Hasbro Modified Blasters

[boinger]

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?

[Ali Sama]

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?

353599[/snapback]

'

if paypal does nto do it. your own credicard company will.

[sabretooth]

dude you paid the guy over a hundred bucks for a repainted toy gun?

[Roy's Blues]

With paypal you have 45 days from the point of payment to file a complaint. Most credit card companies give you 90 days.

I strongly suggest filing with Paypal ASAP. Sometimes it lights a fire under the sellers @$$, and you will get your items quick. Also, you can cancel the complaint at any time.

Filing with your credit card should be a last resort, mostly because it pisses off Paypal a lot!

[Duke Togo]

dude you paid the guy over a hundred bucks for a repainted toy gun?

353604[/snapback]

Now that's funny!

[Hikuro]

Personally I don't think I could ever do bussniess with someone who doesn't actually work for some company that specializes in those things....

Park Sabers anyone?

[Sumdumgai]

From a lot of stuff I've read about sour deals from other forums, paypal won't do much for you. All I ever read about is people getting the runaround, then paypal telling them that there's nothing they can do. Your best bet may be to get your money back through your credit card company.

I won't buy from Parks. Besides the MPP incident, the idea of waiting months to get items is a big turn off. A number of people are still waiting for their ultimate saber kit from him. I hear lots of good things about him, but I've also heard a lot of complaints.

[boinger]

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 just phoned your business phone number 1-641-684-6587 about the modified blasters.  I left a message, but I sometimes have trouble stating all the details to an answering machine.

My last email to you was on Dec.12/05, but you have not responded.  I have attempted to submit a temporary buyer complaint process form through paypal to remind you that I was still waiting for the blasters, but paypal rescinded the claim.  I expected that the toys were to be shipped on Dec.9, as you had stated, or at least a very good explanation with an actual shipment date and tracking number (and pictures would have been nice, too).

Since, I cannot tell whether I will ever see these toys.  You can refund my money $275.00 US to my paypal account - boinger5@shaw.ca

Otherwise on Wednesday,  I will be contacting my Visa credit card company to attempt to get my money back from paypal and then from you.

Maybe, it's the Christmas rush of making and shipping out custom blasters or my emails got lost in transition to you. 

I hope to get an email from you to clear this up before Wednesday. 

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.

Edited December 20, 2005 by boinger

[Sumdumgai]

It's a bad sign when someone keeps telling you to wait, and wait, and wait. It tends to be that they're trying to scam you by making you wait past the day limit thing so you're screwed if you file a complaint.

At least with a MR lightsaber you can't cut yourself like with a real sword (like having an accident while cleaning the blade). Real guns make loud noise, can hurt your hand and wrist from recoil, covers you in gunpowder so you stink, and then you have to clean it. I prefer the toy world. Imagine if you swung your real lightsaber wrong and cut your hand off, or a chunk of your head, or something like that! lol

[JB0]

Real guns make loud noise, can hurt your hand and wrist from recoil, covers you in gunpowder so you stink, and then you have to clean it.  I prefer the toy world.  

Could compromise.

I've got a Red Ryder BB gun from when I was little. Not the most powerful firearm ever made by any means, but for knocking some holes in paper it's reasonably useful.

Could get a more powerful airgun for more paper-murdering fun.

Imagine if you swung your real lightsaber wrong and cut your hand off, or a chunk of your head, or something like that! lol

Yeah, but imagine how much easier home improvement products would be if you didn't ahve to deal with all those saws...

[Zentrandude]

It's a bad sign when someone keeps telling you to wait, and wait, and wait.  It tends to be that they're trying to scam you by making you wait past the day limit thing so you're screwed if you file a complaint.

At least with a MR lightsaber you can't cut yourself like with a real sword (like having an accident while cleaning the blade).  Real guns make loud noise, can hurt your hand and wrist from recoil, covers you in gunpowder so you stink, and then you have to clean it.  I prefer the toy world.   Imagine if you swung your real lightsaber wrong and cut your hand off, or a chunk of your head, or something like that! lol

353947[/snapback]

What? your not my son

[Sumdumgai]

lol I'd rather be able to use the force.

Lay around and make things float over to me. Make annoying people have accidents. Zap people. And dominate the weak minded.

"You will donate your money to me."

Although I still would want a real lightsaber... A collection of them. And a real blaster. And airsoft works well for me for some paper murdering fun!

[JB0]

lol I'd rather be able to use the force.

Lay around and make things float over to me.  Make annoying people have accidents.  Zap people.  And dominate the weak minded.

"You will donate your money to me."

Although I still would want a real lightsaber...  A collection of them.  And a real blaster.  And airsoft works well for me for some paper murdering fun!

354069[/snapback]

All seconded. Except I'd rather shoot tiny metal balls from my overglorified toys than yellow foam balls. I'm old-fashioned that way.

[jardann]

The guys work does look good on his website.

I can't imagine why someone who wants to run a business would take the chance on getting a bad reputation for a couple of hundred bucks.

I'm sure it would be cheaper (and bring in more business) in the long run to make sure you deliver what you promise, not shoot yourself in the foot with future customers.

Good luck getting your money back.

[boinger]

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.

[willismaximus]

I'm having the same problem bud.

I ordered a blaster back in september from steve, and all my correspondances with him with been similar to yours. I even sent him a bill through paypal for $195 the other day. His website has been taken down recently, so I couldn't get his information to sue him. I was doing a search in case he moved his site, and I stumbled across your thread.

We got screwed bud, all there is to it. Luckily you posted his info

I'm seriously pissed at this guy, and I'd love to drop the legal hammer on his dumb ass. I may never get my money back, but I'm gonna try like hell.

Edited January 11, 2006 by willismaximus

[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.

Edited January 11, 2006 by boinger

[Hikuro]

1) I would NEVER send anything I expect to have returned to me across borders, nor would I ever selling anything across.

2) I don't and NEVER will use paypal, I don't trust it, I've tried it once but never had a use for it so I got rid of it.

3) I never even do bussniess with someone unless they have over 1,000 replies of customer feedback and only 10 can be negative or mediocore over the last 6 months....so I'm a very picky shopper. Then again last time I used Ebay was 4 years ago.

[boinger]

One Paypal credit card chargeback almost resolved and one to go.

The guy who bought a lightsaber from me and asked Amex to send a credit card chargeback reversal fax on Jan.9/06 has been confirmed by Paypal's email to me today, Jan. 16/05. So, I'm getting my $546 US back from Paypal in 3-5 days. I just paid my visa bill Jan. 13/05. I jneed to cancel the Visa claim to challenge the chargeback and cancel the Canada post potetential fraud claim.

my other Paypal chargeback is star wars blasters I bought from Steve Sherman of SJS Models. Looks like the Paypal settlement will be done by Jan.19/06. Steve has yet to email Paypal for an explanation, so it looks like I will get my money back there too.

I wrote lots of emails, and faxed stuff and talked on the phone for hours to get this chargeback stuff fixed.

I almost think that if I spent less than half this effort, everything would be alright anyway.

So, back to selling stuff on ebay this week!

[stuffparties]

toy wave has good stuff. try checking them out

[DeathHammer]

Please Delete Thanks

Edited February 9, 2010 by DeathHammer