I contacted Mawbyte on Twitter after seeing an ad on their Twitter for page dolls. The page dolls were $30. I messaged them with my reference sheet asking if I could get one and they sent me a message saying they would take me but needed to add a $20 complexity fee. I found this a bit strange since my character is pretty simple but agreed anyways.
Here is a picture of the reference sheet:
(Image is much larger but keeps getting shrunk on here)
The initial conversation for the transaction:
An invoice was sent for $50. I added a $10 tip for the artist and was given the link to the Trello where I could track my commission. I was told I could contact them if I wanted any changes to be made or if I wanted anything added or removed.
Invoice:
Conversation about the invoice, what to do if I wanted edits and the trello information given:
Me asking for clarification on what the complexity fee was for:
I heard nothing from them again until 12/14/2021. Upon opening my commission I realized that even though it is a very clear reference sheet my character was missing half of their markings. Additionally the quality of the lines did not match anything of their other work and the work appeared extremely rushed. I contacted them back and asked if the markings could be added. Being charged a complexity fee those markings should have been added.
Quality of chibis advertised:
Message sent with my file:
The file:
I did not hear back from them. I contacted them again on the 15th and still heard nothing. Then I contacted them again on the 17th and finally heard back late in the evening. I was told they had deleted the file and that there was nothing they could do about it. I asked them about getting a refund for the complexity fee since my character’s markings were not actually completed. I was told they don’t do refunds and that they simplify the markings for the smaller page dolls anyways so they were sorry but they didn’t know what to do.
Proof of asking for changes:
There were several chibis done that were a lot more complicated than my character. I had never been told about potentially simplifying the character and that does not mean leaving entire markings out. I mentioned writing a beware and then was told I didn’t communicate well enough about what was important for my character. The reference sheet I sent is very thorough and answered any potential questions the artist might have had. They also could have messaged me at any point to ask me the questions but they did not.
Excuses given for why it couldn't be changed:
They finally painted the markings onto the image and said they were blacklisting me. I was asking simply for what I paid for.
The rest of the interaction:
The final changes I received:
There are still several details incorrect on the character. The line quality is horrific especially in the feet and tail. The line making up the claw on the foot is not even closed. The line for the right ear can be seen through the horn. There are several areas such as the arms that are not colored all the way. The elbow being laughed into has a bit of fur colored in as the scales on his arms. I was charged an extra fee for complexity and then when I asked to have things corrected got blamed for the mistakes and then blacklisted.
I want to make people aware of the bad conduct, communication and final product of this artist.
Original Agreement and Proof:
The original agreement between I (KingPink) and Leonan/Staticjack was that I would trade them an Impim and 3 pieces of art for a one-off design they owned at the time.
Leonan resold the design without telling me or the other person to another user on ToyHouse. It was sold in September while our trade was still going. I have attached that screenshot as well.
At the time the character was resold, I had finished 2/3 of the art pieces completely. I was working on the lineart for the third which was an animated icon.
What Happened Next:
Leonan refused to contact either of us after multiple attempts and waiting 72 hours. He has been online/active and has even changed his Discord status but has ignored us. I have been ghosted by him since October but I sent more messages trying to confirm what happened. The person who received the character was also ignored by them.
Screenshot of Twitter DM between me and other scammed individual:
Screenshot of DeathDino’s ignored comment on his TH, you can see Leonan replying to someone above the comment:
The entire conversation from start to finish has been screenshotted and posted by me here. It took place over Discord. It includes everything from the initial greeting from me, the trade agreement, me sending art WIP’s, and me being ghosted.
The Toyhouse screenshot details the ownership log of this character which can be publicly viewed here:
https://toyhou.se/1185924.faust/ownership/log
The character ended up in my hands via the kindness of the other person who was scammed, NOT LEONAN. The situation was not resolved between the scammer and us.
Leonan is involved in many CS communities such as Impim, Kebanzu, Taums, Grems, etc. and I was scammed by them from one of these community servers. I will note it has been reported to the mods of any server I could reach.Please be careful if you see them making trade posts.
Communication occurred on Discord after we contacted each other on an art commissions server.
We agreed on a set of 12 emotes of the client's original characters. I had completed 11 of them and this specific transaction is concerning the very last emote I had owed. Our transaction was initially paid for by April 20, 2021 and completed by May 1, 2021, while the last emote was paid for by June 28, 2021.
It is worth noting that this client was also a friend of mine at the time, so keep this in mind when looking at our screenshots.
