I have to warn about Aspenbear on Furaffinity. I ordered a commission from him at https://www.furaffinity.net/view/24462662/#cid:123052165 on Sep 24th 2017.
After a whole year of waiting, I asked for a refund, unless he wants to still do the commission. He then said that due to personal issues he's unable to keep up with the queue and wants to refund those still waiting for their commission, including me.
On March 8th 2019 he asked me to comment under the original Bronze Artist post. Sadly he deleted all the correspondence through comments on FA at some point.
On March 14th, after inquiring about the refund status, he informed me that he's working his way down his lists and would note me when the money has been sent.
On March 28th, he told me to check his journal entries, as he has refunded over $2000 in the past month and still working down his list.
On March 6th 2020, AspenBear left a shout on his FA saying that he hasn't abandoned anything and is trying to sort his life out. On April 30th 2020, I left a comment in his profile asking about the status of my refund. AspenBear deleted that comment, along with every other comment on his profile. On May 1st, he left a comment on my FurAffinity profile, telling me to once again send him my PayPal email. I did that. On May 2nd, I left a shout on his FA asking for the refund once again. To this day (May 3rd), that message with my PayPal is still unread.
Despite being completely overwhelmed with his current commission queue, and still owing many pictures, he still takes on more and more work. Which makes me worried that all those new commissions will have to go through the same problems I, and many others, did. Thus, this Artist.Beware Caution.
Lauras collab partner was TheScarletArtist ( https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thescarletartist ) also mentioned as Martina or Martina Da Bologna in those Telegram chat logs.
The commissioners were me ( Akio / https://www.furaffinity.net/user/akiomai/ ) and Etskuni ( https://www.furaffinity.net/user/etskuni ). I was the one paying for it full. Etskuni didnt have to pay. It was a gift from me for her.
It all started with this collab auction: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/27653060/
I was happy to be able get art from those two and I didnt think anything could go wrong.
I got art from Scarlet several times and she delivered fast as usual.
First it was all fine with Laura. Some stuff happening. No problem at all. Communication was good at this point.
So far stuff happening again is fine: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9037614/
But we expected to hear something sooner or later. So 3 months went by and I contacted Laura via email.
After that I talked with Etskuni and Scarlet what to do.
So this was cleared and we waited.
Meanwhile more stuff happening: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9253557/
And time flew by and nothing happened.
So, I didnt expect her to offer a refund and I would have been fine knowing there wont be one. This would have finally put an end to this story..... but she said she would...
So I waited and meanwhile in december she did another journal: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9350647/
In march nothing happened. No email from her nor money so I ended up writing her an email at end of march.
Now 1 month later still no answer.
I know the current situation with corona and she is probably struggling with life. I just wish she would have been more honest.
Whether she still refunds me is up to her. I see this as the end of the story.
Disclaimer: the screenshots I have are the best I can get from discord chats where I talked with others about the commission months ago. Commissioner blocked me (see attachment 1) immediately after my saying I wasn't content with my commission compared to others they've done, thus I cannot get any other screenshots than those I have here.
--
Proper:
Our first contact about the commission was right after they posted they were open for commissions and (of I remember right) in need of help financially. I had talked with them previously, as they made a nice little $10 pinup of my lizard boy (Attachment 2), and I even made them a little art as thanks in return. They seemed nice, so why not help them out and see what they can do for a full piece?
April 7th, I paid the $140 (attachment 3) for a full shaded piece with a background and showed them all my references for my Y/veltal and U/mbreon characters performing missionary position and its supposed to be romantic. I will note that shaded characters is worth more than background (attachment 4), and the background ended up being the subject in the end piece.
After the start of our commission, they seemed to go pretty fast! They got me the first sketch within 3 days, which came in the form of just a fully lined "background". (attachment 5) Took me off-guard because that never happens, getting the background (lined) before even seeing a sketch of any sort, especially the subjects. Thought maybe the subjects would go on the couch or floor or something (since I didn't specify where, which was in retrospect may have been my first mistake, and they wouldn't tell me what they were about to do). I figured I would wait it out and see what they do.
Waited quite a while, a month went by, another month...I was beginning to wonder, so I asked if there was any progress. Each time I asked, they simply answered "no progress". Meanwhile on Twitter I had noticed them saying they were too depressed to work or some such thing, then it turned to them being in art school all of a sudden. And whenever they were in the mood, they'd spit out about 5 pinup commissions at a given time. By the time I even got an update (which I will touch on in a moment), there had to have been about 30 to 40 commissions finished by them. That is not an exaggeration. I confronted them about it and after a few times of trying, they did indeed confirm that they took many MANY commissions at once, and it's been piling up ever since. And yet they are still asking for commissions and taking over a year to finish what I assume to be most of them.
