Indie Oracles

Marilyn20

I recently started working on creating my own tarot deck, but as usual I am jumping way ahead of myself and starting to look at publishing and everything already. I bought a few lenormand cards from a woman named Catherine Brown over at etsy, but she has started a new website that says it will help indie artists publish their decks without all the work of indie publishing. I've been talking with her over the past few days and she is very nice and seems to have a good business model, and so I thought I'd pass along her website in case any of the creators here are interested. It is www.indieoracles.com.
 

GryffinSong

I don't think you're jumping ahead of yourself at all. Sometimes a minor difference in the tools you use to create your deck, or the proportions, or resolution, make all the difference in the final results. Knowing your publishing choices ahead of time might save you a lot of time later in re-working your cards.

Good luck! :)
 

Marilyn20

LOL, thanks GryffinSong! I guess you are right, it's probably best to go into this knowing exactly how I need the cards to turn out.
 

garmonbozia

Warning about Indie Oracles...

I ordered three decks from there over a month ago and have not received anything yet. The website says that the decks should be in the mail (Priority) in two weeks at the most. Of course I am starting to worry about my order. I've emailed Catherine Brown twice over the past week and she has not responded to either email. I noticed last night that someone left negative feedback for her on her etsy store at the beginning of February wondering where their cards were. Wish I had seen that before ordering mine. Something is fishy here. I am filing a Paypal claim soon before my ability to do so runs out.
 

kalliope

garmonbozia said:
Warning about Indie Oracles...

I ordered three decks from there over a month ago and have not received anything yet. The website says that the decks should be in the mail (Priority) in two weeks at the most. Of course I am starting to worry about my order. I've emailed Catherine Brown twice over the past week and she has not responded to either email. I noticed last night that someone left negative feedback for her on her etsy store at the beginning of February wondering where their cards were. Wish I had seen that before ordering mine. Something is fishy here. I am filing a Paypal claim soon before my ability to do so runs out.
Click to expand...

I'm in the same boat as you, garmonbozia. I ordered a deck at the beginning of February, and still have not received it. Strangely, I did get an automated email with a USPS Priority tracking number a while back, but then no scanning of the package ever occurred after that which lead me to believe she never actually put the package in the mail after printing the label. I emailed a couple of weeks ago, and last week I DID finally receive a reply. It seems that her son has been very sick and she has been overwhelmed and distracted by that. She apologized and said she would try to get her stuff together to mail orders out the next day or so.

I feel bad posting negative feedback here, and I understand that sometime life throws unexpected circumstances at us, but unfortunately when you're running a business you have to find a way to communicate and get things done. I'm going to give her a bit more time before I take any further action.
 

kalliope

kalliope said:
I'm in the same boat as you, garmonbozia. I ordered a deck at the beginning of February, and still have not received it. Strangely, I did get an automated email with a USPS Priority tracking number a while back, but then no scanning of the package ever occurred after that which lead me to believe she never actually put the package in the mail after printing the label. I emailed a couple of weeks ago, and last week I DID finally receive a reply. It seems that her son has been very sick and she has been overwhelmed and distracted by that. She apologized and said she would try to get her stuff together to mail orders out the next day or so.

I feel bad posting negative feedback here, and I understand that sometime life throws unexpected circumstances at us, but unfortunately when you're running a business you have to find a way to communicate and get things done. I'm going to give her a bit more time before I take any further action.
Click to expand...

Okay, so after posting all of the above, I received my deck today! I got the mini Stralsunder Lenormand, and I'm happy with my purchase.

So hopefully your decks were in the group of orders that she has managed to mail out, garmonbozia. I'd wait another week or so before you submit your Paypal claim.
 

garmonbozia

Thanks kalliope!

Thanks for the information. I'm sorry to hear about her son. You are right though, if she has too much to deal with and cannot fulfill orders, she should temporarily disable them on her website.

I'll wait another week before filing a claim as I don't think my 45 days are up until around the end of the month. Unfortunately, if you don't initiate a claim before 45 days after payment, Paypal will do nothing for you regardless of the circumstances.
 

Penthasilia

garmonbozia said:
Warning about Indie Oracles...

I ordered three decks from there over a month ago and have not received anything yet. The website says that the decks should be in the mail (Priority) in two weeks at the most. Of course I am starting to worry about my order. I've emailed Catherine Brown twice over the past week and she has not responded to either email. I noticed last night that someone left negative feedback for her on her etsy store at the beginning of February wondering where their cards were. Wish I had seen that before ordering mine. Something is fishy here. I am filing a Paypal claim soon before my ability to do so runs out.
Click to expand...

I am in the same boat- ordered from her Etsy shop- it hasn't shipped by today (which was listed as the "latest" possible shipping date. No answers to Etsy or email questions. Frustrating to say the least. :(

kalliope said:
I'm in the same boat as you, garmonbozia. I ordered a deck at the beginning of February, and still have not received it. Strangely, I did get an automated email with a USPS Priority tracking number a while back, but then no scanning of the package ever occurred after that which lead me to believe she never actually put the package in the mail after printing the label. I emailed a couple of weeks ago, and last week I DID finally receive a reply. It seems that her son has been very sick and she has been overwhelmed and distracted by that. She apologized and said she would try to get her stuff together to mail orders out the next day or so.

I feel bad posting negative feedback here, and I understand that sometime life throws unexpected circumstances at us, but unfortunately when you're running a business you have to find a way to communicate and get things done. I'm going to give her a bit more time before I take any further action.
Click to expand...

kalliope said:
Okay, so after posting all of the above, I received my deck today! I got the mini Stralsunder Lenormand, and I'm happy with my purchase.

So hopefully your decks were in the group of orders that she has managed to mail out, garmonbozia. I'd wait another week or so before you submit your Paypal claim.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately- I haven't received an email for shipping, nada. No return email, etc. I sent another one today asking for a response by COB tomorrow- otherwise I will file a claim. What a shame- I understand that life happens, but if that is the case, then you take down the site until you are able to get back to shipping on time. Unfortunately- it means that I won't be ordering from that site again- even if the decks do come, the time and hassle in trying to get it shipping in a timely manner is not worth the effort IMHO. :(

I think this is good info for anyone looking to publish- as this situation can results in a drastic decrease in sales. So seller and buyer both beware, at least at this time.
 

garmonbozia

I sent another email this week as well. 4 emails now. none returned. time to file a claim.
 

kalliope

Penthasilia and garmonbozia, I hope you can both get claims resolved. I'm sorry you neither of your have received your decks. :(

It's unfortunate that she's let this happen since she had an intriguing business model. Out of curiousity, I went to IndieOracles.com to see if she'd posted a notice of any sort, and the whole website is down! Her blog still exists, but it hasn't been updated since January.
 
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