**The initial date of “when” is a guesstimate as Zephyr had deleted the chat logs to hide all the evidence. I was unable to get a screenshot of the initial agreement.**
Zephyr was someone I had been introduced to via a YCH group commission completed by the artist Karukuji a handful of years back. After the completion of this YCH we decided to stay in touch.
We remained mostly friends on and off for the past several years where I could go several months without hearing from him only to have him message me if he wanted something from me for his own selfish reasons.
An example of this is when I was able to get a commission opportunity with a very skilled animator so I was trying to see if any mutuals wanted to split the art with me. He had ghosted me for several months only to shoot me a message to get in on this commission. To which I had told him “no” because I found it odd he only just then decided to message me when I was fishing for people.
I had a discussion with him about how this wasn’t ok to do after ghosting me for so long and he apologized. I declined his involvement with my commission and said if he wanted to get art with me in the future he would need to do better about communicating with me rather than only messaging me to get art.
He did end up getting better at messaging me. He even ended up commissioning me for one of my Scales & Tails commissions. Normally I require a $100 deposit to reserve the spot since I had issues in the past of people backing out last second when I was ready to start the commission (I do these commissions on a monthly basis) but since he was a friend I was able to waive the fee. When his month eventually came up he was in a financial situation where he couldn’t afford to pay me the full amount. We had discussed it and agreed that I would work on finishing the art for him with the promise he would pay me back later for the finished art.
(advertisement date of the Scales & Tales commission slot availability)
I finished his commission in June of 2023 and as of writing this have not received payment for its completion:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52654113/
During this time I had been friends with Zephyr, I had seen several people posting warnings about him saying that he was very irresponsible about money where he would bid on YCHs despite not having the finances to actually pay for it. Despite these warning signs from others I was still on Zephyr's side being sympathetic to his situation. I even sent Zephyr some of my paystubs so he could use me as a reference to try and get an apartment to rent. I would NEVER do this for someone online but I had considered him a good friend so I was willing to do it to try and help him out of a bad situation.
At this time I was also expecting art from the artist Karukuji (that I had been waiting years for) who Zephyr was also expecting art from. Karukuji would message me saying he was going to be canceling all active commissions and would be issuing refunds to all parties in his queue.
Karukuji insisted on refunding my money to Zephyr since I didn’t have a Boosty account and then Zephyr would just forward me the refunded money. I rejected this idea because I didn’t trust Zephyr to actually send me the money because Zephyr already owed me $250 and has yet to pay me so why would I trust Karukuji to send him an additional $485 to MAYBE send back to me?
Karukuji would end up refunding my commission money to Zephyr anyway despite my concerns that Zephyr would be dishonest about forwarding me the money.
I had discussed this situation with Zephyr about how Karukuji wanted to cancel all owed art and issue refunds to which Zephyr. I figured with Karukuji refunding him he might finally be able to pay me back for the money he owes me.
Zephyr would end up sending me my money but only the amount that Karukuji owed me and nothing more.
If Karukuji was refunding everyone of their commissions then why wasn’t Zephyr able to pay me back the money he owed me? If Zephyr got refunded from Karukuji then surely he should’ve had no problem paying me for the art he owed. I tried to challenge Zephyr on this by asking him about it and he would respond saying it’s “none of my business” but I think it very much is my business. Zephyr said he would pay me when he has the money to do so but didn’t have it at this time.
Over the next few months after this I would have futile efforts to try and get the money he owed me as he always had a new excuse for why he couldn’t pay or he would promise payment and then ghost me.
Finally we agreed to a payment plan where he would make payments until he paid off his full debt for the art I completed and then we could finally go on our separate ways.
Instead of paying off his balance, he would instead just end up blocking me and pretend like the money he owed was nonexistent despite promising me over and over he will pay it. He would also end up deleting the telegram chat history so there was no incriminating evidence and he would also block me on PayPal so I would be unable to send him money requests.
