ZHC under fire amid claims of ripping off contestants for YouTube challenges

Popular YouTube artist Zach ‘ZHC’ Hsieh is coming under fire as former contestants from his challenge videos accuse him of alleged mistreatment and orchestrating purportedly fake giveaways.

ZHC is a hugely popular content creator. The artist is best known for customizing luxury items for some of the net’s biggest social media stars; he jazzed up a Tesla for MrBeast and created a unique designer handbag for Addison Rae.

He even hosted YouTube’s Instant Influencer, a reality-style game show that tasks up-and-coming influencers with a series of challenges for a grand prize.

However, ZHC has orchestrated more than a few challenges of his own, usually recruiting fellow artists to customize luxury goods (like Teslas), with the winner receiving one of the pricey items as their trophy.

In October 2021, YouTuber and artist ‘Jazza’ created a lengthy video speaking out about his own experiences with ZHC, claiming there was poor communication and mismanagement of projects from the artist.

In a follow-up video created on January 23, 2022, Jazza spoke to some contestants from ZHC’s past challenge videos and former collaborators. Some claimed that they didn’t receive some of the promised compensation for their hard work, nor received adequate credit for their appearances in his videos.

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In one instance, three competitors tied for a challenge that would have seen the winner take home a Tesla. Rather than gifting all three winners a new Tesla, the group decided to split the value of the Tesla three ways between them.

One contestant claimed that ZHC had valued a base model Tesla at $14,000 — an amount she was shocked by, as base model Tesla 3’s generally go for $39,000 in 2022.

ZHC responds to allegations of ripping off challenge contestants

In the follow-up video, ZHC got on a call with Jazza to answer questions regarding the allegations against him. In the call, he claimed that he’d looked on Ebay to find a “really broken down” Tesla priced at $15k.

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“At the time, I was like okay, this is the minimum I have to reach to technically be the value of a Tesla,” he said. “…If I miscommunicate, I think that’s completely on me.”

Although ZHC expressed a desire to improve communication moving forward, and explained certain controversial instances, Jazza wasn’t impressed by his answers.

“I think Zach has used people a lot,” he surmised. “I think while he indicates and expresses he wants to change and be a better person, he continues to do the same thing where he doesn’t think he’s being watched.”

Zach has not made any further comments on the video at the time of writing.