Warning: Solion/Lion of the Sun

[eonisalpha.livejournal.com]

WHO: Lionel “Solion” of Lion of the Sun

WHERE: http://www.lionofthesun.com/index.php

WHAT: A fursuit head of my dragon character Eonis, done ‘realistically.’

Emails showing exactly what I ordered here: http://s1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/bigorderemailchaincensoredpart1.jpg

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/bigorderemailchaincensoredpart2.jpg

 

WHEN:  January 6^th, 2009: Contacted Solion about getting a fursuit head.

January 7^th – January 14^th, 2009: Sent info, discussed options for the head.

January 14^th, 2009: Sent payment.

May 24^th, 2010: Contacted him asking for status of head.

June 4^th, 2010: Attempted to continue previous conversation, in a different medium

June 24^th, 2010: Talked to him at Anthrocon

September 27^th, 2010: Contacted him again, asking for WIP shots

December 7^th, 2010: Contacted him, asking for a refund, was promised one.

February 18^th, 2011: Disappeared when I attempted to talk to him.

 

PROOF:  Screenshot from paypal payment: http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/paypalinfocensored.jpg

EXPLAIN:   On January 6^th 2009, a friend of mine got me in contact with Solion while he was on their teamspeak server.  After discussion that I wanted a fursuit head, he told me to send him an email with exactly what I wanted, so he could have it on file.  He told me in the voice chat that he realistically wouldn’t have time to work on it until October of that year, and told me to send him half of the payment to start work on the head, and half when it was completed.  The emails linked previously then occurred, payment was sent.  I then did not hear for a while.  October came and went with no contact from him. 

On May 24^th 2010, I emailed him, he responded on the 25^th, mostly wanting to know what was going on, and why it was so late, seen here http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/secondemailchainconfirmingpayment.jpg .  He did not respond to that last email, and I believed he was having email problems, so I attempted to contact him on second life, on June 4^th, he responded on the sixth, seen here. http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/thirdchainsecondlife.jpg

I then saw him at AC 2010, where I confronted him in person about it.  He told me his email was acting up, and said that he sent me a few other emails, which I never received.  He then promised me he would find a way to email me work in progress pictures of my head, to prove he was still working on it. 

On September 27^th 2010 I emailed him again, asking for the work in progress pictures,  got one response with no pictures, then he went silent again, email here http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/postACquestionchain.jpg

Finally, in December, I had enough.  I emailed him on the 7^th asking for a refund, he responded on the 9^th promising he would send me a check for the money I owed him.  IF he ever mailed one, I never received it. Email here http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/Finalemailchain.jpg

On February 18^th, 2011, I was on second life, I saw that Solion logged on.  I attempted to talk to him, and he disappeared quickly, log here http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff373/Eonisalpha/finalmessagelog.jpg

At this point, I just want the money back.  It’s gotten completely ridiculous, it’s been…over two years now, with nothing to show for it.

************** Update 4/18/2011 ******************

Well, took some suggestions from you guys, because you're all awesome...started gathering docs for small claims court, sent him an email saying I posted here, and I got this!

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/B8LEuY1D9_Tg5RkwDYeSMidk50KKAWkhe8CCeTw3TaU?feat=directlink

(Hosted by my mate because I fail at photobucket)
While I doubt it's going to lead to anything more than the last promise, I'm hoping >.>  Thanks for all the support and advice,  guys!

Comments

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Wow that's so outrageous. I hate that excuse "my email is acting up" unless you get hacked or all of a sudden the algorithm that recognizes spam just breaks down, this excuse nearly always is a delaying tactic. I hope you get you money back. This is really unprofessional.

[shadowedyoshii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this. I mean, that excuse doesn't even make sense and yet people who are trying to dodge people use it all the time! How does "email act up"? I mean, maybe things land in the Spam box occasionally. Maybe internet connections flicker and an email will fail to send. But "my email is acting up!" sounds like something your grandmother who doesn't understand technology would say. Why not just be honest, you know? "I have just had such a full plate right now, I just haven't gotten around to _______, so sorry."

[lurkerwisp.livejournal.com]

"frozen screen . ill be back" doesn't really make any more sense to me than that. If your screen is frozen and you're having all these problems with the computer - then how are you still sending messages?

Sounds like someone's crinkling paper in the phone receiver. What? Oh you're breaking up. I can't hear you. Oops disconnected!

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

My college provided email names for everyone, and 90% of the time the email server or whatever they had never sent/received mail. i tried sending/receiving mail to another address I had [on gmail] to check and yeah... nothing most of the time. i dunno what the deal it, I got the official school emails that were pretty spammy, and nothing else most of the time, including mail from teachers and stuff. they fixed it after a semester or two to work a bit better but god it was awful at first. I guess thats the only time I could have been okay with the 'acting up email' thing, but my gmail was fine so idk rambling sorry. :P If one email IS acting up for some reason there are plenty of working email options :/

[uozlulu.livejournal.com]

I admit, I've had moments where I start locking up but can send a warning message before everything freezes, but this is reeking of expired bologna. I'm sorry that he's doing this to you and I'm glad that you have decided to tell us of this.

