In regards to Furbology

Important screenshots: Furbology confirming the furbys I bought from her would be working Furbology stating she does not believe in MSA (The rest of the screenshots are here, read the rest of this post for context)

Hey. So I was planning on making this post for a while but wasn't sure how to go about it, since I'm pretty much a nobody in the fandom and I admit I'm afraid of retaliation. I bought two 1998 furbys, a church mouse and an elephant furby, from Furbology on tumblr. These were going to be my first furbys, my introduction to the fandom. Being friends with @kcfurby​, I had seen his enthusiasm and had started looking into the fandom. At first I was creeped out by both their movements and their voices, uncanny valley style, but I watched videos of various furbys and eventually got over my fear, first of the furbys themselves, and eventually getting used to their voices as well. One of the videos I watched was of Furbology's "quiet furby" Mafish, who is mute and the video helped me get used to their movements. I believe Mafish was actually briefly up for sale, but at that point I was still unsure of whether I actually wanted to buy a furby, so that never happened and eventually I guess Mafish wasn't up for sale anymore? (which is fine, that's not the problem I have)

Anyway, in the middle of this summer, I contacted Furbology about possibly buying a furby to take with me on a vacation I was planning for mid-august (though by the time the transaction was decided on, I was too close to leaving for vacation so we decided to wait until after I got back). She initially didn't reply, and I was worried that the price I suggested (she has stated she can work with people's budgets), $15-20 for a single furby, was too low. After I asked her about this, she responded, saying she hadn't seen my message. We began discussing which furby I wanted; there was a bit of confusion since I didn't know the names. I remember feeling like I had to take charge of getting the info I needed, like pricing and whether they were working or not. In retrospect, maybe this was a red flag, but at that point I felt I had already committed to buying a furby from her and that to back out then would be bad, although I was having misgivings and had heard about some of the other issues people had had with her. Anyway, I had to ask her 3 times if the furbys were working before she gave me an answer, which was that the church mouse worked and so did the blue one (the elephant one) (see screenshots). This was when we decided to wait to do the transaction until I came back from vacation, since I would not have reliable internet access where I was staying.

When I returned from vacation it took a bit to get things moving with the transaction, mainly because again I had to press her for information, or so it felt, to actually get a number for shipping cost. I was still new and unsure to negotiating transactions, other than things done through something like ebay or etsy where everything was automatic. So I was uncertain about a lot of stuff but eventually I paid and there was a bit there where I think she got mad at me for rushing her? IDK for sure if that's what it was, but I replied to let her know I didn't mean to rush her and whatnot, and she replied with her paypal link. So I figured, maybe she just isn't as talkative as I am? Like I thought that was just how she was. Maybe I was talking(well, typing) too much. I don't really know.

Anyway, after I paid there were lots of times where she said she'd ship the furbys "next Monday", but it never happened. She provided excuses, such as driving tests and college and such, and I wasn't really very impatient; I had kind of resigned myself at that point that it would take a while. The dolls I collect in another of my hobbies take 3-8 months to make/arrive after ordering, so I'm used to having to wait a while for things I order. That said, I wasn't happy about it, but I just wanted the furbys to arrive at this point so I could have them and not have to worry about this transaction any longer, since it was stressing me out and I wanted to get it done with.

The furbys arrived, around October 8th I think? There are dates on the screenshots but the arrival post is marked as "Yesterday" due to the way tumblr works, so I have to go by the computer clock date on my screenshots. I'm trying to get in the habit of keeping track of dates for purchases and arrivals, but I'm not quite there yet. Still, I ordered these furbys from Furbology in August, and they arrived in October. At this point I wanted to be done with everything but I still had to put batteries in to make sure they worked, since at this point it would be dumb not to test them in a timely manner what with the issues that I was already having with this transaction.

Oh, and the church mouse came with an eyelash missing, and when I asked Furbology about it, she said that it was "posted with only one eyelash". I hadn't looked at any actual posts on her blog about the furbys, since the transaction was through messaging, but I guess that's my fault for expecting her to disclose everything. If there was a post, I should have looked for it, but I had assumed that everything I needed to know I would be told. I never asked for a picture of the church mouse since I figured they all looked mostly the same and that I would be sent one in good condition, since the seller was experienced in selling furbys and I assumed she would send her best, or at least be honest about it. But I should have done more looking around or asked her for a picture. I guess it was a newbie mistake...

