Phil’s Tackle Box/Fish Everything

[BPayne]

2 hours ago, bassbass said:

I can understand everyone's concerns and they suck.

I have his baby and big haters and glides. Have had no issues with any of them and have caught fish will all of them. I fished one of the baby haters so much and caught so many fish, the bait was unrecognizable, but I fish my baits hard.

Have I waited for baits with all the promises...yes.

Starting a black list of markers may be unfair and you may be surprised when you read some of the bait markers on it.

I say do YOU, some people have a greater tolerance for things than others.

I can understand and respect that opinion, but there has got to be a way to get these types of things out there and fully understood for the community.  This community has no problem absolutely crucifying individuals who scam other individuals on the BlackMarket here and they tell it from the rooftops.  Hell, every member carries a “scorecard” of sorts attached to their username for all to see before doing business with so they can CHOOSE whether that individual is worth the risk of doing business with before going into a deal.  I get that what I’m suggesting leaves things open to possible abuse and I’m not claiming to have all the angles figured out, but I can think of at least half a dozen makers whose names CONSTANTLY get brought into these conversations by everyone from the nobodies like me all the way to the well respected members of this community.  It is those makers that I wish to hold the spotlight on and hold accountable.  I’ve already started my own personal blacklist based off personal experiences within this community and then I have absolutely taken notes of whose name keeps coming up when these topics happen.  I can’t expect the next new guy into the swimbait game to be as diligent as I am because, admittedly, I research things to death.  My point isn’t to hurt these makers so much as to give us as the buyers the opportunity to make an INFORMED decision before we do business with them.  If having their name in this list starts a fire under their rear to get their act together and make things right, then we all win and if they do start having a good track record, then they can always redeem themselves just as any person can do so.  Cheers

[gary m]

6 minutes ago, BPayne said:

I can understand and respect that opinion, but there has got to be a way to get these types of things out there and fully understood for the community.  This community has no problem absolutely crucifying individuals who scam other individuals on the BlackMarket here and they tell it from the rooftops.  Hell, every member carries a “scorecard” of sorts attached to their username for all to see before doing business with so they can CHOOSE whether that individual is worth the risk of doing business with before going into a deal.  I get that what I’m suggesting leaves things open to possible abuse and I’m not claiming to have all the angles figured out, but I can think of at least half a dozen makers whose names CONSTANTLY get brought into these conversations by everyone from the nobodies like me all the way to the well respected members of this community.  It is those makers that I wish to hold the spotlight on and hold accountable.  I’ve already started my own personal blacklist based off personal experiences within this community and then I have absolutely taken notes of whose name keeps coming up when these topics happen.  I can’t expect the next new guy into the swimbait game to be as diligent as I am because, admittedly, I research things to death.  My point isn’t to hurt these makers so much as to give us as the buyers the opportunity to make an INFORMED decision before we do business with them.  If having their name in this list starts a fire under their rear to get their act together and make things right, then we all win and if they do start having a good track record, then they can always redeem themselves just as any person can do so.  Cheers

100% Agree!!!!!

[Doe23]

[Rangermike]

1 hour ago, Doe23 said:

Hopefully that means my orders were shipped. No update on status yet maybe they just dropped it off and it hasn’t updated but doesn’t look good. 

[bassbass]

4 hours ago, thastickybandit said:

I see your point. And this is a hundred percent speculations on my part. But I believe Vic gives his  good baits to people that could produce for him. There no doubt that out of all the members on this forum that you stick you fish consistently. Same with Danny. He caught some great fish on the hater. And I believe at one point he was trying to give Miliken a few baits as well. So it makes sense to give the guys that stick fish consistently functioning baits.(Again this is pure speculation)

To everyone else the quality control is overlooked and they are stuck with a turd with treble hooks and bill.

The tolerance I don’t have is the personal disrespect I’ve had from him.  
 

Understand and thanks for the reply.

I personally have no idea what he does with his selection of people we gives them to.

I pay for all my baits even if they are given to me I send paypal to cover said bait.

Also in my original post I said I see everyone's concerns and they suck. I didn't mean they suck as no value, I meant they suck that you had to go through all the BS with getting your baits.

Like I said before everyone is different and you have to do or not do what you feel.

Thanks man...

