boinger

Minor update to undelivered toys: Today, Visa sent me a letter to confirm that they are going to try getting my money back, but it might take them a maximum of 120 days because of communicating across the border with the merchant bank (Paypal?). Yesterday, Paypal has just started the dispute resolution process with Steve Sherman. Steve Sherman now has 10 days to respond to Paypal with some kind of explanation for waiting past 6 + weeks to ship out the toys I paid for. Steve would then be debited the amount out of his account to my account. At least, that's what happened to me last month. Maybe, if other guys who also had poor sevice with Steve Sherman could email paypal, then I could my money back sooner. I'm hoping that Paypal would take a closer look at the way Steve Sherman does a poor job of making and selling star wars replicas. Paypal Case # PP-133-246-394 Steve Sherman's current business email: stevesherman@lisco.com My email: boinger5@shaw.ca Paypal's customer service email: sevice@paypal.com Paypal's toll free phone number: 1-888-221-1161 Thanks for the encouragement! Additional Paypal story: Oct.23/05, On ebay, I sold a master replica LE Kenobi lightsaber to a guy in Ohio. He claimed that the lightsaber was never received even though the Canada post / USPS tracking number confirms he did receive the lightsaber. So, he then contacts American Express (Amex) to chargeback the money through Paypal and then from me because he says he never received the lightsaber. Paypal sneaks the chargeback onto my Visa bill by "piggybacking" the chargeback payment with another payment to Avafindpro. Then Paypal locks out my paypal account with (-) $16.30. Four days after the credit card chargeback is intiatied and Paypal has already charged me, the guy in Ohio says he finally received the lightsaber, but the display case was damaged, so he would like $80 US in compensation. Then he also said that he was reversing the Amex chargeback, so I would get my money back. I thought everything would be fine, since I had all my paperwork in order and the guy in Ohio said he would reverse the chargeback (his ebay feedback was really good). At this point, I talked to Paypal twice, Canadapost, American express and the guy in Ohio. Subbmitted documentation to Paypal and Canada post about this guy reversing the credit card chargeback. But, Dec.29/05, I read my visa bill and find out that the guy in Ohio has apparently not reversed the Amex chargeback and Paypal still expects me to pay them. I emailed ebay and was able to get the toll free Paypal phone number. I talked to Paypal and they said that they had no information on the guy's chargeback reversal, so Paypal did expect me to pay. I talked to Visa and found that I could not challenge Paypal's chargeback because the payment was to Avafindpro, even though $528 US was for Paypal's Amex chargeback. I sent off the Canada post documentation (canada post receipts, original lightsaber purchase receipt, copy of ebay auction, computer screenshot of ebay message that says he was going to reverse the chargeback) with a copy of my visa bill on the suggestion of Visa. Then I emailed the guy in Ohio to find out what he thinks is going on. He phones to leave an answer on my message machine (plus 2 emails) to say that Amex had turned down his chargeback a month ago and that Paypal, on Paypal's initiative, has taken money from me without Amex's authority. This week, he phoned Amex to fax over the official Amex documentation to Paypal this week plus he's mailing a copy of the Amex documentation to me. My visa bill is due this Friday, Jan.14. I don't think I will be using Paypal for selling on ebay or for buying stuff from small retail internet stores (guys I don't know about). Bidpay is no longer an option. Paypal is king on ebay, but Paypal customer service is really lacking (40 minute phone waiting, vague automated emails in response to my email questions). Time will tell.

