Sillikilts - Long Lead Time for Delivery

[cessna152towser]

From Kiltman's thread about waiting two years for a kilt it emerged that he is not the only one who has had a long wait. At least one other x-marker (Butch) has been waiting even longer than I have for a fun kilt from Astrid Olafsen of Arizona. Astrid markets her unique Burning Man Sillikilts on her Sillikilts website and also on Etsy where she listed three varieties as currently available as recently as 28th June 2010. Yet I am still waiting for my Paisley Pattern kilt which I ordered from her a year and a half ago. This was suggested by a fellow x-marker for me, intended as a fun item to complement my Paisley Tartan kilt, but I am beginning to lose my sense of humour as the kiltmaker never replies to any of my repeated e-mails. I sent her the agreed price of $75 on 17th February 2009, then she told me that the kilt was almost read for dispatch so I sent her a further $12 dollars for shipping the following day. Then I was promised the kilt for early summer. Then at Christmas she explained some personal problems she had been having and I generously offered to pay a further $40 on receipt of the kilt, in the hope that this would finally motivate her to complete the kilt and send it to me. I also promised to post reviews on the various kilt fora with a view to boosting her business. Since then she has completely ignored me. I know she is still around as she has had four good feedbacks on Etsy within the past month and she has a good feedback score there. Eighteen months later I still have no kilt and no explanation of the long delay. I paid her by Paypal and it is now much too late now to claim a refund through them. Why do kiltmakers take our money and then fail to come up with the goods we have paid for? This absolutely stinks. At least if the kiltmaker is in my own country I can go and chase them up in person and ultimately bring a claim if I do not receive my goods. However I feel that the seller is playing games here because she is safely outwith my reach in the USA. This would not exactly encourage me to order a kilt from any USA based kiltmaker in the future, which is a pity as there are a few kiltmakers out there whose products I would still like to add to my collection. Who else is waiting for a kilt from Astrid and for how long? Has anyone actually received one of her products?