Rodney and I got neg'd for warning people and many of my friends here sent me warning PM's .... all I will say is this.... I really hope All the people who got screwed over get their hard earned money back .... I will not say " I said so" but when something walks like a duck , quacks like a duck then holy hell it is a F'n duck!!!
Originally posted by Indyellowgt: Let's focus on getting someone from the NW to get over to this place for a personal visit..and see if they can get some answers...
Over where? To a potentially fake address that appears to be an apartment building complex, but doesn't have an apartment number?
If you want to get some traction on this, contact Cliff and ask him for all the IP address from which the person posted. If it comes down to court, the ISP may be compelled to fork over the subscriber info.
Also, Cliff should block those IPs from the forum (should be easy to do in the forum admin interface) to prevent the person from creating new accounts and/or interfering with people trying to get their money back.
That said, if this is all a big misunderstanding, my free dinner offer still stands for the Jet City Fieros meeting tonight. Come on out and make it right, Slammed/Micayla/Michaela/Michael....
I had assumed there was some idea of where this person was because people had purchased parts... But I suppose a real address from a seller could be heard to come up with..
Wow!!! If someone offered me as many free dinners as you have Loren then I'd be 20 pounds heavier. Makes me wish I lived on the west coast. I'm sure she..he...it showed up to collect tonight though didn't they?
------------------ 87 GT....SBC...fast as hell... Proud new owner of....THE DIRTY RAT
This still doesn't make sense when you examine the facts. The facts (as I see them) regardless of whether this person is truly a scammer or not are:
1. Started a thread over a year ago promising reproduction tail light lenses. While claims were made, no money was requested, nor to my knowledge accepted.
2. Produced pictures at least resembling rough molded tail light lenses that are consistent with a prototype plastic mold. It would be pretty difficult to fake this without at least some sort of mold on hand to do so, though I am no expert.
3. Obtained and parted out at least TWO separate cars. To my knowledge all buyers of these parts (myself included) were satisfied with the communication and the transaction.
4. Obtained and provided pictures of at least TWO separate sets of perfect (or nearly so) fastback tail light lens sets. Whether these were obtained from manufacturing or are OE lenses as some allege is up for debate, but what is beyond question is that pictures of these lenses were posted and match no other known pictures, leading to it being unlikely that the pictures were ripped off from somewhere. If indeed OE lenses were used, the photos were well doctored to remove things like the DOT stamping and mounting tabs. I'm not saying that isn't possible of course, but it was definitely more than just an MS paint job.
5. Made 437 posts to the forum in the span of a little over a year, in addition to replying to numerous PMs.
Everything else is in question. This includes the existence of any molds, any prototype lenses, any prototype or completed lens covers, etc. But those five facts listed above are documented beyond a doubt. I get that there's the potential of a long-con here, but the numbers simply do not add up.
Parts cars-- $2000-$2500 EACH based on the condition of the cars depicted in the pictures. There were enough pictures of the cars and the parts pulled (and subsequently shipped) from these cars for to be any doubt that she was indeed in possession of these cars. Also it is unlikely based on the sales in the thread that she successfully recouped a $4-5k investment in these cars. When looked at with the assumption that this was indeed a long con, the partouts were designed to gain the trust and confidence of the mark.
Fastback lenses-- EASILY $800 EACH in the condition depicted in the pictures. So another $1600 cost outlay. Furthermore the question becomes WHERE she might have obtained these lenses. Just about every ebay, craigslist, and facebook post advertising a set of lenses is immediately posted up here, and at least over the past year, not a SINGLE set of lenses in this condition have been posted. This of course doesn't rule out the possibility of being found privately; but given the scarcity of these, the likelihood of finding two nearly perfect sets without being noticed by ANYONE here is unlikely. The same holds true on the other side of this transaction. She claims they were sold privately through the forum, which is entirely possible; however, given the attention that this subject has achieved it is highly unlikely that BOTH sets of lenses have slipped into the ether unnoticed. Furthermore, there have been no ads on ebay, craigslist, or facebook advertising these lenses.
So by my conservative estimate she's into this for AT LEAST $5000, minus any money recouped from selling parts. So she "sold" how many sets of these lens covers? 5? 10? So even at 10 sets it's unlikely she's up a grand for a year long con job. The amount of work and setup that would go into pulling this off would require a much bigger payout than what appears to have been gained here.
