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Thread: Problems With AquaMermaid

  1. #1
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod
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    Problems With AquaMermaid

    These are getting shared around a lot on FB but aren't on Mernetwork here. If you've had an issue with Aquamermaid/and or their products/not getting paid etc please post it here. I will let these screen shots speak for themselves.

    First of all, if these screenshots don't load, You can join this FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/670089753715385/ and the folder of these screenshots can be found here

    Main complaints summarized from screen shots:
    • Undercutting/Not compensating for travel
    • Not paying full amount promised
    • Filming and photographing participants without knowledge or consent, then using that for self promotion and her various fundraising
    • Theft of Mermaid Linden's website/images and monofin pieces
    • Misleading people into thinking she's selling silicone tails, when in reality she has convinced new silicone tail makers to give her a large percentage of their money in exchange for her acting as middle person - this results in large markups for the buyer, no communication with the actual seller, and exploitation of new people in the industry
    • No training provided for mermaid school instructors
    • No standards required for mermaid school instructors
    • Buying knock off items to promote (Finfolk)
    • False claims
    • using branding of others mers to get traffic (SEO, hashtags etc)


    Applicable Mernetwork Links:
    https://mernetwork.com/index/showthr...wbhW41GiMmryXY

    Applicably news links: ""The mermaid world is still a very small pond. Chartier Hénault initially stepped on a few fins after she used photos and texts of established mermaids to promote her business. Mermaid Linden Wolbert was one of them."
    This touches on how she stole Linden's content and used it to promote herself in Canada: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...wbhW41GiMmryXY


    Screenshots:












































    Relevant Videos:

    Last edited by AniaR; 09-17-2020 at 11:01 AM.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Pod of Oceania Mermaid Jaffa's Avatar
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    The blue monofin with the wavy fin lines, I bought mine off ebay a year before she snapped them all up for herself. It is on alibaba but I can't even buy a replacement as she claims she owns the design. As such the manufacturer doesn't allow single purchases as they once did before Marielle showed up.
    Formerly known as ireneho

  3. #3
    Senior Member Undisclosed Pod
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  4. #4
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    Another huge case, I wont be able to post all the screenshots but I'll provide the link to the FB group where anyone can join.

    I have a Marielle Aqua Mermaid Bomb to drop and it’s a big one – bare with me. I had to wait until the person could confirm they could get out from under their contract with her. This is a big post, but VERY important and some of the most damning stuff yet. So settle in. Disclaimer: I have done my very best to vet everything here and I am relaying someone’s personal experience along with screenshots that back it up.

    Melanie Raymond got in touch with me after joining our Mermaids in Canada pod. She had been “working’ under Marielle. I say that with quotes because as so many other Canadian complaints, she was not compensated properly if at all. I am posting this on her behalf in order to use my standing in the community to signal boost, and screen shots of everything have been included. I’ll add it to the mernetwork link so folks can share.
    First of all, there are several reasons why Melanie hadn’t spoken out yet about her experience. The first, she is a contestant in Miss Mermaid for which Marielle is now running the Canadian branch. Melanie worried that speaking out against Marielle would cut her off from Networking in the mermaid world as Marielle gives the impression of being very well connected, and that she would have her opportunity to be Miss Mermaid rep for Canada taken away from her. Second, Melanie has been trying to get a tail owed to her from Marielle. Third: she signed a contract

    Melanie met Marielle by taking some classes that she describes as “abysmal”. Her sister in law even made a complaint about how bad the class was, which led Marielle to contact her and they talked back and forth about it. Marielle invited her to “do some film work”. This was actually the follow up to an episode of Dragon’s Den (Canadian version of shark tank) that Marielle had originally flunked out of. Melanie was not paid or compensated in any way for appearing in this or promotional material that was used to promote aquamermaid. At the time, Melanie and others who were voluntold for the filming had NO affiliation with aquamermaid. So Marielle was using them to make her company look more successful. They were hired actors, without the hired part.

    Next, Marielle invited her to do something similar, saying it was for promotion at Air BnBs, and unknown to Melanie or others involved, Marielle actually used this content to create online teaching resources for her school without their knowledge. Melanie was actually looking up ways to get better at mermaid swimming and found VIDEOS OF HERSELF on youtube! The video was all content in which Melanie had no idea she was even being recorded at the time. Some of the footage was silly and unflattering – which she wouldn’t have done had she known she was being filmed for professional purposes (or at all). This became a long-term issue where Melanie was filmed, and put in Marielle’s Youtube, without her knowledge, consent, or any form of compensation.

