Alex Hollenbach, aka 'Neo_God'
Has anyone heard from this fellow here on the forums lately? His forum name is Neo_God
I hired him and paid him up front to complete some weapon models for our project. He sent sent preview screenshots of the work he was doing and then vanished.
If anyone has heard from him, my emails are going unanswered and would rather think it was a technical issue and he lost our contact info. If not, I want to either collect on the models or get our project money back. He completed a couple of the models so we're hoping he's still around so we can keep him on the team.
This was the last email I recieved from him:
Hey Joe, you can send the Paypal payments to (email) , I may have misunderstood the email, but are you advancing me the payment? If so, thank you very much, because at the moment it would be very good to pad my account with bills and rent about to hit, haha.
I had a some delays getting started and only really started up this past Friday. Anyway, I have some work in progress pictures for you. I finished the gauntlet, and the I have started the high poly of the Railgun. Also, I feel like an idiot, but I also finished a model of the grenade launcher.
Anyway, I have a good pace going, and if I keep it up, I'll probably be finished by the end of this week, give or take a day or two.
Take Care,
Alex
These are the emails I sent since his last:
---
Sent on 9\4\10
Weekend, Alex!
Give me a shout and let me know how things are coming. Thanks!
----
Sent on 9\11\10
Evening, Alex! Hope you're having a great weekend!
Touching base to see if I could collect what models you have finished so far!
Thanks man
Joe
---
Sent on 10\13\10
Hey Alex,
Trying to touch base on the weapon models! We are trying to get renderings going for Episode 1. Hope you're still in touch since I paid up front!
Thanks man
Joe
---
These are the only images we recieved:
I hired him and paid him up front to complete some weapon models for our project. He sent sent preview screenshots of the work he was doing and then vanished.
If anyone has heard from him, my emails are going unanswered and would rather think it was a technical issue and he lost our contact info. If not, I want to either collect on the models or get our project money back. He completed a couple of the models so we're hoping he's still around so we can keep him on the team.
This was the last email I recieved from him:
Hey Joe, you can send the Paypal payments to (email) , I may have misunderstood the email, but are you advancing me the payment? If so, thank you very much, because at the moment it would be very good to pad my account with bills and rent about to hit, haha.
I had a some delays getting started and only really started up this past Friday. Anyway, I have some work in progress pictures for you. I finished the gauntlet, and the I have started the high poly of the Railgun. Also, I feel like an idiot, but I also finished a model of the grenade launcher.
Anyway, I have a good pace going, and if I keep it up, I'll probably be finished by the end of this week, give or take a day or two.
Take Care,
Alex
These are the emails I sent since his last:
---
Sent on 9\4\10
Weekend, Alex!
Give me a shout and let me know how things are coming. Thanks!
----
Sent on 9\11\10
Evening, Alex! Hope you're having a great weekend!
Touching base to see if I could collect what models you have finished so far!
Thanks man
Joe
---
Sent on 10\13\10
Hey Alex,
Trying to touch base on the weapon models! We are trying to get renderings going for Episode 1. Hope you're still in touch since I paid up front!
Thanks man
Joe
---
These are the only images we recieved:
This discussion has been closed.
Replies
Statistics for the forum show that he logged on this morning and his last post was on the 18th. So he is certainly around.
I know it doesn't get you your money back but if you need a reliable and skilled artist, I would be happy to replace him. Portfolio link in my signature.
Good luck
I'll check out your portfolio as well.
Anyhow, Neo_God has been active on PC recently, and his account shows he was last active today, so I would assume something odd is going on. If he hasn't seen this yet, there's probably a way to make sure he does. Hopefully you had a contract of some kind just for legal purposes.
Reason I paid up front is because he had done work for us about a year earlier on Season 1 of our show and we decided to bring him into Season 2.
You know what... its not really my place to jump in... and I feel weird posting this.
He was paid for Season 1. I contacted him to start work on Season 2, and paid him up front for all the weapon models needed for Season 2. We waited for delivery but he got busy or vanished. We already paid out for the work.
Thanks
+1
Posting in a public forum is fine, imo. But, posting his personal email and any emails between you and him? Poor form. There is a bit of confidentiality assumed when doing dealings like this. I understand feeling slighted, and it doesn't seem like you did this maliciously, but I would recommend removing his information from the original post. Good luck, to both of you!
Let's wait for Neo_God for explanation before judgement, guys.
I have nothing against him. I'm bumping this up so he sees it and eventually answers his PM I sent him 4 days ago or answers in here. I'd like the models or the money back so I can pay some of it to one of our other artists so he can handle the weapon models.
