Scammed by Notion (no replies, no service)

I posted in "Hire a Freelancer" for an Instagram service, and found a provider named @Notion. (original thread is here: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/i...e-automation-to-grow-influencer-page.1070704/).

I paid for an Instagram growth service negotiated with this Jr. VIP (user: https://www.blackhatworld.com/members/notion.737655/). I have not received any products/service as promised by the merchant, and I have been unable to contact the merchant on any platform for the past two weeks. I have uploaded documented screenshots of this original deal, the shady behavior, and the lack of contact which proposes a scam at this link: https://imgur.com/a/kfWxm7V I will also attach these screenshots below.

Notion not only did not provide the service, but repeatedly pushed back delivery past his promised timeline, and never delivered; on top of this, he had abnormal, inconsistent availability. Notion also mysteriously changed his profile so I could no longer view when he was online, which I had been using to determine if/when the service would be delivered as promised, or when I could reach him. Furthermore, the seller never pushed back the auto-payment subscription as promised, and I had to cancel it before the second charge went through; during this period, I could not contact Notion as well. I want my money back, and have tried to contact the seller. I believe I have been scammed, and I hope admins can help me get my hard-earned money back, or at least deliver the proper punishment to this user. Thank you to the BHW team for providing a great platform for ecommerce; unfortunately some people such as Notion choose to scam using this platform, and I hope this will be resolved. I hope to get a refund of my original payment, and hopefully nobody will get scammed by Notion again.

(edit: Gupta Prathesh is not my real name, it is an alias, so no personal information is shared)

User Notion: https://www.blackhatworld.com/members/notion.737655/

Purchased child account services from above user on Nov 29 2018 for 500 USD per month. Was told initially that:

" warm up is taking longer than expected due to instagram really cracking down. Getting hit with a lot of PVs and I am using the best proxies on the market. So it's a push and pull. You should really see the followers start to trickle in over the weekend and really pick up mid week next week"

No follower gains were seen. I subsequently contacted to seller if they needed anything further on my end. On Dec 21 2018 I was contacted thru sellers account by what I guess is his friend (?) informing me that the seller was involved in a car collision and would have to make up the lost time on the service. On Dec 29 2018 2nd payment of 500 USD went thru to seller.

All further attempts to contact seller at this point were silent, no response thru private message, no response via email. No response when asking for proof of current work done. Paypal chargeback process and direct credit card chargeback process going on right now.

BassTrackerBoats said:

He is clearly bypassing any reasonable effort via PM to clean this up.

We'll make this live and he can have this handled in public.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your consideration. I truly appreciate the responsiveness of the Mods on BHW.

The seller @Notion is not only threatening me in PMs, but he also is attempting to make me pay full price for a service he did not deliver even slightly. He is attempting to charge me the full amount of the promised service on the premise that he "supposedly" started the initial stages, while all of his actions suggest that he did not do anything and is trying to cover this up with potential lies (charging me full price for simply accounts, which are only one initial aspect of the service I paid for and are cheap in general; furthermore it is impossible to confirm if he actually bought them for my service).

Here are the latest updates from our PM conversation, which he ONLY replied to after I filed a complaint here and on PayPal, which itself is a red flag, since I attempted to contact him for weeks prior to this. (here is a link to imgur: https://imgur.com/a/cAAtd4g)

The images or our PM conversation are also attached in chronological order below:

1.


2.

3.

4.

BassTrackerBoats said:

I've merged these two complaints about the seller together.

@MisterF and I will discuss the best course of action if nothing can be settled via PMs.

Click to expand...

The seller is refusing to give me a refund. The service described and agreed upon was not delivered in the form advertised, and thus the purchased service was not delivered (100 child-instagram-accounts fueled growth in a fast timeline, profiled to fit my main account, and automated) All upfront costs are on the seller's end and do not change the fact that this service was not provided, and I paid in full for this service's delivery. Delivering simply accounts would be a complete loss on my end as the buyer; Simply purchasing accounts is the cheapest part of this ''service' and simply sending 100 accounts was not the service promised. By only sending the accounts, the seller would not be providing the service as promised and agreed upon, and would be sending a product with a fraction of the value; thus, I deserve a refund.



