I first met Cyberwolfdragon on Discord, in the USF server. There is a #looking-for-corner channel where people can post if they wanted to do an art trade, had an art request, were offering free art, etc. When looking through the channel, I found Cyberwolfdragon's latest message asking to do an art trade, and it was marked as open.
I then DMed them asking if they wanted to do a trade.
After this they didn't message me for around two months, until they sent this:
(This was a different character than their initial art trade request, but that was fine)
I finished my side of the trade in around 10 days.
This was the last time Cyber messaged me on Discord
I proceeded to remind them every so often of the trade they owed me.. with no response.
I will note here that I did use an artwork as a reference for the pose of my side of the trade. I don't have it saved so I can't show it, but Cyber didn't mention this at any point as a reason for declining the trade or something.
Cyber posted several messages in USF after the last message they sent me: one for open comms, and three offering a suit they had for sale. This is the only server I have in common with them.
(a day after their last message to me)
Several days after their last message, but before I reached out about it.
After I messaged them twice with no response.
After another new message from me, and their last message in USF.
After almost a year of this, I searched up their username and found some of their other accounts, including their YouTube.
Their email was linked in the contact section, so I attempted to reach out via that.
They responded in a bit over an hour.
(the blacked out line under my email is a send certificate that has contact info of theirs)
I recopied the image from my original Discord DM with it. I opened it in a new window to preserve the quality.
At this point, they began to ghost me again.
I attempted to reach out to them through other social medias. Their Twitter DMs are off, so I have sent a message to what is presumably their DeviantArt account since it has the same username, though the 5 arts and fursuit images I don't remember seeing on other platforms.
At this point my art has gotten a fair bit better, and I do draw original poses now or base them off of pictures of myself, but I just want my side of the art trade back, it's been a year.
June 21, 2021: First sent message to Xoloitz via Telegram, inquiring for a commission.
June 22, 2021: Details sent to Xoloitz for a three character commission: two of my characters and a character belonging to a friend.
After a lewd comment on the size of my friend's character's junk, Xoloitz quotes a price of $160 shaded or $120 flat colors, and I approve the former. Payment of $160 USD is sent via PayPal that same day. (Note: NSFW content censored.)
November 12, 2021: Xoloitz opens for commissions again.
December 12, 2021: First inquiry to Xoloitz over Telegram regarding status of commission.
Xoloitz claims to have forgotten about it and promises to get on it ASAP.
January 23, 2022: Second inquiry via Telegram about commission status. No response.
February 9, 2022: Third inquiry via Telegram. No response at the time.
February 11, 2022: Inquiry via Twitter DM. No response.
February 19, 2022: Inquiry via FurAffinity DM. no response.
February 23, 2022: Xoloitz finally responds to February 9 Telegram inquiry, stating to have been in a car accident.
February 24, 2022: Xoloitz sends a WIP. I ask twice for the characters' sizes to be changed and Xoloitz complies. (NSFW content censored in screen shots.)
(Note: The comment "could it be possible to remove the comments on FA since we are already working on your commission?" refers to a comment my friend made on Xoloitz' FA regarding the status of the commission; however, I was unable to screencap this comment before it got deleted.)
February 25, 2022: Xoloitz opens for commissions again.
March 21, 2022: Message sent to Xoloitz over Telegram, asking for the commission to be finished or refunded within two weeks. No response.
March 22, 2022: Same message as prior day. No response.
April 5, 2022: Two-week time limit established on March 21 expired. No response.
April 29, 2022: Yet another inquiry via FurAffinity DM. No response.
I will consider this resolved when Xoloitz refunds me the full $160 price.
Hi my name is LadyOlg.
I come to you with the help and advice of Salisha following a dispute with the artist Kellion.
It's already been several months since I started to collaborate with him following a Devianart contest he created and I won. Only in the last two months the situation has changed quickly, Kellion tried to hijack my drawings and resell them at auction.
The last order I made for him was paid 170€, a YCH with 8 characters at 20€ each plus 10€ for the landscape.
