mikamer
08-01-2011, 11:08 PM
Introduction
This is an editorial on products and services from Eric the Mertailor. Here you will find compiled links to all things mertailor for your buying, reviewing, and information needs. An editorial is like a review, while it will include facts (all things I have linked and screenshot etc.) it will also quote people's opinions and community activity based on my observation and interaction within the community. This editorial is subject to additional information. (see, told you I'd hold off on the swearing!) Having a bit of code issue if a mod wants to fix the coding errors.
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is to present a timeline of mertailor activity to readers along with information and reviews so potential customers can have all the information they need to make a choice about purchasing. This is also a compilation of all the information scattered around the internet brought into one spot
Information
Mertailor on the Web
First let's start with all the places you can find mertailor online and learn about who he is and what he does.
Mertailor's official website (http://www.themertailor.com/)
Mertailor's official blog (http://mertailor.blogspot.com/)
Mertailor's official facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mertailor)
Mertaior's official model mayhem (http://www.modelmayhem.com/1334584)
The following is a list of other places online in which you can find mertailor information including interviews, forums, blogs, etc. (these will be referenced furthur in the article)
Author Carolyn Turgeon's interview with Eric (http://iamamermaid.com/2011/02/21/the-mertailor-eric-ducharme-and-his-wondrous-tails/)
Lady Gaga's wears a mertailor tail (http://gagafashionland.com/2011/07/le-grand-journal-lady-gaga-in-mertailor/)
mertailor gab page (http://mertailorblog.forums.com/) (this will be quoted and referenced later)
The mer yuku page of forum posts for mertailor (http://mer.yuku.com/forums/107#.Tjd1rWv1beI)
A mer yuku thread that originally linked to an OLD interview with a young mertailor, now only quotes (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/378/Quotes-about-mertailor#.Tjd2L2v1beK)
Mertailor reviews on mernetwork (http://mernetwork.com/index/forumdisplay.php?19-Mertailor)
(http://mernetwork.com/index/forumdisplay.php?19-Mertailor)If you have any applicable mertailor links please post them in the comments so they can be added to this editorial.
Mertailor Reviews (of what is currently posted)
Please note the time and date of the review you're reading as it may be several years old and non-applicable anymore
Positive Reviews
My Mertailor Expierience http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?148-Archive-quot-My-Mertailor-experiences-quot
My mertailor experience http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?134-Archive-quot-My-Mertailor-Experience-quot
Neutral or in the middle Reviews
The needle in my tail http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?131-Archive-quot-The-Needle-inbeded-in-my-tail.-quot
Negative Reviews
Mertailor Review http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?60-Mertailor-Review
What Happened: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?147-Archive-quot-what-happened-repost-of-Raven-s-review-and-replies-quot
The Never ending story about ordering a mertailor tail http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?145-Archive-quot-the-neverending-story-about-ordering-a-mertailor-tail-quot
My Tail Order: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?144-Archive-quot-My-Tail-Order-quot
Tail and top mixup http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?133-Archive-quot-Mertailor-Tail-and-Top-Mix-up-quot
My mertailor experience http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?135-Archive-quot-My-Mertailor-tail-quot
Maybe I recieved a tail all ready used http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?132-Archive-quot-Maybe-I-received-a-tail-already-used.-quot
Mertailor http://mer.yuku.com/topic/343/Mertailor#.Tjd5EWv1beI
Something important to remember about reviews: Eric has had past reviews removed from the mer yuku website that he felt were "slandering" his name, he also deletes any negative comments he recieves on his FB. Some mers have tried to give him a second chance and thus deleted their reviews that were negative.
Main Mertailor Product Complaints:
What I gather from the mermaid community as the main complaints about mertailor's tails (combined from all the reviews and messages people have sent me)
- Tails aren't the right size
-Tails look nothing like they do on his website
-No option for return (please note, there is now a section on the new website for returns but no one has had an experience with him doing this yet)
-in most cases money not refunded
-many tails do not arrive on time
-material used in latex tails may not be safe (Alex)
-Tails do not last (See the degredation of a mertailor tail thread with photos (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/769#.Tjd61mv1beJ))
-tails often arrive in poor boxes and poor condition
-tails take longer to make and send then his website claims (at least 3 months for most people)
-paint scrapes off easily
-different types of neoprene used (Raina and Marla's tails)
-Flukes fill up with water and air and balloon, are not glued down
Main Mertailor Complaints
- accuses everyone in the community as copy cats
-wrongfully threatens legal action because he has a copy right claim (for a SCULPTURE (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?136-Copyright-Claims-against-tails))
-does not aknowledge the help others have given him (Linda, (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?172-Hello-from-a-Siren) for instance.)
-Lies to the community (His apology to Raina and the community did not come from him but rather Linda)
-harasses users to remove posts about him
-Hates when users talk about him (Raina sent a screenshot that will be talked about later)
-Uses his FB to dramatically call out users or issues in the community and rile his fans against people
-makes large attempts to silence the free speech of the community
-does not return emails or phone calls in a timely manner
A History of Mertailor Drama on Mer Yuku and in the Community
Mer yuku moved to mernetwork in part as a direct result of his reporting review threads that were not in his favour. Originally there were no "bad" posts about Mertailor but when Raina and Claudio first posted their reviews (since removed thanks to Eric) an uproard started in the community. No body wanted to admit they had similar complaints until Eric angered the wrong mermaid Raven (see her above original account of what happened and the tail she got). When Raven came out and told everyone about her experience suddenly many other who were having issues felt safe to do so (see all the reviews that are linked above). Mermaid Melissa joined in with her own issues about being exploited by Eric and before we knew it there were videos circulating the web about bad mertailor, his FB was deleted, and he seemed to dissapear.
