I've had my mertailor tail for just over a year now. I paid over 1000$ for it. Originally emailing back and forth with mertailor went very well, he was very quick to respond and polite. Originally his tails cost under 1k then went up to 1.5k and I messaged him with a plea for the lower price which he accepted. This was for a latex tail (before he made silicone tails)
The tail I wanted looked like this:
The tail I got looked like this:
When I got my tail it was 10 inches too short. This resulted in a tail that did not fit when swimming and during photo shoots needed to be photoshopped. I was told I must have messed up my measuring but I double checked what I sent and it was not what I received. The fluke also bubbled up and filled up with air and would float on the water surface while I tried to swim. I followed some advice to try and cut parts of it to allow the water to flow and then it simply became too heavy from the water trapped inside of it. You could also see the permanent marker used on the inside of the tail for measuring right through the neoprene and paint. The neoprene inside was very scratchy.
I contacted the mertailor and originally was offered no refund or exchange. So I decided to try and make the best of my tail despite not really being able to swim in it. It was suggested to me to file the monofin down so it would slide deeper into the tail and the waist would come up higher. This only gave me a few extra inches - I still had a baggy waist and now my fluke was very baggy
After drama on the previous forum that preluded this site erupted many other users came forward to explain they had very similar tail issues and similar dealings. Raven of Merbellas offered to re-do my tail for me so it would fit, be re-painted, and re-textured. The result was astounding compared to these before photos, check out the after:
Raven had done everything she said she would very quickly and even glued the monofin in place and filled the fluke with silicone to keep it from ballooning up. As you can see she repainted, retextured, re-sewed, everything you could imagine! The material fit like a glove, the tail looked amazing.
It would have been nice if my review/story ended there but it did not... Raven had figured out that the material my tail was made out of was NOT the standard neoprene of the other tails. Here is a photo comparison:
On the top is the extra ten inches Raven added of neoprene. it is soft, stretchy, with small fibers. On the bottom of the neoprene my tail is made out of, it is rough, had holes (when I bought it!) bigger fibers, and as I started to realize as I began using it again, continued to stretch very quickly with no elasticity despite all Raven's hard work. Pretty soon despite the fact she'd sewn it up to meet my measurements it stretched so it was again loose and baggy. In addition despite all her hard work the paint would not bond to the latex and I would continue to have issues where whole chunks of latex came off. I managed to do 2 dry events with the tail where it was perfect, then after the 1st water one it sadly fell apart. I do not believe it has anything to do with all the hard work of Raven but rather I blame it on the neoprene used as other mermaids with the same neoprene have had similar problems.
Around this time mertailor began having any negative posts about him removed from the previous forum. Many more customers came out with huge complaints. There were several anti-mertailor videos and lots of negative posting. Before I explain the rest of what happened I'm going to go back to my tail...
Here is an example of the outside of the tail (this is a paint job by me after I had to repaint it several times)to the left of the line is Raven's neoprene, to the right of the line is mine:
As you can see their is a diffrence between how both the latex and paint have responded to the neoprene as well as usual wear and tear. The texture on the old scratchy neoprene has become warped and the paint refuses to bond.
This was a hole on the inside of the tail that has been there since I got it, on the outside of the tail it results in a stubborn area where paint refuses to stay as seen here:
I also have issues where on the old neoprene bends and folds tend to stay for a very long time even if I wet the tail and hang it up it is very difficult to get these creases out
Now, to continue on with the story about mertailor, I made the best of my tail (still do). Mertailor continued to experience a bit of a downfall and then I decided I could get over it so long as he apologized for removing our threads and critiques. I wrote a big polite open letter and he wrote one back apologizing. I have since learned that it was in fact not him who apologized to me (or set things right with upset customers and fixed botched orders) but a friend of his who was doing their best to help him get out of the mess he created.
However I didn't know that at the time and was quite happy to move forward and pretty soon more people did too. I did my best to let it go despite the fact my tail was still frequently falling apart. In January I contacted mertailor to tell him I was happy things were moving forward for him and wished him well. He responded with a surprise that he would make me a new free replacement silicone tail (much like his goldfish one for Doreen Virtue) and he took my measurements. I was very happy about this, but I had been being nice to him BEFORE he made the tail offer. He said he was very busy and it may take a while- I was fine with that. It was January - winter where I live! I wouldnt need a tail til at the earliest may or june and of course I could make the one I had work until then right?
I continued to remain in contact with mertailor and give him advice on various situation and did my best to be a friend. Without getting too personal and emotional I can say that my opinions of another mermaid (despite trying to voice them respectfully) caused him to decide we could no longer be friends. This disappointed me and much of the behaviour that followed certainly was not professional in my point of view. When I got to July1st and no more mention of the tail (7 months later) I took matters into my own hands and decided to start fundraising for a MVD tail. I figured it would take me at least a year to get one and I had decided mertailor probably wouldn't give me a new one. However I was still kind to him. I did not expect a new tail. It's just frustrating when someone promises one. I have been accused of only forgiving mertailor because I wanted a new tail, but I hope people who were around will remember that back when I apologized to and forgave mertailor there had been NO mention of a free tail. I was kind because I wanted to be, because I wanted to move on. I have since let mertailor know he need not give me a new tail as I have other plans and I seriously doubt he ever intended to give me on to begin with. I wonder if perhaps he only offered thinking I would only be nice to him then?
(to be cont. In next post)
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