I'm back again, with another unresolved update concerning Hollenheist Aka Cassie

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

[Note. At the bottom is links to the 2 past journals regarding this. And one link to the fursuit head. And link to her Fa page. ]

Yanno, I really wasn't expecting to have to use my account here so often. Sadly though this is the case.

A few months ago, I had made a journal about Hollenheist aka Cassie. I had hoped things would be resolved.

Well, I'm back again, with the same complaint as before.

HollenHeist aka Cassie has as far as I'm concerned broken her agreement with me once to often.
After being in brief contact with her, and hearing yet again excuse after excuse, I gave her one more chance.
And I did warn her that if she couldn't follow through, I would take the necessary steps needed to get my money back.

Well, as you see, I'm writing this here. Which means, I got nothing from her. So in short I paid for a fitting of leggings, and a bad dark photo of a fursuit head that honestly I'm not sure if it's anything like what we had discussed.

A certified letter had been sent off to her. We got no response. An email telling her that I just want my money back. And no response. A shout out on her page, no response. I get nothing but her voice mail. Now, please understand I've not been calling her, noting her, e-mailing her every day, every moment or anything like that. The last thing I wish to be is harassing.

However this lack of communication has left me believing one thing. And that is that she has stolen six hundred dollars from me. And that she has no idea on how to do any sort of bussiness transaction, even one that is as informal as this is.

So six dates of promised delivery has been missed, my last communication with her was about 4 months ago give or take. I'm at my wits end.

I've said this before and I'll repeat myself again.. I don't want trouble or drama...But what can I do?

Any advice? Can anyone give me any advice on what I should do at this point? How do I get results from someone who won't correspond with you, and who lives to far away?

I've been as patient as I can be. All I want now, is to get my money back and be done with this with as little pain to each other as possible.

Kat

[Links]
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/hollenheist/ Fa page

http://community.livejournal.com/artists_beware/235207.html Artist beware journal

http://community.livejournal.com/artists_beware/238033.html Artist beware journal

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2216089/ Fursuit head

Comments

[blondefoxy.livejournal.com]

:( That really stinks. I really had no idea she "made" suits either :P

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

I really Don't know what to think or do to be honest. At this point now, IF I get the money back from her, it's going to go to the awesome people making my new suit ^^ [I'm NOT relying on that however. I know better.] [err the money i mean]

God... you know what? [and i'm really sorry for the venting here] I AM patient. I really am. I understand backlogs, and real life things. I go through them too... it's just...Way to much.

[maddogairpirate.livejournal.com]

Stuff does happen, yes, but stuff seems to happen far, far too much to trust her to follow through at this point. Stuff's happened for over a year that's quadrupled the production time? And when stuff happens, it's a simple phone call or e-mail to at least negotiate things. She's blowing you off, be it out of fear or just lack of courtesy.

If she's done some work on the thing I'd think partial compensation would work along with sending the items... but again, if she's not talking to you, what can you do?

And if you end up getting nothing at all out of this, as least it'll serve as a big, BIG red flag to everyone out there not to deal with her.

She'll have to decide which she wants: the money for incompete work, or a tarnished reputation.

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

To be honest? I don't think she Cares about her reputation. I mean...well what is it to her really? For the short term gratification, she got 600 dollars. Perhaps at this point she feels so far removed?

Hell she admitted to me that she knew our trust in her was shot. And still she continues. So..what does that say about her? Nothing that I'm willing to say on a public board.

I am angry yes. I'm frustrated. And I don't know what else can be done.

So, This is my warning to any one looking to get a fursuit done. Not By Her.

Oh...I do feel the need to add one lil thing. She has No problems going to places to make her monster suit thingies and getting Those done...o,O

ok..perhaps that was a bit much.

[maddogairpirate.livejournal.com]

No, stuff like that needs to be said. If you can see that someone's doing things for themselves while they're not communicating, that's important. But the communication's been more recent than 4 months I think.