Here are a few of the screenshots I was able to salvage from this:
(screen cap date January 8, 2024)
(screen cap dates January 11, 2024)
(screen cap date February 9th, 2024)
(mod note: 2 payments of 50$ equaling 100$ has been confirmed, one additional 50$ payment is unaccounted for. For the purposes of resolution, Fr0stbit3 is willing to settle for 100$ to consider the payment owed)
Amtrask reached out to me and requested I make them a plush on Nov 14th 2023. We went back and forth a bit discussing this. They wanted a plush that looked like their OC, a human named Max. I said I would do this for $250. They agreed. However they said they had issues with their bank card. I said this was fine and we agreed on split payments.
Here's the story of our transaction.
Amtrask commissioned a custom doll from me and has received it. They were pleased with the plush and said quote "Max finally arrived today, which was amazing and such a relief! He's gorgeous!". They also received the fabric they requested. The only request I received was to send them more of the fabric from my sewing supplies, which I never agreed to. I explained there was a misunderstanding and that I sent them fabric for their clothes. Amtrask was unable to accept this and demanded I send them more of my fabric.
While making the plush, there were various stages that went through personal approval with the customer. Each step before I continued I would reach out to Amtrask and they would accept the work before I moved on. This was a long and lengthy process.
I finished the body of the plush and it was approved by the customer. Then I moved onto the process of making clothes. The customer requested the clothes be made as removable so that they could play with them. Since these are handmade items, the plushies I make can definitely be cuddled and played with but they aren't suitable for rough play since they do not have safety labels or certifications. I suggested that the clothes be sewn on. They insisted I leave the clothes as is.
The customer then asked if I could send the leftover material fabric so they could use it for their own personal sewing. Since we are at the stage of discussing the clothes, I thought this would be fine since the clothes did not meet their expectations, that way they could make their own clothes. I gave them a quote for the fabric and they agreed to buy it from me. It was sent and received with the plush they bought. Everything they paid for is accounted for. The only reason a claim was filed was because I did not send them more of my personal fabric, which I explained that I never agreed to do.
Their next message again demanded I send them the minky fabric I used for the body. They claimed it was something I promised. Again I explained there had been a misunderstanding. This time I decided to block them as our business had been concluded. They were happy with what they received and only asked for more fabric from me where I was not going to be sending them additional fabrics.
In retaliation this customer went on Etsy and began sending me aggressive messages. They begin demands for 1/3 of the payment for the plush be returned to them and the fabric they paid for to be refunded. I respond to them refusing the refund since they received the plush happily. The only problems you will see arise after I refuse to send them the remainder of my sewing supplies. I also make a request for them to stop contacting me.
In retaliation for refusing the fabric and blocking them, the Paypal claim is then filed at this point. They file two separate claims against me. The first is for the fabric ($15.33) fraudulently stating that it never arrived. The second is for roughly 1/3 of the plush ($83.00) now claiming it was not as described. After I responded to the Paypal claims Amtrask sent me messages on Etsy attacking my character, questioning my character for responding to their Paypal claims.
After not getting their way, Amtrask begins to refer to me by my legal name instead of my artist name. This is a tactic (in my opinion) to intimidate me. I do not go by my legal name online, I go by Starful on every platform. The only reason they have my legal name is because on Paypal it is required. I also believe Amtrask attempted to gaslight me, making me feel as though these events did not happen as I perceived them to. Except I have proof that they were satisfied and thankful during the process of creating their plush.
I will also explain after I accepted the order and after Amtrask sent me several messages with revised references, they went on my Etsy store and purchased two small plushies from me. I will include those as well. This is why they decided to move to Etsy to begin harassing me after I blocked them. We had no previous communication on Etsy. This smaller order was in November. Unfortunately if you block someone on Etsy they can still continue to send you abusive messages as much as they'd like.
Some additional details about our transaction. These weren't necessarily blacklist worthy to me, they just caused me a lot of unnecessary grief during the process of completing their plush order.