[bassbass]

4 hours ago, BPayne said:

I can understand and respect that opinion, but there has got to be a way to get these types of things out there and fully understood for the community.  This community has no problem absolutely crucifying individuals who scam other individuals on the BlackMarket here and they tell it from the rooftops.  Hell, every member carries a “scorecard” of sorts attached to their username for all to see before doing business with so they can CHOOSE whether that individual is worth the risk of doing business with before going into a deal.  I get that what I’m suggesting leaves things open to possible abuse and I’m not claiming to have all the angles figured out, but I can think of at least half a dozen makers whose names CONSTANTLY get brought into these conversations by everyone from the nobodies like me all the way to the well respected members of this community.  It is those makers that I wish to hold the spotlight on and hold accountable.  I’ve already started my own personal blacklist based off personal experiences within this community and then I have absolutely taken notes of whose name keeps coming up when these topics happen.  I can’t expect the next new guy into the swimbait game to be as diligent as I am because, admittedly, I research things to death.  My point isn’t to hurt these makers so much as to give us as the buyers the opportunity to make an INFORMED decision before we do business with them.  If having their name in this list starts a fire under their rear to get their act together and make things right, then we all win and if they do start having a good track record, then they can always redeem themselves just as any person can do so.  Cheers

Good read and I agree but like I said this list will be long.

You and SU can do as you feel is needed to protect the members, keep in mind that people will still be fishing and buying these baits. I think this community is here for helping people catch more swimbait fish.

This needs to be given some serious though before posting a list. I have been on here a while and have bought and fished many many many baits, can I say things that went wrong about some of this baits and purchasing them, yes, looking at the big picture is it worth it, no. If I wanted to try a bait, would I look at this list, most likely not.

Am I sticking up for Vic, no but I am just telling my experience. If I remember correctly he may have made same bad comments to and about people, which was not cool, but there are always two sides and the truth lies in the middle.

Let's say a bait marker sells 10K baits and 10 people have an issue, that is such a small percentage to be put on a list. I also now how some customers treat the bait markers, so this also may play a part in it. Respect go's both ways and lately this has gone down hill in everything.

If we do bait markers then let's do custom rods and so on. In all honesty all of them will be on the list.

It is great to speak your piece and provide your opinion.

Best, Brian

[Mossypumpkin]

He’s been ripping people off and making garbage baits since…..well, since the day he started. I like him and his baits at the beginning til I got two haters that ran sideways and couldn’t be tuned. Then he tried to rip off my buddy on a rod that he didn’t ship for weeks and weeks claiming he couldn’t get to the post office. Meanwhile he’s literally posting pics at the lake on a daily basis. Kid has been a liar since the day he started. And what we know about people who are good at lying is, they’re not much good for anything else. Especially making baits

[BPayne]

1 hour ago, bassbass said:

Good read and I agree but like I said this list will be long.

You and SU can do as you feel is needed to protect the members, keep in mind that people will still be fishing and buying these baits. I think this community is here for helping people catch more swimbait fish.

This needs to be given some serious though before posting a list. I have been on here a while and have bought and fished many many many baits, can I say things that went wrong about some of this baits and purchasing them, yes, looking at the big picture is it worth it, no. If I wanted to try a bait, would I look at this list, most likely not.

Am I sticking up for Vic, no but I am just telling my experience. If I remember correctly he may have made same bad comments to and about people, which was not cool, but there are always two sides and the truth lies in the middle.

Let's say a bait marker sells 10K baits and 10 people have an issue, that is such a small percentage to be put on a list. I also now how some customers treat the bait markers, so this also may play a part in it. Respect go's both ways and lately this has gone down hill in everything.

If we do bait markers then let's do custom rods and so on. In all honesty all of them will be on the list.

It is great to speak your piece and provide your opinion.

Best, Brian

I’m certainly not saying you’re wrong and you are certainly entitled to your opinion on this.  I don’t actually have a dog in THIS particular fight because I’ve never bought anything from FE specifically because of threads like this one.  I’m just sick of seeing these things come up and the frequency is starting to pick up the pace seemingly.  That is disappointing to me because fishing is about having fun and learning and building friendships (at least that’s how I’ve always viewed it).  As much as I’ve absolutely loved my journey into the swimbait world, it seems like there are a lot more shady individuals concentrated in this particular niche than in other more general aspects of fishing.  I will reiterate, I do not have the answers or the blueprints on how to make my “list” work, but I would love to see something like this take place.  I realize it will probably never happen because it will end up in a mudslinging free-for-all, which is certainly NOT what I’m asking.  Who knows, maybe I’m just an idealist and flying high on my pipe dreams.  Cheers

[scojangles]

5 hours ago, Doe23 said:

I did hear from him today he said everything went out.  We had such a cute chat.  I don’t trust a thing this "Not Allowed" says but the likely scenario is they just dumped them all at the post and they haven’t been scanned in yet?  Who knows.  My status hasn’t changed yet but we shall see.  He was sending me photos of the Luigi dude holding an armful of boxed up baits.  One thing I thought of was, “Can you imagine how exhausting it must be to live like that?”  Damn man, I guess I’ll have some sympathy on the kid on that one .  I’ve had nothing but good experiences thus far in these communities… a lot of good, down to earth, and life experienced individuals.  These rat toys make all things suck for everyone but themselves I guess.  Until the right or wrong person comes around and checks the bitches on principal.  In the end this is all wasted energy and chatter, I am new enough to all this where I just hadn’t heard the “avoid fe and Vic’s lying ass” perspective yet.

