Jason Haslam's explanation thread for Sundance customs

JHCRASH · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 9:54 am

Well Hello Everyone,

I was urged by a fello lost member to come and read all the delightful things that are being said about me. My response is WOW.Now for the real reason I am here today.

I will just start with the explanation first. I dont want any pitty from anyone life is life and unfortunately what I assume are very good people were caught up in the middle. 2008 has been the worst year by far of my 29 years, as most of you know it started ok with the plan of starting a business with the two loves that get me through (jeeps ,and fabrication).It then turned into excuses as to why I could not produce as I had promised. And then into basically no communication at all.

Around the middle of the year my wife was having some anxiety issues.Missing work and such due to them, so we decided to get her checked out and she was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder,anxiety,and depression. No big deal some of you may say it is common,that is true but the extent that my wife brought it on is not common for some reason she was having memory problems (short term) that severly affected her. She lost her job. And some people know how that can dissrupt life. It made things worse for her and her disease.I will cut it off there and just give the short on the rest of that part as we almost lost our children due to it.

While dealing with all this my father had a very severe horse accident that hospitalized him for a few months his first sergery is no big deal if there are no complications, however he ended up with complications that almost cost him his life as well.

While all these things are happening at the same time I was having to work 14 hour days 6 days a week just to try and stay afloat averaging about 3 to 4 hours of sleep a day,one can only handle so much before it seems like life is just over and there is no way around it.

So if you can imagine all of this crammed togeather and trying to fill bumper orders you can see where my prioritiys had to be. I had no money to return to people I felt like no one would understand, and I was struggling to keep it togeather myself.

I understand everyones frustrations and anger I am sorry I have put you all through it. But I am an honest person and very giving and would never scam anyone.
I was lucky enough to have a friend that has been trying to get bumpers to people. I know no one thinks he exists, and that was his intent because he did not really want to get involved with all of your frustration. He is just trying to do the right thing.

So if you need to speak to me on a more personal level than email sundance or im me.I dont have a phone number to give out right now.

Every order has been started and is being worked on. You have all seen fulltimers by now and the next one is ready to be shipped on monday.

This is the order of the bumpers to be completed it is how they were ordered with the exception of what has went out already and one from a very understanding person.

Road dog Ready to ship on monday.
PCT 1981
Photontraveler
Stephen Lopez
Tom Patten
Cdiekhans Since yours is such a special design I will draw a sketch so we can make sure to get it right I will email it to you.

If you just want your money back at this point let me know and I will try to work something out.
I feel the mail fraud thing is a bit excessive and hopefully can be resolved.

Jason Haslam

raceinfan · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:43 am

I feel what you did by posting this is the right thing to do, yes life can throw wicked curve balls

BUT you shouldve let the guy's know what was happening a long time ago
NOT a full explanation but at least short & sweet so things would've gone as far as they did

everyone was left in limbo as too what was going on or what to do

I hope you can understand the situation, you would probably do the same thing at least you came on here with an explanation now

I can suggest that you keep in contact with those who have paid you already for thier orders & keep them up to date so this doesn't happen again, even if you can't work on them for a few days at least let them know that it'll take a little longer....YES family first

take care & hope things turn around for you :wink:

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:49 am

JHCRASH, Thanks for the explanation and I’m glad your back. LOST is like a family, we’re here to help. Sorry to hear that you have had such a rough year. As far as I’m concerned, the past is in the past and now we can look forward to more great looking bumpers.

tommudd · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:09 am

Things happen in life I understand, coming clean along time ago would of helped a lot in everyones eyes.

But put yourself in others shoes, what would you of done after months of frustration.

Good luck in the future with whatever you do.

JHCRASH · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 12:07 pm

I had planned on letting everyone know and it was a very bad judgement call. But in the heat of the moment this was the farthest from my mind.

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 1:14 pm

Jason, as you know I contacted the postal authorities. If I had known what was going on and that I hadn't been scammed I wouldn't have done that. I was left without any other course of action. I have my bumper and am extremely happy with it. The quality of workmanship is outstanding. I really hope that things get turned around for you and your family. You are right...FAMILY first. That is understandable. You learned some lessons the hard way and I don't think you will repeat them. Good luck.

Terry

InCommando · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 4:23 pm

I think for some there are things that painted you as a scammer at the time:

* You responded to emails trying to get more orders while ignoring people who had already paid you.

Not a good move and it did make it seem like your intent is to rip-off even more people.

* The timeline shows that you only took action after the authorities became involved despite being given ample opportunity to take even the step of this post or even emails before it reached that point. This will leave quite a doubt about your character for some.

* Although it may be real, your situation does sound exactly like the excuses given by scammers all over the 'net even if it is just an unfortunate coincidence here.

* The bumper sent to your most ardent critic & the one trying to prosecute you was incorrect, leading to the specter that is was just an appeasement to buy time. Only time will tell on that.

Incidents like this cause a harm that goes way beyond the few people with money in this pot. It harms everyone trying to do business as "the little guy." Hopefully this is a learning experience for all parties and will only lead to better things in the future.

EDIT: http://www.lostjeeps.com/forum/phpBB3/vie ... 173#395173

mrkake · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 6:06 pm

Jason, I am glad that you finally came forward to update everyone. I am sure that you must realize that you are going to have to take some lumps here. There are still some frustrated people here.

I was committed to buy one of your bumpers until all the issues started. It is not out of the question that I would consider it again in the future, but there is a lot of trust that needs to be rebuilt here. If you continue delivering products to people and are smart about the way you handle things, you can still recover your business. But you have a lot of ground to make up.

