A long post to write, Zim Gekko

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

This is a very long and drawn out post to have to write.. It starts back in October of 2008 when Zim Gekko ( Zagar/ SpaceMutt) advertised that they were taking suit commissions here on LJ. They had some cute examples and a lovely style and I had worked with them before when I bought a conbadge at FWA one year.

At first things were going great! We worked out all the details through emails and then I started making payments. Zim provided some progress pictures along the was and all looked great... That is until I got the suit, just before FWA 2009... It was nothing like the pictures, in it's quality... and was so bad that I couldn't wear it at all. I will admit that some of the damage to the head itself most likely came from shipping. The suit was packaged in a box that left it no room to move, so any bump and bang was surely sent straight to the structure of it. On the other hand I know that a lot of the issues were in the make itself, such as the claws and soles of the feet falling off and the badly done seams, visible tape, foam, and other inner structures, as well as the holes in the material itself.

Here, bellow, . is a VERY long chain including ALL the emails we exchanged from day one, to the pictures Zim sent, as well as the pictures of what the suit looked like when I got it. Included with the emails are the paypal stubs for payments sent.

zimemails

  If that doesn't work then follow this link : http://www.scribd.com/doc/33398781/zimemails

These are the progress pictures I was sent along the way.

 













  

ORIGINAL TAIL

REMAKE





This is the remade head, which I made corrections on but they weren't changed.

From the pictures everything looked fine... but what I got in the mail was NOT fine.

These are the pictures of what I got in the mail.




























http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst020.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst021.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst022.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst023.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst025.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst026.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst027.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst029.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst031.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst032.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst033.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst034.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/Mewst037.jpg

This is what I received. And as I stated before, I admit, that the head's DAMAGE (IE: the smushing and such), was done in shipping because of the tight fit of the box.


Well I told Zim how I felt about the suit and they admitted that the work wasn't up to par, ect. we decided on a a remake, as they said they could not refund me. I was to ship the original back and they would remake the suit. it took me some time, as you can see in the emails, to ship the suit back, due to home and life problems eating up my money. But I did manage to finally get the suit back to Zim.

For months I had to play email tag with Zim for any sort of news, even on if they bought the fur or not... and it was very frustrating, finally the sent me a progress pic of the new head, as seen above. The markings were not right and I told them so, got no response on that but assumed they would fix them.

FWA drew near, they were supposed to ship in time for the con but Zim was afraid the package would arrive at my house in time so they sent it to the hotel.  they sent the head and hadpaws in one box ad the feet and tail (supposedly) in another. The head arrived with the hand paws... The  changes had not been made and the suit was missing features we'd agreed on and I'd paid for :
There were no follow me eyes, moving jaw or detailed teeth to be seen.. Not to mention the paws were neither shoulder length OR five fingered.

I waited through the weekend for the feet and tail to arrive but they did not come. I emailed Zim ASAP when I got back from the con and was ignored from that moment forward, until tonight when I sent a final notice letting them know I was posting this here.

From that point on I've since been ignored. I do plan to do what I can to get what is owed me... And I want to strictly warn others against doing business with Zim Gekko/SpaceMutt/Zagar.



EDIT: I apologize for the broken cut. I thought I had it formatted right. =( Bah for doing this at 3AM.

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Please fix your lj-cut and links immediately.

This is also a warning to other people who might look at this post, we don't need a chain of 'cut plz!' comments. They will be treated as spam. Any users complaining about the cut will be officially warned.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

Fixed!! Sorry about that. =( This'll show me to make posts at 3 in the morning, thought I had the formatting fixed.

[msmanuscript.livejournal.com]

Interesting. First thing I noticed is that the fur is going in the wrong direction. Fur should be going away from the nose, but in some of your images it appears to be going towards the nose. And I do see about the missing details. The tape under the fur is worry-some, as well. From what I've learned, the tape is to make a pattern, but not to attach the fur onto the head for, as it's very easy for it to come off. I think this was part of the reason it was falling apart.

What confuses me greatly is how very different the head they took pictures of and the head you took pictures of look like two completely different heads. Not the original and the remake, the original and the received. The original looked like the fur was tight, nicely shaved, and even. What you received had baggy fur, unshaven, visible seams, mismatched fur...

To be honest, I don't think you received the same head you were sent pictures of. Something about it seems off to me. A head doesn't go from tight fur to lose fur from shipping. It goes from tight to lose from incorrect wearing/creation.

Something about the way it looks in the picture to what you got is very troubling. They do NOT look to be the same head at all. The muzzle shape is totally different. It went from straight and narrow to upturned and baggy. If it was damaged in transit, I understand the upturn. But going from a straight-ish shape to being an elongated front end of the snout wouldn't happen. It is almost like someone grabbed the front half of the muzzle and stretched it down.

Do you have pictures of the state of the re-created head once you opened the box?

Thank you for the heads up, and for a good taste of what not to do as a suit maker. I'll know to avoid doing business with them.

[msmanuscript.livejournal.com]

Here's what I mean about the muzzle shape. See how in the original it's pretty much blockish? Then all of a sudden the front of the nose just becomes very wide. Even if it was smushed against the box, it wouldn't go into two directions like that. Three, if the length has changed.

