Complaints Against Lois Taleb or Vine Co. Collectibles

Eau Claire, WI 54703

LTaleb3667@aol.com  

If you have questions about the complaint,
please contact the person who filed it.

*Note: If you have not received a refund from this person, please contact:

Lorett L. Jellings, Investigator
Bureau of Consumer Protection (Wisconsin)
Phone: 608-224-4916
Fax: 608-224-4963

Email: lorett.jellings@datcp.state.wi.us

January 8, 2001
Complaint filed by: Vicki333@bellsouth.net

Subject: LTaleb3667@aol.com
traders_name: Lois Taleb

I was high bidder on Lois' presales for Chinook and Buckingham on ebay. Her ad plainly stated that bears or refund would be issued by Dec. 20th. After many emails to her and receiving form letters back from her, she finally sent my Chinooks on Dec. 26th. Then she claimed that she had no record of me sending her the funds for 3 Buckinghams. I sent her all the info. proving that I had paid her thru paypal. Now she claims that her records are in disarray and she must hire a professional to help her sort thru 800 transactions. There are many people WAITING for their bears or their refunds. I have begun to file the necessary paperwork against her. She is in Wisconsin and also goes by the name of Vine Company Collectibles.

Not only that, but she was several weeks late in making her payment in the first place, so, she placed bids on my items knowing full well that she was unable to pay for them within the time frame clearly specified in the auction terms. I did patiently wait for her to make her payment, without making any non-paying bidder reports, which is what I should have done here. Once again, I have ALL emails to proove exactly what was said and done, and ALL mailing receipt/delivery confirmation/insurance forms from the post office.

She is one of those people who won't be satisfied no matter what. In all fairness to me, please post THIS on your trading board, or remove the false posting about me.
Regards,
Lois

Subject: LTaleb3667@aol.com
traders_name: Lois Taleb also Vine Co.Collec

Auction #430045736 on E-bay Dutch so there is 12 of us out here I think. Waiting since 9-8-00 & no product & looks like no hope of getting money back.

Subject: ltaleb3667@aol.com
traders_name: Lois Taleb

Comments: (I see I'm not the only one this person ripped off. I'm thinking of contacting her local newspaper and asking them to do some publicity/investigation on this matter. Thousands of dollars were stolen by Lois Taleb) I was ripped off. My first (and only) presell auction on eBay ended in disaster. The person I bought from had tons of positive feedback and appeared to be legitimate. I bid $165 for Nipponia, Buckingham and Chinook in September paid $171.95 via PayPal, and was promised delivery by December 20, 2000. Ltaleb3667@aol.com emailed after I requested assurance the Beanies would be shipped on time, and I was promised they would be.
At the beginning of December, however, Lois Taleb emailed to say she
was having trouble with her suppliers and "may not" be able to meet demand. I requested a refund and was told it would be sent "when she had time due to overwhelming demand of her products".

December 11, 2000 I received the following email:

"This could affect anyone with outstanding orders for Nipponias,
Buckinghams, and/or sets of the 3 Country Exclusive Bears. As I am
getting concerned at this point, if I do not hear anything within the
next couple of days, I will be sending out cancellation notices as
necessary, and ultimately issuing refunds, as per the auction terms
and our agreement.

There is a chance that I will receive these items yet, in full or in
part, but I just wanted to let you know now that there may be a
problem so that you are aware of the situation."

Nothing arrived. I checked feedback on eBay, saw negative feedback
with presells and tried to post, but eBay had suspended her account.

On December 18, I received the following email:

"From: LTaleb3667@aol.com
Message-ID: <31.e363acf.276fd9c1@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2000 16:21:05 EST
Subject: Re: Update

Hello,

Thank you for emailing. As I am extremely busy at this time packing
and shipping orders out, I am unable to respond to emails, other than
through this form letter. So, please, do not respond to this
letter.
I am shipping all orders in the order that payment was received for
them, as I receive beanies in to fill those orders. I will continue
to do so for as many orders as possible, as quickly as possible, and
you will be emailed if and when your order has been shipped out.

If I am unable to fill your order, and ship it on or before the
deadline of December 20th, then your order will automatically be
cancelled, and a refund will be issued, UNLESS you specifically
request by email that I "HOLD" your order for shipping if/when I
receive more beanies in."

She sent me a snail mail letter in which she claims "due to market
fluctuations I am unable to refund your money". She will, however,
trade common Beanies, silver jewelry, Indian artifacts and a host of
crap I could never use nor would it be worth what I paid.

Im planning on going to the District Attorney in Eau Claire, Wisconsin
about this transaction. Neither PayPal nor eBay will help since it is
more than 30 days since the transaction transpired.

