I Was Duped By A Fraudulent Buyer Now I'm Out $10,000

[Music] Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. Hey Ken. Hey Jade. Um I have a not fun problem. Uh which um I sold a vintage guitar and found out 11 days later that the credit card that was used to buy it was stolen. O. So what's the rest of the story? So the it's an expensive guitar. It's a $10,000 guitar. Um, it was purchased overnight, uh, which is not normal. So, I'm I'm a YouTuber. I buy and sell guitars and I document the process. So, this guitar sold and then I called the customer first thing in the morning and we talked for about 20 minutes. So, this person knew vintage guitars. Uh, they said, "Well, you know, it's going for my son." And so I felt okay that this was a real person and a real transaction. Sure. I checked with I checked with my credit card processor. They said, "This is legit. The money's on your way to the bank." So I held the guitar for a day until the transfer happened to my bank. Okay. Uh and then I felt comfortable to ship the guitar. So I shipped the guitar. Um but the first red flag was that the customer never told me that the guitar got to them. Okay. Uh, and then so for that was on a Thursday. On the Sunday morning, I got an email from the credit card company saying, "Hey, this is potentially suspicious." And then I heard nothing else until 11 days later when they said this was a stolen card and we're going to take the money back uh tomorrow morning. Oh man. And so I So yes, so I called the person that bought the guitar. They've never answered. They never responded. Of course they haven't. Um, so you got Well, so I was able to stop the money from leaving. Um, so my my bank was able to put a stop payment on the AC coming back out. So I have the money, but I don't have the guitar. And now the credit card company has said that I have 90 days to pay them back. Yeah. Which I I I think that's unreasonable. Oo, interesting. This is an interesting quandry because you're not the one that committed the fraud and yet you're the one kind of paying the price for it. It right. Um here here's where I'm thinking like on the one hand if I were the person with the stolen credit card and somebody used my credit card to buy a $10,000 card, I'd be like, I want my $10,000 back. And I would dispute it and I'd get my $10,000 back. Um right. So they they have gotten their money back. They've got their money back, but you've lost your I found the person whose card I found the card. I found the person who had the card on LinkedIn and they confirmed that they got the money back and they but they also said they reported it the same day. And did you reported all your stuff, too? Right. Multiple times. And I've lost the disputes. It's been two different rounds of disputes. Uh and they say that I I did not pass and I have to give the money back. Wow. This is I'm sitting here just really processing this. Me, too. Because it it feels like there's some evidence here that the credit card company didn't do their job. They were alerted that this was stolen or that it was misplaced or whatever and they still allowed the transaction to go through, right? And because of their failure, I'm just talking this out here. Because of their failure in their process, you got you got ripped off, right? And you can prove this. I can get it. I have all I have all the receipts for those things of the communication with them, the screenshots of the card being the process or that the money coming to my bank. Yeah, but what about can you get an affidavit or a signed statement from the person on LinkedIn that said, "We actually reported it. We can prove it blah blah blah blah blah on the day they called." I bet I Yeah, I bet I could. He's been very responsive when I I would go that route. And you know what I would do is after I got that, I'd go back to the credit card company and go, "Okay, let me let me walk you through where my head's at, right? I don't think that you should be allowed to ask me for the $10,000 or demand it or take it. Here's why. You all screwed up. I have a signed statement from this person who said, and they can prove it. they got a cell phone call at, you know, such and such a date at such and such a time to you all, uh, placing a hold or a cancel on the card. You know, you just walk through this and go, "Look, I mean, I'm not going to go down without a fight." Yeah. The merchant is liable for for this. Yeah. And I'm not going to be out 10 grand because I'm out 10 grand of this guitar. The guitar is gone. Not right my problem. It's your problem on the 10 grand. The 10 grand is mine. Um. Right. I would really fight this, man. I would too. You can report it to the FTC. You might just consult with a lawyer and do one of those frequency. U Jade, I'm going to make a statement. You tell me if you think I'm wrong cuz sometimes I can be Cranky Ken. And James and my wife Stacy always call this out. So, I feel like I'm starting to get into I like Cranky Ken. Let's get into it. James, this is Cranky Ken on this on his behalf. Cranky Ken believes that $10,000 is a drop in the bucket for a big old credit card company. And if I become a real thorn in their side and promise to fight them to the bitter end and I become more of a nuisance than they want to deal with, I think they walk away. But I think you got to send a message. I'm not paying you a nickel. Here's why. I got all the proof. If we got to go to court, we'll go to court. But you're going to pay my you're gonna pay my attorney's fees. I just think that they will go away. I really do. If you've got all this proof and you could show it to them and anybody with a brain can see this trail, that's what I would do. Jay, is that too Yeah. I'm not sending the money back. I'm not sending it back to them. I I'm like I believe with what what Ken said. I think if you put your foot down and stand on business, as Ken would say, there's my Where's my hat? I didn't bring my hat to the studio today. I got a standing on business hat and if there was ever a time to wear it, this is the call. Yeah. I just don't I don't think they want to mess with this and spend all this time and money on 10 grand. They just write it off. Jeremy, what kind of guitar was it? Oh, do you hear James? Uh, that's a good question. It was a 1969 Martin D28. So, it was the last year of a Brazilian Rosewood back and sides acoustic guitar. That's brutal, man. Look at James. He can tell. He shed a tear. I saw it. He's getting a little dusty eyed in there. That's a nice guitar. Boys know guitars. They do. They do. Well, listen. Uh, hold the line on this one, man. I I like our strategy here. I think this is a game of poker. Yeah. And I'd push all my chips in the middle because you got the cards. Yep. Oh, I I really appreciate and thankfully having having done the Ramsay program for 10 years and being completely out of debt and you know, it it makes it to where this is a lot of money, but it does not break us. Way to go, Jeremy. Yeah. Gosh, that's been the piece through all of this. Good for you. That's great. That's fabulous. Thank you all. Sorry you got got but hold your breath. You learned something though, right? Did you learn something? Absolutely. Yeah. Very interesting. All right, my man. Well, you'll get the last word. What is your favorite guitar that you don't own, but you'd love to have? Oh, I would love to have a a pre-war Martin OM42. Okay. A very pearly, very pretty guitar. Who played it? Eric Clapton has played one. Uh, I mean that that's the holy grail. Those are $100,000. $125,000. Wow. Yeah. Well, James has one right beside his desk. Yeah. Yeah. All right. I like that. I like to ask people those kind of questions cuz you knew he had an answer. Oh, yeah. And somebody listening that was like gold for them. For me, I was like, "What was it?" I don't even know what it is. He said pre-war and the rest of it was Charlie Brown's teacher for me. I didn't hear anything. Yeah. I understood Eric Clap. But I did appreciate that he said it was pearly. Yeah, I like a good aesthetic description. Yeah, a little little pearly. All right, James, what's your go-to guitar? Money's no object. Uh, what guitar are you getting? Um, I'm more of an electric player, but acoustic wise, a Gibson J45 is what I would get. Who plays that? Uh, a bunch of like It's kind of a folk guitar. A lot of bluegrass players and stuff like that. And what's a mint condition one of those going to set you back? Oh, I have no idea. The use the vintage guitar market, you can spend 20,000. I mean, they're crazy. Wow. Wow. You learn something new every day. Ken, I think you and I need to start a YouTube channel selling guitars. I don't know anything about them, but I can sell them. Okay. Well, I I'll get got because I don't know. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your