After I accepted the commission, I explained that it would take me some time to fill. I wasn't exactly sure how long, but I explained I had other orders and that I would fill their order last. I gave an estimate but still explained I wasn't sure how long it would take. This is not the type of order I usually take after all. While I worked on other orders Amtrask began sending me their reference over and over. The pictures had very little difference between them, if at all. They would also delete their previous photo that they sent me so it was hard for me to compare. I did not save any of the reference photos to prevent myself from being confused, I have the first image they sent me as well as the final reference photo. You can decide for yourself if there are clear differences between the first and last image to warrant the amount of pings I received to my inbox.
This plush was sent internationally. Amtrask requested that I upgrade the post, but it had slipped my mind at the time. After the plush was sent, there was a period where the tracking did not update for 4 days. Amtrask began to send me many messages concerned their package was taking a while and that it was lost. I reassured them to wait and apologized for not upgrading their post. I gave them the estimated date I had been given. In their response they projected their feelings onto me and were unreasonable. I tried to reassure them after this. I reached out to Etsy two days in a row on the phone calling to see if I could get information for them to comfort them. Even after the tracking was updated they expressed worry that the package would not be delivered.
[removed cap was here] - admin
Explanation: One (1) furry half badge commission for a total cost of $53.38 . Color and shaded. Location of transaction at "ACFI" Alamo City Furry Invasion 2023 in San Antonio, Texas. Payment processed through Square. Commission never received. Emails and text messages sent with no response from artist. Proof of purchase and correspondence included below.
In September of 2023 I contacted koenvgraphics with an inquiry to get a logo made. I was quoted $700 for the logo, including a few revisions. I indicated that I wanted to proceed with the commission, and was directed to pay via Wise. I made the payment, and had been told to expect three weeks for turnaround time.
In November of 2023 I emailed koenvgraphics asking for an update on my commission. This email was ignored. Meanwhile, I would regularly see koenvgraphics posting pictures of other icons they had made. I then sent them a message via twitter, which was again ignored. Eventually, in February of 2024, I responded to one of their twitter posts with an inquiry about my commission. I was immediately contacted. Koenvgraphics stated they had been going through a really hard time (understandable) and said they would still do the logo if I wanted. I indicated that I still wanted the logo and they agreed to do it. A few days after they agreed to do the logo again, they messaged me stating they were sick and asking that I understand why they haven't made it yet. I tell them that it's ok, and go back to patiently waiting.
At this point it is March and koenvgraphics continues to post and repost various icons to twitter, but I have heard nothing else from them. I feel like they have intentionally scammed me. I post again a few times (admittedly in anger, and probably not the best way to handle the situation) under their posts once more. This time, I'm asking for a refund. My posts go ignored. I then send a direct message via twitter asking for a refund, which is again, ignored. I do acknowledge that I probably should have sent them another private message first, before jumping to posting publicly. However, they did take my money and then not do the work, and they have been at least keeping up the appearance that they are continuing to work.
Explanation: Prepaid for two full-body shaded commissions through Discord, paid through PayPal. And then a second comission of a full-body and 2 stickers, also prepaid. None of these were received. Additionally an art trade and friendship piece was agreed upon. I drew her art, and she never reciprocated.
Dates: Jul 18th, 2023 (first commission) and July 26th, 2023 (second commission).
Proof of Payments
This transation from July 18th is for the first comission for two full-body shaded pieces.
Original Terms of Service (They were updated months later after I agreed to this)
The TOS stated art would typically be delivered within 3 months. At the time of posting this it has been 8 months.
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Correspondences
July 18th - Original comission correspondence
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July 24th - Checking in to see if money was received and comission started
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July 26 - Second commission money was sent
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June 26th, 2023 - Art trade and friendship piece agreed
I delivered my art trade piece
A friendship piece was promised
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Sept 9th, 2023 - Friendship piece discussed
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Evidence of many others complaining about Creamii's queue and being confronted by Nev of Danger Den
I express my concern for her queue size
At this point, I am expressing my desire for a refund.