    Melanie got her introduction to the mermaid world as a result of Marielle, she didn’t know much of the stuff that we all known coming in (it’s very sparse community and industry in Canada).
    Marielle convinced her to help out at the aquamermaid school that was very far from her, for no pay, in exchange for having that money go toward a silicone tail. At the time, Melanie believed she was ordering a silicone tail directly from Marielle and engaged in lots of communication with her about ideas. Marielle provided no training and required no standard of experience from Melanie to have her teach an aquamermaid, and according to Melanie would often rope in totally unrelated friends and people to work aquamermaid gigs. Melanie originally did this to earn the tail and to help out because she felt bad about how much the aquamermaid staff were struggling. Melanie wanted to meet more people and become more skilled (this is a tactic Marielle uses often by targeting new people who need experience). Melanie was shocked to find herself being more and more relied on by Marielle when in reality this was meant to be a temporary thing she was helping out with. This causes resentment from other mermaids who wanted/needed the hours.

    Shortly after, Melanie was shocked to see one of the designs she’d discussed having made for herself as her order, being sold commercially by Marielle. (we have since confirmed the actual maker of the tail had no knowledge of this – so please don’t blame them for the design theft- Cynault AND fairytales Bangkok) These were very specific items that Melanie had come up with herself never present in the tails before (such as a V line waist). Soon, more and more of Melanie’s designs started being sold by Marielle.

    Melanie saw that Marielle was wearing a finfolk rash guard, and Marielle directly showed her where to outsource the stolen designs. (She even went to meet the fabric designers who stole these designs!) Melanie asked her flat out if these were legit designs. Marielle played dumb and apologized, but then wore the rash guard the next day at a con. (this is another tactic we see a lot of with her faking ignorance). Also after apologizing she still sent links out to people for this knock off company.

    To try and make the theft of her designs work (trying to think the best of Marielle) Melanie offered to be hired to make premade designs. Marielle gave an open ended answer that made it seem like she was willing to try that, and we found out later that she left Cynault creations with the same impression that Melanie’s designs were approved and compensated. Marielle also tried to get Melanie to make Tiaras for the Miss Mermaid competition with no compensation.

    Marielle admitted she has been going in and doing film work without being a member of any of the regulating agencies here in Canada.
    Melanie travels a lot for work to different areas in Canada and even though she was staying in those places temporarily, Marielle was pressuring her to open schools. Then pressure to do private 1:1 lessons in each area she lives, under aquamermaid. (Making melanie think she’d need to go through her to do them when just like us, Melanie could do it on her own). Marielle also tried to pressure Melanie into taking a gig while she was sick with a fever and waiting on covid results. Melanie had to turn her phone off as Marielle wouldn’t take no for an answer. Melanie suspects she caught it from an underpaid gig at Ripleys for aquamermaid (not in the aquarium), and nearly died from a respiratory arrest.

    Melanie has been under the impression this entire time that the tailmaker is working on her tail, and that she is under contract with aquamermaid which would prevent her about speaking on this. Melanie didn’t even know she could access the tail maker on her own until I informed her. She was under the impression what Marielle was doing was the industry standard. Upon doing so, Melanie discovered that Marielle was marking up the tails by over $1000. The tail Marielle has been “charging” Melanie for (with no real proof of what Melanie has owned) would normally cost 1200 through the maker, and Marielle is charging her 3262$ (invoice attached). Melanie asked to cash out what she had been earning for the tail, and was told no.

    Melanie is now coming forward after finding out from the tail makers and their posts that Marielle has commissioned loads of her designs through them to commercially sell. The tail makers were under the impression this was a collaboration with Melanie. Melanie knew nothing about it. When Melanie started confronting Marielle, she started deleting their history of messages on Instagram. The artists fully admit these were Melanie’s designs and encourage her to contact Marielle. Melanie has had all her designs stolen by Marielle and has not actually been compensated what she’s owed either through tail or money, along with having her image frequently used without her knowledge for Marielle to promote. Melanie is now in the process of seeking legal action.

