Greetings!
I'm here to inform you about this client and the ordeal that I had to endure since the last week. Honestly, it all started pretty good actually. The 4th of April I got contacted by this person saying that he had the idea of commissioning me a couple of OC's of its own (since he kept saying that he was a writer and that he wrote stories, fan fictions and so on) and I was like "Sure, tell me the details!". And everything went pretty smooth, he always payed me what I asked for and never complained.
However, the big problems started to happened the 8th of July, Friday of last week. After waking up, I find three emails from PayPal, in which all of them says that the buyer has opened a claim against me because of unauthorized transactions made. Honestly speaking, I was baffled. Like, why in the first place? Also who was the one responsible for all of this? After tracking down who could've possibly be, I ended up finding the curlprit.
Then I decided to confront him, ask him why he did such a thing, but to no avail. What he kept saying over and over like a broken record, was like "I didn't do it. My bank did it" or instead "PayPal did it, it wasn't my fault".
Now, I might not be an expert on how PayPal works and neither how the Banks do, but I'm pretty sure that neither of the two without an explicit request from the one who sent the money, does everything automatically. PayPal definitely doesn't do it, and the Bank the least they can do is calling you if they see high transactions, but in here we were talking about 50/100€ at best. Every month. Then, afterwards, he contacted me saying the following
After this, he blocked me. If the truth is on his side, then he wouldn't have blocked me, right? So honestly, I really don't get it. Afterwards I tried to reach him even on DeviantArt, since there I was still not blocked from him because I actually talked with the PayPal customer service myself. In the end they told me what I already knew: and that it was him who did everything on his end. And so far, he kept lying to my face. The sad part is that I'm not the only one who got this "little problem" with him. Many other artists had the same ordeal with him.
I'll share afterwards the claims that he did (choosing even the wrong dates because he surely did everything so fast, in a blink of an eye, that he didn't even sat through everything and thought if the amount and date were exactly those - apologies in advance if you see another language)
(For context, "Denaro ricevuto" translated is "Money Received")
And the fact that the dates doesn't even match to begin with (aside from the first one, which the only wrong thing is the amount that he declared. He gave me 50€, but instead he wanted 56€ back, for some reason)
(again, all three of them shows the "Money Received" word, translated from Italian)
I'll also share some snippets of our conversation where, after I completed the render, I uploaded it and sent it to him. And he of course, received it. See it for yourself, all three of the claims.
First one
Second:
(this one here was mostly a variation of the third one that I'll share in a bit)
Third one:
Proof of being blocked
To this day, so far the problem hasn't been solved (and also currently, the claims got processed and now I'm wait for PayPal to actually talk with the bank of the client. Sadly, it will take approximatively 75 days to get an answer) and when it will, I'm afraid that this person will try again in getting his money back. I made assumptions as to why he did this, but really, I can't even believe it.
Like I said, also another artist right now is undergoing the same treatment as I'm experiencing.
Thank you for your attention.
Undelivered commissions x3 from between February and April 2020. See imagery for proof.
- Conversations between Feb and April 2020 is us arranging the commissions and their themes. Don’t mind the NSFW text, it was all NSFW art. The screencap of Dev confirming his PayPal name (as well as the .me link) is simply to verify the PayP screengrab later on.
- April onwards, Dev never directly made contact with me (until the next dash below). Every month or so I’d message to see how he was doing, and nothing was being done. However, others commissions were being prioritised over mine, so he was not inactive.
- 02/10/21, Dev wished to refund the total for the various commissions. Below is that conversation.
- Contact after this has been spotty, and no money or drawings have been done since. His Twitter is also radio silent (in terms of art) since January 2022. Feels like he took the money and ran.
All conversations between us remain on my Discord. If further information is required, message me.
