Vs. Newton YoYo Concepts: Andrew Maider wins MA States!

Im giving the benefit of the doubt to Heath. Hopefully it can be clears up. Im still a fan :slight_smile:

i have no issue with making this public :slight_smile: . I love you guys. I want to make everyone happy, itā€™s why I created VsNYYC. The charity projects are nothing new to me, and just as dear to my heart as you guys are.
Iā€™ve done a lot of things right, Iā€™ve messed up some thingsā€¦ This is one if the things Iā€™ve done right, and it is awkward to defend myself against something Iā€™m not guilty of.

the first donation was made already, yes. I will publicly provide documentation, not a problem.

the 2nd donation has not yet occurred from the recently ended sales, just waiting on a local guy who had agreed from the beginning to match a percentage. That final donation should be received on or around Oct 1st. I will publicly show documentation of that payment as well.

Please forgive me if you received a late shipment, if you didnā€™t receive enough strings, or if I didnā€™t put enough extras in to make up for any delaysā€¦ I am a student, an innovator, creator, designer, and a nerd, and my sole purpose here is to make you guys happy with world class yo-yoā€™s. Iā€™m not always the best communicater, shipper, spokesman, defender, and sometimes not the best business person, but I strive to please you guys. you are why I am here, and I humbly ask for your continued support moving forward as I continue to improve and strive to exceed your expectations in every aspect of making VsNYYC one of the best yoyo companies around :slight_smile:

Thatā€™s what Iā€™m talking about!
Well spoken from the heart.
GO HEATH!!
LONG LIVE VS.NYYC!!!
Hopefully for all involved, this will be settled up soon, and the contradictions can be turned into unfortunate misunderstandings and shortcomings.
Thank you JRod for standing strong in your difficult position of holding the candle to integrity and accountability.

Thanks for understanding the gravity of this situation, Heath.

Before you altered this last post, you had written that you just never got around to mentioning that you had made a donation to the American Cancer Society. You also said that you would be able to get a copy of a check to the ACS from your bank and that you would not produce any further yoyos until this was cleared up. I think this latter is part of what is so upsetting to the people who have been in touch with me. You have had time to make more yoyos, and thus more money, but not to follow through with this charity? You had time to go to Worlds, and time to design a new version of the skywalker with a d-bearing, but not to follow through with this?

With all due respect, this just doesnā€™t add up:

  1. You claim to have donated a chunk of money some time ago and never mentioned it publicly.
  2. When questioned about it elsewhere, you still never mentioned this.
  3. Now, when people have become livid about this situation, you claim that you actually already donated the money on an undisclosed date but canā€™t verify it.

It seems to me, and others who have been in touch with me about this, that if you had donated money from the auction of goods that were entrusted to you, it would have occurred to you to let everyone know about it. We deserved that, it would have taken all of 5 minutes to make a post on the forums, and it really makes sense that you would have wanted to make a big deal about it - both because it would have been a great accomplishment for the yoyo community, and also a great notch in the belt of Vs. Newton as a company that does great things. But you didnā€™t, and that just doesnā€™t make any sense at all.

It really isnā€™t my intention to berate you about this. And to be clear, I utterly hate doing this. Itā€™s a crummy situation all around. But as a moderator on one of the major hubs in the yoyo community, and as someone who has received a good number of irate messages about this, I feel a compulsion to be blunt about this situation, press for a resolution, and demand proof because a number of people feel that you are lying and also feel that they have no good reason not to think otherwise at this point.

This is actually a very simple matter. If you donated the money to the ACS, thatā€™s really wonderful and you need to provide an image of the receipt for us. Just to reiterate so that you know where we stand:

An image of the receipt from the ACS for the first donation, and then one of the donation to come, will lay all of this to rest.

Your just doing your job jrod. This will all be resolved rather soon :slight_smile:

I got in touch with the ACS today. Below is a transcript of an exchange I had with them through their online chat. Did you donate to a local office? If so, can you please provide that info here? We could contact them to verify. If not, you can contact them at 1-800-227-2345, 24/7. Lastly, can you please tell us when you made the donation?

Transcript:
Thank you for contacting your American Cancer Society. A Cancer Information Specialist will be with you momentarily.