Moving on, the first update I got since the lined background was on February 11th, 2020 (attachment 6) I voiced my concern that the subjects weren't in the foreground and were instead in the background (attachment 7) while also trying to be nice because they were supposedly my friend, and the fact they'd been going through a lot (allegedly). Their only response was "this is what it looks like zoomed in" (attachment 8 ) which is a big yikes because, not only was it low res if you did zoom in, but it's also the fact it's not the focus, is a big no-no. I voiced my concerns again, and she left me on read.
February 13th, another update. They only showed that they had colored and shaded the "background" which I thought looked pretty dang good, all things considered. (attachment 9) But no sign of whether Chio decided to move the characters anywhere else. Figured I would wait and see.
Fast forward to APRIL 15TH with no prior WIPs, the characters were lined and flat colored already. I was so done and tired at this point and just wanted it done that I just couldn't bear to say anything. Other than just shade them, because obviously there was nothing I could do at this point. They had already got it set in stone without my permission. (attachment 10)
Their reaction to "shading" the characters? (like I had bloody paid for) They darken the room. (attachment 11)
So I figure, well, if you're going to do that, maybe can shade it nice with some glow effects from the U/mbreon that bounce off the Y/veltal and the walls and all?
No. All that happens is that they add a glow around the markings. (attachment 12) Nothing spectacular. I paid full price for this. And the BACKGROUND is the FOREGROUND, and the characters aren't even shaded.
Full piece: (attachment 13)
Friend asking if full piece is a wip: (attachment 14)
Proof of talking with my friends about this even early on when I found out it was in the background: (attachment 15)
Other examples of art released at the same time that is better: (attachment 16)
I'm sorry, but that is a failure to do what you have to do. Failure to communicate and make sure. Failure to get things done. Failure on the level of taking on way too many commissions and getting none done for an eternity. And then screwing up a full piece, which should be considered having /more/ care and effort put into it than your average pinup.
Tl;dr
-Takes too many commissions, and thus takes over a year to do your art
-Not good at communication on commissions to make sure its what the commissioner wants
-Overly sensitive if you say anything negative at all
There were no WIPs before this.
I commissioned Jollymount (goes by Doctor Ellios here) through Discord to get a two character commission, there was a previous commission idea in mind that was still a two-character, coloured piece but I changed my mind and made it an SFW piece instead with the wrestling characters Hex and Sheda mentioned below. The pieces were to be inked and coloured way back on February 24th 2019.
The first time I contacted him was March 14th for a status update. He claims I was third on the cue then and talks about how hectic of a month he's had. By the time April 30th rolls around I contacted him again after another bout of silence, messaging him about changing my idea but he surprised me with some work done here:
^^^ There's another month of silence and I don't hear from him until May26, where he claims ge was sick and couldn't continue with the commission until he was feeling better. Which I understood and waited patiently once more until he was back on his feet.
August 19th, I check up on him and he seems to have recovered. Keep in mind that inbetween these updates, he's putting out streams of him working on other projects and little commission work. At this point I'm getting frustrated after five months and hardly anything to show apart from unfinished rough sketch.
He eventually contacts me this time when November 18th rolls around and butters me up with offerings of free sketches for taking too long with my commission. This is eight months in now. Foolishly, I accepted this thinking he was eventually going to finish the commission. I was going to drop the idea of other pictures because I figured if he wasn't going to finish the actual commission then how could I expect anything more?
January 4th, 2020 -- a brand new year and once again, nothing. I inquire about where I stand on the queue and in his own words, he tells me I'm "right at the beginning". He contacts me with a progress pic on Jan 26 that has been unpinned for a spell. He barely finished the lineart for it and I don't hear from him again until April 8th.
From April 8th and on, he ignores my messages much like he did before. Keep in mind that each time I inquired about the commission, a month had passed and he had a new excuse each and every time. From hectic weeks, to sickness to computer trouble and I gave him the benefit of the doubt on all of them.
On April 16th, 2020 I am fed up. I send him a message so we can talk it out. When he finally responds, I issue him an ultimatum to have it finished by April 25th or he will have to refund me the money. You can guess what happens next.