Don't care bout what the reasons for this mess Don't care if someone planned a long scam Don't care if the photos of the lenses are real or fake. Don't care if people defend or gloat about it Don't care if slammed is wating for the money to clear to pay for shipping
I don't think any of us will have a problem getting our money back. the info is pretty cut and dried that we did not receive the item ordered and paypal will refund our money or the credit card company will take care of it. I know I am not loosing any sleep over it. It will be a little inconvenient working with paypal if she doesn't deliver, or refund. but all it really cost is a little of my time. The biggest problem I have now is figuring out something else to do with my tail lights as my hope is fading these will be delivered now or possibly ever. I am still holding out a little hope that something happened to prevent slammed from delivering on time. I hope she is ok and nothing bad happened. As was previously mentioned She would have to put a lot of time and money into this to defraud us purposly.
Wow!!! If someone offered me as many free dinners as you have Loren then I'd be 20 pounds heavier. Makes me wish I lived on the west coast. I'm sure she..he...it showed up to collect tonight though didn't they?
If you've ever seen the size of the burgers and root beer floats at Triple X, you'd realize that 20 pounds would be on the light side.
Alas, I am sad to report that I did not have the pleasure of buying anyone dinner tonight.
The members who attended the meeting gave a wave to all the other Fiero owners out there, though:
Loren, how far is TripleX from the address above? Surely people in your group have at least 1 fastback and would have been willing to test some lenses and let pictures be taken.
Loren, how far is TripleX from the address above? Surely people in your group have at least 1 fastback and would have been willing to test some lenses and let pictures be taken.
Our willingness to do that has, for over a year, not been the reason it hasn't happened.
Obviously your group's willingness hasn't been an issue. I would have started there. Like an open house sort of thing. Perhaps some Q&A. It's be an excellent intro for a new product.
Have you all never seen an episode of CATFISH??????? For the love of FIEROS, watch a few episodes. It could be a true Fiero lover, it could be a woman, it could be a woman with Baron von Munchausen Syndrome wanting the attention for harming people who love Fieros... but for the love of sanity...watch CARFISH...er, CATFISH. THings may make sense that do not make rational sense to the rest of the world.
Too funny. But back to the shameless commerce division of straws...I have a pair of pretty good tail lights for sale!
Have you all never seen an episode of CATFISH??????? For the love of FIEROS, watch a few episodes. It could be a true Fiero lover, it could be a woman, it could be a woman with Baron von Munchausen Syndrome wanting the attention for harming people who love Fieros... but for the love of sanity...watch CARFISH...er, CATFISH. THings may make sense that do not make rational sense to the rest of the world.
Too funny. But back to the shameless commerce division of straws...I have a pair of pretty good tail lights for sale!
See my post above. The economics just don't make sense for this to have been a scam from the get-go. I'm thinking it's more likely that this was a cut and run relatively late in the process after some aspect of the genuine plan became impossible.
Napoleon T and anyone else who bought parts from Slammed's parts cars, who's name and address were the payments made to and who's name and return address was on the shipping lable? This may be a way of tracking her down. Communicate privately with lorennerol if you have info since he seems to be closest and because Slammed is certainly still watching this thread.
I already posted the return address and phone number on here. It all was the "Plastic Vacuum Solutions" name, including the email plasticvacsolutions@gmail.com.
Does anyone know the name of the plastics company she worked for? I went back and looked at the pics she posted of the lens and, while it`s not impossible for it to be in an apartment, the flooring that the first pics were taken on looks to be more of a commercial type tile that was pretty worn. And then, the later pics of the lens stacked up were on a totally different floor and surrounding area in a lot better shape. Do you suppose the process was much further along, at her job, than she let on? If the project got shelved for some reason, at the company and she was the only one working on it and got let go, the company may not even know about this forum and all that is going on. I realize they wouldn`t divulge any personal info on past employees but maybe they could shed some light on the project.
If you go back and read all of the posts on the GT tail light covers, there are many inconsistencies. Sample pictures were posted so we know an attempt was made but the whole story and the identity of this individual was never explained. My guess is that the project was started with good intentions, the product proved harder to make than what was expected and the great delay is being caused by Slammed working out the bugs and trying to perfect the process. I believe that orders were taken before finished product was available and that nothing was ever shipped. What is worrisome is that the story keeps changing every time Slammed posts an update. Given time the truth will come out but it sure would help if Slammed just told the real story and apologized for taking peoples money before she had anything to deliver. The situation is correctable if Slammed starts being honest with her customers starts delivering product ( or asks for more time) and makes an effort to see that a credible story is told. Just some advise from a long time forum member and I hope that its taken to heart.
------------------ " THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, custom ZZP /Frozen Boost Intercooler setup, 3.4" Pulley, Northstar TB, LS1 MAF, 3" Spintech/Hedman Exhaust, Autolite 104's, MSD wires, Custom CAI, 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite. "THE COLUSSUS" 87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H " ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "
[This message has been edited by Dennis LaGrua (edited 04-15-2016).]
