But I fear that any future charity drives will be tainted because of this.
Zammy is known for his annual charity drive during the holiday season and he sticks to his word every time. He had expressed worry that people will lose trust on him on the spot due to the Works program issue.
I think its a little too soon to give Heath the full on Sandusky treatment guys.
First of all I am not aware of any set deadline in which 100% of the donation was to be processed. Its called a due date. Without a due date agreed upon, how can he be late on the payment?
Iām not aware of Zammyās charity drive, but i would assume if itās happened more than once that heās published his receipts for the previous ones if heās handled money?
He repeatedly lied about the payments from the first set of auctions. Said that heād āfind the receiptsā, then later admitted to having not made the donation and spent the money.
He admitted to it, making any ādue dateā null and void. Also, being late with a payment and straight up spending the money, are two different things.
I get the fact that everyoneās mad. Furious, even. We put trust in a person to do something good for the world, something that affects a lot of us personally. If it doesnāt affect us personally, the simple fact that we are human beings means that it affects us.
Iāve seen enough nonsense on yoyoing forums, though, to know that these conversations never go anywhere. People rant and rave about what a terrible person the perpetrator is, how the money is lost, and how theyāre going to beat the guy up if he ever shows his face again.
Let us not crucify Heath. He made a mistake. We are mad at him. But yelling about it on the Internet is not going to fix anything. He said heās going to fix it. Letās hope he does. But with the energy that we have now, I want, just this once, for the community to turn its collective rage into something productive and beautiful. I sincerely hope (and trust) that Chris can get that auction going. A community effort would revitalize us, and prove to me that weāre more than just a collection of people that do yoyo tricks. We stand for values, and when those values are betrayed, we make something of it.
Letās hope Heath replaces the rest of the money, but letās just hope. Calling for his head will get us nowhere. Itās never worked in the past. Letās try to make the best of a lousy situation. I believe that we can.
It was only the community coming together and ācalling for his headā that produced this progress towards a resolution in the first place.
I understand what youāre saying and agree to an extent, but understand that there are things at work behind the scenes to bring this situation to a resolution and that having an open forum where people can vent their feelings in a healthy monitored environment is not necessarily a bad thing, people are angry, upset and confused. If this thread helps people to vent, to feel better, or to understand better than itās doing some good in a crappy situation.
Jrod I love you man. You are maintaining this discussion in a really professional manner and I have faith in your reasoning. Kudos to you for going above and beyond.
My only thoughts here is that an agreed upon due date / installment plan / time frame needs to be set and we need to provide Heath the opportunity to make good on his contractual agreement before we gather the torches and pitchforksā¦Is that not reasonable?
The most straightforward of the many problems going on here is that he spent money that wasnāt his to spend and then lied about it. Money that was supposed to go to help fight cancer. This transcends the issue of a due date. Period.
Even so, there certainly should have been established a date by which this would all be finished way back when he started the charity 2 years ago. There wasnāt. But he actually recently set a due date of October 2 to have this taken care of. Itās certainly a reasonable course of action to try to set another due date. Iām not convinced that setting another due date will be an effective course of action, though. My hunch is that pursuing legal action has more of a chance of being effective. Sociopaths donāt respond all that well to the sort of morals and social pressure that most people respond to. But they do respond to consequences.
Just to be clear - I use āsociopathā not in a name calling way, but as a means of calling attention to the lack of clear responsibility he has taken for this, and the ongoing lies in the face of the reality of the situation. His response comes across as though he understands what has transpired to be something that happened but that he isnāt entirely responsible for. Nowhere does he state simply, āI stole the money.ā or āI spent charity money that wasnāt mine to spend.ā
Heāll never do business in the yoyo world again and thatās a good start for me. What would be āreasonableā is if he paid the money to charity like a year ago and showed proof on the spot. Heās an idiot because he thought he could just get away with this, and he canāt, no matter how much all you bleeding heart wusses out there want to treat this like itās no big deal and Heath can be redeemed. Nope, he chose it for himself that he be exiled from here and seen for the moron he is.
I canāt understand how the word āmistakeā keeps coming up. People donāt seem to understand the core values of this community (which is why my family and I are involved). This is not isolated. This money was being pilfered since day one. The eBay auction should have been set as a donation meaning Heath would never touch the money (and no fees taken). This was done for a reason. These charity auction were done as a loan so Heath could make yoyo making a full time job as he stated. I am sure he intended to make the money back and donate it but that did not happen. If purchasers knew of this they would not have spent over cost. Do not act as if the community is making a villain out of him as he has done this to himself. Everyday we make decisions which then others use to judge our character. I will not destroy products of his but would NEVER allow my money to pass through his hands.
He WILL pay the money, either by his own accord or through court order, and the opportunity for him to make good passed by when he lied, stole and defrauded many people in this community and a charity. Like Jrod is saying, the time for negotiation or understanding passed by a long time ago, itās any means necessary time.
I have to agree w/ Coffelt, the word āmistakeā really shouldnāt apply to this. Its not like he gave someone Pepsi when they wanted Diet Pepsi. He pulled the wool over everyoneās eyesā¦there is no mistake when one takes such actions in life.
Well I guess itās safe to say Vsnyyc is destroyed. There yoyo value will go up for people wanting to own dead brands pretty much like anything else. Heath will never be respected or liked depending on the people and the length of time he spented trolling and lying to people. The sad part isā¦who knows what amazing throws could have been created from him.
Even with all of this going on, I would still buy a vsnyyc yoyo. You know why? Itās a toy. Itās meant to be played. I for one like the yoyos. If people hate Heath so much that they hate his yoyos, Iād take em. Simple as that.
Now what Heath did wasnāt cool, but Iām gonna say what Iām gonna say.
Heath said he was going to donate money. Sure it may not have been the full amount, but itās still something. $1100+ is still a lot of money. Letās not forget the other millions of people who also donate money. Now while it may not be all of what he said, itās more than most people donate. Iāll be honest, thatās way more than I have donated.
Sure people may say heās a monster, but hey, heās human. Unless I know someone in person, Iām not going to hate them. Itās far to easy to jump on the bandwagon.
Just my 2 cents.
Iām expecting a Sh**storm, but hey, I had to say it.
What, dude? What? What? So itās ok that he pocketed 3/4ths of the money, because itās āgood enoughā that he donated 1/4th of it? It was never HIS to choose how much to donate. He STOLE money from a CANCER CHARITY FUND! And youāre commending him on the basis that he didnāt steal ALL of it? Wow.
Edit: Thanks for the āThank Youāsā guysā¦ if I could, Iād thank myself for this post and I wish there was a āBooo!ā button for Preinfalkās half-baked post.