This may already have been covered on this forum, but I believe everyone needs to be aware of this guy. I ordered from him on 11/4/09, he immediately charged my debit card. As of today, 2/18/10, I have not received my order, have not received a refund, and have not received an answer to any of my dozens of emails, and dozens of voicemails. A simple google search of this guy will get pages of forums with pages of people who have been ripped off by this guy.
it’s good that you used a cc. my problem with them was getting bad reg. 4x. then they gave up and never responded. i contacted my cc co. and after going thru the proper procedures the cc co. refunded my money. funny thing t. hargrave set up his own message board, just go in there and see many complaints are on his own board. my 2 cents if you do bussiness with this co. they only have a 25 - 33 % chance of getting it right the first time and in a timely manner
Yes, it’s amazing that this guy is able to continue to operate. I don’t mean to denigrate the state of Alabama, but come on. I’ve filed a complaint with my own state’s attorney general’s office, who responded that they were investigating. I filed a complaint with the Alabama attorney general’s office - no response at all. I filed a complaint at the FBI’s internet crime site, no response. I notified the IRS along with several links to people who aren’t getting their goods. I figured they may be interested in how much money this guy was making, since he doesn’t seem to actually ship goods,then the money sent to him is essentially all profit. I filed a complaint with the BBB of Huntsville, and they have responded that they are investigating. A simple google search should give the state of AL enough evidence to shut this guy down. He actually brags that he welcomes these complaints, as they only cause people to come to his website more, increasing his rankings with google. The cajones the guy has is amazing, but I suppose since he doesn’t have to worry about any retribution, why not? If you’re going to order from this guy, you may as well send me the money. I won’t be sending you anything in return, but at least I’ll tell you up front that I’m not. I wouldn’t be considered a thief under those circumstances…
I have send dozens of emails and left dozens of voicemails, and this guy refuses to respond. However, he apparently trolls forums looking for anything about him and he leaves messages such as this one located at http://www.topix.net/forum/source/whnt/TTFEUBG9Q93FOFLOU/p3#lastPost
Tom Hargrave
Florence, AL
Reply »
|Report Abuse
|Judge it!
|#46
Yesterday Yes I am a thief and I took all of your hard earned money and I have laughed all the way to the bank! Please understand I needed your money so I could pick up gay guys and have my way with them. It cost alot of money to hook up with young hot guys! I will keep on ripping you off and laughing behind your back. Please check out my website for more great ways for me to steal from you! I mean more great deals!
I’m not defending the guy, but Topix lets you enter any name you like and post on their sites. Look at the city on the first post by Tom on the first page and the post you link to. That’s entered automatically by the system so it’s a better gauge than the name. The Chicago Tribune used to use Topix and what a mess that was.
Don’t bet that it isn’t him. I of course have no way of knowing, but it goes right along with many of his comments, some of them even on his own message forum. He tends to like to dare people and antagonize. If he spent 1/10th of the time he spends on various forums and fulfilled his business obligations, he would be able to keep up. And for whatever reason, he seems to just continue to be able to keep up his scam. The state of AL and the city of Huntsville don’t seem to be worried about it. I’ve made complaints to every agency out there, and the only ones I’ve heard back from is the Better Business Bureau, (not much authority there) and my own state (Texas) attorney general’s office. Not a word from the AL attorney general’s office, not a word from the Huntsville police dept, nothing from the FTC, nothing from the internet crime site and I could go on and on. This guy is obviously not worried about it, and it seems that he has good reason not to be worried. One day a lawyer is going to be ripped off by him, then maybe a class action lawsuit will put him out of business, but from my own experience, that’s the only thing that will cause him any heartburn.
Sorry for the rant, but I see this guy getting away with this for years and years, it tends to make me very angry. Of course, the fact that he ripped me off angers me as well, but knowing that more people are being ripped off every day and the authorities are looking the other way really gets to me. Doesn’t say a lot for the state of AL.
I did a couple of transactions with him before all of this bad stuff started. The last order was for three manifolds. I got the package promptly, but with only one manifold in it. That’s always a tough spot for the consumer, because once you’ve opened it you have no proof. I sent several e-mails to Tom with no response. I finally found his phone number and called him. He took my word for it and sent the two manifolds promptly, saying that the packing guys were always screwing up.
Based on what I’ve read online since then, I was very lucky. He wasn’t such a bad guy at one time, just a terrible businessman.
I did a couple of transactions with him before all of this bad stuff started. The last order was for three manifolds. I got the package promptly, but with only one manifold in it. That’s always a tough spot for the consumer, because once you’ve opened it you have no proof. I sent several e-mails to Tom with no response. I finally found his phone number and called him. He took my word for it and sent the two manifolds promptly, saying that the packing guys were always screwing up.
Based on what I’ve read online since then, I was very lucky. He wasn’t such a bad guy at one time, just a terrible businessman.
[/quote
No disrespect to you here meant, but a thief is a thief. An opportunity presented itself and he took advantage of it. If he was truly a decent person, he would’ve stopped accepting orders when he got so far behind as he states. Instead he simply let the orders keep coming, all the while he knew he couldn’t fulfill the orders. And from what I’m seeing on many, many forums out there, he continues with the scam. All the while, the state of AL allows it, no one will close his website down. I didn’t lose that much money really, about $50. But there are people out there that have lost hundreds to him. I just don’t understand how he can continue with the scam.
I actually know Tom and I have bought a bunch of stuff from him in person since, for a long time, he used to be my LHBS. I always found him easy to deal with in person and he has given me really good deals on stuff in the past, replaced damaged items with no questions and has given me a ton of free yeast over the years. It sucks to see some of you have gotten ripped off.
Anyway, a friend of mine recently did some business with him and questioned him about these issues and he said he was in the process of trying to make things right. My guess is he got himself in some kind of financial trouble and simply couldn’t make right for whatever reason. He doesn’t strike me as a thief, to be honest.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand your frustration. I would be just as mad as you guys are if it had happened to me. I just wanted to put another perspective out there. Hopefully he will make it right in the next few weeks.
I totally agree with the other sentiment - he is obviously a terrible business man.
No disrespect meant for you majorvices, but I’ll allude to my previous post. If he were truly a decent person and not a thief, he would’ve stopped accepting orders when he was unable to fill those orders. Instead, he took our money knowing full well that he was not going fill them. I will also point our his arrogant and spiteful replies in many forums where he brags about the fact that all these complaints actually cause his Google search ranking to go up, therefore driving more unsuspecting victims to his website. If he would reply to just one of my emails or one of my voicemails I would appreciate it. However, he refuses to do so and for that reason and others, I simply don’t buy the line that he “is trying to make things right”. Do a Google search on kegkits. You’ll find that he’s been saying that for years. You’ll find that he has also been continually stealing people’s money during that same time. He has always got an excuse, but never seems to be interested in actually doing anything to “make things right”.
A quick update to this. Even though several people seem to want to believe that this guy is a pretty good guy and is trying to set things right, I just received a notice from the Better Business Bureau of north AL telling me that he has not replied to mthe complaint I filed with them. They have sent him a second notice. This doesn’t seem to be a man who is trying “to set things right”.