Timeline: Items purchased: March 13/14th 2013 Items received March 22 2013 Buyer feedback left April 8th 2013 Paypal dispute opened June 3rd 2013 Credit Card Chargeback take out July 1st 2013
Basic Summary: I am writing to warn other artists, particularly on etsy, of a buyer (Brooke Alison Kutik or AlisoninWonderland8 on etsy) who purchased two items from me and then initiated a fraudulent credit card chargeback through paypal claiming she never received the items. The buyer had previously told me via etsy message that she had received the items, and she left me feedback on etsy. Initially, paypal closed the disputes in my favour at the beginning of June 2013, however in July the credit card company ruled in the buyer's favour for one of the items and the fees were deducted from my account. Paypal gave me back part of the fee but I was still out about $200.
I replied saying I disagree, but with twitter I can't really fully express why. So I'm whining about my opinion here, because I think it's worth writing out. ( Collapse )
The seller here is an artist who I've been a fan of for ages. (Kate Sjoberg, AmandaKathryn, RedWyvrenStudio) I bought a fairy from her in 2006, and then bought a few unicorns, and commissioned a pegasus at the end of 2008. With the commission, I found her communication a bit shaky, like she wouldn't respond to messages every time and that type of thing. My first issue was a mermaid I bought from her in early 2009, she started the bidding low and the auction ended low. She charged me $35 for shipping, and it ended up only costing $12. I messaged her 4 times to get the money back to no response, and after weeks of bitching finally I go to paypal and see she has refunded me $14. No paypal note, no reply to my messages, no apology. And the difference in shipping was a decent chunk more than $14, but at least I got some back. So I didn't press the issue, and left positive feedback anyway.
Now ship overcharges piss me off in general so after that I didn't buy from her for almost 2 years. Then in Novemeber 2010 I bought two large unicorns, one was $135 and one was $125. The description on all her auctions says the items come with a COA (certificate of authenticity) and they didn't. Also, one of the unicorn's bases was broken. I contacted her through etsy about the break and the COAs. At first she had great contact. And then... nothing. However, against my better judgement, I bought a unicorn in February 2011 from her, which was sold with a "new version" of her unicorn tutorial. Here's our entire conversation through etsy.
( Collapse ) So, I would like to point out a few things here. First of all, I never got a refund or any sort of money back due to the broken item. She never looked into the claim or got back to me on that (look at the dates on the messages) and I ended up fixing the base at cost to me. The pegs are really expensive and hard to find and I used my own. I would also like to point out that she doesn't apologize at all about an item arriving broken. A few others things... she didn't tell me beforehand that the COAs would be sent separately- I had to ask. The description says they come with COAs. Also, again, she never mentions before I pay that the tutorial would be shipped separately or that it would take time to complete. I knew that info through DeviantArt comments only. Also regarding her last message to me- the COAs were NOT in the box with Dream. I never got them.
After messaging her on etsy and getting no response I gave up. I hate chasing people and figured, whatever, let it go, just don't buy from her again. But it bothers me to this day every time I think about it. It's to a point where I want to sell them because I can't enjoy them properly due to these issues. The two unicorns I need COAs for I bought in November 2010. The unicorn that was supposed to come with a new version of the tutorial was purchased in February 2011.
So recently, as in the end of August 2011, she posted on DA and I commented about something else and she responded. So I figured hey, she's around, I'm going to send her a note. Why not, might as well mend things if I can. Here are those.
So, I realize the tone in my first DA message was quite different from that last one. But that's it. Not only am I done with buying items from her, I am spreading this to others too. Again, I would like to point out that in the message I got from her in August, she did not apologize ONCE for a huge issue that is absolutely her fault.
The thing is, they're PAPER. To appease me all she had to do was print two pieces of paper, sign them, slap the old tutorial on a disc, toss all 3 in an envelope and send them out! There is nothing hard about that. Ignoring messages and failing to do something so simple for your customers really just illustrates how little you care.
And on a more personal note... I would also like to mention, because for those not familiar with the artist I think it's important- they're not cheap. I have 8 pieces by her that were $100-$200 each. COAs and such might not seem like a big deal, but if I want to resell them at any point they're not worth much without the COA. As for the tutorial, she charges $13 for the old version and the price for the unicorn I got was started higher because it came with a tutorial. So I bought it largely because of the tutorial. So in many ways it's not that big a deal, not like never receiving an entire sculpture, but in principal it is not what the description stated. In the end, I'm leaving this transaction feeling taken advantage of... it doesn't matter what business you're in, that's never something you want to do to your customers. :(
If anyone has any advice on what to do, I'm all ears. At this point, moving on and never dealing with this person again. It's really unfortunate that things have come to this because I'm honestly a big fan of her work.
Message/ comment/ email me about trading/ selling/ buying. If you are unsure that what you have is on here, just send me a message. There are probably lots of evanescence variant singles I don't have, and lots of ponies I haven't listed that I don't have. Just ask :D :D