The artist messaged me on Twitter after I made a post looking for paws and a tail to commission. I explained to the artist it was going to be a complicated build but they didn't seem concerned. We talked about details and agreed to a price. They said they could get started right away. I asked for a TOS and photos of previous work. They sent a TOS vis Google docs and pictures of other suits. They asked I send payment via PayPal friends and family (i didnt know the difference and thought i was helping as it reduced fees). As I am new to this I didn't know the signs of what to look for so I sent over payment. The next day I decided I also wanted feet paws. So we discussed that as well. So I sent over a second payment for them. I am now in the hole $1020. They do not have a website, a trello, or any other legitimate business profile, they are using a stolen profile picture and the pictures of the suits they have sent were bogus and not their creations. They have changed their Twitter handle from HD suitz to rldhh. They have since stopped communicating. BEWARE.
In April 2021, KidRhinoBoy opened for commissions. A friend of mine and I decided we would get a commission from him. I messaged him on Twitter (seen below) about availability and pricing. We exchanged a few messages regarding prices and what exactly my friend and I would get. We chose to get a single, colored picture from him. Each of us paid $80 to KidRhinoBoy. (I do not have a receipt for my friend but I do have mine). Initially it was going to be a three person picture, but the third person dropped out due to financial reasons. Figures 1-14
PayPal Receipt on my end shown in Figure 15
In late October 2021 I messaged KidRhinoBoy again, discussing a change to the drawing. I thought this would be alright since he hadn't started the drawing yet. Figures 16-17
It should be noted that at this point, KidRhinoBoy had opened and accepted a new round of comissions in late December 2021 / early January 2022. At this point I was starting to think that perhaps my commission had been forgotten about, hence my message about two weeks after he closed. Around this time I also told a friend what was going on. This friend had KidRhinoBoy's Telegram information and relayed what I had said to him. KidRhinoBoy then reached out to me on January 14th. He told me at this time that the sketch would be started some time in the next week or two (Last two weeks of January 2022) Figures 18-20
I would also occasionally reach out to him about his art, not looking for any updates, but just because I thought what he was putting out looked good. In April he messaged me again asking about my commission. He said he would sketch it soon. (It was not made clear to me what soon meant in this case, however) Figures 21-22
In June I reached out again asking to see if there was any update from his end. This time he said he would get me a sketch the next day. Three days after he asks me about the idea again. (To be clear, I did not delete or make invisible any of my messages in Telegram, so I was a little confused why he was asking again) Figure 23
I sent him a reply a little over 4 hours later, but at the time of writing it does not appear that he has read my messages. Figures 24-25
In hindsight it probably wasn't a great idea to change the art idea when I did. I know he also runs his own restaurant/cafe and suits a lot where he lives, so he's certainly busy. I understand that no one can do all things all at once. I'm not sure what to think about the various times I was promised a sketch, perhaps he's tried and wasn't happy with the results, but I genuinely don't know. Figures 26-27
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(Blanked out to hide artist's name)
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I sent him a reply a little over 4 hours later, but at the time of writing it does not appear that he has read my messages.
Fig 24 and 25:
Fig 26:
Fig 27:
Disclaimer: White boxes with black outlines have been edited in to protect irl information of artist and commissioner, as well as information deemed not relevant to the Beware.
With regards to the transaction, the NSFW piece discussed was indeed completed and fulfilled. This Beware will be with regards to the three character piece.
Outline:
- Original agreement + Proof
I have chosen to provide only this snippet from the Discord conversation and nothing after, as anything past this point is unrelated to the commission in question.
- Proof of payment
Note: as a commissioner, I understand that including "NSFW" in Paypal notes is not warranted for either party. The invoice shown below was created by the artist and they included that information.
- Any relevant correspondence.
The NSFW piece that was completed is as shown below with a Spoiler for NSFW content:
Upon completion of this piece, there was only one correspondence with regards to updating the concept of the piece per request of the artist, but there was never any proof of work having been completed. Sometime after that, the artist contacted me with the following:
One thing I will mention is that when I tried to respond to them, I had been blacklisted on FA as shown:
Their TOS on their Carrd at sizdizzle.carrd.co/#tos, there is no mention of them having a right to cancel a commission not started and keeping the funds.