An 'analogy' that may help describe this situation is if I was purchasing a 'fully-assembled new car from Audi' promised to be delivered in December (the car is the 'service' in this analogy), but I was only offered the 'parts' such as the engine and wheels (which are the 'accounts'), and told to pay full price for a 'new Audi car' when the 'parts' cost only a fraction of the fully assembled car, neither of which delivered at all and/or on the promised timeline.



No growth results were shown/delivered, which was the primary selling point/aspect of the service, and no 'fully-tailored and profiled' accounts were edited or delivered to fit the unique aspects of my purchase (which was supposed to be a collaborative stage of the 'service' process), and there simply was no delivery of any stage of this process within the specified timeline. Furthermore, an essential selling point of the process was the specified timeline, and by not providing any service within the timeline, and also not responding to any contact until a report was filed, the seller did not deliver the promised service.

I have not received anything yet, and the main selling point was the quick timeline and growth, both of which I did not / can not receive at this point. Simply sending 100 accounts would be completely unfair, and was not even close to the service I paid 530$ for.

Thereby, I deserve a refund.

MisterF said:

As BTB said above we're waiting to hear back from the seller. Do you have a recent screenshot of the message he's refusing to refund you?

Click to expand...

Here are messages in which he states he will not give me a refund along with the most recent communication.

Shitlist Request Approved

@Notion has been notified he has 48 hours to respond to this post.

PS. Reminder to all who have current issues, keep it PROFESSIONAL. No name calling or other insults.

Reminder to everyone else:

Shit list rule #4:
If you are not directly related to the situation, or are not offering information directly related to the situation: do not post in the thread

Seller has not even responded to my messages since end of December 2018. All further requests for a response have not been answered. Regardless of a car accident, which to be honest based on the pictures seems mild to moderate, there is still responsibility to buyers. And even he was unable to respond for a short period there is no reason he would have been unable to respond now. Further to that it is evident to me the seller does not want to resolve this amicably as I had filed a PayPal resolution process and the seller waited until the day before it was due to respond with a short 3 word response.

PayPal dispute is ongoing, seller has time to respond. Credit card company has credited my account for both charges of 500 usd, but they are still investigating. I am confident I will get my money back given this thread showing further support that this was done to someone else, the message he sent Gupta on Dec 21 2018 is actually word for word what I was sent.

rayhaan64 said:

PayPal dispute is ongoing, seller has time to respond. Credit card company has credited my account for both charges of 500 usd, but they are still investigating. I am confident I will get my money back given this thread showing further support that this was done to someone else, the message he sent Gupta on Dec 21 2018 is actually word for word what I was sent.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

We'll wait to hear what @Notion says as he's seen this and is active on here.

Notion was last seen:

Today at 4:20 AM

@Notion seeing as you have chosen not to respond to this, have a week away and I suggest you sort out these refunds ASAP.

If this isn't fully resolved by Monday 11th Feb, you're banned for good.

Notion was last seen:

Viewing thread https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/scammed-by-notion-no-replies-no-service.1087420/, 40 minutes ago

Can't believe thinking creating a second account to evade this is acceptable in any way shape or form!

I didn’t even fight these guys and let them win their disputes. If you need proof, ask them to see the case history.

I’m down $1,500 now.

Notion said:

I didn’t even fight these guys and let them win their disputes. If you need proof, ask them to see the case history.

I’m down $1,500 now.

Click to expand...

"I didn’t even fight these guys and let them win their disputes." - What, you expect a pat on the back for this?

It shouldn't have come to this, you should have issued a refund without all this hassle.

Once they confirm they have funds in their accounts, then I will consider this matter closed.

