Blackham Transfers

[Dazzler Fan]

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For over a year I have been contacting Peter Blackham and paid on

a promise of work to be delivered, and now well past.

He is not good at responding or giving progress when dates lapse.

It is now some time since I last heard from him.

Is he still in business?

 

Noel

Edited April 6, 2015 by Dazzler Fan

[45609]

Is he still in business?

 

 

More than likely. Took me well over 18 months to get an order from him despite promise to deliver in a much shorter lead time. He significantly held up delivery of a commissioned loco to my customer. The guy has no concept of timescales. Edited April 6, 2015 by mlgilbert30

[ColinK]

I too have had problems with Peter Blackham. I paid him for some bespoke nameplates which, despite many promises, never arrived. Never got my money back either, just loads of waffle. Will never use him again.

[chris-shay]

I've had very similar experiences with Blackham Transfers. It took an unbelievable 2+ years to get a set of bespoke dry transfers that I ordered from him back in 2004-ish. I even provided all the artwork - including graphics and text all laid out. Came up with all sorts of excuses and promised they would be arriving soon - I just kept badgering them until they finally turned up. ( the only redeeming feature would be that the transfers were very good - but that doesn't excuse the dreadful service ) - I wouldn't recommend them at all.

[Dazzler Fan]

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He does good work, and I feel intimidated to not annoy a great artist at work.

I think he needs an administrative assistant to put a better "Front" on the business.

 

Noel

Edited April 7, 2015 by Dazzler Fan

[Dazzler Fan]

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Finally managed to grab his attention today, after numerous

contacts from me.over the months since New Years.

Today, 15th May, he now claims he sent the proofs.

 

Noel

 

Edited May 15, 2015 by Dazzler Fan

[Jub45565]

Yes, he is definitely one of the small traders in the 'excellent products, poor customer service' category.  If it is one of his standard product line items that you are after, I think EDM (http://www.ngtrains.com/Pages/Decals/EDM_Decals/edm_decals.html) would be the best bet.  As noted on the EDM transfers page:  

 

 

EDM Models has recently come to an arrangement with Blackham Transfers which should, over time, see the range of decals offered become more easily available from stock through us allowing Blackham to concentrate on bulk production.

It will take quite a time for the range we hold to grow as there is a considerable capital outlay required to hold stock of these transfers. Initially we will concentrate on the Festiniog Railway transfers that go with the kits we produce.

 

Therefore the exact item you want may not be in EDM stock yet, but if people let them know what they want it will be easier to prioritise which items to get sorted sooner rather than later.

 

HTH,

[jwealleans]

Unless you're especially keen on dry transfers, I now go to John Peck at Precision Decals/Labels for my bespoke work. He turns things round very quickly and at reasonable prices.

 

I did try Blackham for a commission almost 10 years ago and am still waiting to hear back from him.

[Dazzler Fan]

Ju

 

Yes, he is definitely one of the small traders in the 'excellent products, poor customer service' category. 

 

 

 

My transfers are a repeatable item for the 3D Printed Pollen C, Pollen E's,

and Coral A, soon also for the SDJR 25a Dazzler..

 

He is in that classic trap of the small business, where Administration is overtaking

Production, as he describes it himself "Chief Cook & Bottle Washer".

 

He produces excellent work and I think needs help with administration and

general management to allow him to concentrate on what he obviously enjoys.

It would considerably improve and grow his business.

 

Noel

Edited May 15, 2015 by Dazzler Fan

[Dazzler Fan]

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After exchanges that give every excuses and no deliverables
true to form: there is no offer to resend the items.

PayPal retrieved my payment.

To Peter Blackham,

As agreed in e-mails, I paid for the artwork and to receive proofs.

I kept asking what progress you were making. What is the difference

to put you wise that they had not been received?

[ColinK]

Dazzler Fan, that was the same experience I had. Lots of promises, then told proofs had been sent, but I never recieved them, nor the finished product. Glad you got your money back, I didn't. ColinK

[Dazzler Fan]

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I put it down to him being psychologically unbalanced. His powers of

logic and deduction on the evidence, fly against reason.

The terms were Proofs to be supplied before printing, Six months of

talking to a blank wall he finally runs counter to the facts.

