[tobycj]

Has Ben been reliable with smaller parts? I ordered an ion arm rod and ribbon cable early this month and last I reached out to him he sent some screen shot of some awb number that belongs to a trailer shipping company he’s using. He said there’s no tracking number yet and will reach out to me in a few days to let me know. He also said there’s should have been tracking info sent from Etsy when they sent my invoice. I never got such a thing and said he already reached out to them to resend it.

All in all it’s very confusing and I’m not sure what any of what he said means. All I know about shipping is you create a label, it generates a tracking # and you pass that tracking number and the shipping company along to the customer.

I know I read sketchy things about him before but I still see people receive items from him so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
How long should I wait before I escalate things if it doesn’t arrive? Does PayPal/etsy have a time limit to complain?

I've sold loads on etsy. The seller uploads the tracking number to etsy for that specific transaction, and you as a buyer you can then see it on the transaction for that item in your account. It doesn't rely on etsy emailing it to you or any nonsense like that. Basically, he hadn't sent it yet and was trying to buy himself more time. Standard practice for him.

[EctoLabs]

I decided to cancel as I don't want to play the guessing game with him. I'll pay more and get it from gbfans I suppose.

He gave me the refund and claims he is going to recall the items back. If they were shipped out weeks ago I really doubt he can recall them back.

That's just BoK speak for "I never shipped your order". You can't recall a parcel once it's been shipped - that's absolutely ludicrous. As is waiting to be given a tracking number from the courier after it's been sent. The tracking number is literally printed on the postage label as soon as you generate it.

He just takes all of his customers for idiots. Don't fall for his bullshit.

[jonogunn]

I decided to cancel as I don't want to play the guessing game with him. I'll pay more and get it from gbfans I suppose.

He gave me the refund and claims he is going to recall the items back. If they were shipped out weeks ago I really doubt he can recall them back.

That's just BoK speak for "I never shipped your order". You can't recall a parcel once it's been shipped - that's absolutely ludicrous. As is waiting to be given a tracking number from the courier after it's been sent. The tracking number is literally printed on the postage label as soon as you generate it.

He just takes all of his customers for idiots. Don't fall for his bullshit.

Has Ben been reliable with smaller parts? I ordered an ion arm rod and ribbon cable early this month and last I reached out to him he sent some screen shot of some awb number that belongs to a trailer shipping company he’s using. He said there’s no tracking number yet and will reach out to me in a few days to let me know. He also said there’s should have been tracking info sent from Etsy when they sent my invoice. I never got such a thing and said he already reached out to them to resend it.

All in all it’s very confusing and I’m not sure what any of what he said means. All I know about shipping is you create a label, it generates a tracking # and you pass that tracking number and the shipping company along to the customer.

I know I read sketchy things about him before but I still see people receive items from him so I gave him the benefit of the doubt.
How long should I wait before I escalate things if it doesn’t arrive? Does PayPal/etsy have a time limit to complain?

I've sold loads on etsy. The seller uploads the tracking number to etsy for that specific transaction, and you as a buyer you can then see it on the transaction for that item in your account. It doesn't rely on etsy emailing it to you or any nonsense like that. Basically, he hadn't sent it yet and was trying to buy himself more time. Standard practice for him.

I was debating back and forth whether I want to reply and tell him that I'm a seller too so I know bs when I see it and if he just been honest with the production timeframe I would have still purchased from him. The lack of confidence hurts his business.

[tobycj]

I was debating back and forth whether I want to reply and tell him that I'm a seller too so I know bs when I see it and if he just been honest with the production timeframe I would have still purchased from him. The lack of confidence hurts his business.

I wouldn't waste the effort. If he even replies it'll be excuses, and telling you how many happy customers he has, more likely he'll just block you like he does with most voices that dare to criticise him.

[jonogunn]

I was debating back and forth whether I want to reply and tell him that I'm a seller too so I know bs when I see it and if he just been honest with the production timeframe I would have still purchased from him. The lack of confidence hurts his business.

I wouldn't waste the effort. If he even replies it'll be excuses, and telling you how many happy customers he has, more likely he'll just block you like he does with most voices that dare to criticise him.

Yah I’ll bite my tongue. Order placed with gbfans now!

[Mercifull]

Even Evri give you a tracking number on label generation before its even been taken to the parcel shop let alone picked up and processed at the hub and they're like the most unreliable courier in the UK!

[Sharky]

First-time pack builder here.n I ordered a shell that is said to be arriving by the 27th of Sept.
At the moment the tracking number is not showing anything.

I was also convinced I had been duped, but it seems thats the norm with this builder.
Will report if anything changes.

[tobycj]

First-time pack builder here.n I ordered a shell that is said to be arriving by the 27th of Sept.
At the moment the tracking number is not showing anything.

I was also convinced I had been duped, but it seems thats the norm with this builder.
Will report if anything changes.

I'll wager if you contact him he'll tell you the booking number will change when it gets handed over to the next courier. He'll probably tell you he's spoken to his account manager to try get it sped up too. He could probably just put an auto-reply on his emails saying all this, as it's always the same story.

[jonogunn]

A fellow buster I know who also ordered a part around the same time as me received his item after all. He ordered some booster tubes but said he wasn’t given a tracking # until it arrived in the USA.

[AJ Quick]

It's disappointing that this kind of stuff is still happening with him.

