Complaints Against Michelle Scammell

wiltshire  ba14 9sl  england

scarandjess@hotmail.com

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

December 5, 2001
Complaint filed by: jsg@aresearch.com

I wanted to check to see if you could possibly help me resolve a problem  I have with a bad beanie trade. These are the details:  On Nov. 1, 2001 I placed an ad on the BBOT and was contacted by Michelle  Scammell, who lives in England, with an offer for a trade. We agreed  that I would send a MWMTs Nectar and a MWMTs Issy with Vancouver tags and she would send me a MWMTs Buckingham beanie. I checked her feedback at www.freeserveauctions.co.uk and also received some feedback from references she supplied me. All of the feedback was positive, so on Nov. 2nd we agreed to the trade and both promised to send our beanies by air-mail on Nov. 3rd. I mailed my beanies to her on the 3rd and received an e-mail from her on Nov. 20th that she had received the beanies I sent. It is now Dec. 5th and I still have not received the Buckingham beanie she promised to mail on Nov. 3rd. I have kept in touch with her throughout the past month to let her know that I had not received the beanie. I e-mailed her on Nov. 29th expressing my concern that the beanie had not yet arrived and asked her if should could look into tracing the package she sent me. I did not receive a reply from her. On Dec. 3rd. I e-mailed her to let her know that the package still had not arrived, asked if she had looked into tracing the package, and told her that I would wait a couple of more days. I also told her that if the package didn't arrive in a couple of days I would ask her to return the beanies I sent her or I would report her to the bad traders list. Again I did not receive a response. On Dec. 4th I checked her auction activity on www.freeserveauctions.co.uk and discovered that she had sold a MWMTs Vancouver Issy on Nov. 29th and a MWMTs Buckingham beanie on Nov. 28th. After discovering this, I e-mailed her again and told her that I realized it would be impossible for her to return the beanies I sent her since she had sold at least 1 of them. I also asked if the Buckingham beanie she sold was the beanie she had promised to send to me. I told her I would now refer her to the bad traders list and would also contact freeserveauctions and authorities where she lives to file a complaint of mail and internet fraud. Today, Dec. 5th, I finally received a reply from Michelle which I have copied below:

jim, i have sent you an email recently telling you that i havent been well and that i have not been on line this is the first time i have been well enough 2 get up the stairs 2 read my emails, my husband has sold a buckingham beanie on freeserve 4 me and no it wasnt the one i sent you, I sent that one 2 you, i have just received a beanie 2day that i have been waiting 7 weeks 4, the post is very slow at the moment, you should receive it soon, i am sorry i havent replyed sooner but i am not well, if you relly think it is nesserary 2 take this action then i will leave it up 2 you, but when you receive you beanie, i want an aplogie and all action with drawn   michelle

I did not receive any e-mail from her stating anything about illness so I don't believe her first statement above is true. I also find it very difficult to believe that it has taken packages sent to her 7 weeks to arrive and that the mail is so slow I should be more patient. I traded beanies with another person from the UK the end of Oct. and I received the package in about 7 - 10 days without any special shipping other than air-mail. I also purchased a beanie buddy from a seller in Japan and received the package from him in only 5 days, which was at the end of Nov. I'm not really sure what I should do next and would appreciate any advice you have. Thanks very much.   Jim Genuardi

December 6:

Michelle Scammell's e-mail address is

scarandjess@hotmail.com.
michelle scammell
4 rambler close
trowbridge
wiltshire  ba14 9sl  england

I do not know if she sent the package with proof of mailing. However, I have received 2 more e-mails from her since I e-mailed you yesterday  afternoon. In the first message she said:

i got in touch with my local post office 2day and they filled out a lost airmail form 2 try and trace the package, they told me that america had been holding back alot of its mail because of all the trouble they are having with nasty things being sent through the post

In her 2nd message she said:

if the package has truly been lost and this can be proved then i will happily send either your 2 beanies back or another buckingham beanie, but b4 i do either i want 2 wait and see what comes of the trace, as i did send you beanie and i am not the sort of person 2 try and have people over, i have traded with lots of people and no,one has yet 2 say they havent receive there beanies ( apart from you ). also i told you that my husband did the auctins for me, i have been that ill that  i have even been able 2 get up the stair 2 get to the computer, he never said i had any emails from you, when i swithed my computer on last night i had 2 emails from you, 2 which i replyed, the beaines that i sold on freeserve were nothing 2 do with you, i have had several buckingham beaines and vancover issys over the last few months, these beanies were not your, i sent the buckingham beanie 2 you on the 3rd of november as i told you, and my feed back also doesnt have any negative responses, you checked my feedback b4 we did the trade and you were happy with it, i will contact you when i hear from the post office on the trace of the package, this my take a few days, i am not ignoring you, and will contact you as soon as i hear

Based on these last 2 messages, I am inclined to wait until early next week to see if she truly hears anything from the package trace she has supposedly requested. I told her that I had contacted a mediator who helps people to resolve trading problems, so if you would like to contact her through e-mail she shouldn't be surprised. If you feel that it is better to wait until next week to see if she provides any info. about a trace that would be fine with me. I'm not really sure what to think at this point, only that the package was never sent or it has been lost in the mail. Thanks for your help.Jim

I e-mailed Michelle Scammell on Monday morning asking if she had proof of mailing or if she could tell me how her post office was attempting to track the package she claims to have sent. It is now Wednesday afternoon and I have not received any response. Also still haven't received any package from her. As for her references on freeserve, you should be able to view them at this URL:

http://www.freeserveauctions.co.uk/Scripts/RatingList.asp?CustNo=1293337&UserName=ruffcow

I'm ready to take the next step to try to resolve this. Please let me  know what you recommend. Thanks.