You can still see some of the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugUh6eCpWD4
The video above goes in part with Raina's Review. Raina tells me she originally took it down for a while when it looked like Eric had changed but has since reposted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oH2VP2TMmc
see above another warning video
Warning, this next bit is LONG and there will be a "TL:DR" at the end if you feel the need to skim by
After a bit of hiatus and a lot of anti-mertailor stuff Eric started a blog (http://mertailor.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-13T12%3A20%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7)and this was one of the first big posts he made:
Critique (http://mertailor.blogspot.com/2010/12/critique.html)
As with any business, there is going to be a certain degree of negative press that is expected. Everyone is 100% entitled to their own opinions but, without breaking anyone's privacy, I would like to discuss this topic from a more objective standpoint. There are many places where people can go to post comments about their experience. This can be a great thing and produce a feeling of a close community, however, negative energy feeds off of negative energy. I am well aware of the things being said about me and my company. Some concerns are legitimate and come from actual customers who wish something had been done differently with their tail. Some review are from people that I have had personal relationships with that have ended and there is clearly bitterness in their posts. Some reviews are exaggerated in order to gain attention. I have seen people post many pictures of their tail looking fine, try to alter something by themself, create a new problem, and then post negative pictures blaming Mertailor for these problems. Unfortunately, this kind of negative press comes with the territory and is something that I am having to learn how to deal with. This is not uncommon for any business. Most people are far more likely to find a problem in something and speak about it if they see others doing the same, and praise is more rare to come by. I have realized that it is like shopping. You're pushing a shopping cart and you have a squeaky wheel. People are much more likely to complain about the squeaky wheel than to praise the 3 good wheels for having their WD-40 that day. Another example......celebrities have whole magazines where people are waiting for them to mess up and read about it, but millions of people back and support them for a reason.
If you are reading this and just getting to know about me for the first time, or just interested to know more about me, I DO urge you to do your research on me and my company. Research my references, check out who I've worked with, what I've done, and where I've performed. Communicate directly with me and make your own judgement. Mertailor has existed for over 5 years and had hundreds of satisfied customers all over the world. Look into everything and make sure you see the whole track record, not just the squeaky wheel.
I look forward to talking to you soon.
Eric
Now, this was met by mixed feelings in the community and you can see their reaction on mer yuku here (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/431/Mertailor-Blog#.TjeAH2v1beI)
Raina wrote the following response to Eric:
Dear Eric
I know you read meryuku on a regular basis and that's pretty clear from the details of your posts on blogger. So I'm writing a public open letter to you to keep things accountable on both ends, and to summarize my thoughts on what you're doing.
I'm a firm believer than people can change. I'd hate for someone to judge me on what I was like a year ago, or heck even a few months ago. I grow, I learn, I make choices, I try every day to wake up and be a better person. I am very hopeful that you can overcome all your negative choices and negative press to become the person you'd like to be. Despite being very frustrated with your actions both with my tail and on our forum, I am not above changing my opinions of you and allowing you a chance to screw up and recover. I'm a human being, I do stupid things too. I know somewhere down the line I'm going to really upset someone and I'll hope they'll give me a second change to redeem myself too.
I see that you're going to take more efforts to ensure the fit of your tails. I am thrilled to see this as it's something I have been suggesting for a while. I do not expect that you'd be able to get every single tail right and I also don't expect that you'd be able to fix every single tail that you get wrong. I do however expect you to see a problem and do everything you can to prevent it from happening again. In this case- you're looking into better ways to communicate measurement and really, that's all I can ask. I was very happy to see that blog post and I certainly hope you'll follow through on it. Nobody expects you to be perfect, but it's important to admit to mistakes so that everyone including yourself can move on from them.
You've upset a lot of people.... but at the end of the day it wasn't the fact that our tails didn't fit, weren't the right colour, or had artistic interpretations that got us to the extreme points of bitterness that we've all been showing. It was your attitude, your lack of responsibility, and ultimately your attempt to silence us that pushed us to the beyond. I feel like everyone with the exception of Raven who knows you personally and felt very betrayed by your behaviour, worked really hard to be constructive in our critiques and dealings with you until you crossed the line of trying to have us silenced. Before that point you didn't have a lot of negative public feedback, there weren't anti-youtube videos, and there certainly weren't as many forum posts. All the bitterness exploded after that point and I hope you're able to recognize that and think differently before you react to your next piece of feedback.
I for one, always tried to balance my critiques of you with the fact that you always replied to me emails politely and on-time, created a beautiful piece of artwork (even if it didn't fit), and gave me a discounted price when I talked about the negative things. However, you had all those posts removed and with your recent behaviour I saw no reason to sandwhich in compliments and respect when you clearly weren't capable of giving that to me or others.
Im happy that you removed your things and took time to gather yourself and start over so to say with your blog and facebook. I hope you've learned something from the experience and I am pleased to see a more positive responsible attitude coming from your blog. Im disappointed in myself that I allowed myself to sink to such caddy behaviour as making fun of you and I take responsibility for that. It was very difficult to deal with you in a respectful manner after you crossed the line of having our threads removed.
I believe that I have real complaints about my tail. It drastically doesn't fit, it looks nothing like advertised on the site, and I've come to find out the material and the paint are not what I was told they were or what I selected in the ordering process. I think those are real complaints and I'm sure by now you've seen my video to see how drastically they impact my tail. I think I am valid in having a real complaint that you came to our forum and tried to bully people and have threads/posts removed. Those are real genuine complaints. They aren't exaggerated to make you look bad- I think I've all ready demonstrated that with my earlier reviews that you had removed.
In your analogies on your blog I'd like to say, I am not buying a product from a celebrity. If a celebrity's behaviour upset me then sure I wouldn't buy their product. Ive met several famous musicians who turned out to be horrible people and I dont buy their music or say good things about them to anyone. With you, if it was just your attitude that was the problem and not the tails, or your personal life was in question etc but your tails were fine... I could separate those things from the art you create. But it's not just your attitude that was the problem, it was the tails. In your analogy of the shopping cart it wasn't that the wheel was squeeky, it was that you were missing a whole wheel rendering the cart useless. You can't use a cart that only has 3 wheels. That's what my tail was like, a cart with 3 wheels.
I think you're on the right path with your analogies though. One thing important I learned working in customer service is that if you provide good service to a customer they may tell their friend. If you provide bad service they will tell everyone they know. That's how it's always going to be.
