国产吃瓜黑料

In early November, Leigh Attwood, a 32-year-old Brit living in Manhattan, was hunting online for the Moose Knuckles 3Q jacket鈥攁n $895 puffy with a fur-trimmed hood. Searching on Bing, he found a black one in extra small that was listed as 鈥渁vailable鈥� on the website of a听store called 123Mountain, whose two听brick-and-mortar outfits in Colorado were听owned and operated by Frenchman Olivier 鈥淥liver鈥� Goumas and his Swedish wife, Anna Sofia. With large banner ads, great deals, and a no-questions-asked return policy, the site鈥攚hich featured everything from V枚lkl skis to Alpine Aire precooked couscous鈥攍ooked like any other online outdoor retailer.

Attwood noticed that if he purchased a $50 premium membership to 123Mountain, he could get five听percent off the jacket鈥檚 price, plus two-day shipping. On November 7, he paid for the membership and ordered the jacket for $824. A week later, he still hadn鈥檛 received the product, so he contacted the company through its Chat Live feature. A customer service representative named Peggy told him they had already sent him two emails notifying him that he should expect his order between November 9 and November 29.听Attwood, annoyed by听the delay, told Peggy that he听thought the item was in stock and would ship promptly. Peggy explained that available items are available for order rather than in听stock, and that most ship to the customer within nine business days. Attwood responded that this policy was 鈥渧ery dishonest,鈥� but he resolved to keep waiting for the jacket since he had already paid for the membership. 鈥淚 was stuck,鈥� he told me.听

Then, on December 8, 123Mountain emailed him a preorder receipt billing him for 15 percent of the jacket鈥檚 price, or听$123.60. The company said it still expected to ship his jacket between November 9 and 29, but听this time, the email specified a year: 2017. When Attwood tried to cancel the order, he says he was told he would lose the $123.60 as a cancellation fee, a stipulation specified in the site鈥檚 surreal list of , which also听prohibited reselling items to 鈥測our Russian cousin” and听compared any errors in prices or photos to a cat named Misse having an听鈥渁ccident.”

鈥淚n another word听you have accept rule of the game now we stick to theses rules,鈥� a company representative wrote Attwood in broken English.

Exasperated, Attwood began searching online for reviews of 123Mountain. Some customers,听particularly听in 123Mountain鈥檚 early days, had received听the gear听they ordered. But Attwood听found听many more complaining听about the company on social media,听to sites like the Better Business Bureau,听and in forums on Mountain Project and Backpacking Light听for more than two years. 鈥淎void 123Mountain at all costs,鈥� Jeremy Monahan .听At Ripoff Report, a customer named Jeff the company sent a collections agency after him when he disputed a credit card charge for an item that was never shipped. 鈥淚 order a lot of things online and have never AND I MEAN NEVER encountered anything as shady and backhanded as this Colorado-based Internet company 123Mountain,鈥� he wrote.
听
On Yelp, 123Mountain now has a one-star rating, with customers reporting听they have听received the wrong items and have been refused returns and exchanges. Others said they were asked to pay using Bitcoin or Chase Quickpay, neither of which offer buyer protection. Sara Benson, an Oakland-based writer for Lonely Planet and other publishers, spent four months requesting a $365.98 refund for a Big Agnes tent she never received. 123Mountain听issued her a check via eCheckDirect.com, but when she tried to cash it, the company's听bank refused to honor the payment. A bank representative told Benson that 123Mountain鈥檚 account had been restricted due to fraud.听

The company听ignored听Benson鈥檚 emails and phone calls听until she tried to shame them on Twitter.听鈥淭his is a legit check issue by a legit website from a legit bank account with legit fund on,鈥� @123mountaincom听tweeted back before blocking her. Benson submitted a complaint with the police department in Lakewood, Colorado, but she said听they declined to pursue criminal charges because flying Benson in to testify听would be too costly.

Sergeant听Ana Brun, who handles economic crimes for the Lakewood Police, says she has received nine听other complaints against 123Mountain听since 2013, but the knotty terms and conditions that customers agreed to when making purchases online made it impossible to charge the couple with a crime. 鈥淚 have one investigator who would have loved to get good charges,鈥� Brun says. 鈥淲e are outdoorsy people and can understand the frustration.鈥�

In a world of crowdsourced review sites and marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, it might seem surprising听that a company like 123Mountain could string along angry customers for so long. But while the maturation of e-commerce has given customers a wealth of buying options, murky businesses still persist in the Internet's back alleys, advertising their wares alongside legitimate players. Gear junkies听are particularly prone to getting seduced by screaming听deals and hard-to-find equipment, which can lead them to place orders on lesser-known websites. The Goumases鈥� seemingly infinite inventory has lured听online customers from far听and听wide, while their听stores, based in Lakewood, Copper Mountain, and then Frisco,听have听given听the company mountain-town credibility.