[Amber] Hello, thank you for contacting the American Cancer Society. My name is Amber, how can I help you today?
[Rodriguez] Hi Amber,
[Rodriguez] Unfortunately, a rather crummy situation has arisen on an online forum I help to moderate. There is a member and product manufacturer who decided to spearhead a charity. The proceeds were to go to the ACS.
[Rodriguez] The charity fundraising event began about two years ago, and we never received any word that he made a donation. He now claims that he did, but that he lost the receipt from the ACS that would verify this. For a number of reasons, his story doesnā€™t seem to add up. My question for you - is it possible to verify whether he ever made a donation?
[Rodriguez] His name is Heath Vizier.
[Amber] If he was able to contact us so we can locate where he made the donation we could provide him with a receipt.
[Amber] I would not be able to give out information from a personal record regarding donations, but if he contacts us we can try to locate if a donation was made.
[Amber] Or, if he made the donation to a local office I can provide you with their contact information so you can follow-up with them to see if they can provide that information.
[Rodriguez] How would he go about contacting you to get the receipt? Would he need to call this number? 1-800-227-2345
[Amber] We would need to know where he mailed in/gave the donation.
[Amber] Yes, he can call us at 1-800-227-2345. We are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We would be happy to look into it and locate the donation, if it was made, and provide a receipt.
[Rodriguez] I can ask him for that information. I donā€™t want to waste any of your time, but in the event that itā€™s of use to you, here is a page that details what has gone down: http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php/topic,22737.600.html
[Rodriguez] I will copy and paste the print out of our conversation so that he has this info and can get a receipt to verify for us.
[Amber] Thank you for wanting to make the donation to the Society. We appreciate all of your support. I am sorry to hear about the situation that occurred.
[Amber]
You can receive a chat transcript at the end of our conversation. Please click the ā€œEndā€ button at the bottom of the chat box and then enter your email address.

[Amber] Have I answered all of your questions today?
[Rodriguez] No need to apologize. I appreciate the help! I think thatā€™s everything.
[Amber] Youā€™re welcome.
[Amber]
Thank you for contacting your American Cancer Society. Please do not hesitate to contact us in the future if we can be of any assistance.

Heath,

Dude, ā€œrather soonā€ isnā€™t cutting it anymore.

The reason people are questioning you is that if you did indeed donate some money already, then you would easily be able to (and would have already) provide the following information:

  1. How much you donated
  2. Where you donated
  3. Method of payment

If you canā€™t answer those questions right now, then you are hiding something. Period.

As for the receipt, Jrod has shown that all you have to do is call the ACS and they will get you another copy of the receipt. It has been months since you donated and it is not believeable that you werenā€™t able to make this call in all that time. Also, if you let us know the location and the phone number we can call and verify it.

You could also get copies of your bank statement or credit card statement and show those.

There are mulitiple EASY ways you can ease everyoneā€™s concerns. I know that if I was being accused of this, I would bend over backwards to provide as much proof and data as possible. Your claim that you bit of more than you could chew doesnā€™t add up. It is not hard to answer these questions and to get a copy of the receipt. You have already gathered everyone together, created the product, sold the product and apparently donated the money. All that is left to do is show proof and suddenly this is too much for you to handle?

Please put an end to this. Itā€™s really awkward for all of us to have to push you like this but so many people instantly supported you on this and donated time, product and money for a great cause. You rallied the whole community and that was beautiful. We are all invested in this and you owe us immediate answers.

David

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Just to make this as straightforward as possible, here are four questions you should be able to answer right now:

  1. When did you donate the money?
  2. How much did you donate?
  3. What payment method did you use to donate?
  4. Which ACS center did you donate to?

Heath,
Last month you told me the ACS was going to ā€œtalleyā€ up the donations after the second one.
Didnt sound right, and doesnt jive with this story.
We all didnt second guess your intentions here, so whats up?

2 Likes

This dude is shady. Good thing he hasnā€™t made a yoyo Iā€™m interested in yet, wouldnā€™t want to drop money into this kind of business.

^^your missing out dude. You dont have to buy them from vsnyyc but seriously the skywalker is amazing along with ever other yoyo Heath has made. The silence is starting to worry me along with most of you to but that doesnā€™t mean that the yoyos made to date arenā€™t anything short of awesome. I just dont see new yoyos ever being made if this isnā€™t cleared up and that is really sad to me :frowning:

^

Seriously. I want to see this resolved if for no other reason than Iā€™d like to see VSNYYC continue to grow. Regardless of the Works project, Heath makes amazing throws.

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^amen brother :slight_smile: im serious I have thrown a lot of throws and a ton have came and gone from my caseā€¦ALOT LOL but the one yoyo that I have always held onto and kept is my skywalkers and I have 12 to date and growing. I freaking love them along with the ti walker battosai and everything else I have played. I love the colorway choices and the over all feel. I canā€™t imagine not having new throws to look forward to. Im pretty much done buying new yoyos except if its a vs Newton throw. Going back to the skywalker. Its everything I want in a yoyo and that alone will always keep the skywalker above the rest

I think itā€™s time to put this issue to rest. Heath has had two days to answer basic questions:

  1. When did you donate the money?
  2. How much did you donate?
  3. What payment method did you use to donate?
  4. Which ACS center did you donate to?

