I got an email about this from someone yesterday - it was the 2 year anniversary from the date the Vs. Newton For the Works Charity thread was posted. With all due respect, Heath, I really do hate to be the one to do this, but the yoyo community has waited too long for this to come to a conclusion and I think this should be handled publicly.
Below is the contents of that email. I’ve edited out the name of the person who wrote it - this isn’t about them. And neither is it necessarily about whether the claims this person makes are all 100% accurate. The issue is that this needs to be taken care and it is utterly unacceptable and ridiculous that this has gone on for this long.
The email:
Hello,
Today is the 2 year anniversary of “The Works” charity auctions.
You are receiving this e-mail either because you bought a yo-yo from Heath Vizier as part of his “The Works” charity auction series or because you provided a yo-yo to be anodized and sold in one of these auctions.
According to my records, Heath has collected at least $3300 (after deducting eBay fees) from these auctions, but there is no evidence that any of this money has gone to charity. When he was recently asked to show a donation receipt from the American Cancer Society, he claimed that ACS would give him a "combined receipt for 2011 and 2012. This is simply untrue. ACS gives out receipts at the time of donation.
As far as I can tell, Heath hasn’t donated a single dollar to charity.
He has a history of making up excuses and failing to honor his word.
If this is true, and none of the money has gone to charity, I think it’s unfair that (1) Heath pocketed the money and (2) that he can continue profiting from VsNYYC. I need your help to figure out what’s going. By myself, I’m just one guy complaining. But together, we can pressure him to show good proof that the money has gone to charity – or we can put an end to this farce.
I’d like you to do two things:
(1) Please contact Heath directly and request to see a copy of his ACS donation receipt. This receipt will include the dollar figure donated because it is used by people to write off their charitable contributions when they do their taxes.
(2) Please post publicly in this thread:
and request that Heath show the ACS donation receipt. Why has it taken 2 years?
I don’t enjoy doing this. It’s ugly. I don’t have anything personally against Heath. But I think it’s bad for the yo-yo community to allow this kind of behavior to continue, and seeing VsNYYC yo-yos sell out while Heath makes excuses and lies about donation receipts – that just butterfly me off.
Timeline:
9/23/2010 Heath creates the Works charity thread
1/31/2011 Heath says yo-yos are sent to the anodizer
1/31/2011 Claims hedgehog had cancer/surgery.
8/2/2011 Heath says the auctions will be delayed until after WYYC 2011
11/9/2011 Heath says he will post the yo-yos on eBay on the 11/10/2012: “The Works “works” yoyos are going on eBay. its really the best way to make sure it gets done at this point. i will start posting them tomorrow night and continue until they are all up”
12/3/2011 Babbylonian says, “So Heath, just wondering, that moonwalker I won several months ago, will I ever be able to purchase it? If not, it’s cool. I’ll just wait until you’re not so busy and you’re making more yoyos.”
12/4/2011 claims $615 raised pre-auctions
1/31/2012 Second Skywalker Release
7/20/2012 Heath ships Mitch Leake’s yo-yos from December 2011 auction. Claims he was waiting 7 months to see if Mitch also wanted to buy a SADR.
8/14/2012 Heath posts additional works colored yo-yos in the name of charity. They eventually sell for $1130
8/16/2012 Heath claims on the phone that ACS will give him one combined receipt for all charitable donations in the past 2 years…
8/27/2012 SkyWalkers and other VsNYYC releases go on sale at YYE.
9/1/2012 claims he needs to relist $311 modded yo-yos, even though $311 is the second highest bid… so at least 2 people bid that high. he never mentions 2nd chancing the items to the second highest bidder.
10/1/2012 Claims hurricane Isaac preventing him from showing receipt
Forum Threads:
http://www.yoyonation.com/talk/index.php/topic,85554.300.html
http://www.yoyonation.com/talk/index.php/topic,77769.0.html
http://www.yoyonation.com/talk/index.php?topic=77769.4600
Yo-Yo Sales:
VsNYYC Sky Walker Hubstacked by Chris Rice, donated by VsNYYC (250$) 250
FHZ Hubstacked by Chris Rice (pending payment. may be reposted)
Werrd XXXXL donated by Beau (125$) 125
Dert donated by oldyoyoguy (150$) 150
Sakura donated by ILYY (135$) 135
VsNYYC Hubstacked Battosai donated by VsNYYC modded by Chris Rice (140$) 140
VsNYYC Moon Walker donated by VsNYYC (400$) 400
IKYO Agape donated by VsNYYC and IKYO (still going) 56
STYY Bandit donated by STYY (100$) 100
One Drop 54 (still going) 152
anonymous donations by the community: 90$ 90
essence, 212
avalanche, 227
50% orcas away moonwaker, 129
50% magma rocks 134
bbyy wedgie pair 108.50 108
works steamroller 86 86
ministar 188.50 188
kickside and fhz 311 311
hubstacked y factor 54 54
alph 37 37
cross bones 56 56
tank 56 56
supernova 63 63
superstar 56 56
yuuksta 54 54
monster 61 61
barebones, 58
perfume cloud skywalker 50% 113
cp3 moonwalker 50% 108
phi 67
kannarke kukulcan 63
singularity 56
bandit 64
quark 52
remnant 2 62
$4073 (need to subtract $311 for the auction where the buyer didn’t pay and another $400ish for eBay fees)