Water Dog Wharf

[🎀starrla🎀]

WHO: OtterN’Daughter, KeryuOkami, WaterDogWharf
WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/otter.n.daughter/ https://www.furaffinity.net/user/waterdogwharf https://twitter.com/KeryuOkami
WHAT: Fursuit, Full digi-grade with extra padding in legs/arms/tail.
WHEN: First payment was made to Keryu on 7/15/15. I completed my payment plan (Paid in full) on 11/7/15. I did not receive my suit until 2/28/17
PROOF: http://sta.sh/0fch8p7k9cm All payments including shipping

EXPLAIN: Before getting my suit: The biggest problem I experienced with WDW was their lack of professionalism, time management, and manipulation via contract. WDW had a contract that protects her very well but does not at all hold her accountable to her end of business. Not only did she not take deadlines but she did NOT stick to her public queue. I commissioned Keryu back in Mid 2015 for a fullsuit(with additional padding in the tail, arms and legs). I often had problems with her ignoring or just not replying to emails. I eventually had to contact her on Twitter publicly to get her to respond. From then on we talked mostly over twitter. I only got updates from her if I asked her directly and my messages would go unanswered for days if not weeks despite her activity on twitter. I confronted her in Decemberof 2015 about her lack of communication( http://sta.sh/01ehajotfho9 ). She apologized and for a short time was better. However things got really spotty again maybe a month later. She was hardly showing progress and I had to poke at her a lot to see anything or know where she was at. In October of 2016 I confronted her again about the lack of work she was doing on her queue and the fact she was putting out premades more often than suits on her queue(http://sta.sh/0t5egnpnyh6 , http://sta.sh/0awufn79jq , http://sta.sh/02a4hdnoxwfp , http://sta.sh/01kxj6w3zvha , http://sta.sh/0tpxdgasxw1 , http://sta.sh/029rl5mp7po5 , http://sta.sh/01tjnclpu6rj ). The premades were incredibly frustrating to me as she was making little to no progress on my suit but was making multiple premades during the time she was supposed to work on mine(http://sta.sh/2b0lsxb0dga ). She snapped back at me and we went back and forth for a short bit before she said she would send me a free head mount for the wall. I said no but offered to commission a second tail because she had not made the tail the way we had originally agreed. She did not respond. I had to message her again later on for updates. In late january I asked where she was at on my suit and was told she had finished it but hadn’t told me yet(http://sta.sh/0iysrwc7rwx ). She then told me she would ship the suit out on 2/14/17. She also told me that the suit would arrive in time for an event I had on the 25th(http://sta.sh/02fwjvo5xevl http://sta.sh/017x9xkfjsez http://sta.sh/0s1q4mf86w9 http://sta.sh/077ih0wftoq).However she then didn’t ship until the 21st and the suit did not arrive until the 28th.
She told me she had misplaced my quote forum and asked me to find it in my emails. She eventually found it(http://sta.sh/0itfq51jvwm ). She disappeared for a few days without saying anything about why. It had been 20 days since I knew of the completion of my suit and she wasn’t shipping it. I waited about 18 Months to get my fursuit and it still came with problems.
Upon receiving my suit I knew not everything could be perfect but I was still incredibly disappointed with the things undone despite her taking so much time. I ordered large stompy feet, she left all of the inside foam exposed and the ankle area does not go up high enough for the leg to stay down over it ( http://sta.sh/01tj44b4btih ). The paws are large like requested but there is no foam inside to keep its shape or keep the paw from sliding down and off the hand completely( http://sta.sh/021ueii3k1c8 ).. The one area there is foam is around the claws which is left completely open. The head is too big and moves around a lot, I find myself touching the muzzle a lot just to keep it in place while I’m moving. The holes for the tail are not reinforced in anyway, they are just cuts in the fabric which is very worrisome especially with the size of my tail. The tail is a bit lumpy in areas and the foam doesn’t fill all areas properly, instead it slides around a bit, not stuffed enough. http://sta.sh/0258ef8joryb fullsuit arrived.

Current Mood: Frustrated

Comments

[laughsatthunder.livejournal.com]

The lack of professionalism on her part is astounding.

[ime2667.livejournal.com]

This seems to be every customer's situation with this maker. Absolutely astounding how she ignores everyone.

[jfabyss (from livejournal.com)]

Well, I could certainly try and defend myself on several of those areas but I feel that much of your complaints are valid. I do however stand by my ToS. There's a reason I don't give due dates (along with several other large makers) and that was mostly for school reasons. From day one, it was made clear that there would be no established due date so I find it rather crass to be complaining about something that was never agreed on.

Regardless, I hope you can still enjoy the suit. It was a challenge to make since there were several parts that were new methods\patterns I had never done or used before to achieve the stompy and large look all around but I still enjoyed bringing her to life. Please note that all of my work has a 90 day warranty for repairs. That is also stated in my ToS. If there's anything you'd like me to do, I'd love to have the chance to fix my mistakes.

[weisk.livejournal.com]

I think OP's major issue, which it seems they stated in conversation with you, is not necessarily that the commission took an extended period of time, or that a nonexistent due date was passed, but that communication with you seems to be rather abhorrent. Extremely inconsistent communication, little proof that the commission was actually being worked on, seeing that you're completing premade suits to sell, but still seeing little progress on their commission... I would be pretty upset, as well.

[🎀starrla🎀 (from livejournal.com)]

You are more than welcome to defend yourself. But at multiple points did you make it seem that you would be stepping up and starting on suits at a certain time, once also telling me that you would be working full time on suits now. ( http://sta.sh/01zgu69dzkhe http://sta.sh/0icptbp6oa4 http://sta.sh/025rsko6s28k ) If you were not able to stay with what you were telling me you shouldve come forward with it. On multiple occassions big life event happened that you expected me to find out via your public twitter.
I am not simply complaining about a due date, I am complaining about how I was led to believe that my suit would be finished at a quicker pace And how you failed to inform your customers of slow down in production.

[keryugami.livejournal.com]

Understood. I'm not disagreeing with you. My contact could certainly have been better and in regards to my big life moments, I'm not one to really share my personal follies in that regard. I'll take these complaints to heart and certainly be much more open and work on my communication skills.

Again, if I can do anything to try and repair the issues that you're having with the suit, feel free to contact me so we can work something out.

[mortymaxwell.livejournal.com]

This artist seems very unprofessional. Ignoring her client, snapping at them, not keeping track of their information, and sending an unfinished product out the door disgusts me. And the fact that she comes in here saying she finds it crass the OP is complaining further reinforces to me that this is not a person I would ever choose to do business with.

[sillygosling.livejournal.com]

I think the artist coming here and accepting the complaints levied against them is a step in the right direction. Now we will have to see if they will make good on their promises to work things out. Please keep us posted OP

[🎀starrla🎀 (from livejournal.com)]

Unfortunately I won't be using Keryu for her repairs. Her queue is currently too long and I neither want to wait nor pay for the shipping which cost 100$ just to get the full suit to me. Even if I were to not be put on the bottom of the queue I'd feel bad taking more time from the people who have been waiting just as long as I have for their suits.
I will be going to a local maker to repair my suit.

[sillygosling.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. In that case I hope its a lesson well learnt for the artist to make absolute certain what they are sending out is a quality piece and Im sorry you're the one that has to deal with the issues in the product. Im admittedly surprised by the multiple craftsmanship issues you got with this maker, particularly the raw foam in the feet. From what I've seen of their process their building techniques looked pretty solid.
I hope you can get the issues fixed quickly, and to Keryu I'd suggest you offer to cover costs for repairs from the maker the client chooses. Due to issues with the que, hassle of shipping, and timeliness it's understandable the client doesn't trust you for repairs, but that doesn't mean it's out of your hands completely. It's not fair that the client should have to spend more on a product that should have come out of the box wearable and satisfactory.

[lackoflollies.livejournal.com]

She has no right to make you pay shipping after this whole situation.