Bartertown.com

I recently bought some terrain off of an ebay auction that caught my eye and was relativly cheap. After I had placed my bid, I looked around their home site to see what their other works were. It was honestly 50/50 in terms of what looked good and what looked in some cases awful, but thankfully the pieces I bid on were on the higher end of that scale. It did make me wary however, but judging by the amount of work the artist did, they seemed to definately be in on it at a professional level.

I got the pieces this monday, and had very mixed feelings. Now I'm very new to the hoby, but I think I'm able to spot mistakes, design flaws and generally sloppy work. Well, these pieces set off a few pet peeve alarms for me. The hot glue was used slopily, the plaster was flakey and not primed with any sealant, pieces of the plastic were not cut evenly and in some cases were not cut along seams of the origional plastic piece, so you could kind of see what they were cut from. They even neglected to sand down the 'Made in China' marks on the manufactured plastic pieces they used to make the model. Also, I lightly dinged one of the ends with an empty cardboard box and a major piece of the terrain poped off, giving the indication of a crappy glue job.

So obviously I'm not going to be buying from this fellow any time soon again. But I'm not sure if I should just write it off, or if I should try to write a polite and objective letter to them to give my critical feedback to help them in the future. Obviously this person is making a living to a degree off of this, but has killed any potential repeat buisness from me and possibly others from their sloppy approach.

So those of you who are in this as a buisness or give weight to the value of your artisitc work, what is your opinion? Should I give them the feedback, or would that really just be a waste of my time?

Please note, I will not provide any names or pictures, I'd rather not make this into an artist bashing thread.

Are they in it as a business or do they do it as a hobby?

If you arent going to ask for a refund, then a polite letter informing them of the concerns you just stated is probably a good idea and warranted.

DCToymachine wrote:Are they in it as a business or do they do it as a hobby?

If you arent going to ask for a refund, then a polite letter informing them of the concerns you just stated is probably a good idea and warranted.

I'm pretty sure they're in the buisness as much as you are.

As for a refund, well there's something I'm not sure is even worth fighting for. 10$ was the final ebay bid, and another 10$ for the shipping.

Well, no offense...but you DID pay 10 cents for it...

I mean, I can think of at least three cliche phrases that fit here

But yeah, write a letter if you feel it is warranted.

DCToymachine wrote:Well, no offense...but you DID pay 10 cents for it...

I mean, I can think of at least three cliche phrases that fit here

But yeah, write a letter if you feel it is warranted.

10$, not 10 cents. And it was an auction, not really quite my issue that there were no other bidders, all his other stuff that I bid on I was outbid on, just not this one piece.

So really, just getting back to my origional question...should I bother giving them the feedback that their product was really sub-par?

Galley wrote:

DCToymachine wrote:Well, no offense...but you DID pay 10 cents for it...

I mean, I can think of at least three cliche phrases that fit here

But yeah, write a letter if you feel it is warranted.

10$, not 10 cents. And it was an auction, not really quite my issue that there were no other bidders, all his other stuff that I bid on I was outbid on, just not this one piece.

So really, just getting back to my origional question...should I bother giving them the feedback that their product was really sub-par?

Oops! The period before it threw me off.

Well, if their shipping was fast and well packed, and they were quick communicating, I would leave either a good or neutral and say what you said here.

to be perfectly honest, I'd ask for a refund of everything even the shipping back. if they dont want to give it. I'd leave a negative. unless you are going to use it.

"You get what you pay for"

If you want really well-made terrain, then I'd suggest spending more than $10 on something.

Obviously people are getting away from the main point of the post. This isn't a "Gripe about crappy terrain that I got for a relativly cheap price". It was an auction, I lowballed and nobody challenged it, while other pieces went for much more. This guy makes terrain professionally. So get the price out of your heads.

The question, I'll rephrase, is "Should I talk to him or not about my feelings about the product?" If you made something and somebody thought it really had alot of room for improvement, would you want a customer who had decided to not deal with you anymore to give you feedback as to why?

yes definitely.

First of all, the OP is right.
Price doesn't matter.
...and "get what you pay for" is bogus anyway. I expect it to be ASADVERTISED and to have any defects ADVERTISED.
Less than that is fraud by misrepresentation.

That being said, unless you're going to be asking for your money back, or some other sort of compensation, then your letter/email will just come across as criticism. He will NOT feel it is warranted, ESPECIALLY if his ratings say otherwise.

I suggest sending him the email and asking for ALL funds to be reimbursed, due to shoddy workmanship.
If he refuses... "Neg" him.


Eric

[quote="MagickalMemories"]First of all, the OP is right.
Price doesn't matter.
...and "get what you pay for" is bogus anyway. I expect it to be ASADVERTISED and to have any defects ADVERTISED.
Less than that is fraud by misrepresentation.

That being said, unless you're going to be asking for your money back, or some other sort of compensation, then your letter/email will just come across as criticism. He will NOT feel it is warranted, ESPECIALLY if his ratings say otherwise.

I suggest sending him the email and asking for ALL funds to be reimbursed, due to shoddy workmanship.
If he refuses... "Neg" him.


Eric[/quote]

As i origionally posted, i agree.

Galley wrote:The question, I'll rephrase, is "Should I talk to him or not about my feelings about the product?" If you made something and somebody thought it really had alot of room for improvement, would you want a customer who had decided to not deal with you anymore to give you feedback as to why?

I make handmade products for a different hobby of mine and i've been considering occasionally selling them. I would absolutely want to know if a customer of mine was not happy with the quality, because i take pride in the work i do. Currently the stuff i make is being used for the enjoyment of myself or someone i know so quality is definately important to me.

But there's another type of person who is just churning out cheap stuff to make money. As long as other people are buying his stuff, he'll tell you to piss off.

Is there anyting in his ebay ad to indicate that the quality of work is important to him? If so, i might send him a message with constructive criticism detailing what you were unhappy with (just saying "your stuff is crap" isn't very helpful). But MM could be right, even if he's trying to make a quality product, he may well ignore you because he believes your criticism unjustified.

MM you're not old enough to be senile just yet. Hang on a bit

MagickalMemories wrote: ...and "get what you pay for" is bogus anyway.

Oh? So you're telling me that theres no difference between boxed wine from Wal Mart and a French import?

Theres no difference between a McDs hamburger and one made at a fine restaraunt?

Between costume jewelry and the Hope diamond?

I could go on and on. If youre right then these should all be priced the same..

MagickalMemories wrote:I expect it to be ASADVERTISED and to have any defects ADVERTISED.
Less than that is fraud by misrepresentation.

Lets go back to McDs. They dont advertise that their burgers are probably 50% meat, will make you sick, fat, and in large quantities kill you, and there are probably enough preservatives to mummify Fluffy.

If you pay ten dollars for something, expect it to be worth that unless you got a really good deal or were ripped off. If I said I paid $10 for a car, what adjectives pop to mind? What if I said I paid 10 for a milk shake?

Sorry, I'm just a little bored and nitpicky tonight

sorry dct.. but i worked in and live near several areas, that sell that same McD's hamburger, for $10... why? because it's in a tourist area...
or a very, affluent area, where you expect to pay more.
palm beach, or any of the 'tourist traps in central florida near orlando. [i don't dare say the names for fear of being sued]
[sometimes i switch the words affluent and effluent, most times without much difference]