Onlinehumidor.com

Frankly, probably should have looked through the trader's comments, as it's been an issue with him in the past, but here's the timeline of my interactions with him:

1. Jan 21st - I message about a post he had made selling some Super Belicoso 5 packs.
2. Jan 30th - I get a response from him letting me know he can do it three times.  Sweet.  I'll grab all of them.  Also let him know that I'd take a box that he had posted on the 30th, and ask him for the total.
3. Jan 31st - says he'll get back to me that day with the total (because it's very difficult to add the numbers from his own posts).
4. Feb 1st - I message him telling him I would like to finalize it as I was going out of town.
5. Feb 3rd - he responds back letting me know he had an "impromptu family trip come up" and won't be able to respond until the weekend.
6. Feb 6th - he places another post on TSBC for sale.  He has been online every day during the time we're going back and forth.

Now it's Feb 17th, he's actively posting/selling, and no response/commentary at all.

Hesitated on whether or not to write anything here - because generally speaking it is what it is.  Some buyers are flaky and that's annoying when you're a seller (I've sold here), some sellers are flaky and that's annoying when you're a buyer.  When I buy something, I try to pay and communicate immediately. 

There are a lot of potential reasons why this didn't go well, but it's at least a possibility that he doesn't actually have in his possession the product that he's trying to sell.  Or, he's just a really disorganized seller.  In any case, it's at least worth being mindful if you want to try to do business with him the potential difficulties.  I told him to message me when he was settled and it's just been radio silence.  So - yeah.  Buyers beware.

Interesting, I purchased a 5er from him as well. I got a similar explanation too, except I was informed on the 27th about him being out of town on a family emergency. I thought it was legit, until seeing this now. I've seen people "selling" things they didn't have yet before, and it never ends up good in the end. But I did receive a "refund" to my PP on 4 February.

+1 had the exact same experience with him over some Opus X Magnum O’s. Know of a few other forum members who have had the exact same dealings with him.

To Joe and the rest of the guys I apologize.  I am not going to give an excuse after excuse.  I will own my behavior in each of these.  I have been sick to my stomach since Joe and I exchanged messages yesterday about this.  I don’t take these type of comments lightly.  I am taking time off from selling to fix some priorities in my life.  From the bottom of my heart I apologize to you Joe and Gents. 

Update:

Chris messaged me about this, and asked if there was anything he could do for me to change the feedback that I had left and "fix the problem". 

I responded back and told him that if he wanted to resolve it, I'd still be happy to purchase the original cigars I had asked for at the original price he had posted them at (i.e., not asking for anything free here, just giving him an opportunity to rectify the situation) if he wanted to send them first as a display of good faith that he actually has the cigars in his possession.  I've been around here over a decade with unanimous positive feedback and quite frankly have no interest in ripping someone off over a couple hundred bucks.

His response:

[quote]Hi Joe,

I am going to get my personal life in order before selling anymore on here.  I want to fix a few things I caused or had done in my life.  Once all that is done I will gladly you sell the cigars you were looking for, if they are still around at that time.  Once again I apologize for forgetting our DM’s Joe.[/quote]

I'm going to take that as confirmation that he doesn't actually have the cigars that he posted for sale, and I let him know that I was no longer interested in doing business with him.  Others can choose to do as they wish.

I like to think that I'm a human being capable of empathy, so I will say that if there are actually valid things going on in his life that would cause him to either post things for sale that he doesn't have, or things that would somehow cause cigars to go missing in between now and him rectifying that situation (which feels really odd to me), that he is able to resolve them. 

However, looking at his trader feedback on his profile, it seems like this has been a pretty regular occurrence with him over time. My experience this time, the two responses on this post (as an aside, when you have issues like this, leaving trader feedback is helpful as it demonstrates a pattern - at least to me), and the following issues from the past:

March 1, 2022 - kept money from a buyer for 3 months, never fulfilled the order.
March 26, 2021 - kept money from a buyer for two and a half months, never fulfilled an order.
March 3, 2015 - comment about shipping being slow but otherwise fine
March 26, 2014 - another comment about late shipping
January 12th, 2012 - didn't pay for $1900 in cigars after a year(!)

I'm not going to belabor the point anymore, people can make the decisions that they make, but I'm going to say that if there is something going on in his personal life that is causing these issues, it seems to have been going on for over a decade (I'm assuming that my experience with him is one that has repeated more often with others that haven't left feedback, also). 

I'll also be willing to bet that he'll be making his next post selling cigars here in under a month.

Good reminder and great summary. Feedback posted

He was already on my "do not buy from" list after two canceled and refunded transactions in the past 6 months or so (had positive outcome previous deal with him in 2018). No harm done, so I did not leave feedback but now I see this is a pattern. Caveat emptor.

I guess I've been lucky.  I've purchased from Chris a few times in the last year or 2.  The only hiccup was once he forgot part of my purchase, but communicated throughout and sent the missing portion with a quickness.  Maybe I was fortunate enough that I only bought what he happened to have on hand.

Is that a common thing to sell what you don't currently hold, but can get?  Sounds like a recipe for disaster.  Either way, the "priorities" angle, while commendable, does not inspire confidence.

The guys been around forever.  Never remember an issue "back in the day".  Hope everything works out for him.

Selling product not on hand is soooooo sketchy.  Super dubious behavior.  I sincerely hope that's not the case here.

Chris is a good dude. We’ve all bought from him. Never scammed anyone, never stole from anyone, never sold fakes.

Does he refund too much and is it possible he’s selling stuff he doesn’t have on hand? Yes.

But he’s not gonna steal your money or ship you something that is fake.

I’d encourage Chris to only sell what he has on hand going forward but he’s a good guy.