Beware: Sindaj

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/963890.html

WHO: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sindaj/ , https://twitter.com/iSindaj

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

WHAT: YCH Comic Page (Digital)

WHEN:

Feb. 10th - Saw the YCH on the front page of FA and took interest, noted Sindaj asking if it was still available and claimed the slot. Paid. http://sta.sh/01pv3h47c79b / http://sta.sh/01d7v8zlhtjz / http://sta.sh/02cprx8gkvm7 / http://sta.sh/0197p3vfzvd1

A few months go by, Sindaj streams off and on and does sketches in stream / misc. Art, but does not touch the YCHs like promised.

May 8th - I send a note asking Sindaj for an ETA and am told that he will be working on them the following week. It does not happen. http://sta.sh/01zblhz57zv0

Sindaj has various life and health issues that prevent him from working on owed work, but he continues to upload personal (?) work to his gallery and other commissions.

July 3/4 - I send another note, feeling a bit uncomfortable with how long it has taken for a YCH to be completed, asking for a refund. Sindaj replies saying that it will take a while to refund me, as he needs to resell the slot. I consent to the reselling of the slot and give him a deadline of August. Sindaj does not reply, nor does he make a public effort to resell the slot. http://sta.sh/026e72yxzrfo / http://sta.sh/054d7nj1f1p

July 12th - I have opened a dispute Sindaj, giving a hard refund deadline of August 1st and expressing that if I do not hear back from him by then, I will be escalating my dispute to a claim. I do not want the YCH at this point, I want my money back. I do not feel comfortable working with Sindaj, and while I understand that life happens, I feel that he has been all too flippant about handling his relationship with his commissioners. I feel it is my right to cancel this commission, as no work has been done, and I feel I am allowed a full refund. http://sta.sh/01tzz6d7mm8c

July 16th - Sindaj posts a journal talking about paypal claims specifically, leading me to believe I am not the only person on his queue who is uncomfortable working with him any longer. Note: I still have not escalated my dispute against Sindaj, per my message to him in the Paypal message center, and I still have not received a response from him. http://sta.sh/0u6on8fmmky

July 18th - Sindaj emails my PayPal email directly instead of responding to the still-open dispute, using a guilt trip and claiming I did not attempt to speak with him prior to opening my dispute (which he repeatedly refers to as a claim). He infers I am being unreasonable, and states that he is not interested in reselling the slot. He promises a refund, but his message is unclear as to when I will be receiving it. I have yet to respond to his email because I honestly do not know how to respond to him yet, but after calling PayPal and informing them that I have gotten in contact with Sindaj outside of the dispute system, I have chosen to 1: keep the dispute open lest I lose PayPal's protection, and 2: post this to Artists-Beware as I’m honestly fed up with Sindaj and this situation entirely. http://sta.sh/0v89k6gxp8w http://sta.sh/0n8i34xxmva

EXPLAIN / PROOF: In February I logged in and saw a comic page YCH on the front page of FA with an autobuy of $50. I was interested in the style and thought Sindaj’s artwork seemed neat, so I noted him and purchased the slot. I noticed he had a few outstanding commissions, but he seemed to be going through them and streaming regularly at the time, so I didn’t really think much of it at the time.

Sindaj streamed off and on after I paid, saying he’d be posting updates when he’d be streaming, so I would check in every so often to see what he was working on, but he mostly worked on sketches in stream / personal art and didn’t touch the YCHs or other previously owed work*, so I usually didn’t stay long.

*To my knowledge - as I did not stay longer than an hour or two, it could have changed, but this was what I witnessed in my time in his streams.

Sindaj would often express that he was having personal trouble with his health and living situation that interfered with his work, but as I’m disabled and occasionally need to put a small pause on my own work, I didn’t think much of it until a few months had passed with nothing to show in terms of progress on the YCH I had paid for. I hadn’t seen work done on any of the other comic pages Sindaj had put up for sale, either, so I sent him a note in May asking for an ETA / status update.

He replied and said that he would be working on the comic pages the next week. I thanked him for the update and waited, but he did not work on the comic page YCHs at all.

As Sindaj’s living situation and health issues seemed to escalate, he put a pause on his commission work and streaming, but still would occasionally post some personal work and adoptables (?) to his FurAffinity, offering to stream them for potential buyers.

After a while, I realized I was coming up to the point where I would lose PayPal’s protection, so in July I sent Sindaj a note. I no longer wished to commission him, I felt that - despite the circumstances - the timeframe for a YCH had gone on long enough and at this point I just wanted my money back in full. Sindaj replied saying that he would have to resell the slot, and I consented, saying that he had until August to resell the slot and refund me. He never replied, nor had he made an effort to resell the slot or refund my money, but he’s posted a journal update saying he might be well enough to work on commissions and then he’ll stop doing them for a while (???).

He’s repeatedly posted journals and such saying he’ll be streaming owed work, but has not actually streamed.

As of July 12th I’ve issued a hard deadline - telling Sindaj to please refund my money in full, I do not want the YCH slot anymore, and that if he does not refund me by August 1st, I will escalate my dispute with PayPal to a claim. I really did not want it to come to this, as I do think Sindaj is a good artist, but I do not feel comfortable with how he handles his professional work.

Sindaj repeatedly hides behind being ill when confronted about not getting work done, but I am a disabled artist. I understand what it is to be chronically ill. Sometimes you cannot get work done immediately, yes, sometimes life gets in the way, yes, but regardless you owe it to your clients to be professional and have policies in place for when you cannot do the work you were paid to do. I personally have a time frame for myself wherein I refuse to string commissioners along - if I cannot do the work that I was paid to do, I do not get to keep that money. It sucks, it has only happened once while I’ve taken commissions, but it’s necessary to protect the interests of your commissioner and keep the trust of the community you’ve chosen to work with.

I think Sindaj is a lovely artist and I do genuinely hope his situation improves, but I cannot say I would feel comfortable going back to work with him again and that I just want this to be over.

UPDATE 7/21/2017: I woke up to an email from PayPal stating that Sindaj has escalated the dispute to a claim, despite my deadline. I have no idea if he thinks that escalating the dispute himself will remove him from any obligations, but I have plenty of evidence for PayPal if they need it and will be calling them, as I'm pretty irked about this altogether. http://sta.sh/0s6m2xf3den , http://sta.sh/04i7uhi3h48 , http://sta.sh/0j2m9k27pxk , http://sta.sh/022loddrly6t

UPDATE 7/21/2017 | B: After getting a hold of PayPal, the associate I spoke with informed me that Sindaj called and escalated to a claim in order to refund me (??? - these are PayPal's words on what Sindaj told them when escalating) and processed the refund. I have my refund, I've not heard anything from Sindaj, but I am still uncomfortable with how they have chosen to communicate with me and am not going to watch them or interact with them anymore and would advise against doing any business with them. http://sta.sh/02c3qwy7ljdx