Looking 4 Russ customlabs

[Ivaniski]

Looking 4 Russ customlabs......

^^^ Yeah, BK's business model is a good one to go by. He posts the heads for sale when he ahs cast them up.

BlackKnight's My Dude, him and these other Customizers/sellers are the best that "I've dealt with" on a constant basis so far: Dave McCormick,MegoSpidey,Jessica,Random Axe,The Toyroom(Great cards),Doc Mego,CastawayToys,Austin and Hulk. I know there's other great customizers/sellers at the Museum, Just haven't had the privilege to order from them yet. In reference to Russ, I just remembered that i mailed him a nice looking Flash head (along with some other quality heads) to shrink for me.......Bye, Bye Flash!!!

[JediJaida]

Dang! After reading all of the complaints that people had about customslab, I'm glad that I never placed an order with him.

The stuff that I have ordered from others on this board have all arrived within a relatively short amount of time, neatly packaged, and in one case, there were a few freebies thrown in because of the amount of time it took for him to fill the order.

As for me, I get most of my stuff from our favorite customizer/merchant, DocMego, who is a GEM, in my book.

Oh Paul! It looks like you are going to be getting a LOT more customers now that Russ has gone out of business.

You may not have as many heads available, but you are one of the FASTEST shippers in the business.

[thunderbolt]

^^^ Yeah, BK's business model is a good one to go by. He posts the heads for sale when he ahs cast them up.

[YANOULI]

I think everyone would understand a simple "I'm not currently taking orders until these are done," as I've seen some members do.

Yeah, Austin has the right idea about shutting down for a few months to catch up.

[Bizarro Amy]

I'm not a seller of custom parts, but I have duplicated a few items that came out well for me and sold them privately. One thing I have learned is that I will never again take full payment for an item I don't have on hand. I work full-time, and I can barely find time to customize and do the bits and pieces I have sold, let alone the volume that some of the suppliers here handle. Not only because of time, but because it's not always easy to duplicate the great results you got on the first try. Eventually there are a few parts that I'd like to make available, but I plan to start with duplicates I have ready to go, rather than taking orders I can't fill. I know that isn't possible for some of the more complex items sold around here, but maybe sellers should be more realistic about how long an item might take. I think everyone would understand a simple "I'm not currently taking orders until these are done," as I've seen some members do.

[YANOULI]

Toyroom and TBolt are right, the stuff aint coming. Those of us who have outstanding orders need to take a joint action to recoup our money.
I live in the UK so one of you other guys would need to start the ball rolling as i don't think there's anything i can do from here.

Generally i don't mind waiting for stuff as long as there's communication. I myself have never taken money for stuff until it's ready to go but when it's a website with an electronic cart and checkout what can you do?
It was only 4 heads, so i gave Russ a bit longer before contacting him because of the Christmas and New Year holidays. I was going to email him last week to find out what was happening with my order, then all this came to light.

[The Toyroom]

Guyx1 (and guys in general)...

Seriously, I'm on YOUR side and I think this SUCKS! But in my attempts to shed light on this I'm feeling a little backlash coming my way....not cool.

Here's the thing...based on just what you quote from Russ' e-mails to you (and I know they're genuine...the man had a certain "style" of communication as it were ) I would NEVER had let the guy slide with an attitude like that. That's part of the problem...Russ thought he was King of the World and expected that people would wait indefinitely for that perfect head sculpt and he could throw disrespect toward customers left and right when they questioned his process (or lack of apparently). You are not the only one I've heard this from lately. I think it's poor form as a customizer and a businessman that he conducted himself in that manner. Like he was "above the law" or something.

I dunno...I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out how things got to this level and how we can fix them as a community. Maybe someone else can help me out in the points I'm trying to make...I seem to be striking out. I just don't want to see people holding out hope for something that's never going to come. Like T-bolt said, Russ has left the building.

[GUYx1]

Toyroom,
So what pray tell would you have me do?
It's not like I didn't bring this stuff up privately to the powers that be A YEAR AGO.

Every Issue presented here I have addressed personally with Russ.
I asked about the tiny head size of some of the heroes:
"my heads are in scale with the mego bodies the 8" and 6" . mego heads are way over scaled
russ"

Having a good attitude is all I can do. There is no other hope.
I am hoping that Russ CARES about you guys more than he does me.
Russ's orders admittedly date back up to FIVE YEARS.
Any attempts at expediting my orders in 2008 resulted in ANGRY EMAILS from him.
I tried asking why I was not receiving my orders back in 2008
"look i jumped you ahead of 25 order befor so wait your turn their just now getting what you jumped over they get done when they get done btw don't send me any more snotty remarks in emails again
russ"


He was mad because I could not figure out why he could not get orders out.
I asked if he could perhaps catch up on casting on his days off work:
"no saturday is family day sunday is to do's around the house and mondays is my day off
russ"

I kept asking if you can't cast on your days off, when can you cast???
Apparently Russ did his casting at the end of the year when he was not working. Thus you need to wait until 4th qtr for your orders unless he can fit
it in.
"as of late the last 3 months i've worked my job of 76 hrs a week but i'm off untill after christmas now this week shiped out 16 orders and i will be getting them all out befor christmas thanks
russ"
I'm not TRYING to suffer from Stockholm Syndrome like Patty Hearst, but
It's pretty tough trying to make all this stuff and still have a life.
I have heard that excuse many times, so I just have to live with it.

It is not like Russ it the only one heading toward oblivion while trying to make a business of selling custom mego items. All I can say is be careful and keep a good attitude, because confronting the mego customizers does not work.

[thunderbolt]

You guys that are holding out hope for your heads need to come back to reality. If the seller has left all forums, including shutting down his own, closed email accounts and Paypal accounts, it ain't happening. Not sure what happened with Russ, but he has definitely left the building and isn't coming back.

[The Toyroom]

What lesson Toyroom? The way I see it there are only a couple.

Here's the way I see it..and it's my personal opinion as both a buyer AND a seller:
1. I would never wait for an item as long as a lot of people here apparently did. 45 days would probably be my breaking point but I don't think I'd wait that long to make inquiries on the status of the order, regardless of the person's reputation. I'd start asking after 2 weeks. 45 days with no sign of product would be where I would draw the line and file a PayPal complaint. If that doesn't spark a fire under the person's butt I don't know what will. It becomes their burden of proof that the item was delivered. If it's never made it into the mail system to begin with then I think the customer has every right to their money back.

2. As a seller I try to ship within the same week(usually 3 days, 7-10 max) that the order was placed but if something caused me to deviate from the standard, I would most certainly communicate with the customer as far as delays. A good example for me are the playsets. They're very labor intensive and are not going out within a week. But they are very pricey so I feel I owe it to the customer to keep in contact with them as to the ongoing progress.

People may have thought Russ was communicating with them but I think the standard became for him to ship out a partial order as a show of good faith, the customer would be happy and then add even more to the order and the cycle would continue. And a snowball effect began.

3. I think a lot of people, myself included, have heard "behind the scenes" rumblings about what was going on with Customslab for awhile, now. Some, like myself, probably didn't say anything because we didn't have outstanding orders with Russ and figured it was none of out business. Which, technically, it isn't but I guess when it effects the community as awhole that we belong to, then maybe it is.

Others who did have outstanding orders from Russ refused to say anything for fear of being piled on ("Don't worry....Russ is a good guy...he'll come through...it's worth the wait") or because they feared they'd NEVER get their orders.

So we're all guilty in a way of sweeping things under the rug.

[BlackKnight]

Please, everyone should share their thoughts so this does not happen again.

Thoughts ?
Here's Mine.
If I half to wait longer than 30 days for Something from a Seller from the Museum,.. or Market Place..., I am Filling a Paypal Claim on Day 31 From Now on. (Unless ofcourse it's a Pre-Order, Obviously that doesn't Count.) If someone has all of my Money,.. & I have nothing in 30 Days,.. the Day after they will get a Claim Filed against them .

.. Now Obviously,.. if I am working with someone,.. or perhaps making payments on a Figure,.. or What Have you,.. & they say have half of me Cash,.. or something like that,.. thats a Whole Different Sport.

[Jerry68]

What lesson Toyroom? The way I see it there are only a couple.
1; We don't trust each other, which I will not do!
2; The one I think you are trying to get across is, after 30days we need to file complaints with paypal. This is the only way I see this going. The only reason I waited so long was the fact that Russ was a well touted person on these boards. Perhaps we as a community set guidelines for buying and selling. That we hold as our own sort of constitution? I have waited a lot longer than three months from some well respected people here. The thing was There was efective lines of communication. This whole matter brings a lot to talk about. I think we have a long way to go before this gets settled. Please, everyone should share their thoughts so this does not happen again.

[The Toyroom]

^ I think that's being a little Pollyanna if you ask me....let's look at this realistically:

- He owes a LOT of people a LOT of items from at least as far back as 2007
- He's effectively removed all lines of communication (e-mail addresses, web site, his own forum as well as deleted his accounts on other forums)
- As Ian pointed out, if you wait too long to file a PayPal claim the claim is closed. I'm sure most of the people that have been waiting LONGER than the 45 days.

So unless someone decides to file an internet fraud complaint with some sort of law enforcement, Russ is under no obligation to fill any of these orders because at this stage of the game he has effectively made himself "untouchable".

And if you think he still has the funds that people sent him just sitting there in his account to go out and purchase the supplies he needs to actually fill all of these large outstanding orders and they're miraculously going to start flooding everyone's mailboxes....well I've got a bridge in Brooklyn that you might want to take a look at.

We, as a community, need to face reality that the cash, the heads/parts, and Russ are loooong gone. I guess some people may feel the need to be optimistic but I'd rather be REALISTIC. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for all of us as buyers AND sellers...albeit an expensive one.

[GUYx1]

Your spidey senses may be tingling, but for me, I'm hoping 2009 will be the year I receive my 2007 items. Fingers crossed : )

[Megospidey]

^^ If you will notice, he's listed as a guest on that site as well. He wrote that before he pulled himself off every site and shut down his own sites.