And here's the complete story, without any leftouts...
January 5th 15: i sent a message, saying i’m interested and would like to know how much shipping to Belgium would be. He responded it would be expensive at +40$, because of the weight.
Same day, January 5th 15: I responded he had the price for the book lowered to 150$ and that if he would add the 40$ to the shipping within the US, that I would take the book. I have bought several steering wheels in the US as well and have payed +40$ for shipping before, no problem. I asked him if he preferred a wirement or paypal. He responded it would be about 190$ and indeed said he makes it to Europe a lot for work, and if possible he would carry it over and ship it from there. He guessed he would be over in February.
Same day, January 5th 15: he sent me another message, saying he forget to answer all questions, more exactly his paypal address.
Still same day, January 5th 15: I responded to him that it would indeed be interesting to have it shipped from the UK. Not necessarily because of the shipping but rather to avoid possible import taxes which are often sky high. So if he would be willing to take it with him: yes please! I also proposed him to send a partial amount if that would comfort him.
January 6th 15: he said that was okay with him, didn’t respond to the partial payment.
March 3rd 15: I send him a message the it just came to mind that i hadn't heard from him since we last 'spoke' so i'm wondering: any trips planned to europe/uk in the future?
March 19th 15: still no news after 16 days so another message from me to him that I'm wondering if he forgot about me or just didn't get to Europe since we spoke? Telling him to keep me informed please. Thanks!
March 23th 15: long after February without having received any news from him: he responded, telling me he was sorry for not keeping in touch with me. He had cancelled two tickets to Europe and now had a flight scheduled in April. He would keep in touch.
Same day, March 23th 15: I told him ‘no problem, let me know when you do.’ And he responds he will.
April 18th 15: he reaches out, saying he’ll arrive in Europe tomorrow.
April 22nd 15: he sends me a message to ask me if I’ve changed my mind and to reach out because he doesn’t want the book to strand there. I now see he had put an email address below his name signature. It appears to be the same as before, so it has to be his paypal address.
Same day, april 22nd 15: I tell him I’m sorry for the delay, I’ve been really busy lately and that i'll take it as i said. I ask him if he has an idea yet how much shipping from the UK will be? Thanks!
April 23rd 15: no worries he says. Shipping would be around 10$ and he asks if that’s okay with me. He would leave the book at a friend’s office.
May 3rd 15: he says he’s back in the US but he left the book in the UK. Asking me to reach out with my address because he told the guy he would have it one week ago. Although he hadn’t asked me at that point?
May 4th 15: he send me another message already: “Any response at all would be greatly appreciated, I need to do something about this and I'm stuck until you reply. It took me less than a minute to sign in and write this, it doesn't take that much time and it's the right thing to do.”
Same day, May 4th 15: I tell him I’m sorry for not responding. That I’ve read his message from last week while at work and intended to respond to it when I got home but I must have forgotten about it because I’m way behind on my things to do (not meant as an excuse, just the honest reason). In addition I indeed add that I’ve just sold my 912, already miss it and that I might buy another one in the future. I never say anything about not buying the book from him! Finally, I also stat that I’m currently in a negative position on the account which is coupled with my paypal. I’m going to sort this out asap and let him know when done. I tell him I’m “sorry once again for the delay, i had no intentions in keeping you on hold...”
May 12th 15: he responds: “I so wish you would have just told me that you didn't want it, I would have just put it back in my bag, now I'm on the hook for postage back to me for.............trying to do something nice.”
Same day, May 12th 15: since I notice he’s pretty upset with this situation I reach out the same day and send him the following: “apologies won't help you much but I truly am sorry. I have so many things going on right now, of which some are troubles and the others are even bigger troubles. Not your problem, I know...
I don't want to bother you with it anymore, so i'll paypal you the money today. It was 150$ + 10$ postage, correct? What was your paypal once again? Is it
emailaddress@email.com?”
Excuse me, it'll be done today!
Same day, May 12th 15: because I’m about to go to bed without having heard from him I reach out again: Mark, can you confirm the amount and your paypal email for me? I don't want the money to end up somewhere else. (I was just asking as a confirmation because I wasn’t sure anymore and I just would like to have the complete amount and paypal address confirmed. A normal ‘yes, correct’ would have done the trick.)
May 18th 15: since I haven’t heard for a week since asking him to confirm the info and with the scam being final on me I send him: i'm not sure how fast you want this over but i sent you two messages, the same day you sent me one but i haven't heard from you since?
Having said that, if it doesn't matter anymore to you, i would prefer not to take it now. The reason for this is that i got scammed over a 911SC last week and i could sure use all what is left of my money now.
Same day, May 18th 15: he responds: “I thought you made it abundantly clear that you didn't want the book with your last missive, since you could have sent a PayPal anytime, I sent my email address at least three times.
I felt like you were putting it on me to say, "that's okay. let's just forget it". I don't think that's fair to me in the least, I gave you outs twice which would have prevented all this, you didn't take me up on them, and I could tell that you had logged in to Pelican and just not responded.
So, here we are, now you are finally saying that you don't want it, which I had the gut feeling was the case while I was leaving the book, I should have listened to my gut.
It was going to cost $40 to ship it to Europe from here, I expect that it's the same the other way, I'm going to go ahead and ask my friend to send it back. I don't think it's right at all that I have to pay for that, on the other hand this has been the most frustrating experience I've had on Pelican, and I want it to be done. So you have my email address, if you want to pay for the shipping go ahead, if not don't.”
Still same day, May 18th 15: I send: Mark, although i understand your frustration, i have to say that not all is as you believe.
My last messages weren't intended to have you say something. That almost sounds like i'm talking to my wife... They were meant to have the purchase price, shipping cost and paypal address confirmed since i didn't want any more misunderstandigs. And that although i had just sold my 912, i would still take the book because of the trouble you went through. Just exactly like i said. You may have sent your paypal before but was it so hard to say: "yes, that's exactly as we agreed on"?
And please don't try to make a point by saying: see, now you agree you don't want the book, just like i had a gut feeling. Sorry for my language, but that's just plain bull****! Take a look at the the thread i've started over in the off-topic discussion. Again, like i said, i got scammed last week. On friday it became clear that i had dealt with a scammer, leaving me without a porsche and without my 21500$. With my loss fresh in mind, yes, i decided to rather not take the book if that was okay with you but clearly it is not. On the other hand i don't want to be the other end in 'your most frustrating pelican experience' so yes, i'll pay for the shipping costs. But since i hate to pay for something without receiving anything again, i'll still take the damn book and will try to sell it to some other guy hopefully...
175$ whereto??
Edit: reason for editing is that I've put all the dates in bold for those interested in actually reading through the whole story.