Sorry for the essay but i can't think of a concise way of putting this feedback.
After reading Vin's 6 pages of feedback on this site i decided to commission him to build one of his GB1 hero packs for me, after paying the initial deposit in August 2014 i was pretty excited to own one of his packs. Although he didn't provide photographic updates of my commission (even though it was part of the agreement) before i paid the rest of the money i was pretty confident my money was in the right hands and i'd get what i'd paid for, after all he had pages of positive feedback on here.
Most of the status update's he did give was along the lines of "we're on track" when i asked him until April 2015 when i was told he was pretty behind but he had people working with him to catch up, so far so good. Then it came close to the proposed shipping date and i'd heard nothing along the lines of how far along he was on my pack nor if he had actually started it. The day of shipping arrived and i had heard nothing from him despite me sending a couple of emails asking when my pack would be completed. Nearly a month after my emails asking about a completion date i was told that he was "extremely behind on multiple projects and all he could tell me is that is working every day on these and that i've brought in help to speed things along" and apologised for the terrible timeline. Fair enough i thought, life happens and sometimes things don't go your way and left it at that.
A month later (also year after my first payment) i just wanted to know if Vin had actually made any progress on my commission so if i knew which stage he was at it would make the wait easier, i got a reply that he had encountered some personal issues (of which i won't say on here), he had also taken on too many commissions and had thus become inundated with work and that he had posted an update on his facebook page regarding the status of the current four commissions he was working on. My name wasn't on this list but due to his circumstances and his positive feedback on here i decided to leave things as they are.
Fast forward a couple of months and i had now been given a shipping date of early January 2016, an apology for the lack of updates. Since this message was in October i was a little disappointed but as convention season was over i didn't see the harm in waiting. I had heard nothing from him after that so i started messaging him about it's status as he usually confirms what options you would like before he installs the electronics and it was close to the shipping date, no reply. I messaged him two weeks after the shipping date asking about my packs status and Vin tells me he's still not finished my pack and that it would be "One of the very next one's shipping", after asking him to add a S-hook to the thrower i leave it be for a while.
It's now March and i haven't heard anything so i ask for a status update, nothing. It's now April and i'm planning to go to some conventions in May so i ask if it will completed by then,nothing.
At the time of typing this it's been over a year and a half since i paid a deposit for my commission and and i still have no idea what state my pack is in and how long it will be until it is finished.
The only information i have been given is two shipping dates that have long passed and "it's coming", not exactly comforting when you've spent ALOT of money and at this stage i'm pretty much at a stage where i want to put this behind me as i'm fed up of the disappointment and lack of any real info. It's a shame it's gotten to this stage but i'm really considering a refund.
Dr. Peter Venkman - There's that look of panic i love. It means "will not question surcharge"
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