Merbellas Thread

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Man, what I wouldn't give to be a Merbella...

[Mermaid Isabel(:]

and Isabel, she's not currently taking orders. She took one in like, several months. Literally all her attention is on the current customers (which would be you) and though the price has changed I am under the impression they may not take anymore orders again for a bit anyway. So you could pay the old price like everyone else and get in under the wire for the tail, or wait with the new price for an undetermined time. I totally appreciate you being annoyed, anyone would. but I think you got in the right way anyway

Thank you Raina I know I made my order in July so it was a bit after that the price changed I was just a bit confused but I am still happy to pay the old price anyways simply because her tails are well worth the money and I know she works her butt off making them

[Blondie]

I'm dying over that new octo top. That is just unnffff pefect!!

No, I'm just saying, Aurora said that Raven told her not to pay till it was done. I mean... What do you say? "No I want to pay now because I want priority?" I mean honestly if Raven said to me, "I don't know how much it will close so we'll discuss the payment when I finish it." I'd be like "Okay!" Because I mean... What else do you say? Is this just me or? I don't know..

I'm not bashing her I'm just saying it sounds a little unprofessional. I know how hard Raven works. But even though her tails are priority it doesn't mean a headdress should be put off for 8 months and forgotten about. And I'm just curious to why Raven never hit Aurora up with an email like, "Hey you still are interested in this headdress right?"

[AniaR]

probably because she doesnt really have time to press people. When I was helping with the emails she got 100's a day, and then 100s of PMs a day on fb. So many people want to buy something and never follow through. So. Many. And there are so many people who go around saying they've ordered when they actually havent, they've just emailed her to let her know they want to order. But then it's not even that, because once you reply it's oh I want to make payments (which she doesn't do) or oh I want to order actually in x amount of months. So it's on to the next person who actually is ordering. You can't even get your head around the amount of emails and PMs, and youtube messages and deviantART comments etc from people who are interested but not actually ready. It's just like me with my gigs, if I don't hear from someone (though I have enough time that I can routinely check my spam) I'm not going to hold their spot, and if they get upset, well sorry. And from Raven's perspective, she wasn't hearing anything. Which happens constantly. People just stop. So on to the people who are paid and waiting. I was helping with the emails because people want constant updates- they don't understand they aren't the only client, or the only item being worked on, or that people pay for rush order, or that others have wear and tear on their tails. I had to stop because I couldn't keep up with it either. And there's not really anything that can be done. There were 3 of us going through emails but the more time spent on emails the less time spent on tails, and that's what everyone cries about being late. Even though I was directly helping with emails people knew I was helping so my inbox started exploding here and on FB and my personal mermaid email, and 90% of the stuff was stuff people shouldn't even be emailing about. And like I said, I never saw the emails/messages.

Anyway, Raven knows now, I havent caught up with her today but she told me she's going to make sure to address. She's just in the middle of rush orders.

[Ayla of Duluth]

Okay so I know I'm kind of late to the subject of floppy flukes, but I figured since I had a finis foil, I could just clear the air on any questions people might have about it.

Yep, I have the finis foil. Its (I think) the smallest monofin option from Finis as far as adult monofins go. That means that there is a lot of plain old silicone in my fluke that isn't supported, which is how it gets that floppy look. Now I think I saw someone somewhere mention that it's harder to control than a fluke with a competitor because of the lack of stiffness. And even though I've never used a competitor monofin, I can basically agree with that. My fluke weighs about 25 pounds, and since its very flexible, when lifting the fluke out of water and over my head, I have to be very careful because the tips of my fluke can bend down and give me a pretty decent thwack on the head. Like seriously. This one time I wasn't paying attention and I got my fluke up over my head and one of the tips came over my head and slapped me in the eye. I just kind of played it off as a "I've been shot!" and I rolled over back into the water, but yes. It is difficult to control. Also, since the fluke is so heavy, the only way I can lift it up by myself at any time is if I'm on a hard flat surface like the pool deck or the pool stairs, on my belly, and I kind of throw my weight into my legs to get it up. Even then, I'm only successful 85% of the time. The hard part about it is keeping the fluke from falling off to one side when it goes straight up. It's 25 pounds, so getting it to go straight up behind me and not fall off to one side and drag me with it is difficult sometimes, especially when there's waves that are already knocking me off balance. I definitely want to get a tail with a competitor to see if it's any lighter and easier to control.

