His reply on Rebelscum:
"I REALLY don’t want to fight with people on the internet (I wasted too many years back at MR doing that, which was stupid on my part). But for the sake of fairness and clarity, I will attempt to address some of your concerns.
And I will not ask the mods to delete this, so your: ”I MUST STOP HIM BEFORE HE HAS MY WARNINGS DELETED! STEVE IS EVIL!!!! HE HAS INFLUENCE OVER THE MODS TO MAKE THEM DO HIS BIDDING!!! SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!” rant has no merit.
So may we agree to dispense with the melodrama and just stick to facts?
And for the record…it is spelled StePHen.
Let us begin…
a) Did we have a problem somewhere? You seem pretty intent on blasting me. If I did something wrong to you, I apologize. Really. Seriously. Happy to discuss privately. I don’t know who you are, but you seem to know me. So you have me at a bit of a disadvantage. Again, are you a prior customer?
b) Your list is out of date. Several people said they still wanted to wait and several more on your list have been receiving refunds (or have been refunded in-full already).
c) I have had a LOT of people who have been refunded, are happy (now), and regularly buy products from me. That is a verifiable truth.
d) Are there a few people who were/are really pissed at me? YES. I can’t really blame them for that. My bad. All I can do is try to make things right by them as soon as I can.
Did I handle the Neuralyzer project badly? ABSOLUTELY! I will be the first one to raise my hand with a MEA CULPA on that one. Dumb. I had a whole list of subcontractors go out of business during the run and I got stuck trying to figure out how to still keep things going. I also have 60 circuit boards with defective switches that the supplier wouldn’t replace. And unfortunately, I am not Joe-electronics guy. So I just kinda…gave up.
So let’s make some clarifications. Every one of the following statements is 100% verifiable FACT:
Fact: Is it the neuralyzer project taking a ridiculous/unacceptable/unforgivable amount of time? YES. I spent most of the money taken in on machined parts and electronics and I actually did quite a bit of work. I didn’t fly to the Bahamas with the money. I fully intend to finish them at some point. I only make so much money, so I have to refund folks when I can from new income.
Fact: Many people on the Neuro run did NOT pay in full. I put a hold on that.
Fact: If I were a scammer, I would have taken the money, disappeared, and went into a different business elsewhere and remained low-key. Contrary to this, I am ALL OVER the internet. Just look at YouTube.
Fact: My instructional videos on YouTube all have 100% positive feedbacks in the comments sections. That is essentially impossible to get unless you post a video of St Francis feeding impoverished children in Nigeria or something.
Fact: I have spent the last five years actively refunding people in cash and/or giving them product worth MORE than they paid. (And I ATE all of the Paypal fees; that was a LOT of money, but was the right thing to do).
Fact: I have a flawless 550 feedback on eBay.
Fact: SD Studios ships HUNDREDS of products to happy customers worldwide every year.
Fact: Our product return rate is essentially ZERO. We might get one return every 4 or 5 years?
Fact: Our Amazon rating for Artifactory is classified as “above average”. And they bust your ***** if you ship anything late. Believe me. We shipped ONE product late last Christmas (we lost the order) and we got downgraded from “excellent”. TOUGH company.
Fact: I work (typically) 12+ hours, 6 days a week to get products made and shipped as fast as possible for our two family businesses.
Fact: I have over 800 (and inching closer to 1000) (individual) SD STUDIOS CUSTOMERS on my mailing list. (You have to actually buy something to get on that list). There are several thousand on the Artifactory list. The neuralyzer project represents less than 60.
Fact: Most of my business (70+%) is from repeat buyers.
Fact: I have done (or am actively doing) consulting for several very-large collectible companies. They seem to like me fine.
Thusly;
I am not the boogeyman you are trying to make me here. And I am questioning your motives.
Because I really screwed up some products, am I supposed to go out of business? No. I do this for a living. I have a mortgage, car payment, wife, and two girls. We can’t just shut the businesses down. Life must go on…
So I deserve flak for my past mistakes and I will take that. I can handle it. But you can’t libel me. Well…you CAN…you just did. But you shouldn’t.
How is the amount “inching closer to $10,000”? While very dramatic, it is actually less than the amount you have shown and decreasing regularly. Sorry. Your referenced statement is patently false.
I am not hiding anywhere. You (or anyone) can contact me anytime at
sdstudios@aol.com. I have had the same e-mail address since 1995 and the same home address for 21 years. Not planning to go anywhere. I get 60+ e-mails a day between my two businesses, so sometimes it takes me a while to respond, so if you expect me to get back to you in two hours…probably not going to happen. And sometimes I lose e-mails in my spam filters. It just happens. Sorry.
In summary, your post was a bit excessive, and since your facts are not completely correct, also rather libelous. That “Inching closer to $10,000” one made me do a spit-take…
You seem to want to actually harm my businesses with your warnings. As in… “Do NOT buy anything from SD Studios as he will continue to steal your money and deliver nothing”. Since that is completely untrue, I can’t imagine that you would actually want to do that, right? Like…interfere with someone’s livelihood who has a family to support?
Or am I reading your intent incorrectly?
If you wish to discuss further, I have listed my e-mail address. Feel free to reach out to me if you need to do so. I will not go “***-for-tat” here. I simply don’t have the time.
I hope this has addressed your concerns. Feel free to link to it on the RPF in the interest of "full-disclosure".
I have to get back to work now."
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