To be honest, 5 months without Neo_God contacting the guy he got paid by?
Nothing to explain, Neo_God's intentions are clear, especially since he has displayed that he has the time to browse Polycount and even post, meaning he has the time to spend 5 minutes telling Wreck what is up.
Stuff like this urks me... :thumbdown:
The PM was friendly. Just a checkup that I was trying to find him to either get the models or the money and if he could contact me, I'd be grateful.
Once again to all reading this thread, I'm not out to make enemies or to look unprofessional. Our project has been running since 2007 and we've hired many people from Polycount to do work for us. This is just a professional attempt to get the material or the money back so we can move on, and if need be, let others know or help us out.
That covers about 90% of the threads in General..
Just a small thing to note that I discovered recently, sometimes PMs don't go through at all...
I also don't think this thread was handled in the best way. I hope this situation gets sorted out for the both of you.
The correct decision would be to take him to small claims court, right? What if they're in separate countries though...
Best of luck on this situation, maybe he will respond to either of your many inquiries.
Your only suppose to pay 50% of the deal upfront next time, but seeing as you have had previous dealings I can see why you would put your trust in him if the last time everything went fine.
I just think its a bit off. This guy (who nobody has ever heard of) comes into polycount airing his issues out in the open, accusing Neo_God ( a long time polycounter ) of some crap. I'm I wrong to think it's just not good form? We're all about the pitchforks and torches around here, I guess.
The best thing would to have just posted that he was having difficulty trying to contact Neo_God regarding a private matter and leave it at that.
Now reputations on both sides are damaged.
[ame]
I removed his personal email after a few posts suggesting it but my only concern is just resolving it, not blackmailing the guy. Point is, while you all talk of brotherhood and rudeness, I'm sadly the one out the cash for work not completed and have no way of rectifying it. No real name, no address, no legal way of pursuing this matter what-so-ever.
This thread can be deleted if need be. I can see it's not getting the job done and since he's not responding to my polite PM or the past 5 emails before I even made this thread, it's obvious being polite and keeping it behind the curtain as you all suggest doesn't work.
Peace
While i agree with you completely, Perna. That still doesn't excuse what NeoGod has done.
I've tried to refrain from posting in this thread as much as possible out of fear of insulting or upsetting anyone. but really, some of the bullshit in here is astounding.
Yes, it was wrong for Wreck to post personal information.
Yes, posting here was probably not the right course of action. and,
Yes, it would seem that Wreck has dug his own hole with regards to getting his legal work sorted before hand.
BUT with all that in mind, ANY post here that defends NeoGod in any way (unless it comes from the man himself) is just fucking stupid. i mean... really? and to then have a go at another forum member for trying to defend freelancers in general (even if it was mildly self-promoting)?
REALLY?
not all freelancers are lucky/talented enough to work for 3ps. so we're not all going to have that same luxury workload and reputation backing us up. some of us rely on the reputation of freelance in general as well as our own personal relationships. so yes, when one freelancer acts like a dick, it sometimes affects ALL freelancers.
with that in mind, though. Wreck sounds like the lead of an indie project, which could explain some of the legal pitfalls he's finding himself in. kinda makes it all the worse, in a way.
good luck getting this sorted, and i hope it doesn't distort your view of freelancers in general.
Though... PC is suppose to be tight community.
Providing Employers and Employees ample opportunities to do business.
Not sure if WreckZ28 posted this freelance position via this forum?
If so, he should be working with anyone running this place.
PC could even go by altering 'Neo_God"'s signature to 'has not upheld a freelance contract' or something along those lines. To warn future employers to steer clear.
I know PC isnt a recruitment centre, but it could make this place put freelancers and employers in somewhat of a trustworthy relationship.
Im sure things would be dealt differently if this happened multiple times from a single artist or programmer.
Help a brother out.
A better solution would be to put up a sticky in the freelance forum explaining how employers and artists can protect themselves from issues like this. There are already lots of good suggestions in this thread on ways this could have been avoided.
Focusing on ways to prevent issues like this would probably work a lot better than trying to compile a shitlist of "bad gusy" for people to avoid while continuing to put themselves at unnecessary risk with bad business practice.
like i said, i agree with your points, but i disagree with the admonishment of people who are, let's face it, giving an opinion on a matter that directly affects their current/future livelyhood.
Paid Job Postings
This forum provides a place for PAID job postings. This means fully established companies looking to hire staff for a full/part time employment with benefits.
Free-Lance Posting
This section is for freelance artists looking for work or for teams looking for "pay-per-model" type structures. This is also a place for freelance artists to show their stuff for possible employment.