My work ethic after the first set of commissions is not acceptable, I am willing to owe up to having not provided wips or relevant business communication regarding the final emote until recently. I want to be transparent that I am not a fully innocent in this situation, however the client's behavior due to this incident is the reason I am reporting for accountability.
Prior to/included in the original transaction were 11 emotes paid for by April 20, 2021 which were finished by May 1, 2021. Along with this, I was paid for commercial rights for the emotes to be used for their server.
After this set of commissions we had agreed upon a final commission, which was the 12th emote. We agreed upon this by June 28, 2021; and it was paid for on the same day.
In the middle of that existing commission by May 30, 2021 I was also commissioned to draw a profile picture. This was completed while having the emote commission in the background.
Said client had messaged me on December 14, 2021 attempting to confront me about claims of other people that I have asked them for money and have not compensated them. Our interaction ended in the following screenshots. I cannot provide proof for claims of others that Tyrian contacted them as the ones who I have testimonies from consented against their names and screenshots being used.
After this confrontation I refunded the client his money for the emote in full. The refunded money was then sent back to me with the following comment "It's not about the money, keep it." We had one final discussion before I blocked the client for my own safety and began writing this post. I also received this message on Twitter today at 2 AM, December 21, 2021.
Having sent the screenshots of our conversation to a friend, said friend messaged this client on December 19, 2021 without respecting my wishes for them to not contact the client. I do not condone this behavior, but it is what transpired.
In light of the event I upgraded my PayPal account to protect my privacy and also hid my public waitlist for the sake of me and my clients. I am unsure on what to do with the 30 USD which was sent back to me, as I am worried that this money will be sent back to me a second time. I overall advise fellow artists to not receive commissions from this individual.
----- This is the start of the problem transaction ----
Post-Confrontation Address:
Block-Evading via Twitter:
[Mod Note: Former client continues to use TNR's artwork via discord, and is erroneously claiming theft via their profile]
This artist was recommended to me by a friend who had just approached them for a commission of their OC. I sent them a note on the 3rd of April and didn't hear anything until the 6th, which, of course, was no problem. People have lives outside of FA / Twitter / etc., so after contact began, we started working towards and approached an agreement on the same day.
Payment was sent the next day, and as seen in the following image and the one above, totaled $110 USD, which was paid:
After this, however, both me and my friend received no further updates. No sketches or any additional questions and/or updates. My friend was smart enough to approach them, and they did finally get their art after mentioning a refund to the artist. Myself, however, did nothing, which I know was dumb. I tried to send them a note to try and get a response over a week ago at the time of writing this:
But have received nothing in response. Since I'm way past the 180-day refund/dispute window, and with no reply to this note as of yet, it looks like I'm up the creek with no paddle. I hate to write something like this out, but I'd also hate to see the same thing befall someone else. Please avoid this artist.
I first contacted the artist MushyOtter on 30 September 2020 via twitter DMs. I was directed to contact them on Telegram the following day.
Details and terms were agreed upon for a $100 colored sketch of two characters. I sent my payment immediately. I subsequently communicated with the artist numerous times to confirm my progress through their queue, and they were fairly prompt in their responses. They sounded busy, and were actively posting art to their Twitter account, so I assumed that they were simply getting through their backlog.
At one point, the artist indicated that they were busy with offline business, so I gave them some space, and I would check in once every few months. In both May and August, the artist indicated that they would be contacting me with some kind of progress "in the next couple of days," but this never materialized.
One year after paying for this commission, on 2 October 2021, I contacted the artist and offered an ultimatum: by the end of the month, either complete the piece, or issue a full refund. On 31 October, the artist contacted me with a rough sketch. While this was not what I had specified, it was more than I had seen in a year, and presumed that since it had already been roughly sketched, and considering that the commission in question is just a colored sketch beyond that, the piece would be completed shortly.
The artist has continued to post about commission openings on their Twitter account, and has been posting new art regularly nearly every month.
At the time of this writing, it is 16 December. The last communication I received from the artist was 3 December, promising that they would send me an update upon arriving home.
I must stress that the artist has been congenial and responsive, and as open as one could hope for. However, their most recent post on Twitter was a completed colored sketch other than mine, dated 15 December. Between the posting of that most recent image, and my exceedingly long wait time, my patience has simply run out. I must severely disrecommend this artist to all potential clients.
This is the Paypal receipt from that transaction as it appears in my transaction history:
And this is the log from our Telegram conversations:
Three months in. I have checked periodically to this point, but the artist seems quite busy with offline business, so at this point I give them space.
