Beware: Gorhund

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/927928.html

EDIT: Added title!

WHO: https://twitter.com/gorehund / http://www.furaffinity.net/user/gorehund

WHERE: Commission started over Twitter initially, then contact migrated to Telegram.

WHAT: A traditional badge to be finished by AC, two stickers, then a digital icon as compensation for trouble

WHEN: Started May 20, 2016, ended September 22, 2016

PROOF: I will link proof throughout the explanation, but here is the entire imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/PiTG5

EXPLAIN: On May 20, 2016, gorehund opened on Twitter for badge commissions for AC pickup or mail. I really enjoyed their art style and wanted to commission them, so I responded to their tweet. They told me I got the slot and asked me to DM my ref and provided their PayPal email. I sent them my ref and desired expression. I also told them that I was interested in AC pickup and they responded that they would have it ready for me.

Proof of payment

I left the artist alone for a while. On June 19, they posted a photo of badge sketches on Twitter. I was thrilled to see that they had been working on it!

Fast forward to Anthrocon (June 30-July 3). They posted on Twitter that they would be in the Artist's Alley Saturday and Sunday, so I stopped in on Sat, July 2. I asked about picking up my badge and they told me that they didn't have it done yet but they did show me their sketchbook with the badge sketches. They hadn't progressed any further than the previous photo but they said they could finish and ship it to me after the con.

On August 3, I sent them a Twitter DM asking about my badge because I had heard nothing since AC. I got no response for several days, so I tweeted them publicly on Aug 8, letting them know I had sent them a message. They responded to me after that tweet with their Telegram username which is where the rest of our communication took place.

I sent them a message on Telegram and they responded quickly. They said they planned to finish it and have it shipped the following week. I sent another message on the following Tuesday, asking if my badge was still on track to be finished. They answered with "Yep!" and I left it at that.

True to their word, the badge was finished on Aug. 19 and posted to Twitter. I was so excited to see the finished product and messaged them on telegram, expressing my happiness with the badge and asking when it would be shipped. They said they would get it out on Monday, Aug. 22. I asked if I may buy some of their high-yeena design stickers and have them sent with my badge. They asked me if I could buy the stickers through their Storenvy for inventory purposes and I didn't have a problem with that.

I purchased the stickers through Storenvy on Aug. 19 and added a note to ship them with my badge.

On Aug 25, I got an automated email from Storenvy, stating that my stickers had been shipped.

On Aug 27, I messaged gorehund because I hadn't heard a word about my badge even though the stickers were shipped. I made sure to mention that I put a note in my sticker order to ship them with my badge. They said they didn't see the note but said they'd ship my badge the following Monday (Aug 29). I asked if I could get tracking because at this point they had told me twice already that they would ship my badge and they hadnt, but they were able to ship my stickers promptly. They said that they could get tracking for the badge.

On Aug 30, I received the stickers in the mail and asked gorehund if they had gotten the chance to ship my badge like they said they would on monday. They answered and told me that they were out running errands right then, and would be shipping it. I received the badge on September 8 and let them know.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the postmark on the envelope and it states that the badge was shipped on Sept 6. So I was outright lied to by gorehund regarding shipping. I also noticed that there was no tracking number.

I started to notice a few imperfections on the badge and the longer I looked, the more things I saw:

Food crumb under lamination

Stray crumbs and lint laminated to the back

Piece of lint in the "A" and an orange stain on the white cheek

A curly hair laminated to the back

I messaged gorehund and brought this up to them. The orange stain wasn't in the photo of the unlaminated badge, so something happened between finishing the badge and the lamination that resulted in all of the imperfections. I asked if it would be possible to peel the lamination off and somehow clean the badge but they told me that they tried it with an old badge laying around and that the lamination sticks to the paper. They expressed remorse and offered to make another badge for me, but I declined that offer because it seemed unfair. I asked if I may be compensated with something small like a digital icon because I figured it wouldn't take much time.

They said an icon would be fine and they could possibly finish it that night, if not the next day. They reached out to me 2 days later on Sept 10, saying that they contracted a cold but said they would try to finish it that night. I hadn't heard anything from them so 6 days later, I sent a message asking for an update around noon. They read my message but did not respond, so about 6 hours later, I poked them again, asking for any sort of response. They told me they would have it done the following night (Sept 17).

I didn't hear anything from them, so I asked for another update on Sept 18. They said they were working on it right then.

Later that week (Sept 22), I asked for yet another update at about 6AM. I wasn't expecting a fast response to that since it was so early, but they did not respond to me until about 10:30 at night. They sent a sketch with no words, no apology for the wait, no explanation whatsoever. I thanked them, and they responded with the finished icon about half an hour later. Again, no apology or explanation or anything. Considering how polite they had been with me before, I was surprised to have an icon figuratively thrown at me wordlessly.

This transaction is complete and I have received everything I've paid for but after being lied to, told my badge would be shipped multiple times, and being told that the icon would be finished on multiple occasions but wasn't, I cannot recommend this artist to anybody. Their art style is wonderful but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired and I do not want anybody else to have to deal with this kind of service.