Professional Skinners?

[aitonk]

Hey I was wondering where I can find a professional to make me a custom skin that matches my vBulletin forums.

An example is this site http://www.digital-industry.net and their forums http://www.digital-industry.net/forum matches.

[Bratz-Designs]

I think it would be fitting to post a message in the service request forum. I dont think anyone would do such a huge project for free....

Whats the url of your site? :)

[Jaynesh]

www.vbulletinskinz.com got a nice portfoilio :) not free though.

[Nutz]

This is quite a good list of vBulletin skiners: http://www.64th.net/vBL/Show-Only-Skins

Thanks,
Mat

[Deimos]

But for gods sake, stay away from VBCore.

[forumthemes]

But for gods sake, stay away from VBCore.

lmao.. yeah

btw we also can. www.forumthemes.com we don't list it as a service but if requested we can as we have a few different designers you can pick the style you want from the portfolio and also we use Aros for coding which in my opinion is the best

[DivisionByZero]

But for gods sake, stay away from VBCore.
LOL yes. I've had it with him. I've sat back for almost a year now and listened to how good people have lost money to him. Today, i've had it. One of my best clients told me he lost $5,000.00 to him this week. I'm helping this person take legal action against the guy. (PM me for his name and address). Internet fraud is a federal crime in the US. vBulletin.org needs to have a professional services directory. people here are getting scammed left and right and i'm sick of it. This creep goes around telling people that I'm a scammer and that people should stay away from me! (the teapot he is) I've lost business because nobody knows the truth. I'm not some kid with a computer, i'm a registered corporation with an impeccable Dun & Bradstreet credit profile and even better references!

Anyone else been scammed by this bastard, contact me if you're interested in getting in on the legal action.

[Deimos]

I'd be more than happy to help out, although if legal action did take place and you'd need a witness etc, I live in the UK

He told me many things via msn, how he's never scammed, yet he was quite happy to take my $1000 claiming it's in the contract which I Agreed to (I signed no contract and didn't even read one)

See, problem is this

People pay via paypal, they pay up front, like I did and any dispute via paypal is POINTLESS, they WONT support you

At first, they "accidently" refunded part of my $1000, saying it was a mistake

So I reversed it via my credit card

But yea, i'd be happy to write a written/signed statement of my experiences.

Note, he IS banned from this site, but not from VBulletin.com, I approached their managerial staff and they refused to ban him.

[DivisionByZero]

...I approached their managerial staff and they refused to ban him.i'm starting to think that vBulletin and Jelsoft either support this kind of behavior or plainly just don't give a damn.

I offered to code, for FREE, an add-on module where people can agree on a project, then post feedback about each other after its all said and done. i was turned down.

Thus, my best advice is the following:

--NEVER EVER EVER pay with paypal UNLESS the person has a BUSINESS account with a HIGH number of VERIFIED BUYERS! Also, any REAL business, such as I, use TRADITIONAL merchant accounts. I process Visa, MC, Amex, Discover (and even ACH for my trusted clients) through my own bank! Also, On my site, I always maintain a VALID SSL certificate with the SmartIcon that goes to GeoTrust. My parent website has a VALID GeoTrust TrueBusinessID, where GeoTrust verifies your corporate identity. This is a good thing to look for.

--Also, NEVER pay using any of these other half-wit payment middlemen, i.e. moneybookers, egold, etc. they're all the same. Remember, a LEGITIMATE business will have a merchant account of their own! And for GODS sake, if you're forced to use Western Union, DO NOT use the Question/Answer scheme. Process the transaction where the recipient is FORCED to show a VALID ID!

--If you're sending money to Texas, USA, BEWARE! DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Western Union has a question/answer scheme for those who don't have ID... so he can take ANY name using WU. Kolby has used at least 10 fake names thus far!

--NEVER do business with anyone who doesn't have an established portfolio on their website. A legitimate businessman with good references has no problem posting links to some of the sites where they've done work. Also, that same good businessman has NO problem facilitating contact between Mister Prior Client and Mister Prospective Client.

