WARNING!! Do NOT buy from RICKY'S CUSTOM COSTUMES! Find out why here...

S

superstardesign

New Member
Dear Fans of Replica Movie Costumes,

I hate having to post this about a business (or a person behind the business) but I think people should know why Ricky Broussard (aka Custom Costumes)'s business should not be encouraged. Like many, I thought this was an honest person to do business with, but I share my story here so that 1. he may feel inclined to rectify a fraudulent transaction, and 2. to protect others from being scammed.

A few years ago, Ricky Broussard (aka Custom Costumes) hired me to revamp his website, which took me MANY months to build, and despite his being thrilled with the end result, he REFUSED TO PAY, and tried to hide from me when it was time for me to collect payment for the completed work. At that point, I decided to hire a credit collection company and they had a hard time getting a hold of him because he was hiding...he had even disconnected his phone number. In the end they caught up with him and said he had horrible credit, having a history of not paying. They were unable to get him to pay (he was unwilling), so another dent was made on his credit file. He is very devious, as he closed his eBay store, and changed his domain name from customcostumes.info to something different...so that he wouldnt be found.

Its quite baffling, as I have many emails from him praising the work I was doing for him as I was creating his site. I've been very patient and there is no reason for him not to pay, now that his business is back up. We are both artists and should respect each other's time by honoring payment for each other's work. I paid him for his time to make me a costume, but he thinks he is above other people - he has no respect for the time and efforts of a fellow artist who invested so much energy into bringing his vision to the web. The following email (one of many) shows him making excuses for not paying. Bottom line is he just wanted to take my work without paying, without honoring the terms of the agreement. (yes it was my mistake not to request a retainer, but thats no excuse for his unethical behavior). Fraud, theft, its the same thing.

This is a quote from one of his emails, in which he praises my work but resists paying for the completed project:

From: RICKY BROUSSARD
Date: Sun, Apr 5, 2009 at 9:05 AM
Hi Alain.
I have not closed up shop as of yet. I am still making costumes. I just took off my listings on Ebay to catch up on orders for now. But as of my website, I really don't know what's going on with that. I am trying to get it back up. Hopefully soon! But I still want to honor our deal when I am financially able to. But that time is not now. I am going through a pretty rough time right now due to this ecomemy crisis we're in. But like I said before, and I will continue to say, when things are back to normal, and I have the available funds to pay for your web site, I will be more than happy to purchase your masterpiece.

Thanks again Alain,

Ricky
Custom Costumes


For those who want to see this masterpiece I created for him, you may go here. Feel free to let me know what you think of my work and if you feel I deserve to be paid....

Finally, on a different note, if you are planning on purchasing one of his Superman Returns costumes like I did (yes I PAID him), the cape will crack and fall apart. I've had mine for only 2-3 years and only wore it twice, kept it properly stored but the material is cheap and it now shows. The boots are also extremely difficult to slide into. So beware of that too.

Ricky Broussard is NO HERO, and he certainly does not belong in the Justice League. Do not support his business. Buy elsewhere and pass the word around.

Cheers,
Alain

PS> I will remove this post once he comes clean and pays the amount owed. (so if you're reading this...he still hasn't.)
 
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Sorry about your issues with him. I know him as a stand up fella. I have gotten a few suits
from him over the years and done a trade with him as well and have never had a problem
with him. The Cape for the Supersuit that I got is still in tact. I removed the metal rod for
comfort but other than that I am very happy with it and my exchanges with him.

I hope that you can work out your issues. I do know he went through a rather hard
time for a while. Good luck to both parties on getting this cleared up.
 
FWIW, that really is an amazingly well done website. Great work. Sorry to hear that things did not work out with Ricky.
 
I'm new here too and I don't want to be flamed for this but shouldn't these kind of things be dealt outside of this board? I can undertand the part where you explain about the cape he made not being up to par but because you've had a personal bad experience with this person outside this community (and outside prop making as such) can you recommend we start boycot here? As i said I'm new here and I'm not working as anyones sockpuppet, I just want to know what the policy here is. Because, I'd be kinda dissapointed if someone's personal flaws (being an a-hole, not paying their electric bill on time etc.) would be put on trial here.

I think the site you designed was really nice and of course you should be paid for it. I just think this isn't the right forum to bring that issue forth. I could be wrong. If so, my sincerest apologies.
 
I think the problem is that in this hobby, it's so easy to get burnt. If someone is so insolvent they can't pay their web designer, there's every chance that they could "delay" production on a commision until they can afford materials, etc. I appreciate the caveat emptor myself.
 
Im still a lil confused on this.