Personally, I've heard a lot more about you from other people. A lot of anecdotal evidence if you will. I can't say I don't judge you on it because I see people who are really hurt. However. I would be more than willing to remove my own anti-mertailor videos if you were to issue a public apology to the mer yuku communities on your blog admitting that it was inappropriate to threaten us with legal action and have our critiques removed. After that I would consider the matter over and I'd stop telling everyone who will listen about my experience with you. Obviously, I can't vouch for anyone else in this community because they've all had their own personal experiences with you. But I felt that whole situation to be incredibly inappropriate and not at all the kind of image you want to be putting out there. So I'd like an apology. it doesn't have to be a big horrible "oh yes Im an awful person" kind of thing cuz hopefully you arent. You're just a regular human being who made some bad choices. But I'd like it to be sincere and truthful. I think it would make all of us feel much better and I also think it would improve your current standing with future customers. It does need to be specific however and not "Im sorry some people are mad at me" kind of deal. In order for me to believe anything you're writing right now on your blog, or to stop encouraging people to NOT buy from you I and this community need some sort of assurance that you're doing your best to change and make things right
So there you go, the ball is in your court. I'll keep an eye on your blog. If I don't see anything I'll continue to tell people my current opinions unless you do something else drastic to change them.
-Raina
To which "Eric" (it was found out later it was not actually him) replied:
Due to recent activity I feel that I owe an apology to the mermaid community.
To the mermaids and mermen of mer.yuku, I would like to say that I am very sorry for taking such negative actions against your forum posts. Reading some of the things that were said were very upsetting and I do believe I over reacted. I was wrong to speak so harshly about legal retaliation, and while I do still feel that some things said crossed the line, I should not have had all of the posts regarding Mertailor removed. You are all entitled to your opinions and I am learning to respect that.
Raina, I would like to personally apologize to you for having your posts removed. You do have legitimate concerns regarding your tail and I realize that. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I appreciate the overall tone that was felt in your letter. I did not feel animosity, but rather a person who was being completely genuine. I wish you all the best in your mermaiding career.
Thank you everyone for reading and I look forward to being part of your mermaid/man journey.
Eric
This marked the turning point in which Eric fooled us all into thinking he really DID change for the better and was going to work really hard on his relationship with the community.
Too Long Didnt Read:
Summary: Eric apologized to the community and his apology was mostly accepted. Though later the community would find out he did not make the apology another user did in an effort to help him out.
And for a small amount of time everyone made good on their word. Raina took her things down, it took a little while for Raven to come around, Melissa went on hating the mertailor and then very quietly and out of the public eye seemed to make amends. People were sending their tails to get fixed if they were messed up and Eric launched his new silicone tails. It looked like everything was getting better...
BUT new negative reviews were still popping up and instead of agreeing most users were just encouraging the customers to contact Eric to see if he could fix things up for them. I have heard from several mermaids on this site as well that many customers would contact them in an effort to get help with their bad tails. Soon things started to rub Eric the wrong way again...
On his blog Eric made a post about what he REALLY thinks of the community (hence why I dont agree with him being on the cover of a certain magazine)
If you want my honest opinion, I think it is a joke. Just because there is a group of people with a common passion, does not give them the right to break laws, infringe, or bully. In the real world there are laws, rules, and regulations for reasons. If people cannot follow them and get caught, they are likely to get called out by their wrongful actions or reprimanded by the law. People may not like this, but that's how the world rolls. If people do not want to get reprimanded or called out on a mistake that they made, then they should have not done it in the first place. It is a pretty simple fact of life. Right, wrong, or otherwise, when people duplicate original works of art (ie. sculptures, music, paintings, photographs, drawings, costumes, etc), they know what they are doing. Whether or not people are willing to deal with or accept the repercussions is another story in itself. Plain and simple, reproducing original images or reposting or publishing them without the consent of the original owner(s) is unlawful.
The community should be for people to be original and unique. To live dream. However, that is not the case from most material available on many public domains. Believe it or not there are hundreds of ways to create a mermaid tail. If I remember correctly from going back to my childhood days, mermaids are half human, half fish. If this is the case then there are thousands upon thousands of various species of fish. Each fish has a different color pattern caudal or fluke shape, scale patterns/shapes, and various pectoral and dorsal fins.
With that said, why do people say there is only a "select few" ways to create a mermaid tail? Unfortunately, I do not think this is the case. I think people are suffering themselves from being original by being lazy.
It seemed this was all the result of a certain merman who was working on making a custom merman tail for a friend that Eric felt threatened by. IN fact, the tail (photos since removed from FB) looked NOTHING like anything done by Eric and as we've all ready seen he clearly doesnt understand copying and copyright (this will be it's own section as we keep going)
Now, I personally, after seeing a lot of this hypocritical behaviour between him and a professional mermaid did a krass editorial on mer yuku that has since been deleted that documented ways in which he violated copyright and some other issues. I deleted it because Melissa mermaid contacted about half of you in what I feel was a bullying and manipulative way (I got a few messages from mermaids begging me to take it down because she wouldnt stop bothering them and telling everyone THEY did it), and accused the other half of you of being me. I felt like, the message was sent and recieved and everyone knew so I could delete the post and save other people the headache.
Eric responded to this by removing every single person he thought could have had anything to do with and everyone from the community and all the mermaids he knew off his FB. This shocked many who had no idea what was going on and most recieved a generic response. (p.s. Raina, I'll leave it to you if you want to post the message you recieved from him)
There's a lot of stuff that happened in between here on FB that Im going to post in it's own spot because I have screenshots, but what happened next really showed his true colours. The Mer yuku community decided they needed to vote on whether or not they would allow Eric to join the mernetwork community. You can read the thread here (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/1103/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork?page=1#.TjeFcWv1beI)
Highlights from the poll?
-We discovered for sure that Eric did not do any of the blog posts that had to do with the apology to Raina and the mer.yuku community
-We discovered Eric didn't even make a lot of the tails that were making people happy- it was his assistant he denies having
-More reviews of bad product got posted (See Dixie's here: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11174/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11174 )
-Freethinker shared how Eric didn't follow through on his Wife's tail fixing- Freethinker has been a LOYAL mertailor customer for years and really supported him when everything was bad, read about that here: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11195/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11195
And then... Eric did something SERIOUSLY stupid that sealed his fate. He posted a screencap of a comment Raina left on a lady Gaga page about his bad tails. See the screencap and comments here: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11244/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11244
Turns out, Eric's fans didn't agree with what he'd done (can you say unprofessional to the max?!) and many started commenting, of course he deleted them as fast as he could and soon delete the whole post. Raina's reply: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11254/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11254
One of the tails Eric DIDNT make: http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/didnotmakethsitail.jpg
Once this happened, Eric started unleashing a slew of inappropriate comments on his facebook that were direct replies and callouts to things that he saw here...
