My dealings with KA5LYL and why you should NOT deal with him

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ke4pkb
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Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:46 am
Location: Hephzibah, Georgia
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My dealings with KA5LYL and why you should NOT deal with him

Post by ke4pkb »

On Aug 10, 2008, I contacted Todd and we made this deal to trade a radio for a Icom SM-20 mic. All seemed well at first. I actually made a custom size box that I cut down to size. I packaged everything inside the radio box in its original packaging and even filled the empty spaces. I then went on to making a custom second outside box. I used plenty of extra padding inside and even made cardboard spacers to keep the first box in the middle of the second box. I went out the FIRST morning and shipped and insured it and all seemed well.
Todd called me and e-mailed me and he said AWESOME!!! The rig is just like new and the packaging was great! He then took several days before he had his DAD take my package and mail it. It arrived at the house in the original Icom paper thin cardboard box and NOTHING else! There was no padding at all inside the mic box. The little cardboard flaps to hold the mic head in the center of the box were folded down flat BELOW the mic! The mic was able to just flop around and move in the box. As a result of this, the plastic parts between the mic body and the mic head were snapped in half! I e-mailed him (and never was mad or rude ever!). I told him about it, he said his DAD had mailed it and that he had insured it for only HALF of the value. He then offered to send the radio back and swap back. I told him that I really wanted the Mic and that I would order the parts from Icom. I did, I let him know they were just under $10.00. He said he would send out $10.00 in the mail to me. I said Great! Well... that was more than 1 month ago! I have e-mailed him a few times and he keeps on giving me these lame excuses... The hurricane is coming... I told him that was DAYS away IF it even hit his area. He then told me that they were stranded and stuck in the house for days. I asked him if he had been to the mall, a movie, gone grocery shopping, mailed bill money, been on a date or anything. IF so he could of dropped the envelope in a mail box. He replied that he did not like my response. After a month and replies back to me like this, I e-mailed him and told him I still have NO snail-mail.

These are some of his e-mails :

--- On Tue, 9/23/08, Stanton Shealy <ke4pkb> wrote:

From: Stanton Shealy <ke4pkb>
Subject: Re: the Cobra 148 GTL...
To: ka5lyl@hoo.com
Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 10:11 AM

Todd,
still no snail mail from you...
stanton

------------------------------------------------------------------------


--- On Wed, 9/24/08, todd b. <ka5lyl> wrote:

From: todd b. <ka5lyl>
Subject: Re: the Cobra 148 GTL...
To: ke4pkb@hoo.com
Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 3:02 PM

thats cuz i havent had any surplus yet

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From me back to Todd:

So when is it that you will have a surplus? This has been a 6 week deal so far, and the problem has been 1 month now. You need to get this taken care of this week.
Stanton...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From Todd back to me:

when i have $10 extra dollars ill be more than happy to pay you. the grocery store & the electric company come first. outside of that im not going into some long dissertation of why i dont have it yet

------------------------------------------------------------------------


So I decided to send him this:

Todd,
You have proven yourself to be quite immature and irresponsible. You keep the 10 dollars, it was never about the money, but about your integrity. You have proven yourself to be quite childish. I will give you a fair and honest review of our deal on QTH.com using quotes from your own e-mails.
Sincerely,
Stanton Shealy
N6VMO
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Location: Lompoc, CA. CM94
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Post by N6VMO »

Todd stills seems to frequent the South Texas Amateur radio Club swap site, to which he is not listed as a current member.

http://www.starc-corpuschristi.org

http://www.starc-corpuschristi.org/News ... _trade.htm
n5wrx
Posts: 91
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:00 pm
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
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Post by n5wrx »

N6VMO wrote:Todd stills seems to frequent the South Texas Amateur radio Club swap site, to which he is not listed as a current member.

http://www.starc-corpuschristi.org

http://www.starc-corpuschristi.org/News ... _trade.htm

Correct, he is not a member of the club but is one of the net controllers for the local 2 meter swap net here in Corpus Christi and is very active in ham radio.
He prepairs the listing and then submits it to the clubs webmaster.
The weekly buy sell trade net is not affiliated with the club but they publish it on their web page.
There are many hams here that listen and frequent that weekly net that are not members of the club. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

William Lee N5WRX
Last edited by n5wrx on Tue Oct 21, 2008 9:26 pm, edited 3 times in total.
n5wrx
Posts: 91
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:00 pm
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
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Re: My dealings with KA5LYL and why you should NOT deal with

Post by n5wrx »

Stanton ... you know it is all about the money.

