Beware: Thera

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/845464.html

Who: Thera

Where:
FurAffinity: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thera/
Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~thera
Deviant Art: http://theramutt.deviantart.com/

What:
1. Animated Icon ($15 CAD) – One slot of several offered for animated icon. (Link to FA note)
2. 1-Character Digital, Soft-Shaded ($50 CAD) – Part of “Black Friday” commission sale. Subject was a SFW portrait of my werewolf character Vaarak. (Link to FA note)
3. 2-Character Digital, Cell-Shaded ($80 CAD) – Part of “Black Friday” commission sale. Subject was an NSFW kink picture of Zaelgolin and Sabre Dragon. (Link to FA note)
*Note that Thera has since deleted all journals and comments referencing the above sales.

When:
1.       Animated Icon: Paid in full Nov 19, 2014, no progress of any kind to date.
2.       1-Character Digital: Paid in full Nov 27, 2014, no progress of any kind to date.
3.       2-Character Digital: Paid in full Nov 29, 2014. Requested a completion date of Feb 14, 2015 to be a valentine’s gift. The date was agreed to (link to FA note), but was missed with no progress. It was after this time I requested a refund for all three commissions. Thera responded by saying she could not offer any refunds, but would complete both this and the single-character commission during the following week (link to FA note). This date was also missed with no progress.

Proof:
1.       Link to payment receipt for animated icon ($20 CAD paid)
2.       Link to payment receipt for soft-shaded commission ($50 CAD paid)
3.       Link to payment receipt for NSFW commission ($80 CAD paid)
Note that all of the above receipts are the result of Interac e-Transfers: a money transfer system only available in Canada.

Explain:
Let it be said that I never wanted to escalate things as a means of dispute resolution. This case is a simple example of an artist not following through on promises. While the above points illustrate the case rather well, I’ll try to give a broad synopsis:

Having previously commissioned Thera (and quite liking the results), I jumped when I saw her sale on animated icons. Brief comments were exchanged, the fee paid and I was added to the list. A few days later, I saw Thera open another set of commissions for Black Friday. Having not commissioned any work lately, and really liking her art style, I took two slots: a single-character SFW commission and a two-character NSFW commission. All commissions were paid for in full as shown above.

Having paid for the commissions in late November, I was really hoping for at least the NSFW piece to be completed by Valentine’s Day. This date was agreed to, but despite several notes (Note 1, Note 2) requesting updates, the date passed with no progress of any kind. Agitated, I asked for a refund. Thera apologized, but said she could not offer any refunds. In recompense, she assured me the drawing would be completed within a week, and even offered to do another piece for free. Giving her one last chance, I wanted until the end of the week only to again have the date missed with no progress.

A few weeks passed before Thera finally posted an outstanding commissions list (now deleted from FA), dozens and dozens of pieces long. I contacted Thera with my concerns, but she assured me the piece would be completed that same week, and suggested I attend her stream. The date was schedule and I logged in, only to find Thera doing impromptu commissions for others. During the stream, she said she would not be working on any outstanding commissions that night, since she needed to take on new work. It was at this point that I sent a note threatening to post to Artists Beware if I was not refunded. Thera requested my payment details, which I promptly provided. After an additional three weeks of waiting, I have still not been paid, and am left with no recourse but to post my experiences here and hopefully warn other commissioners.

Throughout all this, I do want to stress that Thera responded civilly and amicably in all notes, and made numerous promises to set things right. It is just unfortunate that none of these promises were ever fulfilled.

Update:
I have since been refunded in full for all payments noted above; this beware has been resolved.