In the end we ended up having the call. It was positive and I was supportive and understanding of personal issues they were going through at the time. They continued to promise to work on and deliver my commissions.
Dec 11th, 2023 - She contacted me to work on my commission
December 12th, 2024 - I am shown an early in progress sketch. This is the only art I ever saw related to the art I was owed.
I am offered a gift which I never received
Jan. 15th, 2024 - I check in to inquire about my commission
At this point, she added several more people to her queue in her sever. It was quite large and backed up. (Some more evidence of this can be added if required)
Unfortunately, this does not have a date but Creamii posted in her server that people are able to request a refund if desired.
Several more slots are being opened on her Discord server for art despite art not being delivered
Dec 06, 2023 - the Danger Den discord server sent out this concerning her queue.
Jan 30th, 2024 - My partner messaged Creamii on PayPal as this was of growing concern.
There was never a reply.
Feb 5th, 2024 - My friend contacted Creamii on my behalf. LimaBean was still in Creamii's server at this point and had noticed that she changed her commission queue and that it no longer included me on it and so they reached out.
A refund was again promised and never received.
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March 10th, 2024
I attempted to contact them again for a refund but they are not accepting messages from people who are not their friends and are not responding to contact outside of Discord.
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March 11th, 2024
An official refund was requested via Email with a reasonable week long deadline. At the end of the week there was no contact and no refund.
Commissioned art and YCH purchase on 5/24/2023
This Beware does contain NSFW elements,
All communications were handled in discord
After some difficult communication due to a language barrier, we finally came to an understanding and payment was sent
These are the two payments through boosty, one of these is an error as boosty charged me twice.
Here is the YCH that was purchased along side a REF sheet slot
Here is the initial communication between me and the artist, it took a while to come to an understanding but we came to agree that its two ych slots and one commission if they are able to get boosty to send me a refund for the extra $200, knowing boosty from my perspective they is no way to really get a refund unless i want to get my account banned by doing a chargeback as in their eyes it would be considered fraud from some of the other cases i have seen
They made an announcement on their discord saying that they are burned out due to them working on furry art and would prioritise working on working on human art if some of the people in their discord would like that instead
So five months have passed from the initial commission DM's so i sent a DM in discord to see if they have a trello to see where i am in the queue, they apparently do have one but they keep it in private access and its supposedly in their language (even though i could work it out with a translator) in addition they state that the art would be worked on in november, After two months have passed including november which was the supposed date that the commission's was being worked on, so i sent another message to see what is going on... and no response, i waited until january to send another dm and still no response
(image includes overlapping DM's from earlier images)
I gave them a warning that if they continue to ghost me, i will be forced to look at my options such as posting an artist beware, after i gave them the warning they responded with this reasoning for their absence despite them streaming on twitch days prior
Image includes another member of the artist's discord who also became frustrated with how long they are having to wait
Due to the nature of this i decided to give them time to sort things out on their end and continue to wait, i waited a week as they would supposedly be working on art and sent another DM, they still did not reply, I then waited until this February to send another message and still no response
still no message from them to as of typing this 2/26/2024
Here is their twitch activity for this month and prior
They seem to be working on art for themselves such as emojis for their twitch discord and personal pieces
it even seems some some of the newer streams are missing
PupJaxces/Marbleshark/Marblemephit messaged me on the 8th of February 2023 saying they like my character and offered a discounted full body commission for $45 (I even tipped them later). I accepted and paid, then patiently waited like I normally do with commissions. After several months of going back and forth and empty promises, them making up stories to get more money from me, and me trying to accommodate them not wanting to do nsfw commissions anymore, I found out from this site that I wasn't the first person they've scammed this way. That's when I realized they never intended on completing my commission and I asked for a refund, which they denied over and over again because they claimed it had already been started (I have yet to receive a single wip.) At this point I completely gave up and decided to go through with the chargeback process, but since it was way past PayPals chargeback cutoff they were unwilling to help me, so I gave up for a while. Since then I've gotten my banks help, and they were kind enough to put the funds back into my account since a chargeback would take even longer.