 

I promise you all, that in no way did I deal fraudulently in the situation,

and PayPal did decide in my favour - he did not protest.

 

Noel

His parting shot:-
 

"To all of our customers,

due to a recent fraud by an American customer, we have reviewed our terms of business and have made the following additions, to try to prevent such fraud in the future: [Highlight added]
 

We will send items to the USA only by means of our International Tracked shipping method, or better.

All artwork, negatives and other standing material prepared by us remains our property and may not be used by you for any other purpose. For the purposes of PayPal, credit/debit card or other e-commerce payment methods, artwork and negatives are intangible services resulting in no tangible goods.

At our discretion, we may supply proof copies of the artwork. Such proofs do not constitute part of your order for artwork, negative or transfer. We will not charge for such proofs to be sent by email, but reserve the right to charge for proofs to be sent through the post. We cannot supply test transfers made from your artwork unless you pay for them at our standard transfer prices. When proofs are to be supplied, any charge for them will normally include for the first proof, any minor alterations to the artwork in keeping with the original specification and a second proof confirming the alterations. We reserve the right to charge for any major alterations or additions to the artwork resulting from the proofs and for the resultant proofs.

These changes will come into immediate effect. Our full terms of business, including these changes may be viewed at http://www.blackhamtransfers.com/termsofbusiness.html We are sorry to have to make the changes, but once again, the actions of a minority cause problems for everyone else,

cheers,
Peter"

Edited May 27, 2015 by Dazzler Fan

[Peter Jordan]

I only found this topic this morning, after I had posted a separate message to warn people against using 'Blackham Transfers.' It really is the worst business I've ever had to deal with.

I provided Peter Blackham with all of the information necessary to produce the transfers that I ordered, including a full-size drawing, and paid for the transfers in February last year. I was promised that I would have them in three weeks-by September I had received one miserable proof as an email attachment, despite Mr. Blackham telling me previously that sending proofs as an email attachment wasn't a good idea because it couldn't be guaranteed that the proof would print out exactly the right size. Surprise, surprise, that is exactly what happened. Like others have experienced, he also told me he had sent proofs by post, but I never received anything.

in September 2015 I cancelled my order - Mr. Blackham refunded my money promptly but then alleged that the problem was all my fault because I had been wanting him to make transfers he knew to be incorrect (untrue) and that I had added things to my order after I had paid (again untrue.)He refused to return my drawing, so in October 2015 I placed the matter in the hands of Gwynedd Trading Standards Department and yesterday I finally received my drawing back.

I asked Gwynedd Trading Standards to get a written apology from Mr. Blackham, and I also requested that Mr. Blackham get me the same from Mr. Martin, but it appears he is unwilling to do this, and Trading Standards have no power to compel him to comply with my request.

The case seems fairly straightforward to me - Mr. Blackham needs bringing into line and made to comply with consumer law or his business should be closed down. I have just drawn the attention of Gwynedd Trading Standards Department to this discussion, and they have told me they would be very interested to hear from anyone who has complaints against 'Blackham Transfers.' If you put' Gwynedd Trading Standards' into your 'Search' engine you will find the email address.

If the people who have had bad experiences intervene in this way it may help save other modellers from having the kind of awful experience many of us have suffered by trusting this man.

Peter Jordan

Castletown, Isle of Man

Edited March 14, 2016 by Andy Y

[K14]

One of my Facebook friends 'liked' the Blackham Transfers page, so I thought I'd take a peek . His work looks excellent from what I can see, but his reputation spoils that rather (I also tried his website & frankly wasn't impressed - broken/circular links aplenty).

 

This post from December 2014 caught my eye:— https://www.facebook.com/blackhamtransfers/posts/387770951390791 (You don't have to be a member to view it - if it tells you to 'login to continue' just press Escape). Expand the comments & you'll see his Business Model explained. It would appear that, if you're not a commercial customer, or prepared to pay a 'drop everything' surcharge, then your order goes into his Ironing Pile & gets dealt with as & when.

 

That's fair enough IMO, but frankly he'd be better off either not accepting bespoke orders at all or posting that business model on his website so that the emptor can be well & truly caveat.

 

Pete S.

 

 

 

[Quarryscapes]

One of my Facebook friends 'liked' the Blackham Transfers page, so I thought I'd take a peek . His work looks excellent from what I can see, but his reputation spoils that rather (I also tried his website & frankly wasn't impressed - broken/circular links aplenty).

