DO NOT be fooled by a "sea of Green" - or judge a book by it's COVER - see We Don't Need No Stinkin' Feedback! FIRST (and you may get a laugh from too devious for his own good)

BEWARE!  - if you're considering bidding on an item listed by The DOsis
Have you already won (read lost in my opinion) one of his auctions? SORRY! - But you may have some recourse - or at the very least you can/should report him! And you don't have to wait 'til you're "taken" (buy) to report an apparent infraction - any bidder can report any item/auction if you "smell a rat" - down at the bottom of all auctions there's always a "Report this Item" link - and guys like this are why that link is there - use it!

Below please observe my opinions and conclusions, developed after "digging deeper" into The DOsis.  I offer the following to Warn potential bidders prior to bidding - AND -  to let prior purchasers know that they may have recourse!

Even IF TheDOsis wasn't/hasn't been violating any of the above laws/policies/regulations, I still wouldn't buy from him due to the following!!

boy, this could be risky for someone! - TWO potential major violations here:
1 - Florida Department of Revenue violaton(s)? - overcharging sales tax? - does he send the overage to Florida?
2 - eBay Sales Tax Collection violation? - overcharging sales tax?

first look at screenshot (A), from all of dealers eBay auctions I've seen, then (B) from FL DoR site

(A) dealer charges eBayers from FL 7%!

(B) only required to charge 6%!- check it out! (from dor.myflorida.com/dor/taxes/)

hmmmm..... I just wonder if dealer's turning the extra 1% he collects on FL residents over to FL?? - You're supposed to! (sad to say, but FL doesn't consider advertising/collecting more sales tax than required an offense - as long as it's turned over to them! - and they have a REWARD PROGRAM!)

all past (hint,hint) & present eBay auction listings I've seen from this guy claim "1yr Mfg's Warrany", or words to that effect in numerous places - as we see here:





*************
which is great, BUT - eBay Seller Policy says (here) that if you make those claims, you must provide the warranty - shown here:

*************



***********
so...... I'm thinkin' ... WHY DOESN'T HE PROVIDE A COPY? ... because (Garmin Warranty) says this :

***********



***********
sad but TRUE, again - go see for yourself at (Garmin Warranty) - and keep in mind - as an "authorized Garmin Dealer" he should know this!!
do you think Garmin wants an "authorized dealer" to misrepresent their products?

***********

this apparant violation is so blatantly devious, it's almost laughable if it weren't commited in such a "condescending" manner (see Hides Ins. Fee) toward bidders/buyers. It is the issue that started this whole process. (*Note - actually TWO very serious issues within this section!)

( 1 ) - this is easy - please see (eBay Policy) shown here:



*NOTE* where it says "may only charge the actual fee" ... NOW LOOK AT   what I've found to be consistant on his auctions I've seen:



THEREFORE .... $6.00 must be his "actual fee for insurance" ... RIGHT? .. that's OK isn't it?

WRONG! - you don't even have to leave (eBay) to find the following - but if you want, go to (UPS, or 2), you'll find:



( 2 ) THE $6 OVERCHARGE IS ONLY HALF OF THIS ISSUE! - see next section "Terms Violation", for the second half

(hope you read the prior section "Ins. Scam", as this "Terms Violation" section goes hand-in-hand)
Question 1: - where does any bidder/buyer go to get the real "skinny" (details) concerning an items' shipping, handling AND INSURANCE charges? - RIGHT! - you click on the required standard link under the "Shipping costs" within the top "basic info block" on any auction - as in example "A" below - simple!
Question 2: - do(may) sellers provide(a link to) ADDITIONAL information to further detail additional terms/conditions relevant to the item/auction? - YES - and they often do as (in all his auctions I've studied) in below example "B"

A:

B:

WOW! this dealer must really want to make sure his bidder/buyer fully understands all of the shipping, handling & ins. terms & conditions! We not only have the eBay required "Shipping & handling" info link, this dude gives us a link to additional details! - BUT WAIT! - let's see where those two different links LEAD TO

A1 - If you click on eBays' std. link in "A" above - you'll go to the LISTING PAGE "Shipping and handling" details area - makes sense! - see "A1" below:
B1 - However, when you click on the "Shipping Questions?" link as in "B" above - you'll be taken to a page (area of the item description) that DOES NOT appear to give further or additional details - NO - it gives us CONTRADICTING INFORMATION REGARDING SHIPPING INSURANCE - see "B1" below:

A1: click to see all

isn't "A1" contradicted by "B1"?

