Just Off Center

After watching about a hundred episodes of the People’s Court over the course of my life, you’d think I’d know better than to enter into a business agreement with an unestablished business and without a contract. But apparently some lessons are only going to be learned the hard way. I have come to my wits end in the pursuit of two seamstresses with whom Nina and I had an agreement for some drapes, towels, a shower curtain and a duvet cover. We paid them 50% down for most of it and in full for the shower curtain that they came back and took for alterations, but never returned. In total we are out about $500.

It began almost a year ago, when Nina and I were trying to decide what we should dress as for Halloween. You see we’re married so we have to be a pair of something like salt and pepper, Bonnie and Clyde, or dom and sub. It’s cuter that way. Otherwise people might begin to silently doubt our cohesion. At least that’s the impression I get from Nina and some of the other couples I’ve seen. Well I had the idea that Nina could buy some Goth type clothes in all black and get all funkified with makeup and black nail polish and that I could dress up as a white god-like figure so we would present ourselves as “good and evil”. It was a good plan in theory. But once Nina got all dressed up in some new duds from Hot Topic and went to the first party it wasn’t exactly convincing. While she had the costume of evil, she was still just plain cute, thus nullifying the effect.

My costume was the real challenge. I wanted to wear a white robe with a rope and sash with sandals and a staff. I basically wanted to look like God from the painting on the Sistine Chapel. So after trying on a couple prefab outfits from Halloween stores I decided that it wasn’t going to work. Everything was just too thin in material and nothing fit my body right. So I had another brilliant idea. I’d just call a seamstress and have my Halloween costume tailor made. That way I’d look great and have something to wear every year. I did a bit of Internet searching and came across a website for the now defunct Armystics Designs. I called the owner and made my request. The finished product was a little simpler than I would have liked and it had some ragged edges, but she gave me a discount and once I accessorized and put on a beard I was the absolute best dressed at both parties I attended. I even won a prize gift card from Best Buy. Unfortunately, everybody just called me Moses.

But it was such a success that when the topic came up of how to decorate our bedroom and bathroom and how to cover our windows I thought we should just call Armystics back. So the owner came by our apartment and we discussed what we wanted with her and even gave her a 50% deposit on some of it. We had a “generic” theme for our master bath with towels that had “towel” stenciled on it, a drape on the door that read “drape” and the shower curtain read “shower curtain”. Cut to four months later. We have been unable to contact the people from Armystics. They won’t return our calls. When we did talk to them they lied about their progress and every time they said they were going to come up they failed to do so, wasting our time and frustrating us to no end. We did get out bathroom taken care of for the most part, but the lettering on the shower curtain was crooked, so we had them come up and alter it. But once they tried to do it onsite, they ripped part of it and had to take it with them. We agreed with a promise that they would return it within two weeks. We haven’t seen it since.

I spent months tracking them down. I finally found one of them working in accounts management for an auto restoration company. I called her and she gave me a bullshit story about how all she needed was my address and that the person who had bought out Armystics would cut the check. Of course when I called the new owner this woman claimed no knowledge of my situation or me and refused to help. So to date no refunds have been issued and now the number is out of service. This woman has to have changed her number three times to avoid me. I’ve basically accepted that the whole thing is a loss. And it hurts to know that I’ve been taken advantage of like this.

But not being one to accept pain without retribution, I have vowed to locate those responsible and get my money back as well as my shower curtain. I really liked that shower curtin. So I now turn to the general public by writing this post in my blog. The names of those who ran Armystics are Reagan True and Allen Tant. They live and work in Tucson Arizona. I have no phone numbers, one email address that gets no responses, and few other options. I'd take them to small claims but I don't have any means of contacting them. But I will not let this just fade away. $500 is a lot of money, but the principle is worth far more. Any help in locating these two fraudulant assholes is greatly appreciated.

# posted by Mike @ 9:45 AM