Like I said... depends whose ox is getting gored...
A crooks a crook IMHO...
I've seen plenty of guys go bankrupt... it's a pretty common occurrence down in farm country. The difference is in how folks either stand up and do what they can to make things right, or cut and run like this bunch did...
My former seed and chemical dealer, who's since passed away, used to carry a lot of farmers "on account" owing him money for various inputs they bought from him, in the form of seed, chemicals, and fertilizer. The shifting in agriculture in the mid-late 90's caused a lot of guys to get out or go broke. Some just walked away from the money they owed him, no effort on their part to make good on ANY of the bills they owed. A few guys did what they could to pay what they owed, or at least part of it. One guy even brought in an old 6600 Deere combine, a cutterhead platform for it, a cultivator, and planter, and gave it to the dealer, since everything else was going to the USDA auction... it was the only equipment he had left that wasn't mortgaged. Did it cover the bill 100%?? Of course not. BUT, it DID show an EFFORT to ATTEMPT to make it right, in some form or fashion, rather than just "cut and run" and leave the other guy holding the bag, and "that's their tough luck!" Like I said, a lot of CROOKS wouldn't even do that much... just drop it and run and "oh well, that's the seed dealer's tough luck."
I know of another seed/chemical/fertilizer dealer I've done business with who basically lost their business and had to sell out due to deadbeats and scumbags ripping them off like that. He told me about one guy, a local bigshot, who owed him over $40,000 bucks in seed/chemical/fertilizer that he had got but never paid for... then the guy supposedly 'went broke' and 'quit farming'. The dealer gave him time to "get his life back together" (several months) and then started making gentle inquiries about the bill he owed... the guy dodged his calls and was impossible to get ahold of, so finally one day the dealer drove over to his place and knocked on the door... When he pulled up in the yard, he noticed that there were a couple brand spanking new four row cotton pickers in the back by the shop-- $250,000 or so machines that the former farmer had bought-- he'd decided to get into the custom cotton picking business and quit farming. When he knocked on the door, the guy's wife told him that the guy was out of state on some big hunting lease... The dealer was livid... "You mean to tell me he owes me $40,000 bucks, but he's got money for two new cotton pickers and money to blow going out of state on some $10,000 a gun hunting lease??" The scumbag never paid him a thin dime that I know of... this was already a few years later...
SO, how much money do you have to STEAL before you're a scumbag thief?? I know some folks blow literally thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars, on their "hobbies" (including rocketry) and everybody's definition of a "pittance" is different. I don't consider the amount I paid for my THREE YEAR subscription, virtually ALL of it UNFULFILLED, to be a "pittance". Not "life savings" by any stretch, but not a pittance either. The fact that they made NO EFFORT WHATSOEVER to make ANY of it right, or even refund a part of it, tells me all I need to know about these "good people" (gag). Crooks and scumbags take your money and run, regardless of whether it's 50 cents or fifty million dollars. A crook is a crook.
Yeah, bad things happen to good people. But good people do the best they can to own up to their responsibilities, not just take the money and run... That's not my definition of "good people. A crook takes off with the money. Sorry they had to "uproot their lives" and all that, but hey, you wanna be in business, you want to start something "new" and "innovative" and all that, well, that's the risk you take. They COULD have fulfilled the subscription with one of their other magazines, like the AIAA one, but they DIDN'T! Didn't even offer... didn't even TRY...
I just can't get over the number of people who will defend a crook and their crooked actions no matter what... Really speaks to the pathetic moral relativism of most folks in this country nowadays, and why things are getting as bad as they are. I'll bet when some of YOU guys get ripped off, you'll be screaming to high heaven about it... Until then, it's not YOUR money that was STOLEN, so it's "shut up about your pittance"...
Some folks really make me sick...
Later! OL JR