TL;DR Summary:
In July 2022 I commissioned OmaOti/Kaylachi/Oma-Chi for $75. As of September 25th 2023, I still have not heard from her, despite reaching out to her, nor have I received any evidence of my commission being worked on. Screenshots are after the full summary.
Full Situation:
In July 2022 I requested to take an open commission slot for her to draw my OC Andrea, via Twitter DMs. She accepted, and I sent her $75 via Paypal, which is what she was using at the time for payment. Sometime in August she deleted her Twitter. I remember her posting saying it was temporary and for her health, so I was not worried.
In late November, after the initial 1-4 month period had passed, I sent her an email (via Paypal’s ‘contact the merchant’ option), checking in on my commission. I received no response.
By December, I was a bit more concerned, and filed a dispute with Paypal in order to send her a message there. I asked for an update by Christmas and said if I didn’t hear from her by then, or if she’d changed her mind, I’d be fine with a refund, and then I waited. The deadline for the Paypal dispute was nearing, and, because it was the holidays and her Twitter post had said she was ill, and I was naively trusting that I wouldn’t be scammed, I canceled the dispute. (That is entirely on me and a mistake I will not be making again.)
I searched for her on Twitter and Deviantart constantly, waiting for her to be active again. Eventually that slowed down a bit. In July 2023, I checked her Deviantart (link warning: NSFW content) again, and saw that she’d posted mid-May. I left a comment on that post, wishing her well and asking for an update.
A few days later, I sent her a Discord message, again wishing her well, and asking for an update or a refund if she was unable to complete the commission. A few days after that, I sent another message, realizing that since she deleted her Twitter she no longer had the link to the OC I wanted drawn, so I included that, as well as saying again I’d be fine with a refund instead if she needed, and asked her to at least get back to me.
After a couple weeks of waiting, I sent her another message, as I’d seen other comments on her DA and on Twitter about being ghosted by her. I explained that I understood that stuff happens, but I would really like a response and/or a refund, and that if I continued to not receive a response, I would have to make a post about the situation. I gave her some more time, as I really wanted to avoid this scenario.
A few days after that DM, I made a comment on her DA profile letting her know about the DMs in case she just hadn’t seen them pending on Discord. Another few days after that DA comment, I sent her yet another Discord message saying I’d be fine with a refund at this point. The next day, I told her I would be filing a bank chargeback and posting a beware if I didn’t hear back from her within 36 hours. I also tried one last attempt at contacting her: I sent her $1 on her Ko-Fi with a message to contact me.
Which brings us to now. It’s been about a month since that last DM and Ko-Fi message. I did file the chargeback, which I lost, as the transaction was ‘technically’ authorized (which I half-expected, as I’ve worked in the disputes field.) I’m making this beware to hopefully prevent anyone else from losing their money to her.
Outline:
original point of contact.
commission information given here.
payment confirmation on my end.
confirmation on his end stating they got the money.
first update about 6 months later, just wanting to see if there's any
progress, there was not.
next message was actually him contacting me for once, asking for clarification, didn't hear anything after this, this was the last thing i ever got from them.
me sending them a note, asking for progress with the option of refund if no progress has been made, i got no reply.
just once again asking them for a refund, made sure they were aware
how much it was and gave my paypal address as well, which is blurred.
and me trying to contact their twitter about a week ago now, still no update, no contact, nothing.
my fa outbox. he's read all of my messages
Caution: There will be some watersports art. And then gore and mentions of scat. I've censored some of the more sensitive artwork.
It started out as what seemed like some normal commissions but as time goes by with subsequent commissions, the artist could not seem to deliver on the artwork and even after waiting so long, it's becoming increasingly frustrating. I am growing to have trust issues.
Anyways, here goes nothing. Because it'll be long, I've split it into parts and placed under spoilers.
Part 1: The beginning
It started out as some innocent discussion and the artist showing me what can be done. I asked for some watersports artwork involving my sona which the artist only seems too happy to oblige.
Part 2: The Botched Commission
After the first commission is complete, I started discussing about a new snuff artwork that will feature one of my friends' characters. I discussed with my friend and he gave me the a-ok to have his character be the victim.
Part 3: Radio Silence & Ghosting
The second commission didn't quite go well. I thought I would ask for some scat relief artwork.
And to top it all off? I checked the FA profile and there are still artwork being submitted from time to time, even as recent as a few days ago or even several hours ago as of the time of writing so I suspect the artist had been making excuses and ghosting me.