I run my own businesses too so I know what you are going through. In the last couple of years I have suffered death in my family, close friends with cancer, a family member in a severe accident and a family member who found out she married a con artist that is now in prison (she is penniless, homeless and has two kids by this jerk). My business is in the toilet because of the economy, the housing collapse in Vegas and my financial partner's UGLY divorce. I owe everybody in town money. The difference is that I still get deliveries from my vendors that I owe money to. People still come through the doors everyday and give me their hard earned money. And the reason why is because I have not tried to hide my hardships. It sucks to look a guy in the face that you have been doing daily business with and tell him that you can't pay him this week. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I communicated with everyone along the way. There are some bridges that got burned but for the most part people are understanding if you are open and honest and keep the lines of communication open.

I say this not to try to give you a verbal slap in the face. I can really sympathize with your situation. You have a great product, but have exercised poor business practices. You can turn the corner and move forward if you keep talking to people and delivering your product when you say you will. The Disney corporation used to use a credo that I still practice; "under promise and over deliver". If you think you can get a bumper to someone in 10 days, tell them that it will be 15. This gives you a little cushion and if you do deliver it in 10 days they will be thrilled that they got it almost a week early.

You've got some ground to make up and there are some people who will never trust you. You have to accept that and try to salvage the relationships that can be saved. I wish you the best of luck in the future and I sincerely hope that you have learned from the past.

JL Rockies · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:03 pm

You took peoples money and spent it and gave nothing in return. Your problems are not their problems and in my book, you're a thief. The fact that you shipped a bumper to avoid prosecution does not impress me.
I particulaly liked the part of your post where you stated that taking action against you was excessive; heck you only posted on here because you were urged to.
You're a real piece of work Mr Haslam; I hope you get shut down.

dieselenthusiast · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:50 pm

JL, where's the love?

tommudd · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:55 pm

I had pretty much the same things to say but deleted most all of it, I get into enough trouble for some of the things I say,
so to JL Rockies, and InCommando RIGHT ON!!!!!! :wink:

Fulltimer · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 8:27 pm

In an effort to keep this thread from being locked I will not add anymore comments. :lol:

Terry

JHCRASH · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:09 pm

I dont disagree with anything you guys have to say I am in the wrong on how things were handled I admit that.
I mean if you guys want to say that I just came on here because of the situation, you could say that at any point from here on out. If I just planned to take care of the people involved and get out why would I waste the time posting. I am here giving an explanation because I owe it to the people involved and figured it is better in public to do so. I wont argue with anyone about it,I was in the wrong.

I guess it does seem like a coincidence the timing and all ,but that is not the case. I have not had any idea of the things that have been said on this forum I have not been on here in a long while. As for the bumper that was recently delivered you can ask terry about when he was told it was going to the paint shop. I believe it was before any of the actions that were taken were. That is just when I had the hardest time with my situation.So it all just played out that way.

In no way am I trying to convince anyone to change their oppinion,that is up to each individual. I am just here to say that I am here and that I am going to make things right with the people that are involved as best that I can. And see what the future brings. Like I said before, things are going to work very differently from here on out.

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:58 pm

Here's an easy way to look at this whole thing:

Yes, Family is #1 but under the law, you appeared to have stolen money which would be a felony and made things even worse for your family by possibly going to jail.

How long does it take to break away and post a quick message on LOST? Less than 5 minutes....except those few weeks here not long ago. You were able to talk with a friend about the bumpers and plan things out with him. How long did it take to do that? A lot longer than jumping on the LOST Forum.

When you start a business, reputation is #1. You lost it because you accepted people's money and vanished. You will have to work beyond hard to build that back with people here on LOST and most likely KJCountry also, the two biggest Liberty sites.

03CDKJ · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:03 pm

I'm involved... and i'm going to keep this short, because my mother told me "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it all."

I don't give a crap about any of this... Everyone just stop typing on this post.......Leave the guy alone so he can go design/weld my freaking bumper! :shock:

If I don't get it by christmas, I'm going to cry.... :cry:

Happy Holidays

chris

*****LOCKED****** (can I do that?) :lol:

Guest · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:13 pm

I'm gonna say that after everything that's happened, everything that's been said, and the obvious public opinion of him...

it takes some GRANDE HUEVOS to post on here, knowing you'll be slammed left and right, everybody will make (not-so) wild accusations, and so on and so forth.

Let me extend a LAUREL and HARDY handshake to our new...

whipping boy!

Seriously, though, kudos to you for manning up and actually coming on here.

Burchie · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:30 pm

cdiekhans wrote:

*****LOCKED****** (can I do that?) :lol:

Tap your heals together 3 times while you say it.

03CDKJ · **Posted:** Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:49 pm

Burchie wrote:

cdiekhans wrote:

*****LOCKED****** (can I do that?) :lol:

Tap your heals together 3 times while you say it.

Still nothing..... And I really did it too!

tommudd · **Posted:** Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:19 am

cdiekhans wrote:

Burchie wrote:

cdiekhans wrote:

*****LOCKED****** (can I do that?) :lol:

Tap your heals together 3 times while you say it.

Still nothing..... And I really did it too!

the visual I just got of that........... :shock:

you don't want to know ...oh well :lol:

Dje Ryu · **Posted:** Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:28 am

visuals... mmm, especially considering the word should be "heels" not "heals" ... I can almost imagine Cdiekhans clapping together a first aid kit and a toolbox. :lol:

Jason Haslam's explanation thread for Sundance customs

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