This guy hired you, but you have no written agreement, nor take a deposit nor a retainer. You made the website for him, told him it was done, then he became a ghost. The link you posted, is that a copy of the site you made or the actual site you made? Did you ever give him full control or give him the html files?


If you did, well look at it this way, in a year or two his website will do horrible with organic rank on search engines since it was mainly solely in Flash (You never want to make a site that is mostly in flash, in the end it can actually hurt your SEO ranks because the spiders cannot scan the flash indexes properly). It is a nice looking site though.
 
Personal integrity is an.. integral value here. Too often we see people who have started to let their integrity slide end up ripping off even more people as they spiral downward.

A heads up is *always* good to have, so we can make informed purchasing decisions. Hope to hear the other side of the story, although it really isn't looking good.
 
.:MirrorminD:. said:
Im still a lil confused on this.

This guy hired you, but you have no written agreement, nor take a deposit nor a retainer. You made the website for him, told him it was done, then he became a ghost. The link you posted, is that a copy of the site you made or the actual site you made? Did you ever give him full control or give him the html files?


If you did, well look at it this way, in a year or two his website will do horrible with organic rank on search engines since it was mainly solely in Flash (You never want to make a site that is mostly in flash, in the end it can actually hurt your SEO ranks because the spiders cannot scan the flash indexes properly). It is a nice looking site though.
Click to expand...

Yes there is written agreement. I wasnt going to post all emails. Theres a whole and very detailed paper trail. The link posted is the actual site on MY server. You dont put in on the client`s server until its paid for.

As for the Flash stuff....what you say of SEO does not apply anymore. Adobe has worked with Google and things have changed. Look around and you`ll find articles on this. One thing for sure is that if people search for him on Google now, the first thing they will realize is that he is a dishonest businessman because Google loves to pick up forum threads. As I said before, I will remove this if he comes clean. I`ve emailed him asking for payment within 48 hours and its been 24 now so it doesnt look like he`s interested in conducting business ethically. Rather selfish if you ask me.

Thanks to all who are supporting my cause. Your compliments are appreciated, although what I truly want is for him to pay me now that he IS back in business. The site was seriously underpriced - I did him a favor - the least he can do is be grateful for that and honor my work by paying the bill.
 
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superstardesign said:
Yes there is written agreement. I wasnt going to post all emails. Theres a whole and very detailed paper trail. The link posted is the actual site on MY server. You dont put in on the client`s server until its paid for.

As for the Flash stuff....what you say of SEO does not apply anymore. Adobe has worked with Google and things have changed. Look around and you`ll find articles on this. One thing for sure is that if people search for him on Google now, the first thing they will realize is that he is a dishonest businessman because Google loves to pick up forum threads. As I said before, I will remove this if he comes clean. I`ve emailed him asking for payment within 48 hours and its been 24 now so it doesnt look like he`s interested in conducting business ethically. Rather selfish if you ask me.

Thanks to all who are supporting my cause. Your compliments are appreciated, although what I truly want is for him to pay me now that he IS back in business. The site was seriously underpriced - I did him a favor - the least he can do is be grateful for that and honor my work by paying the bill.
Click to expand...

I hear ya, but I wasnt just talking about Google's spiders and since it seems you know yr stuff :) then you know that every so often Google changes its algorithm on how it indexs sites :)

Well at least he doesnt have the final product, hopefully you didnt log too many hours in the site for him. Hope it works out and you get paid.
 
That website is beautiful :love Sorry to hear that this happened to you after all that work.
 
HOPE YOU GET YA $$$$$$$, everybody needs the green stuff, makes the world go 'round lol. But in all seriouness very awesome site.
 
I read this thread the other day, but really felt compelled to coem back and say this...

Last summer I ordered one of Ricky's SR Costumes. (And can provide reciept, and proof that I am my own person unrelated to anyone on here!) Right when I was to send payment, I had a minor issue and couldn't pay for about a week or so later. Not only, was Ricky really good about that, he actually went ahead and started my costume without yet receiving payment! He was very polite, and understanding. Now, it’s a year later and my costume still going strong. I volunteer in it, and of course Halloween! So even after all that it's still looking great, you just need to be sure to clean the vinyl on the cape every so often.

Ricky was great with me, and my costume still looks brand new. So I say he doesn't deserve these attacks. Especially in the manor it's being done. Don't be fooled prospective buyers.
 
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Nice to hear that you had a good experiance with him.

Whether he deserves thes so called attacks in the manor it is being done is not for you or I to say.

Info is a powerful thing and if you hang around long enough you will see that we try and take care of our own around here.


RoftheHood said:
Ricky was great with me, and my costume still looks brand new. So I say he doesn't deserve these attacks. Especially in the manor it's being done. Don't be fooled prospective buyers.
Click to expand...
 
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