On 11/19/2020 I purchased an artistic liberty fursuit head from BeastworksStudiosLLC(aka Beastworksfx) for 400 USD.
Time passed by. In May 2021, I noticed they had closed their etsy shop. I emailed them, concerned and for an update. I did not get a reply.
I emailed them again in the beginning of June 2021. I got no response.
About a week later in June, they posted on their instagram that they were closing their business and liquidating the shop. They were going to give refunds and send out uncompleted orders. He instructed his clients to email him in an instagram post. (I do not have the post screenshot, but I did manage to save one where he mentioned he saw my email in the comment section.)
I emailed him, as instructed. I heard back from him a week or so later. He offered to set up a repayment plan with me. He said he could refund me in installments, if I was interested. I emailed back and accepted his offer, but there was no further contact.
(Personal Info is Censored)
In November 2021, I attempted to email him. His email address cannot be found.
His instagram currently named, BW2021closed, is not active and posts deleted. Beastworksfx website has also been deleted.
They have cut off all means of contact.
- Original agreement + Proof
Casual conversation about the Salt Queen ideas. We started Feb 23rd. They ended up sketching her out extensively.
- Proof of payment
I asked for a paypal invoice, so that I could keep track of the transaction. They confirmed payment.
I received the gif immediately and was extremely pleased with it. I used it on my commission website as well as my curious.cat.
- Any relevant correspondence
Spine Breaker was friends with my partner first. I met them through their work on my partner's persona, Salt King.
Often described as Spine Breaker's muse, Salt King was a design they made based on my partner's likeness, rights to the character was always Spine Breakers. My partner has never claimed to own the design or want it. Salt King art was only used as discord profile pictures and steam profile pictures.
Spine Breaker would send me random sketches or finished pieces of Salt King, and other finished works, but no Salt Queen progress. March 19th is the last I saw any related work of any kind on Salt Queen.
I liked their art so much.. I wouldn't have spent 300$ on their work if I didn't like it. I'd always message them about their newest Salt King works that they would send my partner!
- Refund Request
Half a year of random conversations later, I asked for a refund on Sept 21st. I had started to doubt their desire to finish the commission long before this, but wanted to wait it out for as long as possible.. I was honestly so excited to see Salt Queen design finished by them. October 12th was our final correspondence.
Below is a message they sent to my partner the same day as my refund request.
My partner felt like he could do something about the situation and inquired on his own. Receiving this excuse below as the reason why they didn't work on my commission this year.
The fact that Spine Breaker tried to say I didn't like their work still baffles me. This whole thing was an insult... A slap to the face. I said nothing and waited on the refund.
Yes, I too am an artist, my income is 100% made from freelance artwork. But I commissioned THEM for the Salt Queen because of their amazing work! (Work I believe far surpasses my talents.) I didn't design Salt Queen myself because I wanted them to.. I'm still very confused by this logic... Or why this wasn't brought up to me long before we reached this point.
I waited until November 1st for the 100$ refund, nothing was received, not even a message. With no communication at this point, things started to feel personal. I removed the artist from my socials November 1st.
Below is the inflammatory message they sent my partner a day later on November 2nd. Absolutely none of this can be explained by me. I was always honest with the artist, always excited to see their work, and honestly felt lucky to be so closely associated with them through my partner.
If they ever had any sort of ill feelings towards me, it was never brought up with me. And with 200$ spent, I wasn't really sure how to act around them.
After sending the message above to my partner, they blocked him, making this a very odd personal attack. I was never refunded anything. And he lost a good friend in his attempt to mediate.
Beware this artist.
6/27/2024 mod edit:
MazumaCat has received a partial refund and considers the matter resolved.
I commissioned Fajnyziomal back in August for a number of different commissions for around $100 & have been getting nothing but excuses or very confusing responses from them.
I'm not positive what the issue is, but every time I ask, they claim to be too busy to complete said commissions. Despite the fact their Discord status shows them playing "Dead by Daylight" almost every day for hours.
I chose the "Pay as a friend" option on PayPal because I thought that's what we were...
My money's not coming back , nor do I expect to receive any artwork from them. I'm just here to warn others about this artist.
Who: lrkcreations / NekkoMeneko
When: November 25th, 2020
What: Plush commission ordered through Instagram of my character Baphomet
Worth: 155$
Reason for Beware: Has gone a full year without giving me any wips, notifications, and keeps pushing back the turn around 'estimate' time of my order
Proof of Purchase
November 25th, 2020
I ordered a plushie on November 25th, 2020. This plush is a kuttari, something I have been interested in for a long time. I was excited to grab a slot for one of these as it's one of my favorite plush styles. We went through and discussed price, INCLUDING an estimated time frame. Which was late February. Everything got paid, except shipping, since that was in her tos. I also already knew she has a 1/3 deposit price, but was not aware that she considered the total price of my order as the full deposit. There was no confirmation that the $155 was going to be the deposit until after the transaction.