--NEVER violate any of the above for any reason. If you do, then you have nobody to blame but yourself for getting burnt. :)

[Zachery]

i'm starting to think that vBulletin and Jelsoft either support this kind of behavior or plainly just don't give a damn. We stay netural to all third party disputes.

[Xoligy]

It would be extremely foolish for vBulletin.com to ban him. They have to stay as neutral as they can in these situations, and to ban a paying customer without actually breaking their rules would be a bad idea.

One of my designers worked with vBCore a while ago (vBCore was his coder).. but now he can't even stand to talk about him. From what he told me, vBCore took on too much work, and then scammed a lot of people for a lot of money by making them pay upfront and then never contacting them again. I can ask my designer for any details on him, but I think it's better that we stay out of the legal case.

[Deimos]

I don't think there is a legal case, no one has actually taken him to court, from what I know.

[DivisionByZero]

Unfortunately, its not only "coders" that are scammers. There's a whole population of "buyers" at large who are nothing but scammers. Their intentions are to get something coded overnight, and most often, for nothing, anyway they can.

Some "buyers" here, when things don't always go their way (primarily.. getting things done overnight, which doesn't happen), like to try and bully us hard working coders around by threatening to post or PM spam everyone who posts a service request here, saying things like "so and so is a lousy coder, do not hire them."

So, in talking with one of my attornies the other day, he rewrote my contract template to protect me from this immature crap. I can now charge these people $1,000 per incident via their credit cards on file in my system. I have a few decoy accounts setup here posting service requests to catch these people doing it. I also offer a discount to real buyers if they forward me any such correspondence from one of these loons.

Finally, I'd like to introduce ISYS. ISYS is a "negative database" system, currently under development by myself and three other vB mod developers. ISYS will list buyers who have committed an unethical act against a participating ISYS company/developer, such as non-payment, harassment, PM/post libel, chargebacks, and breach of contract. I'm working with 7 vB mod developers who have a combined total of over 125 records to contribute. This will be a great tool to ensure that these cons are never able to take advantage of our hard work again!

As for this website's policy on staying "neutral" to third party disputes, I don't disagree with that. What I do disagree with, however, is this website's passive facilitation of libel, by allowing these people to send private message spam to everyone who posts a service request here with no reasonable intentions other than to hurt a good developer's reputation.

[Deimos]

I still find it wrong that VBCore is allowed to link to his website on Vbulletin.com though
If someone clicks that link, pays $1000 for a skin, never receives it, can VB be held liable? especially if they allow him to continue to link, even though people have complained about being scammed?

[Criticize]

From my understanding VBCORE is no longer in business. I heard he does SEO work now and not Vbulletin. When he did do his work it was good. I had him recently design a skin for me (about 4 months ago) and everything worked well. Seemed good to me but when I asked him to design my new forum he told me he only accepts SEO projects now.

[Deimos]

Probably moving into other areas he can scam with.

[SmashinYoungMan]

Not speaking about the vBCore guy in particular, but it would be easier to scam people doing SEO work as it is an ever-changing and labyrinthine field to begin with, and the results of search engine optimization aren't immediately apparent.

[Deimos]

Yea, i'm guessing that's why he's changed to SEO work

[v12kid]

I am constantly on the look out for quality vb coders and skinners all the time. I got scammed by vbcore and most recently a guy using the AIM name VBulletskins. He took my cash, showed me 1 screen shot of the in prgress then he dissapeared. he had the nerve to ask me 2 months after fighting to get my deposit back if he could finish the job..

keep the suggestions coming with legitimate vendors

[Criticize]

I am constantly on the look out for quality vb coders and skinners all the time. I got scammed by vbcore and most recently a guy using the AIM name VBulletskins. He took my cash, showed me 1 screen shot of the in prgress then he dissapeared. he had the nerve to ask me 2 months after fighting to get my deposit back if he could finish the job..

keep the suggestions coming with legitimate vendors
Did he refund you the money? If so then you didn't get scammed. There is a very large difference. He might have wasted your time but in the end if he refunded you, you did not get scammed. You might want to clear that up before you keep talking bad about someone so people don't get confused.