In need of Advice

[Tygati]

Somewhat by accident I stuck my head back into the Sphaler waiting room on DoA. It was mostly deserted... except for this person:

Mine isn't home, and I'm doubting he'll ever arrive.

Click my ID and pick "view member threads" if you're really curious to see why.

So I did. As it turns out, the split leader has vanished off the face of the earth leaving this girl high and dry. Further research seems to indicate a combination of family and medical issues which, okay, are no trivial matter, but how hard is it to log in for five minutes and reassure your split partners that you haven't walked off with their money? Especially as it seems that Soom is showing that he's not yet fully paid off.

The person who is waiting bought the head, and her friends paid for the body for her as a Christmas gift.

Here's where I need some advice.

When my Sphaler arrived from Korea, the tab on the back of his head that keeps his headcap in place was broken off. I contacted Soom, they sent out a new head, and I have since sold my Sphaler.

But, I still have the damaged head. More, I found a Heliot headcap on the marketplace and modded it to fit Sphaler. With a wig on, you'd never be able to tell he's got a piece missing.

Obviously, he's still in less than perfect condition, but... the head is the LE part. If the split leader never comes back, she could still get a body for him and have the doll that she wanted, more or less. But if the split leader did come back then I'd have given away a very expensive head for no reason. If I sold it, it would pay off my DDE layaway. But she just sounds so dejected, and I can only imagine how I'd feel...

I don't even know this girl, but aernath does, and aernath has always seemed like a very nice person to me, which stands to reason that her friend would be too, so...

I'm so confused.

What would you do?

[toshirodragon]

Meep that's a tough one! And I'm waffling on making a committment for the exact reasons you are.

my first thought was to tell her to give it back if the split leader ever returned. However, that sounded so ungracious that I chucked it out the window and went back to chewing my lower lip...

I'm no help I'm afraid.

[Tygati]

Yes, that was the part I forgot to put in. That I could do something like that, but it sounds so callous. x_x Ugh.

[toshirodragon]

Yes it does. Like you really care more for the value of the head than anything else.

UGH! I am absolutely NO help here! Sorry!

[Red-wolf-Ink]

Did you not get a phone number incase of such problems?

[V chan]

Yes, that was the part I forgot to put in. That I could do something like that, but it sounds so callous. x_x Ugh.

I would pm her and say,"If your order falls through, I have a head that's available and with a little love you can make it your own." But that's me. You don't have to give it away, you can offer it at a trade or a low cost.

[Tygati]

I would pm her and say,"If your order falls through, I have a head that's available and with a little love you can make it your own." But that's me. You don't have to give it away, you can offer it at a trade or a low cost.

That's fairly similar to what someone else said. To basically say "Hey, if you give up on the Deadbeat altogether, I have a head with your name on it."

That's probably the route I'll go. So she knows there's something for her if all else fails, but if by some miracle things work out, she's set that way too.

[toshirodragon]

Does sound like the best solution to me as well. *nods*

[aernath]

Oh wow! You're awesome! :)

But... I just bought her another head as a back-up a few days ago. ^_^;;;
I figure if the split ever happens, she'll just have an extra head to sell.

*HUGS*
Truly, you restore my faith in humanity. :)

The split leader seems to be addicted to buying more than she can pay for. There are/have been several problems with her, but they didn't emerge until now. Each party thought it was just them, and only recently did she garner any negative feedback.
I'm still hoping to get the doll to my friend as purchased, but right now... it's not looking good. :(

But, she will get the head... or a head... *chuckle*
We'll worry about a body again later if necessary.

Oh, and she IS a very nice person! Does fantastic watercolor paintings... *cough*did a naked Ichigo for me a few years back*cough* :XD

[Tygati]

Ahaha. More people than she knows looking out for her. ^^

If the body issue does come up, Impldoll WS matches perfectly and can out-pose Soom in every way. ^.~

Though I hope she gets her doll and no one is out any monies due to miss flakey. :/

[lolkat]

Yeah, I've been following the drama created by this particular flake. Her behaviour is terrible but you guys are awesome. Like Aernath, my faith in humanity is restored!

[Baakay]

And as the other half of the "bought the body for her as a gift" I'll echo what Aernath said. Crystal is a peach, a brilliant artist, and someone who has not deserved to have this kind of crap go down.

Tygati, you're awesome.

[toshirodragon]

Goodness! We're talking about Crystal?! Well jeez, I miss so much being in Outer Gallifrey like I am.

