Beware: Peridotkitty

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/900218.html

WHO: Peridotkitty http://www.furaffinity.net/user/peridotkitty

WHERE: Furaffinity.net and Skype

WHAT: 42 page comic with a Cover ( $1500/$3150 paid )

WHEN: June2015- Present(March 2016)

PROOF:

All payments

First payment (Jun 14 2015)

Second payment (Jun 28 2015)

Third Payment (Aug 13 2015)

fourth payment(Sep  29 2015)

Incomplete cover work(From Peridotkitty's Trello): [COVER] NSFW

Incomplete comic work(From Peridotkitty's Trello) [COMIC WORK][COMIC WORK 2]

EXPLAIN:

I work on an anthology comic project  with my fiance which is set to be published. Both of us work on comics for this as well as hire other artists. Artist hired receive a retainer fee( I pay this) to start them off before moving forward. With hiring artist we also gather funders to be a part of the comic.

There were three funders for Peridotkitty's comic (names are hidden at mods' request)

Funders were invoiced through my paypal (I work under LLC) and funds were sent to the artist.Payments for hired artist were sent monthly until the full project amount was paid unless the artist failed to produce enough progress in a timely matter at the funders discretion, that progress being a minimum of 2 completed pages per month. Now if certain uncontrollable life situations occured, we are understanding and  funders are notified of what's going on to give the artist appropriate time to recoup and catch up. If the required progression does not occur, then a refund is requested.

Bi-weekly check ups were also required in order to make sure proper progress had been made and to keep the funders happy. Help to the artist for anything was always offered and provided if needed including editing, storyboarding, and scripting.

The Beginning----------------

May 2015-June 2015

Discussion was made with Peridotkitty about the comic and how it would work out through furaffinity and eventually moving to skype.( Sadly,my notes will not appear past 1350 notes but logs are available [1][2])The agreed price was $75 per comic page(total of 42 pages) and a cover for $3150. During this process the idea of funders came about. Three were found and  the retainer was sent on June 14th and a second payment on June 28th [SKYPE LOG 1][CASTING JOURNAL]NSFW

More discussion was made about the comic and the script completion [SKYPE LOG 2] [SKYPE LOG 3]

Sent another payment on Jun 28 [SKYPE LOG 4]

July 2015-August 2015

References of the cast were provided in Peridotkitty's shared dropbox folder for the comic during this time.

Conversations were friendly  but quiet for July as my fiance and I were prepping for Anthrocon. Peridotkitty was contacted a bit about the dropbox progress folder set up for the funders which we shared with them to see the project progression. [SKYPE LOG 5]

Anthrocon came and went and there was little communication regarding the comic until August 6 [SKYPE LOG 6] [SKYPE LOG 7]

Correspondence during this month became harder and I believe this is due to Peridotkitty's Patreon  and her owing a lot more work due to it. I was understanding of this and explained this to the funders.Another monthly payment was sent to her. [SKYPE LOG 8] [SKYPE LOG 9]

No major progress was made to her sketches.

September 2015-October 2015

At this point we became worried. I started to inquire about whether she needed any assistance with her pages.Attempted contact was made and became more difficult.No progress other than the sketches  for the first couple of pages were done and Peridotkitty suggested that her public trello should be linked to the funders to keep their minds at ease. [SKYPE LOG 10][SKYPE LOG 11] [SKYPE LOG 12] [ SKYPE LOG 13]

On September 25th, project structure was being changed where the freelancers were to sign a contract. Peridotkitty read the contact and found it to be fair. There was a tiny error in the contract (Wrong comic title) but was edited. (Contract will not be linked unless requested).Terms of the contract required a minimum of 2 completed comic pages monthly, withholding of monthly funds if progress was unacceptable yet gave the artist a chance to catch up in a timely manner before being fired and requested a FULL refund. PeridotKitty was set to fax the form...but she was told to wait until further notice due to the high cost of collecting faxes from kinkos. [SKYPE LOG 14][SKYPE LOG 15][SKYPE LOG 16]

There was little to no response from Peridotkitty during October regarding the project and the funders were starting to get more agitated .On October 15th, she sent me a message that she had gotten a job which would take away more of her time [SKYPE LOG 17]

November 2015-December2015

During November I hired my assistant Carmel in helping with correspndence with the freelancers. Communication became more sparce and Peridotkitty was spending most of her time doing other commission work and streaming. [SKYPE LOG 18]

On November 15th, I dictated a note to Carmel to send to Peridotkitty seeing as contact with her through skype was becoming a major issue. In the note it was discussed the worry of the funders for the lack of progress and that monthly payments would be withheld until proper progress was made.[CARMEL NOTE 1]

November 18th, Peridotkitty got back to me about withholding funds. During this discussion she also talked about making turnarounds for the characters. (Please note that this is not part of the project but her own doing).  She even mentions that she was still refining the first page of the comic after months. [SKYPE LOG 19]