The payments I made for separate commissions. The date of payment should match up with the date timestamp of Telegram messages where I notified of payment. Keep in mind that Boosty is used to pay.
Commission #1: (Status: Complete, submitted to my gallery)
Amount paid: $141.99 CAD | 6126 RUB
Commission #2: (Status: Botched, artwork never revised to my request. Intended to be a sequence, only got one nearly-finished frame that needs colours and revisions.)
Amount paid: $192.01 CAD | 8200 RUB (Intended: $145.18 / 6200 RUB)
Commission #3: (Status: Never finished)
Amount paid: $92.07 CAD | 5000 RUB (+$46.83 / 2000 RUB credit from overpaying commission #2)
The Unfinished Execution Sequence Artwork (Content Warning: Gore/Decapitation + Green Blood)
Just in case if you were wondering what was in animation.gif
At this point, I begin to suspect this "artist" might be a scammer so if this person comes to you asking to commission, please know about my experience.
Addendum:
As per the request, I've attached the notes.
Additional messages on Telegram:
They commissioned me a piece with 2 characters, NSFW edit plus quite a complex BG. I’ve lost original description at this point, but they were completely fine with my initial sketch as you can see here. Price wasn’t an issue either.
Instead all I got is 3 payments, ~50 usd each.
Then they proceeded to tell me that they had “issues with payment”, which I suspect to be completely made up as no other customer since then had them. Also they were able to pay it partially, so they obviously had no problems. My bad for being naive and working without properly committing to the part where I have to get full prepayment after the sketch, but that’s just how I used to roll with it.
And then I decided to reach out to Boosty staff. They said I had absolutely no issues on my side and…
When I said I’m putting it on a hold till they fix it, they just blocked me. Everywhere. Without ANY explanation. They also don’t answer my Emails
So far I’m simply blocked by them on all platforms. And I’ve seen their character being drawn by other artists so… They just took advantage of me and left.
Small notes:
I slightly cropped out DMs due to them being just filled with Troubleshooting Boosty, I can send full convo, but it’s just bloated with useless for the case information. Also, I got to the colouring stage when they blocked me, I sincerely want to attach the file, but site freaks out. It’s kinda irrelevant anyways.
Also, I accept payments via Boosty and have a no-refund policy not because I want to, but due to me being simply having literally no other choice. I always make sure Customers are getting what they deserve, don’t wait for years and are fully informed about all these factors.
I sent off a request for a YCH April 3rd. On the same day MarbleSoda replied and accepted it. They did caution me there was a queue, but I was fine with this.
The very next day they sent me the invoice.
I paid and they confirmed receipt.
Two months later, at the end of May, I inquired for an update. I received no response.
Another month later, at the end of July, I again inquired for an update. This time I also emailed them using the same email I sent my reference to. I received no response.
Furaffinity shows an unopened letter picture for notes that have not yet been read by the recipient. IE a read receipt. Here there is no unopened letter picture. This indicates the artist is reading my notes, but not responding.
The artist is clearly still accepting YCHs and commissions given their recent post on FA.
It has been 4 months since I've heard anything from the artist and I doubt I'm going to get my commission. Now I want to warn others that they should not commission this artist.
Bought a slot on their YCH here as the user Beat: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49968071/ [NSFW LINK]
Was told to write them on Discord, which i then did. They already didnt answer for a few days until I gave them a nudge.
And after that she basically stopped responding to anything. (On the point where in discord I say "you told me to ping you again, read the convo screenshots from my FA PMs, i used that to get her to answer)
They never sent me any updates or posted them to her accounts, only a few apologies to her FA journals with no answers about status of comms. She is still posting YCHs with payment over Boosty, so no way to refund if this happens.
I should start this by making it very clear this is intended as a caution, not a true beware. Throughout my interactions with Solantic.z, they have been very polite with me, but after roughly five months I have yet to have recieved my completed commission from them.
On 02/08/2023, I reached out to the artist in question about a commission (two flat colored headshots).
The agreed upon amount to pay was $24 USD, I sent $30 USD, with the extra $6 USD being intended as a 25% tip seeing as I was feeling generous, and hoped it would provide incentive to finish my commission relatively quick.
Attached is a receipt of my PayPal statement from the transaction. I censored anything I believed to be personal.
I contacted the artist several times after this requesting updates on the commission, and was given a run-around and no progress updates.
After about two months, I was given an update with some of the coloring done on my snow leopard. They had base colors down, but had yet to begin with any of the spots or markings.
