There's perhaps another scenario that's not been considered.

You say you are suspicious because two previous orders were purchased with the same CC and sent to the same address. Suppose the first two orders were fraudulent too, bought on a stolen CC, and the real owner of the CC is just now realizing it and missed the first two orders. That would all fit. 3rd time, the scammer got caught. I know I'm not as diligent as I should be reviewing my monthly CC statement. Although, I would probably not overlook a $400 purchase.

Timeline dates are off. 2/4/2018 is what I believe you meant, when you emailed him.

Where's there's one, there's more. Don't be so sure of yourself that it can't be done.

So that's the answer!

The OP should start charging his honest customers more to make up for what he loses in scams like these.

Well done sir!

Why wouldn't the OP do what every other business does?

He's not running a charity.

Well if he had, he probably wouldn't have started this thread and it would just be business as usual. Lesson learned.

I don’t deal with PBResource because of their practices. I have in the past, but not anymore. I just don’t buy gottlieb machines because I know there’s more work involved for me to get parts. If they can’t provide an enjoyable purchasing experience, then they don’t deserve my money.

I live in Kansas and go to Texas 4-5 times a year. I gas up at the same places. Fairly predictable. And if I am going somewhere new I will call my CC company and advise them they will be seeing charges from new places.

In December, I was at me destination in Texas and my phone rang. It is my CC company asking if I made any charges in Colorado. I said no. There were two charges in Denver to my CC for gas. We are not talking $20-$30 for gas. There were two separate charges for just over $1000.00 each !

Of course, the CC company said I would not be charged. I do not know about the "poor" company that accepted the CC.

My CC was canceled. OK. How am I going to get home? I need gas. I had to set up a special password and call the CC company when I needed to stop for gas. The card would be "turned on" for 10-15 minutes so I could gas up. This procedure lasted until my new CC came in the mail.

I have not been to Colorado for 25 years. I only thing I can think of is that I got a "F" you from the Equifax date breach that gave up all the the information for 150 million of us.

On the contrary I find dealing with PBResource a most enjoyable buying experience. One on one customer service, a very knowledgable staff, quality parts, a 10% discount for orders over $100 (may have something to do with not taking credit cards or paypal), fast delivery, and most of all they trust me the consumer because I pay my bills.

But each person has his own idea what makes an enjoyable purchasing experience.

I don't get it, man. I call Steve, tell him I have some part numbers for items I need and tell him that are other items I don't have pat numbers for. I place my order and my parts usually arrive in 3-4 days. As soon as the package arrives I verify inventory. Then I sit down and write the check and make sure it is in the mail by the next day. He ships fast. I pay fast. We both like it that way.

Twice I was shorted, called Steve about the shortage and the missing parts arrived 2-3 days later.

Dealt with PBR many times and have never had any issues what-so-ever. Every single time whatever person I am talking to has been extremely nice to me and it went super smooth; and spoilers, I don't like people.
I'm not as old as o-din (is anyone? HEY-O) and I'd rather just do everything online but it isn't really a hassle at all.

It might take some of the emotional trauma out of it, if you consider that you're actually out $400 or all the product shipped, you're not at an ~$800 loss.

I deal with PBR a lot. Just have your customer number ready so they don't have to look you up. Quality parts delivered quickly for a good price. Never had a problem.

Have they ever over shipped a product?

I tell ya!

Back in the day we used to have to saddle up our horses and ride 100 miles thru the snow to get our pinball parts. And those vendors only took gold in payment!

I process about 50 credit card purchases a day (four times that during the holidays) and rarely get more than a dozen charge backs over the span of a year. When I'm notified of a dispute, I use the phone, not email, to contact the customer directly. Once you remind them of the product and the date it was delivered, they almost always admit their mistake and make it right. Most of the time, they just don't associate the name of your business with the product they bought and mistakenly thought the charge was fraudulent. In my experience, an order going to the billing address is never due to a stolen credit card.

Regardless of what else has happened, even *if* you got the money or the product back: a ton of your time has also been stolen to deal with this.

This is a really crummy situation. Sorry.

You’ll be arguing for a return to the barter system by the time this thread resolves. How many LED flashers for a bushel of radishes?

And credit card companies will refund any fraudulent purchases. How many thiefs do you know who will return stolen cash?
Cash is a last resort.

No.

Well, plus 1 for that. Half the time I can't figure out what the company I bought something is. I buy something from X-Y-Z in New York and the charging name is BF Egypt located in Georgia. and I am scratching my head trying what I bought from who and from where.

I have a spin on this. Maybe the purchase was from the wife’s credit card and the couple is on the outs and she did the charge back.

Funny how that works.

Pay cash. Use your back-up credit card. Have your traveling companion pay for gas. Having only one method to pay for anything leaves you vulnerable if that method has a snafu. Having a back-up plan can turn a major pita into a minor inconvenience.

