Hello everyone,

I realize the following is a very long story, and trust me, I wish it wasn't. But seriously it is worth the read, so this will hopefully not happen to you, as it did me.

Earlier this year, I and the user on this message board jterry (Justin), had made an agreement that he would sell me a DVD of Eunice and the Mama's Family Reunion from Vicki! on DVD for $30.

So our story begins...

On May 29, 2004, I sent the payment to Justin via Paypal, and my message read:

"Hey Justin... It's Scott (Eroticdita92@hotmail.com), My Paypal account is joined with a friend's (Jorge Sarante), but here is the payment for the DVD of Eunice/The Vicki Lawrence Reunion. My Address is: <Address not supplied on the message board for privacy reasons>"

On the same day I received an e-mail back from Justin saying::

"HEY!!! Just got your payment! I am transferring Eunice as we speak..............THANKS AGAIN!!!"

Now keep in mind, all communication with Justin was taking place via E-mail, I e-mail him, he responds, and vice versa. But for some reason when things went "wrong," he decided to respond via the private messages on the message board, and not e-mail, which I found kind of weird, but didn't pay much mind to at the time. My mistake, because now I obviously realize, that perhaps he sent it that way, thinking I don't check the message board as often as I do my e-mail. But regardless, back to the story.

On June 5, 2004 exactly one week after the payment was sent, I received a private message via the message board saying:

"Sorry about the delay. I have Eunice copied for you, but I haven't had to to do thr reunion. I am still in high school, and we have exams coming up this week. I get out of school early on these days, so I'll have plenty of time. Sorry again............................... -Justin"

Now is it just me, or doesn't it sound like what he's saying, is that because he gets out of school early the week of the 6th thru 12th of June. That he would have plenty of time to get the DVD finished that week? That's what I thought, that's what my friends though, but obviously not what he had in mind, because...

June 14, 2004, now 16 days after the payment was sent, I had to send an e-mail saying:

"Hey Justin: It's now been over two weeks, and still nothing. Could you please keep me
posted as to the progress of the DVD. Waiting patiently... Scott"

On the same day, I received the following e-mail back:

"I sent you an e-mail about a week ago, did you not get it? Anyway, I am now out of school and have time to finish. I haave completed Eunice, and am now working on the reunion. To make up for my slowness, I will include something else that I am sure you will like. Sorry about taking so long.............................. :-[ -Justin Terry"

Okay, well that sounds nice, that he's including some extras, but he does say "I am now out of school and have time to finish"...didn't his previous e-mail sound like because he had finals and got home early, that he'd be able to finish. But oh well, moving on...

On June 18, 2004, now 20 days after the payment was sent, I received this message via the message boards:

"This is coming along, slowly but surely Sorry this is taking so long, I've been really busy lately. I hope you don't think I just took your money and have no intention of sending it. I shouldn't be much longer. Thanks for your understanding!! Justin Terry"

Now on June 26, 8 days after he said "I shouldn't be much longer," and also 28 days after the payment had been sent, I sent the following e-mail:

"Hey Justin:

Okay, here's the deal:

On May 29, 2004, I received a e-mail from you saying, "I am transferring Eunice as we speak." That was the day I had sent the payment. Then on June 5, 2004, I received a private message from you saying, " I am still in high school, and we have exams coming up this week. I get out of school early on these days, so I'll have plenty of time." That made it sound like since you got out of school early that week, you would have plenty of time when you got home to work on the DVD. However nine days later, on June 14, 2004, I received an another e-mail from you saying, "I haave completed Eunice, and am now working on the reunion." Now, I have a DVD burner, and I do realize it takes awhile to make a DVD, however 4 days later on June 18, 2004 you sent a e-mail stating "I've been really busy lately. I hope you don't think I just took your money and have no intention of sending it. I shouldn't be much longer." It's now over a week later, and still no package.

Now I don't mean to sound rude, but it is now 28 days since my payment was sent, and still I've received nothing. Paypal allows only 30 days from the time the payment was sent, to file for a return of the money. Now, I don't mean to cause problems, but, before time runs out, I am going to file a request with Paypal that the money be returned. If, by chance, I receive my package within the next few days, I can call Paypal and cancel the request. But, since I only have 30 days to protect myself, I must file this request. I apologize, and hope that you prove me wrong, and I do receive the package within the next few days.

Scott"

On the same day, I received the following message via the message boards:

"I just received the e-mail from Paypal. I am so sorry that I took so long, but I can completely understand why you feel this way. As of today, the disc is finished. I just have to burn it. I will ship it ASAP!! (Monday or Tuesday) Again, I am VERY sorry, and I included a couple of extras on your DVD since you had to wait so long. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION!"