Anyways, I did contact Visa and Visa said 10 days just to start the credit card reversal process going. I could be looking at least a month before this is resolved. On Steve Sherman's website is a 4-6 week date for preparation, shippment and receival of goods. I think if I waited as long as Steve Sherman would like me to, then that would be over 60 days from Oct. 23/05 and I would not be able to get my money back through Visa. I don't understand why all this hassle or lack of communication from Steve Sherman. He could have posted on his website or emailed me on a more regular basis that shipping would be delayed because of Halloween orders or that he could not take any more orders because of having too many orders at once. I requested pictures 3x for proof that he's working on the blasters, but I haven't seen any pictures just emails to ask me to be patient. 8 + weeks and counting. I'll see how Visa handles things with Paypal and Steve Sherman before I hunt down Steve Sherman on a more personal level. I did leave a phone message for Steve Sherman on his answering machine and sent him an email. He did respond, but not what I was hoping. Here's the latest emails: From: steve sherman To: Patrick Fontaine Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2005 11:13 AM Subject: Re: Ordererd custom stormtrooper and han solo blaster OCT.23/05 --- DELAY in shipping? Hi Patrick, Well, you are right on a couple of things. First, yes, the Christmas rush has put me way behind! Actually, the Halloween rush did it and I am still trying to catch up from that. However, no need to contact the CC co or paypal as I will have your Stormtrooper blaster ready by weeks end at the latest, with the solo blaster to closely follow. Hope this clears things up and is acceptable to you and again, sorry for the delay. Thanks, Steve Hello Steve: I have already contacted my Visa card for reversing the charges because I figured I might already be too late to get my money back. Contacting Paypal was not possible because chargebacks could not be processed after 45 days of submission of payment. The Visa reference # is **********. I talked to Visa and they said that I can cancel my reversal after I confirm that the blasters are received. The problem for me was that I had to go through 2 fraud claims from my buyers on ebay as an ebay seller (boinger5) for the last month and I could not tell if you were sincerely behind schedule or something else. It has been 8 weeks and 2 weeks past the date of Dec.9/05 when I last heard from you. I'm sorry about using this credit card reversal as a last option, but I thought it was warranted. It makes me feel like a jerk. I will make sure that if I get refunded before I receive the toys and the toys are just fine then I will get the cash back to you by paypal the same day I get the blasters. Otherwise, I do intend to cancel the Visa reversal upon receipt of the toys. As well, after this transaction is done, I would like to make it up to you by buying one display case for each hasbro blaster (stormtrooper and han solo). Though I would understand if you thought I was a problem customer. All I can say is that I will do what I said in this email and that if you are doing and saying what you mean, then we will get this cleared up. I hope this hasn't put too much of a damper on your Christmas Holidays. Best wishes for you and your family this Holiday season, Patrick P.S. Paypal will most likely put a negative amount in your paypal account as a credit card chargeback until this Visa credit card reversal has been processed to cover Paypal's potential loss. When I contact Visa again to reverse the paypal credit card chargeback , Paypal will charge a fee for the chargeback reversal (about $10-15). I will pay your chargeback reversal fee when I purchase the 2 display cases from you, so you would not take a loss. I hope that's fair.

This is what I did just now. Paypal will not let me file a chargeback because I am over the 45 day limit. I wonder if Steve Sherman did not already know that. I left a phone message on his answering machine about his lack of response to my emails and deadline for Wednesday, when I contact my credit card company to get my money back. The answering machine message does not have personalized business description, just the standard name, phone, message reply that is usually included on the answering machine. I sent Steve Sherman another email stating: I hope I'm being reasonable. I'm afraid that my love for toys has blinded me to the possibility that there are scam artists out there. __________________________________--- Steve Sherman's website looked really good to me! I thought the modified toys, which looked great from the pictures, were a much better idea than having a hassle with Canadian customs and importing gun replicas. But, now there's tonnes of master replica stuff over here in Canada in Best Buy and Futureshop and Toys r us. So, now I can buy blasters and lightsabers here without customs fees or shipping time! ********************************** UPDATE: I only have 60 days for the credit card option. I just phoned Visa to get the process going. Either I get my toys or my money back! ___ I bought master replicas lightsaber e.g. Mace Windu, but I don't own a sword, I bought star wars toy guns, but I have never shot a real gun, and I buy yamato macross valkyries and yet I have never flown a real jet fighter. I live in a toy world.