Either earlier in this thread or in one of the other threads, there was reference to a video being posted, of the covers being installed. There was also a reference to a Better video being uploaded at a later time.
I did not find a link to any videos anywhere, and a youtube search didn't turn up anything.... Just curious if anybody ever saw any videos of any potential product and installation. Again, I am not one of the purchasers just one of the many trying to figure out the big picture of what is going on. Like others I think the highly likely scenario is someone who started out with good intentions, and found themselves in an ever deepening hole they couldn't dig out of.... Time will tell, or maybe not....
The video was never posted, she said it was terrible and wanted something better. Us first buyers were supposed to make a video of the install and take a lot of pictures of the process for a "reduced price".
All I know is that I still don't have any new tail light lenses.
We are all still in limbo waiting for a responce. It's now been a week since she promised refunds. Last Saturday, according to her was the deadline.
Slammed disappeared before for awhile for unknown reasons, but in her prior thread before she actually took people's money, that was when apparently her job sold the molds of the exact replica tail light lenses out from under her. Someone bought the molds for an undisclosed amount of money and she wasn't happy.
After not being around to update for a month or two she came back with this thread. Everything was ready, but they shipped her the incorrect boxes. So she got new ones and shipped them. All the seven shipments are still stuck at "shipping label created". Skip forward a few more things going wrong like quitting her job and fixing loose ends, laser breaking, forgetting flex agent in paint, she promaced that if she didn't get the lenses out last Saturday she would give refunds to whoever asked for them no questions asked.
That was a week ago, and slammed hasn't responded yet
That's the summery basically.
------------------ "Discord" Red 1988 GT under restoration!
Seems like I am missing one piece of this story...... Is it possible to generate a tracking label and send the details to the post office WITHOUT PAYING THE POST OFFICE? There should be evidence of the payment of the shipping costs if these really shipped. If Slammed paid for the shipping, then there should be a claim of (something) against the post office. As I recall I think you get 50 dollars insurance unless you pay for extra.
If Slammed never shipped, and never paid, then this obviously explains the failure to pursue this with the Post office.
It's pretty obvious. If you paid money, you've been cheated. If Slammed, he ,she or it reappears with another sad story (and he she or it will) don't buy into the next sad story. In my opinion, the only recourse would be for this person to provide finished product to a second credible party for review of quality, availability and the knowledge of how to put product into a box for shipment, proper tracking and billing. Maybe Rodney would be a good choice for that second party as we all know his reputation for only putting out proven product and he does call it as he see's it if it doesn't meet the standards he requires.
File your claims - hope to get you money back and move on with this lesson learned.
You can generate a shipping label right from your computer. Makes it more convenient so you can just take to post office ready to be shipped. Ebay even encourages this also.
Just to add, just because one was generated doesn't mean it was taken to post office or picked up. Update would have said accepted if this was the case
What doesn't make sense in regards to the shipping label /tracking number is that when you fill out a label online, the post office doesn't issue a tracking number until it's paid for. So if she gave people tracking numbers, she would have had to pay for them. If the label is canceled, so is the tracking number. Seems odd to buy tracking numbers only to not send anything. Fraud is fraud, but it seems like an odd way to go about it. Maybe she needed more money to finish them so she sold them before they were really done with the hopes to use the dough to get them completed but something went wrong and now she's spent everyones money and still doesn't have product to ship.
PayPal will hold funds until proof of delivery for new Ebay sellers until they reach a required amout of sales. In my experience selling through PayPal, regular transactions do not have a hold. They do have a place to add a tracking number but it just sends an email to the buyer.
Not much help for the past, but going forward...purchase with an American Express card. All I have to do is call them and they will have the charges reversed that same day...every time!
I have no stake in this and hope the end is good for all.
I found this down the street from the address that is posted. Literally just down the street.
Kel Tech Plastics 3510 S Pine St Tacoma, Wa 98409.
"Keltech Retail is dedicated to delivering outstanding service for plastic fabrication and graphic design in the greater Seattle area. Stop by to discuss your project or learn what we can do for you, from repair to prototyping."
Also, by chance at 2908, not 2903 S, 45th St is a "slammed" pickup in the driveway on google maps. The house on the corner across from the apartments.
I hope Slammed gets the product done and makes good on all the orders.
Interesting, if you search for a Micayla in Tacoma, WA you get a Micayla Sawyer. Search that and by chance you get a profile link to a law firm one block from 45th st (on 47th). Use that profile and it gives you a youtube video of a S10 road test. Searching for Micayla Sawyer in youtube you can find comment posts in someone elses video by MicaylaSawyer1 speaking intelligently about plastics and how they cut polycarbonate all day. All of this may have nothing to do with who we regard to as "Slammed". I would not assume these are related by do find it intriguing.
