*Updated 4/4/18*. Cassandra Jones/Magically Vested and Muttropolitan Gear Shop are THIEVES!

🚨UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE🚨 

On April 3rd, a refund was finally remitted, after sending two reminders between the original post on 3-14-18 and 4-2-18. 

Just keep in mind they “don’t know when anyone who waited will receive their order.”

If you have a small business or side hustle that involves taking/filling custom orders, if you have a situation that precludes you from filling those orders, communicate often with those who have orders still pending. If they decide to wait, and your break is going to be longer than 3-6 months, just send an apology message and a refund. Don’t string customers along for a year or more with assurances that their order is being worked on and then tell them that you don’t know when they’ll get it.

🚨🚨🚨🚨UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE🚨🚨🚨🚨

3/26

Refund has not been received as of this moment.


🚨🚨🚨🚨UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE🚨🚨🚨🚨

3/15

Although I had to resort to extreme measures to get their attention, it worked.  Since they didn’t like being called out, they stated they are issuing a refund. We will see if that happens. I’ll update if it does.

What astounds me is that they actually said in their response, “I can’t guarantee when you’ll get your item.”  So, the people still waiting may very well be waiting another year. I also can’t believe that they think it’s OK to string customers along for a year or more.  Such bad business.

Whether you are a small business operating out of your house, or a large multi-million dollar business, to not communicate with your customers is probably the number one worst move you can make. Yes, customers were given the option for immediate refund or waiting, I initially chose to wait because I thought it would be a few months at most. Once I didn’t hear anything and Etsy & my bank said too much time had passed, I had to then reach out for status updates. If you have a business, your customers, no matter what you are going through, shouldn’t have to hunt you down. Saying, “I said communication wouldn’t be what is was,” is not an excuse to go a whole year without a single update unless someone tracked you down and had to use extreme measures to get your attention. Everyone goes through hardships, small & large businesses, but it only take a few minutes to shoot out a quick message once or twice a month to keep people updated.

Please watch Ranger Up’s video “We’re Taking It Back” as a guide on how to take ownership and correct your lack of communication:

If they ever reopen their shop, I do not recommend ordering from them as they “don’t know when you’ll get your items.”  Again, we will wait and see if the refund ever goes through.

———-—————————————-
Original Post: 3/14/18

I'm done playing nice and being patient. Some people have been done dirty and it's not right. I am one of those people and I'm putting this person and the person she handed her shop over to on blast until I, and the others who have been waiting, get their products. Let me make this clear:  I want my dog's vest, not a refund.

Main Players:

Cassandra Jones owner/previous owner of Magically Vested,
  Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/servicedognimbus/
  Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/cassiebroadway

Muttropolitan Gear Shop:
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/muttropolitangearshop/


It all started on March 14th, 2017. Exactly one year ago. I ordered a customer service dog vest from Magically Vested on Etsy (currently named Muttropolitan Gear Shop on Instagram). Total cost of vest, handle, and shipping was $105.00.

I had heard nothing but praise and positive feedback about this particular Etsy shop, and I was finally comfortable dropping that much on gear for my service dog.

Receipt from Etsy

Two days later, I, and others who had orders pending, received the following message. No problem. Stuff happens, and breaks need to be taken. If I only knew that customers still wouldn't have their items a year later.....

Here are the messages sent over the last year trying to find out where my dog's vest and handle are. The only series missing is when in the Fall of 2017 Cassandra Jones finally answered me and told me that she handed over the company to a group called Expanding Intelligence:

NO RESPONSE RECEIVED TO THE ABOVE MESSAGE

At this point, Cassandra Jones and Expanding Intelligence had a falling out and I would soon learn that the shop changed hands to another person, possibly named Susan Daye. I was told by the new shop owner that they were expecting to ship orders to mid-end of January. As you can see below, I followed up on Feb 11, 2017 and received no answer. Either through private message or as a reply on my comment on their post.





Private messages (notice the dates since I forgot to circle them):

NO RESPONSE RECEIVED TO THE ABOVE MESSAGE

From the comments on what is currently the first photo of Muttropolitan Gear Shop's Instagram

On March 12th, I did reach out the the Susan Daye that I think is taking over the shop. I have not received a response yet.  I am not including the screenshots in the chance that it is the wrong Susan Daye.