Hello: I was just wondering if anybody has bought stuff from these guys before. I'm not sure what to expect? Here's my story: On Oct. 23/05I submitted a paypal payment for a modified Hasbro stormtrooper and Han Solo blaster to SJS Models and Props. Nov. 5/05, I had to send Steve Sherman an email to ask him how long the customization process takes. Nov.6/05 - he said "Hi Patrick, Sorry my friend. Received it in good order. Much appreciated and Thanks! Steve - SJS Models and Props", without answering my questions. After the 2nd email sent on Nov.12 (responded on 14), he actually told me 4-6 weeks. Dec.5/05, I sent him another email saying that we're on the 5-6 week mark and I would really like to know what to expect or else I might need to get my money back for other expenses. Steve Sherman promptly responded Dec.6/05 that he would try to ship out on Dec.9/05. On Dec.12/05, since I did not receive any infomation on whether he had send the blasters or what, I sent him an email that if he could send me some pictures when the blaster are ready, then I would be happy to purchase the display cases for the blasters as well. So, now I"m still waiting for a response to my last email sent on Dec.12/05 and it's Dec 19/05! Does Paypal have a time limit to credit card chargebacks? Would I just contact my Visa credit card to get my money back from paypal and then paypal would get their money from Steve Sherman. Steve Sherman's contact information for his business is : 915 Russell St. Ottumwa, IA 52501 Phone: 641-684-6587 info@sjsmodelsandprops.com Would anybody in Indiana want to make a local phone call and hear if Patrick Fontaine's Star Wars blasters are ready to ship?

Hello: I had to shut down iMacross4 server because Shaw cable and every other ISP within Winnipeg decided that daily bandwidth restrictions were a good way to cut people back from file sharing. Due to Canada's confidentiality act, ISP s could be sued by the Movie and Sound Recording companies for providing potential excess bandwidth that supposedly would be used for file sharing. I would say that worked for them. Maybe next year, when VOIP phones are more prevalent and downloadable rental movies are readliy available, we could see the bandwidth restrictions lifted. Otherwise, I need an extra $50 month if I want to double my bandwidth, which would make my bandwidth half of what it was in 2004! boinger

Hello: This is boinger of the defunct imacross4 server. I can only speak for myself about the sudden change in isp pricing and bandwidth issues in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada 2005. Due to the passing of a recent copyright law on internet file sharing, media copyright holders have the possibility of suing isp for "potential losses". The isp are just covering themselves by limiting the amount of filesharing that goes on and make people so fed up with filesharing that buying the official products would be so much easier. And yet, there are no official north american products for stuff that I found on the internet and I like, e.g. the complete episodes of mst3k. , macross zero, etc. Unless I pay $50.00 more to shaw cable or mts adsl, then I will remain at a quarter of the speed and bandwidth that I had 6 months ago. With the additional $50.00 to shaw cable, my internet speed doubles and bandwidth doubles from what I have right now, but then that is still half of what I was doing 6 months ago. I have been effectively cut off from being a file sharing server by Shaw cable. I have been warned 3 times by shaw cable about excessive use of my internet connection and have had to wait a week to be reconnected to the internet. I have been waiting weeks and months to download tv shows and movies from filesharing apps like shareaza. Not that I cannot download or upload faster, but that I'm only allowed so much to download or upload in a month. I have checked all the other isp in Winnipeg and there are no alternatives other than becoming an isp myself. You can go here to find all the anime or macross that you would like at a faster download speed than I can provide.

Hello, I, too, would be interested in buying one ghost fighter. Thanks! boinger

Obeth resin model is here. Very pleased. Thanks muchly. Hope you try doing other macross stuff. What else would be a good macross model to do? * armd at the same scale as the Bandai sdf1 toy * fast pack armor for yamato 1/72 yf19 * 1/60 or 1/72 zentraedi fighter pod * ghost fighter from sdf macross

Imacross 4 offline until I can switch to another isp in the next 2 weeks. Shaw cable modem banned me from the internet, since Friday because I went over their bandwidth limitation of 50 gb of uploads + downloads / month ? or 1-2 gb/day. The Shaw internet user agreeement is open ended, so they can change they can charge for whatever bandwidth amount they like and cut me off whenever they feel I'm "abusing my internet privilieges". Next time that I cross the line, I get cut off for 7 days. Options: 1. Roger cable unaavailable 2. I'm no longer able to do filesharing on cable modem. 10-20 kb/s max. upload/download in order to maintain the user agreement. Worse than 56 k 3. Back to MTS adsl, and then my router won't work. 4. separate phone line + unlimited 56 k dial up any other suggestions?