It's April 26th now. No progress, no answer. I don't know if he will refund me the money. I'm asking for a partial one because despite leaving me waiting for nearly A YEAR AND A HALF for a very simple commission, he still did some. That being said I doubt I'll see a cent of it. So to anyone looking to commission this guy for anything: keep in mind that he doesn't care for your time and will make up any excuse as long as he can get away with it.
I was looking around for a new fursuit bodysuit to order, since I was heavily dissatisfied with my current fursuit quality. A friend of mine recommended that I went to Sugar 'n Spice, since CorpseCat (the maker) was hosting a tax return sale, and was offering a bodysuit (only) for $950. I sent her a message, and this is how it started off.
I sent her a full down-payment, the DTD, and even the fur colors that match the rest of my fursuit, all the next day. I sent her a reference, as well as a very length description. She said that she totally understood, so I assumed that this was going to be a good commission.
I asked when the bodysuit was going to be done, and she said that it was going to be done around MFF of 2019 or sooner. She promised that progress photos were going to be included.
I asked for my fur samples back that I sent her (so that I could send them off to another maker that was going to make my new fursuit head). I gave her my address but she never sent them back.
On 8/31/2019, she said that she was almost done with the bodysuit. She never sent a single progress photo. She is also claiming that the fur colors are not exact to the ones that I sent her, but they are incredibly close...
Lots of nudging later, still nothing. She claimed that her boyfriend has been in the hospital, and sent a picture (cropped out the picture for privacy). She has made plenty, plenty, plenty of excuses in the past about her health in the past (you can find them in almost any beware about her).
1-2 months before the deadline, and I asked her yet again if the bodysuit was on-track to being completed on-time. Her responses are predictable:
Lots and lots and lots of asking to try and get ANY kind of photos from her. She brings up another health excuse with herself (which, as fake as it seems, I'm still censoring it for privacy reasons). At the bottom of the next screenshot is when the bodysuit is supposed to be done. No photos were sent.
She brought up that the bodysuit wasn't going to work with my current fursuit paws and feet. She offered to make me free paws and feet, at the expense of delaying the TAT more. I asked later how long that it would be delayed, and she said that it could take another month. I was fine with that, but I asked for progress photos again while I had her attention. Guess what? Another medical excuse.
I eventually lost it at this point. About a month later, I still received ZERO photos and ZERO updates about the suit being made. I looked at her WIP Telegram channel, and I didn't see any photos of my suit being in there. I called her out in this next screenshot, and this is when I began to lose it. She said that she was going to send photos, but once again, nothing. At the bottom, when I said that I was going to start taking action, that's when I decided to write a script for the YouTube video (at the top of the post) that was going to call her out and her poor business practices:
I asked for her response one last time before making a video about her. She said that it's prepared to get shipped out, but has NEVER sent me a single progress photo:
She finally sends photos on February 11th. She admitted that she ignored my reference in order to make the hip markings look more visible. I corrected her, and she said that she was going to fix it. I resent her the reference to show her how the hip markings are supposed to look: They are three fingernail-looking markings that are on each side of the waist. She made the markings go completely around the back.
I asked how long that it was going to take to get the markings fixed. She said Friday (so three days at the time) until they were going to be fixed. I asked her for photos before she sends them out, and she said that she was going to send them when she gets to her office. Nothing happened. I asked again, she brings up another fake health excuse.
She later sent me an image of the hip markings without any changes, and she said that she was confused about what was wrong about it. She waited over a month before telling me this, even though she said that she knew what she had to do, and that she was going to take three days to fix it:
In this next screenshot, this was the time where I finally uploaded the video that I warned her about. I was going to give her a last chance before posting it. This is the last time that I've heard from her. I'm assuming it's because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but either way, her Telegram said that she hasn't been online within a week. She promised that she was going to send it out, and I never gave her my address until I saw the final product:
This is the last that I have heard from her. I got into contact with PayPal, and they said that it's been past 180 days, and they cannot do anything about this situation. I paid CorpseCat through a bank account that I closed in the past. I got in-contact with this bank yesterday (4/21/2020), and they said that they can't do anything about the transaction because my account has been closed for so long. I am $950 poorer with nothing to show for it. I attempted contact with her multiple times, and nothing has been happening since then. When I created this thread, it showed that she was seen last within a week. Since I updated these new screenshots, it now shows that she's been seen recently. Meaning that she has been online but hasn't read my messages. I warn/advise everyone to stay away from this maker. There are four bewares about her on the first page of Google when you type "sugar n spice fursuits". This fursuit maker is unbelievably toxic, and I do not want anyone to order from her, either. It was partially my fault for not doing my research before ordering from her, so therefore, I want to make sure that nobody else does the same. DO NOT ORDER FROM SUGAR 'N SPICE!