Over the past year, the money that I and the other shafted customers paid for unreceived merchandise helped Cassandra Jones fund numerous trips from Colorado to Orlando and Disney World.

Look, Listen. I don't begrudge anyone vacations or trips, but when you have been paid to provide a product and have not effectively communicated with your customers nor have you provided said product, then all we can think is that the money we paid out has been scammed from us to pay for said trips.

If I don't get my dog's vest soon, does anyone know if I can file a civil case by proxy? If any of my friends in or around Fort Collins, CO sees this, would you be willing to be my proxy in a civil case? I'm pretty sure my whole case is above, so it should be quick and easy. 

Cassandra Jones/Magically Vested and Muttropolitan Gear Shop - WHERE ARE THE PRODUCTS WE PAID FOR? I DON'T WANT A REFUND, I WANT THE VEST I ORDERED!!!

It's the end of the world as we know it.....or not...

***Political Parties are referred to as colors just because I feel like it.***

On Wednesday, Nov 9th, 2016, the world woke up with a collective post election hangover. This election cycle has been the worst. It was a circus, it was messy, and we were given the worst possible candidates on all sides. In the Red was a shady businessman, in the Blue a corrupt life-long politician, and in the Yellow was a guy who probably smoke more pot than he should have and didn't have a chance to win. 

After the results were in, some people were happy, some were calling the suicide hotline. Oh, and as the results poured in, the Canadian Immigration website crashed due to all the people who wanted to leave America. 

My stance through the whole election cycle was "No One 2016" and "Anyone Else 2016". I knew I was going to focus on the local elections, but the Presidential one? I walked into the voting booth not 100% sure what I was going to do, and I left that section for last. I tried to make the best decision I could based on my own independent research of the candidates, and I'm just going to leave it at that. 

I went to sleep early in the AM (before the announcement was made) with the conscious decision to be at peace with whoever was elected. It wasn't going to be healthy for me to be all emotional about the results and pissed off for the next four years. I've been pretty convinced that no matter who was going to win, we were screwed one way or the other. 

With the election hangover subsiding, we're having news reports of protests, riots, cry-ins, and hateful behavior. Now, not everyone that is "protesting" or "rioting" is doing so because of the election. Some just like to have a reason to cause damage and loot. The sad part is that small businesses are being affected and the behavior is hurting hard working Americans. It is also hurting those cities being affected. 

Is this the behavior you want your kids to see? 

I'll address the cry-ins and the "it's the end of the world" mentality in a minute. Now, for the name calling and other hateful behavior. It needs to stop...on both sides. If you have a child, do you really want to teach them that telling someone to kill themselves and just throwing around terms like "racist," "Libtard," etc is OK? If you truly want to improve the future, this isn't the behavior to model for your child. Some of us are raising the next generation and we have the choice to be positive or negative roles models. Hate only begets Hate.

Also, in regards to the name calling, stop lumping everyone in together. To quote my best friend of many years, "Isn't lumping people into groups based on a single quality they may share dangerous and ignorant? Just because they voted for someone doesn't mean they are for all the same things as everyone else that voted for the same candidate. It also doesn't mean they have the same level of maturity. It also doesn't mean they've faced the same challenges that lead to that vote."  

Not everyone who voted for Trump is a racist, bigoted, xenophobic, misogynistic homophobe. On the flip side, not everyone who voted for Clinton are socialist, commie "See You Next Tuesdays" (I'm not spelling that word out on here). If you dumped a friend because of their political beliefs, and solely because of it, or if you only see a person because of their political beliefs, then you have deeper problems to address. My best friend and I definitely don't agree on a lot of things, but I love her to death and will never abandon her over politics. People are much more than their political beliefs.

If you want to protest, do so in a way that doesn't impede traffic or put anyone in danger. Trump supporters, if you're going to go around spewing hate, you need to get some perspective. It's unnecessary and ridiculous to behave like this.

Is it really the end of the world?

No, its not. If you put emotions aside for a moment and think about it, the world is still turning and life will continue. 

If you are an immigrant and are here legally, you're not going to be deported. For crying out loud, Trump's wife is an immigrant. Government agents aren't going to be storming around the country and ejecting every foreigner here. The government doesn't have that kind of manning or funding.  