B1: click to see all

Hmmmm... am I seeing things right! - - INSURANCE NOT OFFERED? - - INSURANCE REQUIRED? - WHAT'S A BIDDER TO THINK?

well, let's take a look at what eBay thinks, shall we? - see (eBay Policy) below:



****************
gee, if eBays' saying (and they are) ... term & conditions ..."may not contradict", and need to be "the SAME"! - then doesn't that go for wherever they are stated
****************

I'm not going to tackle the "proof" of this violation here - I'll leave that to eBay, as they're more expert at it than I - but what I will do here, is ask you the following two simple (common sense) questions:

1 - If you wanted to make money on eBay, do you think it would be prudent to REPEATEDLY offer for auction on a DAILY basis, 300 - 400 items, many of which will cost you AT WHOLESALE several $hundred dollars, all at starting bids of $0.99 (99 cents) - AND ALL WITHOUT A RESERVE PRICE?

2 - How can and why does this dealer do it, each and EVERY day, with the CONFIDENSE that those starting $0.99 bids will ALWAYS grow to cover at LEAST his costs? (make sure you're seeing "Listing and payment details:" (Show), after clicking on any of his items, to see starting bids - and of course note that there're NO RESERVES!)

for those of you who do not know what "shill bidding" is, see (eBay Policy) - or shown here:

if any ONE of the other offenses aren't enough to make your stomach turn - this one certainly should!

for those who have already been taken by this creep, please get your receipts, emails, cancelled checks, credit card statements, notfications from eBay, PayPal or his payment processor "channeladvisor.com", "WON" items in your eBay profile/account, or even the "view" link to your auction if it's less than 90 days old - to confirm whether you experienced the same as I did below!.

if you're a potential bidder reading this, I've provided MY EVIDENCE below, so you can follow along ,,,,

before I bid (and "won") my auction, I was indeed aware of the contradictory statements regarding insurance as described in other sections here - I was as unclear as most would be as to whether or not ins. would actually have to be purchased , or not - WHAT I THOUGHT KNEW FOR CERTAIN - was that he definately was going to charge me $14.79 for shipping - not only was that stated in his auction, but see my details here:

as shown on auction

as shown in eBay "You Won" email click for full view

shown in my account "buying" info click for full view

NOW WAIT FOR THIS! - for you prior buyers - DON'T think that I'm just going to demonstrate how he DOES add in the extra $6 ins.fee, because - THERE'S MORE - dealer also "padded" the charges by $0.20! - he tried to charge me a total of $20.99! - even tho $14.79 + $6.00 = $20.79 NOT $20.99

admittedly $.020 isn't a lot (to you individually) - and he'd count on you to feel that way, so you'll say to yourself  "must be a typo, oh well, it's just another $.020 - I'll just PAY IT!" - or that you just won't notice it at all and pay it!

but UNDERSTAND to him - it could mean BIG bucks! - $.020 x @ 32,000 sales means an EXTRA $6,400.00 dollars for HIM. Still think it's a "typo"?

I suggest to prior buyers to LOOK CLOSELY at your trx. details. Look at your PayPal receipt, your charge card statement etc. - compare to your "prior to check-out" figures - as I've shown mine above - to see if you were also charged + $.020 as I was -

- now, unfortunately, as I discovered this when I first entered his payment processing @ "channeladvisor.com" - I didn't grab the "screen shot" there, but I can offer you the following excerpts from emails back & forth from me/him regarding the overcharge(s) - see below:

1st email to him: 2nd email to him: click either for larger image

his answer to me: click for larger image

so as you csn see in the email exchange above, at least he "fixed" the $.020 overcharge, but never addressed HOW it got there!
How could anyone trust a guy like this?

this is under construction - for now, suffice to say -what in the Hell does "Sealed ~ N Box" mean?
sealed (i)N a Box?
sealed N(ew) (in a) Box?
at the very least, this terminology "Sealed ~ N Box" is non-descriptive, vague and misleading in and of itself and NO WAY should be part of an items TITLE, see (eBay Policy) here:

under construction -

I believe that I've demonstrated adequately in sections Insurance Scam and Terms Violation, that at the VERY LEAST, his terms regarding "Shipping insurance" desperately need clarification and are at best confusing! and contradictory.

here I will show how dealer must intentionally want it to be that way for his potential bidders - that he purposefully creates a "doubt" in their mind about ins. fees - indeed, that he goes to great lengths to "bury", even hide his intention to collect the "$6.00 Required Insurance" - witness that.....

