Note:: I am both Paintdog and Drawindonkey. I switched names roughly a year ago.
I originally found them on a game called Furcadia as user Cou though I've moved PCs since then thus do not have logs of that in particular. We discussed a commission involving a sketch page of my character. Discussion went well, info was sent, I paid, done and done.
Four months pass with no word from them, despite regularly checking on Furcadia for response - I then finally checked FurAffinity and sent a message, getting this response (2). Admittedly I cannot prove it, but they never actually contacted me on Furcadia.
Four months later, I messaged them again, asking for a refund (3), which they promised they were working on gathering the funds for.
One month later (4), I messaged them again, asking status. More excuses. I was told of 'initial sketches' being done, I was never actually given these. This is the last time I got a direct response from them.
Six months later (5), they posted a public journal asking anyone they owe something to to message them. I posted reminding them of the fact that they owe me 95.00$ from a commission that never got completed.
The shouts have been deleted since then by [removed] who is their significant other, but after a long period of time had passed ( roughly a year and a half ), I noticed Cou had favorited something quite recently in their gallery, so I posted a shout on their page asking anyone who knew of the whereabouts of this artist to send me a note if they know how I can get in contact. Three people contacted me. They aren't relevant to this case but apparently have similar experiences. I won't be disclosing their names, but one of them recommended me check with [removed], who again is Cou's significant other.
So, I messaged [removed] (6) who replied very quickly but then ceased replying as soon as I mentioned Cou refusing to respond to me. (7)
Again, all shouts were deleted, but after not getting a response, I posted a shout on both Cou and their partner's pages warning about Cou and that perhaps [removed] is in league with their theft. I was then blocked on both accounts ( [Removed] apparently has access to Cou's account themself ).
Afterwards, and the reason I'm kinda-sorta including [removed] in this beware, they added a disclaimer on their profile page (8) not to contact them about Cou. Though I think I'm not the only one who had done so. The line "They are no longer doing art at this time. Respect their decision as I have." is the main reason I include this. [Removed] does not seem too bothered that Cou has actively stolen from myself and others.
From one of my aforementioned sources, I was referred to their instagram page. I made a new account to try messaging them there (9) but they've shown no signs of activity so it might just be something they don't check often, if I'm giving them benefit of the doubt.
I was then referred to their facebook (10) where I sent more messages -
They are much more active on facebook than instagram or furaffinity judging by what I could see on their public profile, and in fact reblogged someone else's post a couple days after I send those messages. (11)
Cou has wronged not just me, but others who I hope will also post bewares, as Cou is not a first time offender. They've been known to change alias in the past to hide from customers as well ( this didn't happen with me except I do notice the spelling of their name is different from the paypal address from four years ago, and their facebook name today ). Beware. Do not commission this artist. You will get excuse after excuse about why they cannot work on your product or refund you, and then you'll get nothing at all, not even a response.
As for the "What": Several month's worth of physical Patreon rewards. I marked the "When" as when she stopped providing what I was paying for.
As I recall, the Con*Tact company is run by two people, but Maly is the most particularly active/public and does a lot of sales under the name, as well as tie her Patreon to the company, so I felt that was relevant to connect.
I had been supporting Maly's Patreon since October 2017 under the most basic receive physical reward tier.
For the next few years, she posted updates and sent out rewards just fine -- she was super kind, she always replied to messages, and I had no issues. It wasn't until months ago she stopped posting updates, as well as sending out the promised rewards.
(Notice the most "recent" update was from June, 10th 2019.)
I had gotten so used to getting the packages in the mail without an issue that I didn't really notice I wasn't getting them, but checking my records confirms that the last reward she'd ever sent me was in April of last year.
Yet the whole time, she continued to charge for rewards, as if everything was carrying on normally.
(Whenever Maly would mail out Patreon rewards, she'd send out a Paypal email like any of her normal Con*Tact orders including the tracking, my last one was from April, 3rd 2019.)
