Avsun Update

[red-se-kar.livejournal.com]

So! If you remember my post a while back, I was yet another person who got screwed when Avsun disbanded.  However, my case was a bit different than everyone else's, in that I had been sent pictures of my finished bodysuit, and all that was left to be done was to ship it.
However that didn't happen.
SO, as everyone told me to do, I tried contacting them through every single medium I could, but to no avail.

Somewhere in there, I sent a message to Prefur, the girl who Esh and Saluna apprenticed under, just asking her if she had a way of contacting them and could give that info to me.

Imagine my surprise, when I suddenly received a message from paypal over my claim dispute, that a tracking number is suddenly available! Damn amazing, given the circumstances.  A day or two later, Prefur messaged me back and explained that she gave Esh the money for shipping my body.  Apparently he has absolutely no money (so sorry to all y'all who are still trying to get refunds) and is just about homeless. 

But, because of Prefur's wonderful amazing help, my finished bodysuit arrived yesterday, and it's actually quite well made (thank god!)

Now, don't you all go and swamp Prefur and beg her for help, she said that she was trying to work on helping people because she felt so bad about how her previous apprentices have acted, but it's not her issue.  And she was exceedingly generous towards me, paying for the shipping and all.  I would even have paid for the shipping, even though I already had, but as we all know, Avsun is pretty much impossible to get a hold of.

So good luck to everyone still fighting for a refund, it really sounds like Esh has absolutely zero money to his name, but at least it seems as though Prefur is being the most wonderful person and trying to help this kerfuffle. 

Comments

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

Nice! It does look good =3

Glad to hear you're part has a happy ending at least, alway awesome to hear updates.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for Esh, but even when the business was in reasonable shape, he had issues with communication. Now more than ever he needs to let people know what is going on. Especially if he is sitting on their completed or near completed projects. With hundreds or thousands of dollars of other peoples money involved, the silent treatment is not going to work.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

additionally, this older entry has a lot of updates:

http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/466686.html

The facebook that Esh set up for customers to communicate with him has been deleted.

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

wow. that seemed like it was the only way to contact him anymore

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

oh wait.. the facebook page is still there

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

I think that's a different page: there was one for "Esh Avsun" and had a few pictures and comment threads, including a completed Tiger head, and a LOT of "will I get my suit?" comments. There is an "Avsun Mascots" page, but it doesn't have these comments/posts as far as I can tell. Unless there's another one

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

ahhh I see. I only knew of the Avsun page.

[red-se-kar.livejournal.com]

I had never managed to get a response from Esh's Facebook page, even though that seemed like the only place people could get a response from.

[clockmagic.livejournal.com]

This.
I hope something will be done and he figures something out.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

Hell, I'm sure there are at least a few people who have finished work who would be willing to take the hit for postage and pay on their end for a courier service to pick it up (rather than just sending money and trusting them to spend it on postage). Better to pay $550 and actually GET a fursuit than pay $500 for a big fat nothing.

[sarla23.livejournal.com]

I found this Facebook page for Avsun Mascots. Don't know how active it is. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002095414930

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Well, I think it's good of prefur to help out - but perhaps not "amazingly wonderful", she did refer a LOT of the people who got screwed to these people, and made it sound a little like she was backing them (even if she didn't mean it that way).

I know if I'd done that, I'd feel at a tiny bit responsible, even if avsun is the truly guilty/liable party.

... speaking of which, so Esh is broke, what's Saluna's current role in all this?

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

Saluna and Esh split, and the business was disbanded. Only Esh has been heard of since, and said he was committed to completing orders, so presumably Saluna has nothing to do with it anymore.

[borderdog.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is, Saluna is just as responsible for all of this as Esh is. She was a part of the business and helped take people's money.

I'm guessing she can't be traced, because it seems odd to me that everyone just has an "oh well she left" attitude when it comes to her. Even Esh just brushed her off with a "whatever, she's gone, I'm the only one who can fix this" kind of comment.
Who cares if she doesn't want to be involved anymore? She needs to be the one issuing refunds before walking away.

I wonder if anyone has tried to track her down?