It was obviously agreed that the figures would be resold so that he could pay back the commission but he never told me that he would make money on them. Two artists including Salisha came to warn me of this, the resale is done on Furafinity, not being known yet on it I think Kellion imagined that I had no account and could make the sale behind my back.
So I posted a public comment under the sale to point out an error on his part, without insults or even getting angry because I still believed I could trust him and that there must be a mistake. Obviously he masked the comment but he was also quite angry because some artists had noticed it and wanted to be reimbursed or even threw it out of their community.
I often asked Kellion to be clear with me, as his requests were sometimes changing and confusing but I put this down to the fact that neither he nor I speak English. As he was offering me his help since I was a beginner as an artist, I often asked him if my prices were correct, being really cheap at the beginning he advised me once to increase them, which I did but being a beginner I didn't dare to increase them much and asked him however if it was correct, on those he didn't warn me about my prices put only gave an example of a price sheet I could make, not in relation to the budget but in relation to my own rates depending on the type of art.
Kellion turned my naivety against me, using this very argument to tell me that these were the prices I had chosen and that it was normal for him to sell them at a higher price because he said that he didn't think he would be able to sell everything concerning the YCH...
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
It wasn't the first time Kellion tries to foul me, you will see it on the captures, but it was more subtle ( for me ) and he managed to manipulate me well enought to be me doing the apologizes and feeling like I've made a mistake or don't understand...
I'm sorry for my bad English on the captures, I hope you will understand me well.
I've to capture all our conversation sins the beguening so I'll probably send you another email with the rest of the capture !
In the last capture, you can find the first argument on the 33 and the last start to the 87.
Here you got the link of the sell he had post on FA : https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45866391/
Thank you a lot for your attention
I was contacted by the client on 20th March 2022 with regards to a YCH advertised on Instagram:
Here’s proof of the client paying for the commission (potential legal name redacted):
I sent them a link to their spot on my public queue, which has access to my terms of service on it as well, and explained my work patterns. Here’s proof of this being added to my queue, as Trello tracks all progress and changes to anything on it:
For transparency, here’s my public queue link.
The client asked for an update on 1st April 2022, which is no issue at all, but I noted I had not started on the piece yet. While no turnaround time had been communicated by myself nor the client, my average turnaround is around three weeks, depending on the piece and length of my queue:
I was finishing up a couple of really large pieces before moving onto the next batch, as communicated above. I got a WIP of the line edits requested to the client the next day as promised, and added minor bits of colour as I was making sure the line changes looked correct:
The client confirmed that they were happy with the changes, but wanted a more obvious flick on the hair, and the bandana removing. The bandana is noted as not being optional on the ref, so I confirmed that they definitely wanted it removing. My terms of service state that it is the commissioner’s responsibility to ensure their ref sheet is up to date and changes are communicated in advance, but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt that it was an honest mistake, and made the change with no quarrel:
For reference, here’s that part mentioned in my terms of service. Note that this refers to pieces developed outside of YCHs, so I show line art instead before continuing, as there is no sketch to show, only line edits where needed. As mentioned, my terms of service is available via my public queue:
As these were minor changes and the client otherwise stated that the piece was ‘perfect’, and not wanting to make the client wait even longer for the piece, I moved onto colouring the piece. At this stage, I noticed that the client’s ref sheet was very difficult to work from, as it was low quality and the markings did not line up across the different views. I actually had my husband and an artist friend view it as well in order to help me figure out if I was getting it right, as I have ADHD and can sometimes miss markings (which is also outlined in my terms of service):
To illustrate the issues I was having, here’s part of the conversation I had with my artist friend (identity not included as it’s irrelevant). This artist knows my struggles with some markings, and this is an informal peer-to-peer exchange in helping each other do the best for our clients. This tends to speed up commission work for clients, and means clients don’t get pestered as much over every single marking. I’m also including this to prove that I was not being complacent in trying to get this piece right for the client:
I worked on the markings and got back to the client on 7th April with how I had interpreted them based on the ref sheet. The client, rather than asking for alterations that they were very welcome to ask for, instead asked for a full refund:
I was quite taken aback by this, as this seemed like a drastic change from the line art being described as ‘perfect’ save for a few alterations. I offered a few options on how to move forward, which I felt were fair to both parties:
I linked to my terms of service, which were on my public queue but I was unsure whether they had missed them, and highlighted my refund policy. For reference, here’s my public Terms of Service.
