PEDAL WARRANTY SCAMS ---> Brazil

[deadastronaut]

i bought a pedal off one of you guys , and i live in ethiopia, in a mud hut,

there was nowhere to plug it in, i didnt even have a guitar,

i would like a refund, as my goat doesnt like the colour either!..

may god bless you... please send me your bank details too....

[darron]

a refund i can deal with. no worries....


but if your go to your hut's nearby post and select the 90 day service and don't have a receipt and give a false serial... i'd be suspicious and have to wait for it to arrive.







he keeps asking me if i want to see the post receipt... i'm curious but won't give in.

[The Tone God]

This has been going on for some time. I remember a long thread, I believe at HC, quite a few years ago where someone posted about this same scam from Brazil. As the thread went on many builders chipped in saying they had the same email so it became apparent this was a scam. I think one builder, as the thread was happening, got the same email sent a reply with a link to that thread. The scam-er didn't respond after that. It might be the same guy trying again thinking after a few years things have blown over.

People pandering for a sponsorship happens all the time. I get them on a regular basis sometimes from some pretty unlikely places trying to tout their possible influence thinking we will just hand product out. We have an entry in the company FAQ stating we do not sponsor anyone so if someone pokes around looking for freebies I just reply with a link to that FAQ entry. I never hear a reply after that. Its not a scam just people seeing if they can get free crap. Still lame.

Andrew

[darron]

People pandering for a sponsorship happens all the time. I get them on a regular basis sometimes from some pretty unlikely places

I got one from Cirque du Soleil... can you top that? haha

[The Tone God]

I got one from Cirque du Soleil... can you top that? haha

Hmmm. Well lets start with someone from a dog grooming site.

Andrew

[jasperoosthoek]

Yeah, just say you will wait for the pedal to arrive and won't do anything before. Maybe ask for a tracking number.

[darron]

it dragged on a bit... i told him again that i can't send out any free pedals now. hopefully there will be nothing more. he said that he sent it through unregistered post, which helps the story out... he keeps offering to send me the reciept, but i don't want to give in and see it as it doesn't matter either way. hopefully nothing further will come like those threats i've heard about! if that happens ill point him here...

[Hides-His-Eyes]

A recipt isn't worth shit. It could literally be as little as "Someone spent $10 in the post office".

Stop responding to this muppet!

[deadastronaut]

yep!..just  @#$% him off...

i'm sure your reputation will still be fully intact...

[gtudoran]

About 3 months ago recived 3 emails like that... just ignore them

Best regards,
Gabriel Tudoran
Analog Sound

[Ronsonic]

I started feeling kinda proud when I got one. It isn't exactly making the big time, but it is nice to know that someone is fantasizing about stealing your products.

[Pigyboy]

 A bit of a tangent but I got an email from a kid in Moscow last night who saw a video of one of my pedals and contacted me and is willing to use paypal. It caught me off guard actually because I have only had offers to buy a wife from Russia. He said he will pay this week so I am interested to see what happens.

Good Luck Darron....
Chris

[deadastronaut]

@chris, checkout what paypal charge for currency conversion first!!!!....i got stung with that...

[Pigyboy]

@chris, checkout what paypal charge for currency conversion first!!!!....i got stung with that...

Never thought about that. I asked to be paid in Euros. I am gonna check this out.
Thanks for that.
Cheers,
Chris

[greeny23]

just recieved this-

Greetings from Brasil !

How are you doing there? I hope fine.
My name is Marcus Spada and I am writing this letter because i have a big problem in my hands and i need your urgent assistance. So recently a friend of mine who was in Australia bought as present to me the Toyroom Loudest Boost pedal, sealed, brand new, during his business trip.
This pedal sounds really great! 
I loved that vintage fuzzy boost sounds and used it a lot to push my valve amp . The bright is wonderful and the resources are really great !
Back to the problema: i was playing when my unit stopped working. I do not know what happened. I'll try to be clear ...when i turn on the footswitch there's NOT boost effects nor signal and when i turn off the footswitch the straight clear sound comes normally. The led's lights on/off but theres no sound . I've tested the Power Supply and it's good !.
I do not tried to fix it myself and i do not touched on circuit.
Unfortunately i could not find dealers yours here or professional support.
Then today March.14th.2011 i sent back my defective pedal back to you trought the regular post (economic way).

