COSTUMEJUNKIE

This is going to be a long one - hmmm where shall I start?
During Episode III fever in Japan, all the previous StarWars were showing on TV week after week. I was watching ROJ from the corner of my eye while working and saw zillions of Stormtroopers in the Endor battle scene and thought to myself "right that does it - I am getting me one of those suits!"
I had a rummage through the online auction sites in Japan and ended up with zilch so I thought I would try my hand at Ebay. I have never used ebay - I turned down their offer to be their Product manager for Japan and heard "Ebay this" and "Ebay that" a lot while I was at Amazon but that was about all the experience I had with the name.

I done a search for stormtrooper suits and came across a certain COSTUMEJUNKIE and as you can see the chap has pretty decent ratings - although I did realize *after* paying him that most of the ratings are from *sellers*...
I also did a search on google for COSTUMEJUNKIE and did not see any red flags so made the purchase of 1,799.99 USD for a *ready to wear* stormtrooper suit. At this moment in time - I did not realize it but I was in for more than just a Stormtrooper suit...

I mailed the seller to ask about shipping time and whether I could wear my glasses with the helmet on (which is why the name of the thread is "glasses"...)

Now as you can clearly see - the gentleman clearly states *4* weeks.
3 weeks later and I am dead excited - I mail him for a status update - BTW, he never replies with the original mail that I sent for some reason...

Great! Its going to be ready on time as he promised - things are looking good. But then it was coming up to 4 weeks since I made the purchase - I sent another mail asking for a status update...

2 weeks had past since I got that mail - as you can imagine I was getting rather miffed. Another mail to my friend and came the reply....

Now can somebody help me with my English as I cant make out what the gentleman is telling me - "we should have said most full stormtroopers take between 6-8 weeks" and the "and put 4-6 weeks on the auctions" together with the "but do try to get them there quicker" has confused me somewhat - if anybody can decipher this - please leave a comment.
September the 8th - The response to my mail asking for an update below...

Note what the seller says about shipping - you will see something about shipping cropping up later on.
As I did not use Ebay before, I genuinely thought that if a seller decided to keep the money and not send the goods then there was nothing that I would be able to do about it. Having a look at the thread above - would you not be under the same impression? Excuse after excuse with each excuse came the promise of the item being ready soon. I asked the seller many times what his intentions were - whether he wanted to keep the money and not send the goods or what. All I wanted to hear was either "we are keeping your money - tough shit" (which is fine) or "the goods will be ready in another 8 weeks" (which is fine too because I would not have to spend all my time following up on this).

AARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Sorry, just had to scream for a bit there. Anyway, below is a mail I sent to the seller *8* poxy weeks after I made the purchase. I ask him for a straight answer...

September 19th - 8 bloody weeks after the purchase and still no merchandise.The reply from the seller below may surprise you - I nearly bit my tongue and went through the roof

I then get a mail the same day saying that he was *not* on vacation but was helping out with the hurricane relief...

At this point in time I was fuming - a MAN ON FIRE!
I really did not know what to do - I rummaged around on Ebay and saw something called the Dispute Console - where I could submit a "items not received" ticket and communicate with the Seller but instead have the thread logged - if the dispute could not be solved, I could escalate and have somebody from Ebay look into the case - I thought I would try my luck and open a ticket. The thread is below - I opened the ticket on Sep 16th and had the fun of going through this crap through to october the 1st...

So the suit is here and I was about to forgive and forget - until I saw the quality of the merchandise. I payed 1800 USD for the suit, another 70 for shipping, 120 for import tax (which I had to pay when the goods arrived), 30 for a Kenner Stormtrooper blaster (because the one that came with the suit looked like it was chewed on by a dog) and another 150 on bits and pieces like leather and snaps to redo the heap of crap that arrived - have a look at the photos below.
Now I dont mind paying modest amounts for quality stuff but I do mind when I am dishing out wads for absolute crap.
Storm trooper armor kit can be picked up on the net for a few hundred USD - which includes the helmet. The body glove, boots, gloves and other bits n pieces for another say few hundred - a total of 600 dollars-ish. So what the freaking baboon crap did I pay an extra 1200 USD for? Well I expected a suit that was going to be professionally put together and delivered in a timely manner but what I got was the below... Above and Below: This is the blaster that came with the suit - as you can see it looks like some sort of cast - the eye piece must have fell off during or before transit and the nozzle looks like its been stuck up an elephants bottom or something.   Above: The cheap velcro used is about as useful as a poke in the ear with a long metal spike (i.e. not very useful at all) - I have tried the chest plate on twice and the velcro has already come off. Above and Below: The crooked velco all over the suit shows the passion put into making this thing (not). Below: The biceps are supposed to be attached to the shoulder bells like this and you will find how the cod piece and back plate should look like in the same link. I would expect this to be done for a "deluxe ready to wear" suit. Below: Back and codpiece uncut - you can see a faint line across the back where there should be a cut. Below: The belt that comes with the suit is the useless piece of plastic which goes round the back - its needs a screw to bold the belt in place! It really should come with a proper belt Below: Nicely cut velcro (not) Below: These knee plates should be riveted to the knees like so (under knee plates) but instead comes with our friend the velcro again. Below: The hand plates look like somebody took all of 2 seconds to throw together but should look more like this (see the hand plates section) Below:The shoulder bells also come with free dents... Below:Tape is coming off these speaker parts and as you can see - somebody's dog has been chewing on it. Below:More example of badly placed velcro - this time protruding out...   Above: So what the fook am I doing to do with all this shit? Well I still want me suit - so I got myself along to Tokyu Hands to pick up a glue gun, some leather, bits n bobs and a Kenner Stormtrooper blaster - after buying all this crap, I thought to myself that I could have just got me some armor for a few hundred dollars and make the thing myself. I mistakenly thought that I was going to get a quality suit but in the end I payed over a thousand dollars for a slap in the face with a wet smelly pound of veal as I have to practically make the suit over again myself.
I will post pictures soon of "Stormtrooper - the remaking" soon.

If the goods were indeed as advertised - "THIS COSTUME WILL BE MADE TO YOUR SIZE AND READY TO WEAR OUT OF THE BOX" (the blurb which the sellers uses) despite the bad pre-arrival-of-goods service, I may have just let this go. But as I said - I am a man on fire and justice has been done.
It amazes me that people can treat consumers this way and think they can get away with it.

• Check my negative feedback on the seller at Ebay
• Now do a search yourself on Google for COSTUMEJUNKIE

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