[Turdferguson]

My shipping updated, shows its actually been received and is inbound. Maybe I got lucky and things are improving....

[Rangermike]

Looks like everything has shipped. I still feel like I was on point with my first opinion they just got a little overwhelmed and behind trying to do all these shows. For the most part baits I have ordered shipped in 3-4 weeks exception was one bait from February order they said they miscounted and didn’t have enough ready. PTB isn’t running like some shops where baits ship next day or so but it’s nothing like the FE preorders in past. I always got my baits from FE just took longer than promised. I feel confident ordering from PTB just might be a few weeks. And when the shows are going on that doesn’t help. Everyone can make their own decisions but I have ordered from other makers and had similar ETA misses and they don’t get talked about near as much. 

[Spencer_518]

5 hours ago, Rangermike said:

Looks like everything has shipped. I still feel like I was on point with my first opinion they just got a little overwhelmed and behind trying to do all these shows. For the most part baits I have ordered shipped in 3-4 weeks exception was one bait from February order they said they miscounted and didn’t have enough ready. PTB isn’t running like some shops where baits ship next day or so but it’s nothing like the FE preorders in past. I always got my baits from FE just took longer than promised. I feel confident ordering from PTB just might be a few weeks. And when the shows are going on that doesn’t help. Everyone can make their own decisions but I have ordered from other makers and had similar ETA misses and they don’t get talked about near as much. 

have you been living under a rock? 

[scojangles]

Looks like it was delivered today….I’ll give the dude credit it looked like they delivered on this one.  Again I’d like to state my ignorance here is my own fault, I’m not new to fishing bigger baits but new to trying to buying, selling and trading them, I had not heard to avoid ptb/fe so for that I blame myself…I didn’t realize there was going to be people out there waiting years longer than I. It’s definitely disturbing but not really that surprising…it’s just good to see that most bait makers make a quality product and deliver on it.  With fe I’d rather not support anyone in the future that I know dicks people over on their hard earned money.  Did anyone waiting longer than these February drops get their stuff?  Also, anyone want a 7 inch taxi shad?  115 tyd.  That’s five dollars off y’all.   
 

One of my friends who is no longer with us used to always refer as people like this as “black holes to avoid” I’ll be doing that with these clowns.  I wouldn’t support them with a "not allowed" head nod let alone your loot.  
 

Hopefully he delivered for everyone though I fear it was just his last (feb and on) drop that went out 

[Rangermike]

22 hours ago, Spencer_518 said:

have you been living under a rock? 

No clue what that’s supposed to mean. I’m commenting on FE/PTB what experience I’ve had with them and giving my opinion on what to expect. I didn’t say it was gold standard of customer service all I said was I would buy from them and they are slower shipping than other drops. If don’t want to buy anything FE ever again don’t blame you, I just thought the idea of the thread was to give people an update and idea of what to expect. 
 

PTB has been open a little while now and you didn’t hear any issues about shipping til this spring. Like I said they had issues with the last few drops trying to do too much with the shows, being gone, and selling too many on drops. Not saying that makes it ok but it’s still improved over how it was before. 

Edited April 15, 2023 by Rangermike

[Rangermike]

1 hour ago, scojangles said:

Looks like it was delivered today….I’ll give the dude credit it looked like they delivered on this one.  Again I’d like to state my ignorance here is my own fault, I’m not new to fishing bigger baits but new to trying to buying, selling and trading them, I had not heard to avoid ptb/fe so for that I blame myself…I didn’t realize there was going to be people out there waiting years longer than I. It’s definitely disturbing but not really that surprising…it’s just good to see that most bait makers make a quality product and deliver on it.  With fe I’d rather not support anyone in the future that I know dicks people over on their hard earned money.  Did anyone waiting longer than these February drops get their stuff?  Also, anyone want a 7 inch taxi shad?  115 tyd.  That’s five dollars off y’all.   
 

One of my friends who is no longer with us used to always refer as people like this as “black holes to avoid” I’ll be doing that with these clowns.  I wouldn’t support them with a "not allowed" head nod let alone your loot.  
 

Hopefully he delivered for everyone though I fear it was just his last (feb and on) drop that went out 

I had one bait left from the Feb drop and a few from last March drop and they all shipped got them today. I got the baits I needed so won’t be needing any more any time soon but it will be interesting to see how fast they ship drops in the future.