After being promised numerous times that my commission was just around the corner, I decide to firmly request the completion of this piece.
The basic sketch finally arrives one year later. This is not exactly the fully completed piece I had described in my deadline to the artist, but by now I am simply glad to have anything at all.
I contacted Kino on 9th September 2020, after seeing that they said they were opening commission slots on Twitter. I emailed asking if any slots were open and if so, what I was interested in getting (NSFW, fully body, fully shaded commission from you of my OC, with background). They said they were, that they could do that and it would cost $160.00
I agree with the price and send across several refs. Kino gave me the PayPal to send the money to and I sent across the $160.00. Payment was sent on the 10th of September.
I emailed Kino on 23rd November 2020, asking how the commission was coming along, as I had not initially asked for a rough timeline. They responded on the 27th November 2020, apologising for delay, saying I can expect it in ‘a few weeks’ and that I’ll be sent a sketch ‘ASAP’. I told them no worries and thanks for letting me know.
They did not contact me at until I emailed again on 6th February 2021, asking for another update. They responded on the 14th, apologising for the lack of communication and cited multiple personal reasons as to why there had been no update / why my commission had not yet been done. They said that I could either get a refund or continue waiting-- I said I understood, life comes first and it’s all good, and that I was happy to continue waiting for my commission.
Yet again, there was no communication until I initiated it, emailing them again on 12th June 2021, asking for another update. They responded the same day, sating they were working on commissions that day and that I should have something soon. I said great, looking forward to seeing the sketch.
After more months of radio silence, I email again on 29th September 2021 asking for another update and for a concrete answer or estimate as to when I can expect the commission. Kino responded the same day, asking if I had not received the email they had sent out (I did not-- I double checked my inbox, deleted and junk folders for said email), which stated they didn’t have the energy to work on art for other people and that refunds will be going out bi-monthly and that they will have a concrete timeframe of when to expect the refund after they receive their first pay check from their new job. I said no worries and good luck with the new job.
Again, I email Kino as they have once again, not contacted me, on 8th December 2021, again asking for an update. They respond the same day, stating that they get paid on the 15th December and that I can expect a partial or full refund then.
It is currently Wednesday the 15th December 2021 at the time of me writing this. I have not yet received an email from Kino or PayPal.
My issue is not that I couldn’t get a commission from them or that the refund has not come through yet; at this point it is the lack of communication on their end and misleading updates. Being told to expect a sketch in a few weeks and then told, several months later, that “I'm actually working on them today”.
ST3LLARPUNK opened for sketch commissions August 5, 2021.
I contacted the artist, but they didn't respond initially so I figured the sale was closed. One month later they replied back saying they didn't see my DM. That's fair, I didn't comment on the sales post so things happen. We went through the exchange of details and payment was sent.
On September 16, 2021 I noticed the payment I sent was unclaimed. I messaged the artist about it, but didn't receive a response.
In fact, I just never received a response from the artist again despite them being active on Twitter and accepting new commissions.
Edit: 12.24.21
The case closed in my favor. The artist never responded to it.
BEWARE OF T_CYBERWOLF / CYBERWOLF0220
I was scammed a total of 221,09EUR - please, be careful and avoid this user at all cost
On October 30th 2021, FA user T_Cyberwolf sent me a note, wanting to purchase 2 adoptables from me. Within the purchase, this individual asked me for serval modifications and additions (such as NSFW version, hyper version, etc.), raising the price to 144EUR for both characters. We agreed on the payment, payment was sent from his part, and a few weeks later, I delivered all the requested modifications, etc. T_Cyberwolf was pleased, and he very much told me so.
On November 3rd, he did one more and the last purchase from me, which was another adoptable. He asked, once again, for a couple of additions and modifications, for a total price of 74EUR. Once again, we agreed on payment, he sent the payment, and on November 16th, I gave him the files like we agreed to. This person was pleased, and liked everything they got from me.
SCREENSHOTS
Here you can see we agreed on payment, that everything was delivered correctly, and the customer was indeed, pleased and happy with what they got.
Fast forward to December 7th 2021. I got a Paypal email that indicated I got a chargeback from T_Cyberwolf, the reason being "unauthorized payment". I noticed he didn't contact me nor inform me in any way of this issue, so I immediately contacted him, asking for an explanation. Because of this, my Paypal balance was negative, and I was in debt with Paypal.