That being said, I still love the finis foil in my tail because it looks wonderful and flowy and natural in pictures where I've got it up, it doesn't take as much effort to swim with it because there's less water resistance because the fluke is able to bend more, and I can do this nifty thing where if I'm floating on my belly in the water and I flip over, my fluke flops out of the water and splashes and it just looks really great.


Anyways, continue with whatever you guys were talking about earlier.

[deepblue]

Sounds like Merbella needs an intern who can go through all the emails in exchange for something like learning tail making or who knows what. I've no doubt the amount of nonsense email she must get- when working in book selling we got dozens a day that never followed through, and that was for something as common and usually inexpensive as books.

[Marlin]

@ Deepblue- I volunteer!

[Mer-Crazy]

I'd gladly help to look through Raven's emails for her <3

[Merley]

Attachment 15034

Steering away from the potential drama....... let us all be awed by the full awesomeness of the Ursula top.

Omg that full pic of the top. Mine. So getting one. Also, where are you guys getting these pictures, I don't see them posted to fb anywhere.

[Merman Arion]

Sounds like Merbella needs an intern who can go through all the emails in exchange for something like learning tail making or who knows what. I've no doubt the amount of nonsense email she must get- when working in book selling we got dozens a day that never followed through, and that was for something as common and usually inexpensive as books.

I don't know if i qualify but i would love to help her too. Since i'm unemployed at this moment, i have plenty of time ahead of me.

[AniaR]

Intern really doesn't work. There's too many things only she could answer and the more people going through emails the more room for communication error. Everyone thinks that suggestion is a cure all but in practice all tail makers who try it end up with more issues.

[Merman Arion]

Intern really doesn't work. There's too many things only she could answer and the more people going through emails the more room for communication error. Everyone thinks that suggestion is a cure all but in practice all tail makers who try it end up with more issues.

Oh well... At least, i offered my help.
It must have been tough, even for you, to go through her mails.
I hope that she can find, in the future, a good secretary. That would be awesome for her.

[Marlin]

@ Raina- You may be right about that- but from reading a few of your past posts on how many "Do you make tails" and "Can I get a free one made for reason blah blah blah" messages she gets on a daily basis, any small amount of auto-filter on that would be helpful. At least- IMO. I wasn't thinking technical responses; but someone to sift through the pile and organize it for someone more qualified to quickly go through with responses to "actual" e-mails.

[deepblue]

Yes, that's all I was thinking. It's easy enough to train someone to simply sort out what actually needs to go to the next pair of eyes. But, it's also not a business I've been in so I can't imagine what Raven is actually dealing with.

ps, Not to imply Raven hasn't thought of that on her own. It was just me thinking out loud. (So to speak.)

[Merman Arion]

Raven seems to have been hacked for real. No wonder why nobody got a reply from her.

[Ariel-Starfish]

damn!

[AniaR]

Yup. Its such a mess ugh. Keep ya posted

[Blaze]

Yup. Its such a mess ugh. Keep ya posted

I can't be the only one that wants to reach through the computer and strangle the guy asking 'Can you make cheaper tails?'

[Merman Arion]

I can't be the only one that wants to reach through the computer and strangle the guy asking 'Can you make cheaper tails?'

Nope, you aren't the only one. I want to strangle him too but then, again, "when you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all", so i shut my mouth but i had pure killing intention LOL

I'm seriously getting annoyed by this kind of people not bothering to check before asking.

[Marlin]

@Deepblue- That's a good point too.

@ Scarlet- Nope me too; but it does give you a small insight into some of the carp Raven deals with.