BEWARE: I think I've been scammed by Noah Schumacher (Vintage Audio Restoration)

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Luciano36

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Hi everyone,
I am writing this message in seek for some help. In August 2018 I sent Noah Schumacher (Vintage Audio Restoration) my holy grail Kenwood 600 Supreme Series for a full resto. I paid him $550. I am new to this and I was dumb enough to not to do an exhaustive research on him. He sounded legit and promised the world. I checked his blog (http://marantzhallo-fi.blogspot.com/) and looked like he knew what he's doing. Anyways, I've been trying to contact him for the last two months and no emails have been responded and no phones calls have been returned. Today I found out he's been scamming people for years. Please help me, what do I do next? Thanks a lot to you all in advance.

[Mod Edit] The subject of this thread is a previous AK member (now banned),
BigVoyevoda
 
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After writing a bunch of emails telling him I was going to involve the police, he responded saying he's been ill and that he has the amplifier and that it's almost finished and that he'd like to finish it for me. I asked him to send me photos now to prove he's not the scam a lot of people are saying he is. Maybe someone here that's close to that address can go see if the amplifier is there? Besides contacting the police, I really don't know what else to do. I do want the amp back... I feel sooo stupid.
 
After writing a bunch of emails telling him I was going to involve the police, he responded saying he's been ill and that he has the amplifier and that it's almost finished and that he'd like to finish it for me. I asked him to send me photos now to prove he's not the scam a lot of people are saying he is. Maybe someone here that's close to that address can go see if the amplifier is there? Besides contacting the police, I really don't know what else to do. I do want the amp back... I feel sooo stupid.

I looked at the links you provided, what is freaking you out so much? The amount of places he has lived?
 
The fact that plenty of people are claiming he's a scam, that's freaking me out. He's doing to me exactly what's done to many others apparently. There is a long thread here on Audiokarma dedicated to him and how he's not trustworthy at all. I just found it.
 
I had the misfortune of feeling sorry for him when he was first starting out 4 years ago.
Several of us spent time “mentoring “ him.
Very personable and charismatic young fellow.
Spent months on the phone and via email going over vintage electronic repair as did several other techs here on AK.
He asked if I had any as is units for him to work on.
I said I could send him a cosmetically nice 2230 to restore.
He said he would pay me back just as soon as he could.
I sent it to him well packed via FedEx.
I saw that it was delivered.
I texted and emailed him several times if he got it ok.
After 3 weeks of my constant emails he finally said “yeahI got it”.
That was the last I heard from him .

It’s ok, I did it with the best intentions and have no trouble sleeping at night.

Other AKrs have contacted me with their tales of woe with him.

I got off easy compared to what he did to them.


Bob
 
Yeah you are in a tough spot on this one... a couple of years ago I "almost" sent my STA-2000 to him.
I was fortunate enough to ask around first and quickly got a sense for how he works (or doesn't as it seems).

You are definitely not alone but recovery options seem few and the few people i have heard of actually "recovering their gear" were able to do so by CONSTANT contact/threats/exposure etc. and even then lots of horror stories of poorly packaged goods for return or straight out damaged gear (that wasn't so before he got them).

Very sorry to hear you are in this situation, truly hope you get some sort of resolution.
Good Luck

Ben
 
I still can believe this guy keep stealing and scamming people as today. The police in Boulder CO must have heard about him by now. I gave him until tomorrow to send the amp back.
 
It took me so long to finally buy a Kenwood 600...I was going to get it restored and keep it forever. I just can't believe it... ****!!!!
 
Good luck though I am afraid your amp is gone for good.
Police might take a report but that's about it. It's a civil matter, take it to small claims court could be the response you would get from the police or USPS, etc.
You'd think if you sent it by US Post Office the feds would be interested but most likely that will not be the case.
I hate people like that, constantly and continuously stealing from people even though the "authorities" know it but won't do anything about it.
About your only chance, and it's a small one, would be to go there and confront him face to face. But is it really worth the effort since you may not even see him or get any restitution.
 
It took me so long to finally buy a Kenwood 600...I was going to get it restored and keep it forever. I just can't believe it... ****!!!!

Personally I wouldn't "give up," but I would mentally start letting go of the unit.
I WOULD continue to contact him via email, phone, website etc. regardless of his response (or lack thereof) I'd keep hammering him.
Contacting (i.e. harassing) him would be my newest "hobby."

If you are on social media, I would share your story and experience with him etc.... remember it isn't libel/slander if its true!

Ben
 
He just sent me photos after all these months and he has NOT worked on the amp at all. It looks exactly like it did when I sent it to him. Now he's asking me to pay for a shipping label. FML
 
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