-- This is my first post here and I really don't want to be writing this. So sorry if some details are fuzzy or if this post is messy.
Paypal are attached. $80 to start, added $20 more later.
So in 2018 I was looking for Telegram stickers to be done in-stream. I posted over on Facebook to find Almighty. They responded
-- Which I instantly sent details over FA.
-- They didn't work very long on my commission, only maybe, 30 minutes. Which was fine! I didn't have a problem with that at all. I think I contact them a day later about my commission --
-- But as you can see, they didn't really update me here at all. --
-- So opted for Discord!
At this point I was getting really on edge, they post a lot on Facebook. Even about commissions. And I saw progress once on stream.
Here are shots of all my conversation with her on Discord. I left out some of the bottom half for my privacy. She claims she had no internet despite being very active on Facebook. I dunno, it seems weird to me. (I could be wrong.)
And here's the last message I've sent her. No response.
Product was listed by seller in multiple "dealers den" chatrooms on the app Telegram. The product is a fursuit/costume head base made of upholstery foam primarily. I was interested in the product and contacted the seller with inquiries. I asked them "can you tell me more about it?" [image 1], and was only told the price, location of product for shipping costs, permissions with the product, and other materials provided.
This product was to be purchased from the seller, I would fix it up and make it into a character, and resell it once the product is completed. This was understood by the seller, as we had discussions about my permissions with the base and the character it was to be made into.
Upon arrival, the product was not only crammed into a box that was too small [image 2; showing the size of the product and the box itself], but it also reeked of cigarette smoke. Upon confrontation, the seller confirmed that their mother smokes in the house [image 3]. I cannot clean or sell a product that has been this exposed to cigarette smoke- it is a hazard. There was an attempt to clean it before I contacted the seller with my complaint, which included drier sheets on the interior, and spray cleaner on the exterior. Nothing seemed to help.
Seller also explained that they can only "do 20% nonrefundable on any refund"/"u will only get an 80% refund," but this was not provided in a Terms of Service beforehand (on Telegram or Paypal) and was not discussed whatsoever. I did not feel comfortable following through with this offer, since it was given once I brought up a refund, and it is even less than what it originally sold for.
During our conversation, I also discovered that the seller is using a Paypal account that is not in her name [image 4].
I am providing buyer with a tracking number for the returned product.
As of April 22nd, Jaime claims to have re-sold the fursuit head base that is not even in her possession yet[images 5 & 6] (not until an expected April 25th). Jaime managed to advertise that it comes from a smoke-friendly home [image 7], HOWEVER, Jaime refuses to do so in other ads [image 8]. Overall, extremely unprofessional, rude, and does not seem to care about the safety of their customers.
Original ad:
My friend inquiring about it, and then forwarding it to me:
Zeska Roo/Daze Otterson had made a post on his account saying he needed money, so he discounted his fursuit prices (post was deleted, so I do not have a screenshot of that).
I was wanting some indoor paws because I really enjoy the aesthetics of them. I commented on the post and we took it to PMs.
Here we are hashing out details of what I wanted.
He states that they don't do invoices. It off set me since I just comissioned someone who did do invoices, but I know each artist is different, so I didn't pay any attention to it.
Proof of payment
I ask if he has a queue of any sort, he claims he is working on a trello. After a month and some days, he gives me a -sorta- deadline, so I don't bother him for a while.
November 6th, he asks if anyone is wanting to get a fursuit.
I contact him on November 26th, I message and get no reply or even left on read, so I ask for a refund. He sends his friend [redacted] to speak to me (screenshots ahead has his face blocked out because he's not guilty in this and I feel uncomfortable with having his face in this)
So I go to telegram to talk to Zeska/Daze (last 4 of number is blocked out)
He has posted again on FB saying he's no longer on post block as seen in the screenshot below (but I didn't see it till some days after since I had unfollowed him)
So after radio silence, I messaged on Telegram (seen in screenshot 9) and after a little more silence, I messaged on Facebook (screenshot 6)
Here, he is seen still posting on Facebook after my message on Telegram.
