As many may know by know I am the most infamous man in the Power Ranger online community right now. I cannot keep up and reply back to all of the inquisitions and accusations that have been made about me. So I will try to address my side of the story here. I want to say that I am not trying to make anyone sound like the “bad guy” or call myself a victim.This is only to address the negative messages, post, emails, etc that I have been receiving.
I would like to establish a few key points to keep in mind.
Key Points
Plug: To give positive publicity and/or promotion of an item/object/company/event to a listening audience.
Plug: an exact representation of the object to be made.
For those asking, the helmet arrived to me on September 16th and dropped off to be shipped September 29th using 2-day shipping, making the arrival day Wednesday. The helmet was received and I was notified that it was damaged.
Helmet ships and is received.
Long story short, if you think that I’m a thief or liar the best thing you can do is not buy from me. For others in question of my quality, creditability, or honesty then just let my post of my work speak for themselves.
The Zyu/Green Ranger 
Sorry bub, but a ‘plug’ in EVERYONE else’s world means to promote something. You took the word and applied it to a geometric term that no one in the fan base even knew to even exist until now. Haven’t you ever heard of a ‘shameless plug’? That’s when someone advertises their business, or a friends business over a talk show. The same thing applies on a Facebook status or by word of mouth. You misunderstood Steve plain and simple. No, he shouldn’t have lashed out at you like that, but you brought that upon yourself.
I’m glad that I now know there’s two definitions for a plug, but yours isn’t one used in daily terminology.
Still, you could have handled this with better service and made sure that the Zeo helmet was held securely in a box with all of the safety precautions confirmed. But it sounds that you didn’t do anything with the helmet to fix it either.
I actually offered to fix it but he declined. I understand that the term plug is used differently on an everyday basis but if you walked in an automotive shop, or any specific service using terminology those people use on an everyday day basis, wouldn’t you expect them to have the same misunderstanding. I do agree, the issue got out of hand and turned ugly fast. Only people to blame is the both of us.
I’d have to disagree, Tim. Steve handled the situation poorly and as a consumer, he should’ve made sure that his requests were clearly understood. Why is it assumed that other people must understand his slang? Read the dialog again. The guy was on the subject of clasps/materials. Why would he think Steve was referring to promoting his business when he was simply trying to explain his materials? A ‘plug’ wasn’t even mentioned until the guy brought up clasps. What else was he supposed to think? Steve didn’t say anything to the tune of ‘I’ll put in a good word for your business’ or ‘plug your business.’ Sorry, but not everyone knows what the ‘plug’ term means. (Thankfully, the author offered an explanation to both terms.) “Yes I can use the plug and it can definitely lower my material costs.” When I read that I immediately realized they were definitely not talking about the same plug. It doesn’t make sense (to me) that ‘putting in a good word’ for your business would lower your material costs. As a consumer, I would’ve made sure we were on the same page. Business deals go awry due to miscommunication. That’s exactly what happened here.
Also, let’s call it for what it is. Steve was trying to hustle. He was trying to get top quality work for less money in a fraction of the time. Multiple helmets in a span of a few weeks? Um..yeah. I find it hard to believe that he purposely screwed over a power ranger because he wanted to be subjected to ridicule on social media. No. Both parties misunderstood each other. As adults, this entire debacle should’ve remained between them until an amicable resolution was reached. Instead, Steve wanted to extort more free merchandise from him and got mad when the guy stood his ground. His helmet damage is minuscule, at best. I’ve received damaged merchandise (a cracked TV to be exact) and I didn’t take to social media to pout. (Though I was pretty pissed at UPS.) The company sent out a replacement. To be blunt, shit happens during shipping.
I have met Steve and hung out with him and his wife a few times and no offense to him and his fan base but that transaction had me cringing as I read it. I think he’s a good guy. I have nothing against him. You were very nice in your replies and I must commend you for it. I don’t know if I would have replied so kindly as you if it was me, miss communication or not. Written text is also hard to read. It’s hard to get a feel on it when you aren’t actually talking to someone. I think people often forget that. Many things can be interpreted wrong or read wrong.
I don’t know the kind of backlash you got from whatever posting(s) on whatever media that you might have got but I’m sure its been not fun. That’s the thing about the internet, everyone is quick to post their opinions (which is totally fine! its just when it’s sensitive topics it can take a turn). I read about this totally outside of this from a friend. And honestly? I’m rather disappointed that Steve seemed to have reacted the way he did. I don’t think it’s fair to rally people into your issues to “get back” at someone regardless who is wrong (or not wrong). What do you get out of that? I understand he’s upset but that doesn’t make it totally right. I could go on about this, but it doesn’t matter. I just think it could have been handled differently.
Just know there is a life outside of the social media. It’s why I took a step back from it. I learned my lesson after working on a big TV show. Sometimes social media is good but sometimes its bad. I’ve learned to separate myself from it. It still sucks when people bad mouth you and its hurtful sometimes. But life moves on and at least they aren’t in your face shouting stupid things.
Miss communication happens. Bad ebay deals happen. Bad business deals happen. Hell a mechanic the other day miss quoted my car and I stupidly still got it fixed and got con out of money… Shit happens. Taken I don’t post all over the internet about them but they do happen. I get why He’s upset and that sucks. And it sucks that you got backlash. What more sucks is that now the ordeal is on the internet which totally is inappropriate in my opinion. I hope you both can resolve your issues and if not, then I hope you both can make out ok out of this. Good luck and chins up!
That sucks that it turned out this way. I’m a business man and I know what it’s like to be in situations like this. I can pin point where the confusion started. I can see that you misunderstood him once he mentioned plug, because you started talking about material costs.
Though, he is right about keeping each others end of the deal. If you commit to it and agree, you’re stuck until the job is done regardless of personal issues. Almost like leasing a car loan. They give you the money, you pay them back a little more than they give you in this amount of payments so that both of you are happy. I think this could have been avoided if you two talked on the phone or online face to face because it can be confusing communicating through text. I can see why is angry though. He came up with a deal and you didn’t come through to the agreement. And his property is damaged and missing the other helmet which in both is probably around $800 in loss to him. What I would suggest is making him a Red Ranger helmet and doing something about the Blue Zeo. It will be money out of your pocket, but think of it as an investment into your business. You have to spend money to make money. He would help bring you more business with customers and recommendations for other cast members. When your business is really filling up with orders, maybe raise your prices a little. Hire a friend or someone you can teach to help you build the helmets faster. That’s what I would do anyway.
I get what you’re saying, but no money ever changed hands. That’s why I felt as though I was not stuck in the deal. To my understanding, I was going to provide a service for a discount and another for free, conditional to the first service. Thank you for your business advice, but this issue now has a resolution.
I had to look at all the posts here and what most people fail to see is that Steve apparently did not get any Work in Progress updates, and he was clearly asking for the updates. If anyone requests a Work in Progress update on their order you should comply to that (helps with retaining customers). I will agree that Steve should not have done what he did on Instagram but your actions did play a big role in how this evolved. You posting more of the incident isn’t helping you or your side to this – it’s only hurting you in the long run. The paint smear on the helmet is what Steve was upset about. That is something he can file a claim with the company who shipped it, in which you might be the one who pays the claim.
I get that both parties had communication issues, as well as faults within the deal, but I’d put most of this blame on Steve. He was trying to play the system to get things cheaper and quicker, and when problems arose he acted like an immature, bratty kid. He made no effort to compromise on a solution or act like an adult, he only demanded what he wanted in return. Hell, he couldn’t even understand that there was a communication issue… Even though both parties were to blame, the helmet maker handled the situation with class, whereas Steve just ended up looking like an asshole.