Warning! Tonewoods SC Segoya SRL

[AGiormenti]

Hi everyone,

My name is Adrián Giormenti and I run a family-owned workshop in Argentina devoted to double bass making. A couple of years ago I was looking for a new source of European tonewood for some of our basses and I run into this company SC Segoya SRL based in Romania. I contacted who I think is the owner, Marius Nenita, who was very helpful at first. He asked me for a deposit which I sent, acting in good faith. It was going to take me a couple of months to get all the paperwork ready for the import so I sent the balance to this person, some $2,500. I never heard of him again. After 10 emails sent he repplied that I should be patient... and here I am. It's been one and a half years since I sent the money so I should start thinking I was ripped off, right??
The funny thing is that I met a guy here in Argentina that actually received once a set of violin tonewoods from this person in Romania. I think I didn't get lucky.

Anyway, if someone knows this guy or has had some experience (either good or bad) please let me know. It looks like sometimes he keeps his word and sometimes he doesn't, be aware!

Adrián Giormenti

[uptonbass]

Some 12-18 months ago we were contacted by the same Marius last name (if it's true) Ciprian. He told us about some great spruce for double bass tops and some great prices, he sent a sample that we liked and then I placed an order. I wired $14,400 to his company S.C. Global, in advance (typical business to pay in full import/export) Still to this day no wood, no refund just lies. The funny thing is we have been in recent contact with Mr. Ciprian and he insists his company has been sold to a French company called Romwald Invest of France, owned by Eric Pertuschi. They (Marius Ciprian and Eric Pertuschi) say we will get our money back. Lets hope and lets also hope other folks don't get ripped off.

If anyone wants more info about our dealing etc please feel free to contact me 860-535-9399

[uptonbass]

As with Mr. Giormenti, Marius also used the company name SC Segoya SRL when dealing with us. Hmm maybe we can put enough info together to catch this guy.

[uptonbass]

oh boy the more I google this...the plot thickens

http://dalemfg.com/romaniantonewood_001.htm

Marius Ciprian is also Marius Ciprian or more correctly Ciprian Neita Marius and refers to himself as both/all in his business dealings.

Names Mr Ciprian uses for his business

SC Segoviason SRL tonewood
SC Global SRL
SC Romwald Invest SRL
SC Segoya STL

Websites I can find:

http://www.tonewood.ro/
http://www.romwald-invest.ro/

info I found:

Sighisoara 545400 Jud. Mures
Str. Mihai Viteazu Bl.6 Ap.28
Romania
Phone : (+40)0745/865322
Fax : (+40)265/774927

AND

Phone : [40] (265) 771619
Fax : [40] (265) 774400

[uptonbass]

and some more folks who were ripped off

http://www.guitarsite.com/database/S...ssages/2.shtml

[benmoore88]

man that really sux!!

i hope that you all can get your cash back. good luck

[uptonbass]

Thanks! What's important is that we get as many folks as possible to see this and not let this happen to them. PLEASE pass it around.

[NENITA MARIUS]

Dear Marius,

Hard as I tried I couldn't find an importer so far that is able to do the job. I think the best thing to do at this point is that you consider keeping a part of the money for the work you've done and send us the rest of the money back. I'm sorry we couldn't make this happen but believe me I tried. Please let me know what amount you consider fair to keep.

Best regards and thanks for your understanding.

Adrián Giormenti

[NENITA MARIUS]

According to the Romanian Chamber of Commerce lows, a PRIVAT person ken not have responsibility in a commercial act or transaction between 2 companies !
In the commercial transaction responsible is the company himself !
You have send a payment for tonewood buy to the S.C.Global Forest company which now is part of S.C. Romwald Invest by taking over , French company owned by Mr. Eric Pertschi . You must solve the problem directly with the mentioned company.
We suggest you to ask a tonewood shipment to mentioned company, money reimbursement from Romania as option will be a very long and complicated process.
You have accused directly Mr. Nenita for scam and money ripe , in a commercial transaction between 2 companies where you have wired money in a company account,
you have receive unpaid sample of tonewood ,you have cancel the order.
You have harm by your announcements the privat person of Mr. Nenita.
We ask you to retract your partial informed announcements , if not ,we will claim you to the Civil Court of Justice of USA and ask moral compensations.

Gleja Oriana
Jurist

[Dave Whitla]

Interesting tactic to use Romanian "laws" to shift responsibility, yet threaten to sue in US courts when someone complains about it. Any reputable business would not hesitate to refund money paid in advance for goods or services if it turned out they could not be provided in the end. No?