Sometime later, I went to Telegram and discovered our previous chat history there had been deleted, and they sent the following, to which I responded and currently awaiting a response:
In summary, nowhere in their TOS does it state they will keep funds on work that is not completed. All I'm looking for now is a refund of the work that has not been completed, that's it. If they need time to pay it back in installments, I'm fine with that.
In April I was asked to create artwork of two marvel characters dancing at prom, for $40, originally it was going to be $45 dollars but because I had known them from a previous server for months I trusted him enough to give him a discount. I hadn't done many commissions so because I wasn't very busy I finished it in about 4 days. This guy had pinged the second server we were on together every day asking how their day was and what they were doing, because it had few people in it, it was okay. Knowing he answered and dmed me frequently made me trust him to answer back in our dms. He was on Discord almost everyday so it was unlikely for him to not answer. When I told him I finished the commission he said that he was used to artists taking months to finish so he didn't have the money ready. I understood, and waited 4 more days while continuing to edit and revise the commission.
Two more weeks pass, and he still cannot pay for the commission. I still understood that bills needed to be paid and continued to wait. After nearly a month and a half after I finished the commission, I still hadn't been paid. I asked him for a security deposit and he said he's been broke for the past two weeks. I was starting to get really frustrated. If he couldn't pay for the commission, I told him he could always back out and I'd delete the artwork. You need to understand that we had been talking for a while and even though I did not know him in real life, I trusted him to eventually pay it.
He kept making excuses and saying he's broke until the next paycheck. It had been many, many weeks at that point where he must've been paid from a paycheck. Still, I kept trying to take the professional route and waited more.
It's July 19th, almost 3 months since we last had contact. He has ghosted me entirely, I've pinged him in other servers, asked his friends if there was a family emergency and still no reply. I needed the money because of my chronic illness, I'm in pain every single day and he knew that, yet consisted to ghost me. This is my last resort. I hope nobody ever has to go through this with this guy ever again. I can't even say this is the worst experience I've had this month, because of how many times I've been in the hospital.
Beware jdmarsh.
P.S. Going through these messages to get screenshots make this even worse because I'm now seeing that he did say he was going to pay half at the start and pay the rest upon completion and then PLAYED DUMB AFTER I ASKED HIM TO FOLLOW THROUGH. Also the flag behind my avatar used to be the lesbian flag then currently is the queer flag.
Hello,
With a good amount of disappointment I am writing up my experience with rapgod/Mirthfulmaws/miraclekind/culledcrows.
I commissioned Mirth for 6 character stills for my youtube channel in December 2021, and received them in about a month. I was very impressed and loved the art so I commissioned them again on February 4th, 2022. I ordered 5 more, with a total of $75.
Since then, I have received one of the stills, and that was sent to me on March 2nd, 2022. I have not received an update since then. I messaged a check in every 1-2 months, and received a response that I would get an update soon. They gave me their commission specific discord account and I messaged them on May 25th. I never received a response there or on their main account since April 22nd, 2022. It extra sucks because I've been putting off videos until this set was complete 😕
Also, their trello hasn’t been updated since May 3rd, 2022. And they have been taking new commissions and ychs on furaffinity.
I will try and file a chargeback, but I unfortunately sent it with paypal’s friends & family because it wasn’t the first time commissioning this artist. I have contacted the staff team on the Furry Nexus Discord server and they are handling it on their side as far as I'm aware. I figured I'd make this post, Mirth's list is medium length and I don't want others to go through this.
Original commission was supposed to be a $150 character creation and ref sheet. Because I’m nice (read; a sucker) I agreed to drop the price to $100 for them. They agreed to this and paid.
They told me to take my time and not rush
I followed up with a fullbody sketch 8 days later, and received no response.
I then received a PayPal chargeback for the full amount on May 15th.
this is their Duff the Bunny ref sheet to connect their account since they changed their Twitter handle and locked their account entirely after they pushed the chargeback.
super annoying cause if they had just asked I would have refunded them like $85 of the $100 (because I had provided a sketch already) but they went ahead and did a chargeback and because I tried to dispute it (again, like an idiot) I was then out $115 instead of the $100. Because apparently PayPal doesn’t care to vet any of their chargebacks at all. I provided full proof to them too.
anyway, just don’t do business with that guy or his rabbit character.