Facebook Drama
With this, it's just best to show screenshots since he can delete anything he wants. This may also be a too long didnt read for many of you, so feel free to skim past if you know all this. Just posting for accountability. I hate when he says we're lying about him.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/11.png
This is a direct call out to this thread: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?164-My-Dragon-Skin-Tail-In-the-Works
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/anypress.jpg
Eric believes any press is good press, and to claim "once the people got to know me" is a bit of a lie dont you think? Since they weren't getting to know him at all? Just someone trying to help him out?
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/assistanttalk.jpg
First of all, this goes with the link where freethinker talks about his assistant Linda. And way to void someone's privacy there Eric. The people on your FB have no idea what you're talking about and you've just singled someone out again. Do you realize that's considered "personal attack" on FB policy and is a bannable offence? We all know he didn't make the tails on his own and that he didn't do his mertailor stuff on his own. Linda was even called his assistant in an article about his underwater performing where she was with him to do auditions. *face palm* keep your lies straight main!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/butnolinda.jpg
but no thank you to your assistants, no thank you to thom shouse or anyone who you literally stole tail making advice, ideas, (ripping apart tails sound familiar?) from... geesh.
Then we have THIS post that completley contradicts that one...
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/butugethelp.jpg
because you know, he's had NO help getting where he is.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/fairquestion.jpg
A complaint on his page from 2 weeks ago, never answered. But thankfully, not deleted.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/gaga.jpg
Copying Gaga who loves to call people her little monsters, guess we're all little mermaids and mermen of Erics
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/ignored.jpg
Respond to your emails please!
People need to track him down on here or FB to get a response.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/maybeforlatex.jpg
Customers would like you to do something about your latex tails Mister Mertailor....
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/mertailor3.jpg
This post happened after in the dragon skin thread people started wondering about Eric's materials and their safe use. He may use dragon skin for silicone, he doesn't use it for latex.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/mertailorhairpull.jpg
Showing a photo of you pulling a girl's hair back? Pretty creepy. And why does he always insist on pretending he's straight in his photos? He's gay, we all know it. No one cares. Be proud and stop pretending you're something you're not just to sell your product!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/no.jpg
Even though he did it for years. Eric will no longer make tails with 2 colors! Le gasp!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/noanswer.jpg
Another question with no answer....
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/onlylikesuswhen.jpg
Posts like this confuse me and seem fake considering how much he seems to hate the mermaiding world... especially ours...
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/ownbigfan.jpg
Eric is his own biggest fan that's for sure.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/stoporders.jpg
I wonder if he'll stop taking orders then for tails since he obviously wont be able to keep up on them! Probably not, and everyone will just get them late!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/whentheydontfallapart.jpg
You mean when they dont fall apart, right?
Eric and The Lady Gaga Saga...
So, you've all ready seen the drama where Eric tried to call out another member of the community for having an opinion about his tails on a lady Gaga website right? Well here's what you missed from his page. When the video came out there was a LOT of negative feedback about his tail. So much so, that he decided he couldn't take full credit. While he tells Raina "Gaga's opinion means more than yours" consider how he responded to fans who didn't like his tail...
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/defenseaboutGaga.jpg (this was posted on Raina's page and copied and pasted on his own page several times)
He's not exactly happy people don't like it, and he's not willing to take credit. Don't you think Gaga's opinion means more than yours too Mister Mertailor?
I wonder how she'd feel if she saw you're practically embaressed by the tail you made her but you will still pick on a member of the community in her name!
Eric and Copying
Eric accuses everyone of copying him and threatens legal action. Let's take a look shall we of how Eric copies others!
Hey Raven's Etsy! Remember how you did a bunch of octopus themed jewelery? Oh look: http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/idontcopynono.jpg
Let's not forget the logos and designs Eric uses that he claims are original and are not. Look familiar?
http://www.lantainfo.com/hotel/koh_lanta/lanta_mermaid/lanta_mermaid_logo.gif
But let's do a real comparison here of mertailor tails VS other tails that were done first....
Here's a gallery of Thom Shouse Tails: http://www.mermaidrentals.com/gallery.htm common copies in Eric? scales and patterns, fluke designs, even the fit and the way they bunch! Even Eric's colours could be a dead ringer for many of Thoms.
Compare Thoms (even do a google search for more variety) with these: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=260678517283071&set=pt.130816216935969&type=1&theater
There's a reason one of the articles said Thom just stopped talking to Eric one day.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=219151451435778&set=a.159382254079365.41893.130816216935969&type=1&theater
Looks an awful lot like mermaid's in motions blue tail! Like, a LOT. And even if he's not trying to copy- dont you think if it was the other way around he'd accuse?
and Raina, I gotta say, doesn't this look an AWFUL lot like your tail (after Raven re did it) and even one of hers?!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2225650958540&set=a.1111666309620.18805.1165753630&type=1&theater
Conclusion
Many people dont have any other option if they want a realistic tail than to go to Eric. But I believe that will be changing within the year as more people learn to make their own and more tail makers are coming out. Eric goes out of his way to censor people who say anything negative to the point of embaressing people on his FB through callouts. (Coral, Linda, Raina, etc.) He spends so much time following everything that's done on this forum it's no wonder he doesn't get tail orders done on time. He seems to have burned many bridges, angered many people, and made many enimies.
You take a risk when you purchase from mertailor. While his new tails may look beautiful remember they are photoshoppes and even then you can see the issues. You also as much as we try to make this a free place are not free to say whatever you feel or want without some sort of retribution from him. if you post a concern on here you may not get fair treatment from Eric.
Consider this is a person who is WINGING IT. Eric didn't go to school to learn how to run a business. While he makes tails and has become very good, NOTHING QUALIFIES HIM to run a business, interact with customers, handle money, or really anything. He clearly lacks customer service skills and public relations.
You are free to do what you want to do and if you want to support him or give him a chance that is your choice. He did not turn over a new leaf. He didn't change. Other people did that for him. He is the same old person causing drama and headaches. While this editorial is very thick with my opinions and the opinions of the members who contributed (many wished to stay anonymous) it is still full of facts that you can see with your own eyes and make a choice about.
Good luck. And for god's sake praise me for not swearing this time.