I hired Neo_God via this forum in 2008 to work on Season 1 of our project through the Free-Lance Posting section. He did a character model for us and was paid half up front and half on completion.
I did not go looking for Alex again to work on this project. He came back to me.
July 21 - 2010
Hi Joe, I had done some work for you for your first season of Arenas ( the Xero model), and it's all looking great!. Anyway I saw your post on Polycount looking for artists, and I was interested in the weapons modeling job. I attached an image of a weapon I've recently made so you can see I am able to model things like that, oh and it's also meant to look impractical and ridiculous, haha.
Also if you were to choose me for this job, I would charge a flat fee of $*** per weapon model.
Hope to hear from you!
Sincerely,
Alex
----
My response:
Hey Alex, nice to hear from you again! If you're on board, I'd love to have you! Season 2 is stepping up so we're remodelling 7 of the weapons from Quake III Arena.
Let me know when you can get started. Do you want to pay by model or would it be better to do it all in one check\paypal payment. Let me know what your schedule is!
Gauntlet
Machine Gun
Shotgun
Rocket Launcher
Plasma Gun
Lightning Gun
Rail Gun
Joe
----
His response:
Joe,
I can get started right away actually, as I have about 2 weeks or so free. As far as payment goes, how about payment for the first 4, then for the other 3?
-Alex
----
My response:
Hey Alex,
Could you send me your paypal email or address info. I wanted to get you your cash for the work you're doing for us. Thanks man.
Joe
----
His Repsonse:
Hey Joe, you can send the Paypal payments to *********, I may have misunderstood the email, but are you advancing me the payment? If so, thank you very much, because at the moment it would be very good to pad my account with bills and rent about to hit, haha.
I had a some delays getting started and only really started up this past Friday. Anyway, I have some work in progress pictures for you. I finished the gauntlet, and the I have started the high poly of the Railgun. Also, I feel like an idiot, but I also finished a model of the grenade launcher, because for some reason I just wrote down that you didn't want the BFG, and only realized after I finished it that it was also one excluded from the list. I also attached some pictures of it, if you want it, you can have it for half the price of the other guns.
Anyway, I have a good pace going, and if I keep it up, I'll probably be finished by the end of this week, give or take a day or two.
Take Care,
Alex
My response:
Alex,
Payment sent! models are looking great. I sent $***** as well for the extra weapon model you threw in. Thanks for the email update! Thanks for the dedication!
Joe
My next email 2 weeks later:
Morning Alex!
Just checking in! How are the weapon models coming along? Have a great weekend!
Joe
----
My next email 1 week later:
Weekend, Alex!
Give me a shout and let me know how things are coming. Thanks!
Joe
---
My next email 2 weeks later:
Hey Alex,
Trying to touch base on the weapon models! We are trying to get renderings going for Episode 1. Hope you're still in touch since I paid up front!
Thanks man
Joe
----
My next email 2 months later (December):
Hey Alex,
I hope you're recieving these emails. I've been trying to get in touch with you for months. Hope school is going well but I need to get in touch with you. I paid up front for the weapon models since we had a working relationship on Xaero in the past, but you've dropped off the radar since August, and it's now December.
Can you please finish the models we agreed on or refund the money I paid you? Thanks a bunch.
Joe
No responses.
It is now June of 2011 so I came back to Polycount to find him and he's been actively posting here.
----
I am the lead on an independent project as stated on here. www.quake-rebellion.com I have $17,000 of my own cash into the project from paying polycounters to work for me, and so I am an actual contributor to this forum and it's artists. I have been working with community members on polycount, cgtalk, and the quake\halo community for over 15 years, including way back to Strange Company before Machinima.com existed.
I don't post a lot randomly on forums because I don't feel the need to. When I need help, I post for it, and hire someone and pay them. When I spent 5 months trying to collect on a Free-Lance position, I either have to spend more money out on a lawyer to collect on it, or post here on the forum where I hired said person to get the problem rectified.
Instead, I've been met with more folks on Polycount that feel they'd rather protect a freelance artist that stiffed a employer, and would tell the employer to go sit in the dark and cut his losses.
Sent to:
Alexander ******* (The recipient of this payment is Verified) Email:
Mechanical.****@gmail.com
Amount sent:
-$***.00 USD Fee amount:
$0.00 USD Net amount:
-$***.00 USD
Date:
Aug 2, 2010 Time:
07:38:03 PDT Status:
Completed
Like I said, I've put over $15,000 into paying polycounters and hiring my staff from here. I've been a professional and friendly with others I've worked with on PC, way back to when this was hosted on planetquake.
