Looking 4 Russ customlabs

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[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.

[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!!!

[Jerry68]

I did not mean to offend anyone. If I did I am sorry. I think we really need to stay together. I am really thinking about filing an internet fraud case. With the emails I have from Russ and emails others of you have I think we would have no problem. Here is the thing that stops me. If it comes to the front lines that we are seeking our custom heads and such this could create a problem in and of itself. I am willing to forget my $ 32.50 for the order. I have already ordered replacement heads. I have a hard time with swallowing my pride on this! I am a very ethical man and I expect my transactions to be handled accordingly. Perhaps we should put together a more permanent thread like they do for the restaraunts, like the dirty dozen? I hate to do this because I think we can and should handle ourselves like adults.

Perhaps we as a community should adopt certain standards like; Paypal only,
thirty day limit then complaint. This is the only bad dealing I have had here. Everyone else has been upstanding! I look forward to doing business with more of you. The money I lost I can chaulk it up the same as I do a bad dinner out. The thing that still eats at me is the misuse of trust. Again, I did not want to offend anyone I am just sharing my thoughts.

[Bizarro Amy]

I understand what you're trying to accomplish, but I coubt that it would be possible. I don't think the moderators here or at any other toy forum want the added work of policing custom suppliers. The purpose of posting complaints here alerts the community, but other than banning fraudulent sellers from posting their wares on the boards, I doubt there's more the mods could do. Especially in cases like Customlabs, where the seller has his/her own website, they couldn't really force the site owner to adhere to a set of rules like that.

[Dave Mc]

You're right Del. I'm certainly not going to police members business dealings. That is up to the community as a whole. That's EXACTLY what we're doing here right now. That's what we've always done. Someone is bad to deal with and it can't be worked out, people call them out and report it to the group. WIth most of us, not just customizers, our museum rep as a trade partner is important. The comments of the group is the only real police action we need.

Sure, every once in a while something like this is going to happen, and it sucks, but for the most part we have good sellers and good buyers. We can't take one or two bad apples and try to impose rules on everyone based on those couple people. Want to get rid of those apples? Spread the word, just like what is happening right here. Bad word of mouth is the best medicine. What the mego community as a whole says about a seller or buyer is a lot more effective than anything the admins could do to try and prevent it.

As for the rest, if you have a 30 day policy before reporting to paypal, I'm going to have to request you don't order from me. I'll be the first to admit I don't always get things out in that time. I usually tell people 3-5 weeks on painted orders. It's just what usually ends up happening based on what was ordered before, how long my to do list is, and if I'm even working in town on a given week. I'm up front about it though, and as I've said before, communication is key.

My point with that is a "rule" isn't going to help you much. You have to trust to a certain degree when you're making deals on the internet with other collectors. All you can go by is reputation and what others in the community say.

[SUP-Ronin]

[BlackKnight]

When I wrote that Dave,... about the 30 day Claim...
I guess I mis wrote that to some degree...
Painting a Head,.. or even sewing a suit or building a full custom takes time,.. I understand that. Hell,.. I do a bit of that Now,.. & Realize the time it takes.. Or even putting together some of the Neat Playsets people make these days... I guess I should have more so clarified my Statement.

Pouring a resin piece , & or throwing a product like say from CTVT in a Box to send,.. can't seriously take more than 30 days. ... If it does,.. the said seller imo, shouldn't have tooken the cash to begin with. .. Unless ofcourse it's a PreOrder,.. but like I stated,.. thats something Else entirely.

I have had no problem, like ever Buying Heads from you,.. or Paul Evans... , Everytime I ever ordered,.. I recieved my my stuff in like a Week.

[Dave Mc]

I can go along with that actually. If your not actually making the item to order, it's different. Pouring a resin head in a mold doesn't take long and you can do a lot of them at once. Of course in Russ' case, he had a lot of people sending him stuff to shrink, which takes time and that might take longer than a month, depending on the method used, but if it's just putting parts in a box or doing a few pours, it shouldn't take that long.

I understand volume can get you behind, even on stuff like simple pours or parts, but no one get's more orders than Doc, and he either does pours or packs parts, and he's always 2-3 weeks.

[The Toyroom]

^ Yup Doc Mego is the gold standard as far as excellence in customer service that we should ALL aspire to...

[GUYx1]

Doc M. is the best. I constantly feel guilty for asking him for help because he already has so much on his plate resurrecting MEGO. I hate asking for custom casting for me.
But even he knows me well enough (without even looking at the order) to say don't even put in the order until mid Feb.
My whole point in this is that I know I don't have time to do half this stuff the way I'd like. I'd love to, but I am totally fried with work and I have got to hire out.
However to do this, I do not expect in any way that people can deliver in a paypal timeframe. They CANNOT do that for this sort of thing.
So I do NOT want $$$ as a refund.
It is frustrating that nobody is getting that.
I have seen all types of behavior from Seamsters & Seamstresses.
One day, Any of these people can and will go island happy and run screaming into the wilderness. C'est la vie!

So all told I lost like maybe $300 give or take. I don't expect that back. The point is NOT the money. I couldn't care less about the money.
If I gotta wait 2 years fine. I will give a person his space.
There were maybe only $75 worth of those items which were crucial to specific characters I was working on. Send me the heads and a few parts and I'll be happy as a clam.
As long as there is someone waiting in the wings that I can blow the money with all over again I'll be happy. Austin, prepare to pour some resin...

[johnmiic]

I'm coming to this thread very late I see. I recall Russ sent an email out to me and many other people before the New Year. This is a copy:

<<<due to state of todays money and me have the lack their of i will be closeing my shop all orders will be shipped i'm not out of the hobby just going a different direction with it so guys if you have a order just hang tight i'm working on them and you get them just backed up as of right now most should go out befor christmas i would like to thanks all of you and wish you a very merry christmas and hope to see you around when i get my new venture up and running in a few months thanks russ>>>