f/k/a archives . . . real opinions & real haiku

In his new book The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the_ Internet (Yale Press 2007; which f/k/a reviewed at length on Nov. 8, 2007), GWU law professor Daniel J. Solove asserts that “People should avoid Internet shaming,” and bloggers should “ask permission before speaking about others’ private lives.” Dan worries that, even if truthful, internet shaming is inappropriate because it becomes a permanent Scarlet Letter that can limit the target’s future opportunities and chance for rehabilitation, and can result in punishment that is out of proportion to the “crime.”

……………………………………………. (Daily Mail)

unaware of the thief’s
eyes, melons
cooling in water
………………………. Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

On the other hand, in the post “e-shaming and lawyer conduct” (March 2005), I’ve suggested that using the internet to focus attention on a person’s misdeeds — if truthful and done with enough detail to avoid presenting a misleading context — might have a deterrent effect on unwanted behavior, while giving useful information to people who might be considering a relationship with the shamee-target of the accusations.

In addition, if the conduct in question involves commerce — and especially internet-assisted commerce — or (as with lawyers or politicians) a special position of government-assisted trust or authority, the person has taken the matter out of the realm of his or her “private life.” Therefore, I’m going to tell you the story of my highly unsatisfactory consumer interaction with an internet seller named Derek Daniel Buckner of St. Louis, Pelvey, Arnold, and many other addresses in the State of Missouri, USA. It includes a description of my mistakes as on online consumer, along with some tips and links for avoiding internet sales fraud (and, naturally, a spattering of one-breath poetry). Let us know in the Comments section whether you think my giving this account is appropriate and helpful — and, whether forever is too long for this information to haunt Mr. Buckner.

the world today–
even for mountain chestnuts
a night watchman!

………………………. Kobayashi Issa, written 1822, translated by David G. Lanoue

update (Nov. 16, 2007):  Good News: “derek buckner delivers (after an e-shaming push)” (Nov. 16, 2007).  It looks like this posting worked to solve my consumer problem.  But this post is going to stay as is for at least two years; click the link above for details, and why I believe a Sunset Clause makes sense.

Are you considering the purchase of a product online from Missouri “powerseller” Derek Buckner, who has sold under the name “db liquidations” on Craigslist, and elsewhere (often wholesaling shoes), and as “wrestling_king” at eBay? He calls himself “midwestpokerplayer” on his MySpace.com page (where the married, 28-year-old declares “…Damn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta’ “), and “DDak” at the “Christian-based” ForU.ms; he’s plain “derekbuckner” at PokerSource.com. His date of birth appears to be June 18, 1979. [Please Note: I’m not referring to the Brooklyn painter Derek Buckner, but very much like the look of his urban landscapes.]

This mug is up at Derek’s MySpace site.

Before doing business with Derek, you might want to read this posting. I wish someone had written something similar to this online, or that I had spent more time digging up information about Derek, before I sent him a check on October 1, 2007, for a set of Spanish language instruction dvds. To date, as discussed in inordinate detail below, I have not received them, Mr. Buckner is no longer at the address he gave me, and he has closed down his email account, with a general message to all buyers that all merchandise was shipped as of October 25, 2007.

……………….. “Once a Thief” (movie soundtrack)

the thief
is just as he is…
hazy moon

…………………………… Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

Here’s what happened: After at least three decades saying I wanted to learn Spanish, I finally started a Spanish for Beginners Adult Ed class the last week of September, and went online looking for inexpensive student resources that I could use at home. I had only recently heard about Destinos, the 1992 PBS tv series, produced by WGBH in Boston (and apparently still running in late-night slots on many public tv stations). It seemed like a great way to learn Spanish, and I wondered if it might be available in dvd or VHS versions.

Why Destinos? Presented in the 52 half-hour installments, Destinos is an immersion-style Introduction to Spanish, structured as a “telenovela” (Spanish soap opera), with native speakers in many countries participating in an entertaining story purportedly filled with adventure, mystery and romance. As WGBH describes the plot, “The story begins with a wealthy Mexican patriarch, nearing the end of his life, who reveals a secret he has kept from his family for years. Raquel Rodriguez, a mexican-American lawyer, is hired to help him learn the answers to some important questions.”