It wasn鈥檛 just customers who had complaints: gear manufacturers and professionals have also alleged that 123Mountain never paid them for products and services. In September, won a $109,281 default judgment against the company听in the Colorado District Court in Summit County. , the Finnish parent company of Salomon and Arc鈥檛eryx, won an $11,065 default judgment from 123Mountain in May from the Colorado District Court in Jefferson County. Lafuma outdoor furniture, Deeluxe snowboard boots, and Dragon Sunglasses have also filed suits in Colorado courts, and a collections lawyer says he knows of several other companies that are considering doing the same. In May 2015, a听Korean buyer named Duk Sang Yu won a default judgment for $316,003 in a Summit County Court over 160 Valandre brand high-altitude and ultralight sleeping bags that 123Mountain never shipped. “Mr. Goumas has used and continues to use 123 Mountain in its corporate form to perpetrate a fraud,”听reads Yu鈥檚 legal complaint.听This past听January, Wisconsin-based ski apparel company ArcticaRace听issued a 鈥溾€澨齛bout the company on its Facebook page, warning customers, 鈥淚f you place an order for an Arctica product with them you will not receive it despite what they tell you.鈥� Sources told 国产吃瓜黑料 that the consumer fraud division of the听Colorado Attorney General鈥檚 Office opened an investigation at the start of this听year with a list of 200 potential witnesses. Leigh Attwood is one of them. 鈥淭o him, it鈥檚 all a game,鈥� Attwood says of Olivier Goumas. 鈥淓very dollar he can get from people, he will.鈥�

During the reporting for this piece, the Goumases declined听to respond to multiple emails and calls to their cellphones, while听repeated calls to 123Mountain鈥檚 business number went unanswered. In a conversation with 国产吃瓜黑料 using the site鈥檚 online chat feature, Peggy, a customer service representative, denied that Goumas worked for the company or that there were any complaints. (According to Colorado Secretary of State business records, the Goumases are the registered agents for 听and their brick-and-mortar stores.)听听

鈥淟ook like you don鈥檛 have the right info,鈥� Peggy wrote. She explained that the chat feature was for customers only. 鈥淛ourn[alist] and you cannot read?鈥� she wrote. 鈥淪orry but I have real customer to take care,鈥� she added before ending the chat.

Interviews, public records, and archived websites, however, demonstrate that 123Mountain isn't the听Goumases'听first business to attract a long line of angry customers. In 2000, Olivier Goumas, then in his mid-20s, became engaged to Sofia, according to his Facebook page.听Business records show that they听started a ski shop听that year听called Tignes and Temptation (TNT) Mountain Shop in Tignes, France. Seven years later, he began selling gear and clothing online at . But in June 2009, TNT went bankrupt, and the Goumases left France for Colorado. Message boards from the period show 听about skis听they but . The Goumases next venture, , seemed to rack up the . The business claimed to be听based in London but customers reported receiving items shipped from the U.S.听Jean-Baptiste听Dorgal, a nurse in Lyon, France, told 国产吃瓜黑料 that he received the wrong pair of Patagonia Alpine Guide pants from the site听but never got a refund after he sent them back.听The site shut down in late 2012, according to cached web pages from the Wayback Machine.

On September 24, 2010, Sofia registered the trade name 123Mountain with the Colorado Secretary of State, and the couple opened their first store in Lakewood, seven miles southwest听of Denver. That winter at the , Olivier met Greg Gantzer, an outdoor sports and travel marketer who owns and designs websites for the industry. Gantzer says they soon signed a contract to build 123Mountain鈥檚 website. By late May, however, Olivier became testy when the site, with its massive听inventory of 50,000 products, was not yet complete. In an email, Olivier wrote that if Gantzer took until June 6 to finish, he鈥檇 be听paid only 75 percent of his quote for the job. 鈥淎fter June 6, you are a joke,鈥� he added.听

鈥淚 think we may be having problems with our conversation due to cultures and language,鈥� Gantzer wrote back in an email he showed to 国产吃瓜黑料. 鈥淚鈥檇 really like to discuss this with you on the phone so that we understand.鈥澨�

Instead, Olivier听changed the password on his server, effectively taking control of Gantzer鈥檚 work up to that date. 鈥淵our are fired,鈥� Olivier wrote in his slapdash English. Gantzer sued in the听Summit County, Ohio, court, alleging breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and fraud, among other charges. Olivier provided a hodgepodge of defenses, countering that Gantzer had caused damages 鈥渋n excess of $500,000.鈥� In January 2014, a judge decided in Gantzer鈥檚 favor and awarded him $16,564.听Gantzer has yet to see any of the money.