[Freddels]

Just thinking out loud here . . .

Perhaps, we as bass players, shall avoid purchasing ALL instruments produced in Romania until the issues are resolved. This should encourage the Romanian builders/businesses to put pressure on the responsible parties to refund the funds sent.

[uptonbass]

Originally Posted by Dave Whitla

Interesting tactic to use Romanian "laws" to shift responsibility, yet threaten to sue in US courts when someone complains about it. Any reputable business would not hesitate to refund money paid in advance for goods or services if it turned out they could not be provided in the end. No?

His Dave...Yeah, he is so far off of what the actual law is, his words are just that WORDS. All along this is exactly what he has done, making up fake names and emails to justify one way or another that he has stolen $14,400. We can all type truths and un-truths but in the end I sent $$$ and LOTS of it folks and he sent NOTHING THIS I can prove. It will be one hard case to press against me seeing as HE still has the $14,400 and I NOTHING.

I get it, he is upset that his scam is public. While they are claming for their supposed "moral compensation" Ill be claiming for my FINANCIAL COMPENSATION.

I LOVE Freddels idea. Now that could actually do something!

Search S.C. Romwald Invest in google GUESS WHO the manager is listed!!! Nenita Marius!

[Freddels]

Originally Posted by uptonbass

I LOVE Freddels idea. Now that could actually do something!

It could definitely work but it would take a lot of work on the part of everyone, dealers especially. You'd have to contact the major dealers across the country and get everyone in on it. If we, as customers, also contact these dealers and let them know that we don't want any Romanian produced instrument, then perhaps they'll stop ordering them. It's a sort of seige.

[Eric Hochberg]

Isn't it a bit much to blame all of Romania for one crooked businessman? But, whatever works to get your money back...

[Chris Fitzgerald]

This thread has been reported several times. After a brief admin discussion, at the moment we feel that it would be best to let all sides be heard and let folks decide for themselves who is telling the truth and who is not. Seems pretty clear to me.

Just in case things escalate to include Talkbass itself, let me state right from the start that should anyone threaten Talkbass with legal action, our first step is to immediately ban the account the threat comes from and cease all communications save the paper variety. Should this occur, the party in question will receive a post office box address and nothing more.

Carry on.

[Dr Rod]

FBI

INTERPOL

[Eric Hochberg]

GHOSTBUSTERS

[Freddels]

Originally Posted by ehochberg

Isn't it a bit much to blame all of Romania for one crooked businessman? But, whatever works to get your money back...

Perhaps, but peer pressure (or at least neighborhood pressure) would get the most attention.

[Mike Arnopol]

I have to be honest here. There are a lot of good, honest people doing business in Romania. But, there is a disproportionately large amount of bad business going on there. Any very poor post-Soviet society is going to have a lot of scammers, sorry. I'm sure that the wood was an incredibly good buy. Which would make me wonder. Reghin, Romania is where the USSR had its string making factories. When the USSR went belly-up, some of the local guys bought the big factories. I was talking to a European Luthier about the scene there. He was telling me that the guy who has one of the biggest string instrument businesses over there also invested in a pork farm. Apparently he is making more money with the pig farm. And has no more interest in basses than pork. I'm just relating all of this to stress the point that it's pretty wild there as far as business. And if a buy is too good to be true---caveat emptor.

[AGiormenti]

To some extent, I had the feeling I might get "good experience" messages with these people when I post my story that would make me think that I just got real bad luck. But unfortunately, it looks like what happened to me is normal procedure.
I also got that email threatening me to take the issue to, in my case, Buenos Aires' Civil Court.
As I see this guy posted an email I sent him long ago, I will briefly shed some light on that:


I'm not an importer in Argentina so I had to hire someone else's services when I decided to buy the tonewood. This company I hired asked me for information about the exporter, technical info about the wood, and so on. Since the seller was getting a bit upset about all the information I was asking and I thought it might take a while the whole process so I decided (big mistake) to send all the money for the order in advance. After all, it wasn't the seller's fault that I couldn't do the import right away. After a while this import company tells me they can't make the import. So I sent that email to the seller explaining the situation, apologizing for not being able to import the goods and asking him to keep a part of the money for any trouble I might have caused and send me the rest of it. He told me I'd get the money but that's the last thing I knew from him. One year or so after that, after several emails from my side, he says that he can't send the money back according to some Romanian regulations!! End of the story.


At this point I really doubt I will get the money back but I'll be just happy if my experience is useful for other people not to fall in the same trap.

Adrián