This is an editorial on products and services from Eric the Mertailor. Here you will find compiled links to all things mertailor for your buying, reviewing, and information needs. An editorial is like a review, while it will include facts (all things I have linked and screenshot etc.) it will also quote people's opinions and community activity based on my observation and interaction within the community. This editorial is subject to additional information. (see, told you I'd hold off on the swearing!) Having a bit of code issue if a mod wants to fix the coding errors.
Purpose
The purpose of this editorial is to present a timeline of mertailor activity to readers along with information and reviews so potential customers can have all the information they need to make a choice about purchasing. This is also a compilation of all the information scattered around the internet brought into one spot
Information
Mertailor on the Web
First let's start with all the places you can find mertailor online and learn about who he is and what he does.
Mertailor's official website (http://www.themertailor.com/)
Mertailor's official blog (http://mertailor.blogspot.com/)
Mertailor's official facebook (http://www.facebook.com/mertailor)
Mertaior's official model mayhem (http://www.modelmayhem.com/1334584)
The following is a list of other places online in which you can find mertailor information including interviews, forums, blogs, etc. (these will be referenced furthur in the article)
Author Carolyn Turgeon's interview with Eric (http://iamamermaid.com/2011/02/21/the-mertailor-eric-ducharme-and-his-wondrous-tails/)
Lady Gaga's wears a mertailor tail (http://gagafashionland.com/2011/07/le-grand-journal-lady-gaga-in-mertailor/)
mertailor gab page (http://mertailorblog.forums.com/) (this will be quoted and referenced later)
The mer yuku page of forum posts for mertailor (http://mer.yuku.com/forums/107#.Tjd1rWv1beI)
A mer yuku thread that originally linked to an OLD interview with a young mertailor, now only quotes (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/378/Quotes-about-mertailor#.Tjd2L2v1beK)
Mertailor reviews on mernetwork (http://mernetwork.com/index/forumdisplay.php?19-Mertailor)
(http://mernetwork.com/index/forumdisplay.php?19-Mertailor)If you have any applicable mertailor links please post them in the comments so they can be added to this editorial.
Mertailor Reviews (of what is currently posted)
Please note the time and date of the review you're reading as it may be several years old and non-applicable anymore
Positive Reviews
My Mertailor Expierience http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?148-Archive-quot-My-Mertailor-experiences-quot
My mertailor experience http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?134-Archive-quot-My-Mertailor-Experience-quot
Neutral or in the middle Reviews
The needle in my tail http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?131-Archive-quot-The-Needle-inbeded-in-my-tail.-quot
Negative Reviews
Mertailor Review http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?60-Mertailor-Review
What Happened: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?147-Archive-quot-what-happened-repost-of-Raven-s-review-and-replies-quot
The Never ending story about ordering a mertailor tail http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?145-Archive-quot-the-neverending-story-about-ordering-a-mertailor-tail-quot
My Tail Order: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?144-Archive-quot-My-Tail-Order-quot
Tail and top mixup http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?133-Archive-quot-Mertailor-Tail-and-Top-Mix-up-quot
My mertailor experience http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?135-Archive-quot-My-Mertailor-tail-quot
Maybe I recieved a tail all ready used http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?132-Archive-quot-Maybe-I-received-a-tail-already-used.-quot
Mertailor http://mer.yuku.com/topic/343/Mertailor#.Tjd5EWv1beI
Something important to remember about reviews: Eric has had past reviews removed from the mer yuku website that he felt were "slandering" his name, he also deletes any negative comments he recieves on his FB. Some mers have tried to give him a second chance and thus deleted their reviews that were negative.
Main Mertailor Product Complaints:
What I gather from the mermaid community as the main complaints about mertailor's tails (combined from all the reviews and messages people have sent me)
- Tails aren't the right size
-Tails look nothing like they do on his website
-No option for return (please note, there is now a section on the new website for returns but no one has had an experience with him doing this yet)
-in most cases money not refunded
-many tails do not arrive on time
-material used in latex tails may not be safe (Alex)
-Tails do not last (See the degredation of a mertailor tail thread with photos (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/769#.Tjd61mv1beJ))
-tails often arrive in poor boxes and poor condition
-tails take longer to make and send then his website claims (at least 3 months for most people)
-paint scrapes off easily
-different types of neoprene used (Raina and Marla's tails)
-Flukes fill up with water and air and balloon, are not glued down
Main Mertailor Complaints
- accuses everyone in the community as copy cats
-wrongfully threatens legal action because he has a copy right claim (for a SCULPTURE (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?136-Copyright-Claims-against-tails))
-does not aknowledge the help others have given him (Linda, (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?172-Hello-from-a-Siren) for instance.)
-Lies to the community (His apology to Raina and the community did not come from him but rather Linda)
-harasses users to remove posts about him
-Hates when users talk about him (Raina sent a screenshot that will be talked about later)
-Uses his FB to dramatically call out users or issues in the community and rile his fans against people
-makes large attempts to silence the free speech of the community
-does not return emails or phone calls in a timely manner
A History of Mertailor Drama on Mer Yuku and in the Community
Mer yuku moved to mernetwork in part as a direct result of his reporting review threads that were not in his favour. Originally there were no "bad" posts about Mertailor but when Raina and Claudio first posted their reviews (since removed thanks to Eric) an uproard started in the community. No body wanted to admit they had similar complaints until Eric angered the wrong mermaid Raven (see her above original account of what happened and the tail she got). When Raven came out and told everyone about her experience suddenly many other who were having issues felt safe to do so (see all the reviews that are linked above). Mermaid Melissa joined in with her own issues about being exploited by Eric and before we knew it there were videos circulating the web about bad mertailor, his FB was deleted, and he seemed to dissapear.