 

This post from December 2014 caught my eye:— https://www.facebook.com/blackhamtransfers/posts/387770951390791 (You don't have to be a member to view it - if it tells you to 'login to continue' just press Escape). Expand the comments & you'll see his Business Model explained. It would appear that, if you're not a commercial customer, or prepared to pay a 'drop everything' surcharge, then your order goes into his Ironing Pile & gets dealt with as & when.

 

That's fair enough IMO, but frankly he'd be better off either not accepting bespoke orders at all or posting that business model on his website so that the emptor can be well & truly caveat.

 

Pete S.

 

It is, a long way down the terms of business page

 

http://www.blackhamtransfers.com/shop/terms.html

[Peter Jordan]

That business about the 'ironing pile' may be true, and I had that thrown at me by Paul Martin of 'EDM Models' when he tried to defend Mr. Blackham's conduct.What he didn't realise was that I paid nearly £200 for my transfers and was promised them by Mr. Blackham in three weeks from placing the order. I still have the email to that effect on file. Six months later I had received nothing except one proof by email.

 

I think Trading Standards ought to take a look at Mr. Blackham's 'Terms of Business' because I'm not entirely convinced that they comply with consumer law.

 

Peter Jordan

[ngtrains.com]

This has gone on far enough with Mr Jordan dragging my name into his dispute with Blackham Transfers. I had hoped he’d just let it drop but as he seems to be going at it like a dog with a bone it needs addressing.

 

Firstly, my relationship with Blackham Transfers is simply that of customer albeit a trade/wholesale customer. I buy certain of his transfers in bulk, divide them up into smaller pack sizes and retail them. Unfortunately, some people seem to have interpreted my stocking these transfers as me having some magic `in’ route for contacting him and try to treat me as his complaints or contacts department.

 

I have no magic means of contact or `special’ relationship with him. About the only additional contact I may have that others don’t is that as a driver on the Ffestiniog Railway and with Mr Blackham living close to the station in Blaenau I sometimes see him when I drive trains

 

Approximately a year ago dissatisfied with his own dealings with Blackham Transfers Mr Jordan e-mailed everyone he could find who had dealt with Blackham to suggest they had no further dealings with Blackham. Ironically the source of his e-mail addresses was the satisfied customer list from the Blackham Transfers Website.

 

Foolishly, instead of just ignoring his e-mail I investigated Mr Jordon’s claims. Actually that’s a bit strong, I asked Peter Blackham what was going on when I saw him in Blaenau Station a couple of weeks later. I reported back what Mr Blackham had told me as `his side of the story’ which if correct showed that there was a clear discrepancy between what the two sides were saying.  I did not `throw’ anything at him as Mr Jordan’s latest post suggests. This, apparently, is me siding with Mr Blackham. 

 

I also made it clear that there was nothing more I could do and that I wasn’t prepared to enter into a debate on the subject. Mr Jordan wouldn’t accept this and tried to continue an e-mail and internet argument which he does to this day. In the end I got fed up with his inability to leave me out of it so I blocked his e-mail address. This, apparently, is me denying him justice.

 

Mr Jordan demands an apology from me. The only one he is going to get is that I am truly sorry I ever replied to his e-mail and I am also truly sorry that I got involved to try to see if there were any grounds for mediation.  I have learnt my lesson and I won’t make the same mistake again.

 

Finally, I wish to make three things clear:

• I will not enter into any further debate on the subject,
• I am just a customer of Blackham Transfers and
• I make no comment on the Blackham Transfers business

[Nearholmer]

A good friend of mine had the typical experience with this supplier.

 

It was a regular, annual, routine at an exhibition where the gentleman in question would always have a stand, for us to enquire as to the health of the artwork supplied, and the transfers not. The artwork was always reported to be "keeping fine", as it progressed from infancy to pensionable-age; the transfers had a longer gestation period than entire herd of elephants.

 

I don't recall the final outcome, but a decade is a long time to wait for anything.

 

Kevin

[Dazzler Fan]

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Anyone waiting, yet another problem.

 

[Dazzler Fan]

Guess what?

 

I am now in the business of producing Dry Transfers from my own source!

 

Noel