Beware: RossCiaco

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/983058.html

WHO:  RossCiaco
 

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rossciaco/
 

WHAT:  Digital Art, $50 NSFW Shaded Commission of a single character

 WHEN: Arranged December 25, 2015, paid on February 2016, no response to this day

 EXPLAIN: I’ve inquired about the artist’s availability on December 25, 2015 about commission openings in which they responded sometime after. We’ve arranged the details and he established a time frame of when I expect to be added onto his queue of commissions, which was timed for roughly 1-3 months due to school. If I accepted this, all I had to do was send the info and money to his paypal and that would be it. I personally didn’t care about that brief waiting time and agreed. I saw how frequently he posted his commissioned art in the past shortly after posting an opening via journal posts so I assumed his working was swift. So, I sent the commission information and transaction on Feb, 18, 2016 and the transaction is below. Keep this date in mind.

Proof of Payment

Since that date, I have not received a single word or update from him to this day.

I’ve sent several attempts of contact to him through this time frame throughout his various ways of reaching him. He has not responded to any of my future notes, neither did he read them. I thought something bad happened to the artist due to their inactivity on FA, but I have found their Twitter during the time and saw they were doing just fine. In fact, they were showing their current works in progress to their other projects, and socialized quite often on other people’s profiles... So I assumed he left FA and did his activities on the other platforms, being Twitter and I tried contacting him on there and, surprise, no response.

These few attempts were spread out over the long time frame as professional as possible. I would’ve assumed he was heavily busy with emergencies, but after being on his other platforms and seeing his activity on there, that was far from the case. 

They’re all in the unread gold icons on FA. As for the DMs on Twitter, I’m sure they’re unread as well but here are all of the attempts, dates, and screenshots below.

Unread Notes 1

Unread Notes 2

Unread Notes 3

The first reach out was on FA was on March 21st, 2016.

Attempt #1

· The second reach out was on his Twitter’s DMs on June 16th, 2016. This also includes the final attempt.

Attempt #2

· The third reach out was on FA was November 25th, 2016.

Attempt #3

· The fourth reach out was via personal email on January 2nd, 2017.

Attempt #4

· The final reachout was on November 11th, 2017 and for both his FA and Twitter that mentions a refund if he didn’t get around to the work.

Final Attempt

It’s almost been two years with NO word from his end while he continued doing his own business and artworks for both himself and other people along with socializing, and by that, I mean commenting on posts, quick scribbles and art trades for others, etc. while not acknowledging my attempts to contact him. I have no idea if my work has been started, forgotten, or if it’s even sitting there completed. The only exception was some minor tweet he posted about trying to get back on work for people in which I made clear for him on that post not to forget and he gave a small apology. That was last year.

In the end, I learned he was not only working on other projects, but he was also posting current artwork and opening up for MORE commissions on FA and Twitter at some point. So this was blatantly ignoring my requests upon asking for some kind—ANY kind of update to the work I paid for. 

RossCiaco’s lack of communication to his clients and poor management of work gave a horrible experience for me and I’ve possibly lost my money with nothing in return. The professionalism is not handled at all with no attempts from him to contact me about why he was taking so long or had no alternative to compensate for such. Had he done so, I may have excused the overdue work, but this is unacceptable.

 PROOF: Given in the Explain portion, hopefully that’s enough to give.

[Editor's note: From the comments]

mopeydragon [OP]

September 1 2020, 06:02:35 UTC
As of today after making a public comment to a recent submission of his, the artist finally contacted me and gave a choice to wait or request a refund and I decided to opt for the refund. The situation has been resolved.