Perhaps you can use the fact you posted about him here as leverage. Tell him that if he refunds you, that can get this marked as resolved and show people he is capable of saving his name.

[akiagryphon.livejournal.com]

I remember being with you when you confronted him at AC. He seemed to just avoid the issue and made excuses about why he wasn't answering his email. Honestly it seemed like he just wanted you to go away so you'd stop asking about the status of the commission. I really hope this gets sorted out, and that people stop recommending this guy if all he does is scam people out of their money.

[fenrirs-child.livejournal.com]

IIRC, he also takes credit for others' work as his own (the example i'm thinking of is laid out here http://qarrezel.deviantart.com/gallery/1870194?offset=72#/d1f1o62 )

it's such a shame, he has such nifty stuff :/ i hope you can get stuff sorted out!

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Huh. From Qarrezel: "It's more than this pair, too - I made the gloves for all of his costumes from July '07 - May '08, and no credit at all."

Wish I could see proof of him claiming he made the gloves (I just see photos on his website) but Qarrezel seems trustworthy enough that I believe her.

[sarakazi.livejournal.com]

I've heard of him doing this with several other artists.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, this is a huge shame. I've admired his work for as long as I knew what fursuits were. This is all sorts of scummy, and I'll be taking my first mask to someone else.

[tyrrlin.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I had no idea he was difficult to work with. I'm glad that I made my own suit, then. :-P

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

this guy was a houseguest of my EX boyfriend a few years ago... longest most infuriating week of my life.

knowing what i know now, and dealing with him in person for all that time like i did, i can safely say i would never do business with him. i can't say the rest of what i need to say without breaking the personal attack rule, so i'll just say good luck and i hope this gets resolved for you!

(OP: sorry for the edits :p)

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I think there's a comm for that! Roommate horrors or something.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I admit it... now I'm curious :P
And not just for drama's sake; even though there's a notion that business and personality should be separate things, I think overall character affects/applies to both.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Could you PM me as well? I had dealing with him at a convention and there was something that I couldn't put my finger on and I would be interested to see if this matched my supposition.

[logosh.livejournal.com]

Mind PMing me too? A buddy of mine was considering commissioning him

[marlinkhylacat]

Please forgive my late response!--I often can't get online during weekends. Would it be too much hassle to PM me the story as well? His screenname didn't strike me as familiar reading through the entry, not at first. But it finally hit me; I realized he's someone that one of my buddies has been "befriending" (not sure of the exact context) and talking about doing fursuit business with, and I want to know exactly how far away I should be warning my friend to run.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

I'm also curious what happened but I know it's late so if you are tired of PMing people, that's cool :)

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

I love roommate horror stories, I'd love to hear too

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I would say it's time to take this dude to small claims court.
Like start looking into filing now / getting your docs in order and also tell him today that you are doing so and will only stop WHEN you get the refund (not just if he says the check's in the mail)

[synchra.livejournal.com]

:C If you need any help setting up a small claims case I have been going through a similar situation with someone just cutting off all communication that is requiring such action. (Not with Lionel but I have heard a lot of hell stories from people who have dealt with him as well. :/)

That sucks dude..

[eonisalpha.livejournal.com]

Actually...yea, if you could send me a pm, that would be great >.> I've kinda...been trying to figure out how to get that process started.

[growly.livejournal.com]

So the $590 was the half payment he requested from you?

[eonisalpha.livejournal.com]

Yes, the total was $1180...he said to give him the other half when he finished the head...which...doesn't look like that's ever going to happen, unfortunately.

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

its also funny that he's claiming computer problems, because as i recall he was very good with them. he fixed a problem on my old desktop and also managed to get a busted external HD back to life and working. im fairly certain that he also tinkered with a friend's laptop as well.

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

ok, everyone who requested a PM should have gotten one.

[andodikion.livejournal.com]

There is more to this than meets the eye sadly. I have not forgotten about anyone or stolen their money or tried to cheat people. Anyone who knows me knows this is the truth.

In short I take full responsibility for everything that happened, It was a combination of an assumptions on my part that I had another deadbeat client (15 for this year alone) and emails that were never responded to/got Who knows. For my part I have changed how I do business so this never happens again. I am doing my best to rectify the situation, It has just been hard.

Since everyone seems to have lost their jobs and cannot pay for work done you end up left scrambling to fill the hole with another piece of work. I live off my art, when I take a down payment I buy all the parts to make that piece, I generally get a working idea of the head done then contact the owner for their approval. and that is where things got broken.

I know Likeshine will grin from ear to ear and do a little happydance knowing that like most people in this economy I am struggling. But without predispose notions let me say that you are being lied to by Likeshine. While she is a wonderful artist and her work should be recognized as such. Tearing people down is one of her best skillsets. And there is much about her story you do not know that could fill the whole of Lj by itself.

But this is the internetz, people lap up the vomit of drama from the floor like starving rats. truth never enters into it or will ever see the light of day. Judgements made without the lens of human compassion or understanding. cold black letters on a white page.

I am sorry Eonis. I really am, And in some way beyond the monetary compensation I hope I can make this up to you. the only thing I can say is I will do my damndest to make sure that this never happens again.

Lionel

Lion of the sun productions