[78Watson]

I had asked my wife for a kit for Christmas (dec 2025). She placed the order through ETSY, and while he was very good about contact. He provided her tracking orders that did not function, and provided her with multiple updates, none of which bore any fruit.

He then stated that due to the Trump Admins tariffs, that he was unable to pay any more money, and that the pack would be sent back to the UK. He then suggested since ETSY was unwilling to help him, that
1: He would close his ETSY store
2: suggested buying the pack again through his own website so he could use his normal courier.

Several weeks went by before the pack was returned to him, then several weeks went by before it was shipped out again. A new tracking number was provided (which also didn't work). After about 3 weeks of once a week communication goes by, and me asking for a screen grab of the tracking update. I do get a response, but it is him cancelling my order, claiming he can't get anything into the country right now.

I write back, only to see that his website just goes to a standard wix.com missing link hit. I'll be checking for that refund over the next couple of days. But I'm really kinda shocked about how this all went down.

[Mercifull]

Website offline. Etsy closed. Socials shut down. If I were waiting for an order I’d be contacting my bank pdq.

[Zardoz120495]

Around December of 2025 I ordered a pack kit as well and I must concur with the interactions above I have been waiting to get any updates on shipping via email contact with Ben we last left it as waiting on a pin number and information about a local pick-up from a distribution hub and since then it's been communications silence and a total shutdown of his sales points honestly after my interaction with proton props UK I was really hoping for a better resolution this time and am left feeling more concerned than angry as he was at least communicating with me prior to this

[prodestrian]

It varies between countries and payment providers but there's usually a time limit on doing a chargeback. So I'd recommend reaching out asap to see if you're still within that window, and to get the ball rolling. Being able to show that the website, etsy store, and all social media is shutdown will help with your case.

I went through this when I ordered resin grips from Proton Props, and I was lucky enough to get all my money back through my bank because I didn't wait too long (but it sounds like the other £125,000 in sales that he took before declaring bankruptcy weren't that lucky).

Seriously, contact your payment provider or bank immediately. Don't wait for business hours, if they have a form on their website or in your banking app, fill it in now.

My bank said it gets harder to get your money back after 6 months, and it sounds like some of you might be getting close to that date.

[tobycj]

Douglas Fisher just posted this on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 1583171563. Sheds a bit more light on the situation. Tl;Dr, he's run off with customers' money.

This is a very difficult post to write. I've been quiet about this publicly thus far.

About two months ago, many of you noticed that Benofkent Props was suddenly gone. Not just from Facebook, but everywhere. All online presence deleted in a night. It happened so quickly that I for one thought he'd been hacked, but across every single platform plus his website?

Turns out, no, he wasn't hacked.

I was co-admin on the Facebook page for Benofkent and chatted with him nearly every day for the last decade. And even I was blindsided. He was having health issues that he wasn't being public with and I was trying to tell him to limit his orders, reduce his workload.

He didn't, but then all of a sudden, moved house and decided to cut everything off at once. Somehow worse than when Proton Props declared bankruptcy.

Many of us still have stuff in shipping. Most of us don't have tracking numbers or waybill numbers.

Now, I have defended Ben endlessly over the years. He's my friend, it's what I do. I have a bit of a different perspective than some folks. When BREXIT started, it messed with shipping.. Then Covid messed with shipping further.. Plus getting in supplies to craft and mold from. I get it, I absolutely do. A lot of people didn't. Claiming tracking numbers didn't change (except they do when packages change hands in shipping companies, at least some of the time). He was called out for not using good shipping companies, except people didn't want to pay the higher shipping either. Then more recently happened and the tariff situation messed things up further.

It's been a lot!

So I get it, I really do. Shipping is crap at this point. Stress was a huge issue. Health concerns were rising with Ben. He talked about walking away from Ghostbusters, so I suggested limiting his orders. He didn't.

Then this total removal from the internet happened. I reached out to those I could, texted him with no response, no response on his email, his Twitter is set to be unable to be used to contact him now...

I did hear back from someone, who said he was okay, just decided to cut off all Ghostbusters things at once. For health and stress reasons.

Today I went back and asked for the tracking or waybill numbers on the kits that DHL was holding for me so maybe I could fix things on this end. Kits that have been in shipping for 4 years on one and almost three years on the other.

And was told the email had been deleted entirely. So.... There's no way to retrieve mine or anyone's tracking numbers if we don't already have them. If the packages come in, they come in.

So... I'm upset for all of us. My friend for a literal decade decided to effectively cut and run. For health reasons, granted, but still. Great. And I can't help anyone at all, there's no way.

I have one more pack on I'm the middle of building, then Gatekeeper Productions USA is on hold except for doing art for folks, effectively.

At least I didn't post this on Ghostbusters Day.

EDIT: The Etsy was taken down months before this all happened and Ben had been sending folks to his website instead. People kept expecting parts internationally in a few days, which admittedly is kinda unreasonable.

[Mercifull]

Urgh, what a mess... again. There's hope, and there's denial, though. People are NOT getting their "shipped" product.

[zeta otaku]

Douglas Fisher just posted this on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 1583171563. Sheds a bit more light on the situation. Tl;Dr, he's run off with customers' money.

This is a very difficult post to write. I've been quiet about this publicly thus far.

WORDS WORDS WORDS

Okay, so, I know I don't have a dog in this fight, THANKFULLY, but after reading that and knowing everything BoK victims have gone through for literally years, that makes that person AT BEST a witness to grand theft and at worst an accomplice.