On Thu 31 Jan, Maarten Bouwes wrote:
It shouldnt be a problem finding out his new address. Dunno how it works in the UK but overhere its rather simple to find his new address.
Unfortunately my personal experience is that this is rather difficult in the UK. An ex-housemate of mine walked out of the house owing me two hundred pounds in unpaid bills and leaving me in financial difficulty as far as paying future rent etc. was concerned. However, our 12-month official rent contract had expired and we had carried on living there past that date through a verbal contract with the landlord, and through agreements made by letter, but not in contract form. A quick call to the Citizens Advice Bureau confirmed that these were very unlikely to be enough to stand any real chance of getting any of the missing money back. I'm bitter about it (a lot more bitter than I'd be about a couple of missing, but easily replaceable, videos) but you just have to chalk these things down to experience. I wasn't strictly allowed to know her new address (the person in question can decide whether organisations like the Post Office are allowed to disclose new addresses), but I knew the area of town she had moved to (down to a couple of streets) but what was going to be the good of going round there and trying to find her? I'd have probably got the crap kicked out of me by her boyfriend and be a few pounds *worse* off because of necessary medical treatment. I could, perhaps, have tried to persue the issue in the small claims court. However there was no contract that she had strictly broken- and I had been paying bills on her behalf in faith rather than under contract, so I wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. Now considering we're talking about bootleg videos here...
I know we are talking about putting our trust in some one but with a little cooperation of us all, this can be stopped. I know The Netherlands are a small country and therefore its no problem to travel from Amsterdam to the north (only 2 hours).
I'm really sorry to say that even if I had sent the guy 20 quid and heard nothing back from him, then yes I'd feel aggreived, but frankly rather than a possible four-hour (or more!) round-trip, I'd write the 20 quid off to experience and accept that that kind of thing does unfortunately happen. I think anyone on this list knows now that ordering from anybody called "Marek" or "Mike Dutton" could well be a bad idea. I don't see that hunting him down would serve any purpose. Is he going to answer the door, greet you warmly and say "sorry 'bout that lads, here's each of your twenty quids back and have a pile of videos and rare 12"s for free and let's say no more about it"...?! Stuart. -- Stuart Bruce - klf@atomiser.demon.co.uk or preferably stuart@atomiser.demon.co.uk The Utah Saints Mailing List http://groups.yahoo.com/group/utahsaints/