Thoughts on Merrowfins? "New" Tailmaker

**Mermaidtanya** · 05-27-2018, 03:40 PM

Just got my tail last last and unboxed it today! Here I have my watercolor themed tail. It’s beautiful and it fits! Thank Neptune I measured correctly especially since I’m a seamstress.

As far as customer service goes, yes he takes a while to get back to you. It also took a bit to finally get progress photos. He has alot of backorders as far as I know. Overall, he is really kind whenever we speak to each other. It’s also nice that he takes payment plans because I couldn’t pay all at once due to other bills. I waited since September 2017 to get it and I wondered if I would ever get my tail. Now that I have it the wait was worth it in my opinion. Would I recommend his service? It’s hit or miss based on the other customers. If you’re willing to wait many months to get a tail from him, I suggest ordering in the fall/winter because I did that and got my tail this summer. I’m in love with my tail and I don’t see any problems with my tail.

**Ransom** · 05-28-2018, 02:54 AM

Glad it came and you liked it, Tanya! Let us know how it swims, and hopefully he sorts that issue out.

**AniaR** · 05-28-2018, 12:40 PM

I just saw a few of his tails in person and I was not impressed. (I don't want the mermaids who own them to feel ashamed so I will not be naming names etc, just my general observations)

Seams were super sloppy, scales coming apart, did NOT look like dragonskin and some of these tails WERE older and some were new. Drastically different color underneath than the painted tails (so when silicone on top split, there'd be a totally different color showing through underneath)

I am glad some people are having good experiences, but I felt really bad for the mers I saw with them.

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-06-2018, 12:14 AM

I went to the Mertailor's shop a few weeks back and I remember seeing the lobster tail and the orca tail on display in the store. Now I see their photos on the merrowfins website. Why do they have pictures of tails that Eric physically has?

**Ransom** · 06-06-2018, 12:24 AM

Originally Posted by BlueCorvidae

I went to the Mertailor's shop a few weeks back and I remember seeing the lobster tail and the orca tail on display in the store. Now I see their photos on the merrowfins website. Why do they have pictures of tails that Eric physically has?

Check the beginning of the thread -- they used to work together. Rightly or wrongly, the Merrowfins guy probably feels his contributions to the lobster and orca tails were enough for him to take credit.

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-06-2018, 12:25 AM

Originally Posted by Ransom

Check the beginning of the thread -- they used to work together. Rightly or wrongly, the Merrowfins guy probably feels his contributions to the lobster and orca tails were enough for him to take credit.

That's fishy. Eric's mom (I forget her name) said that the orca was Eric's own personal tail that he made for himself.

**AniaR** · 06-06-2018, 08:59 AM

Eric = robert short
matty = thom shouse

lol

Matty was a contractor for Eric and worked under him. He was hired to help with tails, but he makes all these claims that he totally made them. Yet years later still cna't make anything at that quality level. So draw your own conclusions.

Just like the Robert vs Thom stuff, Thom would have you believe he's the mastermind behind splash when he actually doesn't even have a credit on the film because he was a contractor under Robert's company. Meanwhile Robert did the majority of the work and Thom was just one of several people hired to help get it finished.

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-06-2018, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by AniaR

Eric = robert short
matty = thom shouse

lol

Matty was a contractor for Eric and worked under him. He was hired to help with tails, but he makes all these claims that he totally made them. Yet years later still cna't make anything at that quality level. So draw your own conclusions.

Just like the Robert vs Thom stuff, Thom would have you believe he's the mastermind behind splash when he actually doesn't even have a credit on the film because he was a contractor under Robert's company. Meanwhile Robert did the majority of the work and Thom was just one of several people hired to help get it finished.

I was definitely getting that impression, but wanted clarification. This guy's tails look like cheap knock offs made with Mertailor molds that he took with him. (That's grounds for a successful lawsuit, by the way.) I don't know if he lacks artistic talent or if he's just lazy, but it seems like the only thing this guy knows how to do is use silicone correctly. ...Which takes as much artistic vision as sealing a bathtub.

**AniaR** · 06-06-2018, 10:31 AM

Matty did make a public video explaining his versions of events and explains very specifically that he was a contractor. (just for anyone wondering if I am making this up- lol it's form his own mouth)

Eric has at times in the past had contractors. He had someone doing airbrushing on the premade spellbounds and then when he transitioned all of that he decided he wanted to do back to doing it all himself.

**deepblue** · 06-06-2018, 01:30 PM

Originally Posted by AniaR

Matty did make a public video explaining his versions of events and explains very specifically that he was a contractor. (just for anyone wondering if I am making this up- lol it's form his own mouth)

I was actually looking for that video last night to post here as an FYI, but I could not find the thing.

Edit- Oh, I just found the public clarification video. This is the one, isn't it?

https://youtu.be/R-Bj7h3hzoE

And the one he posted of when he was working on the lobster.

https://www.facebook.com/MerrowFins/...5695364328942/

**AniaR** · 06-06-2018, 02:38 PM

hmm that youtube video looks like a follow up one to the one I originally saw. I'd have to go check on FB but I think he has me blocked anyway so I probably can't find it. lol

thanks for tracking the links down
!

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-06-2018, 09:26 PM

Originally Posted by AniaR

Matty did make a public video explaining his versions of events and explains very specifically that he was a contractor. (just for anyone wondering if I am making this up- lol it's form his own mouth)

Eric has at times in the past had contractors. He had someone doing airbrushing on the premade spellbounds and then when he transitioned all of that he decided he wanted to do back to doing it all himself.