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee73/ms-manuscript/shape.jpg

[umbravulpis.livejournal.com]

"The tape under the fur is worry-some, as well. From what I've learned, the tape is to make a pattern, but not to attach the fur onto the head for, as it's very easy for it to come off."

It looks more like the fur was only being held on by thin strips of glue at the edges of the fur which could easily come loose from the head being jostled around. From my own experience I can tell you it takes a lot more than rough shipping and normal wear to remove well glued fur from duct tape.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

One thing in my pictures is that, because of the damage to the muzzle, when I set the head down to take a picture the bottom jaw sort of slid up into the top of the muzzle, as there was no kind of support for it, it just shifted on up.

I can get the pictures of the remade head after work, just popping in before I have to run right now, thus the short response.

[artkyn.livejournal.com]

You know, to me it looks like maybe their dog got a hold of it somewhere between the picture they sent and them actually shipping it. =( I don't know anything about fursuit making, but I agree with the previous poster--that head looks nothing like the one they sent pics of.

[gel-wolf.livejournal.com]

um, weird question, but in the first few pictures it doesn't look like there's anything under the duct tape. I can see in your later pictures there's obviously some foam, but is the majority of this head simply duct tape? o_O That's raising a few red flags with me.

Also, I would like to point out that I've never had a problem shipping heads in tight boxes. So I'm thinking that is probably not the root of the problem. I agree with Artkyn, maybe something happened between pictures and mailing. Because the before and after shipping pics are completely different.

[theflamecrow.livejournal.com]

Considering how it looks damaged, I'd say yes... x.x Good idea for prom dresses, not so much for fursuits.

[littlecrimson.livejournal.com]

UGH- Zim was nothing but a thorn in my side for nine weeks. I bid on and won an auction for a partially finished Arcanine head back in March. I had noticed a few Artists_Beware posts about her, but figured since it wasn't a commission (Just an item to be mailed to me), I'd have better luck. Good lord was I wrong. Zim pretty much tried to run off with my $60. The first few weeks, she kept promising to ship it. After a few weeks, she just stopped responding to my emails all together. Thankfully, I kept an eye on how much time was passing and at what point I could no longer file a claim with Paypal. Paypal ended up taking the money back from her and refunding me. After seeing this post, I'm sort of glad I never got that head. It probably would have been unusable. I don't mean to be bleak, but I don't see you getting ANYTHING from her, not even a response to your post. I swear if I ever run into her out in the world, it would take quite a bit of self-control for me not to slap her across the face for all of the crap she has put folks through.

Also, I'm willing to bet that she never actually mailed out that second package :/

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I'd seen your posts! I'm sorry you had to go through all the crazyness... =( But at least you were able to get your money back.

[protocollie.livejournal.com]

Look, no idea what precisely you should do to handle this, but all I can say is I'm really, really sorry to see this happened and this really, really sucks.

That thing arrived in SUCH bad shape.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

Yeah.. it's really just depressing.. I put a lot of hard earned money into that suit.. only to be left with a bitter taste in my mouth and a remade head with quite a few of it's own issues, including not looking like my character.... And a pair of handpaws that are worthless, baggy, crinkly, and badly made.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Might I suggest perhaps retaking some of those pictures, they're rather blurry and to be honest, it's hard to tell what we're looking at in some of them.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I would if I could, but those are pictures of the original suit I received, which has since been returned to Zim, as a condition of their remaking my suit.

[sinabu.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry you had to go through this.. Zim her BF and I used to room at cons, I have lots of art and badges from her. It has been along time since I have seen her online or have had any contact with her.. I personally think she got overwhelmed and I tried to tell her that but she didnt listen. With artwork, suit making, dog shows and trying to fumble school and a job it's like omg slow down.

=\ Really sucks cause I remember this head and it was turning out pretty good. And I always liked her artwork. Such wasted talent

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she has awesome art and I have a badge from her that is just darling.. but this has been a nightmare.

[lenny-mutt.livejournal.com]

The person in question, if she has school and dog shows, needs to realize that obviously she cannot juggle art and fursuits in the mix.

Yeah that's a lot of the problem, from what I understand she has a history of taking on WAY more than she can chew. And I've dealt with her myself so I know how she is when trying to get a commission from her.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Oh geez, that is one mashed head! Guess that's what happens when the base is made out of ducttape??
Yuck, people shouldn't charge pro prices if they've got no experience (and ya I consider $300+ for a head/$400 for partial you better have some idea what you're doin)

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

It's just funny how nice all her example work looks.. I think maybe she touches up her pictures in photoshop or something... =/

But yeah.. I paid $400 + another $83 for fur to remake it... So I'm VERY put out by this.. and the fact that now she claims she made NO PROFIT from the whole thing, and thus doesn't feel she should have to refund the feet and tail I didn't get.

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

Is there any way to open the album and just link to the album of fursuit pics? I'm having to copy and paste each one to a seperate link.

That looks terrible =/ I'm sorry you had to deal with that -_- I noticed you commented that part was plaster? I can't wrap my brain around that, was it the nose or the actual structure of the head?