He explained that he noticed he got his information stolen back on Thursday, that many purchases were made and that he started to chargeback because he wasn't able to determine which ones he made, and which ones he didn't, and he was pretty panicked. This, on itself, doesn't make sense. The purchases he asked a refund for over a month old (last purchase being November 3rd, first one being on October 30th), so if he's opening a case in Paypal, that means that those "suspicious purchases" he's been getting must have been happening for over a month - it is legit impossible that someone has been getting money stolen for over a month, without previous notice. Not to mention, my name was in there, it was obviously a purchase made from him, and he knew that. Furthermore, if T_Cyberwolf noticed this on Thursday, why did I get a chargeback 5 days later. Surely, if he claims he did it in a panicked state, I'd have recived the chargeback the very same day he noticed.
(Apologies, this following screenshot is in Spanish due to Paypal sending information to my email in my native language; it's basically information about T_Cyberwolf opening a case for "unauthorized transactions", and about how much he's asking for the refund, how many days I have to respond, etc.)
I explained that this was very suspicious and made little to no sense. I asked him a bunch of question, and T_Cyberwolf just answered one of them. I asked why he didn't close the Paypal refund case, and he asked me to explain it to him, which I refused because that was his responsability, and not mine, and after I texted him asking about more of my suspicions, he stopped replying and ghosted me. Atfer that, I decided to refund him, because I contacted Paypal trough a call, and the company explained that, since they opened the case under the subject "unauthorized transaction", and I can't physically prove they weren't hacked, I was going to lose the case anyway. So I issued a full refund. I lost 77,09EUR on December 7th (3EUR more than what he payed me for), as Paypal charged me 3,09EUR of fees for the refund, not sure why.
The next day, December 8th, T_Cyberwolf decided to contact me, and now he changed his story. Now he claimed that the chargebacks weren't made from him, but it was his bank's doing - because he alerted the bank that his information got stolen, the bank was doing the chargebacks. Obviously, this makes a bigger hole in his first excuse; he mentioned he accidentally opened a Paypal case because he was "panicking" and didn't know which purchases he made and which ones he didn't, but now he claimed that it was his bank's doing, not his. This is when I knew 100% it was a lie, and he scammed me, successfully. He then proceeded to "warn" me that I was going to get more chargebacks for the remaining 2 adoptables he payed me back in October 30th, and that I should "rehome" them. I knew this wasn't a warning, but more of a threat, because this wasn't his bank's doing, but his. So, to avoid more issues with Paypal (as having opened cases can result in your account getting suspended), I proceeded to refund him fully the 144EUR he payed for in October for the remaining 2 adoptables, because I knew I was going to lose the case no matter what since he'd be using the "unauthorized transaction" excuse. This put me in debt, once again. He said "And before I forget", like this was a casual conversation - cleary showing his disinterest and lack of care or responsibility.
After all of this, I asked him not to contact me or any of my friends ever again - but sadly, I couldn't get my money back through Paypal, and I'm left in debt. He scammed me and got all of the money back, and sadly, even though I revoked the owning rights of the adoptables from him, he still has the files and there's nothing I can do about it.
I'm posting this because I don't want any more people being scammed by this user. Don't contact him or harass him, just block him and move on. If he tries to contact you, just ignore him.
People like them can be dangerous to artists who are struggling, so please, be aware and be careful - thanks for reading.
Before I begin, Deviantarts note system works by reading from bottom to top. So keep that in mind when you try to read the conversation I'v had with this artist.
Who: angiefluflu
When: November 5th, 2020
What: Plush commission ordered through Deviantart of my sona
Worth: 150$
Reason for PSA: Refusing to send finished commission to me thinking it will get lost in the mail + various push back dates on my order, possible ghosting
Proof of purchase
Somewhere around the 1st to 3rd of November I made a "looking for artist" forum on Deviantart looking to get a lazy plush of my sona, DOOM.
They commented on my forum and we took it to DM's shortly after.
I bought this plush on my adoptable account on Deviantart and not my main for clarity of the username.
They gave me the price of the commission along with the estimated time of being completed at the end of January, which I was fine with, so we went about and did payment.
I need to say there here, paypal with held the funds for the payment for 21 days. We weren't sure why, and I had to go looking around through paypals tos and found out they held the funds for 21
30 days for some security reason. Something I've never had an issue with before. Nerveless, they got their payment after the weird with holding.
Time went by and January rolled around and I had received nothing, since she said it would be done in January. I didn't think too much of it and went about my life.
In February she shot me a message on Deviantart saying she had been having some personal problems and that my new date was mid-March. I didn't go into dept with her about it since plushes take time and I thanked her for the heads up on my order.