- a seller creates his listing by filling out a standard eBay item form in which seller chooses what is displayed to bidders/buyers. One of the sections a seller must fill out are "Shipping and handling" details which also include Insurance details, and you'll recall that his auctions show like this:



although dealer chooses to display "Not offered" for the "Shipping insurance" terms -he could have and should have chosen - "Required" - like this:



THAT'S  RIGHT - "Required" was one of dealers' options - which he could/should have chosen! - hmmm.. wonder why he didn't?....

TWO REASONS - 1 - knowing bidders who (& most do) click on the shipping link next to "shipping cost" @ top of auction will automatically go to and see the "Not offered" that's choosen for them to see, dealer can assume that they would "THINK" that the TOTAL shipping charges are (for example) $14.79 - BECAUSE THEY SEE THAT THERE'S NO SHIPPING INSURANCE EVEN OFFERED! - RIGHT? - why would they look FURTHER? (this "sets them up" for later)
2 - notice in the screenshot image above that if "Required" was choosen as should've been, then dealer couldn't (over)charge the $6.00 as intended to charge - eBay would calculate the real/actual ins. fee!
- OOOps! - almost forgot the 3rd and most obviouse reason ... wants the shipping charges to appear (upon initial/cursory glance) as less than the competitors!

IT GETS WORSE! -

many of you bidders/buyers have emailed inquiries to the dealer, prior to bidding or even after you "won" an auction, regarding the contradictory insurance "Not offered" / "Required" statements - and although the dealer "replies" quite swiftly - the (automated) answer is Non Responsive! The dealer actually never addresses nor admits to the "Not offered" terms in the reply - but mearly "mis-directs" you by having you "look elsewhere (in auction description), it's all "THERE" (in description verbiage). The reply is cleverly (deceiptfully) designed to make one feel as though "oops, my bad, if I wade through the intentionally LONG winded description verbiage - sure enough - now I see it - it does say "Insurance: $6 Required" - I guess I have to pay it!" - WRONG! YOU DON'T! - (because, no matter where it states "insurance required" - it contradicts the listing page terms!)

more to come

this section could well have been titled "Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover" - sage advise we've all heard from our parents - and they're right!

this dealer is a power seller with a @ 99.2% feedback rating - is it deserved/earned? - I say resoundingly - NO! - here's why:

1 - looks to me dealer practices "Feedback Extortion"!
2 - too many negative comments contained within supposed "Positve" Feedback postings
3 - too many "mutually removed" feedbacks - think they were positives?
4 - if indeed Shill Fraud is taking place (can't reasonably think it's not), then any Positive posts by shills (who "won" an auction) would therefore also be Fraud Feedback!
5 - too many negative + neutral feedbacks in last 30 days!

1 - take a look here:


then see what you think of this: (from dealer's "Terms & Conditions" section!)



there's even more to this - will post later - running out of time

2 - first it's a sorry state of affairs that I even have to say this, but here goes: Why in the Hell do buyers leave Positive feedback that include Negative comments? - are eBayers in general so frightened by even the thought (read "threat") of receiving a Negative post themselves - or are their egos so fragile? - that they'll yield to intimidation and actually cave to a seller, and leave him undeserved Positives? If they are/do - then listen to this - Then you are providing the seller with an UNDUE rating which is a DISSERVICE to those bidders/buyers who come AFTER you!! - Stand up for yourselves and BE HONEST.

please see a very small sampling of those Positive/Neutral FB posts - here - which include negative comments gleaned only from a short time span 8/07 - 11/07

3 - see "mutually withdrawn" FB's here for what some of them say (again, a very small sampling) - also note below screenshot:


4 - self explanitory - if Shill Fraud is the case, then friends, relatives, employees - even THE DEALER HIMSELF? - would obviously leave (fraudulent) Positives - right? - which SHOULDN'T COUNT and would unduely raise his overall rating.

5 - read in somebody's "guide" somewhere that if a seller has more than 2 - 5 negatives in last 30 days (let alone neg + neut), then there may be a recurring problamatic issue with a seller - are the "issues" commented on within neg and neut (even pos's with neg comments) fb's repeatitive?