You can still see some of the videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugUh6eCpWD4
The video above goes in part with Raina's Review. Raina tells me she originally took it down for a while when it looked like Eric had changed but has since reposted it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oH2VP2TMmc
see above another warning video
Warning, this next bit is LONG and there will be a "TL:DR" at the end if you feel the need to skim by
After a bit of hiatus and a lot of anti-mertailor stuff Eric started a blog (http://mertailor.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-12-13T12%3A20%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7)and this was one of the first big posts he made:
Critique (http://mertailor.blogspot.com/2010/12/critique.html)
As with any business, there is going to be a certain degree of negative press that is expected. Everyone is 100% entitled to their own opinions but, without breaking anyone's privacy, I would like to discuss this topic from a more objective standpoint. There are many places where people can go to post comments about their experience. This can be a great thing and produce a feeling of a close community, however, negative energy feeds off of negative energy. I am well aware of the things being said about me and my company. Some concerns are legitimate and come from actual customers who wish something had been done differently with their tail. Some review are from people that I have had personal relationships with that have ended and there is clearly bitterness in their posts. Some reviews are exaggerated in order to gain attention. I have seen people post many pictures of their tail looking fine, try to alter something by themself, create a new problem, and then post negative pictures blaming Mertailor for these problems. Unfortunately, this kind of negative press comes with the territory and is something that I am having to learn how to deal with. This is not uncommon for any business. Most people are far more likely to find a problem in something and speak about it if they see others doing the same, and praise is more rare to come by. I have realized that it is like shopping. You're pushing a shopping cart and you have a squeaky wheel. People are much more likely to complain about the squeaky wheel than to praise the 3 good wheels for having their WD-40 that day. Another example......celebrities have whole magazines where people are waiting for them to mess up and read about it, but millions of people back and support them for a reason.
If you are reading this and just getting to know about me for the first time, or just interested to know more about me, I DO urge you to do your research on me and my company. Research my references, check out who I've worked with, what I've done, and where I've performed. Communicate directly with me and make your own judgement. Mertailor has existed for over 5 years and had hundreds of satisfied customers all over the world. Look into everything and make sure you see the whole track record, not just the squeaky wheel.
I look forward to talking to you soon.
Eric
Now, this was met by mixed feelings in the community and you can see their reaction on mer yuku here (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/431/Mertailor-Blog#.TjeAH2v1beI)
Raina wrote the following response to Eric:
Dear Eric
I know you read meryuku on a regular basis and that's pretty clear from the details of your posts on blogger. So I'm writing a public open letter to you to keep things accountable on both ends, and to summarize my thoughts on what you're doing.
I'm a firm believer than people can change. I'd hate for someone to judge me on what I was like a year ago, or heck even a few months ago. I grow, I learn, I make choices, I try every day to wake up and be a better person. I am very hopeful that you can overcome all your negative choices and negative press to become the person you'd like to be. Despite being very frustrated with your actions both with my tail and on our forum, I am not above changing my opinions of you and allowing you a chance to screw up and recover. I'm a human being, I do stupid things too. I know somewhere down the line I'm going to really upset someone and I'll hope they'll give me a second change to redeem myself too.
I see that you're going to take more efforts to ensure the fit of your tails. I am thrilled to see this as it's something I have been suggesting for a while. I do not expect that you'd be able to get every single tail right and I also don't expect that you'd be able to fix every single tail that you get wrong. I do however expect you to see a problem and do everything you can to prevent it from happening again. In this case- you're looking into better ways to communicate measurement and really, that's all I can ask. I was very happy to see that blog post and I certainly hope you'll follow through on it. Nobody expects you to be perfect, but it's important to admit to mistakes so that everyone including yourself can move on from them.
You've upset a lot of people.... but at the end of the day it wasn't the fact that our tails didn't fit, weren't the right colour, or had artistic interpretations that got us to the extreme points of bitterness that we've all been showing. It was your attitude, your lack of responsibility, and ultimately your attempt to silence us that pushed us to the beyond. I feel like everyone with the exception of Raven who knows you personally and felt very betrayed by your behaviour, worked really hard to be constructive in our critiques and dealings with you until you crossed the line of trying to have us silenced. Before that point you didn't have a lot of negative public feedback, there weren't anti-youtube videos, and there certainly weren't as many forum posts. All the bitterness exploded after that point and I hope you're able to recognize that and think differently before you react to your next piece of feedback.
I for one, always tried to balance my critiques of you with the fact that you always replied to me emails politely and on-time, created a beautiful piece of artwork (even if it didn't fit), and gave me a discounted price when I talked about the negative things. However, you had all those posts removed and with your recent behaviour I saw no reason to sandwhich in compliments and respect when you clearly weren't capable of giving that to me or others.
Im happy that you removed your things and took time to gather yourself and start over so to say with your blog and facebook. I hope you've learned something from the experience and I am pleased to see a more positive responsible attitude coming from your blog. Im disappointed in myself that I allowed myself to sink to such caddy behaviour as making fun of you and I take responsibility for that. It was very difficult to deal with you in a respectful manner after you crossed the line of having our threads removed.
I believe that I have real complaints about my tail. It drastically doesn't fit, it looks nothing like advertised on the site, and I've come to find out the material and the paint are not what I was told they were or what I selected in the ordering process. I think those are real complaints and I'm sure by now you've seen my video to see how drastically they impact my tail. I think I am valid in having a real complaint that you came to our forum and tried to bully people and have threads/posts removed. Those are real genuine complaints. They aren't exaggerated to make you look bad- I think I've all ready demonstrated that with my earlier reviews that you had removed.
In your analogies on your blog I'd like to say, I am not buying a product from a celebrity. If a celebrity's behaviour upset me then sure I wouldn't buy their product. Ive met several famous musicians who turned out to be horrible people and I dont buy their music or say good things about them to anyone. With you, if it was just your attitude that was the problem and not the tails, or your personal life was in question etc but your tails were fine... I could separate those things from the art you create. But it's not just your attitude that was the problem, it was the tails. In your analogy of the shopping cart it wasn't that the wheel was squeeky, it was that you were missing a whole wheel rendering the cart useless. You can't use a cart that only has 3 wheels. That's what my tail was like, a cart with 3 wheels.
I think you're on the right path with your analogies though. One thing important I learned working in customer service is that if you provide good service to a customer they may tell their friend. If you provide bad service they will tell everyone they know. That's how it's always going to be.