Full reference to avoid him in the future.
Back on October 13th, Fen made a post for a YCH I was interested in, and messaged them to buy the spot on the same day.
Here's proof that the payment was made on Paypal
And proof that the original piece was claimed - as well as its $65 price
I even gave them information that would've helped them draw the character as best as they could.
I hadn't heard anything after that point, not even confirmation as to whether they had received anything (money or the images themselves). Fen also had a "commission updates" twitter account, FennecFiles, so I messaged that account at the beginning of December hoping to receive answers. I made special note toward the end that I was open to amending the scope of the commission, such as simplifying the character or narrowing how much of the scene to draw, since I know artists can have a lot on their plates.
Unfortunately, still no message from either account. Now, December was a hectic month for them. They had a medical emergency with one their pet cats they had to take care of, but they were also dealing with taking care of their own art as well as art related to their partner's Twitch streams. (Mainly stream assets, such as themed backgrounds or vtuber rigs, such as when they were playing South Park [SP] and Paper Mario [PM])
Granted, their partner could've held back from asking for stream assets - which would explain why Fen was trying to recoup sunk time by offering rigs in a SP/PM style since the basics were done - but this shows Fen was at least aware they had paid commissions still to finish, but either had other priorities or more important commissions to take care of first.
I sent another message to SuperNinfendo in January, but this time it was because I'd commissioned a headshot from another artist and felt that it would've been a simplification [as in based off of this image instead of combining bits of A and B], but sent a followup message a week later since I wasn't sure if my tone came off rude.
Unfortunately, I still did not receive any direct messages. Despite this, while it could very well be just venting in general, the timing of this tweet felt like it was vaguely pointed at my request since it was just a few days after my later reply of those two.
I was not mad at the lack of them posting art at all - I know they'd posted art and other things, and do not always join their partner's streams - it's that I haven't been communicated to about my [I assume impending] commission, but they'd posted art that had been both taken AND finished after claiming my spot. Here's a separate YCH that was posted in December:
And while it may not have taken a month to complete, a post from a month later clearly shows that they are able to finish in a timely manner (bottom left):
At the end of January, there was finally a "response" from FennecFiles, though in the form of an apology post explaining their delay
Having a person help with your blog is not a problem, but I would've called out the person previously in charge if they were responsible for dismantling the queue, though I don't know how close that person was/is to Fen (nor if the claim was real, admittedly.)
Since they mentioned at the end that FennecFiles could be messaged with "further questions or concerns", I messaged them a little over a week later since I didn't want to be lost in the shuffle of the first days of potential inquiries.
I received no response from them either - whether from CorpseKiit or Fen - and as is shown from my prior FF message, the reference/commission reminder message was not even replied to in the meantime.
Since CorpseKiit was also someone to message (I'm in a mutual Discord server with them and Fen), so I messaged Chuck [Corpsekiit's nickname] directly. (At the beginning of April, since they had their own life struggles through March.
I received no direct messaging from them on the matter, and no followups on any of the other blogs Fen runs as to if it was the right spot to message, yet one of Fen's tweets from a few days afterwards makes me believe they were at least made aware of my message to Chuck.
Again, it could be just general venting, but my issue was not with their pace of posting art in and of itself. It's that being left in the dark for months on end as to WHEN it could/would be worked on is an entirely different feeling from if I was told "I won't be able to work on this until next October", at least in the latter case, I'd have a timeline as to when to expect the piece. I was reminded of the issue from a mutual in another server who brought up their plights, so that's part of why I am writing this.
I figured I'd message one last time - albeit recently - directly to Fen on Discord.