I felt that I was being more than fair in offering to make changes based on presumably different markings that may exist on a new reference. The client appeared to retroactively take issue with the fact I had done the markings, as this meant they would receive less of a refund. However, I explained that because they had otherwise said the piece was ‘perfect’ and the changes were so minor, I had continued with it. If they had needed more edits to the identified issues with the line art, I would have been happy to oblige:
I calculated roughly how much the client would receive in a refund. The client then listed what changes needed to be made, so I assumed they therefore wanted to continue with the piece. While there are a few changes needed, they were all minor things that would take me very little time to change. This exchange took a few days, as noted in the screenshots, due to the client taking upwards of 24 hours to respond to each message. While I didn’t note it at the time, the first image that the client uses as proof of changes required is from an image I had not received at this point, and is pointing out markings absent or at least different from the ref sheet:
I asked for clarification on some markings and noted where I genuinely missed things, such as the nosering, which was my mistake to own. Some of the markings, such as the brown on the leg, I still do not think are consistent with the ref sheet, as they were asking me to put markings on the front on the leg onto the back. However, I was happy to oblige, and this is where the conversation ended, with my understanding being that they would like the changes made and then would review them.
As stated previously, I do not work on art every day, and happened to be away from home for a few days, but remained in contact with commissioners and worked on my queue a bit. I received notice from PayPal that a dispute had been opened against me by the client with no notice, and saw that they had blocked me on Instagram:
I tried to respond via PayPal to explain my side, but the respond button didn’t work:
I attempted to reach out on Instagram before realising they’d blocked me:
I had to reach out to PayPal but was unsatisfied with them essentially saying I had to now just wait until May for PayPal to step in to decide on the case, due to the website not working correctly. Here is me contacting them on the site before I eventually called them:
I realised that I had the client’s email address, since they’d emailed over a higher quality ref sheet image (same image as previously posted), and reached out there to try to come to an agreement. I reference what the client said in their PayPal dispute text, but due to the site not working correctly, I can’t retrieve a screenshot of this:
The client responded reiterating that they wanted a full refund, which seemed unreasonable for the reasons already explained to them:
It seemed that we were making progress, and they unblocked me on Instagram, but did not take down their dispute from PayPal, which meant I was still unsure if they were going to attempt to challenge the case either way. I explained how they could do it, but this never happened:
I made the edits asked for originally on Instagram, which took very little time as expected:
The client asked for more edits, which I did without issue:
The client then asked for more edits, and again used a reference image that they had not shown me. I could see that the piece had different markings to the ones visible on the original ref sheet, and they additionally asked for more line art changes:
At this stage, working with the client was severely impacting my mental health, and with the PayPal dispute still open, I was scared I would have to keep making endless edits based on images I hadn’t seen in order to please them:
The client went silent again after this message, which gave me time to reflect. I decided that the principle of keeping a mere £15 was not worth the stress that all of this was causing me, so when the client still hadn’t replied in the morning, I decided to just refund them in full in order to end the whole thing:
I could not refund the piece due to PayPal’s broken website, so I contacted PayPal in order to ask them to close the dispute in favour of the client:
I do not believe that I was treated at all fairly by this client and refunded them entirely just to end contact with them. This was already impacting my ability to work on my queue, and I did not want it to impact anyone else.