On July 3, 2004, 7 days after that last e-mail and now 35 days!!!!! since the payment was sent, I sent the following e-mail:

"Hello Justin,

I don't mean to be rude or anything. But it's now been another 7 days (one week), since I sent the Transaction Dispute from Paypal. And STILL no package. I've never had a package that was sent from within the United States take more than 2 or 3 days at most. So if the package was sent on Monday or Tuesday as you said it would. It really should have been here by now.

I have not canceled the dispute from Paypal. I was going to cancel it when I received the package. Paypal has given you till this Tuesday to either provide them with the information proving that you did in fact send the package, or for me to receive the package. If I don't receive the package by Tuesday, I'm sorry, but I will not cancel the request. And if no information is provided to Paypal, by Tuesday. They will refund the $30 out of your account.

It has now been a total of 35 days! since the payment was sent. I do think that's more than enough time to make a DVD. In fact, I burned both seasons 1 and 2 of Mama's Family to DVD yesterday and it took me about a day or two.

I sent the payment first, this time. If Paypal refunds the money, and for some reason I do actually end up getting the package, I will send the $30 again. But I will not make the same mistake of sending money before I receive the item again. I'm sorry.

Scott"

This e-mail was never responded to by Justin, however, on July 5, 2004, I received the following from Paypal:

"Dear Jorge Sarante,

After careful review, we have concluded our investigation into the Buyer
Complaint described below.

------------------------------
Complaint Details
------------------------------

Transaction Date: May 29, 2004
Transaction Amount: -$30.00 USD
Case Number: PP-041-829-488
Seller's Name: Justin Terry
Seller's Email: jterry@swcenter.edu


We have determined that the seller is at fault in this matter but regret to
inform you that we were unable to recover any funds from the seller's
account. As stated in the PayPal User Agreement, recovery of funds
associated with a Buyer Complaint cannot be guaranteed.

If this transaction took place on eBay, we encourage you to contact eBay.
If the transaction was for an amount greater than $25.00 USD, you may
qualify for partial reimbursement under eBay's Standard Purchase Protection
Program. If this transaction took place on another auction site, we
encourage you to contact that site to see if they offer insurance or
dispute resolution.

Thank you for your cooperation and we apologize for any inconvenience this
situation may have caused. Please know that we will make our best effort to
recover the funds in question if they become available in the seller's
account in the future. Please also be assured that we will take appropriate
action against the seller. Such action may include issuing a warning, a
temporary restriction, or terminating the account. Keep in mind that PayPal
uses a number of factors to determine when to take action, including member
complaints. Due to privacy laws, we cannot discuss the details of any
action taken. We hope you understand our policy and that it assures you
that you are safe using PayPal.

To ensure that future transactions proceed smoothly, we recommend that you
review these Security Tips:

We appreciate your business, and regret this experience.

To make sure future transactions proceed smoothly, we suggest reading these
Security Tips:

http://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/fraud-tips-buyers-outside

Sincerely,

Protection Services Department


Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address will not be
received and therefore, not answered. For assistance, log in to your PayPal
account and click the "Help" link in the footer of any page. If your
inquiry is regarding a claim, log in to your PayPal account and click the
pink Service Center link."

So anyway, translation is, "We know he stole your money, but he doesn't have the money is his account to pay it back, tough s--t"

So it's been 4 days, since my last e-mail, and now that Justin knows Paypal isn't going to be taking the money anytime soon, he has decided to stop responding.

The funny thing is, that when he first messaged me about all this, he said and I quote, "If you are afraid of buying something like this from a perfect stranger, you can talk to Miss Vicki as a reference. I have sold a couple of things to her and I am 100% authentic. To make a long story short, I won't rip you off. THANKS!"

Well, stupid me never asked Miss Vicki, because I assumed he was telling the truth, and didn't want to bother Allison with this if I didn't need to. Also, I have to be honest, I didn't say anything to Allison while this was going on, because I wasn't sure, if maybe her and Justin were friends, and I didn't want to send a message making it sound like "HEY! Your friends a liar, tell me if he is or isn't." It was a stupid mistake on my part.

But anyway, be very very careful, this person is obviously a con artist. And I don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else that did me.

Scott

Wow...Just wow.


