Thinking of a Tuber - One to avoid!!!

[TWINSET]

Going out on a real limb here, but if you guys are thinking of getting a tuber, then there are two people I know to get one from.

The guy below aint one of them

He's a member here RSXtreme (not very active)

and is Rock Spyder in some other forums

His real name is Tom Knight

What started the ball rolling was this post;

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/xforum/topic.asp...rchTerms=spyder

I replied to RSXtreme and discussed a frame, and eventually paid an $80 deposit for him to start work (29 March 2004)

Shortly after this deposit, I received a mail from a TC member, whom I didn't really know, warning me that the guy was a bit of a rip-off merchant and had been kicked off several RC forums for bad work or just generally ripping people off.

When I asked RSXtreme about this, he put it down to bad blood at the other forums, and seeing as he ran his own, I decided to carry on (I was already in for $80)

Anyhow, got a mail saying work was completed, so paid final balance on April 27.

Got a couple of mails saying shipping was imminent, then all contact dried up.

After a few tries, I received a reply saying that he had shipped my chassis, but it had been returned from UK back to America.

At this point, I asked Josh Rothman (Potential Esquire) if he would receive the package and forward it on to me, as I had received parts from him without hiccup, and he was fine about it.

So, I send numerous mails to RSXtreme, and get various reasons why he hasn't had time to post it, yet looking on his site, he was busy making them for other people, spraying up bodyshells, and generally not being so busy that he couldn't post my chassis.

Anyway, come November, I see this on his forum;

quote:

---

well been working on these for a while

---

id="quote">id="quote">

See, busy doing stuff, but not my stuff

Then further down in same post;

quote:

---

Twinset is getting one

---

id="quote">id="quote">

Now, given that I'd been hounding him for 7 months (those posts were made in November) he didn't email me, PM me thru his forum (I'm a member there) or get in touch via AOL messenger (where we had chatted before)

Also, I paid for the chassis because it was finished, in April, yet in November, he's "been working on these for a while"

Sorry for the long one, just thinking of your $$ and ££

[Martin71RS(2)]

sorry to hear that Andy! One day he will run into the wrong person and get what's coming to him.....

I started believing in karma.....you get back what you do to others...and it is true. (that's why I do my business honest)

(not that it gets you a frame or money back now)

I hate it when people get scammed [!]

take care,

Martin

[TWINSET]

Cheers Martin

If I thought there was a chance of getting either, I would have waited, then posted a warning, but I've kinda given up now.

Amazingly, I got this this morning;

Which sounds as though it's an unfortunate postal misdirection, until I looked back thru my other messages;

The one in July (number 6) was me chasing it, then the two in OCTOBER were chasing again and supplying alternative delivery options to Josh in Arkansas;

So, it woulda been pretty difficult to post anything in September considering I was still giving him alternative delivery addresses in October.

[Martin71RS(2)]

people like this beleive their own lies and expect you to do so too.

sad...very sad.

that person is a total loser![]

[ideal2k]

Yeah, well i put that guy in the same league as George Turick, they were obviously part of the same "movement" and share common friends..

Basicly, they're not to be trusted [!]

[Pellandine-sports]

I'm sure that's the same guy that got booted off Clodtalk last year....he messed loads of people around with this scam and anything received was nothing but junk anyway....general consensus was that he was a complete waste of space. Thats the polite version.

Trouble is that these guys always come back under a different ID[!]

[AGUILAR3]

YUP....Same guy..He is know as R/C Rodder,Tom Knight and RockSpyder

Hes been banned from Clod Talk,RCMT and RC Jims...and countless other boards...yet he has a message board filled with members...EVIL minds think alike I guess....Be carefull when dealing with members from his site

[TWINSET]

Well, the chassis arrived this morning, it aint good news.

I'll post pics of the chassis later, but I snapped the card for the camera, so gotta take the chassis home to photograph.

In the meantime, here are some pics of the links to hold the gearboxes - just 1/4'' diameter rod, with tapped holes up the end;

For a start, they're not that straight!

Ends touching on the left!

Top and bottom ones below have dents coming out where the drill tried to break thru;

(note also 'vice/vise' marks on left)

On middle one, drill did break thru

As for staightness of the drilling/tapping;

None of the links look like they went anywhere near a lathe, as only a couple of the threaded ends are actually anywhere near the centre of the link diameter.

Next stunna is the body pannelling;

Note extra hole at very bottom, breaking out of the edge

And this is the other side of the same panel

Bearing in mind this was paid for almost 9 months ago, I don't think it's that great a job.

Before anyone asks, I probably couldn't do any better myself, but then again, I wouldn't sell it [!]

[Martin71RS(2)]

I have made some chassis myself...made the links with handtools and they were 200 times better I dare to say....

I think this could be duplicated by my 3 year old son....

what a p#ss artist.

indeed bad news Andy...........

[Pellandine-sports]

Andy

Sorry mate but that sort of quality has been a feature of this guy's work for years. Those pictures look toooooooo familiar....and are the reason why he's been black-balled from every quality RC site.

A warning to everybody to stay away.

I've got a contact who will make up quality suspension links at a reasonable prices so give me a shout if you need replacements Andy.

Chris

[TWINSET]

Cheers Chris

I'm up to speed on the guys background now, but learnt the hard way!

As for links, I usually get them made by a chap we use at work (he's made all my others so far, and a few around the club), but I didn't have ball ends at the time so I thought it was just as easy to get them all from the same place []

[TWINSET]

Ok, here's the chassis

It's quite a nice shape, but fabrication is nowhere near as good as my other one, which conidering it cost almost the same, is a bit off;

Square is obviously not an issue

Not a great aim with the welding/brazing either

And some of it looks plain naff

[Martin71RS(2)]

sure it isn't a speedway chassis.... made to corner in 1 direction only? [)]

[Cul-Tech]

Oh Yeah, I had a boring day at work, snuck in the office for a peek at TC and saw these photos. Showed them to a couple other guys at work. We all had a laugh!

Especially those links![xx(]

Thanks for sharing this with us all and sorry that it had to happen to you, you deserve better mate.[]

Mike

[TWINSET]

S'funny that, most of the blokes I work with fell about too - especially our turner [8)]

[Stefan(2)]

Must atmit , taking a look at the first picture of the chassis i thought "looks decent" ...

Then the other pictures... o men...

same job as those links. , " Sad "

does not look like to be a easy fix to!

Sorry you got nailed on this one, to bad he is far away from you. Otherwise

you could try to make him eat it.

Don't even have to show this one to the metal worker mate, his comments will proberly

be ****** out on the forum anyway.

Stefan

[BiggusDitchus]

Considering my lack of engineering ability I reckon I could do better than that! Truly abysmal work.

[neo]

Well if you said that chassis was made out of box tub of twiglets then that aint a bad job, otherwise, im sorry to hear about your misfortune Andy. I dont know, my Lancia shell goes missing and you get stuffed with a bent chassis. What next [V]