The good news: The series has been taken under the wing of the Annenberg Media education project (which originally helped fund it), and is indeed available in both dvd and VHS. The bad news was the price, which was far beyond my budget:

$468 for the 12 dvds at LanguageQuest

[below the fold you will find the rest of this melodramatic story, along with some consumer tips and links, and a few more haiku and senryu.]

$450 for the 52 half-hour programs on dvd through Annenberg’s Learner.org .

However, having often had good luck obtaining books and other media used online at muy barato prices — and considering myself to be a shrewd consumer — I did a little more Googling, on September 29, and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that only the day before, a Craigslist item was posted with the headline “DESTINOS – An Introduction To Spanish – COMPLETE 12 DVD – $50.” [sale-434573592@craigslist.org] The congenial seller noted that his wife was expecting a baby, and they were selling a lot of personal items. He added that they had enjoyed Destinos and hoped others would at this great price. There was a $10 shipping and handling fee.

one button undone
in the clerk’s blouse I let her
steal my change

…………………………… by George Swede

As you might expect, I thought the Bargain Buddha was smiling munificiently upon me, and immediately wrote to see if the item was still available, saying that it was a wonderful opportunity for me to get the Destinos series, given my very limited budget (I’m on disability and out of the workforce). This reply came that same afternoon:

From: db_liquidations
To: David Giacalone
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 4:10 PM
Subject: Re: DESTINOS – An Introduction To Spanish – COMPLETE 12 DVD – $50

Hello and thanks for the reply. This is still available. If you are interested, please let me know and I will send payment instructions. I will hold off on any other replies until I hear from you.

[BBC internet fraud story]

I quickly wrote back repeating my interest, and within the hour got this response:

From: db_liquidations
To: David Giacalone
Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 4:43 PM

Hello Again,

Please mail payment in the amount of $60 to:

Derek Buckner
2917 Sand Sculpture Ct
Pevely, MO 63070

We’ll get the DVD’s out shortly after payment is received.

Thanks again

Despite my desire to take advantage of this good fortune, I was a little bit leery, as I had never dealt directly with an individual, non-corporate seller on the internet before. My many cyber purchases from non-established dealers had always been through markets (e.g., Amazon.com, eBay) that performed a vetting function and/or offered protection for dissatisfied customers. I therefore turned to Google to see if I could find information about Derek Buckner. Unfortunately there were over 1400 listings, almost all for the Brooklyn painter of the same name. There were still nearly a hundred results, when I added [Missouri OR MO] to the search terms — again picking up the painter. About all I learned was that our Derek graduated in 1996 from Grover Tower Christian School.

[update (Nov. 13, 2007): Today, the post you are now reading is the 9th Google result for the query “Derek Buckner” and the 1st Google result for “Derek Buckner” Missouri.]

searching my name –
she finds an advocate and
a sex offender

……………………………………………. by dagosan

The next day (October 1, 2007), wanting to believe that everything would be fine, I mailed a $60 check to Derek for the Destinos dvd collection. By October 11th, I was a bit surprised that Derek had not emailed to say he had received my check. So, I sent a quick message saying “Just writing to make sure you received my check.”

I was even more surprised that the avid emailing Seller did not respond to that innocent note from me, and I started to worry a bit. On October 17, I did some serious search engine investigation. To my dismay, I discovered Red’s eBay Page, on which “redhotwheels” had listed Derek Buckner [seller ID: wrestling_king], of Arnold, MO, as a Deadbeat Seller, with the following description:

“This [apparently accurate expletive deleted] is the stalling type of scammer who has a new excuse every week. His “wife” is Jennifer M Conner. I wasted $33 on these scam artists. I played the nice guy, then had enough of the stalling tactics and filed a fraud complaint after a month. Apparently I’m not the only one who has, because eBay suspended his account. Scammed me in August 2002.”

With that bit of sobering news, I sent off this email to Derek Buckner on Oct. 17, 2007:

From: David Giacalone
To: db_liquidations
Subject: Re: DESTINOS – An Introduction To Spanish – COMPLETE 12 DVD – $50

Hello, Derek,

Please respond to let me know whether you have deposited my check and sent me the Destinos dvds.

