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!

[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!

[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.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

The only time I can imagine "email not acting up" is if the person makes a mistake themselves. Example: I once set up a 'real name' email address to serve as school related purposes. I put it to where I was able to email under that address while logged into my personal one, but completely forgot to have Gmail pull in mail from the new address. I went almost a month wondering why no one was contacting me back for job offers and such.

Otherwise, I don't see how 'email acts up'. If you have a business email address, it's important to be able to go through the spam folders and see if anyone got routed there. Period.

[nashidesei.livejournal.com]

To be completely fair, when Gmail was still in beta I went about two weeks wherein I had numerous emails just randomly wind up in my junk folder. Including stuff from people on my contact list. They hadn't been blacklisted or anything, there was just some sort of transmission error.

...But this was EARLY Gmail beta. Like 2005 or something. Unless they're running a beta client, or their webhost's email service is severely wonkified, it's a delay tactic.

[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]

There have been a few times where someone sent me an email and I never got it, not in spam or anything. It does happen. But it's pretty rare, and I'm pretty sure he's totally fibbing. I wish people would just own up to things.

The only exception I can think of it like, hotmail. Hotmail is pretty screwy, but you shouldn't be using a hotmail as a business email!

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

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

[selenialeopard.livejournal.com]

housemate horrors

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Oh, thanks! It's not one I actually read, so I couldn't remember it for the life of me.

[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 :/

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

yeeeah i thought the same thing :/

[monogato.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with the comment about Hotmail. I used to use Hotmail for my main email address, as it was the first one I ever used and just wasn't familiar with anything else, and it was entirely unreliable. Emails from work sometimes would just not show up in either my inbox or junk folder. Missed too many important things and stopped using it about 5 years ago.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Also http://myveryworstroommate.com/

[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

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I could possibly believe in email problems for a week, maybe up to a month if someone just doesn't realize there's a problem (ie, mail getting sent to spam filter)
But to have "email problems" for years means someone's either dodging or not responsible enough to fix their best means of communicating with clients :P

[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.

[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)

[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.

[sarakazi.livejournal.com]

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

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

i'll send you a PM a little later, if you'd like?