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What happened to MD202? Saw he was banned now


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But what, at the end, happened to him.

Does he get away with what he did like nothing happened at all. Or is justice just slow and he's getting his treatment one day?

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Yeah, me too.

I read all that 30 pages thread, mainly as a learning textbook about what NOT to do.

But in the end (cleaning out all the flames) I got that Mike still had, at thread lock time, some of the watches, that he was slowly sending back them (some well done, some not), and for sure that he had to improve (a lot) his way to do business.

I'd like to get if all the people got them properties back (done or not is somehow less important, until they get all the parts and watches).

And also that BS Facebook post, that it has been a really stupid move.

 

In a way I understand Mike: I'm a (good, at least this is what my colleagues think of me) IT infrastructure PM/tech, therefore all the folks in the company (and my 3 bosses) refers to me when sh_t happens, and I was used to always say "ok" and then get very nervous because of the amount of sh_t to dig in piling on my desk. So in the end the result always was: me doing the job, me becoming harsh with those people asking me about their stuff because I was feeling too much pressure, they with job done but thinking I have been an a__hole.
Politically = shooting into my feet...

 

Ah, by the way, FORZA AZZURRI :D (IT-UK 2-1 this night) :p

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Guys let me try to give you the short version as it would take a novel. In order to prosecute need to file locally (one guy did got his stuff) so bulk suit did not work. No, no one was going to go there and threaten good way to get shot or sued. (for you non conus guys coming on someone’s property can get you shot here) In 99% of cases not enough in watches to make a trip to file worth it. (Yes did add up to 25k or there abouts, a lot of guys) One member did have 10k in goods but not conus so again not worth it. Some did get stuff back but in 90% of cases condition crap. Who knows if the feds will do anything he is a very small fish in their perspective.

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I would like to add to what Mike said, outside of one guy who got some watch stuff back, mostly not running, none of the other folks got anything. So to make a long story short, nothing has happened. the local authorities are not going to spend a whole lot of time on a property loss case that involves such small amounts individually, although the aggregate was a pretty impressive number. None of us were local or even close, so in order for me to TRY to recover the 800 USD watch/movement/parts that he was holding, I would have to fly to Chicago, rent a car, drive to his home town, get a hotel, file a complaint, and then reverse the process. Then if anything happened, I might have to go back up there for a court appearance or to reclaim my property, so as you can see from and economics standpoint it wasn't feasible. And to make it worse the local authorities would not let us file a joint action, which could have been done by a local attorney. They require each and every individual to come in and personally file a complaint.

 

And to answer GENtlE, I would not sympathize with that little bastard in any way. He had plenty of opportunities to return the watches, parts to everyone. We  even offered to have a member pick up everything and we would pay to get it sorted out and shipped back. We asked him to drop off everything at the attorney's office and we would sort it out, he refused. The guy is and immature 20 something idiot, who we found out later has had numerous drug related run ins with the local police, Obviously he has some disconnect which causes this behavior. It would take half a day of reading to go back and read his threads and his responses to threads on this forum to see what sort of guy he is. AFA I'm concerned, this was a lesson learned. I can chalk this up to experience, and hope that I can see the warning signs next time before things get bad. This is not the first time we have had a guy who comes on really strong, participates a lot and gets really involved in the forum, starts taking in watches to repair /mod, and then at some point, everything goes south. In most cases in the past, when the guy gets overwhelmed and decides to quit, he at least boxes up all the stuff and sends it back to the owners. So in the worst case, they are out the money for the repair if they paid up front. that was not the case here, because some folks had paid for the repairs, and were out that as well as their watch/parts. The sad part about this, is the guy obviously has no remorse whatsoever about all this. He's probably laughing his ass off over how he screwed over a bunch of dumb smucks who trusted him with their watches. But one thing, all things in life have a tendency to equalize. At some point, if he lives long enough and doesn't ends up in prison he might realize that things he did as a young immature person are going to come back to haunt him later in life.  

 

My rule of thumb had been in the past, and I violated that with Mike (MD2020), is to be very skeptical of new guys coming on the forum and claiming to be watch smiths/modders. I will absolutely not send more than one watch at a time either, at least until I have a really good idea that the person is a stable responsible person. Another thing that is a big warning to everyone, a lack of any sort of organization or business plan. If you are using a watchsmith that has a business plan, has a schedule, and tells you when you can send in a watch, and tells you, I'm overwhelmed, and not accepting new work, or says, I'm going on vacation and not taking new work until September, then you can pretty well rest assured that this person is well organized and reliable. The ones that never turn down anything, tell everyone, send 'em in, I'll fix' em , is probably the guy that has a room full of unopened boxes and is so behind, he can't see the light of day.

 

Everyone is looking for that really great watchsmith/modder who can do everything, is fast reliable, cheap and turns out impeccable work. Well guys, expecting all those attributes is not realistic. The really good guys are not going to be cheap or fast, because they realized long ago that their services are in demand, and they aren't going to work for pennies, when they can earn dollars. Guys getting started may be fast, but if they are good, they will soon have plenty of work and their turnaround time will slow. Also most watchsmith/modders are better at some things than others, so what you have to do is try to match the person with the work that you want done. So, if you need movement work, you might want to use one person, if you want lume work, you might need to send your watch to someone else. There are a few around that are very good at everything, unfortunately, they are not cheap, and their turnaround time is pretty slow. 

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And to answer GENtlE, I would not sympathize with that little bastard in any way.

 

Hi Panerai, actually I was kind of sympathizing with him because, as I wrote upper, the latest news I could have got were "that Mike still had, at thread lock time, some of the watches, that he was slowly sending back them (some well done, some not)".