imacross4 offline until I can switch to a new isp. Shaw cable modem is now set at 50 gb uploads + downloads / month and 1-2 gb/day! Shaw cable has an open ended contract, so they can rewrite whatever amount of bandwidth is too much and how much they can charge for bandwidht as well. I was thinking that I cannot go back to MTS adsl modem because of my router difficutlies. Maybe, there's some other cable or adsl service in Winnipeg that doesn't restirct bandwidht so much. I can only download or upload at about 20 kb/s for the whole day if I want to keep to the agreement. That's worse than 56 k. I might as well get a separate phone line and get a cheap unlimited 56k dialup sevice. I would end up paying the same and not being disconnected every other week. Any other ideas?

Somehow I lost the esa-r4 antennae for my yamato 1/60 ve-1 elintseeker toy. Does anybody know how to get a replacement? Thanks --- edited for toy version specifics

imacross 4 online I was having trouble connecting because my ip number was reset by shaw cable. So, I had fiddle with port forwarding settings to connect through my router. Try passive connection or active connection.

imacross4 hub online I'm not connected just now beacuse i'm on 7-10 days probation from Shaw cable. Shaw cable disconnected my cable modem for the last 2 days for excessive bandwidth usage. I was number 4 out of 85000 for the last month. over half of the bandwidht usage they count is uploading: 80 gb download and 200+ upload. Oops. I just leave my filesharing online all the time while working, lost track. Shaw cable suggested using shareaza, netlimiter and newsgroups rather than bittorrent or direct connect. I can run the direct connect hub, but now I really have to watch how much people are uploading from me. That's really annoying. I found out that my isp number changed, so my dc client settings needed to be changed as well, and then I was able to connect to my dc hub. And my external hard drive is shutting off by itself 4 times in the last 3 days, so I'm backing up as much files as I can before the hard drive fails. I've lost over 10 gb of comics so far. You can still connect to the dc hub and trade files. For the the next week, I'll just check occasionally how everything is running.

Imacross4 hub online, but i'm not. Not able to connect to my own dc hub no matter what DC client I use. "connection refused by target machine" I have forwarded the ports for the dc client and the dc hub, so both are working. I am able to connect to other dc hubs and my imacross dc hub is working. Just not working for me. I'll keep working at it. One day everything was working and then I was disconnected from my own hub without changing any of the dc hub or client settings. I've tried 5 different versions of the dc client and no go.

imacross4 hub supposedly online I am unable to connect to my own hub. "connection refused by target machine" If anybody has been able to log on right now, then could you tell me which client you are using? Currently, I am using bcdc++ .674b, which works for the comic hubs I'm currenly on right now, but not with ynhub software.

imscross4 offline "connection refused by target machine" I tried resetting my modem. Doublechecked my ynhub software settings for changes and I can't figure out why I can't connect to my own hub, but at the same time connect to megaman.gotdns.com:455 with no problems. I can't figure why I can stay connected for 4 days and then the hub software resets 3 times in 2 hours and then completely shuts downm even though the hub software says it's online. Time to look for another dc hub software.

imacross4 online I had to change the port forwarding number to 411 because dc hub ynhub software changes the port number every once in a while. log on with imacross4.myftp.org:411