So this was my first step into doing commission stories. After I put out a notice on both Deviantart and Furaffinity announcing that I am doing story commissions, with the prices being .003 cents per word, or $30 per every 1,000 word. This gent messaged me on Deviantart, commisisoned me to do a fatfur story involving Sonic and Tails (as adults of course, after making him clarify). Of course, as you can surmise from the exchanges provided below, this was my first time, and doing it in the middle of a university semester, so it too much longer than I would have liked. I have a 30 day deadline, but I had to delay the delivery by about three weeks due to me not managing my classes and commission duties well.
Needless to say, I delivered the product to him after some back and forth on what he wanted in the story, and he was happy with the product, but he told me he couldn't pay me until the 8th of April. Not seeing the red flags, I accepted that. When the day came, I asked him if he had the money ready. No response. I sent him another message the next day, telling him I need the money and that he promised to pay me $90 on the day in question. Again, no response. Today, I tried to message him again, but I found out he blocked me on Deviantart, so I can't even message him anymore. So now I am posting this beware bulletin to warn other folks about this guy.
I contacted AroccoSuits to purchase a commission 2/7/2019. I sent payment ($550) on 2/13/2019. As of today, 4/4/2022, I have not received any evidence of work being done on the product I purchased and none of my emails are being answered.
Andrew would keep giving me an estimated date of when work would be done, but the date would pass with no further contact. He would also keep moving my place in his queue.
Andrew has emailed me about his health issues as a reason for slow work, but this does not excuse the lack of communication and hoarding of my money in my opinion. PayPal can do nothing of any claims I make since it has been so long since the transaction was made.
On august 2019 i commission kitamonplush for two plush on her facebook page and payment was sent via paypal and i not ask for update because of covid happen in 2020 and i ask for 0ne on 5/30/20 she did give me a update the next time i ask for a update it was 2/25/21 she give me the some update it almost does. at the point i now some was wrong . so i look some of her other accounts now like her etsy page you can tell she make plush for her store and some people neve get it too the two plush was for my brother he die from covid i was did i get scam so i talk to her about it and we change the plush the next time i ask for it was 1/26/22 still no update and still not have be read so i make a new account and send her a message she did read it say have be read so i have mark it and now i have be block on my account bye her so i cant message her
Short Version/Timeline:
I ordered two chibi headshot sketches from Funbelle (now Sorbuns) on Toyhou.se. It has now been over a year since my original order and I have not received any work from them. They appear to have abandoned all socials.
Ordered placed and confirmed on 3/10/21.
Asked for update on 3/27/21
Received response 3/28/21 that they would work on the commissions soon
Asked for another update on 4/13/21
Received response 4/14/21 that said they hadn't gotten to mine yet, but they had completed one and offered to send it to me.
Responded to that message on 4/14/21 -- Message unread as of 3/25/22
Asked for refund 2/21/22 -- Message unread as of 3/25/22
The most recent update regarding commissions is a Toyhou.se bulletin posted 5/27/21
My order does not appear on their public commission queue anywhere, even though the last update was on 5/30/21 (over a month after first my unread message)
Most recent update/activity I can find is art posted on their Facebook 6/16/21.
Some time between 2/21/22 and 3/25/22 they deleted all content off of their user profile on Toyhou.se, including their links to DeviantArt and Twitter which were both completely blank at the time I was checking 2/21/22.
All screenshots are taken 3/25/22--Not all have dates visible on the posts due to Toyhou.se using the amount of time that's passed rather than exact dates. I have also censored out the username of someone not directly involved in the transaction.
Comment/Conversation in Thread 3/10/21:
Proof they accepted the commission and received the payment:
Paypal Invoice:
Text of both March and April updates (reads in reverse chronological order)
First Unread Message:
Proof of unread status from Toyhou.se Outbox
Second Unread Message:
Proof of unread status from Toyhou.se Outbox
Most recent public updates for Commissioners 5/27/21:
Public Comm Queue: Latest update 5/30/21
Latest activity on Facebook:
Final contact attempts:
Original Agreement + Proof:
I was contacted by Mechogama through my FA notes on Oct. 11, 2021 with an offer to draw two individual pieces of my horse sona for a total price of $300, fully colored with background. After a cursory investigation there was an art trail showing that despite the out-of-the-blue solicitation the artist did have a track record of delivering and agreed to the proposition and we exchanged Discord contacts.