鈥淢y hope of collecting from this guy is close to zero,鈥� he says now. 鈥淥ur hope is to do something so that he can no longer rip people off.鈥�

In late 2012, the Goumases opened a second听123Mountain store at the Village at Copper Mountain Resort. In an 听published in the local newspaper Summit Daily, Sofia Goumas declared, 鈥淲e start at where REI ends.鈥� She explained that they would focus听on high-end brands, including European gear, and that customers could expect personalized service. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to get one of us on the line, and we鈥檙e going to try to help you any way that we can.鈥�

Olivier听allegedly听countered听negative feedback by posting positive reviews of his stores under both his real name and the handle 鈥淢ountainblack,” according to one former employee.听Google and听Facebook reviews appear to be swamped by dozens of positive ratings from bots鈥攆ictitious profiles that share听an identical sequence of links and reviews.

Locals in Lakewood and Copper Mountain recall Sofia spending her days chain-smoking cigarettes while Olivier fueled up with听cup after cup of espresso. According to former employees, the听couple periodically made their stores membership-only and created new rules to exclude customer visits,听preferring to focus on online customers.

Employees weren鈥檛 happy with the Goumases either.听Daniel Fluharty began working at the Lakewood shop not long after it opened in late 2011 and was responsible for packaging and shipping orders and responding to customers online.听He quickly became concerned about the number of customer complaints. One day, an irate customer showed up at the store with a lawyer and said that a jacket he paid for had never shipped. Fluharty was disturbed enough by the incident that he quit after four months. His final paycheck, he says, had been docked $350 for a ski pass that he believed听Olivier had given to him听as a bonus.

In 2014, another employee, Bogdan Peleszynski, won a default judgment against the couple after they failed to pay him $1,082.79 for his last two weeks of work. (Goumas denied the claim in emails and court filings, arguing that the check was lost in the mail, and offered to send Peleszynski a new check minus a $50 cancellation fee.)

Nevertheless, the Goumases had integrated into the Summit County ski community. Their two daughters听joined Team Summit, a nonprofit youth ski program that 123Mountain sponsored with $10,000 annual payments. The company logo appeared on team jackets and the team website, but the relationship soured in 2014, according to听current and former employees of Team Summit. After the 2014鈥�15 jackets were printed, Goumas failed to pay his sponsorship money or his daughters鈥� enrollment fees.

Instead, Goumas sent Team Summit a hefty bill for failing to promote 123Mountain weekly on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube鈥攁s stipulated in a contract听Goumas had penned and Team Summit鈥檚 executive director had signed. Both parties dropped their claims against each other in late 2014.听Team Summit鈥檚 bylaws allowed it to revoke听memberships with or without cause and, in January 2015, the executive board voted to kick the Goumases鈥� daughters off the team.

Over the past year, 123Mountain's luck听seems to have run out. In early 2015, Copper Mountain began eviction proceedings against the shop because of consumer complaints and late rent payments听but dropped the lawsuit after the couple agreed to end their lease, according to Gavin听Malia, development manager for Resort Ventures West, Copper Mountain鈥檚 property management firm. The couple is being sued for over a thousand dollars allegedly听owed to the Copper Mountain Resort Association for dues that supported trash pickup, recycling, and fire service. The couple鈥檚 new outpost in downtown Frisco, which opened in June, was shuttered over the 2016 Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend, one of the biggest sale听weekends of the year. A sign on the听front door listing the store hours reads: 鈥淥pening hour may vary if we are skiing or not. General rule less than 3″听no changes. 4″-5″听at least an hour delay. 6″听and above until legs get tired.鈥�

Their Frisco landlord, Larry Feldman, says they haven鈥檛 paid their $4,500 monthly听rent for December or January. The Goumases, he says, argued they were withholding it because of problems with the lighting and carpet. Even before they quit paying, Feldman says they kept passing him bad checks, and he plans to evict them. 鈥淚鈥檝e thought about locking up their merchandise,鈥� he says. The original Lakewood shop closed sometime before Christmas, according to locals, and the Goumases听put their $500,000 home 听on January 15.

If there鈥檚 a lesson that consumers can learn from the 123Mountain saga, it鈥檚 that it鈥檚 always听worth double-checking the credentials of unfamiliar businesses online before handing over a听credit card number. Rather than relying exclusively on one review site, such as Yelp, perform a general search for consumer complaints that might lead you to a troubling comment thread in forums.听Credit card protections are the strongest tool consumers have when things go south, so don鈥檛 be lured into sending checks or Bitcoin payments to out-of-state businesses. Trying to recoup a couple hundred bucks through the legal system is unlikely to be successful and hardly worth the time.听Stores听can always hide behind the fine print, and consumer protection agencies may take years to build a case strong enough to nail even the most egregious scammers.听Today, 123Mountain鈥檚 products are still listed on Google Shopping, which gives the store three-and-a-half stars.听And there鈥檚 little stopping them from popping up again elsewhere听with a new name and a clean slate.

As for Sara Benson, she ended up buying her tent from REI. Leigh Attwood cancelled his order with 123Mountain,听disputed the $123.60听charge听on his card to Visa, and complained to Moose Knuckles about the jacket听fiasco. The company told him that they were aware of the complaints听and offered him the jacket at 50 percent off. It arrived in early January, and Attwood loves it. 鈥淚 saved $450 in the end,鈥� he says.听