Upon realizing this, I tried to send her a Patreon message to ask about it, which was met with no response. I checked her twitter, noticing she was frequently active on it, and tried to DM her. The first message was ignored, but the second time, I got a response. She herself confirms she had not been sending out rewards, and promised to send out large packages to make up for everything she's missed. I'm a fairly understanding and patient person, and I'm happy she finally addresses the issue and promise to try to better things. I give her time, and wait it out to see if I get anything.
Time passes, and nothing comes. I don't get the rewards I was promised, and I also never get any sort of verbal follow-up. I try to poke her again... and again... and again. And am met by being ignored and left on read each time. Trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and ample time to get things together, I finally caved and gave an ultimatum after finally withdrawing my Patreon pledge. Perhaps something I should have done far earlier, my mistake.
(This was the last time I had money taken from me. Though I will note that she did NOT charge for one month back in January, which had made me believe she was being genuine about wanting to make things right. She however went back to charging the month right after.)
As far as I'm aware, you cannot dispute undelivered Patreon rewards/updates -- and I'd honestly rather not get a refund. I've been a huge fan of Con*Tact and their products for years, and more than anything I want this solved so I can go back to supporting them. But with this refusal to even speak to me, I'm at a loss for what to do.
Started simple. She added me on Steam curious about getting a commission from me. I asked her if she'd be fine with $20 for a full color and she agreed. Normally, I'm polite about things and only ask for payment upon completing the artwork so I send the finished work over, she responds positively. I then give her my paypal address and await payment. 3 days go by. I politely remind her but do not hear back. I then ask if something had happened I was unaware of that's preventing her from paying so I ask about it on her public Discord she invited me to. Despite not hearing from her via DMs, she soon posts in her discord, implying that she is online and HAD read my messages, but chose to ignore them. She later messages me (after I inquire via DM again) saying she's waiting for her paycheck. I find it odd she'd ask for a commission without having money for it but I decide to be nice and let her wait till then without charging a late fee.
Come her paycheck day, I expect a payment but nothing doing. I then inquire again and ask her to get back to me as soon as she can. She does get back to me... saying "I will." Naturally I find this very odd. Along with this, she changes her public Discord status to imply a "waiting game" (screenshot provided) which could be inferred as her possibly toying with me.
By that time, having not received payment due for almost 2 weeks now, I finally decide to let her know that I will have to raise the price by the 25th should she not pay by then. Due to her lack of response from me sooner, I again politely asked about her situation over her public discord. No uproar was caused, as I simply asked a quick question. Later I find she's booted me from the server and messages me in all caps in a confusingly rude manner (screenshots provided).
I then explain to her the situation she's in to ensure that there can be no confusion or miscommunication on her part. She then tries to make an excuse that she was "joking" about paying initially. I provide her with a screenshot of the conversation from 2 weeks back to ensure her that she at no point communicated that. At this point I've lost patience but am still willing to be more polite than necessary and allow her to simply pay the $4 cancellation fee (the completed drawing seen in the screenshots had previously been removed to avoid the possibility of her using it for anything).
On March 24th she agreed to pay the $4 cancellation fee. I never received that payment either. My patience ran out, thus I'm submitting this report now. She's a Twithc streamer, it seems so I don't want her potentially cheating other artists out on doing art for her without receiving due payment.
I added this person a quite a few times to my Discord and Telegram,
But nothing PewKong seem to react back to it.
I got everything documented.
listed form up recent, and below from where i started to commission PewKong:
6/01/2019
- PewKong posted a journal on FA about the commissions.
But no work has been done seem like the reactions from ppl.
11/11/2018
- PewKong posted a journal on FA about it's mental health problem and alot of stress with depression has hit in life.
appoligized about the delay.
29/10/2018
- I Posted a shout on PewKong's FA page, asking about my commission i been waiting for like 8 months.
Never got ant reply back
19/03/2018
- PewKong posted a journal on FA about all the commission's that have been accepted.
Computer didn't work anymore but would have be fixed soon!
17/03/2018
- Note send to asked about my commission.
This is what i got back:
it would take a week to finish!
21/02/2018
-Confirmed that the commission was paid with Paypal
21/02/2018
- Not many hours later i received back a note from PewKong,
along with some idea's PewKong made to choose from for my icon's!