TLDR: they have scammed me and several others on this site, do not commission them.
I've included all our correspondence in this beware, including the artist acknowledging the payment, be warned it is nsfw in nature.
Who: Holomouse
Where: https://x.com/MouseHolo
When: Apr 1st, 2021 & April 9th 2021
What: 2 digital art commissions
This has dragged on for almost 3 years due to a combination of life happenings, and the fact that I was on my way out of things I had been involved with for almost a decade, and it sat on the back of my mind for a long time because of that.
No WIPS were ever shown to me after multiple claims that they would be done.
Initially this was for a 2 character NSFW MLP commission, but subsequent offers were made that I accepted (regretfully). Much of the details of things are blacked out to maintain my privacy as best I can.
My first commission inquiry was in March 2021, and I initially made contact on Discord to ask if they could provide with quotes so I could get the money to pay them with later:
After that exchange, they provided a quote of $135 for a two fullbody character piece, and I told them that I would get back to them after my next paycheck:
On April 1st 2021, I paid for the first commission:
Proof of payment:
On April 5th, Holomouse messaged me on Discord asking me for $20 and said they would pay me back in a few days. They cited personal matters stressing them out and needing some help. This is unrelated to the art I paid for, but I did end up giving them $20 as a gesture of kindness. This also started the trend of Holomouse coming to me in private begging for handouts and money, and this happened multiple times:
On April 9th 2021, Holomouse messaged me on Discord and begged for money, but this came with the offer of another 2 character art piece at a discounted rate of $110. I accepted this offer and sent the payment to them on CashApp. Told them I would give them the commission prompt after they completed the first commission:
Proof of 2nd payment:
On April 16th, 2021, the first commission had no progress, but I gave them the prompt for the second commission:
April 20th, 2021, Holomouse begged me for another $50, and I declined.
On April 28th, 2021, I poked Holomouse on Discord to try and see if any progress was made on the commissions. They sent back with an excuse:
May 7th 2021, Holomouse came to me and said that they would be starting work on my commissions soon, but also begged for $25 at the same time:
The next day on May 8th, they sent me a big message with a screenshot of a note that mentioned paying me back and other personal matters that they needed to tend to:
Another 20 days pass, and there is no progress to show. Holomouse messages me and begs for money again, and shares an image of their bank account being in the negative as an attempt to manipulate me into sending them money. I declined:
Another week passes, and Holomouse comes to me wanting to reconfirm the details of the commissions. I told them to scrap the details of the 1st commission and that I would give them a new prompt. Also told them to take the prompt of the 2nd commission and work on that one first. I would give them details for the 2nd after the first one was completed:
On June 17th 2021, I poked them and gave them details of the prompt for the commission idea that was scrapped. It took them another 2 weeks to respond to this message:
Now we jump to December 27th 2021. I poke them on Discord for an update and did not get a reply for another week. Things started to get very chaotic after this point, so my attempts at keeping up with this matter become much more delayed going forward:
On February 11th, 2022 I messaged them and asked when they would be able to start working on the commissions. I got a response, but it was another fake out:
Another 3 months passed, and on May 26th 2022 I poked them to try and get an update. This went nowhere:
We get to September 21st 2022 and I poked them yet again. Took them 3 days to respond, and also went nowhere:
More time passes and this sits for months with no updates. On February 12th 2023, Holomouse sends to me and says that they will be starting soon, and also wanted me to reconfirm what I had wanted. Blacked out section was a Discord screenshot of previous exchanges between the two of us:
I changed the prompts for the art I wanted from Holo, and gave them references so they could start working. The references and details of these prompts are blacked out to maintain my privacy:
Several months pass after this, and after confronting them on twitter I was mad because they had taken commissions and completed them several times in the times that I was waiting for the art that I paid them to do. They had deleted Twitter posts of their offerings, and also posts of them begging for money to the public. This is a screenshot of me responding to a deleted post of them offering new commissions to their followers. Note the username that it is a reply to:
I had already contacted their other customers and clients that Holo had completed work for, and also clients that had waited for months for Holo to do art for them. There were several others affected, but this post is about my experience with Holomouse and not theirs. Needless to say, it was a big problem.