Personally, I've heard a lot more about you from other people. A lot of anecdotal evidence if you will. I can't say I don't judge you on it because I see people who are really hurt. However. I would be more than willing to remove my own anti-mertailor videos if you were to issue a public apology to the mer yuku communities on your blog admitting that it was inappropriate to threaten us with legal action and have our critiques removed. After that I would consider the matter over and I'd stop telling everyone who will listen about my experience with you. Obviously, I can't vouch for anyone else in this community because they've all had their own personal experiences with you. But I felt that whole situation to be incredibly inappropriate and not at all the kind of image you want to be putting out there. So I'd like an apology. it doesn't have to be a big horrible "oh yes Im an awful person" kind of thing cuz hopefully you arent. You're just a regular human being who made some bad choices. But I'd like it to be sincere and truthful. I think it would make all of us feel much better and I also think it would improve your current standing with future customers. It does need to be specific however and not "Im sorry some people are mad at me" kind of deal. In order for me to believe anything you're writing right now on your blog, or to stop encouraging people to NOT buy from you I and this community need some sort of assurance that you're doing your best to change and make things right
So there you go, the ball is in your court. I'll keep an eye on your blog. If I don't see anything I'll continue to tell people my current opinions unless you do something else drastic to change them.
-Raina
To which "Eric" (it was found out later it was not actually him) replied:
Due to recent activity I feel that I owe an apology to the mermaid community.
To the mermaids and mermen of mer.yuku, I would like to say that I am very sorry for taking such negative actions against your forum posts. Reading some of the things that were said were very upsetting and I do believe I over reacted. I was wrong to speak so harshly about legal retaliation, and while I do still feel that some things said crossed the line, I should not have had all of the posts regarding Mertailor removed. You are all entitled to your opinions and I am learning to respect that.
Raina, I would like to personally apologize to you for having your posts removed. You do have legitimate concerns regarding your tail and I realize that. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I appreciate the overall tone that was felt in your letter. I did not feel animosity, but rather a person who was being completely genuine. I wish you all the best in your mermaiding career.
Thank you everyone for reading and I look forward to being part of your mermaid/man journey.
Eric
This marked the turning point in which Eric fooled us all into thinking he really DID change for the better and was going to work really hard on his relationship with the community.
Too Long Didnt Read:
Summary: Eric apologized to the community and his apology was mostly accepted. Though later the community would find out he did not make the apology another user did in an effort to help him out.
And for a small amount of time everyone made good on their word. Raina took her things down, it took a little while for Raven to come around, Melissa went on hating the mertailor and then very quietly and out of the public eye seemed to make amends. People were sending their tails to get fixed if they were messed up and Eric launched his new silicone tails. It looked like everything was getting better...
BUT new negative reviews were still popping up and instead of agreeing most users were just encouraging the customers to contact Eric to see if he could fix things up for them. I have heard from several mermaids on this site as well that many customers would contact them in an effort to get help with their bad tails. Soon things started to rub Eric the wrong way again...
On his blog Eric made a post about what he REALLY thinks of the community (hence why I dont agree with him being on the cover of a certain magazine)
If you want my honest opinion, I think it is a joke. Just because there is a group of people with a common passion, does not give them the right to break laws, infringe, or bully. In the real world there are laws, rules, and regulations for reasons. If people cannot follow them and get caught, they are likely to get called out by their wrongful actions or reprimanded by the law. People may not like this, but that's how the world rolls. If people do not want to get reprimanded or called out on a mistake that they made, then they should have not done it in the first place. It is a pretty simple fact of life. Right, wrong, or otherwise, when people duplicate original works of art (ie. sculptures, music, paintings, photographs, drawings, costumes, etc), they know what they are doing. Whether or not people are willing to deal with or accept the repercussions is another story in itself. Plain and simple, reproducing original images or reposting or publishing them without the consent of the original owner(s) is unlawful.
The community should be for people to be original and unique. To live dream. However, that is not the case from most material available on many public domains. Believe it or not there are hundreds of ways to create a mermaid tail. If I remember correctly from going back to my childhood days, mermaids are half human, half fish. If this is the case then there are thousands upon thousands of various species of fish. Each fish has a different color pattern caudal or fluke shape, scale patterns/shapes, and various pectoral and dorsal fins.
With that said, why do people say there is only a "select few" ways to create a mermaid tail? Unfortunately, I do not think this is the case. I think people are suffering themselves from being original by being lazy.
It seemed this was all the result of a certain merman who was working on making a custom merman tail for a friend that Eric felt threatened by. IN fact, the tail (photos since removed from FB) looked NOTHING like anything done by Eric and as we've all ready seen he clearly doesnt understand copying and copyright (this will be it's own section as we keep going)
Now, I personally, after seeing a lot of this hypocritical behaviour between him and a professional mermaid did a krass editorial on mer yuku that has since been deleted that documented ways in which he violated copyright and some other issues. I deleted it because Melissa mermaid contacted about half of you in what I feel was a bullying and manipulative way (I got a few messages from mermaids begging me to take it down because she wouldnt stop bothering them and telling everyone THEY did it), and accused the other half of you of being me. I felt like, the message was sent and recieved and everyone knew so I could delete the post and save other people the headache.
Eric responded to this by removing every single person he thought could have had anything to do with and everyone from the community and all the mermaids he knew off his FB. This shocked many who had no idea what was going on and most recieved a generic response. (p.s. Raina, I'll leave it to you if you want to post the message you recieved from him)
There's a lot of stuff that happened in between here on FB that Im going to post in it's own spot because I have screenshots, but what happened next really showed his true colours. The Mer yuku community decided they needed to vote on whether or not they would allow Eric to join the mernetwork community. You can read the thread here (http://mer.yuku.com/topic/1103/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork?page=1#.TjeFcWv1beI)
Highlights from the poll?
-We discovered for sure that Eric did not do any of the blog posts that had to do with the apology to Raina and the mer.yuku community
-We discovered Eric didn't even make a lot of the tails that were making people happy- it was his assistant he denies having
-More reviews of bad product got posted (See Dixie's here: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11174/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11174 )
-Freethinker shared how Eric didn't follow through on his Wife's tail fixing- Freethinker has been a LOYAL mertailor customer for years and really supported him when everything was bad, read about that here: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11195/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11195
And then... Eric did something SERIOUSLY stupid that sealed his fate. He posted a screencap of a comment Raina left on a lady Gaga page about his bad tails. See the screencap and comments here: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11244/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11244
Turns out, Eric's fans didn't agree with what he'd done (can you say unprofessional to the max?!) and many started commenting, of course he deleted them as fast as he could and soon delete the whole post. Raina's reply: http://mer.yuku.com/reply/11254/Poll-Please-Vote-Mertailor-and-MerNetwork#reply-11254
One of the tails Eric DIDNT make: http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/didnotmakethsitail.jpg
Once this happened, Eric started unleashing a slew of inappropriate comments on his facebook that were direct replies and callouts to things that he saw here...