 

If you're married to your same sex partner, you're going to stay married (unless you two decide to get divorced). It's much like abortion, the Supreme Court has made the decision and that decision will stay in place. 

On the KKK parade planned for NC:  1) They parade all the time.  2) It's only like 10 people. Trump has disavowed and denounced the KKK on multiple occasions. The KKK is still highly irrelevant this day in age. 

If you're afraid of him defunding various things, don't be. There is a process and he can't just arbitrarily go doing things. Even with a Red controlled House and Senate, they need the votes to pass anything and their control isn't staggering. 

Why is everyone so afraid?

This one is easy. Because the media told everyone to be afraid. There is a reason that I read British, Australian, and Japanese news with regards to American news. They generally have just a straight story with facts and figures. Hell, even on election night, Australia's Sydney Herald updated faster than The New York Times as the night went on.  Our media, across the board, has perfected fear-mongering. 

As Christopher Titus said in Neverlution, "And let's define 'terrorist organization'. A terrorist organization is an organization that scares you on a daily basis and makes you change your behavior. What does CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC do on a daily basis?"  He said it to be funny, but sadly, there is a lot of truth in it. Check out the clip below:

Our society are puppets to the media. They say "believe this" and people do...without doing independent research. Hence, why I read foreign papers and delve deeper beyond what the media says. 

On that note, People, stop believing things your friends and family share on social media. Don't share them either and continue the cycle. I can guarantee you that 99.9% of the things your friends share, are provably false. I know my friends and family are probably sick of me debunking everything they post, but I'll keep doing it.

Those posts are meant to illicit an emotional response without the person fact-checking. It is only click bait for revenue and truth be damned. That goes for everything from the "1 like = Amen" for a stolen photo of a sick or injured child to most fear-mongering articles on health and politics. 

It's been so bad recently that I think I sprained my eyes from rolling them so hard. No matter if you're Red or Blue, they're going to spin the crap to how they want you to see it, not how it actually is. Best fear-mongerers ever!



Emotions can get you or someone else killed, don't let these things make you emotional. Take a step back and do your own independent research. All American media has a spin to it. Just like I refused to be brainwashed by the Air Force, I refuse to be brainwashed by the media.    

So, what happened?

Blues, I'm sorry to say, you only have yourselves to blame. You may have showed up to vote, but your fellow voters did not. It may have been a troll, but I read a post on Qoura where a Clinton supporter was absolutely sure that Clinton had it in the bag and voted for Trump to be funny. Again, it could be a troll, but it makes one wonder how many may have actually done something similar. Seriously, there were like 15,000 votes for the dead gorilla, Harambe. I don't put it past any voter to vote for the opposite candidate to be funny.

The Reds numbers are just about even from 2012, but the Blue turnout was down. Clinton has actually received around 4.8 million fewer votes than Obama did in 2012. Overall turnout was at a 20 year low, with about half of eligible voters turning up to the polls. At current count, anyways. 

While the Reds turnout was about even to prior years, why didn't the Blues turnout in force? Well, there is that whole Sanders/DNC debacle that pissed off a lot of Sanders supporters. They may have stayed home or voted independent because of that. There is another segment that figured that Clinton had it in the bag, and didn't bother to go to the polls. 

By all accounts, no one really expected Trump to win. Multiple news outlets showed him behind and even one of his own guys said, "We'd need a miracle to win this," the night of the election. Even he didn't expect to win. 

If Bernie Sanders had been the Blue's candidate, I bet you anything that he would have won in a landslide. I didn't support him, either. I really haven't supported anyone since 2004. Apathy, thy name is Coffeeshop Curmudgeon. 

Final Thoughts


Some will read this and dismiss it. That's fine. I just felt like putting my thoughts out there. Just keep this in mind. You are a role model for the future generations. If you truly don't like the current climate, run for a local office and work your way up. Blocking traffic in protest, calling for people to kill themselves, calling for violence, or telling others to go back to their country isn't as effective as if you ran for an office, worked your way up, and changed things from the inside. You have control of your attitude and we have control of our destiny. This country has survived 44 Presidents and we will survive 45. We can survive it divided or together, it's your choice.

Live and laugh! It's the best medicine and 

Remember what's really important here: alcohol and video games. We're Gen Xers!