[maddogairpirate.livejournal.com]

I do need to note one discrepancy I see, though. According to Furaffinity's info on the head, it says the posting and your comment was 1 month ago. Which could border on upwards of 2, with how the timestamp works.

That seems like it was the last contact on this fursuit.

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

Ok, I was wrong about the four month part. I do apologize. I do have all the logs and such to keep on hand. I did a little bit of research. Sorry for the confusion. [i know i just copied and pasted that. ]

[jtigerclaw.livejournal.com]

Kat (my mate) and I have talked to her a total of about 5 times since the middle of Feb (almost 4 months). In Feb she told us she'd sent it by FWA. No contact until beginning of March, during which she said she tried to send it but Fed-Ex just put the box in a corner and never sent it or something. She then said she'd send it in a couple days and would call us letting us know. No response, the con went by, and it wasn't until the middle of April (a month and a half later) that she actually contacted us.

She kept in good contact for about two days, continuously saying she was about to send it. Then she randomly posted the picture of the head (2 weeks after she said she would have it sent out) and that was April 22nd. And no, I don't think that posting a picture without uttering a word to us about it EVER (we have not been able to establish contact since then, even after we've already said SEND IT. And we've tried) counts as "contact". It seems more like the picture was posted to shut us up or buy more time.

So while it hasn't been a whole 4 months of no contact, it's been 4 months of tedious and repetitive attempts at getting in contact, to which she's only really been in touch for about 2 whole days right in the middle, to break the drought. And now that we told her we just want the money back, it feels like she's trying to avoid us from now on because she doesn't want to refund us. And we just don't know what to do at this point.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

That fursuit head that she posted is kind of ... not that good. I hope that wasn't what she is trying to sell you for the 600 you paid. I know a lot better suit makers who would have made you a really nice comfortable half suit for that range. Did you do research on her and look at any of her previous work?

I think you do have the ...possible option of small claim court at this point but it might be a lot of bullshit on your part.

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

Honestly? At this point hun, I really don't know anymore. I will admit, I wasn't too thrilled with it. But I just really wanted the suit at this point. I can make Anything look cute. And we could have been done with it.

Small claims court is an option, however I'm not sure how viable of an option it is.

And here I'm afraid is where I did wrong. Way back when this all started, she had made a journal [which is now deleted] Talking about how she wanted to make a suit. I contacted her, and we priced things out.

I had asked her if she ever made suits before. She said that she was an apprentice for a mascot suit maker.
While I didn't see anything, come AC, she did have the leggings and paws, and the tail. And honestly, I was VERY pleased with them. They looked Wonderful. I was pretty confident with what she could do at this point.

But from Ac on, everything became sketchy at best. And now, for the third time. Here I am.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Do you know what state she lives in?

[jtigerclaw.livejournal.com]

I believe it's Pennsylvania now.

[zrcalo.livejournal.com]

she made me ship to a business...
so I dont have her address.

[ccstudio.livejournal.com]

Yeah I second that. My base price for partials is $300 and I'm pretty sure I can do better then that :/ If it's a fullsuit that might be fair, but $600 for a partial that is that low quality... no :/

[jtigerclaw.livejournal.com]

Not to mention it's been a year and 4 months, and all we have to show for it is a crappy picture of a fursuit head and 3 Artist Beware entries about it. Not to mention 4 cons that Kat had her hopes up for having a suit by then, each one of them she was let down.

I mean, I commissioned a suit from a GOOD fursuit maker 5 months after Kat and got mine 4 months ago. And Kat's still waiting. :/

[whitewashsunset.livejournal.com]

This. I just bought a partial for $600 and not only does it look FAR better than the picture the OP shared, but the girl would have had it done in a little over a week from when we'd started the transaction (she ran out of black fur, so we're waiting for the place she orders it from to get back).

I also second the small claim's court. If you have all the e-mails and information about the transactions, I don't see how you could have any problems with the case.