21/02/2018
- Actually i liked a icon for me and my partner instead!
so this one was accepted and paid!
i sended my refsheet along with my partner
12/02/2018
- Icon commission accepted by PewKong
had contacted by FA notes (saved all of the conversations) and asked me if i had any idea's to help design the commissions.
I sended a couple more notes to this person, but nothing seem to sucess contact with this person.
theres on PewKong's page, a few more ppl who deal with the absent artist.
A funny thing to add is this person still seem to use Tumblr: https://pewkongdesu.tumblr.com/
PewKong seem to do gift art to ppl while theres so many commission's to be finished where ppl paid for it!
But doesn't seem to reply to ANY contacvt you try to get with this person!
so please
BEWARE for this Artist!
This beware is concerning the artist Space (spacemuttt) who did not deliver commissioned artwork and since disappeared.
On October 29th of 2018 (verified by payment detail below) I purchased an icon from the artist Space.
Subsequently, on November the 1st of 2018 (conversation confirming payment occurring the following day) I decided to also claim a slot in a single-slot YCH the artist was hosting.
The artist did not ever deliver the items, and instead only dodged contact attempts or made excuses.
On the 29th of November, the artist contacted me claiming personal reasons that prevented them from completing the art, and noted it would be done soon.
I'm quite a patient commissioner, so the net time I follow up isn't until around February 16th of 2019.
I again hear nothing for a while, and decide to follow up in April, asking for the art or a refund. I get the following response on April 10th, 2019.
This is the continued conversation after following up as requested. The artist claims they finished the chibi headshot, but doesn't provide me any link, nor do they post it.
I respond thanking them for the update, and also noting that they never sent the headshot.
On the 18th of April 2019, 6 days later, I follow up again with no response. As you can see, my FA Outbox has registered that the note sent was never read by the recipient.
On the 20th of July 2019, I send this note as a final status check, it too is unread as seen below.
The artist then disables their FA page.
This artist clearly dodged communication and made up excuses as to why they couldn't complete the art. As shown, I tried to be as patient as possible with them.
After attempting to work this out via the above communications, I attempted to file a chargeback on both charges but, as is PayPal policy, too much time had elapsed.
I no longer want the artwork, the only acceptable resolution at this time is for the money to be refunded.
I bought a slot for an M/F explicit piece, and I bought the female slot. The pose leaves ambiguous penetration, so the bottom slot could very easily be make if a dick is drawn on the character. I buy the slot, the artist (ponsex) messages me, and I send them the ref of the character. I send them the nsfw reference, which shows clearly visible female bits, and as all my other YCH experiences have gone, I expect to be asked if they have any questions about things like outfits, color, edits like cum, internal shot, etc, but for the most part its straightforward.
Fast forward to yesterday, I get a completed picture of the image, and I have four versions in total: an M/F version, cum and non-cum, and an M/M version, cum and non-cum. I never asked for my character Caiya to have a male edit. The sketch had included a penis in the case that the second slot was male, but as per the reference, it is very clear that the character is female. I feel like the fact that something as major as the gender of the character being changed without my permission is a major betrayal of trust on the artist's part, and even though the original version was completed as requested, the edit should not have been made at all.
This character specifically has a backstory as surviving domestic abuse, and a major part of her character is being a strong, tough female. I know there are a lot of users (including me) who relate strongly and on a personal level to their characters, and that can include self-identification such as being trans. I talked to a lot of other people and they agreed that especially for certain characters they own, they would be just as livid seeing their character in a gender they are not supposed to be/they don't identify as.
My major problem is how dismissive and unaware they are of the problem, if not to the point of rude. They do not seem to understand that this is not okay, and whether its the easy way or the hard way, all I want them to understand is how big of an issue this is. If this is how they react to this kind of issue, they don't deserve further business if this is their attitude.
The screenshots are below (read from the very bottom up):
- Dec 5th: I was approached by Lenny about a secondlife texture commission, All went well and the commission was accepted, parts were discussed and I sent off an invoice.
- Dec 6th: Invoice was paid. I also provided an estimated deadline of Dec 15th
- Dec 13th: I found parts that I thought would suit the character better and provided links for the commissioner to view in order to make a decision, The commissioner decided on the new part I suggested and I started work on it swiftly afterwards.
