Read another horrible story about someone getting scammed out of fursuit level money, and I feel horrible for them but there's not much I can do.
Maybe 2023 is the year we need to normalize escrow services for large furry purchases?
Here's one: https://www.escrow.com/
@sec_yote_agenda Personally, I think that instead of #Escrow making actual #Reputation as key decision part is a more viable option.
After all the #Furry community should be able to use #Keyoxide (or even #Keybase) to verify producers and reviews to make scamming harder and more expensive.
Sadly this would kinda raise the bar for new suitmakers, but it would reward those doing their craft longterm and having good customer relations.
Escrow exist for juristictions w/o consumer protections...
@sec_yote_agenda OFC one can do both.
I'd just not trust any #escrow and instead require more #vetting of said businesses instead.
Basics that they'd have to publish anyway in almost all juristictions if not on theor products by regulatory rules...
@sec_yote_agenda precisely.
On the flipside I know.that fursuits are expe.sive custom works made to customer specs and not like something a manufacturer could easily flip to someone else...
Granted I'm used to negotiate in more official and commercial setting and thus there's way more vetting on both ends, paperwork and contracts and that may not work well for small workshops that do made-to-order exclusively.
I personally only recommend stuff I used myself already more than once.
@kkarhan Most if not all of the horror stories I've heard involve the maker failing to deliver, not the buyer failing to honor their obligations. And frequently a part of those stories is the maker claiming they can't refund because they've already spent the money elsewhere, which seems like poor protocol. Escrow would obviate this.
I'm also pretty sure there have been makers who deliberately stalled buyers past the point where a PayPayl refund was easy.
@sec_yote_agenda Shure...
#Escrow exists as intermediary that guarantees the solvency of the client and can act as mediator in case of a dispute.
There's a reason why modern versions like #Multisig are the norm for Cryptocurrency payments between non-trusting parties...
@kkarhan That's kind of the problem. Furries are too trusting...
Hell, I was trying to commission paws from someone who was well-reviewed, and after months of "hopefully soon!" and "you're first in the queue when my new molds come in!" they just stopped replying to me.
Thankfully I hadn't sent them any money yet, but they even had a decent reputation and had been fine up to that point except for the delay.
Oh, and they continued interacting with other people...
@sec_yote_agenda yeah, that's very sad and I sincerely hope this doesn't happen to anyone - whether they just wasted time waiting or even took money and ran...
Granted I'm more used in #IT and espechally #ITsec, #InfoSec, #OpSec and #ComSec where a minor fuckup will ruin decades of reputation-building in seconds and it's more or less impossible to recover from that...
So it's quite the opposite...
So #Escrow seems more than reasonable to enshure people ain't paying and/or working for nothing.
@kkarhan I probably wouldn't have gone escrow on this because it would have been under $300, but for a full suit, where you're talking $XXXX? Yeah, take actions to protect yourself.
Hell, even just -suggesting- it to a maker could be revealing if they balk at all.
Half a Century This Week, FCL
Kevin Karhan 