On April 14th I received a stash link with the preview of my plush, after that I didn't hear back from her till May.
On May 4th she stated my plush was finished and I would be receiving photos sometime soon. She sent me photos of my plush the next day as a stash link.
Multiple photos of my plush being completed.
It's now where I exchange shipping information like address and name. She comments that there's shipping problems due to quarantine, but will ship my commission out the next week after May 14th.
Also, around April I had ordered a different plush from a different user and replied to her with 'also got the paypal notification too about shipment.' I had thought that she had shipped my order, but it was not her and my other plush I ordered in April instead.
I learned about my mistake about the notification on June 26th and make sure to send her a message.
I make a comment about how the Paypal notification wasn't for this order. I guess this would also be considered as a little nudge to see how things were going with shipping since the Paypal notification wasn't this order.
I was hoping for her to say that it was shipped out or something like that, but instead I was met with the reply that my plush wasn't being shipped out because shipping was too expensive? And that it was at risk of being lost during shipment? I was upset hearing that if I wanted my plush I would have to get quoted for the expensive shipping option or wait for things to improve. As a reminder, shipping WAS included in our agreement.
So I left this reply to sit since I had to wait for better, cheaper, shipping.
I don't hear back from her for 2 months. I am infuriated at this point, being told I would have to pay more on shipping to get my plush or simply wait till things got better. But there were no updates from her and I decided to send a rant to her about this whole ordeal. Even asking to be quoted for the shipping, which she never gave me a quote after this exchange. I am also going through the same situation with another artist, so I decided to comment about that as well.
After my rant and receiving a message back from her in August 26th, I became more enraged. She's too afraid of my plush being lost in the mail, and at that point I would be fine with paying for insurance and tracking if she gave me that option, but instead she doesn't ask if I want tracking or insurance on the package and simply refused to send out my finished order. Not only that, but she now comments that shipping is now higher than before.
I gave up and had to walk away from our conversation because I was becoming too upset to deal with this issue.
I never heard back from her after this exchange, and I was left to hopelessly wait until I got my order.
During the months of waiting, I decided to take up on researching the postal service in her country. I will not state what country it is, but I will say that the postal service she has been talking about isn't having issues. In fact, it's still shipping internationally to my country.
So with the new information I got from researching her postal service I decided to send her a message, this time saying that I would like insurance and tracking to be added to the package. BUT, I won't send payment for it until I see the recite of the shipment as I don't just want to send her more money and not hear back from her. A lot of this is blurred because it's information about their countries postal service. This is also the last message I have sent to her, she never opened it or replied to this message. So I am still left in the dark.
At the beginning of this thread I said possible ghosting, this is because on all of her socials she hasn't been active since around October. So the only way I can communicate with her is through Deviantart, but I have yet to receive any messages back since my last message on November 12th, 2021.
I found this artist via a group chat on Telegram that was made for advertising art advertisements, and decided to commission this artist for having an art style I considered to be appealing as well as having affordable prices.
I agreed and paid the artist, expecting to have my commission eventually completed.
However months passed and I never got any kind of update. The only communication I got from them was me asking if I could update a reference.
November comes, and I'm getting concerned. I also look over their Trello queue and TOS and realise something is very off.
First thing that comes to mind is that my queue placement is not labelled with 'paid'
As well as still accepting commissions despite having already a large backlog.
Their TOS was extremely sketchy and unfair, rules such as being able to keep your commission in waiting status as long as they'd like, and once started, a max up to five months.
I contact the artist about an update, and an estimated waiting time.
I decide then to file a dispute on Paypal and explain my grievances as politely and honestly as I could.
Something that caught my mind was that the artist said that they would only finish my art if I closed the dispute. If I ended up following with this, I would've never been able to reopen it again, and there's no guarantee I'll have my sketch started by then.
They claim that if I win the dispute my money would not be refunded anyways and ultimately be a waste of time, which sounds sketchy to me, however I cannot find a official Paypal source claiming otherwise so I cannot say for definite if this is true or not.
Lilpinkghost claims they have done nothing wrong, as I have agreed to their TOS. Their TOS is not legally binding, as well as having numerous issues with it.
here is a link to the PDF they submitted.
[Mod note: there were more pages, but we parsed it down to the text the artist submitted as the rest are just caps present here.]
After I escalate the dispute, they become rude and patronising.
My experience with Lilpinkghost has been overwhelmingly negative. Please do not commission this artist.
