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Horology House / Chris Essery - Scam

JwRosenthal
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Evitzee Evitzee
I never spent any time on TRF as it always seemed a bit weird. But as the thread went on various people continued to make excuses for what he did; 'he made a few mistakes', 'he maybe didn't know the watch was fake', 'people got their money back so, no harm, no foul', 'he's a nice guy with good Youtube videos', 'must be some sort of vendetta against him and he's being railroaded', etc. So I made the comment that I was surprised that people were still defending him when the evidence coming out was pretty damning, he was scamming people. For that comment I was immediately, permanently banned from TRF. There's obviously more going on than what is being reported and feelings are touchy. Very odd bunch of people, imo.
How dare you offer a counterpoint!
Mods!!! 馃槈
 
Andy K
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Evitzee Evitzee
I never spent any time on TRF as it always seemed a bit weird. But as the thread went on various people continued to make excuses for what he did; 'he made a few mistakes', 'he maybe didn't know the watch was fake', 'people got their money back so, no harm, no foul', 'he's a nice guy with good Youtube videos', 'must be some sort of vendetta against him and he's being railroaded', etc. So I made the comment that I was surprised that people were still defending him when the evidence coming out was pretty damning, he was scamming people. For that comment I was immediately, permanently banned from TRF. There's obviously more going on than what is being reported and feelings are touchy. Very odd bunch of people, imo.
Yeah, the defenders were strange - it was pretty obvious they only read the first post then threw in uneducated opinions - or maybe they just like being contrarian. That's nuts that they banned your from that since the mods were essentially chiming in with the same sentiment. Their approach to moderation has always been heavy handed. I'm very grateful that the mods at OF take a more tolerant approach.
 
scapa
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nzshadow nzshadow
BRAVO.

I have spent 10 minutes trying to compose a suitable haiku, you beat me to it.

Cheap box, weak font
Heavy hangs the head
that fakes The Crown
 
ReturnOfUltraman
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scapa scapa
Cheap box, weak font
Heavy hangs the head
that fakes The Crown

Cheap box, weak indeed
Heavy hangs my weary head
Chris Essery sucks

FTFY
 
K
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duc duc
Oh, he had a gambling problem? I'm sure he's a good guy and all those victims are piling on needlessly. He's probably got great character and this was just a forgivable one-off lapse of judgement.

Pah-leeze.

I鈥檓 definitely not excusing or justifying his behavior. I was trying, in my own mind, to understand what would motivate an individual to fall this low.
 
Walrus
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K killer67
I鈥檓 definitely not excusing or justifying his behavior. I was trying, in my own mind, to understand what would motivate an individual to fall this low.
Those possibilities are endless. It becomes easy to rationalize doing the wrong thing sometimes. I don鈥檛 know of this guy, didn鈥檛 watch his videos but there was a big thing on Reddit about this whole debacle a couple days before you guys started talking about it here. I thought of starting a post about it but since I have no knowledge of the guy I figured it would end up here by someone more familiar with the subject.

What I wonder about is why didn鈥檛 he even attempt to spin it and say he never would have sent a fake watch and put the blame on the buyer calling him the scammer. Couldn鈥檛 he have used his popularity to create doubt. I鈥檓 glad he didn鈥檛 I鈥檓 just curious why he wouldn鈥檛 have if he was already deep in the scam.
 
K
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Walrus Walrus
What I wonder about is why didn鈥檛 he even attempt to spin it and say he never would have sent a fake watch and put the blame on the buyer calling him the scammer. Couldn鈥檛 he have used his popularity to create doubt. I鈥檓 glad he didn鈥檛 I鈥檓 just curious why he wouldn鈥檛 have if he was already deep in the scam.

The watch was such a poor replica and a guy with that knowledge base and experience couldn't even get Alan Dershowitz to defend a lie that big
 
Bill Sohne
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JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
used
JwRosenthal JwRosenthal
How dare you offer a counterpoint!
Mods!!! 馃槈

Hi
I have not posted alot about this ... but as I said before this was sort of a "Perfect Storm" .. seller and a few other seemed to be coordinated in posting and defense and on some forums seems the moderators were not acting " MODERATE" ...

Be careful out there!