    Be advised Marielle is on to the fact people screen shot her and is going back and deleting messages, and trying to do phone calls instead. Melanie is continuing to provide me with more screenshots and info as she finds it, and I will dump it here. Marielle knows we’re doing this and has been deleting some of the more damning messages as we back track. Melanie has also been removed from accessing the aquamermaid shared cloud drive that has her contract and other pertinent info.

    Note that Marielle keeps "reviewing" her "own" tails which the designers ADMIT are Melanies. One of these screenshots just shows how she deleted messages all the way back to July 2019 while still playing dumb. Marielle is also marketting "hybrid' finfolk tails where they add silicone fins to them. Marielle is literally back tracking while Melanie and I are grabbing evidence. She knows what she's done.

    Personal disclaimer: Though I am in Canada, aquamermaid has never set foot in my province and not caused me any competition. I have been trying to out her behaviour for 5 years and sent warnings to ALL the groups that have hosted her at cons etc but no one listened. She has been an issue since day one here in Canada. She has spread into the US because we keep stopping her here at every turn.

  5. #5
    Senior Member Pod of Oceania Mermaid Jaffa's Avatar
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    Go Raina the Fish Police!
    Formerly known as ireneho

  6. #6
    They sound very doggy they review there own tails pretending to be strangers when they are clearly not. They are constantly bashing other companies like fin fun . I wouldn’t buy off them, they make silicon tails and they look very poor quality .

  7. #7

    Me too

    I tried to comment and post this anonymously on the Mermaids Beware Facebook Group regarding AquaMermaid, but my entries were rejected by administrators for whatever reason I don’t care to know. I am sharing my personal experience because I am new here and I saw a lot of posts about this school (if you can call it that). Yet still, lots of talk and no action done. Makes you think everyone is out for themself what's new. I used to work for AquaMermaid. This is the long story.


    Back when I was interested getting into mermaiding (not knowing anyone in the industry), I answered a call on social media, they were looking for instructors and merFormers so I sent an application. I gave it a try to gain some experience, learn about the practice, and stay fit. Obviously not so much for the pay ($40-50 per class of pocket money). After a tryout class, I was hired. I worked as a lifeguard and swimming instructor for 10 years in the past. I was surprised they required no qualification, not even basic first aid, not providing training.. I did not enjoy the experience, mainly because:
    - The pool was freezing cold, not heated even during winter, which makes it painful for us instructors as well as students (adults and kids). So you don’t enjoy the experience, especially that:
    - The classes were incredibly disorganized. Other instructors had no clue of which group they were in charge of. And we were understaff taking on way too many students. Sometimes we had to combine groups together even if they were not of the same age group, even if a lot of these groups were celebrating birthdays, having to combine a group of kids and their friends with strangers… that was embarrassing. Some parents were upset, rightfully so, knowing how long ahead they had planned this, and how much they have paid for this shitshow. Checkout the reviews online, among Marielle’s own positive reviews on her school and her friends’ (obvious, just a one-sentence review and no elaboration? Sure.)
    - In addition to losing time amidst this chaos, we spent half of the time putting those damn monofins back on. A nightmare. Each kid, one after the other, was losing their fins. As soon as you finish helping one unzip the tail, snap the fin back, zip the tail again, ready to resume the class, some other kid had their monofin slip off. I’ll get back to these piece of junk of monofins.
    - Given this mess, and having no lifeguard at the pool, I let you imagine the safety hazards.
    - Some instructors were bitchy, some of them irresponsible. Marielle landed me tails at one point for the events they booked me on. One day I had classes followed by a dry birthday party so I brought 2 tails with me. I left one of them with my belongings in our instructors’ room by the pool while I was entertaining the party in another area. When I finished the gig I came back to the pool (where all the material I used for my classes were scattered all around even though I helped prep the pool for everyone but whatever) and the tail was missing (a FinFolk tail I believe). I freaked out thinking someone had stolen it. And while I was checking cameras footage in the security office, turns out, one instructor took it with her for her own gigs, without asking. I was pissed. This is not Marielle’s fault but just explaining why I did not particularly enjoy the overall experience. But Marielle seemed nice and I just thought they were incredibly disorganized. How she is still in business, beats me. She doesn’t have much competition I thought…


    Then I decided to order my own silicone tail. Since I knew this is a service she offers, I placed the order with her. When my tail was ready, I went to pick it up directly at the costume designer’s studio (the one she appropriates the work from). I chatted with her and that’s how I realized that Marielle took like $500 in commission. Just for filling up the order receipt. Now I deal directly with the designer. In addition of paying me less than half of what she charges the clients for the events I took on (but that I let it temporarily slide thinking that she worked to build her clientele). But knowing that she made at least 1k off of my back in a couple of weeks, that was a hard pill to swallow.


