Jim Godfrey- Won auction, won't pay or communicate

Way to man up, Martin. This situation is sad for both parties. I know you are both good guys.

How did paypal send the money if the email address was no good when you send paypal it says the name and email address of the recipient.Or am I missing something?

Apology accepted. Like I said before wish for no problems with anyone. Life is way too short. I also apologize for any inconveniences I have caused. I certainly did not wish for this kind of outcome.

Originally Posted by Nanci

Way to man up, Martin. This situation is sad for both parties. I know you are both good guys.

"Way to man up, Martin?" How did he "man up"? I think he achieved his goal, he has placed a black mark against Jim's name. Martin brought this to an open forum and did not apologize for anything but taking remarks about Jim's financial status. He hasn't apologized for his post or starting this thread, just the "slander" comments. He also stated this was a "principal" issue now but still discusses how much he has done to accomodate Jim. Maybe it is a principal thing for Jim now? We are close friends and I do know he was excited about getting the animal in the first place but was really disapointed when he went days without a response from MB.

I have no dog in this fight but seems to me if Martin had provided the correct info, then this would not be an issue period. As a seller, you have to be responsible enough to be sure all the info is correct. Mistakes happen but to make a mistake and then discuss it in a public forum as if it was no big deal, that to me is also as irresponsible as providing the wrong payment info to a buyer. What would have been the result if the money transaction had went to the wrong person? Lastly, I am sure Martin would not have been happy if after two days of no communication went by and Jim started a bad guy post.

dc

Seems to me like Martin apologized. Just my interpretation.

How did paypal send the money if the email address was no good when you send paypal it says the name and email address of the recipient.Or am I missing something?
09-20-2011 06:50 PM

The funds were not "picked up" by anyone at the wrong address. I cancelled the transaction before this happened (IF it was going to happen at all). My cancellation was a direct result of my not being able to send an email to the PayPal address provided to me. It was a red flag to me when I could not send a regular email to the address I sent funds to through PayPal. When you PayPal funds to an email address the funds remain there until claimed or transferred. Luckily I was able to cancel the transaction before this happened. I would have still been able to recover the funds had they been picked by someone at an incorrect email address. This is all very unfortunate, but I am not the kind of person who throws rocks at the drop of a hat. I do , however, conduct business cautiously on the internet. It is sad that I have this blemish on my good name now. If nothing else comes from this I hope everyone will now see the need for timely and accurate communication, in particular the benefits of transferring communications from PMs to regular email once a transaction is initiated. The notifications are picked up much more timely by recipients.

Seems Martin has shot his wad after merely getting brushed up against. A little premature with this thread I'd have to say.

Originally Posted by Magic Merlin

Wow Martin, you seem a little impatient and judgemental. If you don't want to give the buyer a reasonable amount of time to come up with the money, without badgering them to death, then relist the animal.

Originally Posted by martin-bernstein
The take-away message here: be careful when selling to this guy. He's unpredictable, untrustworthy and seems to be buying more than he has the funds for.

If THIS isn't slander (?libel?), I don't know what is?
I see that the false-accuser (Martin) has apologized, but like so many people that FIRE-AIM-SHOOT, he obviously still denies his complete blame in this situation. When I make a mistake that is worthy of public apology, I don't dilute it with vague (and false) diversions. I apologize 100%, without mentioning the 1% about which I MAY have been innocent.

It IS sad that in such cases as these - where Martin was the stimulus that evoked Jim's actions - many feel that a partial apology like Martin's is adequate. I agree that once something is spoken (or published and seen by others), it cannot be completely retracted. Therefore, while an apology does not adequately satisfy the victim (Jim - in this case), it is shameful when the apology includes a lame (and false) distraction about Jim not being more timely in his responses. Some people I know hang on every word of forums, but not me. I'm a very busy person, and I know Jim is also (and apparently, so is Martin, since he was not punctual with responses to Jim). This would have been a MAN-UP action if he had completely and utterly admitted that none of this would have happened, had he published his PayPal account eddress correctly. PERIOD! Therefore, how can anything thereafter be Jim's fault, now that we know the entire story?

Regarding Jim being upset about this nasty and unjustified slam upon him, I think we would all feel the same. Regarding the partial apology repairing the damage, when the Judge says, "the jury is instructed to disregard the last statement", the attorney (or witness) that made the statement knew exactly what they were doing. They knew that the jury would NOT be able to disregard it, once heard. Hence, this is tarnish on Jim's otherwise flawless reputation, that is not make the accusation completely go away. I know it's just the reference of one person, but I proudly call Jim my friend, AND I declare his honor to be beyond reproach. He HAS the money to buy such a snake, but I don't blame him for not wanting the first payment hanging out there until he was refunded by PayPal, and btw, ALL Online banking institutions are horrible about returning $ quickly. They don't even try. They take it from your account in a tenth of a second when we pay, but I've known people to wait up to seven days to get refunds. They cannot prove to me that it needs to take that long to return money, while they are investing those funds for THEIR monetary gain. In this crazy world, I can just see Jim losing that $160 because of Martin's error, and would Martin MAN-UP to compensate for the lost payment - had that happened? Sorry to digress, but I wanted to state that even though a partial apology (therefore an insincere one) was made, some people may only read the initial posting of this thread, and therefore think Jim is dishonest. Martin, consider anger management therapies. It's one thing to SHOOT-AIM-FIRE (we've all done it), but a skewed apology like that shows me you do not accept responsibility for this fiasco. If this scenario had happened here at SMR, the snake would have been shipped to him, free-of-charge. Everyone's actions should speak louder than their words.

BTW, in response to someone's question about how the money was pulled out of Jim's account at the time of purchase. I don't know how long it is (I'm sure it's somewhere in their fine print), but when you make a payment to PayPal for an account that does not exist, those monies are held for something like 30 days, until claimed. If not claimed, they are refunded to the sender. I know this because before we even had a PayPal account, two people bought snakes from us, sending the funds to our email address. We did not have a PayPal account at that time, so when we opened the account, it already had $ in it - from those paying customers.

Jim is PREDICTABLE, TRUSTWORTHY, and HONORABLE. As much as I hate that this unwarranted thread was ever posted, I hope people will take the time to read it entirely, so you can see who was responsible for the failure of this transaction. You can bet I won't be asking Martin to be a project partner with SMR. We are all responsible for our actions, so learning to aim before we shoot is an invaluable habit to have.

Don Soderberg
South Mountain Reptiles
Jim's proud friend and snake-breeding partner

I think this more tarnishes Mr Martin-Bernstein than it does Jim. If anyone were to read all the way thru, they will realize that Jim only did what any of us would do. I would not want my money floating around in Cyber space either. I have met Jim in person, I bought a pair of Rat snakes from him and my step-daughter has bought Corns from him. I would gladly call him a friend and a VERY upstanding guy. So, hopefully anyone who does a search on Jim, will take the time to read this BOI and realize that He is NOT at all the Bad Guy here.
Rayna Marie Waddell
SlytherynHiss Exotics

It's too bad there isn't a way for someone who was wrong, who posted hastily in the heat of the moment without considering the consequences, to make a retraction.