ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

too much sob story and not enough finished product. i say lock the thread and create a new one.

Top Hat

^ There isn't going to BE a finished product. We are giving the refunds and paying club lexus their fee's and leaving. I'm all on my own now. Brian is teaching full time now and Andy backed out when he realized how much work the tail lights took. The sob story comment is irritating as i've gone out of my way to be TRUTHFUL and UPFRONT about everything. It's not a sob story its a ****ty situation i'm trying to make the best out of.

I've spoken with internet brands (who we worked out a payment plan for) and DaveGS4 about it the situation is getting taken care of. Since I want to buy a house in the next 7 years I am not declaring bankruptcy yet so needless to say i'm trying to get **** together so that doesn't happen. I have been having to pay internet brands cause if I don't they'll take my account off here and everyone will be left hanging. I'm doing EVERYTHING I can here.

EDIT: I have decided to stop paying club lexus fee's for the time being and instead pay off the rest of the refunds. If I get booted from CL i'll begin using TopshelfBottomline@yahoo.com again to finish business. I stopped using it months ago because it got spammed over but if I get booted from here because of the delay in the fee's for refunds then everyone will know why.

boobstar

Well please do not forget my refund in that case, kid_peru@yahoo.com

There is an underscore between kid and peru. Thanks

Cleanshots

iTrader: (2)

oh well some things are not meant to be... it sounded way too good to be true from the beginning..

5sp_jzz30

iTrader: (2)

kinda wish i could get those stock fogs back since the ones i donated were flawless but oh well i doubt it will happen.

Top Hat

^We'll work something out.

ChronoJ1

iTrader: (2)

I respect and appreciate that you are doing your best to issue refunds. In the mean time why don't you do the following:

- Edit your first post and state that there will be no products and deposits are being issued.
- Edit the title so it reflects the above.

Top Hat

^ Updated. I can't update the title though so hopefully one of the mods will help me out.


After looking at the whole situation I realize now that I am in over my head. I had a great group of guys working with me to make this all a success and each one left to do their own thing and now it is just me. I cannot take on the workload necessary to continue running Top Hat and I sure as hell can't see the Sherlock Society through. 10 days ago was the 4th year anniversary of Top Hat and I celebrated it alone for the first time and realized that... It's done, Top Hat is done, Sherlock Society is finished. I can't do both of them AND the other stuff I have going on. Tonight i'm putting some stuff on Ebay that is probably worth something on 5 day auctions. When they end the money I get from them will go to entirely to refunds. There should be enough for everybody. I'd say I had a good run but I really didn't. It's not like I wasted 4 years of my life, you win some you lose some so perhaps the lose some cycle is nearing its end perhaps?? After 4 years of having a shop I never once got to build a car for myself. When this is all over I think i'm going to focus on that. - Sam

boobstar

just a suggestion, but why not post up what you are auctioning off in case some members are interested in just taking that as a trade off for the refund

2.5tsoarer

iTrader: (3)

this was a complete Failurecoaster. it slowly got everyones hopes up ...then the huge plummet !

SHOLEXMAN

Yeah tell me about it,saw it from the beginning though it would be sweet to buy then this. Dump to the bottom sorry that it ended that way ,but if the people that are supposed to help you bail then they aren't friends to you. Hopefully someone else with better support can offer something similar to this.

Top Hat

Yea tell me about it. Think about how I feel I was the one hoping this would launch a whole line of accessories for everybody.


No kidding. Another chapter for my book. Let it be a lesson to anyone who tries to get in business with your friends, just because they are your friends doesn't mean they'll make good business partners.


I thought about that but then i'd have to pay to mail stuff and thats taking money out of everybody elses refund. Plus I have to claim all the money that came into paypal so it would become even more of a mess then it already is. So for simplicities sake i'm selling the stuff on ebay and clicking "refund" on paypal. It's mostly stuff for the GS and paintball guns. Brian was nice enough to give me some DSM parts to put toward the refunds. I do have a set of 19" tires but they are really, really worn down they may or may not go up.

Top Hat

REeeeefunnnnnnnnndddddddsssssss!!!

Since its over 60 days I can't hit "click refund" I have to send money normally so I added the %3 so everybody gets a full refund.

More stuff going up on ebay tomorrow on 3, 5, & 7 day auctions and that should wrap it all up.

- Sam

schwarz

iTrader: (3)

I have a quick question for you Top Hat....at first, you said the lenses were going to be made with cast acrylic because Lexan had too many issues. Then when things started going south, you mentioned that you had a pallet of unused Lexan sheets for the lenses that you couldn't return. So for the lenses you did make, were they made from acrylic or Lexan?

Also, in another post, you said you were having issues with the resin used to make the lenses and when you posted the pic of the 'popped' mold, it appeared to be a silicone mold used just for that...resin.

So I guess I am confused as to what material was finally chosen to be the material of choice for these lenses...was it cast acrylic sheet, Lexan sheet or resin?

renren7

iTrader: (2)

After reading all 37 pages (including the GS link)
I dont blame people who started to think its a scam
Cause first off, it does sound too good to be true @ $120 for 2 pair of lense.
Now I'm not saying he's a scammer, but just thinking psychologically here?
People would rather spend $120 other than $200 or $250 for something new and not throughoutly tested right? So making the price lower would attract more attention and interested, plus they are posting it in other models too so it does make sense to set the price on the cheaper side.

Again, not making any judgement here, it seems like a lot of members complained about not responding to pm and emails, which is probably the MAIN reason people starts to think its a scam, just like how most scams are, they take your money and dont respond.

All that being said, I really just think they ran into some bad luck but more importantly didnt realize how much trouble they might have ran into in the research phase of this project.

If I joined the community earlier I probably would have invested the money and dont even expect for a refund, kinda like paying for something great that MAY be produced, which is totally fine for me, hey its a hundred bucks, just dont go out for dinner for couple days =)

Now after being a **** to Sam (sorry), you know, business sometimes dont turn out the way they should, not like you'll need a lecture on business from me, obviously you know all about it for having a shop that ran successfully before all this happened.

I do appreciate you guys that tried to build something for the SC community, and I really think people should just give these guys a brake, i'm sure we all benefited in some way from the community so sometimes you get the bad stuffs.

I still think what cause everyone to panic is the unanswered pm and emails, I probably would be the first guy to call this a scam if i was involved, but good luck on everything and hope you get back on your feet soon =)