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're absolutely right, Esh has at least made noises towards compensation (will they actually pan out? who knows), Saluna is if anything more at fault for just dumping everything and running.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

What really drove me up the wall about this whole thing is the journal he had up where he claimed that he wasn't really responsible since the company dissolved and his "lawyer" told him so.

I keep forgetting to talk to my lawyer aunt about that... It reeks of bullpucky.

[borderdog.livejournal.com]

YES. It was full of attitude making it sound like he was doing everyone a favor by finishing the work he owed, and that little bit about anyone who hasn't paid in full having to enter into a new contract in order to get their suits? (Or what? Their money was just a donation?) Not right at all! Outstanding work did not just disappear with the company.

[red-se-kar.livejournal.com]

In her note to me she sounded like she felt really bad about that happened. But personally I don't bear her any ill will because I didn't find Avsun through her, so she has no part in that for me.

Like fatkraken said, it sounds like Saluna has completely abandoned everything and will not have a hand in fixing any of this, leaving Esh to deal with absolutely everything.

[ocelotish]

I disagree, Prefur went above and beyond. A recommendation is just that, saying that they have good quality of work (in this case) and are good at business. As far as I've been able to gather, the business broke down because of their marriage. That's not something a recommendation could possibly take into account. She is in no way responsible for Avsun breaking up and the business going nuts. Avsun is the only one responsible for what happened with their business.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

Their record was pretty abysmal even before the marriage breakup, they were posting happy chirpy posts even when many peoples commissions were months overdue and I have read more than one very negative review of the quality of their work. Additionally in terms of communication reports were terribly spotty. I've not archived everything from the various reviews and beware threads, but I know they took a long time on answering emails, and often made people use the phone (including a guy in Australia who they woke up because of the time difference).

[ocelotish]

Oh okay, my apologies! I'm not really up on the costuming communities. (I also don't know how much I'd hold a recommender responsible for their recommendation, even if given with full knowledge that they're not a great choice.)

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

Copper actually taught Avsun as apprentices, and essentially "signed off" on their abilities. One of their earlier commissions was sewn very poorly such that an entire ear just fell off when the head was lifted out of the box. Another had bold black and yellow markings which were *airbrushed*

http://fursuitreviews.livejournal.com/28259.html covers a lot of the issues, including Copper's relationship with them

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Copper's attitude in that post just drives me insane. Way to sound dismissive of a customer's complaints.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I do think all legal liability is on them and most all "moral" liability.
BUT prefar really backed them up in starting, as in referred her customers to them, they threw her name around, and publicly defended them when things started getting rocky. Which personally I think is a very risky thing to do with an unestablished duo - so yeah, I do think she is at least a little involved in this.
And I'm not trying to totally poo-poo what prefar did here; just stressing I think it was the "right thing" of her to do, all things considered.

[ocelotish]

I think I'd disagree so long as they weren't working for her at the time or she knew they were bad when making recommendations. Not that I'd take recommendations from her- her reputation/credibility should certainly take a hit- but financially not so much unless you could prove that it was a "bad" recommendation. (Or at least that's the impression I get from looking at doctors' referral cases.)

[ocelotish]

I realized my last post was a little wishy-washy, so I thought I should emphasize the part where it depends on her not making recommendations once she knew they were unreliable. Once she knew that, she does have some responsibility.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Depends what they want their word to mean I guess

[ocelotish]

I don't take a recommendation as a personal guarantee, just an indication of who they would choose personally. If you do, that's your choice, but I think there's a lot of factors a recommender can't control so it seems like a bad idea to me. If an artist screws up, that's 100% their problem; no one else is responsible for it.

Also, from looking at doctor's referrals, the legal obligation seems to be on a good faith recommendations (e.g. they would have a responsibility if they knew the doctor they were referring to was a narcotics abuser).

[spyral-out.livejournal.com]

Man, this whole situation is just tragic. For everyone involved, really.

[puritikoneko.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm certainly glad to see that at least one person has received SOMETHING from Avsun. Even if Prefur did have to get involved.

Also, I'd like to mention that the suit does look nice, and I'm glad you not only finally got something from them, but I'm glad you're happy with the product!