Yes, what he said is true...He HAS sent me a couple of things, and it didn't take longer than a week to do. I had asked him to make me a copy of the Eunice DVD as well (that was in April) and he said he had sent it out around the time I took off to visit relatives in Minneapolis (Easter weekend). Guess what- it's been 3 months now...no DVD. We HAVE exchanged stuff since then, I just haven't gotten the DVD. :confused:

I don't know what to say. =/ Jterry should really get back to ya...I'm still waiting on my DVD as well...

Jterry, you're on your own this time;)

What amazes me is that awhile back, he had a copy of Eunice on Ebay, that was selling for almost $300. Thank God!!! that Ebay took the auction down (I think it was because of copyrights or whatever), but anyway, thank God they did, otherwise that poor sap would have been out $300, rather than $30.

What seems odd, is why send you the rest of the stuff, and not Eunice? It just makes no sense to me. I wonder if there really is a DVD floating around of Eunice at all!

I'm taking all my Mama's Family episodes and burning them to DVD, I'm missing 1 episode from Season 4 and 1 from Season 5. The one from Season 4 comes on July 19th. And the one from Season 5 some time in August. And then I'll have them all.

Now, I've burned Season's 1 and 2, and am working on Season 3 as we speak. Now we're talking about 20 episodes a season. Well, example, season 3 is 25 episodes. Roughly, 22 minutes each. That's 550 minutes, that over 9 hours worth of video. And it took me no more than a day to do each season.

So honestly, there really is no excuse at all.

I really think it's time for jterry to fess up!

Allison, did you pay for your copy?

To my knowledge, there should be no copies of Eunice available on DVD, just videos from the original broadcast. I am not sure this person has this DVD or not since he was charging so much on Ebay. I wouldn't attempt to do business with this person anymore and check tape trading forums for other offenses by this person.

Originally posted by Eroticdita92
What amazes me is that awhile back, he had a copy of Eunice on Ebay, that was selling for almost $300. Thank God!!! that Ebay took the auction down (I think it was because of copyrights or whatever), but anyway, thank God they did, otherwise that poor sap would have been out $300, rather than $30.

What seems odd, is why send you the rest of the stuff, and not Eunice? It just makes no sense to me. I wonder if there really is a DVD floating around of Eunice at all!

I'm taking all my Mama's Family episodes and burning them to DVD, I'm missing 1 episode from Season 4 and 1 from Season 5. The one from Season 4 comes on July 19th. And the one from Season 5 some time in August. And then I'll have them all.

Now, I've burned Season's 1 and 2, and am working on Season 3 as we speak. Now we're talking about 20 episodes a season. Well, example, season 3 is 25 episodes. Roughly, 22 minutes each. That's 550 minutes, that over 9 hours worth of video. And it took me no more than a day to do each season.

So honestly, there really is no excuse at all.

I really think it's time for jterry to fess up!

Allison, did you pay for your copy?

$300? Wait...that was another seller. He sold a pic and included an Eunice tape w/ it that sold for $200+, not $300. I looked it up - it is this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=4191359244

I explained the DVD bit in CoolCounty's post, seen below.

I have been burning the MF eps to VCD -- I don't have a DVD drive, bummer. :(

No, I didn't pay for mine, as we had exchanged stuff in the past. In this case, I think it's only fair jterry refund you the money when he DOES get around to sending you Eunice.

I'd love to hear his explanation, as well :) You are right...It is NO excuse at all!

Originally posted by CoolCounty
To my knowledge, there should be no copies of Eunice available on DVD, just videos from the original broadcast. I am not sure this person has this DVD or not since he was charging so much on Ebay. I wouldn't attempt to do business with this person anymore and check tape trading forums for other offenses by this person.

Yeah, that's correct. However, with the technology we have today, it IS possible to transfer stuff from VHS over to DVD, to preserve the quality. (check the Tape Trading board here; they talk about that all the time -- plus, you see packages of blank DVD-R's, +R's, RW's, etc at stores all the time) So it IS possible to have Eunice transferred to DVD if you have the right equipment.

Miss Vicki, I can see how you could be confused. It seems this jterry is a crafty one.

Let me try and explain.

I saw this with Madonna tickets on Ebay. You could get in serious trouble, if you sell the tickets for more that face vaule. So what people did is sell a Madonna CD. Actually, the auction that sticks out, is someone sold a Madonna Immaculate Collection CD, which retails in stores at $9.99. They included front row tickets to Madonna in concert, for "free". So techinally the people were bidding on the tickets, not the CD. But since the auction was for the CD, and the tickets were "free", they found a loop hole and got away with it. The "CD" ended up going for almost $2,000.