I know it's a simple message, and while I hope to hear back at some point, I have my doubts as to whether any remedies would happen - the art itself or otherwise. Even nearly two weeks out, still no reply on Discord either. While I understand that life may be handing them difficult cards, and they may be handling them well enough all considered, it shouldn't excuse them effectively ghosting me for so long. I gave them so much room to amend the YCH and request, but to have legitimate questions ignored so long has left a sour taste in my mind. It should go without saying that I would not recommend SuperNinfendo if you are looking for commissions.
Original agreement - They deleted their account so you can only see my replies, but it was for a NSFW colored sketch for $70
EVERYTHING/ANYTHING NSFW is censored!
(This all happened in 2021) Me asking them how much a colored sketch would be & adding a sketch to explain what I wanted. Agreement was $70 & my messages confirm payment was sent. They sent a few sketches super fast & I ask to add one to the commission. Conversation ended Feb 11th. I message them again March 15th . March 24th they told me they had covid so i tell them to recover, as it hadn't been that long anyways. April 21st I message them again, no response. April 28th I tell them i would rather they just send me the sketches they have & take the loss. Still no response.
Paypal statement showing $70USD was sent to chernobee Feb 10th, 2021
After them not replying to me on Twitter on May 1st 2021 I messaged them on Toyhouse, where they did respond so the conversation moved here.
(This all happened in 2021) May 1st I message them telling them I would appreciate a reply within a week & state that I feel an A_B post would be necessary for the lack of communication. They reply 12th May they were super nice & understanding of my frustration w/ the lack of communication. They ask to speak on Discord but also offer to send the sketches. May 19th I apologize to them as I felt I just hadn't given them enough time & was being too aggressive. Give them my Discord. June 24th I send them a message asking for their Discord since they hadn't tried to contact me on there. June 26th they send me their Discord. 9th Aug I give them a completion date of Aug 20th or to refund me. 10th Aug they tell me their discord & the conversation moves there. They then message me Nov 23rd asking for options to get in contact as I hadn't replied on discord.)
So I feel like I have to explain why I apologized in this message & it's bc I usually expect anything w/out a set date to take about 3-5months w/ an update every month or so. Idk , at the time it felt like I just hadn't given them enough time.
Last message was because I hadn't replied on Discord (life got busy). Also thought they would be able to finish the art since they had the necessary info/refs.
their discord info. #6688
I message them Aug 11th asking how they would like to move forward w/ the commission. They did not reply so Aug 31st I ask for a refund. They reply the same day saying they would be happy to refund me, & that once I opened the dispute they would approve it. But also offer the completion of art & say that that's what they would prefer. Say they can complete it in 2-4days. There is also a side convo about the frustrations of having to be the one to find/contact them & they express that they've had other commissioners complain too & that examples images they sent were for other commissioners that were "understanding/patient." I reply Sep 8th bc I wanted to update my characters reference sheet. Oct 28th I ask for an update. Oct 30th they send me images that show work has/is being done. (life got busy, this is when they sent me the message on Toyhouse) Nov 25th I reply saying I love the update. They reply saying they send me a message on Toyhouse. Say they'll finish ASAP. Nov 28th I thank them for the update. Dec 17th I ask if they can add some character markings. They reply the same day saying yes. They also ask me how I've been doing personally. Dec 21st I share that my life has been busy bc of work.
Everything past this point happens in 2022.
March 25th I ask for an update, no response. May 29th I ask for an update, even a personal one. No response. June 17th I ask if a partial refund would work as & could just color/finish the update they sent before. No response.
I know there are points in this commission where I try to resolve it w/ accepting the money loss, or them offering a refund (but me still having to dispute it to get it?), but they offered to finish the art & hinted that it was the option that worked better for them & I still wanted the art & wanted to do what worked better for them too!
Comment on their Toyhouse on Jun 8th,
Message them on deviantart jun 17th.
Message & comment on their new furaffinity page Jul 2nd/3rd.
[Mod Note: Message has been seen and not replied to as of July 10th.]
And as of July 3rd, they have made a new Discord (#9660) that they did not make me aware of. I have sent a friend request & am waiting.