imacross4 onine okay, I'll just ignore Shaw cable for now. Doesn't quite make sense to me that they're charging by bandwidth and speed. If my speed was constant for a whole month, then it would be impossible to download above a the gigabyte restriction. It's like shaw cable wants to charge me for a faster connection, but they don't want me to use it. "Bandwidth, Data Storage and Other Limitation You must comply with the current bandwidth, data storage and other limitations on the Services. Users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, inhibit or degrade any other customer’s use of the Services, nor represent (in the sole judgment of Shaw) an unusually large burden on the network itself, such as, but not limited to, peer to peer file sharing programs, serving streaming video or audio, mail, http, ftp, irc, dhcp servers, and multi-user interactive forums. The guidelines for Bandwidth Usage/month for each service package are the following: Shaw High-Speed (with Xtreme-I) - 50 GigaByte; SOHO - 50 GigaByte; Professional - 70 GigaByte; Business - 100 GigaByte (combined download and upload). Business services which are combined with the Xtreme-I upgrade retain the stated Bandwidth Usage/month guidelines. The guidelines for acceptable web site traffic include 2 GigaByte/month for SOHO, Professional, and Business hosting packages. Residential Shaw High Speed and High Speed Lite services do not have specific guidelines of this nature as the Service is not intended for business applications. Shaw reserves the right to set specific limits for Bandwidth Usage and charge for excessive Bandwidth Usage for residential Services at any time. In addition, users must ensure that their activity does not improperly restrict, disrupt, inhibit, degrade or impede Shaw’s ability to deliver the Services and monitor the Services, backbone, network nodes, and/or other network services."

imacross4 online , but for how long? I just received an email from my isp, Shaw cable. ------------------------------------------------------ Dear Shaw Internet Customer In order to provide all Shaw Internet customers with an optimal Internet experience we proactively assess our network. Through our analysis we have noticed that the level of activity on your Internet account is more than 30 to 50 times that of our average Internet user. We would like to help identify the cause(s) of the heavy traffic that may be affecting your computer’s performance and most importantly your Internet experience. Often a file sharing program can be the cause of high amounts of traffic. Not only will this affect the flow of traffic on the Internet it also puts a major strain on your computer’s resources. For more information about how large quantities of Internet traffic can adversely affect your online experience please click here: ------------------------------------------------------ The email sounds like Shaw cable thinks I'm having a problem with my computer from downloading too much stuff, which I don't. More and faster works fine for me; that's why I switched to cable. I'll keep you guys posted on what this means. I have to make a phone call to shaw cable.

imacross4 online you have to be specific which port number for imacross4. imacross4.myftp.org by itself does not work. To log onto imacross4 dc hub: Go to favorite hubs, copy and paste " imacross4.myftp.org:1411 " with your macrossworld name and optional password. Hoping that works.

imacross4 dc hub back online Getting really fed up with neomodus dc hub. I'm trying ynhub dc hub software. Neomoduse 2.0 dc hub software didn't have any options to prevent all these ban and log in problems. Lots of checklists and stuff on this new software. Seems to be working fine right now. logged in as boinger, but I'm not sure what the other 3 operator nickanames are good for.

imacross4 offline ftp server won't work either. "port 21 is already in use" If you would like to connect to me, then use a direct connect client with this dc address: megaman.gotdns.com:455 I'm going to work nights this week until Friday. That's all I can do for now.

Imacross4 dc hub online. I couldn't get my ftp server to work. "Port 21 in use" back to dc hub: imacross4.myftp.org:411 logon name: (macrossworld name) password (whatever you would like) ******************************** port number updated to 411 ************************ June 20/05 imacross 4 offline until I can find a more reliable isp !

imacross 4 online What worked for me was to register my macrossworld name and a password. So, everybody logging onto imacross 4 dc hub pm me with your name and a simple passoword and I'll register you. Hopefully, that fixes the temporary ban. Otherwise, somebody else could start a dc hub, I could restart my ftp sever, or we could just pick a solid connecting dc hub and all meet there. any other ideas?

imacross4 dc hub online surprisingly. Somebody had been logging in with my macrossworld name and causing me to appear to connect too often to the dc hub. I suspect that is why I was getting temporarily banned. I made a password to register as an operator. I'm hoping that fixes that problem child. my non operator handle is macronapnaut and I would appreciate that anyone else would use their own macrossworld name. thanks. next time dc hub or client crashes, I'll upgrade to .674 bcdc++ and try out that different hub software. see you on the imacross4 hub ******** PS For those of you with 0 (zero) kb in their fileshare, you wil not be able to connect to the dc imacross4 hub. By software default, you have to have at least 1 kb of something to share. More stuff to share the better.