Lenny started to make me uncomfortable asking about me texturing NSFW parts that my TOS states I do not work on. This can be seen within the full SL convo screenshot. During this time Lenny also stated he was going to “RIP” some textures from an object, On secondlife this term is used when a user illegally steals a texture using a third party program, I do NOT condone this in any way shape or form, This made me very uncomfortable as I was now left wondering if I could trust Lenny not to RIP and resell my own work once completed.Shortly after we hit some bumps in terms of things not being correct on the textures, I swiftly made fixes to his request however he started to ask for changes that were not shown on his reference sheet so it became hard for me to follow as I wasn’t made aware of this during the commission order. I suggested in the future Lenny should perhaps consider getting an updated reference sheet or create one with one of the MANY free art bases in the Furry community.
Sometime later Lenny asked me if my textures would be fullperm, This isn’t something usually provided with Secondlife texture commissions and this made me rather uncomfortable due to him previously talking about having to "rip" a texture. In light of all the prior issues and the uncomfortable feelings in the air I decided that it would simply be for the best for me to provide a full refund immediately.
Lenny responded with aggression stating I had refused their commission because of their own personal IRL issues, this wasn’t the case at all. I simply refunded due to being VERY uncomfortable working with Lenny.
I later found out that the texture he was going to “rip” came as free to use. Regarldess it was still an NSFW body part that I had expressed I do not work with.
My choice to refund was still solid and I did not wish to continue working with Lenny any longer, Lenny continued to push for me to work on his commission and to cancel the refund this lead to me having to repeatedly express that I would not work on this commission any longer, Eventually he gave up.
- Dec 20th: Lenny apologized, I accepted this apology. Lenny expressed that the refund was still pending which was due to the way paypal refunds as the funds came out of my account minutes after I provided the refund, I sent Lenny links to Paypal’s FAQ so he understood why it was still pending.
We then began talking about him re-commissioning me for his SL textures which I accepted as it was coming up to Christmas and I didn’t want there to be any bad blood and I assumed the prior happenings were just a one time thing and wouldn’t happen again. We decided to use a Free to use base in order to map out their markings better in order for a swifter completion of the second life mod, This ref wasn’t anything spectacular it was simply made for me to be able to visualize exactly where and what shape the markings needed to be, Eventually Lenny decided on one of the marking layouts I had created and I went ahead with sending out a second invoice. Lenny proceeded to make some really awkward joke about just getting out of jail and being -2912 in his bank? Which was very odd but I just laughed it off as he stated it was a joke and he paid the invoice shortly after. I sent out some wips of the body and immediately hit some bumps, He expressed things needed to be fixed, I swiftly worked on those and provided more wips, which again Lenny expressed they were wrong and I fixed them. At this point I was growing frustrated as we had JUST made a make shift reference for me to follow that Lenny himself had approved before I started working. Regardless of the issues I continued working on the second life mod and making constant fixes, I just wanted to complete the commission to the best of my ability in order to move on from this experience.
I finished the secondlife mod on the 20th, The same day that Lenny had commissioned me, He said that everything looked good, I sent over his SL mod and he seemed pleased with his purchase. Shortly after he asked for some color codes which I provided.
An hour later Lenny messaged me again, Asking for a screenshot of my Fullperm texture, Something that I had already expressed that I do NOT provide. His reasoning is he wanted someone else to work on something and they needed it, I declined and stated they’d simply need his color code in order for those parts to match.
- Dec 23rd&25th: Lenny asked about textures for three different parts, Nothing came of this and no commissions were taken in the result of these questions.
Conversation screencaps. Warning! The images are large.
https://imgur.com/a/NTWBgRs
- Jan 17th: Lenny messaged me again asking for fixes to his mod, I declined as I do not offer free edits after the commission has been confirmed for over 3 days, It had been nearly 4weeks since he had accepted his finished commission. Lenny replied with an emoji and then blocked me. I tired to reply to his emoji BUT I couldn’t as I had been blocked.
