prophead

My Feedback: (25)

Alex,

I accept your apology, and because your man enough to admit you where wrong I will help you finish your project if you want me to. I just checked my online banking and noticed you didnt cash the check yet, so tear it up and we will get this done. But please be patient. I will contact you in a couple days and we will talk.


Kelvin

born2topgun

ok

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

i will even help him make the wood exaust piece you need. kelvin, you seem to be a stand up guy. barry

t_burley

My Feedback: (59)

Barry, you have done wonders, on helping another relationship gone bad here again

ww2birds

My Feedback: (14)

Guys,

It is nice to see this situation coming back to what seems headed for a good outcome, whatever the puts and takes were along the way. The optimist in me that wants to assume we are all reasonable people (virtually always true in our hobby!) seems to be working.

For what it's worth, I've had Kelvin do a Yellow P40/3W80XI system, and a pair of custom Yellow T-6/3W75 exhausts. Whoever called him an artist had it about right ... in addition to being a clever designer and having great engineering instincts, he is a skilled craftsman as well. Any of us who have done custom work outselves (wheteher or not for a living) know that this sort of talent is not cheap, and does not happen instantly. There will always be back and forth on design ideas, getting parts to fit, a and balancing complexity vs. fabrication time.

In all cases I have dealt with Kekvin, he was professional and polite to deal with, and was absolutely up-front about $ arrangements (paid in advance), and likely delivery times. For the sort of project that is worth a custom exhaust, this seems reasonable, and the exhaust fab time is easy to work into the build plan ... even if it is a few months. Whenever there was any gray area about prices or who owed who $ when we agreed on changes, he offered solutions that were in my favor, not his. Smart for someone building a reputation.

I am only commenting here to offer my personal experience with Kelvin, which has been excellent, hoping to get a balanced view here .. and to note with some regret that we as a community of scale modelers are the losers here when we drive people like Kelvin to stop taking on custom work. Skills like his are hard to come by .. and if you think for even a few minutes what a reasonable hourly rate for such skill should be, we have been getting really good value for our money.

Kelvin, if you are reading, I hope the health situation comes around for you in 2008, and I wish you all the best for Keleo's success in the future.

Dave McQueeney

casinovegas

My Feedback: (1)

Barry, This is after the fact!! if you have 27 year flying and building experience and is Alex"s flying bud, maybe at the age of 16 he could have used your help with his project.

casinovegas

My Feedback: (1)

[sm=thumbup.gif] For Kelvin

DaddySam

My Feedback: (9)

I too am liking the way this seems to be getting resolved. It does go to show that you just don't know who you're really dealing with when you communicate by email or internet. I would have assumed that Alex was an adult, and treated him accordingly. I have different expectations for a 16 year old than I do an adult. That being said, most of us would go out of our way to help a sixteen year old kid in the hobby, just the way Kelvin has. If Alex had called Kelvin and spoken to him, Alex's age would have been apparent, and I'm guessing that most of this situation would have been avoided.
After reading WW2Birds' post, I can only say "Me too". Well said.
Sam

u2fast

My Feedback: (37)

casino, first to help alex with the exhaust, i would have to know about the exhaust. alex bought this model here on rcu and apparantly the seller had started the ball rolling on the exhaust. alex continued with the exhaust. he didnt ask for help nor did i know that he had made a wood dummy. i only learned of this as things turned south. i am one of alex's flyng buds, but i am not with him 24/7. i am happy to step in and help him, but he is a big boy and tried to do the work himself. hence, the reason he didnt ask for help. i think at 16, we have all been there. what is the old saying, hire them when they are 20 and know everything, because when they are 30, they realize they know nothing. thanks for your input, though. barry

prophead

My Feedback: (25)

Hello everyone,
I would first like to say thank you to all of you that support me and who have taken the time to speak on my behalf. Then I would like to clear something up by saying that I had talked to Alex a couple times and thought he sounded young on the phone but had no idea that he was 16 years old. Had I known, I too would have taken a little extra time with him to make this work. Then you have to understand my position, that when I'm so far behind in work and people are pressuring to get their parts even though you tell them where you stand, puts me in a stressfull position. Everyone always says its better to hehind in work than no work at all, this is only true to a point. I can assure you it is not fun to be so far behind that you have to work weekends and long hours durning the week to get things done, and then have people pressuring you at the same time. It is bs when I feel guilty when I take a little time to work on one of my models. So here is the deal, I'm having made a brand new website which will be designed to make my life a little easier as it will be taking care of a lot administrative issues that right know I do by hand. It will also not take your order if there is no stock to back the order up. You will have to wait untill I can replace the stock. If I dont have your money then you have no right to pressure me and then I dont have any stress. This site will be made in a way that you will be requested to make a loggin account, please do this as it gives me information that is important to doing bussiness with you. For example you order a part and dont get it and you email me and ask where your order is. You dont know how many times I have been emailed and that is all it says, "where is my order", now I have to try and figure out what you ordered. If you use my loggin I will have all this information at my finger tips, so please help me do you a better job by using the website to it fullest potential. I will direct all my sales to the website, as I wont have a credit card machine in the shop after this site is up and running. I want everyone to know that I had no previous experiance at this business, or any other business for that matter. I had to teach myself to weld aluminum, and I have the products that you see on the website because someone asked me to make something for them and I agreed to do it not knowing how it was going to turn out. So what I'm trying to say here is that I'm probably going to make mistakes along the way, but it is not because I'm not trying.

Kelvin

tailskid

My Feedback: (34)

Kelvin, take the rest of the year off () and enjoy the weather, food and family. And most of all for 2008 do what is best FOR YOU. We need people like you around for a L O N G time, so take care!

Jerry

PS your muffler for the Saito 100 is the coolest sounding muffler at our field (and we have a club of 300+ members!)

reincarnate

I just checked, and dang it , seems the one for the Saito isn't stock. Did I miss it Kelvin, or did I just miss out?

SMUGator

Last year I posted some criticism about a custom exhaust that Kelvin built for me for an RCV engine that is going into a TopFlite Corsair. I was frustrated enough at the time that I took a break from the build for several months. Now that I have gotten back to it, I find that while the exhaust isn't perfect - it will be very usable. The header design is actually quite innovative, and I would highly encourage Kelvin to add these to his menu of standard offers. I also know now that Kelvin was under a lot of stress at the time that came through in his initial reply to me. I regret not picking up the phone and working out the problem rather than venting here. Kelvin and I have talked today, he graciously accepted my apology. So I would like to step up here and formally say that I was wrong. Unfortunately, I can no longer edit the posts in question. Please accept my apologies as well for my lack of judgement on the forum.

Tom

lbrande

My Feedback: (16)

Tom,
It takes a "great person" to formally apologize on an open forum for all to see.

Lew B

andywakem

Hey guys,
Kelvin built me a ring for a Yellow AT-6 with a saito 450. It was the most painless custom job I have ever had done. I think I had it in a week or so and it was perfect. I will be using him again in the near future for a b-25 job that I am planning. He hands down is a stand up guy and his web site is great.

My two cents....

Andy Wakem-Belfast, Maine currently under 5 feet of snow!

MANFRED

My Feedback: (27)

I have have 3 custom pieces from Kelvin and they are all great. Kelvin, I hope you have recovered from your illness, stress is a crazy thing and WILL shut down your body if left uncontrolled. That may not be the root of your problems but I would be willing to bet it contributed greatly to your incedents. ANyway, good luck and I hope to use your products in the future again.