The artist informed me that they had a medical emergency that prevented them from working on my commission (which was understandable, and I wished them a speedy recovery). I have censored the nature of the medical emergency, seeing as medical history is often seen as a very personal thing, and I don't want to reveal anything personal to the public without the artist's permission.
Shortly after their medical emergency, I noticed that the artist had advertised opening a new commission slot in a public Discord server we both share (Canadian Furs), which led me to believe my commission was close to being finished.
When I asked about it the morning after, the artist let me know my commission was coming along nicely and should be finished within the next couple of days.
I'm not an artist myself, but I have a bunch of friends who are, so I know that finances can be quite a concern, and tried to communicate that I was concerned about my commission but that I understood that their mental health (and physical health) had to come first.
We had a quick chat about some personal things (which I won't disclose here). They said they'd give me a progress update in an hour or so if they were still awake. There were a couple of quick affirmations that I had not been forgotten and that my commission was being actively worked on, but no further progress reports or proof of progress.
It sounded like something may have happened in their personal life again, making them unable to work on my commission.
Today (07/11/2023 @ 1:24 PM Mountain Time), I reached out again saying it had been almost five months since the start of my commission.
At this point I had begun to grow irritated, seeing as it had been almost five months for a commission they had said should take less than a week. After a discussion with a friend in the Canadian Furs Discord server, one of the moderators informed me that she had commissioned this artist as well, and had yet to receive their commission.
A few minutes later the owner of the server put out a ping letting the members know the artist has been failing to deliver on their commissions.
Almost immediately after the server owner put out the ping, Solantic.z messaged me asking if I had reported them. While I had idly complained about my commission taking so long, I was not the one that brought it up to the owner, nor did I ask for any action on their part. While I was annoyed, I didn't want to cause trouble, and was mostly content to sit and wait.
As of 7/17/2023, I informed the artist I was imposing a hard deadline, and would like my commission finished within roughly two weeks or I would like my money returned. However, the artist does have a note in their username and bio saying their WiFi is currently down, so hopefully that will be resolved before the deadline. If it is not, I'll see what I can work out with them, but seeing as it's been almost six months my patience is beginning to wear thin.
In conclusion, while the artist has been polite, after being given the runaround for almost six months with little to no actual progress shown, I feel as though I've more or less wasted $30 USD on two pieces of art that will never be produced. I can't comment on whether or not the artist is genuine in their reasoning for being unable to complete the commission in a timely manner, but either way I find it similar to any other skilled trade. Clear communication about delays adds leeway, but when a couple weeks stretches into roughly six months, I am no longer a happy customer.
I think it would be best for anyone attempting to commission Solantic.z to give them a couple months for their life situation to hopefully settle down a little if you're hoping for a timely return for your money.
On Feb 26th, 2019 I submitted an application to OFA (Onefurall) for a full suit of my character.
I got a response a few days later (Feb 28th, 2019) stating the ETA (24+ months or 2 years) and approval for the slot.
I paid the deposit and was placed in the queue
As time went on, I reached out about changing my character, questions about the queue, and making more payments towards the suit. I gave another payment of $500 in this timeframe as well.
After some scattered back and forth over the months, I started getting curious about the inability to get a solid answer about the queue or the fact that there is no public queue in the first place. Email response from OFA was starting to take much more time as well.
The response I was given did not address the queue length or an updated timeframe for my project.
There was still time before my position in the queue. However, my concern and curiosity were sparked even harder by finding old beware posts on this maker. At this time, the correspondence manager on telegram was stepping down and being replaced by a new one. I was also given a new second ETA (Dec 2022) since my first one was past due.
I reached out to the new manager, Cowenn, and communication continued in telegram.
In April, my friend (Who had also commissioned OFA) transferred full ownership of her slot to me. I had high hopes for OFA and took ownership of the slot and her part of the payment ($1702.50).
After a few months of slow response from OFA, my friend's slot was rolled onto mine for one character.
The official email I made for this change. The rollover of the slot was confirmed by Onefurall ($1702.50 added to my $2225) from my friend giving her partially paid slot to me.
At this point in time, the total spent for the project is $3,927.50 and the first ETA for the suit (March of 2021) had been passed by 19 months. The second ETA for Dec 2022 was coming up soon. The communication was lacking at best and I was not being given updated information about the project or where it sat. After attempting to reach out in December I am finally able to get a response.
I submitted my measurements and waited, thinking that my project must be ready to start by now. Months pass with no response, so I have to reach out via email to the studio to get contact. (Some information is covered to protect sensitive personal information)
Communication stops again.
