https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/906397.html
WHO: Gideon Hoss
WHERE: Anthrocon Pittsburgh, PA, July 9th-12th, 2015
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/gideon /
WHAT: traditional "con sketch" for $40
WHEN: Friday, July 10th, 12:45PM Pittsburgh time
EXPLAIN: As soon as the dealer's room opened, I rushed in to get several commissions for a friend of mine in Sweden, knowing that sketch slots fill up fast. One of my friend’s requests was NSFW sketch of his zebra/dog character (Gideon is well known for his hyper-genetila pictures.) After securing commissions from several other artists first, I arrived at his both around 12:30pm. I purchased a sketch commission slot for $40, along with one of his CD compilations for $10. I gave him my friend’s character references, along with a description of what he wanted, and paid the $50 at that time using my PayPal debit card (see receipts above). I was told he would complete the sketch that night and it would be available for pick up the next morning.
The next day (Saturday), I went to his booth to pick up the sketch, but was told he didn’t have enough time to complete it, and that he would try to get it done that night for me. Ok, fine. Things happen, sketches take longer then they expect, etc. Again, when I went to his booth the next day, I was again told that he did not complete it, but he would try to get it done before the end of the con. We exchanged phone numbers so that he could text me when it was ready. Instead, later that evening he texted me to say he did not complete it, but would do so when he got home and mail it to me. I waited several weeks with no messages from him, so I sent him a text message inquiring about the status of the sketch, but he never responded. I tried several more text messages after that over the following weeks, and again received no response. I was able to locate his email address on his website and attempted to contact him that way, but again received no response.
As it turns out, my friend was going to be attending Eurofurence in August 2015, and Gideon was to have a booth there. They exchanges several emails and made arrangements to meet to pick it up, but Gideon never showed up at the arranged time. After that con, he again failed to contact us. Both my friend and I attempted to email him every couple weeks or so after that, and he yet again didn’t respond.
In September, I again tried contact him as I saw that he was going to be at the Rainfurrest convention in Seattle later that month and could make arrangements to pick up the sketch, as I was going to be in the area visiting friends. Again, I received no response from him.
In November, I tried to contact him via his Furaffinity.com account. Needless to say, I was very surprised when he actually *DID* respond. He claimed he was not receiving our emails (which I find very hard to believe since they seemed to work just fine when we could “pin him down” at a con, but whatever.) After a few exchanges on the fur affinity message system, he stopped responding yet again. My friend and I both attempted to contact him several times in December and January, to which we again received no response. At some point I also left him negative feedback on his credit card merchant account, citing the long overdue delivery and lack of response, and yet again he never replied.
At this point, it’s now been over 7 months since the con it was originally supposed to be done at, and we’ve been given him more than enough chances to correct the situation.
My friend is heart set on getting this sketch from Gideon, so I would very much like to receive it, and soon. At this point, if he has any intention of completing it, I feel he should mail the sketch to my friend in Sweden at his cost: Has he actually completed it at Anthrocon as originally promised, I would have been able to send it in a package of other “con goodies” I got for my friend – an additional sheet of paper probably would not have raised the postage any more. If he has no intention of completing it in a reasonable time, I want a $40 refund.
I’m sorry, but there is no excuse for this lack of customer service on his part. A paying customer should NOT have to try to hunt down an artist like this, only to be given empty promises or be completely ignored. It makes me wonder how many other people he’s done this to that maybe gave up after a few tries. My friend was actually considering getting a full colored commission from him at some point, but after this experience, I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore.
PROOF:
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