He has remained silent.

Heath has had over a month to put forth any evidence, donation receipt, bank check, bank statement ā€“ anything ā€“ to show he donated money. JRod has already shown that getting that information would be easy ā€“ if there had actually been a donation in the first place. Heath wouldnā€™t have to wait for a ā€œtalliedā€ receipt like he told Ernie. The ACS doesnā€™t tally receipts. That would violate tax law. Heath lied to Ernie.

Heath hasnā€™t produced any evidence.

Heath has had over 2 years to collect, anodize, sell, and donate. In that time, heā€™s done everything but donate. Heā€™s had time to create and sell other yo-yos for profit. Heā€™s had time to delay shipping charity and profit yo-yos, some for 6+ months. Heā€™s had time to ignore emails and messages when people ask why their stuff hasnā€™t arrived.

The fact is, Heath pocketed the money. The donation receipt is a unicorn. The ACS accepts online donations. If Heath had the money, he could donate online and have a receipt to show in <5 minutes.

Instead, he claims heā€™s waiting for some anonymous ā€œdonation matcher.ā€ Just like he claimed before he was waited 6 months to ship a yo-yo because he didnā€™t know whether the person also wanted to buy a second yo-yo. Itā€™s all just a load of unicorns.

The question is how we respond. For starters, Iā€™d ban him from the forum and drop all his products from the store. Andre will have to swallow the cost of some belt buckles and t-shirts if Heath doesnā€™t man-up and buy them back. He screwed up. It happens. Unfortunately he doesnā€™t yet have the judgment to admit when heā€™s wrong. Thatā€™s not surprising for somebody who pocketed $4000 in charity money, lied about it, and canā€™t ship a yo-yo on time.

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Got scammed by Heath a couple of months ago never got the yoyo he sold me, even if he had to send it twice, the first time he told me that the yoyo was sent back to him and the second well I suppose it got lost because I never heard from him again.

He recently sold the exact same throw he sold me (was it the sameā€¦???). He never aswered my PMs. Decided to let it be who would believe me. He makes awesome yoyos but he is someone that canā€™t be trusted.

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I hate to see things come to this. I had a long conversation about all of the unreliability issues with Heath at Worlds this year. He seemed very apologetic about everything and genuinely determined to fix things and prove that this stuff would never happen again. But, after hearing all of this, it seems like it was all a farce. I really hate to see things come to this, but itā€™s on his own shoulders. If these accusations are false, itā€™s incredibly easy to prove himself innocent. Extended periods of silence just magnify the guilt.

Right now people are making pretty severe legal judgments. Thankfully Iā€™m not involved in this issue personally, and I understand how frustrating all of this is for everyone, but I think itā€™s time for everyone to stop listing their demands. Everything that can be said has, and I think itā€™s time to let this be handled at the next level. Let Andre speak to Heath, if itā€™s shady then let him speak to authorities. Random internet people yelling is never a good way to get anything done.

Wow, Vsnyyc maybe done for

Why would anyone put this on Andre to handle? This charity drive started on a different forum, Andre has nothing to do with it. Itā€™s not his problem.

Many of the people responding to this thread arenā€™t necessarily ā€œrandom internet peopleā€. They are donors to this cause, yo-yo manufacturers, and people that made high dollar purchases to help this cause bring a good return. Their voice isnā€™t exactly random in this issue.

I just sent a text to Heath asking him to respond to these new posts. He responded telling me he has been working on it all week and ā€œwill have a new receipt October 2ndā€. I guess at this point we just wait.

Thereā€™s nothing to work on ā€œall week.ā€ Andre has already spoken to Heath, and Heath still hasnā€™t shown a receipt.

So what if Heath can come up with money to donate to charity by Oct. 2? If he hasnā€™t spent the money on something else, he could donate it in less than five minutes and show a receipt. The point is, he DID spend the money on something else. Thatā€™s why he canā€™t show a receipt. Thatā€™s why this is fraud. Heā€™s already had over a MONTH to show evidence. Heā€™s had YEARS to finish.

If he wants to donate his personal money to ACS in the future, thatā€™s fine. The money I gave to charity is clearly already gone.

Heath pocketed the money he got from selling donated yo-yos. He lied about it. I donā€™t want to see his products in stores, and allowing him to continually scam people on the forum without consequence is harmful to the community. People have already posted many examples of instances where Heath received money and didnā€™t ship a yo-yo.

Why should anybody wait for Oct. 2?