Fig 1.0: Initial message over Furaffinity
Fig. 2.0: Initial Discord message to establish continuity of account “HACKED” being Cleam/Mechogama the name had been CLEAM as of initial conversation but latter events lead to a name change and new account.
After establishing that we were who we said we were we got down to brass tax. My quote for the work would be:
2 Pieces @ $150 ea.
- Fully Colored
- Background Included
- Multi-Character with central focus on my horse
Fig. 2.1: Reiteration of agreement, addition of update schedule and providing an EOD sketch.
Fig. 2.2: Transactional Proof
Things proceed apace in payment but the end of day sketch and the 2 day update schedule do not come.
Fig. 3.0: Sudden request for more money under false pretenses
A request for $50 instead arrives in confusing format with me initially mistaking it as an attempt to be upcharged. No work has been completed thus far and I let the artist know my qualms with the sudden request.
It has been about a week and a half since our initial conversation and I approach Mechogama about our agreement.
Fig 4.0: CLEAM as shown in cap is original avatar and name of account as can be seen in Fig. 2.1. I am told that I will receive an update when he returns home.
While I do not receive said sketch at the end of the day, I do receive initial sketches 4 days afterward.
Fig. 4.1: Initial sketches arrive
By this point I believe the artist is just pre-occupied and am willing to acquiesce to the slight delays. I do not hear from Mechogama again until Nov. 11 2021.
Fig. 4.2: Mechogama let’s me know that he is still aware of my commission.
Fig. 4.3: Mechogama contacts me again about alleged technical issues with his computer and a timeline for repair + compensation for the trouble.
We would discuss some specifics of the commission again on 12/04/2021 and I would hear from him one last time on 12/25/2021 before radio silence on that account.
Fig. 4.4: Offer for more pictures, details on an after-pic, no agreement on paying for after-images but semi-regular communication seemed apparent.
Fig 4.5: Last message received from the original CLEAM account before allegations of being hacked would appear nearly a month later in Mechogama’s first Discord chat: “The Dirty Paw”.
Fig. 5.0: Mechogama alerts his server that his account has been hacked. It has been one month since I have heard from him. The details of the hack are slightly suspicious but seems to be standard Discord phishing. The account in question was never deleted but the alleged hacker had since deleted their's.
Fig. 5.1: Supporting evidence of the hack, names have been removed aside from mine for the server-wide alert. Server effectively dies.
By this point I had not been aware of the hack as I had been busy with my courses, however after another month I would contact Mechogama through FA after having seen no attempt to get back in touch with commissioners or announcement from any other source of information. I had discovered that this alleged hack occurred while trying to get a hold of Mechogama about my commission.
Fig. 5.2: I messaged Mechogama on FA and he promptly responded to me. This is the first time I’ve spoken with him since Dec. 25, 2021.
I join the Discord to find it hosting some people but far less lively than before, there is evidence of some activity and posts. This allows me access to Mechogama’s new iteration of CLEAM to continue trying to find a resolution to this commission issue.
Fig. 5.3: My attempt over the last half a month to get information and this apparent ‘update’ on my commission. I had messaged CLEAM at various hours to get his attention, and it is obvious that he had been avoiding responding.
At this point I had decided that this commission was never going to see the light of day and that I wanted a refund. Due to Mechogama refusing to answer my DM directly, even while online in “League of Legends” as his account status showed, I posted an @CLEAM into his new Discord: “Furry4Ever” to get his attention, the contents including the information on his avoidance of me. He promptly deleted the message in the public Discord and finally responded to me in DM.
Fig. 5.4: After my notice in his Discord server, Cleam/Mechogama finally deigns it appropriate to respond to me and promptly removes me from his Discord group.
