Beware: Royal Tenrou

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/807750.html

WHO: Royal Tenrou

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/royal-dog and http://www.twitter.com/royaltenrou

WHAT: Fullsuit

WHEN: March 2011 to Now (November 2014)

PROOF: Please note - You have to read the early emails from the bottom up. Click for larger versions.

Proof of Payment:

First emails (beginning of the breakdown):

Previous Deadline:

Last emails:

EXPLAIN: In March 2011, I visited the Midwest and ended up staying with Royal for a few days after meeting him through a mutual friend on FA previously. He mentioned that he wanted to go beyond his regular 2D art and get into fursuit building and at that time I wanted to bring my alt character to life. He decided to take me on as his first project, charging me $500 for a fullsuit. In September of that year I sent him the $500 and sporadically communicated with him over the next two years. When I reached out to him in November 2013, he said that the project was on hold. I got upset and had a back and forth with him (illustrated above). I wanted the unfinished suit so I could get someone else to complete it and he refused. After a cool down period, I emailed him again in February 2014 and he finally made some decent progress. Over the next seven months he made great strides building the suit until he seemingly hit a brick wall in October where he stated that his workspace was being compromised due to a ceiling leak. After the 16th however, he stopped communicating completely, yet according to his still active Twitter he was able to find time to pursue other interests.

It has been over three years for the suit and to be frank, I feel he has simply stopped working on it. At this point I feel a refund would be impossible to obtain and I simply want the unfinished suit so I can get a professional to finish it or for him to at least provide a update and finally get it done. I know things have been difficult for him, but three years is long enough to wait for something like this.

UPDATE (12/18/14): After sending him an email stating that I was preparing to take him to small claims court over the issue, he finally sent a progress picture of the head. He also stated that he would not communicate with me until the suit is finished and he would send update pictures at his discretion only. Should I hold off on small claims court or should I pressure him into relinquishing the incomplete suit and just having someone else finish it?

UPDATE (2/17/15): Around January he reached out to me with another update and ever since then he has been consistently in contact with me, complete with progress pictures. I'm really glad that this is working out without resorting court or anything.

UPDATE (3/6/15): Communication has improved tenfold and the head is pretty much done! Only thing left are the paws and tail. I'm excited for the final product and it looks like this is on its way to being resolved.

UPDATE (5/8/15): THE SUIT IS DONE! Since the previous update, he has been working all out to get it finished and I cannot put into words how happy and proud I am of him now. Communication was excellent the last two months (via DMs on Twitter) and the work itself blew my expectations out of the water. Waiting for the suit to finally arrive next week so I can take pics. This should be resolved as soon as I get the suit!

UPDATE (5/20/15): I received the suit about two weeks ago and after putting it through its paces, all I can say is WOW!

The head is well built (love the attention to detail such as the velcro strips that replicate the character's eye black stickers), the paws are super soft, and the tail is great. Sadly though, the bodysuit is too small and will need to be altered, not Royal's fault though since it was the first thing finished and that was around two years ago (the body was based on a three year old DTD... yea I got a bit fat >.>). Also the head was a bit tight and I had to remove the moving jaw, just added fleece to the gap and its all good now! I gotta say that its one hell of a suit and I absolutely love it! This is definitely resolved!