Amethyst Angel commissioned costume maker

[SeaVixen]

I was wondering if anyone has dealt with a woman named Teresa who goes by the name amethyst angel? Didn't know if anyone could give personal experiences dealing with her and what kind of work she does. I'm having a costume made by her and she's terrible about responding to emails and is taking way too long to make this costume. I paid her the first half of the money 5 months ago and told her that I need it done by October with plenty of time for me to try it on and ship it back if any changes need to be made. She said she will have it done in plenty of time and will send progress pics along the way. I haven't gotten one picture. I emailed her about pictures in July and she responded late saying she would send some soon. Well here it is 2 months later and still nothing. I'm starting to have second thoughts. Does anyone else know of her?

[Mermaid Fenicia]

Maybe there are some reviews on her on www.cosplay.com

[NerineArcticMermaid]

If you paid through PayPal you could probably get your money skill back....send a polite email stating if no progress is shown you will t awake actions to get a refund :-)

Next time ask me.i do costume work also... if its out out my skill rangec I t tell my customers :-)

[Mermaid Lei Loni]

Since it was likely an online transaction you could probably get the money back from your credit card or debit card. Check with your bank. I know when I was having some problems with a costume maker a few months ago I first emailed them that I would take actions to have my money refunded if I didn't get a response within a couple of business days. If that doesn't work, I would try to get your money back as soon as possible because the longer you wait, the less likely your credit company is going to refund the charges. You may also want to file a complaint with the BBB (or check to see if one has already been filed), and post on her Facebook page. And keep a good record of the entire transaction. The emails you've sent, dates, times, receipts, contact information, etc. The more you have the better, just in case you have to dispute charges.

On that note, I do hope you're able to either get your costume or find someone else to make it for you! I'm so sorry to hear about the problems you've been having!

[SeaVixen]

I did it through paypal. She's supposed to be making me the legend of zelda princess zelda purple dress. I saw past photos of how that dress looks after she's done so I knew she was good at it. The first half isn't refundable. Sounds like mertailor huh? She makes A lot of excuses when she does respond. It was supposed to be my Halloween costume. I've paid over $275 for the first half. She's making the giant light bow too. Everything is gonna cost around $700. I saw one review about her that said that she didn't respond hardly at all, she made excuses and she didn't finish and ship the costume until a year after the date this girl needed it by. She paid and contacted her 6 months before she needed it too. So this lady took a year and a half to finish this costume and it wasn't difficult. The customer said she got behind so much and made false promises that she would have it done in less than 6 months. But that review was very old so I thought maybe she's gotten her priorities straight by now. Scaring me at this point. The girl who got hers very late said it was a great costume and good quality but took forever get and no responses or updates even though she promises progress pix.

[Mermaid Lei Loni]

That's awful! From my experience with seamstresses they always procrastinate (my mother-in-law is one, and she did my wedding dress which arrived 15 minutes before I was supposed to walk the aisle!) but this is excessive. Regardless of whether or not a portion of the purchase is refundable, Paypal might refund the entire thing for you provided you give them your story. Especially if you have little to no communication from the seller, and no product for 5 months. They usually force a dialogue between you and the seller, but if the seller gets hostile or is unwilling to work with you you can escalate it. I've done this several times with Paypal (and Ebay) and it's always worked. As long as you are honest, and nice to the seller, they should help you out, but if they are unwilling, Paypal is designed to protect you from scams like this. It's early enough that you might be able to purchase the fabric and a pattern and have a local seamstress do it for you. Since they are hired through shops (usually) they are a little more reliable. If you go the route of getting your money back through Paypal, and you run into trouble, I've done it a lot and I'd be happy to help you. Just message me.

Good luck!