I don't see how that would have leaked your credit card number.

So, CC gets stolen...
#1 How does the person who stole the card even know that the owner of said card shopped at PinballBulbs?
#2 So, a person steals the card, goes to pinball bulbs (of all the places to go to), spends time looking at all kinds of different things, adds $400 worth of items to the cart and then goes through the whole checkout process just for a prank? C'mon.
#3 If this wasn't a scam, why doesn't the person who received the order simply contact Pinball Bulbs and say..."Hey, I apologize for the confusion, but my card info was stolen and an order was placed with you that I just received. I didn't make this purchase so I called my card co. and reported the situation to them. They're going to contact you, issue me a refund and I'm going to get this order shipped back to you. Sorry for this mess and the subsequent aggravation it's caused you."
IMHO, If #3 didn't happen, it's a total scam. For this person to get their money back AND keep the items is total garbage! No way a person who has made past orders with a reputable company wouldn't call them up, explain things to them and get that order shipped back to the company unless they wanted to scam them.

I hope you know how highly I value that bushel of radishes.

In the USA if you get merchandise you haven't ordered you can generally keep it. That doesn't mean you can or should always keep it, mistakes happen.
Alternate scenario: Bulbz-R-Us needs to up their sales. Bulbz repeats a prior shipment to a previous customer, charges their CC. Customer emails, "wtf Bulbz, I didn't order this." Email is routed to spam folder, Bulbz never sees it. Customer never gets a response to the unread email, initiates a chargeback. Customer thinks they are 100% right, Bulbz thinks they should get their stuff back.

Real life example: I ordered a DVD from a seller in Amazon's marketplace. Seller shipped the wrong DVD. I contacted them and was told return it at my expense, when we get it back we'll credit your account and send the right one. My response was you'll send the item I ordered and a postage paid envelope for the item I didn't order and confirm this has been done within 24 hours or I'll get my refund from Amazon and you can go pound sand. They shipped the correct item that day and emailed saying I could keep the wrong one.

I have a back up card. And I always carry cash. But that would not sound so dramatic.

Beats me, man. I don't know how anyone in Colorado wound up with my CC info. I use this card for Amazon, Pinball Life, Marco, Home Depot, Lowes, Kroger, Walmart, O'reilly's, Autozone, If I use it at a restaurant, it never leaves my sight. In the last 12 months I have bought gas in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. Motels in Ohio, Arkansas, and New Mexico.

It could be anyone of these places. It could be Equifax. Or maybe not. But Equifax gets off hook by saying, "We're so sorry". So why not finger Equifax for a little bit?

And this is the 2nd card in two years that has been compromised. but the first time was for $50 or $60. Not two $1,000.00 whacks--on the same day.

We need a name. Give us a name.

name (resized).png

Herbert.

Well equifax didnt leak credit card numbers afaik, just ssn and other info like that. Home Depot has leaked credit card numbers numerous times. Could have been leaked years ago and just finally sold.

Maybe because the bigger crime was you eating at McDonald's.

On a side note, it must blow to be a seller on Amazon.

I can't imagine how many buyers abuse their over the top consumer centric policies to the detriment of the sellers.

I setup my monthly recurring charges on one card and use my main card for day-to-day charges. I call my cc company and request a new main card about ever 6 months just to be safe. I also setup alert emails for ALL charges and monitor.

Haha I don’t think McDonalds coffee is causing me any harm and that’s all I get there

I don't know, there was that grandmother with the scalding coffee lawsuit ...

(I do the same with McDick's black iced coffee, $1.50 cheaper than Starkbucks for the large and I kind of like that watery taste on a hot summer day).

Ah. another case of balls in a vise. Well that explains everything.

Sounds far fetched, though I guess anything is possible. Did he file criminal charges against the ex? And did he explain the situation to his credit card company? I don’t see how they’re looking to you, the merchant, to cover in a situation like this.

I don't buy it. Gotta be the first time in history that a person breaks up with someone and to get back at them, doesn't just spitefully get rid of the games, but rather places a stolen CC order and takes all that time to install all new bulbs in the games to then sell them. Kudos to Robin for getting hold of the guy.

Yeah, why not go on Amazon with the dude's card and max it out by buying a bunch of jewelry to hock? Why waste money and time on a pinball mod that doesn't even really add value to a game sale?

Sounds fishy to me...

Ya I call bs on this one.

Bizzare story from cc owner.. but who knows, bizarre things happen in this world.

In the slightest chance that this story is true, why wouldn’t he do the honorable thing and pay for the items that were installed in his pin?

Whether he ordered on his cc, or someone else did, he admitted items were received and installed
and not paid for (aka stolen)