Now, that is what this person did with the Eunice auction. They auctioned off a framed photo and said the tape was included free. The reason they did this is because a previous auction of just the tape by itself, was removed from Ebay. The seller, was JTERRY! Not another seller, as you had thought Miss Vicki. In fact, the person's name on the link you showed me is: jterryswcenter.

That's right JTERRY!!!

Now, the originally auction that was pulled from Ebay, jterry made the mistake of posting about. You can actually see the whole situation here:

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?s=&threadid=109299&highlight=EUNICE

Obviously this last auction he got away with. The seller hasn't posted feedback yet, so we shall see. Probably because they haven't got the DVD yet.

The auction ended on May 29...which happens to be the VERY SAME DAY! I sent my payment. What I think happened was this crook, found he could get $207.50. And then decided "Well, why should I send it to Scott for $30 and Allison for free?!?"

Okay, fine, if that's the case. But send me my money back!

I have just one thing to say about the buyer of the $207 auction... See what he did...He DID get the tape but never left jterry feedback.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=309&item=6302595199

That is all...jterry, we're waiting. ;)

Quite frankly...I'm sick of waiting! I have been trying to obtain "Eunice" since May 2003 and have had ZERO luck getting it. There was another guy on here (Chad Palmer) that has "Eunice" and I'd have better luck getting it from him. I turned down my request to him in March so that I could get "Eunice" from jterry.

I'm sick of it, dammit. WHEN AM I EVER GOING TO GET "EUNICE"?? I do NOT want to have to ask around for another YEAR. Screw it. I'm asking Chad.

Eroticdita, I sent you a PM saying that I was finished with it, and asked you if you still wanted the refund or if you wanted me to send it. I never got a response. I still have it ready to go if you still want it. I've had it ready for a while, I just never got a response to see if you still wanted it. I can send it tomorrow. Did Paypal process the refund or not? I am not sure. If you still want it, its here ready to go- I told you that, but I never got a response.

Justin:

The following is a list of ALL private messages sent to me by you and the dates they were sent on:

March 30, 2004:

Just wanted to let you know that I found a great place to buy blank dvd's. They are les than half price of what I have been paying. If you are still interested in Eunice & the Reunion. Let me know, because the price will be considerably lower.

June 05, 2004:

Sorry about the delay. I have Eunice copied for you, but I haven't had to to do thr reunion. I am still in high school, and we have exams coming up this week. I get out of school early on these days, so I'll have plenty of time. Sorry again...............................

-Justin

June 18, 2004:

This is coming along, slowly but surely Sorry this is taking so long, I've been really busy lately. I hope you don't think I just took your money and have no intention of sending it. I shouldn't be much longer.

Thanks for your understanding!!

Justin Terry

June 26, 2004:

I just recieved the e-mail from Paypal. I am so sorry that I took so long, but I can completely understand why you feel this way. As of today, the disc is finished. I just have to burn it. I will ship it ASAP!! (Monday or Tuesday) Again, I am VERY sorry, and I included a couple of extras on your DVD since you had to wait so long. THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION!

Call me crazy, but there is not one mention of you asking if I wanted it sent or my money refunded.

Paypal did NOT refund the money, so at this point, the only thing that will happen is either I'll get the DVD or I'll loose my money.

WHAT YOU DID SAY WAS:

"I will ship it ASAP!! (Monday or Tuesday)", that was on June 26th, it's now 9/10 days since then, and now you post this and say "I can send it tomorrow".

Okay, I'm glad I went public with this...I'm gonna make this simple.

Now, here, in front of EVERYONE on the message board.

PLEASE SEND THE DVD TOMORROW!

There, it has been said, everyone is a witness. Now we'll all just wait, and see if I actually get it this time.

did u get the dvd yet?

Originally posted by Dramaqueen80
did u get the dvd yet?

Yep, he did. I think about a week or so ago.

Yes I got the DVD. Well worth the wait. Well, the wait could have been done without...lol. But I'm very very pleased. My apologies to Justin, for making a big deal out of the situation.

Thats ok. I would have done the same thing. I just had a lot going on at that time, and I apologize for taking so long. Things have slowed down now, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!!:D :wave:

can i also get a copy of the movie Eunice and all of the Mama's Family shows with Eunice on them ? I dont have anything to trade with I will pay you for them. let me know.

I have seasons 2-4 of Mama's Family on DVD. I used my DVD recorder. Commercial free.

Also have first 2 discs of season 5 done, but I haven't really done any recording since June.