If any of you have been ripped off by Lois Taleb of Eau Claire
Wisconsin, LTaleb 3667@aol.com please let me know. By my recollection
there were 24 of us who bid and won this Presell auction. That's a
hell of a lot of money this person stole from us

Rick
|

Just wanted to add my name to the list of people that got taken by Lois Taleb. I bid on an eBay auction on 9/12/00 for Chinook, Nipponia, Buckingham presell and paid a total of $167.49 by check on 9/15/00. on 12/7/00 I apparently received the same email as everyone else did indicating there might be a potential problem with delivery, that she was shipping Chinooks, but hadn't received Nipponia or Buckingham yet and she would be in touch shortly and if necessary would send out cancellation notices and ultimately issue refunds. I then emailed her again on 1/2/01 asking for a status update and received a response on 1/4/01 indicating that she was reviewing and organizing her business and would be in touch shortly. I then received a form letter in the mail on 1/10/01, which I think everyone else got as well indicating that she is unable to obtain the items ordered and due to market changes, she is unable to refund monies, but offered substitution of items, none of which was acceptable to me. I emailed her on 1/12/01 and have yet to hear a response from her to this email. I was going to send her a letter, but have since stumbled on this website, decided to add my comments and now plan on filing complaints with www.fraud.org (National Fraud Information Center) and with www.ifccfbi.gov (FBI & National White Collar Crime Center). I also plan on filing a complaint with the Wisconsin State Attorney General's Office. I believe that there is someone organizing a lawsuit against her, but don't want to post that information without that person's permission, so if you want details, please email me.

Subject: LTaleb3667@aol.com

traders_name: LOIS TALEB Comments: I bid on 3 auctions on eBay for 3 Chinooks and 2 Buckinghams for a total of $179.00. Initial contact was great..she appeared to be a very personable person,friendly,had high feedback, and seemed very trustworthy. I,too, recvd the standard form letter asking that we not contact her unless it was an emergency, as she was so busy getting the items shipped. I contacted her several times asking when 'my' order would be shipped, as I saw fdbk from others who had won auctions days AFTER I had. No response to that particular question. On Dec 23--3 days after deadline for receiving item or refund--I contacted her again. She seemed sure that she would be receiving the bears, and would put my items on her hold list if I still wanted them. About 2 wks ago I emailed her stating I needed to have my refund as I needed surgery and would need that money to help pay for it. Her reply was that she had sent me a letter offering substitutes for the bears, and she hoped I would consider that as an alternative.--I never recvd that letter that the rest of you say was full of 'junk', and informed her of that in an email and again emphasized that I needed that money back to help pay for my surgery. NO RESPONSE!! I tried, like you, to work with her and give her the benefit of the doubt.She explained that these auctions had been set up BEFORE eBays 30 day time limit on pre-sells, so they knew it would be 90 days, and there was no problem with that. Unfortunately, she has taken advantage of MANY people who entrusted her with thousands of dollars. I hope that our complaints are heard ..and dealt with . I have been contacted by several people who have also been duped, and have provided email info of others who also won the auctions I bid on so we can all come together on this. If anyone can give me a addresses to Wisconsin atty gen.,a form letter example, or info on how to go about filing all the claims necessary, I would appreciate it. I've never had to do this, so I really don't know where to start. I am willing to help in any way possible! Thanks in advance.

I won an auction on ebay by Lois Taleb -presell with a delivery by Christmas or refund I have contacted her several times and all I get are poor excuses such as the market has dropped and so she can't give me a refund for a long time. Would I like to buy something else from her  When I said all I wanted was a refund or the product I never got any more communication from her Then I emailed her back and said all I want is the refund. The amount owed to me is $61.95 paid with paypal auction number430252239. Time has long expired for me to get any refund from ebay or paypal. Please contact me if you can help or if you need more info  Thanks Dianna Oliver

I received an American express money order this afternoon from Lois Taleb for the full amount due. It was datedFeb.1st I don't know if this was a coincidence or the result of all the complaints I filed.  Thanks for all yhe advice

PS I haven't been out to cash it yet -hope it's good

Subject: ltaleb3667@aol.com
traders_name: Lois Taleb

Today I received an American Express Money order in the amount of $171.95 which represents a refund - in full - for the money Lois Taleb stole from me. Thanks to all who were willing to help with this matter. I still say she needs jail time for this

In September I won an Ebay auction for 2 sets of the new country exclusive Beanie Babies. The country exclusives included 2 of each of the following BEANIE BABIES: Nipponia, Chinook, and Buckingham. The Auction was a presell that had a guaranteed shipment date of December 20, 2000. After I used Paypal to pay approximately $375.00 it took almost 3 weeks for the seller to even confirm that the payment had been accepted. Since that time, I have been more than patient with the seller. The seller Ltaleb3667@aol.com, has since been suspended from ebay due to the country exclusive presells. I have never filed a complaint against the seller as I understand that people can sometimes run into difficult situations. I did offer to settle for 1 set of these beanies and a refund on the other set or 1 set of these plus Sakura, Maple and Britannia. The seller has sent me three letters stating that she would like to get things taken care of asap. Inn january she asked for 20 days and I told her that would be fine. at the end of the 20 days I emailed her to find out the status and I got a reply via usps mail. She informed that she would not accept Emails or phone calls and the only way would be usps mail. I sent her a letter again trying to work this out and not long after that I received another letter stating that we would receive our beanies or a full refund very soon. Almost a month has past since then with no further details. I was wondering if maybe you could try contacting this person to help me. my username on ebay is: shagz2dop. I donot have the auction # right now but I can mail it to you later if needed. Thank You very much-

Bob Jolley

I have just received a ful refund from Lois Taleb for an auction from last Sept. promised delivery by Dec. 20. I want to thank Helga for her help with this. She put me in contact with the Bureau of Consumer Protection in Wisconsin who in turn wrote Ms. Taleb. Within a week I received the refund.

Subject: LTaleb3667@aol.com
traders_name: Lois Taleb

Just received full refund for auctions prepaid in september. Sent her a certified letter Feb. 10,2001 requesting refund.