Knowing how it ended up obviously changes my mind :(

1st I feel really sorry for the involved customers. And i mean it

2nd I also feel sorry when I see a guy that has some skill to fu_k-up his life in this idiotic way trying the "easy way" instead to use his skills to get better and better and then have an honest gain from that.

 

Really a sad story for all the involved parties :/

 

And now also I understand why I didn't have had any reply to this post I did few weeks ago: http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/170467-watchsmith-near-milano-italy-someone-interested/

By the way I spoke to the guy starring of my post and he clearly refused because he told me that:

  1. If they got a control from GdF (the Italian Finance Police), and they spotted the fake ones in the shop, well, they'll not only be forced to close the shop but they can even get hardly prosecuted...
  2. he told me that he has already seen some reps (btw not sure how much similar to our "super reps") and it's always a pain in the a__ to deal with them because the moment you get something to replace (and he said this can happen even just unassembly them) you're going into troubles with customers and loose a lot of time and therefore there's no value for money in dealing with them considering each service is around 80€ (110US$)

He told me he could eventually service mine ones just because we're friends but with clear pacts: if something get fu_ked up during the service I will not bother him or complain... I'm ok with this, so let's see.

 

Ciao, Alex

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Alex,

Amazing that the GdF is so tough with fake watches, but when we were in Venice a few years back, the people selling fake Handbags (on every corner) just about worried my wife and I to death. Nary a policeman in sight!!

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Panerai, evaluate a simple fact: a honest guy opening a shop is someone that has a lot to loose (and GdF has a lot to gain to catch them). A random illegally immigrated guy doesn't have anything to loose so it doesn't care that much, and moreover GdF is involved mainly into BIG irregular traffic (international drug traffic, for example) and/or into checks within apparently official activities (they staid 2 to 6 months into 3 of the company I worked for). Street sellers are really not their business unless for some random control.

Little street fake sellers are a matter of municipal police, but I've seen how they do: every day in the metro station I use in Milan they do a kind of market. But always there someone doing the "look-out" guy. When they see some agent approximating the station they simply pull up the sheets they use to display the goods and run away from another exit of the station... Again, even if caught, there's not a lot an agent can do: give it a fine that will never be paid, or give them an expulsion advice, that will be obviously trashed by them...

 

Anyway, what was so scaring out of these guys? 99% of them are just trying to make some money to live. Not saying they're a nice show, they can be really annoying sometimes but surely not a risk for anyone's life :)

Edited by GenTLe
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I certainly can see your point, but some of those guys got pretty aggressive when we refused their offers. I have nothing against them, I am a firm believer in people working to try to put food on the table, but when I tell someone in a polite way, no thanks, that's just what I mean. I don't care for someone following me down the street, and cutting in front of my wife and sticking a handbag in front of her and saying"lady, you need to buy this handbag, great price, genuine LV or Hermes, etc. I'm sure that most of the street vendors are completely harmless, but folks that are intimidating are not very good for the tourist business.

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"No, no one was going to go there and threaten good way to get shot or sued. (for you non conus guys coming on someone’s property can get you shot here)."

 

First, MD didnt live in the ghetto.  When someone posted his address -i know that area.   No one is getting shot.

 

Second, If he had any of my watches - you damn right i would have gone to his property.  What would he have done - call the cops?  Please do.  I would explain to the cops that he has my property and wouldn't return it.   And if its true that he had run ins with the law with drugs, etc - who knew if he was on probation for a past offense.  Cops are always willing to bust someone on probation.

 

 

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I really had no intention of going over this however how about trespassing charges filed by his parents (who own the property) on my medical license and in Texas they can shoot you (no ghetto needed) just because you look threatening stepping on their property. Options, ramifications were discussed ad nauseum over a year period and many avenues were tried. He was not on probation according to the Illinois Attorney General’s Office whom I spoke to along with local police, lawyers and a host of others to find a way to retrieve the property. I love my watches but must look at the bigger picture as did the 13-14 others in the thread w/ me and they also thought better than your recommended course of action. Bluster serves little purpose here.

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Mike - knocking on a door isn't trespassing (not in Illinois). Not going to debate it.

My point is that if he had my stuff, I would make the trip to his house. If his mom/dad answered the door, I would have a talk with them. Who know, maybe his mommy would ground the little [censored].

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Sent them a couple of nice letters and I mean nice asking for help, no joy. We had no way of knowing there posture in regard to us showing up and no one close enough was willing to roll the dice. To fund a mission for me to fly there was also discussed but see my last post. When all said and done everyone had a little in the pot except one member (10K, but out of the country) just was not worth it as those that we were able to get their watches either got right offs or another couple of hundred to make right. If you got lucky and Mom and Dad handed you your watches back you might not have wanted anyway. This community works on trust and dare I say honor among thieves (the debate still rages on buying reps and what that makes us) once broken recourse is limited.

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Didn't expect to see this name coming up again but hey ho ..............................

 

I was luckyish with Mike, he did send my pieces back to me in the end but only after some hard slog to get them, guy was/is a fruitcake :fool:  and seriously fucked me over so much so that I'm finding it really hard getting back into this great hobby of ours, I love this community I really do, in all my dealings on here I've tried hard to make sure everyone I deal with comes away happy, even if a deal goes sideways, Mike had no excuses for how he handled the situation. I remember hating having to post the thread to warn our membership and then the members who came to his defence, well read the thread.......

 

As far as I'm concerned we are all here to help each other, thats the whole point of this place, people like Mike won't spoil the forum in the long run but sure leave a bitter taste in the mouth.....

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I sent him two watches last summer. I was lucky enough to get one back in November of 2013 and actually in working order. But he still has a $750 watch of mine since July of 2013. No communication since. So [censored] Mike and anyone who sympathizes with any aspect of that assholes life. That Pos ruined the hobby for me.

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