Huh? I am not sure if you are defending his timing, or the natural tendancy for prop makers to deliver tardy in general. Late by a month is OK, then 2 months is not OK?
I have been late by 10 days and have people shine-o-la all over me. I have been later (but that was painting and assembling an entire suit of clone armor - and I gave weekly updates)
First off... I do not do suits anymore. And, generally when I shipthings I sell, I try to do it in under a week now. I will offer an example, a recent one. I sold this MG-34/DLT-19 the Monday before Halloween (and I told the guy it would arrive after Halloween)...
Since I did not ship it until last Saturday (the 6th day after he paid the purchase), I felt like I was running behind and refunded his shipping cost as a courtesy.
I understand we get behind, or orders stack up, or we have "Real Life" happen... that is cool, we all have lives outside of this realm of plastic and toys. OH, HOW I HAVE LEARNED THIS...
But, we can also share with our peers (and especially, our customers)... "Hey, I am having problems." or, "My molds do not seem to be working." or whatever.
Every time I have PM'd Bradley prior to this purchase, he has always been pleasent, and I have asked him for advice in the past... so, I have no beef with him.
I also do not think I am throwing him under the bus either.
Facts are, I am just going from 5 weeks, onto 6 weeks now.
As I have offered to Bradley in PMs here and through e-mail... "No big deal, please let me know an ETA, and if you are behind, just send me a refund... no biggy."
And if he sends me a helmet, I will probably paint it up fast, and get pics up of how I plan to do it...
WHITE, of course.
I too, do not want to ruffle. I just would like a reply and an ETA.
Later,
John
Don't want to ruffle any feathers here, so let me just put this out there. Maybe I'm the only one who's had this experience. Last year, in August, I ordered some sintra prop materials from a maker on another forum. Contacted the seller after a month, because I was concerned I wouldn't have the materials for a Halloween costume in time. All told, it took two months to receive the product. Since then, I have ordered two sets of gauntlets and two helmets besides the ones I ordered from Bradleyfett. Each one took two months to reach me. Bradleyfett's took only a month. That must seem a long time to some, but was shorter by half than any other hobbiest seller I'd had experience with to that point. I think the perceived difficulties with the vac-formed helmet came of a few issues, primarily that it was a new concept, and most people'd had no experience with it. To date, I've only seen Wickedbeard's and tk7602's fine examples of painted vac-formed Boba buckets. When someone had a question, there were very few people who'd worked with them to offer advice. I only know Bradleyfett from this one purchase, but I had absolutely no problems working with him. I know no one's bashing him, but I think there's a wrong impression being developed here. There are real plusses (sp?) to Bradleyfett's bucket--namely price, and symmetry. I'm considering buying a third, and I'm not even finished painting my first. I wouldn't think twice about doing business with him again.
Having said that, I certainly don't mean to belittle the frustration of waiting for a purchase you expected sooner--I've felt that with each of mine, cuz I wanted them that afternoon, let alone two months later. And I don't mean to dismiss the dismay at opening a box and finding something completely different from what was purchased. What a let down that must have been/still is.
Respectfully,
ioelus