Big trouble ahead!

See, according to the postmaster my pedal will spend up or more absurd 90 working days to get there in Australia due to Brasil customs and federal revenue exigences and laws over imported products specially electronics. Dear friends i would like to ask you please that you send me a new pedal in meantime (just trought common mail - trackable Regular Post, never Fedex, UPS, etc) because unfortunately i have not financial conditions to buy another one because i have not credit cards or paypal account and i really can not be waiting the lifetime for my boost pedal back because i need it asap to can work/record/play. I know 90 working days sounds ridiculous but unfortunately is the truth! I hope and trust you  Warranty and that you understand my problem and really could help me very urgent please.
If possible i would like to got your business card ans some few stuff like stickers etc to garnish my guitar case.
Please do not forget. just send it trought normal/common mail and if possible declare just warranty replacement or free gift on invoice (zero worth/value). Here the taxes and fees are really insane!
Again i thank you a million for all.
Please register my home place address:

Marcus Spada * Rua Doutor Campos Salles, 355 Apto. 116 * Sao Vicente * Sao Paulo * CEP 11310-430 * Centro * BRASIL

Phone #  13 30273839

...
IMPORTANT: If you need i can provide the post receipt scanned copy containing all details such as my id number, address and proving my shipment back.
...

Kindest regards and nice week
M. Spada
March,14th.2011



AWESOME IM PART OF THE GROUP TOO!

[darron]

A bit of a tangent but I got an email from a kid in Moscow last night who saw a video of one of my pedals and contacted me and is willing to use paypal. It caught me off guard actually because I have only had offers to buy a wife from Russia. He said he will pay this week so I am interested to see what happens.

Good Luck Darron....
Chris

send him a paypal invoice if you're happy... no problems with that. and yeah, you'll loose a little bit in conversions etc. (he'll have the option to pay the cost, but will probably choose for you to do it)... just expect to loose a little bit. it's still better than ebay selling fees then credit card processing etc. i guess

AWESOME IM PART OF THE GROUP TOO!

ahh that's fantastic. exactly the same...

do me a favour? send him back a message saying something like "my good friend Darron Thornbury at Dazatronyx said he's been talking with you and you're a trustworthy guy... please confirm your postal address and i'll send you one out right away" ... just to mess with him for both of us...



the best thing to do would be to ask him for return postal money (pretending to comply) and scam him back... but i can't think of a way of receiving money from him that he can't reverse? IE he'll open a paypal dispute, i don't want to send this untrustworthy person my bank details, i can't charge his credit card as i'm sure he can open a protection against that.... any smart options?



can anyone in brazil help us sort this out? i'm not advocating violence, but he has been getting away with this for at least two years now... maybe 1 in 30 people send him something!! is there something official that can be done?



greeny23, if you don't want to respond back to him could you please PM me your pedal details and i'll mention that you said he is trustworthy to discretely show him we are on to him?



sigh...

thanks for following guys! (:

[Galego]

Muite bem!

It's Muito bem!

[jasperoosthoek]

Muite bem!

It's Muito bem!

Obrigado! 

It's been six years since I've been to Brazil. The Portuguese words I learned fade away but the memory doesn't... 

[The Tone God]

Wither this is the same person or someone copycatting this has been going on since at least 2004:

http://www.musictoyzforums.com/showthread.php?3998-The-party-never-ends!

http://www.musictoyzforums.com/showthread.php?15469-Pedal-builders-BEWARE!!!!

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?1828152-fun-with-the-pedal-scammer

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/showthread.php?2373414-Any-other-builders-have-experience-with-this-guy-%28Scam-content%29

and more threads on other forums if you do some searching.

Only a few details change like the country they got it from, the gender and name of the person, and the details of the effect so they must be going around everyone's sites and collecting info which IMHO makes them even lower as they are obviously putting some effort in and not just filling in blanks and mass mailing. The sad part is they do get a couple of hits every time by unsuspecting builders trying to give good customer service so it makes it worth their effort.

Send them a link to those threads and perhaps newer threads so they know other builders have been warned and they should stop not just bothering you and hopefully other builders as well. The more they and other builders know about them the less likely builders will be bothered or worse be taken in by the scam

Andrew

[Renegadrian]

I definitely agree with you - now just send me a free TubeUlent!!!