November 20th, Peridotkitty was contacted again about the contract and the possibility of mailing it.Peridotkitty never provided  the needed information. Afterwards the skype conversation fell silent. Rook dictated to Tia more notes to her on November 27th and two in December. [SKYPE LOG 20][CARMEL NOTE 2][CARMEL NOTE 3][CARMEL NOTE 4]

January 2016-February 2016

Funders were pretty much unhappy with the major lack of progress and were ready to ask for a full refund. Contact was attempted again on January 4th with no response. Another note was dictated for Carmel to send to Peridotkitty stating that this is the ultimatum to keep her job. She was to complete the first 3 pages of the comic by the end of January and the next 3 by the end of February. Peridotkitty got back to me on January 11th and requested color  armor references for one of the character as not having that stopped her progress. [CARMEL NOTE 5][SKYPE LOG 20]

January was a rough month for us due to personal matters and getting the colors took longer than we expected. They were added to the dropbox folder on [January 28th] and because of this she was given more time to work. She had to finish the first 3 pages by the end of Febrauary.But it must be said that during the month of January, all of her sketches for the first 3 pages were not refined as seen in her progress folder and in her trello. Not even inked. Flats were added to the cover but it still wasn't done. Peridotkitty gave more excuses which we tried explaining to the funders...but their patience was pretty much over. [SKYPE LOG 21][SKYPE LOG 22][TRELLO 1: COVER]NSFW[TRELLO 2: COMIC1][TRELLO 3:COMIC 2]

The pressure was on during February and I desperatly tried to get in contact with Peridotkitty. [SKYPE LOG 23]

March 2016
In this time frame of 9 months she added flats to the cover and did incomplete sketches for the first 3 pages. Not a single page was completed.

We decided to terminate Peridotkitty on March 20th and asked for a refend. During this correspondence Peridotkitty kept making excuses that not all of  this was her fault and that blame should also be placed on me . I was patient, I was understanding, and I defended her when talking to the funders and kept them informed of her life situations but the lack of major progress after months was enough.She had the resources to do what she needed to do but didn't. She mocked me for paying in advance, for not having a signed contract and my overall position.The question of a refund was not responded to.

What ensued was the following conversation:
[Firing note 1] Initial termination note

[Firing note 2]Peri's response. She takes little responsibility for not doing the work and adds the blame on me.

[Firing note 3]

[Firing note 4]

[Firing note 5][Firing note 6](Question about refund. Peridotkitty did not address this)

[Firing note 7][Firing note 8]
[Firing note 9]Peridotkitty's attitude quickly shifted

[Firing note 10]
[Firing note 11] Her last response in regards to a journal I made which has nothing to do with this transaction.

[Firing note 12] My last note to her where I cut off communication. I honestly had to step away.

All correspondence has since ceased.
On March 21st I filed a claim with paypal. Sadly only $700 of the money could be disputed.

The claim was [closed on March 23rd] as Peridotkitty told paypal that ALL work was completed up til March and that I was just being an unsatisfied customer.This was through a  phone call and we are requesting an email of what she said to post here.

Paypal did not contact us to hear our side when making their decision so I filed an appeal.

March 24th, our appeal was also closed and none of the money will be sent back.

I am not fully blameless and there are things that should have been handled better. I dont think there's much of a legal standing in regards to the new contract...but that doesn't justify keeping money for work not completed from 3 people.A partial refund would be fine but after her insulting responses towards me I felt that I wouldn't be able to get a decent conversation out of her.

Funders were notified of the loss and have been understanding and I am more than thankful for this. This is a huge lesson learned.I accept any critisim on my part to help me in my dealings in the future.

[EDIT]------------

March 23, 2015

I forgot to add the final note she sent me in response to Firing Note 12

[Firing note 13]

March 25,2016 edit

Firing note 3 above has the wrong link. Correct link is below.

[Firing note 3]

March 26, 2016 update----

Peridotkitty has posted her side of this situation here and on her FA . Apparently her fiance was the one who sent the malicious notes against me (Firing note 9 and onward). Whether I believe it or not is another thing.I have discussed with my fiance the possibility of a repayment plan and she has left a message to her.

"Rook was unwilling to deal with you at all... seeing as how an apology about how you or 'your fiancee' acted at the end; I'm sure everyone here can understand why. I wonder why you didn't put those up there so your fans can have context on why he stopped communicating with you all together. But if you are serious, it isn't about paying him back, it's about taking care of the 3 funders. He is willing to let you set up a payment plan of a reasonable monthly amount to the 3 funders. You can contact me for their information. He says you can pay back one their 575 and the other their 600 for a total of 1175. And that he will settle up the remaining balance with the 3rd funder himself writing off that amount as service rendered. It's more than you've done but he's going to make a show of faith as well as responsibility. He would like you to publically keep track of the repayment to those two funders, he also wants them to get the full 600 and 575, so you would be on the hook for the transaction fee amount as well."

March 26, 2016 update 2----

Terms have been agreed to and Peridotkitty has been given the funder' pages to get their paypal information.Monthy payments are being scheduled. Although these terms have been agreed upon, I will not mark this post as resolved until both funders are completely refunded. I will be handling the 3rd funder's refund myself.