February 6th, 2021
Throughout the time from November to February I received nothing. No hellos, check ins, notifications, nothing.
During the time I had redrawn Baphs reference, changing only the art and not the design. So the design staid the same, there were no design changes. I decided to send a message back and notify them that there was a new, cleaner, reference sheet they could use since the old one was kinda ugly. It took them 10 days to respond to me, and after which I sent them the new reference. They messaged back 2 days later with a simple thank you.
April 30th, 2021
I was kinda ancy and wanted to know a new time frame of when my order was going to be done. It was then she stated estimates were not set in stone. This was a shocker because all the plushies I have ordered from different artists all had due dates on when I would be receiving work in progress shots, and physical goods always have a turnaround time set. I thought I was going to get my plush in February since that was the original 'estimated' time. She also mentioned a list/queue, something that isn't public so I had no idea where I was in her queue, or if she even has a queue. I begrudgingly had to reply with a calm, great to hear, knowing I had to wait even longer for my order.
September 25th, 2021 & Current
I reached out again as a little nudge. To see if I could get things rolling, or even a wip. It takes them a good chunk of time to respond. Saying they have been late on their work, 'trying' to get caught up. There's nothing more I can say and just leave it at that.
I decide to pop in a few weeks ago to see if I can get a glimpse of their 'queue', something that's apparently not public information for their clients. As of November 12th, 2021, I have received no reply. Radio silence. I decided to send a charge back dispute notice telling her she had until the 25th until I decided to take action and tell her about how this transaction was highly unprofessional. I have still yet to even hear back from her since November 12th / 21st.
I do not plan to chase her around to her other accounts just to get a hold of her, she has shown me how unprofessional she is and it is not my responsibility to chase her around.
They stopped being active on their instagram so I wanted to check and see if they were active on any of their other social medias they listed in their linktree on their profile. I began my little search their other social medias to see if they have been active anywhere else. I found they have been streaming on Twitch, as well as going under a new rebrand named, NekkoMeneko. Being incredibly active on Twitch, Twitter, and their Tictoc posting almost daily.
As of now, I am waiting for the 25th to come around before I take action with Paypals buyer protection and file a dispute against her.
Commissioned me to make a simple logo withholding that it was going to be used for a clothing brand when my art is not for commercial use.
Art has not been completed and refund has been issued.
[Mod Note: OP Found out via group message that the client intended to use the work for commercial use. Unrelated parties are censored.]
[Client was refunded and blocked.]
On 10/24/21 Valdis inquired about getting a pre-pose from me, which is something I usually only offer for my in-stream participants or to my discord users who may not be able to attend a stream. I specifically informed her to only contact me with her information once she was cleared to pay for the item. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/44295921/
When she noted me I assumed she was in good standing and able to pay for the artwork, as agreed.
Our discussion was then moved to discord. I provided her with regular WIPs.
There was some confusion as to the pricing for the pieces (Although on the submission it is clearly stated that I was not providing both versions of the work for an extra $5).
She then asked to add more artwork to the queue, while still not paying for her original pieces.
I explained I would not do more art for her until the current works were paid for.
She then ghosted me for the weekend, and communications moved back to FA as she claimed she was unable to access her discord. I sent her a warming, after seeing that she had tried to purchase characters for $200 from xBlueAshesx.
Usually, I would have stopped working on her commissions at this point. However, at the same time, there was an unexpected death in the family. Work provided me an escape, something to focus on other than my grief for a little while.
When Valdis responded, she tried to blame everything on Paypal, as well as having been mistreated by other artists in the past.
I was informed that Valdis was attempting to purchase another character, this one for $300 at this point.
After which point I contacted Valdis to let her know that I had seen her behavior -
She responds, once again trying to garner sympathy by claiming she has no family.
Sick of the attempts at gaslighting and manipulation, I inform her the only way to recover from her actions is to pay for the work she ordered.
Here is the work completed, for verification purposes. The other person she ordered artwork for did pay for her portion of the artwork. I am including it here, though, to show that the work was completed and Valdis should have paid for it.
Last contact with the client on Nov 6th
Client scammed me by filing and escalating to a claim for non-received goods on PayPal and won a refund. The very last image attached involves the OC (on the left was the reference provided, on the right was the piece I completed).
I disputed it but PayPal ruled in favor of the client/scammer.
Client used fraudulent, made-up reasons to file the claim, that I've sold a Minecraft account which got blocked and that I ghosted them after. They commissioned me for a NSFW piece, which I delivered on, gave them the files (October 23rd) and woke up to the claim on the 28th of October, 2021.
