Attention Chris Howes

[ProgMatinee]

Last I heard about the Summer sculpt was that Chris was in talks with a someone to replace Kuato as the painter. Not sure if I should say who or not as I don't know if that person has any input on this.

Not sure if I made a mistake, but I told him to send mineto the painter along with everyone else's.

 

[die]

I'm not speaking specifically on Chris Howes, because I have no idea what's going on with him (I would love an update on his Dexter sculpt though!). These are just some general thoughts...

This practice would not work in normal business, why is it done in this one ?

Alot of people look at custom work in a total different light than mass produced stuff from the big companies. It's in our nature to want to side with "the little man" & nobody wants to accept the fact that the little man can sometimes have shady big business practices. The result is alot of blind loyalty.

For instance: a seller that constantly attributes things to pc problems for many YEARS to almost every single customer.... You wanna give somebody the benefit of the doubt, but what kind of PC problems only allow you to get money through Paypal & spend it?

I've had 2 seperate sellers tell me an item is "ready to ship" before I pay only to wait many months for a final product and a refund.

I've also waited months for a group-comissioned headsculpt while the seller was selling tons of them on Ebay.

just to name a few.

 

[uscmhicks]

I am not implying that Chris is a thief. That is the perception people will have, and a reputation that is next to impossible to erase. He really ought to address this before it gets out of hand. As soon as one or two people jump on here and complain about not getting a refund, he will be going down a slippery slope that he may never recover from. From what I have been told by some of the parties involved, Andgor made every attempt to make things right by everyone who dealt with them. That name is still mud in this hobby and probably always will be. Which is a shame because there were many great sculpts that are now unavailable. The only "winner" in that whole mess was diver4 who is still making money off recasting a lot of the Andgor sculpts. Freelance artist often take on more than they can reasonably do. I have met a few of them, and most will admit that thier business skills are somewhat lacking.

Yeah , word does spread fast in this hobby over all forums and ways of communication.
Thats why I thought we should give Chris a few more weeks to reply to this before the red alert starts. Even small negative talk and even more so the word theif can be taken too far amongst others who don't know the full story maybe starting a discussion elsewhere on another forum.

We have asked for updates now and then and since Chris has so many projects going I can't imagine how many emails hes getting so I understand maybe missing one or two.
It would seem though nearly everybody isn't getting a reply , now that we have actually made a thread about this to show that we are now concerned about whats happening with everything hopefully Chris can put everything right by answering our questions here for everyone to read and explaining where each project stands.

 

[Voorhees27]

I never called him a theif, I do not think he is either. My ONLY issue is his lack of communication. The Shining project thread is now 7 months old with not a single update.

 

[uscmhicks]

I never called him a theif.

Just incase you meant me there Roy I was reffering to a post on the first page.

 

[Space Jockey]

I'm sure Chris is a good bloke and I'm sure that if he were to contact us, hold up his hand and say 'hey, just checking in to let you know where I'm at' no matter how backlogged he is, I'm sure we'd all rally around him and support him, I know I would.
As far as I'm concerned, I'm a customer who has paid. Whenever I do that I expect a realistic timeframe for paid work no matter who he/she is. And if it cannot be met, I expect an honest communication so I can work out with him a new plan to get the work done. If it cannot, fair enough, I want my money back.
I don't feel it's too much to ask, and if somebody I've paid to do work doesn't communicate at all for 6-7 months, then too right I'm going to begin to think I've been had.

 

[ProgMatinee]

For anyone going to pay up front, I'll just add again this lowly tid bit of advice. I don't think you should pay for more than 1 project at a time. This way you encourage the person to actually turn around product before you hire them again.

I would really like for Chris to finish these and be available to hire again, so I want to be nice, but eventually we're going to need to call a spade a spade.