Sorry for it being so public here but I felt I had the mods support since they moved it here. I posted this originally in the free-lance section where only the free-lancers and hopefully Alex would see it and contact me asap.
And: Regardless of conduct the man's trying just cause he's not a regular or part of the personal crowd here doesn't mean he doesn't have a right to request help from this site.
I believe him because the accused has yet to come forward and no this is not him handling It professionally by not posting here for me his credibility is shot for not posting as I would defend my status here if It would hinder my future employment. (Guess since his profile says hobbyist, It doesn't matter to him)
I have some personal info about him so he's not hard to locate if you need It wreck to handle this outside of polycount I will give you what I got and we can let proper authorities handle this situation from here on out.
Thank you for doing what you thought was best but in the future even if I don't want to agree with perna, he's right that this should have been handled another way, but I am glad to know and I am sure anyone else who might be looking for "freelancers" in the future would be wary of such characteristics in future employment.
Hope none of this puts a sour mark on the PC community as a whole as most AFAIK are not like this and hold a much more respectful work ethic, don't let one man's possibly deliberate mistake ruin the job boards here on PC.
If Alex does come forward good for him and I will retract my statements, easily enough. so where are you?...
wololo
This thread is good lesson how not to conduct bussiness on the internet at least...
Dude, that is fucking bullshit. Handling yourself poorly in public when you want to resolve a dispute is not "just as bad" as taking money for a job and running off with it.
Naivety is not against the law; theft is. End of comparison.
I know that paypal has some excellent buyer protection and I've been refunded a couple of times when deals went wrong, though that was mostly just ebay shopping. You should try checking your options there, maybe they can help some.
Falsely accusing a guy in public, possibly costing him future clients/work/income over a misunderstanding - to me - is just as bad. I'm not defending the guy, but I would definitely hate it if of my former clients were to air out dirty laundry like this (provided there were dirty laundry...wink wink.) It seems like Alex did a douche move, but you need to give him the benefit of the doubt - there are plenty of other, and more professional, ways to contact the guy or track him down rather than screaming it from the rooftops.
You get me those ways, and I will do it. I've messaged his paypal, I've sent him an invoice back on paypal to collect the funds, I've tried recently again to do this a second time but paypal says the transaction is too old to dispute. I've emailed him (5 times), I've PM'd him here where I hired him.
I've posted in the free-lance forum, it was moved here by a mod for more publicity so he could see it. (Not at my request mind you).
Someone has yet to give me a logical solution to this other than "cut your losses". That I won't accept.
i'm well aware that there could be circumstances that have caused things to spiral out of NeoGods control. however, the evidence presented AT THIS POINT, shows that he hasn't even stated to the client that he is unable to continue working on the project, or even that he feels the piece is "done". quite simply, the evidence presented AT THIS POINT, shows that NeoGod has simply disappeared (in the eyes of the client).
as soon as any other evidence points to any other scenario, then things would need to be re-evaluated. but as of right now, Perna you should use YOUR brain, and more importantly, use the evidence we have, not what we haven't.
After reading your position on it with "client freaks out" in your example repeatedly, I get your stand. It's an odd stand considering I've been showing how I've contacted him, invoiced him backwards, opened up my side, yet you still use wording like "Falsely accusing an artist" and "hurting his career" and "client freaking out". Why would I come back here and thrown another 15k down on artists here over the next 12 months if this is your mind-set?
Point is, I wasted 5 months of my time trying to contact this fellow. He took our budget funds and ran based on good faith. He came to ME and asked for the job based on an already established work relationship.
You keep repeating that there are points and measures and methods to handle this situation, yet you list NONE of them. This was a forum hire through email\pm's between an indy project leader and a pay by model client. There was no contract, no table we sat around, no suits and ties. He asked for payment for half the models up front, and the rest when completed. Since we had a past relationship and he had expressed his money tightness with school, I paid him it all up front in good faith. He then walked.
Why does the client have to spend 2 pages on a forum not trying to get in touch with the guy, but explain to other artists like you the position I'm in?
I hired. I paid. I got nothing. I'm on this forum because I hired him on this forum. Someone said "Sometimes the PM's don't go through". Well.. did paypal not go through? email? PM's? This thread? Did it all not go through? Where is this guy at? He was here Friday. The day before. The day before that. The 5 months before that. He was here in Oct when he said "Thanks for the money!"
Some of you get my position. The rest of you are just riling me up.
Client paid for work.
Employee worked and delivered.
Client continued to work with employee.
Employee took payment and 'disappeared'.
Client has tried to contact employee but gets no response.
Employee continues to have an online presence.
Client calls him out after 5 months of silence.
I find this thread to be justified.