That makes sense, Mertailor is a large company and would likely need extra hands to meet all of the demand. But in most fields of labor, contractor=/= architect. It's one thing to have a credit given in some fields of work, but it's another to try to pass your employer's designs off as your own.

**deepblue** · 06-06-2018, 09:46 PM

Matt describes which designs were his, as well as being clear that he's not attempting to discount anything Eric did, or his talent. Anyone who was watching after Matt and Eric broke up and then as Matt started his company, could see how really above board, down to earth, and pretty cool he was about something he could have gone full drama on and didn't, thank goodness. No one needs that.

But another thing Matt describes in the video that I hope people will realize, even if they don't watch that, when designers work for a company, it's more common for the public to believe the owner/head of the company is the one behind it all, when it's actually pretty normal for a designer under that kind of system to never get credit for their own work, because they're contracted out. Every recipe, craft, and project you see on a Martha Stewart website wasn't designed by her, but most of them were for her company by designers and crafters. So, he's not taking credit for his employer's work at all.

Anyway, those were the only videos on his YT or his FB page related to the tails in question.

**AniaR** · 06-06-2018, 11:38 PM

Matt describes which designs were his, as well as being clear that he's not attempting to discount anything Eric did, or his talent.

he has a huge history though of posting all over social media taking full credit, to the point Robert Short intervened because Robert Short also did contracting work on the lobster tail.

and pretty cool he was about something he could have gone full drama on and didn't, thank goodness.

huh i'd say pouring bleach in Eric's koi pond and killing all his fish was drama... I saw a LOT of drama (I mean this guy put me and another mermaid on a female extortion site so he has no issue with drama)

So, he's not taking credit for his employer's work at all.

again he says that in his videos but contradicted it all over his posts.

**Ransom** · 06-06-2018, 11:50 PM

Originally Posted by AniaR

I mean this guy put me and another mermaid on a female extortion site so he has no issue with drama

What in the fresh hell? Didn't hear about that, I hope nothing came out of it.

**AniaR** · 06-06-2018, 11:50 PM

I noticed his reviews are gone so he turned off that function on FB. there was lots of interesting stuff there

**AniaR** · 06-06-2018, 11:58 PM

Originally Posted by Ransom

What in the fresh hell? Didn't hear about that, I hope nothing came out of it.

well not for me. he just posted a picture of me WITH KIDS on the site, and my email so i got a few guys harassing me via email. He and another user did it- chris lapointe, they took full credit for it. But the other mermaid was stevie from fishbutts. Granted, at the time stevie was having her own downfall but they got into her cloud account and posted nude pics of her with all her contact information and she started getting majorly harassed. (Iona was sent all this stuff back when it happened. The website was taken down because it was all mostly revenge porn and the guy running it was actually arrested- it's all archived on here somewhere) This was all around the time when he joined forced with a few other banned mernetwork people and tried to start their own forum lol. it didn't last.

There's a reason he was banned from this forum guys. I just guess I forget that so many people who are active on the forum now, weren't around for all this stuff. Such a high turnover in the community stuff gets forgotten.

I personally met Matty at merfest 2 and decided to be a grown up and put the past behind despite what he did to me. It really had no affect on me but I was upset he'd put kids on a site like that. I watched his videos, tried to give him a chance/ so i tried to just be neutral but after the koi killing? and all the shit posts I saw everywhere? not so much.

I used to think it was all mertailor but now I think it was a case of him dating a toxic person and that person taking over.

taking the personal out of it, and just looking at it professionally, it seems he's still riding mertailor coat tails years later. He'll even word posts that look like passive aggressive replies to eric's promotional posts. his designs follow so closely to Erics often, eric releases those scales then Matty is right there. And he clearly doesn't have the skill level for what he's promoting. All these tails I see in person are splitting along the scales. there's loads of negative reviews and experiences out there if people dig.

I never want someone who buys his tails to feel shamed, but I do wish people would speak up more so there is a record. so others can make informed decisions.

edit to add: you only have to look at the first few pages of the drama thread to see screen shots of Matty making actual threats to people, and documenting him stalking

**Ransom** · 06-07-2018, 12:29 AM

Wow, glad that site got taken off the Web. Mers really do need a thick skin for this.

**user76213849809** · 06-07-2018, 06:16 AM

is there more info about the koi incident (i'm just curious as to what happened)

**Arking** · 06-07-2018, 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by -Mermaid Amber-

is there more info about the koi incident (i'm just curious as to what happened)

Doesn't really mention alleged culprits or suspects but it did happen, recently too back in Feb 2015 . This is still after the documentary "my crazy obsession" TLC put out about him and other various interviews so the assumption seems to have been it could have been anyone at the time. Even I would have assumed it was more of a targeted hate crime type thing but that's because I would consider him a high profile unapologetic homosexual, that and considering I had someone do the same thing to my pond and poison/kill my dog. Just seems to be a tactic people use when they know its hard to trace.

Salting the earth is a whole different level of well...salty though. Florida's soil is incredibly poor sandy garbage to begin with poisoning what good garden and soil someone has is definitely something you do knowing you want to hurt someone financially.

That's unfortunately the only mention of it I could find that's written. Raina probably knows of some videos, if there were solid proof though you could bet Eric would have pursued legal action against him.