And here he is seen still posting after my message on FB.
I have since forced a refund as seen in the screenshot below. I don't know if others have had this issue, so that is why this is under Artist Caution.
Back on June 27, 2019 I commissioned Nakooma for a predesigned fursuit head, the cost of the head was $200 and the extra $5 was for any Paypal fees (later on I gifted them $20 due to them saying in a post on their profile that they really needed it after someone forced a refund, I dont really care about the $20 they can keep it). From June to October I was given excuse after excuse as to why there were delays. Last I received any messages back from them was October 17, 2019 where they had promised progress pictures, which I never was sent.
Since November 20, 2019 to now I have messaged them with no answer, during this time I know they were talking with ppl on their Furry amino (which is now deleted) and had completed a couple commissions that were started after taking mine.
Nakooma said they started working on the fursuit head but I'm not sure if this is true due to no progress pictures ever being sent.
Neither my bank or Paypal can help me due to me taking to long to getting around to the issue and only suggestion I got were to "directly contact merchant for a refund", I had life stuff going on that distracted me from getting to this sooner though I wish I could get my money back it's much more important to warn ppl to stay away.
Nakooma supposedly had life stuff going on back before June through November (last I heard) from what they told me but if there was too much going on they should've just declined the commission instead of taking mine to then complete other commissions and then completely ghost me.
By now I have already left the DM I was in with them guessing that they'll never respond or they would never give my money back even if they did see my messages. I just wanna put this all behind me but make others aware.
Last year at the end of March, my friend and I decided to get a commission from xBlueAshesx. I commissioned her before and had some problems with her, however, I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and give her a second chance. I commissioned a 2 character NSFW lined illustration. xBlueAshesx and I discussed the details on March 28th, 2019 and I paid on the same day. About a month went by before I asked her for an update. She claimed that my piece was on her queue for that week and I should expect an update soon, however, I never received one. I messaged her again on July 8th, 2019 and asked for another update, but she never responded despite reading the note. Finally, on July 30th, 2019, I asked for a refund. Her TOS states that the art can take up to 15 weeks to be completed, it had been 17 weeks before I asked for the refund. She finally responded to me and agreed to the refund. She's still very active on FA. She usually posts 1-2 times a week, however, I have a hard time getting her to respond to me. She only responds to me when I talk about doing a chargeback.
Sorry for the length. This has been going on for a long time and I wanted to include as much as I could as proof of her poor communication skills and lack of professionalism. TLDR at the end.
Payment:
Agreeing to take the commission:
My response and payment information. Beginning of email included as proof of payment:
Confirmation that the payment was received:
My first update request:
My second update request a few months later. The note was read but she never responded. I can tell that the note was read because there would be a yellow envelope icon next to the note subject if it was unread (Legend included in the screenshot as proof. An example of an unread note will be included at the end of this beware):
Here she's agreeing to the refund:
I messaged her again about the refund after she posted a journal about having enough money to give refunds. The journal she posted about the refunds has been deleted. She never responded:
I asked for an update on the refund earlier this year. Again, she never responded:
At this point, I had gotten tired of not receiving a response so I tried to set a deadline for the refund. 7 months had gone by but I still hadn't received the refund nor an update. Her TOS state that the refund could take up to 6 months. She never responded:
She finally responded when I talked about doing a chargeback. As previously stated, she didn't respond to any of my other notes:
My response to that:
She didn't respond again. So I messaged her again. She was active on both March 2nd and 3rd:
She didn't respond until March 4th when I told her that I could see that she was reading my notes. Along with mentioning taking my money back:
I sent her my email and amount. I can include that message if needed. She never sent the refund so I messaged her again. "Bruh" was not an appropriate answer to a commissioner who's been waiting for a refund for 8 months:
I waited another month before messaging her again in hopes that she'd send the refund. I messaged her 2 days ago, but she hasn't bothered opening the message, despite being active and posting art to her gallery. You can see the yellow envelope, showing that she hasn't read it:
Proof that she was active yesterday. She posted several things on the 21st:
The part of her TOS that talks about refunds and TAT (turn around time):
TLDR; Long story short, this has been going on for over a year. She's still very active, but refuses to give me my money back.
Again, i'm sorry this is so long, but i'm so tired of this. I honestly don't thing i'll ever get a refund. I hope you're all safe during this crazy time! Thank you for reading. Let me know if I should add anything else or if there's anything I can do 😞
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