Give Crystal a hug from me and if you need a bit of cash to help gimme a yell. I can help a fellow Kenpachi lover ;)

[Tygati]

I know not who 'Crystal' is, but she appears to have fangirls, which is always a good sign. <3

[aernath]

*chuckle*
Here's her website of her watercolors. :)
http://www.alaska.net/~andvari/

But these are the beauties I've bought or received as gifts:
http://aernath.rubberslug.com/gallery/master_query.asp?SeriesID=23105

And, she's not a member here, but I told her not all people are poopheads, and pointed her at this thread. She says: OMG! It's really awesome that perfect strangers would think to do that! ^^;
And: pass on a "*sniffle* that's so sweet!"

:)

Thank you, Tygati, for being so wonderfully thoughtful! *HUGS*

[Baakay]

Yep yep, Aernath and I have known her (or OF her) since the wayback machine when we only knew each other collectively from anime cel collecting. I have her watercolor Kenshin (yes, I am "Johnny One-Note" and most everyone knows it by now...) but also a wonderful print of "Pale Rider," (Vampire Hunter D) which gets comments every time someone new steps into my office. :)

And Toshirodragon -- trust me that Outer Gallifrey seems to be a much kinder and gentler place, some days! ~_^

[toshirodragon]

Well I certainly don't miss the drama or the politics.

As we saw I'm total fail at brown nosing :lol

IF I had any wall that didnt have bookshelves of book stacks against it I would buy one of those Bleach prints...

[Tygati]

*whimper* Aernath, your site is broken. The thumbnails don't get any bigger.

Also, there is no print option for the pretty pretty pretty D picture on the first page of her site. ;_; This is a Terrible Tragedy!

[Crystal]

You are all too kind, really! :kisses After Aernath pointed this thread out to me, well. . . I felt better than I have in quite a while. Thank you all so much, I really appreciate that you even thought to do something like that for me! :heart

Ah, Rubberslug has been hacked, highjacked, or something. You're lucky you didn't get a virus or something. It may be down for a while. Pity, because I have a lot of my art there, on my own gallery.

Oops, I had no idea that front page image can't be printed. Maybe it has something to do with the program I used to put the border and text on it. I'll upload a better scan somewhere. :sweat

Unfortunately, like Aernath I feel things aren't looking good for the split. We have tried to get her to hold up her end of the bargain and she has lied to us, ignored us, or stalled at every turn. You had the right adjective, Tygati, dejected pretty much summed it up. But after reading this thread, I'm feeling less so. :)

Oh, and hello by the way. My ID on DoA is xtal.

[Tygati]

Why hello there maker of the pretty things. ^__^

Maybe she'll reappear and all will get settled. We can only think good things for you, and hope that the universe sorts itself out accordingly. <3

[aernath]

YAY! Crystal's here! *dance* You convinced her to join!

Yes, hope springs eternal, and we're all hoping the doll appears. :)
Stranger things have happened, yes?

(Thanks, Crystal! I darned near crapped a cookie when I saw the pix were all gone! I seriously hope that gets fixed soon! I shudder to think about redoing that tonnage of scanning/merging/animating!!!)

[Crystal]

Yes, hope springs eternal, and we're all hoping the doll appears. :)
Stranger things have happened, yes?


If she suddenly lived up to her obligations. . . nothing would beat that for strangeness. :o

[Janne]

It's posts like these that make me love the dolly community! <3

[Crystal]

There may be a resolution to this miserable affair. But I'll believe it when the refunds land in our accounts. :o Why she couldn't just sign the doll over to us and let us finish making the payments, I'll never know. I asked, nicely, twice.

I've been coveting the Impl bodies. I just wish they came in a normal skin that had a chance of matching the Minimee resin. :doh

[Tygati]

*crosses fingers for you*

Yeah, the fact that Impl's NS doesn't match anything is frustrating, but oh do they pose like a dream. <3 I was originally planning on hybriding Sphaler with an Impl body, then changed my mind. ^^;; So now I think I'm just going to get a grey body for my Euclase-m head.

[Crystal]

I would have totally insisted on paying for the Sphaler head, had it worked out that way. :oops

There's still no guarantee the refunds will come through, but it's not like we don't have other ways of getting our money back. It will just take a bit of work. But if we have to go there I'm going to take the extra step and file mail fraud charges. I think we have more than enough proof to back up any claims. Still gives me a headache though. :mad

I've heard a rumor that Impl would be adding other resin colors. I know there are some who covet tans (you know who you are ;)) but I'd like a shade between the white and real skin. :nod

[Tygati]

Bah, I wasn't expecting to end up with a random extra head. At the moment he has a dusting of pink on him because I was bored one day and wanted to test out a new pastel. ^^;

I don't get why she doesn't just pay him off and be done with it, but.. eh. Who knows what's going through her head. :/

Yeah, I think I vaguely remember Sean saying something to that effect way back when, but at the moment they're having more fun playing with fantasy colors. ^^ Whee.

[aernath]

(you know who you are ;))

*tries to look innocent, but totally fails*

[Crystal]

*tries to look innocent, but totally fails*

And how did I know that would get your attention, eh? ;)

Based on what happened with the other split (Eliv/Iv) I suspect she didn't apply all the money we paid for Sphaler to our split. Nothing she told us added up, plus the fact she placed the orders using different IDs just seemed fishy. I hope she gets exactly what she deserves. And I'm only waiting a few more days before I help karma along. :mad

[ellynor]

I am no help, but I wanted to say that reading your post and your thoughts, brought such goodness to me. I find it hard to express how incredible I think you are for just thinking of helping this unknown person. In this, you are amazing. If you follow through with this, somewhere someone down the line will, in turn, do something unexpected for you. Your good deed will NOT go unpunished. You will be punished by goodness, by something that will tickle you... A heart sings..... AnnMarie

[VegaBlack]

Wow... you guys are really awesome and I'm happy to be part of a community where people are so great and would help someone out like you are.

[Tygati]

How... utterly irresponsible to use split money for something other than the split. :/

Of course, I think we've already agreed she's very irresponsible as a general rule. -_-

[Crystal]

It's only speculation, but based on what Soom said had been paid in the Eliv/Iv split only half of what the other members had paid had been credited to that order. She claimed a payment on the Sphaler split had been credited to the wrong order. From the sound of things none of the people in the Eliv/Iv split needed layaway. Aernath and I both paid in full up front. So where did all that money go from those splits? *_*

Some of the people in the Eliv/Iv splits have gotten refunds. To be fair, they should be repaid first, they had been waiting the longest.

But I'm really touched, by both the offers and support, and also by the people who have been going out of their way to help out. :heart

[aernath]

Just an update. We gor out refunds back finally. Just recently, and only after Baakay refused to stop nagging her about it, and reminding her that what she's done is illegal and she should be sued, until she did.
This person ended up even telling Soom she was dead, and sending a death certificate (dated that she'd died back in December - we'd all dealt with her, including Soom, since then - dur?), in order to get back whatever money she'd paid them for the orders.
I still can't get over the gall that took.

Anyway...
Quoted from the lengthy thread on DoA:
Parting words? Buyers Beware of Phoenix Rising/DeviousDesigns/Absinthe/landoftherisingsun/Absinthelove/digitallybound/Paris Tucker/Paris Rathbone/Mark Tucker/Paris A Tucker/ Paris Ashley Rathbone/Paris A Rathbone/Raus A Rathbone/Paris A Orathboune and I'm sure the list goes on. Those are just the aliases we discovered with this debacle.

If we can get the word (and names) out, forewarned is forearmed!
Let's hope no one else ever gets caught up in her webs again!

And Mistress Paris. Email name.
Hoping to get the word out.

She's also on here, but I don't have her screen name... I believe Crystal does though.

[Baakay]

It's Absinthe here.



Last Activity: 05-27-2010 03:49 PM


She probably figured out Big Bad Baakay was here and ran ;) Cos everyone knows a 52 year old falling apart librarian archivist is a skeeeery thing.

[Crystal]

I sent an email to Soom/Jin Lee but that was on the 7th so I think it was too close to the weekend to get a reply. I offered to help them if they want to make a case against her for fraud. Although. . . I don't know if they believe in "saving face" or not. . . or if they have a strong enough sense of justice to stop this person in her tracks, despite being duped.

She wouldn't dare pull anything on eBay, since it's pretty much her only sales outlet, because they'd freeze her PP account.

It's not that I want to do this to help Soom specifically, this was probably small potatoes to them, but it was a big deal to those of us who were cheated, perhaps not out of money, but time invested in plans or dreams for dolls that never arrived. There's no way to refund that. But a little payback wouldn't come amiss.

[toshirodragon]

She probably figured out Big Bad Baakay was here and ran ;) Cos everyone knows a 52 year old falling apart librarian archivist is a skeeeery thing.

Skeers the daylights outta me... I've been thoroughly traumatized by librarians!

[aernath]

They know how to throw the book at you! :XD

[Tygati]

I'm glad it's all over now. I really don't understand dishonest people. Is it how they were raised? Some inherent character flaw? Lack of any sort of respect for others?

Sometimes I think "kids these days..." and then beat my head against a wall because I'm not old enough to be thinking that!

[Karie Chaos]

*hugs Tygati-san* I do it too, and I'm only 25! I was talking with people at work today about that and we all just stopped and went "OMG I sound like my PARENTS! And We're only in our TWENTIES!" And we just LOL'd hardcore. X3