Advice sought, anyone in contact with REL aka Richard Long

[tnaig001]

Hi everyone. First off, my apologies if this is the wrong place to post this. If it is please feel to delete or move it admins.


Summary of facts:
I commissioned Richard to build a scar raider and a base star from the NuBSG series back in October 2011 after buying the kits from Kit. I sent him US$750 to get the commissions started back in sept 2011.


3 years down the road, I have not received anything.


I have tried emailing him but am having some difficulty getting Richard.

Anyone has another way to contact him?


thanks,
James.

 

[Scott Graham]

I have talked with him monthly for the last few years through email, but haven't gotten anywhere. I wanted to post in the old thread about this situation, but it's locked. I'm out $1325 plus a studio scale snowspeeder kit I sent for him to finish up.

I know he's gone through a lot of changes, but I've been told repeatedly that a 90 percent finished build is coming every month. I just hope things get sorted eventually and he can get back to being the great artist he was. Until then, I'm searching for answers too.

I think a dedicated sticky might help, although I dislike doing this public resolution thing. I don't know how else it will get resolved.

Do you have his new, non-sovereign email address?

Richard, are you out there?

 

[tnaig001]

The last email contact I had with him was Oct 2014, saying that at least one of the models would be ready by year end.

Didn't happen unfortunately. This is the email I think he is still using. Richard Long <rda2012@gmail.com>;

No replies unfortunately though.

 

[Scott Graham]

That's the email address I use to keep in touch with him.

 

[tnaig001]

Well, he hasn't replied to this thread per se, but I just received an email from him saying that he will be sending pictures later tonight. will update this thread if that happens.

*fingers crossed*

 

[Scott Graham]

Good news! I'm hoping it's just a matter of time before things come together.

 

[IEDBOUNTYHUNTER]

Good luck. I wouldnt hold your breath. Im still waiting for him to send me my stuff back. I even offered to pay for shipping. He said no problem. That was over a year ago. He will send you pics then it will be another year before you hear from him again. This has been going with alot of people for the last five years.

 

[marsattack]

I admire you all!
All these kits that you all order and believe that by kissing the sellers butt will get you a kit after the first broken promise ?
And after paying the full anount?

If it was me I would of had paypal deal with it , if I was in the US I would of knocked on this guys door.
Sorry to hear this , but just pssss me off that you guys are so tolerable.
Mars

 

[CutThumb]

Its a difficult one to deal with. Richard had his friends and admirers and his builds were great , so alot of people gave him the grace beyond the paypal period. He caught me and a few others out with his RM concept X wing and it was only after we found him out when he put the kits up for sale on Starship Modeller that ALOT of other problems came to light (go read the thread). Thankfully somebody here, as always stepped up to the mark and solved the problem by doing the owed kits for him. Without him we'd have lost out, and there are a couple of guys here that are like that all the time , they genuinely help the community and make good of their promises on behalf of others. I 've only ever had one instance where I stopped a payment and that was refunded very quickly . Ever since then I've never let anyone go beyond the paypal limit and if things don't add up I'd advise anyone to hit dispute to sort it.

 

[marsattack]

Ok I respect that , but why ask for the full amount of cash upfront ?
If your product is so good and the person flakes out you just grab that kit and on sell it .
There are people here that are allowed to not only take years to make a kit after taking payment but owe for a previous run, that's another 4 years old! Wtf?
Worst thing is , they are surprised when things go wrong.
We as a community allow this and condition ourselves to accept this from plain crooks!
They use the money to pay bills or pay for a kit that was sold prior and wasn't delivered.
Then they come in here and say "hi guys I took your money and still here!!", " been busy with work so will jump in and chime in three months"
And we say like Eddie Murphy said......"ok"!!
Most of the time they are selling an idea of which they haven't started and we fall into the trap and pay.
If you haven't got the money to make the prop, leave it to someone that has .
I really don't know when we will all learn!
Mars

 

[Scott Graham]

A paypal dispute would be 45 days from when the person was paid, and due to the trust abuse, it was way past that time before things seemed hopeless. I agree with what you are saying otherwise... (I was frustrated when I wrote the rest of this, so edited it out. It's not going to help resolve the problem)

 

[marsattack]

Scott ,currently??? Having problems??
There's a thread that's 5 years old !! And I bet his answer and justification is " marcel I am still here aren't i?"
"Am having fun" I would too if I took all that money !! Lol
And yet he continues to sell stuff.
Scott I see you are a respected member and have input In the SS model community section.
What you say , people will agree and usually support , sometimes one needs to take the lead .
Good on you !
Mars

 

[Scott Graham]

The old thread is locked. I don't know why it was locked since there was only resolution with the original person who started it, and the rest of us were left hanging again. I was just asking the staff about it when tnaig001 started this new one.

Thanks for your input in this Mars.

 

[marsattack]

Good luck boys
Wish I could do more
James (tnaig)is a friend also and hate to see this happen to him!

Mars

 

[Bigturc]

I have no dog in this fight, and surely, this would be a thread on its own but ...

The day people will stop giving money up front for kits that are not in hands, that day we won't see this problem anymore .. I'm lucky all the SS kits I've received over the years came from Mike and he's AAA seller and always comes first. That'd be the only guy I'll pay up front now.

REL, Steve and other SS builder all did this .. took your money and then life went south, and people WILL HAVE TO kiss their ass, what's the point in doing otherwise when someone has hundreds of your well earned $$$. You basically can't do anything ..

I've only started selling cast in the last years, and NEVER have I asked for money before I have the sets/kits in hand. I'm not a millionnaire, but I can definitely pay up front for my rubber and resin and then, recoup my cost from the buyers .. I know that I'll never get stuck with those around for too long .. and it's even more true for these amazing kits, they'll always sell.

Not everyone manages their priorities and money properly, actually, most don't .. ask yourself why the average person's indebtedness is so high!!!

This really has to stop, I'm so tired of seeing people getting $#&^(* again and again .. hopefully, that feedback system gives away to the newcomer .. but again, I'm pretty sure nobody wants to leave negative feedback on these "amazing" kit seller...

I need to start a thread about this ..

 

[Scott Graham]

I reached out to Richard again, and we're making a plan. It sounds hopeful!

 

[tnaig001]

I reached out to Richard again, and we're making a plan. It sounds hopeful!

that's great. I hope you have more luck than I.

It's been 2 weeks since the promise of pictures but nada.

Good luck all.

 

[Scott Graham]

I was sent these pics back in 2012. He was adding fiber optics and they were said to be 95% finished. EDITED: the model got destroyed in storage. Just found out.

 

[tnaig001]

that looks great man! He too showed me a picture of the base star within the paypal period and then zilch,

 

[Scott Graham]

I just emailed him again asking about the speeder in the pics. Apparently it warped badly when in storage, so it's lost. Therefore the replacement kit and paying me back. I hadn't known that it was lost til today, and that's been why I'd been asking "Why not just ship it?" for years. D'oh!

He says he has a couple people before me to pay off then he'll get to me. And the kit will hopefully ship this week.

Keep working with him. Don't give up. He's concerned about making good.