#fursuitbeware

(Posting for a friend whom doesn’t have tumblr.)(as you can clearly see, she didn’t get the style she was promised *the yellow suit* but got a suit that should fit someone a 100 pounds heavier. the symbol is wrong, the ass looks like a baboon and the proportions are way off.... here is her story.)

Fursuiters Beware - I've been scammed!

BEWARE of the fursuit maker Fluvv Fursuits/ Elbi/ Rebeccah Ortiz.

In January we started the process on commissioning her to make me a fursuit. I sent her a DTD and all my reference material in that month and payments began. Things started going well at the beginning. When we got closer to the creation time towards April when I had questions about the suits creation, response time got longer and there were often questions/concerns she ignored to reply to. I asked to see images of any WIP through emails but she said that she posted through Instagram. I told her that with my flipphone I had no access to that and would appreciate updates in the emails. She did comply and sent me a pic of the feet, but only after I asked for any updates. She said that I would only see WIP if I asked, otherwise she would "forget" to send them to me herself.

There were a few small issues but here were the main ones. Come April, I asked if the construction had started. She replied informing me that the DTD I sent was made incorrectly and was falling apart. She had it since January and was only opening it now! It was my first DTD, I followed her instructions and had two friends help me. But regardless if I made it wrong or it fell apart after sitting in a package for months, I offered to send a new one right away - but then she told me it didn't matter and the suit was almost done . . . I hadn't seen any WIP pics of it yet! I asked right away if this wold mean it would fit wrong and that what could we do - with so much money invested I would be devastated if it did look or fit right. She told me I was making a bigger deal than it was, the torso should be fine out of everything, and she would send extra fabric if alterations needed to be made. She also said that since I "was an adult" she assumed I would know how to follow instructions, yet she informed me that she had experienced problems like this from other commissioners - so one would think she would make sure such an important part was done right from the beginning and give me more time to correct my mistake.

When I followed up about seeing it, she said that I was "not entitled" to seeing any,pics were on instagram and that if I was really serious about seeing them, I would have found a way to do so. I was floored and so stressed. A friend messaged me about seeing them and sent the pics to me - and already I could see so many things that were wrong. The legs, although looking nice from the side with the feet, were far to thick, looking like corgi legs, the scars were all in the wrong places and some in the wrong direction. When I commented on the scars, saying how she had reference sheets fr their proper placement, she ignored commenting on them all together.

The symbol on the back was huge compared to my reference sheet. When I first commissioned her she said she could do it, so when I asked why it was so large, she said that it had to be done that way and told me that I should not be surprised and that I should have done research on the process. Why would I have done that if the maker said she could do it?

With all my questions and concerns it seemed like she didn't want to take accountability for anything, but it was paid for, there was nothing I could do but hope it would be better in person, or that I could find help to make any alterations.

I took the suit to show two friends of mine that make their own suits, and they were both surprised and upset with the suit compared to what my character looks like and how I told my maker to try and make it. They couldn't fix it.

So I told Elbi that I wanted at 50%refund, and when I received it I would send her back the suit. At first she agreed, but to minimal payments of about $10 a month (more if she could afford it) for up to a year to get me the agreed return. I tried to negotiate, requesting a smaller return time of 4 months. She agreed to 5 months. So I thought it was settled. Then at the last minute she changed her mind with no explanation saying I could open a dispute on paypal that "I would loose" and she would not get another cent from me. I replied asking as to where or how I upset her so much and why she had it in for me. I just wanted this resolved. I'm the one out of money, I'm the one out of a suit. I asked why she wanted to deliberately scam me, and I said that I hoped she would reconsider and just pay what she agreed to otherwise I would share this story. But I never got an explination. She blocked me on email and then sent this message to me on FA before blocking me there as well:

"I have now blocked your email and will be blocking here as well. You will be blacklisted from my Etsy shop and I will be spreading your name to every. single. fursuit maker I know to be careful about doing business with you. You want to threaten me? Try to extort me for a refund you don't deserve? I'm not the scammer here. You are. I tried to work with you. I have the proof. If you'd agreed to my initial offer I wouldn't have contacted Paypal at all and found out about that lovely Purchase Protection Agreement, put in place to protect people like me from people like you. 11 transactions on Etsy so far and over 20 fursuit bodies, heads and pieces completed combined. And only two belligerent customers? I think that's a good enough track record to me. It's clearly not me, its you. Have a nice week."

I kept all our email conversations for proof of how I was treated.