The response does not have a timeframe or any solid assurance that the suit is ready to start. At this point I am disappointed and my trust in the company has dropped to near zero. The bewares I had read in the past all reflected the same behavior from this company and I no longer wish to do business with OFA. I contacted them for a full refund for the two slots that I have full ownership over.
I have sent two more emails (see below) stating my intentions and I had hoped to quietly part ways with them. To the day of writing this beware (6/15/2023) OFA has not been in contact about the refund, and I feel like making this beware is well warranted. I will keep this updated as time goes on.
I would like OFA to make this right by giving me a full refund ($3927.50, the total of both slots rolled into one that I have ownership of) or the full refund minus the cost of the furs purchased for the project plus shipping and sending the purchased furs to me.
I originally reached out to Kilwinz through Telegram in July 2022, for a quote on a custom Kigumari commission, that they were advertising for on a Telegram group chat. I gave them my fursona's ref sheet, and they responded with a quote of $370, including $20 for a floor dragger tail, which I agreed to. I saved up for this commission during the next few months, and then in early October 2022, I reached out again, ready to start the process. I had enough saved up to pay in full, which I did. I asked for a deadline- December 10th, which is my birthday- and since they had stated prior that their queue was one and a half months-two months long, I figured it would be a tight squeeze. However, they agreed to fit me in, and that they would "try my best" to get it done on time.
At first, the correspondence, which occurred solely through Telegram, was clear and steady. They asked me for measurements and they shopped for fabrics, asking me for my preferences in color matching- which was very appreciated- and started patterning. Around mid-November, almost all correspondence had to be initiated by me. I sold them a pin of my fursona- the character they were making a kigu of- and they finished patterning for the floor dragger tail. It was becoming clear that the original deadline was not going to be met.
On December 9th, 2022, I received a set of photos from Kilwinz of them modeling the kigu for me. They stated that it needed to be washed, the tail would be stitched onto the back, and it would be shipped out the next day- the deadline. Even if I didn't receive it for my birthday, it would be something I could wear for Christmas. I was planning on wearing it to Motor City Fur Con in March 2023.
All communication with Kilwinz ceased after December 9th. The kigu was never sent out, they never replied to me on Telegram. I tried messaging them on Telegram, Twitter, Tiktok, and Discord (the discord message has been wiped) throughout the past 6 months, to be met with silence.
It is now past the window for PayPal to issue a refund for this commission.
As of June 7, 2023, I have not received my completed commission, a refund, or any response from Kilwinz. I sent out an email on June 7, voicing my frustrations towards this experience and the lack of communication. I will let the mods know if this issue has any updates or is resolved.
Twitter:
TikTok:
Email:
I need to say that we worked with Chloe Wintermane before (you can see payment history) so they were a trusted person (as I thought). I have a strict ToS, but even with it there is a human factor.
♦ June 19 2022 - Chloe wrote me about the idea of 5 page comic. It was a huge project including Chloe Wintermane and their friend Jacki Northstar + three YCH slots. There were a lot of art and price discussions, creating sketches
and then in August 8 all YCH preparations were finished and in August 10 I uploaded YCH to my gallery on FA: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48501288/
♦ August 18 2022 - auction was ended. Everyone paid for their slots, Jacki too but later. Chloe owed me $450.
♦ August 19 2022 - ChloeWintermane said that they "would love to pay a half now and the other part next month", well okay!
♦ September 5 2022 - I wrote them first since I started to worry. Chloe said they lost their job and promised to find a job and pay as soon as possible.
This project is a huge one and included too mane people so I decided to start working on it.
♦ September 17 2022 - I sent Chloe final WIPs with flat colors and didn't receive any answer. But I decided to continue and finish the comic no matter what because I felt responsible for 4 other people.
♦ September 30 2022 - 5 page comic is finished. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49321560/
The same day Chloe wrote me that they have a new job. What a good news!
♦ November 16 2022 - Chloe sent me $150. Another $300 remains to be paid.
From that time, silence or ignoring, sometimes accompanied by empty promises, began.
I don't think there is any chance that this person will pay for my work.
On April 25 2023, I wrote them a message and a final warning. You can guess that I was not paid anything. You may rightly point out that it was my own fault and should have waited for full payment, but on the other hand 4 other people paid for everything and I was trapped. If I hadn't finished the comic by today, it would be a reputational blow to ME.
It is very painful and disappointing.