Facebook Drama
With this, it's just best to show screenshots since he can delete anything he wants. This may also be a too long didnt read for many of you, so feel free to skim past if you know all this. Just posting for accountability. I hate when he says we're lying about him.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/11.png
This is a direct call out to this thread: http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?164-My-Dragon-Skin-Tail-In-the-Works
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/anypress.jpg
Eric believes any press is good press, and to claim "once the people got to know me" is a bit of a lie dont you think? Since they weren't getting to know him at all? Just someone trying to help him out?
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/assistanttalk.jpg
First of all, this goes with the link where freethinker talks about his assistant Linda. And way to void someone's privacy there Eric. The people on your FB have no idea what you're talking about and you've just singled someone out again. Do you realize that's considered "personal attack" on FB policy and is a bannable offence? We all know he didn't make the tails on his own and that he didn't do his mertailor stuff on his own. Linda was even called his assistant in an article about his underwater performing where she was with him to do auditions. *face palm* keep your lies straight main!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/butnolinda.jpg
but no thank you to your assistants, no thank you to thom shouse or anyone who you literally stole tail making advice, ideas, (ripping apart tails sound familiar?) from... geesh.
Then we have THIS post that completley contradicts that one...
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/butugethelp.jpg
because you know, he's had NO help getting where he is.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/fairquestion.jpg
A complaint on his page from 2 weeks ago, never answered. But thankfully, not deleted.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/gaga.jpg
Copying Gaga who loves to call people her little monsters, guess we're all little mermaids and mermen of Erics
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/ignored.jpg
Respond to your emails please!
People need to track him down on here or FB to get a response.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/maybeforlatex.jpg
Customers would like you to do something about your latex tails Mister Mertailor....
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/mertailor3.jpg
This post happened after in the dragon skin thread people started wondering about Eric's materials and their safe use. He may use dragon skin for silicone, he doesn't use it for latex.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/mertailorhairpull.jpg
Showing a photo of you pulling a girl's hair back? Pretty creepy. And why does he always insist on pretending he's straight in his photos? He's gay, we all know it. No one cares. Be proud and stop pretending you're something you're not just to sell your product!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/no.jpg
Even though he did it for years. Eric will no longer make tails with 2 colors! Le gasp!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/noanswer.jpg
Another question with no answer....
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/onlylikesuswhen.jpg
Posts like this confuse me and seem fake considering how much he seems to hate the mermaiding world... especially ours...
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/ownbigfan.jpg
Eric is his own biggest fan that's for sure.
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/stoporders.jpg
I wonder if he'll stop taking orders then for tails since he obviously wont be able to keep up on them! Probably not, and everyone will just get them late!
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/whentheydontfallapart.jpg
You mean when they dont fall apart, right?
Eric and The Lady Gaga Saga...
So, you've all ready seen the drama where Eric tried to call out another member of the community for having an opinion about his tails on a lady Gaga website right? Well here's what you missed from his page. When the video came out there was a LOT of negative feedback about his tail. So much so, that he decided he couldn't take full credit. While he tells Raina "Gaga's opinion means more than yours" consider how he responded to fans who didn't like his tail...
http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/defenseaboutGaga.jpg (this was posted on Raina's page and copied and pasted on his own page several times)
He's not exactly happy people don't like it, and he's not willing to take credit. Don't you think Gaga's opinion means more than yours too Mister Mertailor?
I wonder how she'd feel if she saw you're practically embaressed by the tail you made her but you will still pick on a member of the community in her name!
Eric and Copying
Eric accuses everyone of copying him and threatens legal action. Let's take a look shall we of how Eric copies others!
Hey Raven's Etsy! Remember how you did a bunch of octopus themed jewelery? Oh look: http://i1116.photobucket.com/albums/k569/mikamer75/idontcopynono.jpg
Let's not forget the logos and designs Eric uses that he claims are original and are not. Look familiar?
http://www.lantainfo.com/hotel/koh_lanta/lanta_mermaid/lanta_mermaid_logo.gif
But let's do a real comparison here of mertailor tails VS other tails that were done first....
Here's a gallery of Thom Shouse Tails: http://www.mermaidrentals.com/gallery.htm common copies in Eric? scales and patterns, fluke designs, even the fit and the way they bunch! Even Eric's colours could be a dead ringer for many of Thoms.
Compare Thoms (even do a google search for more variety) with these: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=260678517283071&set=pt.130816216935969&type=1&theater
There's a reason one of the articles said Thom just stopped talking to Eric one day.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=219151451435778&set=a.159382254079365.41893.130816216935969&type=1&theater
Looks an awful lot like mermaid's in motions blue tail! Like, a LOT. And even if he's not trying to copy- dont you think if it was the other way around he'd accuse?
and Raina, I gotta say, doesn't this look an AWFUL lot like your tail (after Raven re did it) and even one of hers?!
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2225650958540&set=a.1111666309620.18805.1165753630&type=1&theater
Conclusion
Many people dont have any other option if they want a realistic tail than to go to Eric. But I believe that will be changing within the year as more people learn to make their own and more tail makers are coming out. Eric goes out of his way to censor people who say anything negative to the point of embaressing people on his FB through callouts. (Coral, Linda, Raina, etc.) He spends so much time following everything that's done on this forum it's no wonder he doesn't get tail orders done on time. He seems to have burned many bridges, angered many people, and made many enimies.
You take a risk when you purchase from mertailor. While his new tails may look beautiful remember they are photoshoppes and even then you can see the issues. You also as much as we try to make this a free place are not free to say whatever you feel or want without some sort of retribution from him. if you post a concern on here you may not get fair treatment from Eric.
Consider this is a person who is WINGING IT. Eric didn't go to school to learn how to run a business. While he makes tails and has become very good, NOTHING QUALIFIES HIM to run a business, interact with customers, handle money, or really anything. He clearly lacks customer service skills and public relations.
You are free to do what you want to do and if you want to support him or give him a chance that is your choice. He did not turn over a new leaf. He didn't change. Other people did that for him. He is the same old person causing drama and headaches. While this editorial is very thick with my opinions and the opinions of the members who contributed (many wished to stay anonymous) it is still full of facts that you can see with your own eyes and make a choice about.
Good luck. And for god's sake praise me for not swearing this time.