Hi members of HiDefNinja, it is with some sadness that I write to you today about the end of an era here at HDN.
Recently a situation unfolded where one of our group buy hubs was accused of stealing a number of copies of a BluFans release, and was told that they needed to repay Kevin over $1,000 to replace the items that were lost.
The items in question represent less than 1% of the total items in a BluFans print run.
Some people would have you believe this is just a "disagreement" between HDN and Kevin.
If you are new to HDN, or perhaps just not aware of how these group buys work with BluFans - the hubs, the persons responsible for shipping out hundreds upon hundreds of steelbooks work for very little (if any) compensation. I would propose that our hubs are some of the most trustworthy members here and a great asset to this site. Often they do their best to combine shipping for you to reduce the cost in general and bring you a great release, safely packaged and delivered - such that you do not have to rely on ebay sellers or other folks that will mark these items up.
Having said that, packages sent from BluFans are done in the following way.
1) They are marked a very low value and as "plastic" cards to avoid customs
2) Tracking numbers, are rarely shared with the hubs.
3) There is no invoice or packing slip that state how many items should have been received.
4) Sometimes members are left off or missed in the creation of the lists. Meaning the count of the total items sent is not always accurate.
Therefore, as a hub on this forum, there is a level of trust that we put in not only BluFans, but also bluraysteel (Kevin) to accurately and correctly convey our responsibilities in delivering these releases to you. To give you an idea, one box (only one!) of BluFans steels can exceed $900 in total value.
These boxes are NOT insured! So what happens when items are lost, not sent, or the records are incorrect? It appears that they will come after the group buy hubs!
And as this trust has now been violated, as no hub now or previously (unless they keep very thorough records of every shipment made, to every member that is on their list) can completely disprove the accusation that has been made. We have nothing at our disposal that can show without a doubt what we say is true, despite the pictures on our threads of the items, the posts about when we received them, and the other information we very publicly share with you, our members, to keep you up to date.
To restate this...it has been said that one of us, one of our hubs, is not a person that can be trusted.
I've gone to great lengths to personally investigate this question and provide pictures, posts and other information that show very clearly that HDN nor our hub stole from BluFans.
I think we can all agree that we love BluFans releases. We love the package, we love their thought and care that is put into creating a wonderful collectors items. But it seems as though bluraysteel has decided to take all of his group buys somewhere else in retaliation for not sending him $1000.
I cannot stop you from supporting BluFans releases, and I'm not asking you to not buy their steelbooks. But I would like you to consider that you will not receive the support from moderators and staff members on other forums that you have received here. There likely will not be any quantity per member limits that are enforced. There will not be the hubs you have worked with so many times before. I hope there are not other challenges as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to call on BluFans, to call on Abu to replace bluraysteel as the liaison between our two forums, and to instead use someone that can work with HDN, and will not turn on HDN or our hubs so quickly.
Thank you very much for reading this thread, and I would like to personally apologize to you if this causes any trouble.
For members of my UP 3D slip hub, as far as I'm aware some of these are on the way to me currently - and if they do arrive, I will continue to assist in completing this group buy and bring you the items you paid for.
Best regards,
Andy
Recently a situation unfolded where one of our group buy hubs was accused of stealing a number of copies of a BluFans release, and was told that they needed to repay Kevin over $1,000 to replace the items that were lost.
The items in question represent less than 1% of the total items in a BluFans print run.
Some people would have you believe this is just a "disagreement" between HDN and Kevin.
If you are new to HDN, or perhaps just not aware of how these group buys work with BluFans - the hubs, the persons responsible for shipping out hundreds upon hundreds of steelbooks work for very little (if any) compensation. I would propose that our hubs are some of the most trustworthy members here and a great asset to this site. Often they do their best to combine shipping for you to reduce the cost in general and bring you a great release, safely packaged and delivered - such that you do not have to rely on ebay sellers or other folks that will mark these items up.
Having said that, packages sent from BluFans are done in the following way.
1) They are marked a very low value and as "plastic" cards to avoid customs
2) Tracking numbers, are rarely shared with the hubs.
3) There is no invoice or packing slip that state how many items should have been received.
4) Sometimes members are left off or missed in the creation of the lists. Meaning the count of the total items sent is not always accurate.
Therefore, as a hub on this forum, there is a level of trust that we put in not only BluFans, but also bluraysteel (Kevin) to accurately and correctly convey our responsibilities in delivering these releases to you. To give you an idea, one box (only one!) of BluFans steels can exceed $900 in total value.
These boxes are NOT insured! So what happens when items are lost, not sent, or the records are incorrect? It appears that they will come after the group buy hubs!
And as this trust has now been violated, as no hub now or previously (unless they keep very thorough records of every shipment made, to every member that is on their list) can completely disprove the accusation that has been made. We have nothing at our disposal that can show without a doubt what we say is true, despite the pictures on our threads of the items, the posts about when we received them, and the other information we very publicly share with you, our members, to keep you up to date.
To restate this...it has been said that one of us, one of our hubs, is not a person that can be trusted.
I've gone to great lengths to personally investigate this question and provide pictures, posts and other information that show very clearly that HDN nor our hub stole from BluFans.
I think we can all agree that we love BluFans releases. We love the package, we love their thought and care that is put into creating a wonderful collectors items. But it seems as though bluraysteel has decided to take all of his group buys somewhere else in retaliation for not sending him $1000.
I cannot stop you from supporting BluFans releases, and I'm not asking you to not buy their steelbooks. But I would like you to consider that you will not receive the support from moderators and staff members on other forums that you have received here. There likely will not be any quantity per member limits that are enforced. There will not be the hubs you have worked with so many times before. I hope there are not other challenges as well.
I would like to take this opportunity to call on BluFans, to call on Abu to replace bluraysteel as the liaison between our two forums, and to instead use someone that can work with HDN, and will not turn on HDN or our hubs so quickly.
Thank you very much for reading this thread, and I would like to personally apologize to you if this causes any trouble.
For members of my UP 3D slip hub, as far as I'm aware some of these are on the way to me currently - and if they do arrive, I will continue to assist in completing this group buy and bring you the items you paid for.
Best regards,
Andy
... oh and I work in the oil and gas industry and business is boomin' ... 