Listen: - any potential bidder should do the following minimum due diligence to really analyze any sellers' Feedback Rating:
a - when you open a sellers' "all feedback page" the first thing to do is scroll toward the bottom and choose "200" items per page like this:

b - go back to the top and take special note of combined NEGATIVE - and - NEUTRAL fb's, especially last 30 days. - Huh? - Why note neutrals as well? Because most Neut. fb's contain neg. comments! - are there a lot?, esp. when adding the two together?
c - also note grey tab, where it says "Ratings mutually withdrawn" - suppose you can figure that those probably were all negatives as well!
d - this step can be most revealing - do "find on page" searches using Ctrl+F feature (hit/hold "ctrl" and "F" key at same time) in your browser (the one showing feedback). Do this on several pages of the sellers' feedback report. HINT - if your concern or "issue" is regarding "hidden shipping charges" or "hidden insurance charges", do your searches using "ship" or just "ins", as posters may have misspelled "shiping" or "insurence" or abbreviated "ins.", but this will catch those. You'll discover if there're (numerous?), and perhaps recurring instances, comments regarding your same concern - EVEN if they're contained within Positive fb's! - Remember to do this on several pages (200 views).

at first I thought that this guy was clever - then, too clever for his own good. But I've changed that assesment to "too devious for his own good" - which actually just makes him STUPID - witness the following:

I "happened" to come across a couple of dead "giveaways" into this guys devious nature which I may not have noticed - and believe that others probably haven't/won't - EXCEPT for the fact that he was TOO devious - first clue:



and BTW - this buyers NEUTRAL fb/comment earned him this from the dealer (beside my main point, thought you'd get a kick):



my main point here is this: notice time stamps on comments -it goes; buyer, dealer, buyer - right?
buyer says: "hidden costs..."
seller says: "...no hidden cost... Insurance is required"
buyer says: "...insurance, not offered..."

HOLD ON A MINUTE! - the buyer didn't mention "insurance" was the "hidden cost" he was talking about! - but the dealer surely knew! - hmmmm food for thought! - I better look further into this dealer ...

and low and behold what I found! - his Ultimate Screw-Up - this one is a CLASSIC - follow closely!:



if it weren't for the fact that dealer "replied" to a POSITIVE fb (seemed odd to me) in the first place, thereby drawing attention to it because the "reply" made this otherwise harmless fb TALLER than all of the others - I may have missed this one - but his apparent deviousness caused THIS pos. fb to stand out like a sore thumb mearly because he replied AT ALL! - it would have been better hidden and perhaps overlooked had it been neatly "tucked in" amungst other pos. fb's all the same height, like this:



that's a little of subject, but speaks to his nature of not being able to "quit while he's ahead" - too bad for him - let's analyze what's REALLY going on here!:
buyer says: ... "don't warranty if bought ...online auction" ...hmmmm..... wonder if  THAT'S TRUE? ...oh, must not be - 'cause dealer has an answer...
seller says: "Negative above" ...hmm... prob. not refering to "fast shipping".. oh, I see, this buyer must be just one of those whining "foreigners" complaining about the exorbitant import taxes - I've seen those types of comments before - AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT THIS DEALERS' REPLY SEEMS TO INDICATE!, AS HE DID NOT RESPOND TO HER WARRANTY CONCERN AT ALL!

don't wait 'til you're "taken" to report to eBay!

buyers AND bidders can/should do the following if you "smell a rat"...

suggest doing two things:

1 - if you feel you've been "mislead" or WORSE, regarding an issue - PERHAPS YOU SHOULD REPORT THIS SELLER - see below for tips)

2 - above is far more important than the following, but PLEASE EDIT YOUR FEEDBACK - (prev. buyers) by posting a 'follow-up' (AND reply to his reply if applicable) to your feedback (w/ LOTS of CAPITAL letters), potential bidders/buyers will more readily notice your feedback simply because it will be LARGER!

There are two main ways to report seller infractions - one(a) is FAR MORE effective than the other(b) - BUT SUGGEST YOU DO BOTH - for each and EVERY violation/concern that may apply to your transaction - OR - an auction/item you're considering:

a - for "shipping cost" concerns, which include poss. "excessive insurance" charges, or "padding shipping" charges - it's better to use the "contact us/email" form here, because it gives you a chance to specifically describe your concern in a textbox area. The "Report this item" link (which you should do as well) as below, will NOT allow you to mention poss. "padding" or "insurance" related issues - it will mearly report to Ebay that you think his "shipping charges" are too high (not the real "meat" of the issue).

b - go to your item/auction from link in "bought" item in your profile - or if bidder, just at auction you're considering - at very bottom of auction, click on "Report this item" - if you do report your item/auction to eBay, I suggest that you use the most serious of violations/concerns that may apply to your transaction/auction

Examples -
if you've already bought -
click here, then select "buying - after I bought" and "problems with seller" from pull-down menus - then use textbox to SPECIFICALLY describe suspected violation

if you're a potential bidder/buyer -
click here, then select "buying - I want to buy" and "finding out more about seller" from pull-down menus - then use textbox to SPECIFICALLY describe suspected violation