. This is the reason this person received an email explaining that we had a buyer interested in his boat. Again, we admit the error of failing to notice that this person was a buyer not a seller. Therefore he would have had no interest in a buyer for his boat, as he himself was interested in buying the boat he emailed us about, not selling it. On a side note, relating to another of this persons concerns, the reason we only provide book value quotes to sellers is a simple one. It helps protect those who are selling boats, from having someone attempt to get a lower price quote, for negotiation purposes. Our company considers sellers the top priority. We will not do anything that undercuts their ability to sell their boats at top value. Regarding this persons accusation that we accessed his PayPal account and attempted some kind of fraud: Those of you that are familiar with PayPal know that anyone with a PayPal account can send any email address something called a PayPal money request. In no way is a persons PayPal account compromised or accessed when you a PayPal money request is sent. It is simply a PayPal account holder (IE: us), sending your EMAIL account a note that invites you to pay the PayPal account holder through PayPal if you wish to buy what is being sold. I cannot stress this enough, in no way is the security of ones PayPal account accessed or compromised by the money "requester". If you wish to confirm this beyond my explanation, you can call PayPal (their phone number is on their website) and ask them if I am describing this correctly. They will explain to you that this persons PayPal account was not accessed by us or anyone involved with us at any time. He was simply sent a payment request email. In closing, you can evaluate this at your leisure, but here is the bottom line: a) Someone emailed our website on 2/4/09 looking for a value quote on the boat described in their email above. b) That person used the name "Damon" and claimed their return email address was the one listed in their email above ending in hvc.rr.com. c) We responded to what appeared to be a legitimate inquiry (as you can see for yourself in their email above). We did make the error of sending them a value quote on a boat they were trying to buy. We also provided them a notice of a buyer we felt would be interested in their boat (also an error, as they had described themselves as a buyer, not a seller). Our customer team sent this person a PayPal invoice offering them the opportunity to pay online through PayPal for us to advertise "their" boat. This of course was also part of the overall error, of treating this individual as a seller when he actually was a buyer. For these 3 (albeit, very minor and harmless) errors we apologize for the confusion. The issue you as a reader should assess carefully is whether or not the writer of this posting, is being truthful when he claims no knowledge of having sent us the initial book value request email (see above). He does not deny that that is his email address, he does not deny that he is the operator of a company called "Hudson Valley Investigations, LLC" (which is whom that email account belongs to). So, either HE did send us this boat value request, or someone else sent it and used his identity when doing so. Once they had stolen this persons identity, the first thing they decided to do with it, was email our website for free book value quote. Obviously very unusual behavior for a criminal of that type! So you the reader can choose to believe this person never emailed us, OR that the criminal who stole his identity decided to spend his time emailing boat websites for free valuations. In either case, we are not responsible and have done no wrong. The writer of this post appears to work as a private investigator. If he truly believes that someone other that himself or a friend or relative sent us this book value inquiry...It might be in his best interest to find out who is using his identity and sending emails claiming his email address is their own. As opposed to spending his spare time writing false and inflammatory comments about our company on this forum. Sincerely, Steven Karlson
If you're here illegally you are the enemy
Newburgh,#4Author of original report
Wed, March 04, 2009
March 3, 2009 Dear Sir: On 3/1/09 we requested that you add a retraction, within 72 hours, to your posting on ripoffreport.com, in light of the newer revelation that an email was in fact sent to this company implying that you requested we contact you. As of 12pm Pacific time 3/3/09, you have not added such a retraction to the posting on ripoffreport.com. We respectfully remind you that the 72 hour grace period we offered expires at this time tomorrow 3/4/09. We request that you do the correct and moral thing, which is to acknowledge in the form of an additional statement in your posting, that newer information ahs come to light showing that such a misunderstanding occurred. Please take action on this matter in the requested time frame, or we will be forced to view this as a legal matter. So once again here we go, After doing the update two days or so ago as this seems to be a misunderstanding.... As I contend I did not contact them in regards to selling my 87 Thompson Carrera 198, Nor did they succeed in gaining a monetary fee for any services. But after they contacting me with the above facts as they presented them including that allegedly I or someone stating they were me or utilized my information. I went on line and a searched showed that they seem to entertain value quotes for sellers only, as buyers are not dealt with. and it says the quotes are free, but then why try to submit an invoice for payment for something that's advertised as free? I misunderstood that, hence its all a misunderstanding.
If your here illegally your the enemy
Newburgh,#5Author of original report
Mon, March 02, 2009
We request that you add this aforementioned update to your posting within 72 hours. If you have not done so, we will be forced to treat the matter as an unresolved defamation, and will be compelled to take further action. Subsequent to the above, this entity has sent alleged proof by way of a name I do not go by from an address location far far away from me that I or someone who used my name, or someone acting as me had made such an inquiry. Therefore, this companies attempt to interact with me on a boat matter "that i did not seek" was justified, and that although some one form this entity took steps to solicit funds from me thru my pay pal account no one attempted to access your PayPal account, etc. In short, that it is all a "misunderstanding"