Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: Merrowfins review...the tail of two horror stories.

  1. #1
    Senior Member UtahMermaidPearl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    Posts
    188
    Add UtahMermaidPearl on Facebook

    Merrowfins review...the tail of two horror stories.

    I tried to contact the admin for the actual review thread but never heard back so I will post about my Merrowfins experience here instead! This is very long but a very good story and very informative, so keep reading!
    PART 1
    So earlier this year I won the "$1000 full silicone tail" contest from Merrowfins and I was so happy! He was doing this promote his new fluke shape "pirate" which he designed while with mertailor.
    I sent the first payment of $500 on 4/03/16. Due to a misunderstanding I was under the impression he would start as soon as I paid half. I paid the remaining $800 on 4/28/16, it was another $250 for a matching top (we will get to that later) and he charged me $50 for the PayPal fees.
    I sent him this photo for a rough design and my measurements Name:  IMG_8618.JPG
Views: 2160
Size:  9.7 KB
    After over a week of trying to get the sketch he said he had finished this is what I got it's pretty good. But then I asked for a little extra color and lines Name:  IMG_9979.JPG
Views: 1977
Size:  12.2 KB Name:  IMG_9980.JPG
Views: 2048
Size:  12.7 KB I never got any confirmation on a new design so I guess that's my fault?
    Next I will show you the lack of response I continued to receive. In these pictures you can see how much time continues to pass between responses. it wasn't until I sent this big message about my doubts that I heard back.
    Now I will show how friggin long it took. As you know I sent the money on 4/28. I was told it would be approximately 5-10 weeks. One day shy of 14 weeks later I was told it would be shipped. And several times before then the date was pushed back. On Wednesday August 3rd I was sent an official finished picture of my tail! I was so excited I was running around work showing everyone! I was told it would be shipped out that Friday, JUST in time for two very big events my company had planned, a Make A Wish event and Salt City SteamFest! But watch what happens next. it didn't ship on Friday so I had to pay more for it to get here if it left on Monday. Then on Wednesday I found out it hadn't shipped yet. So I had to pay another $300 to get it there over night.
    then it got here on Friday August 12th, the night before my two events!
    For those of you who have made it this far....thank you! ITS ABOUT TO GET SO MUCH WORSE.
    I put it on. And the unthinkable had happened! After all that work and money, it doesn't fit. I was so mad. Mad at Matt. It all fit perfectly except that the calfs were so tight I couldn't sit for very long and it was pulling the whole thing apart. I took it off and checked my measurements, every thing had gotten an inch bigger because a gained about 10lbs and I understand that's my fault. Then I checked the lower half of the measurements. Back when I sent the measurements I did the down measurements wrong. I didn't understand how to do that side. So when he caught my mistake he told me to redo them. I was on my half hour lunch break so I copied the around measurements from a picture and redid the down ones. But when I copied the around I somehow wrote 12 for my calfs and 13 for my ankles. I WAS DEVASTATED. I was so ready to blame the whole thing on Matt but I realized it was my own mistake. I hated myself, I felt so stupid I couldn't even understand how I could make such an expensive mistake. I will admit that this was my fault but he caught one measuring mistake and I felt he should have caught this one (he later admits he should've caught it as well) but in the end it is my fault.
    PART 2
    During the first part you probably thought this post is against Matt. But I go back a forth a lot during this whole process and by the end you will see which way I choose.
    Matt really isn't a bad guy, he was very remorseful for me and honestly I think he pitied me and wished I was happy and it all turned out well. I told him of my mistake. Here is the conversation. you can see he charged me much less because I had already spent so much. I am very grateful for that. I needed it done before comic con which was the first three days in September and he said he could do it. He said it would be at my house a few days before comic con. because it wasn't done in time I would again have to pay more for shipping. All my friends thought that both times he was scamming me. I had higher hopes. then that hurricane hit and he was right outside of its range. I can totally understand that the weather can cause issues when you are painting outside, but the whole time I was waiting he was posting pictures of other tails saying he had just finished painting them. So where was mine?
    Second day of comic con and I hadn't heard anything. For a while. three days after the photoshoot I text again.
    Wednesday September 21st I was told it was shipping that day. Friday the 23rd it's supposedly sent. Then this again all my friends think he didn't actually send it until then.
    October 7th it's finally here. Again. Missed comic con and my photoshoot. It's huge, too long, and not even the same colors. this wasn't as far up as it went. I was trying to take it off and when it went to here the whole thing fit fine. but here you can see where my feet actually are when it's pulled down. and you can also see the difference in color, which means it now doesnt match my top.
    And speaking of my top I'll tell you about it now. In my inbox if video you can see how small it is. I tried it on my standard yorkie and it fit him. I had to take apart a bra and glue new hooks and straps onto it. Plus the middle pulls apart, it's so thin I could stick my finger right through the silicone if I wanted to. you can see how small it is vs how much I had to add. you can also see my finger pushing through with very little effort.
    Back to the tail. Because I was tired of dealing with this I asked my friend Mermaid Dottie to do her magic. She brought it in, took off the top few inches, added a dorsal to cover the "scaring" from taking it in, and added the scales she cut off to parts of the tail where it's just slapped together. you can see here and in the last photo that there are a lot of scales missing and there's spots were the silicone is frosted on
    I hope I'm not forgetting anything but that was basically my whole experience. There were pros and cons to the experience and I really hope everyone else's experiences are better than mine. In the end though, I would never go through Merrowfins again
    Pros
    Good person
    Cares about if I love the tail or not
    Seems to have empathy
    Good painting skills
    Cons
    Lack of response
    Doesn't seem to care about deadlines
    Doesn't update properly
    I can't even explain the top
    Finances
    For first tail I paid $1000 + $250 for a top + $50 PayPal fee + $300 shipping (which I shouldn't have had to pay for if it had been said when I was told it was) for a subtotal of $1600
    Second tail I paid $100 to ship it back to him + $432 for the remake
    Grand total $2132 for a tail that I won for $1000.
    Not counting the money for repairs with Dottie.
    Hope you all made it through!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  2. #2
    Senior Member UtahMermaidPearl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    Posts
    188
    Add UtahMermaidPearl on Facebook
    If you’re worried I would put in a dispute with PayPal (or whoever you payed through). If anything it will get his attention and put the communication on the front burner.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  3. #3
    Senior Member Ransom's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2017
    Location
    Singapore
    Posts
    514
    Quote Originally Posted by Mermaidtanya View Post
    I may end up filing a dispute with paypal if that means he will actually put progress on my tail. It makes me wonder if he did not start on my tail at all despite ordering it 8 months ago.
    Hope it works! You aren't the first person to have these issues with Merrowfins, tho even more established tailmakers have made wait times of several years the norm. Whether that's worth it or not, only their customers can say.