[SeaVixen]

I'm already buying a backup costume as this looks like it may not happen in time. I emailed again a few minutes ago. If she doesn't deliver in time I'm getting my money back because this is ridiculous. Don't know of anyone else who can make a really good legend of zelda dress and armor and bow. The reason I took a shot with her was because her work is great. I like she has pictures of past ones she has made. If I did commissioned work I would put the ones who's due dates are coming up as first priority and don't take more orders than I can handle. All her excuses are posted on her website mainly and this last one was her internet went down and email went down so she couldn't get back to peoples emails. That doesn't stop her from making the costumes and taking pictures. As soon as they were back up she should have gotten back to responding immediately. I would go through and delete junk mail first and start with older emails and work up to newest. I'm beginning to wonder if she even has that many customers now anyway. She may be making it up. Seems to be the type. First costume to commission ever and I get screwed. She responded a lot before I paid her. Within the hour sometimes. Ever since paying her its limited to almost nothing. I would like to see what I'm paying this much money for and see how its going. Might look like garbage and that's why she won't show me. Who knows. My boyfriend is paying her for a link costume too so we both are paying her a crap load of money for nothing it seems. We have no local seamstress which is why we looked online. The only one online we found was her so we didn't have much choice. We live in the smallest town ever. Not a lot here.

[Mermaid Annariea]

oh no im so sorry that happened. hopefully you can get it all cleared up soon...

[SeaVixen]

Well I can see that I'm going to have to take action because I haven't heard a thing nor gotten any progress pictures from this woman and my Halloween party is Saturday. No way I'll get it in time. If its not here by the 31st I'm getting my $295 back!! Will put it towards my tail. Ridiculous. Good thing I got a fairy back up costume. I would be in trouble. I'm going to email and tell her the party is Saturday is it ready to ship yet?? Lets see what she says if I even get a response

[Mermaid Dottie]

That sucks so bad.
I may procrastinate a little when I sew for people, but I always have it done in time. and if I run into a snag that looks like it'll be detrimental to my deadline, I inform my customers right away. Poor business skills on her.
May her pocketbook ever be on the brink of empty. (after she's fed and housed. We don't want more homeless people.)

[Koral]

... okay. Personally I wouldn't even wait until the 31st. The 22nd is close enough. If she would have finished it by now and be mailing it out, she would have excitedly sent pictures to you saying, "I'm done I'm done!" But she hasn't even sent you PROGRESS pictures.

If she's making excuses and rarely replying, on top of never sending you pictures or aforementioned pictures, then she's not doing it. End of story. Get your refund now before it's too late.

[Sephina]

I'm pretty into the cosplay community, and from what I can tell she's always had pretty good reviews.This actually seems very strange for her. I'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

[SeaVixen]

I emailed her and told her when I needed it by because 6 months ago I didn't know the party date I just told her I needed it by Halloween and she said she would have it done before then so if there's issues I can have plenty of time to send it back for alterations. Lie. I told her about that in the email. I want there to be evidence so when I report her I'll have all the proof. I've seen many bad reviews on her speed and contacting. Only good reports are her products in general which I don't doubt that. She literally does it on her own time when she feels like it. When she does respond she claims she's working on others stuff too that's kicking her butt and what not and then promises progress pix during the week which never happens. Sounds like these other customers are higher on her priority list than I am even though I'm a paying customer too. Deadline a week away and not even close to being done. She thinks by putting no refund it will force the customer to wait on her. Not me. Ill sick the BBB on her! She's never had that done to her before because others must be so dumb they actually let her get away with delivering extremely late. Not like I didn't give her enough time. 6 months is plenty for a dress and armor and bow and arrow. She even told me that was plenty. I'm waiting until Halloween since that's what I said and so when I contact the BBB I can say its past the day of delivery and no product. Ill have a fighting chance of its Past the date its expected and nothing. I can probably expect she won't give me the refund herself without a fight since she says no refund and I see why. As a salesman who makes things myself I don't do that. I make quality items and do it in reasonable time and I offer refunds because I don't want people mad at me if they don't like their items and I keep their money anyhow. Makes me look bad.

[MerEmma]

BBB is so unreliable for my family. We hired a roofing company that was rated A+ on there but that all went horribly. Same issues with a plumber.

[SeaVixen]

She's not even listed on the BBB site so no one has even tried. Plus I used paypal so I can get them to help. She is Not going to keep my money when I haven't gotten a thing from her.