I hope your wife’s pregnancy is going well and that the delay is not due to any family emergencies.

Although I am retired on disability from my law practice, I am still an active consumer advocate who expects to be treated fairly by sellers.

best wishes,
David

p.s. I hope this guy [redhotwheels] isn’t talking about you.

That missive did get a quick response from Derek:

From: DB Liquidations
To: David Giacalone
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 10:37 PM

Hello. yes this has arrived….My bank placed a 10 day hold on the check so as soon as the funds hit my account, I will have these right out to you

“Fair weather by spring’s equinox”
so they say…
liars!

…………………………. by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

My immediate thought was “banks can’t hold checks ten days.” With a little research, which I’ve pasted in at the end of this post, I discovered that even funds related to a “non-local” personal check like mine must be available to the depositor by the morning of the fifth business day after the day of deposit.

For the record, Derek appears to have deposited my check at a branch of Southwest Bank in the St. Louis area. My bank informs me that my check was paid by them [“cleared”] on October 11, 2007.

Just in case the dvds were actually in the mail, I did not write again to Derek until October 23rd. More than a little bit suspicious, and a bit embarrassed that I had apparently been cheated, here’s what I said:

From: David Giacalone
To: db_liquidations
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 4:46 PM
Subject: Re: DESTINOS

Derek,

Unless you give me a very good reason not to do so, I will begin tomorrow to send alerts to Craigslist and other online vendors about doing business with you, and contact US Postal authorities (mail fraud is serious business), and local law enforcement in Missouri.

I will also be posting at my weblog about the risk of doing business with you. My website has about 2500 visits a day and is the #1 Google result for many of the topics discussed there.

I’d like to avoid the aggravation, but I feel that I owe it to other consumers to warn them about doing business with you. Can you give me one good reason not to do so?

david

Here’s the rather telling Yahoo Auto Response to that message:

From: db_liquidations@sbcglobal.net
To: David Giacalone
Sent: Thursday, November 01, 2007 4:46 PM
Subject: Yahoo! Auto Response

Thank you for contacting DB Liquidations. This inbox has suffered an unrecoverable error and I am not able to access it. If you have bought something off of ebay or Craigs List, All orders have shipped as of 10/25/07 so you should be receiving it shortly. If you are on our mailing list, you will be receiving an email once a new domain is set up. Thank you all for your continued patronage! [emphasis added]

So, within two days of my October 23rd get-serious message, threatening to go to the authorities and the internet to expose his consumer fraud, Derek purports to have had an email disaster, which makes it impossible for anyone reach him through the db_liquidations@sbcglobal.net address, and somehow also impossible for him to let his customers know directly about the problem. Naturally, he wanted all of his customers to know that “all orders have shipped.”

[“Thief,” from FX]

fortune-telling machine
I re-pocket
my quarter

…………………….……. by Carolyn Hall – Acorn #18 (2007)

Granted, I can be slow at times, but as of today (Nov. 12, 2007) even I am not surprised that “power seller” Derek Buckner has not contacted me using his “new domain,” nor that I still have not received the Destinos dvd collection that I paid for with a check that cleared more than a month ago. On Nov. 5th, when I tried to write to another email address that a friend located for Derek, bleedblue79@yahoo.com, I received a reply that “This account has been disabled or discontinued.”

old water fountain
hitting me in the eye
again

suspecting
it’s dogshit…
it’s dogshit

……………………………. by Barry George – from Simply Haiku Journal, Summer 2006 edition (Vol. 4 no. 2, senryu page)

Naturally, I now wish I had taken the Craigslist Advisory to heart: “AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY.” In retrospect, it’s ironic that the message came along with the very first email sent by Derek to me. I’ve learn a few things, and I’m sure the reader who has gotten this far has noticed my mistakes (sloppiness and false assumptions). You can find some good Internet Fraud Tips from the National Consumers League to keep in mind (and act upon) when thinking about purchasing an item online. [Also, see The Alliance Against Fraud in Telemarketing and E-Commerce; and the NCL Fraud Center Online Fraud Report Form]

For example:

“You may think you’re getting a bargain, but if you’re not careful, you may see your money go down the drain.”

General Merchandise Sales ” . . . while there are many legitimate companies online, there are also fraudulent sellers out to cheat consumers.”