And you are correct that Todd has not developed emotionally to the point most people have at his age.
That is why he can not work and lives on a very small disability and help from his friends and parents.
He lives on what you probably throw away each week.
He does not own a car or have a drivers lic.
At least he does try hard to do what he can.
To is credit he is aware of his disability and deals with it every day.
There is no doubt in my mind that he would have never forgot he owed you $10 and even if it took a year he would have paid you that money.

I know Todd personally and he is a good hearted person.

Some would say damage in transit is NOT the senders responsibility.
Some others would say the senders responsibility ends when they place it in the hands of the shipper.
I dont go along with that but many do.
Did you request and pay extra to have your item insured?

You should have reversed the trade like he offered to do and sent the damaged mic back to him.
Instead you wanted to keep the item and repair it yourself.
Now here you are trying to make it look like Todd has defrauded you and is a big crook that nobody should deal with.
s**t happens ... suck it up and act like a man and just be glad the thing was not totally destroyed beyond repair.

BTW ... did he mention that the channel knob on the CB radio you traded him was broken?
Being the kind of person he is I doubt he said anything about it at all.
He just sucked it up and replaced the knob.
I know this because I gave him a knob off a parted out Cobra 148 I had.
Could have charged him $10 for it but I know money is very tight for him.

William Lee N5WRX
N4XTS
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Joined: Mon Jul 09, 2007 9:12 am
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Post by N4XTS »

I am sorry, time to defend a long time fellow amateur of the Augusta and Atlanta area Stan KE4PKB.

I have done several face-to-face transactions with Stan. I have known him for over a decade. He is a man of his word, he has helped countless of metro Atlanta hams with radio and computer problems, often times getting nothing in return.
He ALWAYS returns emails, phone calls and communications.

The bottom line is Todd did not keep his word. The disability excuse goes out the window. If he has money for toys like radios, than his priorities are out of order if he fails to keep his word with a fellow ham.

Many people with disabilities live productive lives everyday. I know a person who has MS and yet, they manage to make their own way, make a living, and keep their word.

It isn't about the money, it's about CREDIBILITY. I know Stan and suffice it to say he isn't hurting for the money- he works hard and has since before I was born driving more miles in one week than most people do in a decade.

I guess he is a rare breed of person as he always keeps his end of the deal.
Can't say the same about others...
Amateur radio gets right through.
n5wrx
Posts: 91
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 5:00 pm
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
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Post by n5wrx »

KB4TPP wrote: The bottom line is Todd did not keep his word. The disability excuse goes out the window. If he has money for toys like radios, than his priorities are out of order if he fails to keep his word with a fellow ham.
Defend your friend?
What needs to be defended?
It is all in the emails he posted.
There are at least three sides to every story.

Todd did keep his word!
He said he would pay the unexpected debt as soon as he could and as well as I know Todd he would have done so as soon as he had the money to send.

You really think that Todd should have sold his radios to pay off that $10?
It took him a long time to get the equipment he has now and he did not cheat anyone to get it.
Wouldn't it have been better just to un-do the deal as Todd offered to do?

Radio is one of the few things in life Todd can do well and enjoy.
Perhaps to you ham radio is just another play toy but to a man that is allowed few pleasures, it is much more than that.
It is about the only way he has to socialize with the outside world.
(which can sometimes be a very cruel place)
Perhaps you should walk a mile in his shoes before you take on the task of directing and judging his life.
You would find his priority's are very different than yours out of necessity.

You are lucky to be so well off that you consider $10 as chump change, but to Todd it is a few days worth of food.
That is why he trades around for gear instead of buying it with cash.
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