Tauhidul Hoque – In Response to Jeff Stevenson’s baloney
What is this about?
A used IBM Thinkpad T40 laptop bought voluntarily by Jeff Stevenson for his daughter. The laptop was inspected by the buyer himself and up on his satisfaction paid $500 for it. A week later he started claiming that he believed the laptop was defective and wanted a refund. After refusing to refund him after listening to his flaky reasoning (see below), he threatened numerous times. Lacking legal ground, he then started posting his sensationalistic twaddle all over the Internet.
How did it come to this?
After numerous email exchanges during which Jeff Stevenson failed to provide any sound reasoning, he came up with his ultimate idea:
Mr. Hoque,
I am not going to argue that it was working for the ten minutes that I inspected it. However, after sitting in the bag for a week it is now not working after being on for extended periods of time. That combined with the fact that all serial numbers have been removed from the machine make me deeply suspicous.
Here’s the deal: You can choose to refund my money and sell it to another sucker, no questions asked, you’ll never hear from me again. If you choose not to take this route I can assure you that you will regret it. As a graduating college student, the first thing a prospective employer is going to do is Google your name. Should that potential employer find in the results a description of you having ripped me off on the sale of a laptop, that would likely impact their decision to hire you.
Think about it- is it worth $500? You do *not* want to mess with me on this.
Surely, Jeff thinks he is a victim. By his impaired logic, I better refund him his money and sell the “now” defective laptop to someone else to become a scammer. Otherwise, his superior technological know-how will somehow destroy my life. He insists that I should be scared of him because he is a troll on digg.com with a personal website. Wow!
So, my response to Jeff’s threat was:
Jeff,
Do as you wish because I will not succumb to your threats and baloney. By your own admission, the laptop was working – it booted up several times just fine and the monitor did nothing crazy. Magical! However, when the laptop came to your possession it was so-called “sitting in a bag for a week” and after “extended” use it became defective. Also, by your logic I would be smart to return the money and take back the “now” defective laptop or face the horrors of unemployment. I am also sure that you did not mean that I stole the laptop since it did not have the serial number stickers on them because I can easily disapprove that claim. Sorry, but I am not persuaded by your line of thinking.
People can do anything online, and I hope it stays that way. If you write something, I can write back – call it reasoning versus threats and baloney. You are right though – I am a college student, but not a store – I do not live by the “a customer is always right” mantra and definitely do not have liberal return policies. So, do as you wish – no threats from me.
The world according to Jeff would be a wonderful world for Jeff. A perfect case of the truthiness. By this time, I have had enough of his drivel and ignored his future emails that often contained strange requests (more on this below) and threats.
What Jeff Stevenson threatened to do has been done before. Buyers have posted private information and photos on the Internet after the seller forgot to delete them. People have sought revenge online. These things seem to get a lot of publicity, but often in these cases only one side is represented. I am writing this so that we reach a resolution.
A defective laptop?
“Thank you for taking the time to respond. It is my belief that the laptop is defective and not in good working order as promised. I would like to arrange to return the laptop for a full refund.
The problems are:
- Laptop screen goes blank for periods of time after being on for about
twenty minutes.
- The laptop often does not boot at all”
First of all, Jeff Stevenson himself had inspected the laptop and found it satisfying. The laptop started up and the LCD screen worked nicely even after multiple reboots during his inspection. Yet, this competent IT professional prefers to contradict his own expert diagnosis.
Here is some proof to what I am saying:
Image #1 – EXIF Data:
Date and Time (original)|2006:12:17 13:33:37
Date and Time (digital)|2006:12:17 13:33:37
Image #2 – EXIF Data:
Date and Time (original)|2006:12:17 13:35:31
Date and Time (digital)|2006:12:17 13:35:31
Image #3 – EXIF Data:
Date and Time (original)|2006:12:17 13:43:42
Date and Time (digital)|2006:12:17 13:43:42
These sequence of photographs were taken for my Craigslist posting. Notice the change in time between Image #1 and Image #3 – it is just over 10 minutes. (the ~2 minutes lag between Image #1 and #2 is due to the wait period of the grub bootloader) If you are still skeptical, you may download the image and check the EXIF data yourself. These photographs clearly show that the laptop was booting up and working properly. The laptop worked without any incidents when Jeff Stevenson inspected it even after multiple reboots. However, after the so-called “kept it in the bag” for a week somehow it became defective.
Jeff Stevenson’s strange and unnecessary requests via email
“Okay, give me a single reply if your conscience will allow it:
“The laptop was in perfect working order. There were no problems and it was working perfectly with no defects. The screen never went dead and it always booted properly”
Can you write those exact words?”
This is one strange email. It seemed like a trick to get me to sign a forced confession. I already knew that Jeff Stevenson was legal-savvy. After his inspection, he had me sign a document he had drafted stating that he received a laptop of certain specifications from me at the price of $500.
The Federal Trade Commission website states:, “Private sales usually are not covered by the “implied warranties” of state law. That means a private sale probably will be on an “as is” basis, unless your purchase agreement with the seller specifically states otherwise.” Since no such purchase agreement exists, Jeff Stevenson has no legal ground.
Conclusion
I am acting on what I know and now you know as well. I know that the laptop was in working order and so did Jeff Stevenson. He only paid me only after inspecting it himself and finding it satisfactory. Jeff Stevenson fails to offer any well-grounded reasoning- only threats, tricks, whiny hindsights, libel, and a self-righteous attitude.
I hope people take something positive from my dealing with Jeff Stevenson. I really suggest that all Craigslist users should draft some kind of document and have your counterparty sign it to protect yourself. Conduct your business in a public place. You would not want your frontyard getting vandilized! Be discreet, and do not give out your address or phone #. Try to conduct all communication via email and retain them for future records.
That is all. Thank you for reading.
–Tauhidul Hoque
A resolution
A bit of personalized message for Jeff Stevenson:
Jeff,
I do not seek publicity – either negative or positive. I do not want this ruin to things for either of us. So, my offer to you is really simple: I will delete this blog, if delete your posts about me.