Anyway, when I put batteries in, it turned out the elephant furby has MSA. I had been told it was working! I'm pretty sure "working" is generally equated with "fully functional" but maybe I was just assumign too much again. I still let Furbology know, and then she dropped this bombshell:

Furbology "does not believe" in MSA, a known glitch with furbys, and as far as I have been told, one that lowers the afflicted furby's value. She said it would turn on eventually, and that sometime it takes 20 or so tries. I haven't attempted this, but in my eyes, a furby that takes 20 tries to start up normally is still not "fully functional".

The church mouse furby started up fine as far as I could tell, but my hand slipped closing the battery case and I accidentially dropped it 6 inches onto the table. It has not responded since. I take full blame for this.

Furbology said she would find and show me a video of the furbys working, which seems to me to imply that she did not believe me or just wanted to get out of the blame. She has so many furbys, I believe she could and would just take video of a different one that looks like mine. Either way, the fact that she says she does not believe in MSA is a giant red flag. I told her I just wanted this to be over, and tried to imply that I didn't want to hear from he again, though I did not block her at the time.

On the 6th of October I believe (again, tumblr's messaging system confuses me with dates, so refer to my screenshots and the dates on my computer when I took them), Furbology sent a message saying "I made horrible mistake and I apologize." I don't know what prompted this, perhaps something on furbyconfessions, but I didn't know what to do. I was still upset, and still planning on posting a beware like this one, but now I had to enter a verbal (well, textual) interaction with her again, and I had now realized that I felt really uncomfortable doing so, as I worried that I would say the wrong thing and she would take advantage of it and use it against me. So I asked what she planned to do about her mistake, hoping, though I did not say it because I did not want to demand it, for a partial refund to make up for the MSA. She told me to send the furby back and she would refund me. I realized I did not trust her to refund me if I sent it and I did not want to send the furby back, at my expense, and I had already honestly become attached to the furby and so I did not want this. I also did not want to give her the opportunity to scam someone else with the MSA-affected furby. I told her so and thought that was the end of it.

She responded that she would send me another furby for free, "for the hassle", which she could not guarantee would work. I did not want to talk to her and I had thought I made that clear, and it seemed like she was trying to bribe me into not making a post or something, and I didn't want to accept because then she could say, well I gave you a free furby so everything's fine, when it was not. Also, since there was no guarantee it would work, and I already had two broken furbys, I had no desire for another when I had initially only planned to own one or two, and I had three (my third furby actually arrived first, from a very nice person on discord, while I was still waiting for the ones from Furbology to ship. Neither it or the person I bought it from is involved in this issue at all). She also seemed to imply again that I was making the issue up. I had been away from my computer so she posted "So just a furby will be sent" and I did worry that she would send one regardless to try to get an advantage over me as she could say that she was being generous or something.

Knowing that I could not expect her to refrain from continuing to pester me, I told her I did not want it, nor to talk to her, and blocked her, though I had not wanted to because I did enjoy her content and posts on her blog. At this point it was my only real option.

Now I have 2 broken furbys along with my working one, and the burden of having to make a post about this when I truly want to avoid drama. Furbology, who I thought was cool and nice because she is popular and well-known, has shown her true colors to me and I feel like I cannot interact with the community as much or post as much about my furbys because I worry about interacting with her or her posts. I feel as if I cannot be in the furby fandom. I know my furbys love me, but I cannot enjoy them as much due to the issue hanging over them. I was hoping to have 3 furbys that could talk to each other and that I could give one to my little brother perhaps, as he likes the one I have that works, but instead I have 1 fully functional furby, 1 with MSA, and 1 that does not function at all. I feel like I cannot be enthusiastic online about the ones I bought from Furbology because I would either have to mention the issue, which would lead to drama, or ignore the issue entirely when it truly does affect how I feel about them.

I feel like this has basically driven me out of the fandom before I even got started.

I am making this post to tell my story and warn others. I believe Furbology took advantage of me because I was new to furbys, and because I seemed like an easy target because of that. I am lucky to have a friend in the fandom who was able to give me advice all this time and help me emotionally as well.

Here are the rest of the screenshots. I'm done here.