Casey Barden (No responses since October 22nd) to date.

[lugiacollector.livejournal.com]

Please Note This seller appears incredibly legitimate and completely honest, I do not expect them to be attempting to be scamming me. However, at most I would love to get contacted more often as soon as they are able to be doing so. This is not meant to be posed as a threat or a warning to you if you find this post at all, I would just love to follow through with the transaction in a much more timely fashion and I hate reporting anything bad about anyone for any reason. I wish to update this as soon as later updates show up but there's no signs of any updates for a long time.

WHO: Casey Barden

WHERE http://fursuitauctions.livejournal.com/2620266.html

WHAT: ursuit Commission (Partial Mienshao OC)

WHEN:
August 1st, 2012 - We contacted on details and eventually contacted through Email.
August 31st, 2012 - call for payment; payment made via Paypal

October 22nd, 2012 - "Hey sweetie! I'm so sorry it's taken a while to get back to you! We're having computer troubles right now & should be getting our computer back soon in about a week. It's over-heating really bad & we had to send it back to get it fixed. I will have tons of pictures for you then! Just dropping a quick note to let you know I'm still here & still working on suit."

No further contact received on their end after sending emails to them and to their Facebook account. It's December 26, 2012 now.
Their facebook account has SOME activity on it https://www.facebook.com/casey.barden?ref=ts&fref=ts
and I cannot tell if their other account does https://www.facebook.com/Fuzztasticfun?ref=ts&fref=ts

Comments

[lugiacollector.livejournal.com]

Wow I didn't find her FA page yet, thank you for showing me!
I agree, I would be very pronto and go to the Library to message on any updates right away or a friend's house or anything I could do if someone paid me for something.

And yeah, I sent it as a gift because she has a website, fursuits, and it looks very professional. She also contacted me a whole lot of the time with many messages (felt like it was every day or more than that) on details and other things about the commission. I didn't think anyone with such a professional website and contact information would stall so badly with a commission before... It doesn't seem like most other ones. I guess I can't trust even professional looking people anymore.

[clockmagic.livejournal.com]

All I can say is you -never- send money for a commission as a gift. It doesn't matter if the person is professional or not. If anything goes wrong you can't get it back.

[lugiacollector.livejournal.com]

Alrighty... Live and learn I guess.

[frostfoot.livejournal.com]

Professionalism should not be rewarded, it should be expected. Especially in a transaction. Your money is as good as gone unless she send you some back or the like.

[lugiacollector.livejournal.com]

Ah, alright :/

[ansitru.livejournal.com]

" I guess I can't trust even professional looking people anymore."

Honestly, on the internet it's always best to treat everything with a healthy suspicion. Even if they look professional, you may want to take into account that artists can screw up.

And while this doesn't mean you should trust no-one, it does mean you need to take steps to insure your own safety, such as not sending money as a gift when you're dealing with sums like $100.

Especially when you don't know this person at all and only have a website to judge them by.

[Edit]: And I forgot to say: a partial fursuit for only $100?
I doubt that would cover the entire material-cost and working time. If it sounds to good (or too cheap) to be true, it probably is.

[lugiacollector.livejournal.com]

$100 was the down payment.

[ansitru.livejournal.com]

Ah, I must have missed that. My apologies for that.

Still, if the price is only $200 as it says on the Livejournal-screenshot, isn't that still really cheap by fursuit-standards? Not that I claim to very knowledgeable about fursuits, since I really am not involved with that business at all, but I would assume the materials already cost quite a lot. o.O

[tealmoonxiv.livejournal.com]

Fur can be $20-$35 a yard, and that's common colors.
Foam is often $30 a yard for just 1/4 inch thickness.

I don't know anything about resin.

[ansitru.livejournal.com]

A yard is almost a meter, right?

Then again, I wouldn't know how much would be needed for a fursuit. I was just wondering if the price for the partial was uncommonly low or not. o.O

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

yard is 3 feet c:

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

A yard is just over a meter. So the prices per meter would be roughly equivalent.

[fyremoon.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the lateness of the response but only noticed it today.

A metre (meter in the US) is 3.28 feet, often rounded to 3 feet 3 inches.

A yard is exactly 3 feet.

[clockmagic.livejournal.com]

I guess that depends where you shop as well. Most foam I see is $11 a yard for 1/2 inch thickness and fur if DF from $10-$22 a yard (but they not be the type they may or may not be using).

[tealmoonxiv.livejournal.com]

Last I looked none of DF's long pile fure was under $18.

And as an added note there are special super long furs that are over $60 a yard.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the biggest mistake was sending it as a gift as others have said. Not only is it against Paypal's ToS, but it also removes your ability to file a dispute.

I'm so sorry that this is happening to you. =\ It's a shame when hindsight is 20/20 and I hope she does get in contact with you.