    On a side note, that summer, I tragically lost my mom. I had a few dry events the weekend when that happened. I called her first thing early morning to cancel my participation before rushing to the hospital. Although she was understanding, she still asked: she can cover for today, but will I be able to make it for tomorrow’s event… my world was falling apart mind you. And guess what? As I expected, parents were still texting me on that weekend asking if I was still coming for their kids’ birthday… that was surreal. When I said that my mom is on her death bed, one replied: I am sorry… will someone replace you? I did not answer, nothing nice would have come out. I still don’t know how they are in business, either way, I never wanted to teach for this school again. I had to postpone my tail order with her because I had to pay for funerals. For that alone a decent person should not have charge ME commission, her employee. The greediness disgusted me. That had me loose respect. She has no dignity. But that didn’t end there.


    I recently completed PADI’s Mermaid Instructor Program abroad. We had 2 trainers. One of them is from the US, the other from Canada. Both knew Marielle and did not have much respect for her. I have seen my own red flags, but I did not realize how bad of a reputation she has, that her school is bashed online. Anyway. I brought my silicone tail with me to try it out. The instructors were asking me questions about it, like what type of monofin I have in there. And before I could answer, the Canadian trainer told me: “don’t tell me you have an AquaMermaid type of monofin!” :-O


    Turns out, this piece of shit is not suited for a silicone tail. Too cheap (could break anytime with the tail’s weight), with not enough propulsion. Knowing that I cannot remove a silicone tail quickly, this makes it dangerous to swim with. So the instructors were nervous, which made me nervous. Not to mention that it’s a struggle to snap the hook inside this type of tail. Another hard pill to swallow. Thanks for nothing with the commission you took while putting your employee (and students) at risk! I knew nothing about all this. I should have asked and researched better, wait to meet other mermaids to test more equipment but that is part of the journey I guess. Before enrolling for the training, I was confused, because I found a picture online of Marielle with my American trainer and another local mermaid posing with tails. When I asked, my instructor told me her own story. Marielle came down at one point requesting her a mermaid training for free, in exchange for some visibility on her YouTube channel. My trainer declined because from experience she said, YouTubers overestimate what they have to offer. BTW, Marielle has no certification whatsoever, yet still teaches an aquatic sport. Back then Marielle had just come out with her line of fabric tails and asked the girls to pose with them to help her out. As it happens, she had shopped for “Made in China” manufacturers to find the cheapest rate to make her tails. Look at how much they are sold for on her website.

    To this day, although I think she grows a bit desperate, she is still able to find any gullible and unskilled new comer for her gigs, willing to be under payed while she makes this passive money on their back, at the safety expense of everyone who's involved as long as it keeps coming.


    Greedy AF.
    This is all I know. Make your own decision.
    PS: AquaMermaid comes out first on Google Searches for anything mermaid, at least here in Montreal. It’s like a multinational polluting everything. So if you want to encourage rookie mermaids looking to step up the game, like our page so we can gradually grow and eclipse this con artist :-) Soon we’ll teach classes for free to get started if someone is in the area.
    PS: on FB I saw someone suggesting building a website to call out her BS (it's been a while though), well my human job is Web Developer I could have help if only I could have posted this anonymously.


    On this, keep swimming!
    Last edited by MerMAGIA; 06-02-2023 at 02:27 PM. Reason: As long as it keeps coming,

  8. #8
    And regarding this video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9wQ...rdmaidFaithShe She only promotes creators she can cheaply hack at the expense of her client's safety, not big players that can slam her with a lawsuit. Nor does she mention her own collaborator based in Montreal for silicone tails pretending she makes them so she can take orders and get commission$$$ whereas the info she shares is biased. Buy from someone who cares about the craft not just about a quick buck. Stay safe and away from this.

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