It seems this guy is taking money and not producing the product he is promoting. Just an fyi.... anyone have any dealings with this person?

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I guess the lesson here is:
a. If you're going to spend $400.00, do some serious "checking out" first.
b. For $400.00, he could have painted, screwed-up, repainted, weathered, screwed-up, and done it all again, still
saved money, and learned how to weather in the process.
c. In the event no one has noticed.......times are tough, and desperate people do desperate things.......
" buyer beware".

Never pay 100% for anything up front, even a large company can screw you even if it's not intentional. Get things in writing such as, how long will the project take, and pay by credit card if possible since they normally will give you a refund if you don't receive the goods as promised. That's one reason I like to deal with the brick and mortar people. Fact-to-face and you trade bucks directly for the product when it's ready. I also don't like to "reserve" anything, not knowing if the business I'm dealing with will be around when the product becomes available. We lost a local train store here just a few months ago, and I'm guessing, but I'll bet there were people that had paid in advance for products that they never got when this guy went out of business.

Model railraoding is my hobby. It is an activity I used to do to help unwind after a stressfull day at the office. It always did the job!

I am now retired. I work on my models because I enjoy it. And by trying new materials and techniques I learn new things and my skill set grows and the more I use each skill, the more proficient I become at it.

I would no sooner pay someone $4.00 to weather one of my models, much less pay some clown hundreds of miles away, that I have never met, who "claims" he can do it and posts photos of examples of "his work." Maybe that may have been a viable way for someone not interested in learning how to do it a decade or two ago, but in today's world? When someone who has hired one of those places to "custom build" a layout, and buys RTR rolling stock, "assembled" structures and such ... what is the hobby? Watching the trains run?

I dunno! Maybe I'm just getting too old to understand the world today ... but ... I just don't get it!

If you take the time to learn a new skill, weathering locomotives and rolling stock, $400 would go a long way towards buying weathering supplies!

Besides, I can remember that when other modelers looked at my weathered models, they always wondered (out loud) why I wanted to "ruin a perfectly good model?" Of course, to me, their layouts always looked like some sort of "Ideal Fantasy Antiseptic World." It least, they didn't look like the work that I saw through my very myopic eyes. Possibly it was merely dirty glasses that I was peering through.

$400???????? ridiculous amount to spent

I would presume the job included a NIB locomotive and weathering...
Still...$400 is a lot of mulla to dish out for that....

Steamtrains Wrote:I would presume the job included a NIB locomotive and weathering...
Still...$400 is a lot of mulla to dish out for that....

Just wondering when one of those big companies is going to do the same thing with the whole 'pre-order' jive. Waiting for a year on pre-pay for engines has gotten crazy enough, it's only making people more comfortable with waiting longer for simple weekly projects to be finished and sent back. The guy waited 5 months hock:

tomustang Wrote:Just wondering when one of those big companies is going to do the same thing with the whole 'pre-order' jive. Waiting for a year on pre-pay for engines has gotten crazy enough, it's only making people more comfortable with waiting longer for simple weekly projects to be finished and sent back. The guy waited 5 months hock:

How many big companies do that? I would never pre-order with money up front to any company for anything. I think most big companies do like Intermountain and their "pre-orders" are really more like a survey to gauge interest in a model before they spend the money for the die work to put it into production.

I agree with Russ. I have pre-ordered 4 different locomotives without paying a dime up front. I got all 4, but 2 different models took over a year before they ecame available. (They were worth the wait)
Charlie

The problem with paying up front, aside from the fact that the company may go out of business before product is delivered, is that the product may not ever be built if there isn't enough interest, or unexpected delays in the production process may result in being out of pocket for a year, two, or three wiating for the product to come in.

Pay up front . I just did that with MRC for a software upgrade. That was the only way to get it and I am soooooo glade I did

I paid up front to MRC, but I sent a check in with my unit. It's different when you are ordering something that has yet to be designed. Some companies may ask for a small good faith deposit, in fact I think PCM was asking a $1 deposit, which is OK, but to take your money and use it from day one is not right, especially when so many products haven't reached the market at all. I wouldn't have wanted someone to have my money for a year or two only to return it with a "I'm sorry".
Charlie

Russ Bellinis Wrote:

tomustang Wrote:Just wondering when one of those big companies is going to do the same thing with the whole 'pre-order' jive. Waiting for a year on pre-pay for engines has gotten crazy enough, it's only making people more comfortable with waiting longer for simple weekly projects to be finished and sent back. The guy waited 5 months hock:

How many big companies do that? I would never pre-order with money up front to any company for anything. I think most big companies do like Intermountain and their "pre-orders" are really more like a survey to gauge interest in a model before they spend the money for the die work to put it into production.

It happens in the auto industry a lot, once a company gets big enough (national) they pre-order pre-pay and take a dive

It is pitiful that some people don't have enough pride in themselves, or a sense of what is right and what is wrong, and won't keep their promises or honor their responsibilities. Unfortunately more and more are getting that way.

Saw a case the other day where a lady advertised some cell phones on E-Bay, and when people bought them, she just sent them a picture of the cell phone. Claimed that is what the people bought, the picture of a phone that was on E-bay. Pathetic, she should rot in jail for caring so little for her fellow man.

Gary S Wrote:It is pitiful that some people don't have enough pride in themselves, or a sense of what is right and what is wrong, and won't keep their promises or honor their responsibilities. Unfortunately more and more are getting that way.

Saw a case the other day where a lady advertised some cell phones on E-Bay, and when people bought them, she just sent them a picture of the cell phone. Claimed that is what the people bought, the picture of a phone that was on E-bay. Pathetic, she should rot in jail for caring so little for her fellow man.

I remember when that happened with a Sony TV, the guy that 'won the bid' received a picture of the TV, luckily he took it to court and did get his money back