People actions when trying to resolve these Shitlists speak volumes and instead of ducking this you chose to keep creating new accounts on here, so you could request something and take from the forum.

MisterF, I let the disputes settle this way because that was a business decision. I don’t issue refunds. I don’t think they should be refunded. So to keep cash flow in my account for as long as possible I’ll let it ride out.

I don’t need a pat on the back, I need you to realize that I’m not fighting it.

As for creating new accounts, yes, I pay my membership dues and I will take a free resource if and when I need it.

Notion said:

As for creating new accounts, yes, I pay my membership dues and I will take a free resource if and when I need it.

Click to expand...

And you got a warning for violating the ToS as multiple accounts are not permitted, especially when you are banned/temp banned for rules violations or if you have an active SL thread in your name.

Keep it up and you won't have to pay any membership dues as you are on your last leg with the active warnings you have.

Thanks for your input Greg, I’m not trying to disrespect anyone here.

I’m just saying that I don’t feel like I’m in the wrong. You don’t need to threaten my membership here.

I didn’t fight the disputes, as far as I’m concerned ... this shit list is over. If you have your own timeline that’s fine.

Notion said:

Thanks for your input Greg, I’m not trying to disrespect anyone here.

I’m just saying that I don’t feel like I’m in the wrong. You don’t need to threaten my membership here.

Click to expand...

I'm not threatening your membership - I'm just stating the facts. There are thresholds in place as to the number of active warnings one can have before they get banned and it is not a decision by any particular staff member but rather in place as a universal rule.

As to disrespecting - you certainly did with the 4 or 5 accounts you created over the past couple of weeks. You disrespected the owner, you disrespected the members and you disrespected @MisterF as he is the lead on this SL thread.

I’m sorry if you felt or still feel disrespected.
It’s not my intention. And that’s meant for everyone.

Sorry doesn’t change what happened, nor does it mean I would change how things happened, but I don’t want to leave this thread with anyone feeling disrespected.

From my point of view, we’re back to square one and there’s a blank slate. Mods, if you need me anymore, please reach out via PM.

MisterF, as the lead thanks for the effort you put in, I know you don’t get paid to be here so it may seem like time I wasted. I’ll make sure in the future I don’t waste any more of your time.

My credit card company credited me the full amounts for both months of pay, they also investigated and decided fully in my favor and closed that investigation. $500 USD for payment taken in November, and $500 USD for payment taken in December. Notion finally responded to me privately and as you can see publicly after going no contact since mid December 2018. Thank you Mods for helping out where you good and bringing some attention to this situation. I am satisfied with the situation.

rayhaan64 said:

My credit card company credited me the full amounts for both months of pay, they also investigated and decided fully in my favor and closed that investigation. $500 USD for payment taken in November, and $500 USD for payment taken in December. Notion finally responded to me privately and as you can see publicly after going no contact since mid December 2018. Thank you Mods for helping out where you good and bringing some attention to this situation. I am satisfied with the situation.

Click to expand...

Glad you got your money back, sorry the seller decided to act the way he did, this really should have been a straight refund to you.

"MisterF, I let the disputes settle this way because that was a business decision. I don’t issue refunds. I don’t think they should be refunded. So to keep cash flow in my account for as long as possible I’ll let it ride out."

Living in Boston, maybe $500 or 5k isn't a huge amount. Maybe the buyers of services who risk to invest $500 it's the difference between them paying their monthly bills and being evicted. You holding onto to THEIR money as long as possible is a shitty thing to do.

So let me make this clear to you Doug, if there is a next time when you sell a service and fail to deliver, then you refund the buyer straight away and don't hold onto their funds.
You decided to try to milk this forum by registering fresh accounts, to be able to get a freebie download, thinking this is acceptable - trust me it is not.

Next instance where you try to screw over any buyer by withholding a refund or you decide to break any forum rules such as creating several new accounts I will ban your ass off here once and for all.

I am firm but fair in all walks of life, as anyone who meets me in real life will confirm.