Good Hunting
Bill
 
Archer
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Bill Sohne Bill Sohne
Hi
I have not posted alot about this ... but as I said before this was sort of a "Perfect Storm" .. seller and a few other seemed to be coordinated in posting and defense and on some forums seems the moderators were not acting " MODERATE" ...

Be careful out there!

Good Hunting
Bill

Some have said this is just another case of a good seller gone bad. But the point you (and others) have made about the coverup, is what is most disturbing to me.

I listened to the interview on the Scottish podcast yesterday...even the guy that ended up blowing all this up was considering just getting his money back and moving on, but as time went by he ended up making it all public to protect others in the future. The initial responses were not kind to him, but fortunately the truth has come out.

It's worth a listen if you have the time...
 
Faz
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Evitzee Evitzee
Even on cruise ships you will find Rolex 'Certified' used watches in the shops, but you really have to know what you are buying as they tend to be over polished, and who knows what kind of parts have been swapped in and out. Rolex is a golden name among the public, most people think they are top-of-the-line, and many can be talked into one of these Rolex's as they are cheaper than a new one. They are often steel/gold Datejusts, often with aftermarket diamond bezels and such.
If it isn't from a Rolex AD or Rolex...it ain't "certified".
 
Faz
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MPWATCH MPWATCH
Deal with someone with an actual reputation with happy customers instead of the cheapest possible price....Everything is cheap for a reason.
It seems this guy (these guys?) had both. Hence the amplitude of the scam.
 
Faz
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Uniqez Uniqez
I just don't understand how he was planning to get away with such a scams. People from OF (@guaranteed.rohu ) were able to bust scammer on the different continent for less money.... Something just doesn't make sense here...
See "Bernie Madoff"....He certainly thought he could get away with it.
 
Deafboy
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Reminds of John Mayer's dispute with his watch dealer. I'm not sure how that one got settled, or any malfeasance was involved.
 
Faz
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Damn...I read the TRF thread..sideways. A lot of shit in there.

This guy (these guys?), exploited the power of social media, YouTube and forums in a way where many let their guard down and got burned. The reminiscing of the Steve Mulholland debacle years ago posted by @janice&fred was a great example on how people build trust before starting 'skimming off the top.'

Having been in this hobby for a long time, the two main ingredients for these scams are lust and greed. They attract each other like flies on a pile of dog shit. If I compare the degrees of lust and greed of today and yesteryear, it has become stratospheric because of all the exposure brought forth by social media and the damn "investment" factor. People buying the objects of their desire first without asking beforehand has become, from my observations, epidemic. Add the insane amounts of cash required to buy high end watches and voil脿!

This case was quite an eye opener and I believe it is only the tip of the iceberg unfortunately.
 
kippyk
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Evose Evose
Places like Chrono24 deal with escrow and I fully support that system. I can't imagine paying 29k only to wait 5 months for a refund on a fake. The mental stress over the situation would be too much for some.

Chrono24 escrow provides no security! The money is held in escrow until you agree for it to be released to the seller. Chrono24 will not return the money to the buyer unless the seller agrees. If the seller does not ship the watch, and the seller does not tell Chrono24 to refund the money to you, the money will stay in escrow FOREVER. A bad seller can hold your money hostage and Chrono24 will not get involved. If you use bank transfer with Chrono24, your money may be in limbo forever. You have been warned!
 
jhross98
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kippyk kippyk
Chrono24 escrow provides no security! The money is held in escrow until you agree for it to be released to the seller. Chrono24 will not return the money to the buyer unless the seller agrees. If the seller does not ship the watch, and the seller does not tell Chrono24 to refund the money to you, the money will stay in escrow FOREVER. A bad seller can hold your money hostage and Chrono24 will not get involved. If you use bank transfer with Chrono24, your money may be in limbo forever. You have been warned!

yes i second this. you should put zero faith in chrono24 escrow and i have heard of some nightmare conversations about trying to undo problem situations
 
K
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Deafboy Deafboy
Reminds of John Mayer's dispute with his watch dealer. I'm not sure how that one got settled, or any malfeasance was involved.

Mayer dropped the suit and issued a press release apologizing and clarified that there was no settlement or money exchanged
 
P
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Does buying full PM for Rolex sports models mitigate the risk?

The idea is it would be significantly costly to fake a PM and the demand is not as big as for SS.
 
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