I received a couple of e-mails from Michelle Scammell this morning.   Here is the info. she sent about tracing the package:

"i gave them all the info that i could about the packagee, like when i sent it, from which post office, how much it weighed, how much it cost 2 send it, what it was sent in, and your address, i received a letter from them the other day, saying that they were looking in 2 it and as soon as they had any info they would contact me, they did give me a refrence number and a telephone number, i can email them 2 you if this would help, maybe you could contact them yourself, i am going in 2 hospital tomarrow 4 about a week, so if i dont hear from you 2 night, please wait 4 my reply, i will get back 2 you as soon as i am out"

I then asked her to send me the info. about the reference number and telephone number for the person she contacted at her post office. She sent the following:

"hi, thanks for the quick reply, the telephone number is 0845 7740 740 and the refrence number is NAT14941714 the person who wrote the letter is called vanessa mcgill, plmk how you get on, and i will email you as soon as i am back from hospital, michelle"

Please let me know what you think I should do next. I have not tried contacting Vanessa McGill yet. Thanks.   Jim

I guess I am willing to wait until early next week to see if we hear from her since she is supposedly in the hospital until Thurs. or Fri. this week. Why don't we wait until next Monday (the 24th) to see if either of us hear from her. If we don't then we could try moving on to the next step. Thanks.Jim

i have asked royal mail 2 trace the package which i told jim, i also gave him refrence number of the trace and a telephone number of the person dealing with this, how do i know jim never received the beanie he cant prove that he didnt, if i hadnt sent the package then i would have told him that i recevied his, i would of done just what hes doing and said i never got it, i have been i hospital and been very ill, which jim knows as i told him this on several occasions, i told him that if the post office can tell me that he hasnt receivd the package then i would send him another one, i am waiting for them 2 let me know, as far as i am concerned you can infrom the police as i have nothing 2 hide, i have very good on line refrences and no one has ever said that they havent received there beanie, i think that this bloke is just trying it on and i am preperd to prove it, thanks 4 giving me plenty of time to reply

Cautionlist:  Please note that she told Jim on 13th that she was  going into hospital on 14th for a week but she emails me on 16th saying she had been in hospital not that she was going or had that day gotten out!!!

hi, i am going too seek advice from my local trading standards board, as soon as i have spoken to them tomarrow i will email you and let you know what they say, if they say the same as you then it seem i will have 2 send him another buckingham beanie and that will mean i will be losing out, as he could well have the one i sent him in the first place, i am also going 2 seek advice from a soliator and find out there views on this, as i am being slandered all over the internet when i havent done anything wrong, i sent him that beanie and i dont con people i have been brought up better than that and i am sorry that it has come to this, but i will prove my inicents, and i will email you at some point tomarrow

i had a letter from the royal mail today saying that they cant track one small parcel if it wasnt sent by recored delivery, they have given me £30.00 compenstion, i also spoke to a lady at the trading standards in trowbridge today (who has a recored of my call) i told her the situation and she gave me some good advice, as i cant prove that the package was not received i am going to offer the compenstion to jim through you, and as i cant prove that he didnt get the package (or so he says) i would prefer to send the money to you and you can either forward it 2 jim or he can collect it from you, this way i will have a record of the cheque being cashed, i sent him the beanie and i refuse to send anything else to him, i will by all means send the cheque to you, and that way i will know that he got it, i hope that this will solve the problem, please reply as soon as possible, as i dont expect to be on line again untill after xmas, and i want this sorted before then, michelle

i had a email from jim 2day, i asked you to tell him not 2 contact me, also i ahve purchesed a buckingham beanie and it should be with me early in the new year, but you havent given me your address 2 send it to? can you inform jim of what we have decided to do, email me asap, as you have asked for my replys 2 b quick but i havent heard from you since wednesday thats nearly a week, please reply as soon as possable, so i can get this beanie sent to you first thing in the new year

Cautionlist sent her address to her on this date.

i am writing to you on behalf my daughter michelle,unfortunately she broke her leg just after christmas and getting to the computer is difficult if not near on impossible. So i will try to keep you informed of the situation. As soon as she has the buckingham beanie i will e-mail you when it is in the post. Thanx Kay

as you will appreciate it is very difficult all round at the moment with Michelles broken leg, we are all having to run around and do things for her i.e i have to help look after my granddaughter while her husband is at work. she cannot put any pressure on her leg for at least a month she goes from bed to couch at the moment and thats it so she doesnt even get to the computer. i access her e-mails from my computer. she was looking in her local paper for a buckingham beanie but now it will be impossible for her to travel to get one, but if its close to home i might be able to go for her. unfortunately this broken leg has come at an awkward time, but then again when is a good time for a broken leg? i will keep you informed thanx kay (for michelle)

Cautionlist: Please note that on 23rd of December Michelle told me she had already bought the beanie and would send it when it arrived. Now she has to find one in the paper?? I have told her she could go ahead and send the money as she had said she would do first.