when is diybuildergroup coming back

[part2wanksta]

hey i was at the site like 2 weeks ago and it sayd that on january first everything would be updated and they would be back.

well now its january 15 and i havent heard a thing. does anybody know whats happening

[Ggrat]

Yeah, good question. I joined over a year ago and there has been nothing but broken promises and excuses. No design has ever been released. I've read posts from people who sent money for items and never received them and never got their money back. The owner dissapears for months at a time and doesn't say what is going on. It's a SCAM, pure and simple. Let's face it, 2000 members paid 20 bucks each. He made 40,000 dollars off of us and is laughing all the way to the bank. If you read his replys to anyone who complains, he tells them ""if you don't like it then don't come back."" What honest person would do business like this? Losing 20 bucks in an internet scam doesn't bother me much. I just hope other people read this so they don't get burned like we did. If you want to join a site then join lumenlab.com, diyprojectorcompany.com or diyaudio.com. At least those sites are real and honest.

[snortonnorton]

how do you know that many people joined?

wow, if he really made 40,000 off that, damn why didn't i think of that. (i mean think of making a good legitamte company)

[Ggrat]

Originally posted by snortonnorton
how do you know that many people joined? wow, if he really made 40,000 off that, damn why didn't i think of that. (i mean think of making a good legitamte company

The bottom of the forums page says there are 2200 members. It cost 20 bucks to join. Do the math.

[snortonnorton]

wow, that's crazy. (maybe the numbers are made up to get more people to join)

well, if you do mail fraud across state lines that federal offense. and you can really get in trouble by ripping people off across state lines.

[faithblinded]

I doubt he took that many people on the membership scam. By the time he started charging money, he had already scared most of his potential customers away by failing to deliver most of the items ordered in his store.

At least 80% of his members joined long before he ever started charging for membership, so I doubt he made $40,000. However, between undelivered store items and undelivered promises to paying members(i.e. advanced guide, etc), he did undoubtedly make a nice lump of loot.

To my shame, I was a moderator there when it still appeared JCB was on the up and up. Fortunately, I never participated on more than a voluntary basis, and never was in a position to get screwed like some folks did. I know that Cruser, Kheldar, and myself all basically abandoned the site when it became clear JCB made only empty promises, despite all the potential his ideas and creations appeared to have.

I guess if I were the optimistic sort, I might hope that some real serious personal problem has caused his absence, and that he will return to make good on his promises eventually.

Being a realist, I'm not counting on it, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to count on it either.


just my 2 cents

[Mikey p]

Scam is a pretty harsh word. To me that means crimminal intent and I refuse to believe JCB would do that. I do know that his first projector design was based on a Lumenlab fresnel that never materialized due to problems Lumenlab had with the manufacturer of the lens, so he had to start over. Then there was the issue of the 135mm triplet that had a FOV issue, and couldn't focus properly on a 17 inch LCD. There was supposed to be a "fix" for the 135mm triplet and 3Dlens.com produced a 550mm fresnel to match the triplet. JCB admitted mistakes were made in the online store and he wasn't properly prepared. On Nov. 11 he stated:

. """I've got a new alloy projector to show off (SGI 1600SW). As well as some other cool projects. I now have enough stock to re-open the store and keep it running smoothly. So hang in there just a bit longer and we'll be back in the scene stronger then ever!""""

Jan. 1 was to be the reopening of the site and since then nothing has happened. No updates from JCB, no communication at all as to what is going on. That sure doesn't inspire membership confidence after all the previous delays. Proof of that is the creation of this thread. I personally hope that whatever the issues are, that they get dealt with and JCB will return to make good on his promises. Time will tell.

[Rox]

when i found this diy world, I decided to join one of the two paiyng forums (lumenlab/DBG) I don´t know why I decided to join lumelab but thanks god I did choose that one...

If i am not wrong, when you join DBG there was 1 year subscription included on the 20$ price and 30$ for lifetime subscription option... well, how many of the customers did had the 1 year "service"? They just paid for a service that was not given...

I have heard about DBG moderators and didn´t have very good experience there either... well, I hope If the phoenix revives from it's ashes then things will be better for customers and for JCB too.

Good luck JCB.

[faithblinded]

Originally posted by Rox

I have heard about DBG moderators and didn´t have very good experience there either...

I'd just like to make it clear that none of the moderators at DBG, myself included, were involved in any monetary fashion. Cruser was offering SGI panels for sale through DBG, but to the best of my knowledge he delivered everything he sold, and made sure to keep his sales seperate from the DBG store. Furthermore, Cruser is one of the pioneers of quality american beamers, and did alot more for the scene than most of the current generation probably even begin to realize.

I am not defending the DBG, just it's moderators. None of us know JCB personally, we simply agreed to be mods when he asked us to. We had no way of knowing what would happen, so please don't put any blame on us.

I haven't recieved any emails or messages from JCB in months. I don't know what happened to him, or if he was just scamming. Considering the amount of work that has clearly gone into the design of DBG, it does seem odd that he would be scamming people. But, as the old addage goes, if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's most likely a duck.

So yes, it is a shame about DBG. It sucks when something that appears to have hella potential crashes and burns.

C'est La Vie folks. Be grateful there are still places like lumenlab that have an established repution as a reliable reseller of the items we need.


My point, again, plain and simple, is don't hold your breath.

[faithblinded]

Originally posted by Mikey p
Scam is a pretty harsh word. To me that means crimminal intent and I refuse to believe JCB would do that.

Remember the road to hell is paved with good intent. He may have had all the best intentions initially, and I full believe he did. Clearly, however, it came to a point where he felt we was doing too much for too little, or he could no longer handle the work load, and simply flaked. When he disappeared instead of refunding money to paying customers that received nothing, it became a scam, in my opinion at least. So despite the best intent, people were clearly screwed, and he clearly walked away with a nice sum of cashola!

He never had any clear concise answers for the many complaints, but rather used vague, generic excuses to buy more time. I'm ashamed that I at first defended him, thinking he simply had too much on his plate, and would catch up soon. That excuse wears thin quickly.