 

[Space Jockey]

Totally agree. This is the only project I've paid for upfront. I hope Chris pulls it off. I'm fully aware how difficult it is to offer headsculpts especially painted ones as I offered the Kane sculpt. But I do those in batches of ten, paint them, then offer them for sale. I think Chris just needs to be better organized, and if he needs our help to do that, great, he only needs to ask.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Anyone with outstanding items want to make a group pact that if reasonable progress and project delivery does not occur within a predetermined time that we hit the button? After that point, no bs no excuses no more wishful thinking?

I kinda feel like we're on the Titanic and no one wants to believe it.

 

[uscmhicks]

mhhm. This is all a matter of communication.
Chris !. Where've you gone ?

 

[PapitoMX]

Anyone waiting on the Gordon's Head Sculpts as I am? I think I paid him back in December or Jan'09. Last thing I heard was he just had to make the glasses for him and that was months ago.
I never thought it will end up like this with Chris. I remember he was on top of his game when was doin the original sets of DK Headsculpts like his Jokers. Chris, if any of these projects are not posible, can u at least let us have an option of a refund?

 

[ProgMatinee]

mhhm. This is all a matter of communication.
Chris !. Where've you gone ?

I know its not the polite position, but I'm gonna disagree. Communication is nice, but results matter.

I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I'm alright with progress shots of my River sculpt (which looked like it was done many months ago anyway).

You guys saying you're alright waiting 6 more months are fostering this type of poor business.

I came into this thread hoping to be optimistic, but now I'm just getting worked up.

 

[Voorhees27]

I know its not the polite position, but I'm gonna disagree. Communication is nice, but results matter.

I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I'm alright with progress shots of my River sculpt (which looked like it was done many months ago anyway).

You guys saying you're alright waiting 6 more months are fostering this type of poor business.

I came into this thread hoping to be optimistic, but now I'm just getting worked up.

Don't get worked up, just count your losses and move on. I did.

 

[uscmhicks]

I kniw its not the polite position, but I'm gonna disagree. Communication is nice, but results matter.

I'm not gonna sit here and pretend that I'm alright with progress shots of my River sculpt (which looked like it was done many months ago anyway).

You guys saying you're alright waiting 6 more months are fostering this type of poor business.

I mean communication is key to resolve this whole thing. I think Chris needs to explain when things will be done and why they already haven't been.
I'm not happy with the fact that I have to wait 6 months but since Chris is sculpting it theres not much I can do really.
I mean , I've seen Spenser knock a sculpt out in a day. Thats awesome and I would love them all to be like that but sadly there not.

I'm not happy waiting 6 months but its usually the way it goes. Just with communication , hence the reason I think we need it.

 

[ProgMatinee]

what needs to happen is Chris needs to stop sculpting anything new and start casting items and send them out. At this point, not delivering items is hurting his reputation a whole lot more than delivering imperfect sculpts or casts.

 

[uscmhicks]

what needs to happen is Chris needs to stop sculpting anything new and start casting items and send them out. At this point, not delivering items is hurting his reputation a whole lot more than delivering imperfect sculpts or casts.

yeah. It would seem alot of them are finished or very close to being anyway , probably at least half of the sculpts.
At this point I think if it would help if I could just have the sculpts sent to myself unpainted.
Then again I guess that would require more postage to anyone outside the US.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Last I spoke to Chris I was given the option to either wait for him to send the Summer sculpt to a new painter or send him more money for postage. I chose to wait. Not sure if that was the right choice, but at least I'm not out another 15% of the initial cost.

 

[Ultramanimator]

Has anyone spoken with Kuato about Chris? It would be great if he could shed some light on the subject since they were working together on projects for a while.

 

[uscmhicks]

Has anyone spoken with Kuato about Chris? It would be great if he could shed some light on the subject since they were working together on projects for a while.

just sent him a link in his thread.
It can't hurt I guess.

 

[Voorhees27]

just sent him a link in his thread.
It can't hurt I guess.

Not sure if i've ever told you but your signature is amazing! Perfect pieces from awesome movies.