    More on the challenges they face here - http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?t=16088

    The deck is stacked against them, and unfortunately that means customers don't get the experience they should. Personally, I'd go with those with a good track record of customer service and consistency.
    "Only in death does duty end." -- Warhammer 40,000

  4. #4
    Senior Member UtahMermaidPearl's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Location
    Salt Lake City, Utah
    Posts
    188
    Add UtahMermaidPearl on Facebook
    I just don’t want anyone to think he’s a bad guy or think that that’s what I think. He’s a good guy and he cares a lot. I just wanted people to be aware of what happened with my purchase


    Sent from my iPhone using MerNetwork mobile app

  5. #5
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    14,650
    someone else tried to cancel right after paying because they saw the quality after the fact and put in a paypal dispute and he would NOT back down. Nearly every merrowfins tail I see eventually comes back up on the market sold used.

  6. #6
    pretty sure he's not allowed to charge you the paypal fee
    Take the wave now and know that you're free
    Turn your back on the land face the sea
    Face the wind now so wild and so strong
    When you think of me
    Wave to me and send me a song

  7. #7
    Senior Member TheChimera's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    South Africa
    Posts
    281
    Btw paint job on that top is just terrible not to mention the thinness, whoa, thanks for the heads up


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by PhaylennMurúch View Post
    pretty sure he's not allowed to charge you the paypal fee
    PayPal fees can safely be calculated into purchase price. It is common for people to do this but not even tell the customer.

    Sent from my [device_name] using MerNetwork mobile app

  9. #9
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod
    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Posts
    14,650
    Quote Originally Posted by ChelseaSelkie View Post
    PayPal fees can safely be calculated into purchase price. It is common for people to do this but not even tell the customer.

    Sent from my [device_name] using MerNetwork mobile app
    however it IS against paypal policies.

  10. #10
    Senior Member Mermaid_Mari's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Location
    Australia
    Posts
    144

    Visit Mermaid_Mari's Youtube Channel
    Quote Originally Posted by AniaR View Post
    however it IS against paypal policies.
    I don’t suppose you can tell me where to find this in their policies? I wanted to show it to a friend to prove that it was against but couldn’t seem to find it


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    @MaritzaMermaid on Instagram

  11. #11
    From what I can tell in their user agreement, it's against policy when the fee is higher for PayPal users versus other methods of payment, but I could be missing something.
    Twilight darkens, yet there in the shade,
    Lies a glimmering shadow, the wild mermaid;

    As night draws ever closer, there's a choice to be made--
    Will you stay as you are, or be delivered to the waves?

    Laumina the Storm Siren

    Instagram: mermaidwhisperofficial | Facebook: Mermaid Whisper | YouTube: Mermaid Whisper

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Mermaid Whisper View Post
    From what I can tell in their user agreement, it's against policy when the fee is higher for PayPal users versus other methods of payment, but I could be missing something.
    This is what I found as well.

    Sent from my [device_name] using MerNetwork mobile app

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •