Has anyone heard from Elana / FF since June 30 ?

[Kaori Oku]

The website is register to address in Red Fox Run road in Fort Myers Florida 33912.

 

[HHPmom]

Ladies,
The stringer's name is Annie Tsouros Skakun. She's on facebook. Same profile picture as the one on http://www.annieskakundesigns.com. On her Wall, June 17 entry said she was 19 hours from exiting Florida moving to Toledo, Ohio. Apparently her husband is starting his medical residency, which resulted in the move. Dr. Bill Skakun.

"I'm 19 hours from exiting Florida and becoming an Ohio resident. It seems surreal. Dr. Bill has been hard at work all week getting the house ready. I'm excited to do the finishing touches and gracefully enter into a new life!"

How's that for detective work? Ok, Ok, I should be working overtime this weekend, but I'll wait until later tonight and tomorrow. LOL.

 

[anne_h]

Good one, HHP Mom!

I guess it's clear by now that Anne Skakun must have handled my parcel at *some* point... but for what reason, for how long, and why Elana didn't mention it remains a mystery. lol

Anne

 

[anne_h]

Oh, one more thing. The pearl boxes were packed into the USPS box with paper towels. There was also a little bonus gift inside of a notepad and some pencils. Also, the clasp on the strand had been been protected with what appeared to be toilet paper and tape.

I mention this to see if it sounds like a packing style that is known to be specific to any one individual? lol

Anne

 

[elle_chris]

Glad you finally got them!

Btw- I also have a theory. Anne (the stringer), also buys and sells pearls. I'm wondering if the strand you ordered off Elana's site was always with Anne, and maybe Elana just didn't pay her in time so it was never sent.
Or maybe Anne, busy with moving, just forgot, or misplaced it.

For some reason, I don't believe Elana had it in her possesion when you ordered it.

Either way, someone's lying. That in itself is the biggest turn off for me. Not worth chancing it again.

 

[anne_h]

Interesting theory, and I see why you propose it.

I am going to say I doubt it's the case and here's why... over the course of several weeks, Elana and I had a number of communications about changing the order of the pearls in the strand, adding and removing various pearls, etc. She sent various pictures of the changes she was making. And the final strand matches our discussions and her final pictures too, so I feel pretty sure she had the strand in her possession at least at that point.

Which itself is also strange - why did she go to all the trouble of adjusting the strand to my tastes for me, to only then have the weird shipping issues/stories? *That* I cannot explain.

BTW, I love the collaborative detective work and theories going on here. Very helpful!

Anne

 

[y2kitty]

Any chance we could get photos of the strand or a link to the listing?

 

[anne_h]

Any chance we could get photos of the strand or a link to the listing?

The original listing is long gone, but here is a photo of the strand near its final state, as Elana and I were discussing a few last changes (pre-stringing).

Anne

 

[4Ranch Girl]

Beautiful strand of pearls. Now that you have them ENJOY !

 

[y2kitty]

I think they are beautiful too. Hope you can enjoy them without remembering all the hassle.

 

[risingsun]

I am so pleased that you finally received your pearls. I hope they have lived up to your expectations. As for Elana, I don't believe a word that she told you. Although I have never done business with her, I do buy jewelry on the internet. The level of trust needed for such expensive purchases is as important as the pieces themselves. I guess that we all have to be very careful out there and choose our vendors with care. This situation with Elana came as such a surprise and no one expected it. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

 

[EchoEcho]

I am brand new to this forum, but heard about Elana on a different forum and ordered Tahitians from her. After reading this thread, I just had to add my experience. Although I DID receive my order, and I am very pleased with the quality for the price, it took about a month for them to arrive. The issue is that I only live a few hours from Elana in the same state. I followed tracking on my pearls and they went through Florida before finally coming back to my state and being delivered. I just attributed it to postal error, but this thread has me wondering if there was actually a reason it went through FL first.

Regardless, the entire thing makes me uncomfortable and in the future I believe I will be ordering from PP or other reputable sites.

 

[LGK]

Ditto to what Risingsun said. As this thread has unfolded, it has sounded worse and worse. Extremely worrisome and personally it really bums me out because I have recommended her, both on PS and IRL, and that makes me feel particularly lousy about it all. I suspect that she, as a one person operation, got overwhelmed and freaked out and couldn't keep up for whatever reason, which I get, but she could have handled it better to put it mildly, especially as we're not talking about small $$ in many cases.

And it is especially weird since when I was buying from her a few months ago, the customer service was awesome and she shipped fast. Who knows what happened to change that so abruptly...

I would have loved to add to my Tahitians from her, too. Bah.

For whatever it's worth, I think all my packages from FF originated from Elana, not Annie, but who really knows.

 

[Kaori Oku]

I am so pleased that you finally received your pearls. I hope they have lived up to your expectations. As for Elana, I don't believe a word that she told you. Although I have never done business with her, I do buy jewelry on the internet. The level of trust needed for such expensive purchases is as important as the pieces themselves. I guess that we all have to be very careful out there and choose our vendors with care. This situation with Elana came as such a surprise and no one expected it. Thank you for bringing it to our attention.

I see your remark to the purse one and now am wonder if we are gonna get run over by them here like by the ladyzee, even they know that she says is not true. The truth is made completely clear and it is been proved that she has lied. Even she cannot say anything but sorry. But when somebody lie so much I think it is impossible to say that. To me the worst thing is a liar when they ask so much for your trusting and your money.

 

[ededdeddy]

UPDATES

Anne my friends package was put together ALMOST EXACTLY the same way yours was. It was packed in paper towels and they got a notepad, some pencils, and a pencil sharpener in the shape of a nose along with part of the order.

They put in a CC dispute and the CREDIT CARD COMPANY not Elana gave them a partial refund since they did get part of the order. Elana never contacted them and hasn't done zilch to resolve the issue and doesn't look like she is going to.

Unprofessional-to say the least, Flaky-most definitely, a Liar- see previous answers.

 

[HHPmom]

The blog continues to be updated. Unbelievable .

 

[that_someone_special]

Call me paranoid but she has a picture posted of the sea of cortez pearls.. and there is a pearl in the bunch that looks EXACTLY like a pearl that PP owns.. the big fat purple one in the picture......... Ummmm..... 4th picture from the bottom in the post.

 

[HHPmom]

Call me paranoid but she has a picture posted of the sea of cortez pearls.. and there is a pearl in the bunch that looks EXACTLY like a pearl that PP owns.. the big fat purple one in the picture......... Ummmm..... 4th picture from the bottom in the post.

No worry! Douglas McLaurin of Cortez Pearl farm brought it to the PP Ruckus in July. Jeremy bought that special pearl.

Anne_h is lucky. I assume because her strand is round and is $1,000+; so Elana has to ship it to avoid Visa dispute (thus profit in her pocket). The other poster's friend's item is small dollars (I believe it's the leather cord), so she didn't even bother. That goes to show her ethics is at the bottom of the totem pole.

 

[anne_h]

Ededdeddy - I am glad your friend got a partial refund. And yes, I can imagine it came from the credit card provider, not FF directly. I would assume now the CC company would backcharge FF, or just eat the cost if it is too late for that. BTW, had to laugh out loud about the nose-shaped pencil sharpener! I myself did not receive one, just the pencils and notepad. lol

Did we ever hear what happened to the poster in this thread who had sent back something for a refund, but FF never gave him/her one? I think they were going to dispute the original FF charge on their credit card too.

LittleGreyKitten and others who have recommended FF - Please don't feel bad about this. You only know your own experiences, which were good. Please do not take it upon yourselves to feel badly about what has happened to some of us others of late. At least now FF's strange behaviour is known and everyone can make their own decisions about dealing with her or not.

Anne_h is lucky. I assume because her strand is round and is $1,000+; so Elana has to ship it to avoid Visa dispute (thus profit in her pocket).

HHPmom - Two things:

1. Agreed, I do feel sort of lucky, although it's weird to have to say that because we are only talking about getting what was ordered and paid for - which should be a total given and not require any sort of luck (bleh).

2. Do you have any new theories on FF's strange behaviours (holding onto merchandise, ignoring some customer communications, giving false information, not processing some refunds)? I would hope there is some kind of non-malicious explanation - like laziness, distractedness or financial issues versus actually planning to do it and/or being okay with it...

Personally, I can never do business with her again. After my USPS detective work, I was so put off by (what I feel is) the obviously untrue US Customs / safe story that I just didn't want to communicate with her ever again. Although I respect that some others will and that is totally their right.

Anne

 

[anne_h]

BTW, is anyone who has been negatively impacted planning to file a complaint with the BBB?

 

[cushioncutnut]

Well, I have just finally read the result of your story Anne............and I just don't know what to say. It is all so bizarre to say the least. Looking back on my 2 purchases from Elana, I did question what was taking so long to receive the first one and then she explained that it was sent to Skakum in Fl to be strung which is why the tracking info was so confusing to me. The second time around, we had lots of correspondence via email and I received my strand pretty quickly......paper towel wrapping and a whoopie cushion to boot as Elana has stated that she wanted to be a commedian. I got a little chuckle when a few weeks after my purchase she sent a homemade thank you card with a weiner on it that said "franks alot". That said, maybe he sense of humor/quirkyness has taken a bizarre turn for the worst! Anne...I am so sorry that you and others have gone through the ringer on this! The pearls are quite lovely (gorgeous in fact!) that I hope you can look at them and love them (and thank God you got them!) and not have hard feelings over it. Thanks for telling your story though. I, like many others will certainly reconsider purchasing anything from her........at least until I can see that she is getting her business in order. THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE LACK OF CORRESPONDENCE ON HER PART. The truth will go alot further than all the stories she strung you and others along with. I really hope she has read all of this thread. Hopefully she will take heed to it and decide if she still wants to run a business????

 

[HHPmom]

HHPmom - Two things:

1. Agreed, I do feel sort of lucky, although it's weird to have to say that because we are only talking about getting what was ordered and paid for - which should be a total given and not require any sort of luck (bleh).

2. Do you have any new theories on FF's strange behaviours (holding onto merchandise, ignoring some customer communications, giving false information, not processing some refunds)? I would hope there is some kind of non-malicious explanation - like laziness, distractedness or financial issues versus actually planning to do it and/or being okay with it...

Personally, I can never do business with her again. After my USPS detective work, I was so put off by (what I feel is) the obviously untrue US Customs / safe story that I just didn't want to communicate with her ever again. Although I respect that some others will and that is totally their right.

Anne

What I wrote sounded a little strange, didn't it? Either way you would either receive your strand or a refund to your card but w/o the merchandise. You don't have anything to lose. But I think your outcome was resolved much sooner than others.

I have no other theory about FF's behaviours. I don't want to to speculate any further. I am glad some people posted their own negative experiences though. Hindsight, it would have helped others had they been told sooner to avoid wasted time, energy, money, etc. But maybe some of you just found things to be slightly strange and thought nothing of them. It's too bad things turned out the way they did; and it wasn't win-win situations for all parties. I hope those who choose to dispute the charges will get their money back.

I, myself, was skeptical about FF when I found out about the situation described in the other forum (what FF said about PP's merchandise). Back then I even posted that what she did was not a "win-win" situation either, damaging both sides' images. Fortunately, those who purchased from PP judged the products, the services and came to their own conclustions about PP's integrity. So there was no permanent damage ( I hope not). But what FF said raised doubt and caused the customer bring the issue to PP to hear PP's side of the story.

 

[Diamondhalo]

Did we ever hear what happened to the poster in this thread who had sent back something for a refund, but FF never gave him/her one? I think they were going to dispute the original FF charge on their credit card too.

Anne

I think this might be me? I did actually file a dispute, but not before sending mail from a different email account (just to rule out a possible communication problem) - no luck

I have to wait 45days and FF's bank has that time to dispute the chargeback, otherwise visa will credit me the full amount.

I have appreciated everyone's detective work, thanks ladies, if there are any noteworthy developments I'll let you know

 

[le chat]

Hi everybody, i am a newbie here. I found this forum after looking for Elana. I ordered her a strand 72" pearl freshwater since 1 week but havent got any email or updated the order status on FF if she ships out or not yet. I emailed her yesterday to ask but no answer yet.
After reading this topic, I am really nervous and dont know what is going on.... This is the first time I ordered from her after reading from another forum how they rate her. Lucky me, I also wanted to order a strand tahtian but wanted to try first how the quality of her pearls and service.
Hope she will email to let me know and will get my pearl !!!!

 

[Kaori Oku]

Any luck for you? Her blog is been update each day for three days so somebody is gonna be home.

 

[le chat]

I am still looking for her. Try to call almost everyday but noone picks up the phone even tried to call during the night or early moring as my purpose to get contact her but I dont still have any luck. I think I give her one more week and have to do something to proctect my credit card. The first time and will be the last time I order from her


Will update if I have news....

 

[Diamondhalo]

Still no reply to my emails either...

 

[cushioncutnut]

I am sorry to hear that for both of you! I am thoroughly perplexed about what is going on. I saw on her Ebay feedback she has dropped down to a 93% rating from 100%. The buyer who left bad feedback could not get any response from her...........

 

[EchoEcho]

I just cannot imagine she would suddenly be so unprofessional, especially after she had established a good reputation and an avid following. But she has said questionable things on other forums as well as not following through with her customers, and I really have to wonder what has happened to change her. Is whatever other business she has enough that her online sales don't matter anymore? And if that is the case, then why not simply shut down her website and remove herself from that part of things? Regardless, I cannot speculate as to what might have changed her, but she has really destroyed her reputation among a lot of buyers. Excuses can explain things away for a short time, but there comes a time when excuses no longer matter.

le chat, I hope you are able to contact her, but if I were you I would stop payment on the credit card (has it been charged yet?) and be done with it. There are many reputable sellers; you should not have to deal with someone who won't respond to you.

 

[le chat]

I cant still get contact with her and trying to wait for her response but you are right I should call the bank to see if she has charged my credit cart or not yet ( normally, the bill comes at the end of the month) and ask them to stop my payment.

I just found out her problem after ordering which was too late . Never do business with her again