After confronting on Twitter, this moved to Discord in private. They try to tell me that they will be starting to work on the art soon, and I was having none of that. This all went down on September 14th 2023. At the same time, I was trying to be merciful and set up a way for them to work with me and make it easier on themselves. They could pay me back partially with some art, pay fully in art, or pay me back fully.
In their replies they mention that they owed back $2000 to other customers...
We set up a payment plan to pay me back $300, and Holo also took an extra step and said they would fulfill the art while paying back the money they owed me:
The next day, I gave them a prompt for art they said they would do as repayment:
3 days later they message and ask for a few clarifying details, and I provide those:
September 23rd 2023, I message them asking if they will be sending the first $50 as a part of the payment plan, and I received an excuse:
I message again after another jump in time, and get a delayed response:
On November 16th 2023, I finally get the first $50 back:
After this, I continue to get ghosted, and so I gave them an ultimatum after discovering from one of their other customers that they refunded them $95. The whole time I was coordinating with other clients of theirs to try and pressure them at the same time as one another, but this did not work out.
Holomouse had already started to pay me back, and then decided to tell me that they are prioritizing other clients money before mine.
I informed them that I would be making a beware post to this site, and they acknowledged this.
As of now, they still owe me back $250, and they have scrubbed their Twitter account of recent examples of begging and some posts of commission offers. There are screenshots of many of these posts, but they have a fuzzy time format so they do not hold much merit.
Holomouse has started to become active again on Twitter and has also started to stream on Twitch.
I still want my money back and it will hopefully make its way back to me eventually.
Holomouse is still likely going to continue to beg for money on Twitter, Twitch, and in private, but I hope this makes it clear how irresponsible and manipulative they are.
On June 15 2020 I commissioned the artist joojoo on furaffinity to draw a single sketch page with 4 nsfw scenes in it and she sent told me that the commission would cost 80£ so I sent her the money.
A week later on June 21 2020 I asked her if it would be possible to add another scene in the sketch which I was willing to pay for but she suddenly sent me a message saying how each of the four scenes in this sketch page commission would cost 80£ per piece. she did not clarify this to me earlier as I thought that the whole commission was 80£.
Than in another message she claimed that I didn’t pay her at all when I did in fact pay her as I have the paypal receipt to proof this and she blocked me furaffinity and she has been ignoring my messages for a refund
I tried to forgot about this as she is a popular furry artist so I felt that the odds were against me but I just couldn’t let go of this issue anymore and at the time I didn’t know that PayPal offered refunds and I was also afraid to go to them for help due to the commission being nsfw
I’m attaching all the photos of the messages that the artist sent me and also proof of payment on PayPal here
I would be very grateful if someone here could help me with this thank you
Note: this is my first time posting here so please let me know if made any mistakes or if I’m missing something
Contacted back in June after seeing them advertising in a discord server I'm in. After paying for the agreed-on commission and getting no updates for over a month, I messaged again for an update. They said they had some other commissions ahead of mine in their queue and said they don't check discord much, so gave me an Instagram and Twitter as other means of contact (could not find the twitter account when I looked for it). Two and a half months later with no communication I messaged again and got no answer. Another month and a half later I tried the Instagram, which matches the discord exactly, and was ignored. Yesterday I tried one last time on discord to ask why I was ignored on Instagram, no answer, but I did notice they had been online because their username has changed (from Catiko to evvisnothere) so they have definitely since logged in and would have seen my notification/message. As well, their Instagram profile has a link to a whatsapp channel where they post updates and work, which was updated as recently as today (at time of writing). Their Instagram profile has also been updated with a new profile picture since my message was sent, meaning they have logged in there and will have seen a notification that I messaged them there.
I paid €30 for this commission and just got ghosted.
