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Nixie Gone Bad? The nixie clock engineering community is a small one.
With the recent seller proliferation, bad experiences do happen. Here's the long version of the story. It's worth the
read if you want to acquire an FLW for yourself! At the beginning of November 2006, I received a "holiday"
offer by email offering to sell me a newly designed version delivered after the payment was made. I hadn't any recent contact with Ray, or with the nixie clock making community for a few years, and no reason to suspect there might be problems with paying Ray in advance for another clock order. I replied to Ray's email "holiday" offer, and decided to buy one of each model. My purchase was on condition these items would be delivered in time to be presented as gifts for Christmas 2006. The total for my purchase was approximately $650.00. Ray asked that I mail a check for the purchase amount to his Credit Union account located in California, rather than paying through his online website payment handler: http://usd.swreg.org/ I promptly mailed the check out on Nov 6 2006. At the beginning of December 2006 I sent an email to check the shipping status. Ray made a few excuses for delays he was experiencing, and hinted shipping might be delayed. He noted the order volume was much less than expected for sales of this new model FLW and GeekKlok. He was now unable to deliver on time, and did not offer to return my $650 check. Christmas 2006 came and passed. No clocks. Three emails in January to Ray at: sales-_-@zetalink.biz went unanswered. What's going on here? I've now become somewhat suspicious. Was I possible that I was scammed out of $650.00? For those folks who might be unaware of this, a Yahoo nixie group (NEONIXIE-L) was established in January 2002 to serve as a forum for those individuals who are interested in vintage nixie tubes, and the instruments that used them. Ray initiated this yahoo list group, so I figured it would be the best place to begin looking for any news about him. I suspected my recent adventure with Raymond Weisling was not too uncommon, and I visited the nixie list group to view their archives for similar situations. Unfortunately, there were very recent posts from nixie list members for non-delivery of already paid for products from Ray Weisling, and with a few now dating back over TWO YEARS. Over many months, Ray has posted messages to the yahoo nixie list explaining his dire financial situation caused by various uncontrollable events. And they grew in crisis level with each new posting. It became apparent he had already deleted critical postings made to the nixie list in past months by unhappy victims. Yet he continued to accept money for payment of items he was advertizing as for sale, and not delivering. Ray's Zetalink.biz sales website is still active. Go ahead, send him your money... Of course, if you ask him, he'll say he can ship the item at some near date in the future. Go ahead, plenty of folks fall victim to the Nigerian 419 scams. But don't come whining to me if your clock or kit never arrives as promised. He has deluded himself into believing he will actually ship these prepaid products some day. I'm certain he meant well at some point in the past. It simply got out of control, and now owes far too much to produce / ship these orders. I do track the IP addresses of the visitors here. And Ray has stopped by a number of times over the years. Got something you want published about Raymond Weisling? send it in, I'd be happy to. Shame on you Ray. Stop taking money for items you will never deliver on. Please let me know you are also a victim of Raymond Weisling and his ecommerce site: Zetalink.biz As of 07-15-08, I have now received eighteen (18) responses from individuals who have paid for Geek Kloks or FLW's as kits and have not received them yet. Each has waited more than a year, with one waiting more than three years for their paid-for kit. Ray no longer responds to their emails asking for a delivery date. Update March 23 2010: More than three years have passed since the kits were paid for, and nothing was received. Every now and then a new victim would email me, explaining that Ray did not send an item to them after payment, and they'd only recently discovered this web page entirely dedicated to Ray Weisling's internet and email misdeeds. During Christmas time 2008, Ray began selling a few of his assembled FLW clocks on ebay. Well that took balls! Ray had sold clocks on ebay, and all the while ignoring his long list of victims still waiting for their paid for items. I sent an email to Ray using the Ebay message system, asking when he would be sending kits to those who'd already paid for them. He replied back with a one line reply "when I have the finances to purchase the materials". Yup. Ever wondered what Ray Weisling looked like? maybe you wanted to put a face to the perp? Click Here Update July 20 2010: A reader has volunteered updated contact information for Ray Weisling. It is verified and current. You're welcome to mail, email, or even call Ray and ask why he has not delivered your kit or clock. Move quickly, the email spammers will find his new address.
Update August 30 2011: Well, as I wrote at the beginning of this long story, there are FLW's available to buy from a reputable seller. That's me. Yes, I have recently collaborated with Pete Hand to release a new Four Letter Word Display. It uses the customary B7971 nixie tubes, and the time display feature includes GPS reception if desired. The assembled FLW with four (4) B-7971 Nixie Tubes and 20ch GPS receiver is $550 + $20 shipping. Click on the main page link below to see the new GPS FLW.
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