“Know who you’re dealing with. If the seller is unfamiliar, check with your state or local consumer protection agency and the Better Business Bureau. Some Web sites have feedback forums, which can provide useful information about other people’s experiences with particular sellers. Get the physical address and phone number in case there is a problem later.”

File a Complaint: My next step is to file a detailed complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center (indeed, drafting this post was one way to put together a complete timeline for my complaint). IC3 is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).

“The IC3 gives the victims of cyber crime a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected criminal or civil violations. For law enforcement and regulatory agencies at the federal, state, local and international level, IC3 provides a central referral mechanism for complaints involving Internet related crimes.” [Click here to file an IC3 Complaint]

Despite the fact that our contact originated on the Internet, Derek Buckner — by asking me to mail him my check — has used the U.S. Mail to further his scheme. Therefore, if he has indeed taken my money without sending me the goods (or offering a refund), this is also the kind of conduct that comes within the mandate of the The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and its monitoring of Mail Fraud. I assume that IC3 will make a referral to USPIS, but I might fill out their complaint form, too. Of course, like the Federal Trade Commission, postal inspectors do not investigate every complaint (even those that appear to be meritorious), but “base their investigations of mail fraud on the number, pattern and substance of complaints received from the public.” You can, nonetheless, find helpful information on their page “didn’t get what you ordered.” And click here for the “USPIS complaint form.”

special delivery –
a smile from
the pregnant mailman

………………………………. dagosan

Finally, here’s a good summary about check-holding periods, which are regulated under Federal Reserve Board, Regulation CC, Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks, 12 CFR 229, from “How Long Can a Bank Hold Your Check” (MsMoney.com, by Jill Terry, Nov. 10, 2006; emphases added):

Regulation CC (Expedited Funds Availability) assigns check hold periods according to a deposit’s type and origin. The law establishes maximum hold periods–a bank is free to hold a deposit for less time than the regulation stipulates but never for a longer time.

Banks used to claim that out-of-state checks took a long time to clear, so they’d put excessive holds on them. In 1990, Regulation CC recognized that advanced check processing systems made holds based on geography increasingly unnecessary. Today, a check can only be categorized as “local” or “non-local” with clear processing times for each.

* Local: A local check is one that is drawn on a bank within the same check-processing region. . . . State lines are largely irrelevant in determining a check-processing region. [Ed Note:there are only 23 check-processing regions] A bank cannot hold local checks for more than a day–the funds must be available to you by the morning of the second business day after the day of deposit.

* Non-Local: Non-local checks are drawn on banks outside the check-processing region where the deposit is being made. These funds must be available to you by the morning of the fifth business day after the day of deposit. Beware–deposits of cash or checks made at ATMs not located at the bank with which they’re affiliated can be held as long as non-local checks.

Caution to new account holders: banks can impose many inconvenient holds on accounts that are less than 30 days old, so if you move to a new town, keep your old account open for at least 30 days (while your new one “ages”) so that you’re guaranteed to have access to your money.

Click for the regional FR banks

a reed thrush–
chasing the incompetent
thief

………………… Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

p.s. To make things worse (and to make myself feel worse about all this), in anticipation of receiving the Destinos dvds, I went to the Amazon.com marketplace, located and purchased Parts I and II of Bill Van Patten’s related Destinos Workbook/Study Guide. That has made me even more aggravated until — I am pleased to report — I made a great discovery, today, while putting together this weblog posting: All 52 segments of Destinos are available from Annenberg Media for free through their Video On Demand program. Therefore, although I would prefer to have the dvd version, I’ll be able to watch, and learn, and the Student Handbooks that I’ve purchased will not go to waste. [Faithful readers are encouraged to nag me to make sure I’m studying and progressing.] Of course, Derek Buckner still owes me $60.

afterthought (Nov. 12, 2007 6 PM): The folks who brought you IC3, have a very informative website called Looks Too Good to Be True. They have lots of tips and FAQs, offer a chance to share your experiences, and provide a Teen Center, too.

gaping mouthed
and fly-hungry…
dog at the gate

Land of the Rising Sun–
even deep-mountain deer
lust

…………………………… Issa, translated by Lanoue

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