If anything, perhaps the idea of being taken to court will scare her straight.

Regardless, I hope you get it worked out, one way or another.

[whitewashsunset.livejournal.com]

*place she orders from to send the fur. I really need to not talk while typing.

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

My bf and I were just talking about taking her to small claims court. At this point it's not even about the money, although that would be nice. But the principle of the thing. She shouldn't be allowed to get away with this.
She should take responsibility for her actions.

I do have All of our conversation logs, from msn, aim, and the 1 or 2 notes on fur affinity.I also have a copy of the certified letter that was sent to her. What I do Not have is any proof of our rare phone conversations.

The only other thing I'm not sure about is since she lives in Pa, and I live in Sc...how to go about doing this. Where would I go to even Start such a thing.

[whitewashsunset.livejournal.com]

Then I'd talk wit a lawyer. You don't need one for small claims (as far as I know), but it would be a good idea to get some counsel, perhaps even have him write a letter to her stating that if she doesn't return some of the money (I have to agree that if she HAS done work, she should get paid for it), then you'll take her to court for it.

As for the state-lines thing, again, I'm sure the lawyer would know. If you're worried about the cost of a consultation, I'm not sure if they do those pro-bono but it'd never hurt to ask. Just take everything you have - the pictures, e-mails, and FA notes. As for the phone calls - you could try contacting your service provider and ask for a record of all the calls you made and the length (to show that no one answered). I know in the past, I've see them show that information on phone bills. There shouldn't be any reason they can't print you up a history and mail it to you.

[qarrezel.livejournal.com]

Some links that may help you:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/consumerism/small_sc.html
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/consumerism/small_pa.html

It looks a bit like you would have to hold he case where she lives. Also looks like you don't need an attorney, but can have one.

Here is a listing of free legal resources in your state that can hopefully give you some advice:
http://lawhelp.org/SC/StateDirectory.cfm/County/%20/City/%20/demoMode/%3D%201/Language/1/State/SC/TextOnly/N/ZipCode/%20/LoggedIn/0/directory/all/searchletters/byname

Furthermore, there are many lawyers who will give you a free consultation. Look around in the phone book, that's probably a good start.

I feel that you should pursue this at least to the point of knowing exactly what your options are. It may be that the time, expense and hassle of actually taking legal action is too high to warrant doing so (but who knows, maybe not), but I think you'll feel better if you at least learn about your legal options.

[jtigerclaw.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for your help! I was just about to begin the search for Kat/my legal options (as far as budget would allow) and this is a great start! :)

[ex-pollute654.livejournal.com]

she's very active on a website i moderate, which leads me to believe that, yes, she is blowing you off. i'm really sorry to hear this, since we've always had pleasant transactions in the past.

as maddogairpirate said, you did talk to her a month ago. i'd be inclined to say "give it more time", if not for the fact that she's been ignoring all attempts to contact her. she is active, and as far as i'm concerned there should be no excuse.

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

On April 15th, she responded with an email, in which she said she would mail a few days later.. The very last time i've spoken to her was April 27th. And we've not heard a Peep from her since then.

Bear in mind this whole time she's saying that the suit is done..although in the same breath she's talking about airbrushing the spots and such.

Ok, I was wrong about the four month part. I do apologize. I do have all the logs and such to keep on hand. I did a little bit of research. Sorry for the confusion.

[Also I wish to point out, that if I sound snippy, please know it's not You or Anyone that responds. I am sorry if I sound that way.]

[jtigerclaw.livejournal.com]

I really wish there were a way to get in contact with her at that website, or have someone else ask her about the suit, just to get SOME sort of response about it.

But I fear that 1) it would be seen as harassment and 2) that she wouldn't respond anyways. But the other usual avenues of contact don't get any response from her, and we don't know what other options we have. :(

Do I need to act like a pesky bill collector to get a response? I should hope not. -_-

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

I also wish to point out this. She never told me that she posted the picture of the fursuit head. I found it completely by accident. Nor did she ever respond to me.

She tossed it up, and went back into hiding. There's nothing else for her to do but to send it. But she refuses to. And..well not to be rude, but posting a picture does not constitute communication.

At this point now, since she is active elsewhere, then it is proven that she is avoiding me.
If she is active on another forum, then I would very much like for her to contact me. I'm not happy that she's avoiding me. I'm not a hard customer by any means.

At this point now, I just wish for her to contact me so we can resolve getting my money back. And leave this behind us.

[obsidianwolfess.livejournal.com]

I would do everything I could to take it to small claims court. You may be able to at LEAST get half of your money back. (I don't imagine you'd get the full refund though since she's proven that some of the work was already done.)

I'm really sorry that happened to you though. I'll definitely be remembering this incident. Completely unacceptable business dealing on her part. =\

The world needs more patient people like you, just to not be screwed over.

Best of luck.
Obsidianwolfess (@furaffinity).

[paradiseforlorn.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for your kind words. :) Small claims court has crossed my mind. I just don't know if it would be feesable since she lives several states away from me. And I'm not fully sure how that works.

[xodiac.livejournal.com]

At this point you pretty much have two choices. Well, three:

1. Keep doing what you're doing. Email her, call her, etc. This is the option I tacked on, because I don't think anything will come of it. But it's an option.

2. Blow off the money. Decide she's not worth the hassle, you can afford to let it go, and forget about it.

3. Take her to court. For this you'll need to speak to a lawyer for advice as to your chances — if you're not likely to win then you might want to reconsider option 2, after all. Lawyers don't usually bother representing people in small claims court, from what I've heard, though I could be wrong or someone could make an exception. Still, talk to a lawyer first. Initial consultations are usually free, and if they choose not to represent you you can ask for advice on how to go about pressing your claim, at the very least.

[fuchsiapossum.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness.. There is no doubt in my mind that she has been blowing you off, and it upsets me so much that someone like her would do that. People like her can make other beginners look bad (like myself). I'm just starting to accept fursuit commissions as well, and I already have three paying customers. I keep my FA journal updated with my price information, requirements, EXAMPLES and fursuit status. Also, I am NOT impressed with her work especially for $600. I hope you can take legal action and get as much money back as you can. But if not.. I really hope you can live without the lost money.

I truly wish you the best of luck. <3
I'm Fuchsia on FA. http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fuchsia/ :3

[jtigerclaw.livejournal.com]

At this point, me and Kat have given up hope of getting the suit, and actually, now that we've seen what we would be getting for all our hassle (you guys said what we were thinking, but didn't want to say outright) we don't want it. It's not even worth $600 if it were done FAST, much less the outrageous amount of time it's taken to this point, the headache and frustration, the letdowns from month to month, etc etc.

I mean, like you said, Fuchsia, fursuit makers have to start SOMEWHERE! Most beginning suit makers at least try their best to accommodate the customer and charge a very fair price, but this is one time that really does make it seem a lot more dangerous to commission beginning makers without previous experience. And that's not fair to those who WOULD do a good job!

We've already commissioned another fursuit maker (a reputable one who keeps in contact with customers, produces quality products and meets deadlines). The completion date is scheduled for April 2010, and I wouldn't be surprised if that were done before we get anything from Cassie.

Truth be told, the $600 could REALLY help out on paying for this new fursuit commission, and not to mention the mere principle of having $600 stolen from you in such a manner.... I really do want to fight this and get Kat's money back... small claims court or whatever it takes.

But we really just do not know what to do at this point. :( Her reputation is already shot, so there isn't much incentive to live up to her promise or show any honor in refunding our money. :(

It's been a very hard experience, a very frustrating experience, for both Katalina and myself. I just hope that even if we can't get our money back, no one else gives her a chance to dupe them out of more money and get away with it. T_T