Finally, after months of silence, I am granted my audience and he agrees to refund me. As of the time of this Artist Beware I am awaiting confirmation from Paypal that my refund has been processed, however I am not convinced that it will not be forced into claim status. Mechogama immediately went back to play League of Legends after the outburst at the end and no update on my refund through Paypal has been shown nor has he responded to my question regarding if he has even seen the refund request.
Fig. 5.5: Outlandish response to request for refund, I inform Mechogama that the refund request has been sent and receive no indication from him that he has even so much as looked at it.
Mechogama has been an unreliable and unprofessional artist at best, and outright attempting to con a client at worse. Reasonable attempts to rectify a situation and patience shown considering circumstance were disregarded and the attitude towards myself as a client and commissioner was dismissive. If you are expecting regular communique, timely updates, or for the original agreements of your commission terms to be met you should look elsewhere.
Original Agreement:
Sam agreed to compose an original musical composition for use in my streams on November 7th, 2021.
Proof of Payment (and Paypal Resolution):
Correspondance:
During the initial agreement, he directly stated that he would be providing WIP pieces of it "as I go" but not once delivered.
On Nov 21, he reached out, stating he would have a draft ready in a couple days, but nothing came of it.
This was the beginning of a pattern.
Over a month went by without receiving the promised Draft, and I reached out to Sam again on December 27 asking for updates. He got back to me on Jan 2 stating there had been some issues with his health and he had taken on too many commissions. I replied that it was okay as long as he communicated with me. He still hadn't sent the initial draft promised on Nov 21, but he promised he'd send it "once I get home."
This draft did not arrive either.
I reached out again, a month later, on Feb 2 to ask for updates. According to him, it was now "basically done" despite no received drafts. At this point I just wanted to hear something, anything.
Ten days later, I again asked for an update since I was debuting a new related project and I wanted to get a listen to it to see if it was in a good state. As he had said it was "basically done." I figured this wouldn't be an issue. Sam did not respond. It was also around this point when he disabled read receipts on messages, as prior communications could be noted as Seen but now all were reflecting "Sent."
I then gave him until March 7th, which was exactly four months since payment was made before reaching out for a final time and requesting either proof of work or a refund within 48 hours.
Sam did not reply and on March 9th, I submitted a case to Paypal and received a refund instantly via purchase protection.
Timeline of Events:
11/5/21 - Initial contact for commissioned work.
11/7/21 - Artist Acceptance of commission and payment of $20 price plus $30 tip completed. Artist notes that he will “send bits and pieces of the product as [he] goes.”
11/10/21 - User gives go-ahead to use existing artist samples and accepts limitations of workflow.
11/21/21 - First promise of a WiP “within a couple days.”
12/27/21 - First update request due to failure to deliver promised WiP.
01/2/22 - Artist response and second promise of WiP “once I get home.”
2/2/22 - Second update request due to failure to deliver promised WiP.
2/2/22 - Artist response: “It’s basically done.” Please note that no WiP has yet been received despite promises to the contrary.
2/12/22 - Third update request due to failure to deliver promised WiP. Additional request for preview to utilize for upcoming event for the user as “it’s basically done.”
3/7/22 - Final update request with demand of either promised work or a refund within 48 hours.
3/9/22 - No Response. Refund requested through Paypal Resolution Center.
I had initially been introduced to Sam via a friend of a friend who said he had fallen on some hard times and was taking commissions for help. I understand things are rough for everyone, and I understand the pitfalls many artists end up in when taking on too much work, but it's unethical to promise something and not deliver it. As stated to Sam, I was more than happy to work with someone struggling or having issues (as I have in the past) and even wait upwards of a year for a commission as long as I can see proof that it's being worked on. Even if that work in miniscule over time, just give me something. But don't promise WiPs multiple times and not send a single thing. Don't ghost me for 30+ days at a time after each promise.
I know of at least one other commissioner of Sam's that has also had to deal with this from him, but I will allow them to document their own experiences or leave comments here on their own.
Full Communication Log including Irrelevant Conversations:
