Ebay WARNING!!!- Seller "Suziekrp" and "The Discount Center"

A Susan Parks from Kosciusko, MS has gotten into the rocketry business.

She is going by the seller name "Suziekrp" and has an Ebay store called "The Discount Center".

I presume Ms. Parks is related to Douglas Parks, formerly the proprietor of Rebar Rocketry.

The whole sad saga of Mr. Parks and Rebar can be read here.

Rebar's Ebay feedback can be seen here.

Awesome.

Say, did anyone ever get their merchandise/refund after Doug straightened everything out?



Pretty sleazy if it's the same outfit.

I took a quick look in ebay and there was no listing for an ebay store under the name you said. Did you try to find it? No big deal; was just wondering.

Well, so far she has 100% feedback.

It is hard to tell, but as of right now, it seems to be a decent outfit. As of 2 days ago, positive feedback has been left, and not a single negative so far. I think the best thing to do would be wait a bit and see, but so far, it all appears to check out.

S Parks - D Parks both from the same small town and not affiliated? I doubt it. Rebar hosed me once and anybody remotely affiliated will not get a second chance.

Look at Rebar's feedback. It would be great for a while then a whole bunch of negatives. Do you want to take a chance of being there when the negatives start? I did and I got burned.

I personally won't be buying from them for completely unrelated reasons, but I was merely commenting that it looked good so far.

I personally rely almost entirely on Giant Leap, Wildman, and a couple of LHS's, with the occasional order from someone else (rare though).

Originally posted by not a lib
I took a quick look in ebay and there was no listing for an ebay store under the name you said. Did you try to find it? No big deal; was just wondering.

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Really? Hmmm try this...

https://stores.ebay.com/The-Discount-Center_Rockets-Out-Of-Production-OOP_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfsubZ232974QQftidZ2QQtZkm

Originally posted by cjl
Well, so far she has 100% feedback.

It is hard to tell, but as of right now, it seems to be a decent outfit. As of 2 days ago, positive feedback has been left, and not a single negative so far. I think the best thing to do would be wait a bit and see, but so far, it all appears to check out.

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Regardless of their current feedback, it's really aggravating that (apparently) the same outfit under a different name, that still owes people product/money, is up and operating again without ever having made good.

I placed an order w/rebar rocketry prior to Katrina hitting his area took me 2 1/2 months to fix the problem w/ paypal and my credit card company ...finally got a refund and not from Mister Parks . Bottom line... Burnt once shame on him, burnt twice shame on me . I will not be ordering regardless of 100% feedback period.


John

I had the FlisKits auctions pulled. I would be thrilled if this is, in fact, Doug trying to get his feet back on the ground. It may take a while to rebuild his reputation, but he did have a good one for a long, long time. But there are several steps that have to be taken in order for that to happen, that is for sure...

Jim,

Thankyou for having your kits pulled. I would hate to see more people get ripped off trying to buy your fine products from Doug.

As for him "getting his feet back on the ground", let him do it in some other venue. He's hurt enough rocketeers as it is. He's never offered a truthful explanation or apology. And now he's hiding behind his wife to try to peddle what he didn't deliver to folks who already paid for it.

I respect how charitable you are being Jim, but rocketry doesn't need vendors like Rebar. Especially Rebar in disguise. Let him rehabilitate himself elsewhere.

I notified Ebay's "Trust and Safety" department that Rebar Rocketry was now back up and operating under a different name.

Investigator "Valin" at Ebay responded:

After investigating your report thoroughly, we've determined that there
isn't enough evidence to suggest that the members you reported are
connected.

So I supplied the evidence.

Apparently "Valin" was no longer interested in my concern but investigator "Odie" (are there really people named Valin and Odie?) responded:

I have taken another look at your report. We have found that there is
not enough evidence to show that a violation has taken place.

I found the language in these two non-responsive responses disturbingly similar, especially for two clearly different Trust and Safety department investigators with such distinct and unusual names. But that is neither here nor there.

What IS germane is that, apparently, ripping off lots of people and then changing your identity to hide your past crimes is not a violation of Ebay policies (this is good news in case you ever decide to take up the being-a-crook game). I admit not having read ALL of Ebay's policies but it sure seems like that SHOULD be a violation.

And it sure seems like if Ebay is going to go to all the trouble of having a Trust and Safety department that this is precisely the kind of thing they'd be on the lookout for. But evidently not.

Perhaps I should have suspected that Ebay's Trust and Safety department would be less than responsive since they never actually did anything to prevent Rebar ripping people off in the first go-round. Despite exclusively negative feedback for 5 straight months, and numerous complaints, Ebay never closed Rebar down. Rebar just kept operating until somebody named Rocketless2005 came along and "bought" all the remaining items in Rebar's shop.

If one of you is Rocketless2005, thankyou for doing what Ebay was apparently unable to do, protect the public from an unscrupulous seller.

Perhaps it's time you go "shopping" again.

Well, in defense of eBay (man, never thought I'd do *THAT*! ), while I don't know the specific wording of the rules it seems to me that to punish "Sue" Parker for mistakes made by "Doug" Parker would be akin to arresting Betty when Bob gets pulled over for DUI

"Sue" hasn't done anything wrong and is not responsible for what "Doug" has done. Sue has made a mistake or two here and (as far as *my* involvement) has responded and made corrections. There may be other mistakes going on that haven't been discovered yet, so it's hard to draw some opinion, but...

Is it sneaky? yep.
Illegal? doubt it.
Against the rules of eBay? Apparently not.

only time will tell...

jim

It could also be that Sue and Doug, are no longer a couple, for what ever reason. Or, Sue could be Doug's sister, mother, aunt, ect. I'm not defending Doug, or Rebar, just tossing out some possible explanations.

Originally posted by astrowolf67
It could also be that Sue and Doug, are no longer a couple, for what ever reason. Or, Sue could be Doug's sister, mother, aunt, ect. I'm not defending Doug, or Rebar, just tossing out some possible explanations.

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Here's a thought.

Has anyone asked her?

Originally posted by flying_silverad
Here's a thought.

Has anyone asked her?

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Actually, I did. She did not reply.

i ordered a mercury liberty bell from them on ebay, i paid using paypal on 3-23, and got the rocket on 4-13 i think, after 2-3 emails and requesting my money returned if they didnt have the product.

now 3 weeks may seem ok to some, and i didnt leave a negative because it did arrive. i also posted the transit time on the positive feedback..

there was a reason in there about moving --and for all i know it was true, but 3 weeks when someone is new, may not be a good omen, so if you want to buy something there i would probably be careful anyway.

Originally posted by zrs4
i ordered a mercury liberty bell from them on ebay, i paid using paypal on 3-23, and got the rocket on 4-13 i think, after 2-3 emails and requesting my money returned if they didnt have the product.

now 3 weeks may seem ok to some, and i didnt leave a negative because it did arrive. i also posted the transit time on the positive feedback..

there was a reason in there about moving --and for all i know it was true, but 3 weeks when someone is new, may not be a good omen, so if you want to buy something there i would probably be careful anyway.

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Still even if they were moving, they know ahead of time. And if they do, should either say so in their auctions, or wait until they can run auction another time.

One of things that really frys me about Ebay is (and it doesn't make any diff which side of the fence you are buyer/seller) if you leave neg feedback for a ligit reason, they can throw it right back so you end having it as well. There is NO way to remove neg retaliation feedback.

This may be getting a little off the subject of rebar, but thats why when i buy something from e-bay, i don't leave feedback until i get my feedback and my product from the seller. in my opinion the seller should leave the feedback as soon as they get there money in a timely manner, and the buyer as soon as they get the item.

Originally posted by zrs4
i ordered a mercury liberty bell from them on ebay, i paid using paypal on 3-23, and got the rocket on 4-13 i think, after 2-3 emails and requesting my money returned if they didnt have the product.

now 3 weeks may seem ok to some, and i didnt leave a negative because it did arrive. i also posted the transit time on the positive feedback..

there was a reason in there about moving --and for all i know it was true, but 3 weeks when someone is new, may not be a good omen, so if you want to buy something there i would probably be careful anyway.

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Once again I feel compelled to play the Devil's Advocate in saying that many of the current "small" vendors who don't do a billion dollars a year business (perhaps your order is the only order today, and therefore will be handled with all possible haste....) are spoiling the rocket buyers. Estes used to have a 4 to 6 week note right on the order form. But the virtually overnight service you get from Semroc or Uncle Mike is far from the norm, as far as business is concerned. Try ordering a Rainbow Art set for your kids off the TV commercial (Allow 4 to 6 weeks delivery.....) Why? They're advertising on network TV!! Shouldn't they have them boxed up by the millions, waiting for my credit card number and address? Sure, but that's what regular business is. One thing you should keep in mind before complaining, is this cut and paste from the Federal Trade Commission website:

Shopping by phone or mail is a convenient alternative to shopping at a store. The Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Mail or Telephone Order Rule covers merchandise your order by mail, telephone, computer, and fax machine.

Mail or Telephone Order Rule
By law, a company should ship your order within the time stated in its ads. If no time is promised, the company should ship your order within 30 days after receiving it.

If the company is unable to ship within the promised time, they must give you an “option notice.” This notice gives you the choice of agreeing to the delay or canceling your order and receiving a prompt refund.

There is one exception to the 30-day Rule: if a company doesn’t promise a shipping time, and you are applying for credit to pay for your purchase, the company has 50 days to ship after receiving your order.


My $$.02 worth,

Al

Remember Dunbar Hobbies? He lived in the house adjacent to me in Pittsburg, CA. Did he get arrested?

Originally posted by Rocket Al
Once again I feel compelled to play the Devil's Advocate .....SNIP SNIP.....


My $$.02 worth,

Al

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Yea that's fine. But 3 weeks to deliver item when the auction clearly states 1-6 business days? Hmmm, I don't think so.

Originally posted by GSTARRAIDER
This may be getting a little off the subject of rebar, but thats why when i buy something from e-bay, i don't leave feedback until i get my feedback and my product from the seller. in my opinion the seller should leave the feedback as soon as they get there money in a timely manner, and the buyer as soon as they get the item.

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Very true. As a matter of fact, it's exactly what I practiced when I used Ebay.

Originally posted by GSTARRAIDER
This may be getting a little off the subject of rebar, but thats why when i buy something from e-bay, i don't leave feedback until i get my feedback and my product from the seller. in my opinion the seller should leave the feedback as soon as they get there money in a timely manner, and the buyer as soon as they get the item.

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Hi Gstar Raider,

I agree !

and I try to follow that as well, when someone buys from me, I send the feedback when I get the money.

I really hate the HUGE super sellers on E-Bay that sell to me and then as I am their customer, tell ME, that they will give me Feedback only ONCE I give them good feedback.

What the Frek is up with that ?

Suziekrp has not left feedback for any seller.

And why would you care if you get negative feedback anyway? If your negative feedback builds to the point where it's troublesome, you can always just have your wife or kid or goldfish register and resume business for you. Really, Ebay is OK with it. Valin, Odie, Hanson and Fiona all told me so.

Considering the names of the "investigators" responding to my Ebay inquiries, I'm thinking assuming a new identity may not be all that unusual at Ebay.

and then they probably didn't. most of those super sellers want the feedback but don't want to leave one.

What gripes me about the large eBay sellers, is the automated feedback they use. You can check feedback that some of them have left, and it's the same for everyone. Unless they get a negative, then they will take the time fire back with a personally writen feedback.

I'm hoping we can find out for sure if this person is running the same buisness under another name. Since i have seen this I won't be doing buisness with them until I know for sure. It smells fishy, but I cannot say one way or another if this is an online scam or not. If there is some evidence of this I know a guy that can look into it and prove for certain one way or another. He investigates online trolls and definitely can find out if they are scamming. I'm not talking about 3 week waits...that is perfectly legal. I am talking about ripoff scams. There must be some hard evidence of it before this guy will spend his time on it though.

Originally posted by Rock_It on 04/19/2006
Since i have seen this I won't be doing buisness with them until I know for sure.

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Originally posted by Rock_It on 04/16/2006
Yeah, a few might jump on the badwagon, but if people base base their buying decisions of an Internet site that is really quite amusing.

Sorry, but I base my buying decisions on what I know, and what I know is what I've already see along with alot of other people.

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(https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=297258#post297258)

Originally posted by WiK

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are you trying to make a point? A scam artist on the net is a bit different than somebody slamming a vendor over something that didn't get there yesterday.

If you're trying to bring up that other thread I wouldn't advise it, becasue I am full aware of what went on and won't think twice about posting it either.