calcium reactor

[goldenboy]

I was wondering if anybody has had any experience with a guy named Chris Van Hoy?
I’ll give you a little background. I was bidding on a calcium reactor on
e-bay, and this guy sent me an E-mail asking if I was interested in buying one of his homemade reactors instead. I thought that maybe he had my E-mail from a question that I had sent him in the past about one of his ebay items, but it turns out that he just checked out the bid history in all of the calcium reactor auctions and sent every bidder the same E-mail.
Anyway I was just wondering if this guy was for real or if he was just after my money. If anyone knows anything about him good or bad please let me know.


I think that if I do decide that I want to purchase one that I will tell him to list it on ebay with a buy it now option and I will just buy it that way.

BTW, Chris if you are a member of this board please don’t take offense to this thread. I’m just a little bit worried about sending a perfect stranger that much money. :wink:

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

hi.
Ask him to send you a picture of his product, or URL to his web site.

I am not too sure about his method of contact is legit when it comes to ebay policy... :?

 

[Modo]

I would request some references from some people that he has done business with. I agree with pictures as well. Maybe try and get pics from the people you contact that he has built for. I don't feel this is too much to ask from a guy that uses some shady sales tactics.

Caveat Emptor!!!!

 

[goldenboy]

I did end up getting some pics. And a lot of info about the reactor from him. It looks pretty good. Thanks for all of the tips I think i'll give it a try if he is willing to sell it to me through ebay. I'll let you know how things work out, and if the reactor is any good. He told me that he has made several different designs before working out all of the bugs. Judging by his E-mails he seems to be a real avid hobyist and knows what he is talking about. He's probably just a fellow hobbyist that wants to make a few bucks. I'll keep you posted. Thanks

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

hi.
Ebay is not totally safe even if he put up an auction.... just a general reminder from someone who was scamed by an ebayer...

 

[goldenboy]

hi.
Ebay is not totally safe even if he put up an auction.... just a general reminder from someone who was scamed by an ebayer...

sorry to here that you got scammed on ebay. I have so far been fortunate enough not to have that kind of problem.
my thoughts about setting up the auction is that if he did scam me, at least I could report him to ebay and possibly get him banned from the site, and keep him from doing the same to other ebayers. On a plus side though, I asked him if he would send me a link to his ebay feedback and he is at 100% positive, so that is a good sign. I think that I will go ahead and give it a try. thanks everyone, I'll keep you posted.

 

[Robin Goodfellow]

hi.
I am sure most people in ebay are legit, but the one that scammed me were able to do "business" for almost three months until ebay realize the problem. I was emailing several dozen bidders to warn them about him/her. Still, some of them did not listen, and several people ended up with same faith as me.

I just said the above to let people know about my experience. I still buy and sell things on ebay, and please don't take my experience as my overall opinion of buying on ebay.