The attached describe the overall series of events, my attempts to defend my case and ultimately the failure to do so. It's worth noting they used an associated email to file the claim, which is different from the invoiced one.
I attempted contacting them on twitter and to my surprise they did respond but lied that they would take the claim down.
I asked PayPal support if I could update my response to the dispute, they said they will only add notes that the client is using different emails and that I do NOT deal with Minecraft.
The client locked their account after our last DM exchange. Before doing so I made a screenshot highlighting they've seen the dropbox link. They admitted to seeing the finished piece, too.
Mod note: Removed finished commission, but it was uploaded!
I started supporting Kittbites on Patreon at their $85 per month tier, which includes a single character commission each month.
Paid June 1 (Supporting May)
Paid July 1 (Supporting June)
Paid August 1 (Supporting July)
Paid September 1 (Supporting August)
The first two months went by without a problem, and I got two commissions.
I asked for an edit to the pieces, but after that they stopped responding.
Which especially became a problem as two more months of Patreon support went by. Meaning two months of artwork have not been delivered.
I reached out to Kitt on their discord server (Unfortunately no screenshot, I lost access to their server).
I reached out to their manager (Puck) via telegram, and was told Kitt wasn't answering.
I reached out to Kitt directly, and got no response.
I am currently waiting on a fursuit that was first discussed at MFF 2017 and commissioned February 2018.
I paid off the suit in installments with the last payment being sent on August 2018. The suit is of my Thylacine character. I was told that the head would have to be sculpted, molded, and cast as it was a custom character with no bases for the head of the Thylacine. This was fine with me because at first I didn’t mind waiting. As stated in below it was discussed at MFF 2017 that work would be started once it was half paid off around the beginning of Summer 2018. Now I do understand I definitely wasn’t first on the list which again is fine.
Fast forward to early 2020 pre-pandemic. It was discussed the suit would started after FWA 2020 and be done in time for Megaplex 2020. Drakonicknight stated they lost a year due to carpal tunnel at the beginning of 2018 (unsure if they met 2019) and lasted until the end of 2019. I understood that, I know carpal tunnel isn’t fun to deal with. This was in February 2020. In July I messaged them again asking for updates. Now with Covid a thing, all cons, including Megaplex, were canceled. So I figured that the suit would not be done in time for when Megplex was supposed to happen (August 2020)
Now in-between all of this in 2019 DrakonicKnight did work on pre-made partials. While to me this is fine but I feel that your actual paying customers should come first. I understand emergency situations come up and you need money, it happens to the best of us.
January 2021. I messaged DrakonicKnight again asking for updates and to discuss a new deadline for the suit to be done. As seen in the caps below I asked about it, twice, both of which seem to have been ignored as the conversation jumps from February 9th 2021 to May 6th 2021 with no new completion date discussed. I tried contacting on twitter saying that I didn’t hear from them on Telegram and asked for an update. In April I was informed that they were scheduling a day for helpers to come out and help get things done.
August 2021 I message again saying I tried contacting on twitter and didn’t get a response so went to Telegram at that time only the head needed to be sculpted/completed and that was the last point of contact. I am not looking for a refund on the suit. I would love for it to be completed while receiving the same quality that all past clients have received. However if it does come to it, I will ask for a refund, I don't want it to come to that since I would feel a bit uncomfortable seeing what was once to be my character on someone else.
Pictured (I hope I can fit them all if not I’ll post the more important ones)are the conversations I’ve had with them. I also ordered a shirt from them (which is seen discussed in the pictures as well) but that also HAS NOT been delivered.
Urg opened for commissions on January 24, 2020. The commission queue opened at the time can be found here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/34740959/ I (TenPoundHammer) am in the fourth slot.
I agreed to a two-character, full body piece with background. Per the posted prices, my piece totaled $115 USD.
January 25, 2020: Urg sent me an FA note confirming that I was in the queue.
March 24, 2020: Urg sent me a WIP and asked for payment.
March 25, 2020: Payment of $119.99 USD sent (the balance being PayPal fees).
March 26, 2020: Urg acknowledges that payment was received.
October 15, 2020: Inquiry to Urg about progress of pic. Urg informs me that a WIP will be sent on October 20.
December 31, 2020: Second inquiry to Urg about progress of pic. Informed that WIP will be "within four days".
May 7, 2021: Yet another inquiry to Urg about status of pic. WIP promised "next week".
August 31, 2021: Request for at least a partial refund due to long term lack of progress. Refund promised "tomorrow". As of this writing (October 7, 2021), Urg has yet to refund me. Also, unless I missed one, only one of the five pieces from the last commission queue appears to be in Urg's gallery; despite this, Urg opened for a new batch of commissions on September 6, 2021 despite an obvious backlog ( https://www.furaffinity.net/view/43597577/ ).
I am out $119.99 USD until this is resolved.