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

It appeared to have been the nose and muzzle possibly? I know for SURE that the nose was. Also.. urmm.. my albums are private so I'm not sure, I think I have a password though, let me check.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v83/Vaga_Deathrose/Furrystuff/Fusuit%20things/fursuit%20issues/

that might work.. but I dunno if it will for sure.. o-o

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

that is majorly disappointing O.O

[genkigami.livejournal.com]

The pictures Zim sent you look great! I was like :D HOW CUTE!

Then I saw the pictures of what you got. I was like D: WTF.

That is not the same head. And shipping wouldn't mangle a head that bad. They could ship it from LA to India and have the worst turbulence ever and the head still wouldn't sustain that much damage from shipping. That's so disappointing, sorry you had to deal with that.

[genkigami.livejournal.com]

Just read your bit shipping damage. Missed that, sorry!

[fuzibuni.livejournal.com]

Dear god why did she make it out of DUCT TAPE!! Man I'm really sorry :( Before it was a pretty decent looking head... I like hyenas.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I don't know.. =( I didn't know it was going to be made that way... And me too, considering my fursona is one it'd be weird if I didn't.. o-o!

[skanrashke.livejournal.com]

That sucks. Next time get you're getting something like this, I suggest waiting and commissioning a professional.
1) Talk to their previous customers and ask about quality, wait, price, etc
2) Don't go with "bargain buys" for things that are GENERALLY expensive. You'll be dissapointed 75-90% of the time. Frankly, I don't think the offchance of getting something good balances out with saving some money.

I hate to say it, but this is pretty par for the course for cheap fursuits. I don't understand what you expected, paying that price? Latinvixen quality? The hassle you went through sucks, and it's way more hassle than I'd be willing to go through to get a costume.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I didn't expect LV quality... But I didn't expect something that was falling apart out of the box! I don't see how the price I paid excuses the item from it's obvious issues... I know you get what you pay for.. but I think it's shitty that they had nice examples and the photos they sent me looked just fine, yet what I got was nothing like that.

They agreed to the remake and I returned the old suit AND bought new fur.. I now have a head that doesn't look like my character, they didn't follow the design of the old suit AT ALL except for the eye color, though it was backwards. And a pair of hand paws that were not at all what we agreed on... I never got the feet and tail at all, which is my biggest issue.

I'd be willing to drop the matter and accept the items for what they are if I could get a refund on the feet and tail, or else they can prove that they were shipped but lost in transit.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Aw man, that's awful :c
I've been wanting to read the emails, but I can only get to page 3 before they stop loading up on the link. They all show up on the little bar you posted but its so small i can't read it.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I can send them to you in an email if you like.. o-o Or I'll just post them in my journal so I can link people to them from there.

[carnivaldog.livejournal.com]

Holy hell, words can't describe how enraged I would be if I were in your shoes. Just....WOW. Plaster and duct tape? Seriously?? D: And she didn't so much as bother to use a good amount of glue so that the seams would be sturdy. I just....there are no words.

I am so sorry you got jerked around and totally screwed by this person. It's especially ridiculous that she won't refund you for parts of the suit you never received. I mean, things get lost in the mail, I've had my own experiences with that, but that's why you keep your shipping receipts, so you can prove you shipped something out. D: And didn't you request that she put insurance or tracking on the shipments, so that you'd be able to know exactly where the items end up, and to prevent a repeat of damage?

Geeeeeeeeeeez.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I did, and she didn't get either one. =( No tracking or anything. And now she can't find the receipt or anything else to prove it was sent. I just think it's fishy that she supposedly sent both packages at the same time, because her post office can't ship large packages so she packed it in two boxes. The head and hands were supposedly returned and reshipped... but still arrived before the feet and tail that never showed up.

[hellebore.livejournal.com]

Holy shit that is abysmal.

[hellebore.livejournal.com]

Erm, both the suit and the circumstances around it.

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

O_O; what everyone else said.

That being said though, people know what the postage system is like in their counteries right? I know Australia post are pretty decent but I have had things posted to me that say "don't bend" and they have been and holes in boxes etc...But seriously that box looks like it's been kicked around the ground =\

I hope you get this resolved :(

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

Thank you, so do I.. =(

[digivolution.livejournal.com]

Oh man. That head was beyond crappy haha D8

[echowhispers.livejournal.com]

You know, I've had problems with Zim too. I never posted anything about it but maybe I should. From the first Furry Fiesta in 09' she was selling tails and I thought to bujy one with my last 15 dollars. Shwe didnt' have my color and offered to take payment now and dye it later that night. I ended up not getting it at all. I asked her about it on Sunday and she said she had gotten busy and asked for my address and FA. I gave her bthe info and waited patiently for my tail. Never got it. I messaged her on FA asking about it. She said she had gotten behind and would work on it asap.

Waited a bit longer and still never heard anything. However after that first note I sent, I never got a reply again. She never even read any of my notes i sent her, even when I demanded my money back.

[goosestep-lion.livejournal.com]

I would post. Zim kept claiming to me that he was 'leaving the fandom' and didn't care about giving me what was properly owed, but it seems that he is back at large, at least I've been seeing him posting here and there.