[Winged Mermaid]

If you want any chance at getting your money back, you need to act asap. I learned recently Paypal actually has a policy on what they will and will not help with and what the time frames are. From what i read, you need to file a dispute no later than 45 days after the date the money was sent if it was purchased through ebay or another site, but it it was paypal alone they have a grace period of 60 days. Here's the policy info: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?c...20for%20Buyers. So as it is you may not be able to file with them at all :/ Maybe you can dispute the charge with your bank or credit card company? I don't know the policies for that though. I think you might have to lawyer up and/or go to small claims court to get your money back if you can't hash it out with her. Either way I really hope this works out for you. What a mess!

[Mermaid Lei Loni]

If you want any chance at getting your money back, you need to act asap. I learned recently Paypal actually has a policy on what they will and will not help with and what the time frames are. From what i read, you need to file a dispute no later than 45 days after the date the money was sent if it was purchased through ebay or another site, but it it was paypal alone they have a grace period of 60 days. Here's the policy info: https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/?c...20for%20Buyers. So as it is you may not be able to file with them at all :/ Maybe you can dispute the charge with your bank or credit card company? I don't know the policies for that though. I think you might have to lawyer up and/or go to small claims court to get your money back if you can't hash it out with her. Either way I really hope this works out for you. What a mess!

I've filed disputes with Paypal in the past, and the sooner you dispute the charge the better. If you want your money back at all, you have to act ASAP. You should include in your dispute if it's been awhile since you purchased your costume, the time frame for completion, and the fact that you have attempted to get your money back and/or a product, but have not been successful in doing so. Winged is right though, you may have to go through your credit card (but even they have windows that you can dispute charges), and/or small claims court. Usually, with a case that's only a few hundred dollars, small claims might not even be as successful since it could cost that much just in court fees (and a lawyer, if you hire one).

[Elle]

I've only disputed payment through paypal once. I ordered something (i don't remember what) and after 6 weeks if hadn't arrived. All that had to be done was to take this thing to a post office and send it. I contacted them and they stated they hadn't sent it yet so I just contacted paypal to get my money back, and with the week I had it. It's definately better to get to them sooner rather than later.

[SeaVixen]

Didn't use a credit card..put money on a paypal card from walgreens or something and redeemed it in paypal then did a transfer to her. I don't own a credit card. 90 days isn't even long enough to let her work because she told me she needed about 6 months to ensure we have enough time.

[Winged Mermaid]

At least you went through paypal. Bank account/wire transfers are a huge red flag becuase that is the easiest way to scam people. From what I've heard if you use that there is absolutely no protection on that money and once it's gone it's usually gone for good. Never do that unless you know and trust the person.

However I think she gave you false security with PayPal with that kind of time window. Over 90 days, let alone 6 months, is pretty much ensuring all windows with anyone who could help you get the money back will be closed. You'd have to take her to small claims court to get your money back if she doesn't deliver. And you'd probably spend more just on fees than what you spent on the product, so to you it wouldn't be worth it so she wouldn't even have to worry about that. Not trying to paint her as doing this on purpose, but it sure does seem shady to me.
That is why I am VERY careful about ordering custom made items from people online that take longer than 60 days. My Mertailor tail was almost $1,000 and I ended up waiting over 3 months instead of 6 weeks and I was a wreck about it thinking I was going to get ripped off. (After all that was when he still was not very well known even in the community.) Unless you go through a payment system or credit card that has a amazingly good policy you could end up powerless to get your money back.

At this point, you don't have many options for getting your money back unless she agrees to give it back to you. I think short of getting a laywer and/or filing for claims court (which could completely negate the amount of money you'd get back), the best influence you can have in this situation is the power of being able to give her a negative reputation. If you post in the right places you could have that huge blimp on her reputation so anyone who looks at her reputation before ordering will know about this. I mean all it took to bring down a few scammers, like Adam Martyn, was one person coming out. Others followed, and a few people spread the word enough that he will never get business making tails for individual customers again. It may have even ruined his reputation so badly that he can't work in the movie/FX industry any more.

I may be wrong about all windows being closed, but you'll have to go digging to find that answer. I really hope you can work this out, one way or another.