Beware: iceman1984

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/928484.html

Who: iceman1984

Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/iceman1984/
https://www.patreon.com/trn
http://o-trn.tumblr.com/

What: Digital art with an animated version for $60. He says it’ll be done in 2-3 months after payment is sent, but I have yet to see the pic done.

When: Spot claimed on May 15, 2016; payment sent on June 14

Proof:

Please note that the artist is Japanese, which means that English isn’t his first language.

My comment in the commission journal, in which I claimed a spot (in case it gets deleted), as well as asking him to give me time to get money in on June (to which he agree)
His PM to me (I've censored out his PayPal address; read from down)
My payment confirmation to him (read from down)
PayPal reciept
My PM to him asking about progress since payment, as well as his reply (read from down)
My PM to him asking for the sketch stage (no response, despite being read)
My comment on his new commission opening journal on Sep. 23, suggesting that he needs to stop taking on more new commissions (in case it gets deleted)
My PM to him asking for a refund (again, no reply)

Explain:

May 15: Iceman opened up for commissions, and so I claimed a spot and told him what I wanted. I also told that I’ll be getting money in on June, and he agree with me.

June 14: I told him that money finally arrived and I paid him $60 for the pic + an animated version.

August 23: A few months past, and I sent him a PM asking for progress on my art, as well as mentioning that my name wasn’t on his current queue (despite being on the queue on his journal from May 15). He responded the next day, saying that he apologized and the his queue doesn’t have all paid commissioners’ names on it. So I gave him the benefit of a doubt and more time.

I’ve also noticed that, for the past few months since I claimed a commission spot from him, he made at least several new journals opening for new commission batches to make a quick buck, and many new commission spots got taken like hotcakes by other people.

That raised a red flag for me as taking new commissions while still having tons of other commissions on your plate is never really a good idea.

September 21: I approached him, asking for the sketch stage of my commission. It was read, but never replied to, despite him posting art in his gallery.

September 23: To no one’s surprise, Iceman has made a new journal offering commissions. So I commented on it, politely advising him that he should consider slowing down on taking new commissions and start finishing several owed commission on his plate first before taking on more. Surprisingly, he accepted my advice.

September 26: 3 days afterwards, I've decided that I don't need the art anymore as I haven't seen any WIP for months. So I PMed him again that I would like a full refund at this point. I haven't heard from him, despite him reading my message (and he hasn't even issued a refund yet, as of now). If he doesn't answer, let alone refund, me for days, I'll have no choice but to file a PayPal dispute.

Honestly, I don't see why he's now ignoring my PMs asking for commission progress and refunds. I wasn't being mean to him or anything; I just wanna know what my commission status is coming along. I'll update as soon as I finally get a response from him.

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In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend commissioning Iceman unless he gets his act together and actually finish all the current commissions that he owes to dozens of people, including me. He’s making a bad move by piling up far more commissions than he can handle at this point. But on the plus side, at least he accepted my honest advice about not taking on anymore commissions due to his huge backlog.

Update September 27: He finally replied back and said he just started the work so he couldn't do the refund.

WIP (NSFW)

I approve the sketch and told him to keep at the pic. So here's hoping!

Update September 28: I meant to do this, but I've messaged him again, explaining that it's unfair on his part to deny refunds and that he could've at least do a partial refund after doing the sketch. I do hope he takes my advice to heart when he responds.

Final update September 30: He finally got the commission completed. And the results are just as I ordered.

I'll consider this issue resolved.