Need Advise On Getting Parts Returned From Painter

[slimmy 0]

I am very much in need of some advise. I made a deal with a fellow club member D-spec, to paint an NIB vintage brat body. Payment would be an NIB awesome alloys SRB chassis and skid plate. New and still wrapped up from rad. I sent both the vintage brat body set and the SRB chassis/skid to him. It has now been over a year since I have seen the items. Now I am trying to get the items returned. I have sent a dozen emails in the last two months with no response. I am just sick at the thought of loosing my body set at 125.00 and the chassis set at about 90.00 and that is just what I paid for it. Now those are going for almost 200.00 on ebay. I am trying so hard as to not be rude with this person. But I am up to my wits end. Is anybody here on good terms with Deino (d-spec) perhaps someone could email him and ask to return my Items. Painted, not painted, half painted whatever condition there in. I just need some strait up info as to what the status of this paint job is. He has been telling me its almost finished for the last 8 months And now no reply at all. I have no problem compensating him for any work he has done. Any help or advise any one can give me would be greatly appreciated. Mark

[Will16 45]

I'm sory to hear this and the parts being worth so much money. If I have got the right 'D-spec' his profile shows he has no posts and hasnt been seen since 2005. He sadly may be a scammer but how did you get into contact with him and how did you know he was a 'painter'. Hopefully you will get your parts back.

Will

[slimmy 0]

I met him on the tamiyaclub. Checked out his showroom entries. He offered to do paint work several times. His work on his own cars is awesome. So i struck up a deal with him. And he didnt keep his word. I thought he would be trustworthy because he was a member for so long.

[Guest Greg67]

Has he replied to your emails? Always the chance something could have happened to him. Maybe health problems, jail, something like that.

[slimmy 0]

I have been emailing him every few day's. I even saw that he had Items for sale on ebay. And i tried contacting him through his ebay auction. Still no reply.

[Guest Greg67]

You contact him through Ebay? Maybe his email address changed and is not getting your emails?

[30cms 7]

It has now been over a year since I have seen the items.

Sorry mate it seems like you have been had. Changed email address or not, over a year is too long to wait!

Is it feasable to call round and see him?

[TWINSET 1793]

I'm sory to hear this and the parts being worth so much money. If I have got the right 'D-spec' his profile shows he has no posts and hasnt been seen since 2005. He sadly may be a scammer but how did you get into contact with him and how did you know he was a 'painter'. Hopefully you will get your parts back.

Will

Not everyone on TC uses the forums, please be careful about who you accuse of being a scammer and what you use as 'evidence'!

D-Spec is a subscriber to the main site and last added to his showroom in October; http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom.asp?id=7530

I've sent D-SPec a mail via TC letting him know about this thread, but that will only go to his registered email address

[slimmy 0]

Thanks twinset, The last thing I want is to call anybody names or accuse someone of being a scammer. All I want at this point is to know what has happen to my parts and to try and get them returned. As 30cms said, "A year is to long to wait".

[Berenger 0]

Not everyone on TC uses the forums, please be careful about who you accuse of being a scammer

Sure, but everyone who uses the main site has the ability to use the forums, and therefore has the ability to get in touch with the person whose parts they've had for a year, even if they lost their contact details, and didn't have access to the email account they'd been trying to reach them on.

Slimmy, do you still have the postal address of D-spec? If you do it would be well worth typing a paper letter and sending it to him recorded delivery, or whatever the equivalent is in Alaska, so you know for sure he received it. Then you would know for certain that someone in his household knew about the issue.

E-mails are very simple to ignore, even miss if your address is accidentally filed under 'spam' (AOL is dreadful for this), but paper correspondence has to be actively ignored and then at least you'll have a better understanding of whether it's intentional or not.

[TWINSET 1793]

Sure, but everyone who uses the main site has the ability to use the forums, and therefore has the ability to get in touch with the person whose parts they've had for a year, even if they lost their contact details, and didn't have access to the email account they'd been trying to reach them on.

Actually, they don't - when the forum was last overhauled, everyone had to re-register. Anyone that didn't can't actually login until their account has been re-activated.

Not using the forums is not grounds for assuming someone's a scammer.

If someone's been a member of the mainsite for years, but never used the forums, chances are they won't be able to login.

D-Spec's not added to his showroom since October, nor has he added or made any comments (from what I could see) but that doesn't suggest he's a scammer at all either.

If no-one can offer advice on contacting D-Spec, please refrain from posting - this is about contacting a member, not theorising on why they're not about.

[Guest Greg67]

My thinking is, if he lists items on Ebay still, send him a message there. "Ask A Question" using the Ebay system on one of his items.

People can be slow. i traded something with a guy and it took him about a year and a half to send me his end of the trade. I was really patient looking back on it now. Well anyway, he did come through. My advice is contact him through Ebay, if no response, the registered letter is a great idea. If he doesn;t repaly to eiether...contact him through a report to his local police department.

[slimmy 0]

He knows exactly how to contact me and he knows how long he has had my items. I even contacted him through one of his ebay auctions. He was answering other peoples questions about his item but not responding to mine. Perhaps he is on vacation again. For the third time in the last year Berenger, I dont still have his postal address. But I do have his email as of last month when he was listing on ebay. Email removed This is the same email address that he receives inquires from the tamiyclub. So this isn't anything everyone else here doesn't have access to.

[TWINSET 1793]

I even contacted him through one of his ebay auctions. He was answering other peoples questions about his item but not responding to mine.

You could also try his 'mates' on TC as, again, not everyone on the list uses the forums; (bottom left) http://www.tamiyaclub.com/member.asp?id=7530

[slimmy 0]

I have still been sending D-spec emails trying to get him to return my items and/or an email. Has anyone else heard from him lately?

[Tamiya1/10 382]

A possibility is he may have damaged or lost your items and don't want to pony up the compensation. People do let their reputation go when it comes to money and $200.00+ could be a lot to him and put him in the hurt house as he may be trying to make ends meet due to the current economic situation. And auto painters are hard hit as people would paint their car as the last thing to do and the show room shows he's been painting at work so things could be very slow.

Since you mentioned he has been selling on ebay (a sign he is not doing well??), possible to bid on his items (provided you want it) up to the value of your items and consider as a trade? You may not want to mess up your name on ebay .

Not all deemed crook are crook or want to be one. Hope will all work out as is only a hobby.

Since your are in the North Pole, I think you are really Santa, which if this guy is hurting Santa would cut him some slack as Santa's model is better to give than to recieve. (Just kidding around) Is your call in the end.

[TWINSET 1793]

All the showroom comments regarding this have now been removed - The showrooms are not the place for this sort of thing. Harassment of any members will not be tolerated.

This issue is between Slimmy and D-Spec and now they've re-established contact, I think everyone else should stay out of it, especially calling people out via comments.

I suggest if anyone needs 'enlightening' or wants to know the other side of the story, then they should email the parties concerned, not post comments in showrooms.

This post will now be locked unless Slimmy or D-SPec has any updates, in which case they should email the mods to re-open it.

[slimmy 0]

I wanted to let everyone know that I received my Items back in the same condition that they were in and compensation. I would also like to appoligize for any rude comments that were left in showrooms on my behalf. I consider my dealings concluded with the other party and hope no ill well. Now, lets get back to building some new showrooms

[TamiyaDan 8]

.