- March 7th: Lenny contacted me on Secondlife asking for help with his neck and also asked about an additional commission. I expressed that I would be more than happy to help with his issues to the best of my ability however I was not interested in doing business with him beyond that. I was met with an extremely unexpected outburst of rage, regardless of how I had just been treated I kept a cool, professional front and tried to reply however I had been blocked again. I checked FA some time after to see I had a note from Lenny, This note can be seen below. Shortly after I noticed he had posted a journal that I can only assume is about me.
In July of 2019 I preordered a set of kaiju pins from Squeedgemonster, and they received my money the same day. In the proceeding months the pins were never sent, although they were received by the artist by October. The artist provided their e-mail to send all questions to, as they were purging their social media accounts of accounts that they were following, and closed their DMs on those websites. However, since October, they have not answered a single one of these emails, and have not spoken about the pins at all since December, despite being active since then.
The following is the original announcement tweet, from March 29 2019.
(archive) (note: squeedge.art has since become defunct)
Although this tweet says that preorders were to close in April, they were not actually closed, as that is how I was able to order them myself, and how the artist was able to receive my money. Unfortunately I do not have a dated screenshot of this from the day I ordered it; I'm not in the habit of doing that, anyway, and squeedge.art is also now defunct. However, in this tweet they tell another user that preorders are staying open after the originally specified date:
(archive)
Here is the screenshot of my Transaction ID, retrieved from my PayPal:
In this tweet Squeedge, on October 1 2019, shows the pins and claims that they now have them, and will ship them ASAP:
(archive)
I replied to this tweet as follows. At the time of writing, this is the only correspondence they have had with me personally at all in regards to this order.
(archive) (context: at the time the artist did not have their gmail in their twitter bio, but at the time of writing, they now do.)
However, the following is the ONLY time they have mentioned the pins since then, and they had (and still have) yet to answer any of my emails:
(archive)
The following screenshot consists of all of the emails I have sent them. Do note the entire lack of response on their part, although my emails were sent shortly after a spurt of Twitter activity, in hopes of "catching" them:
I have been very patient and understanding in this process, I would like to think. I have even offered to pay for shipping again, because I understand the money originally set aside for shipping more than likely had to be spent on other necessities. However, the complete lack of response in spite of subsequent online activity is very troubling to me. I just don't know what else to do. I'm well past Paypal's buyer protection window, and since I purchased the pins with my Paypal balance it's not like I could call my bank and dispute it that way. At this point I just want a response. I do not think that is an unreasonable expectation for an artist.
ZappBEAST / Azoth is an artist/fursuit maker i had found on twitter. I had saw them Post up a YCH on twitter and his instructions were to DM him.
I don't know how long this person's Commission queue was, and i was never given a trello so i could never see. On the 18th the artist posted more YCHs on their twitter and also explained that their ipad had broken, which is why they needed to open more slots. I offered to help but there was misunderstanding in price for the YCH so we just ended up talking about his ipad/tablet situation.
About two weeks later on the 31st, he also mentioned hes having problems with clients for fursuits. At the time i tried to empathize with them, but looking back at it now, it seemes like another excuse for a delay.
A whole month passes, with promises of starting my commission soon, and then another whole month passes before work actually begins on the piece. All of this while his twitter and telegram group gets tons of posts with personal art and more YCH slots.
while he provided sufficient updates and stuff at the time, another two weeks had gone by and more personal art and other commissions were finished before me.
While nothing wrong has been inherently done, and a lot of stuff has been thrown his way, a lot of his practices are very suspicious and their workflow seems chaotic at best, and their return time also seems really bizarre. I dont think ill commission this person again, especially for the price and even if its really good art.
On November 24th 2019 at 11:33 pm EST I messaged Moki on Furry Amino, asking if they were willing to trade a Protogen Head (later head and Hand paws) for my Mini Partial Monster Dog suit (now referred to as Pound Cake). At 11:53 pm EST Moki responded and asked for pictures, very quickly declaring they “really love him” and accepted the trade. This sparked a quick succession of messages, us both gathering addresses, proof of ownership, and further information on each other’s suits. While I told them of my worry of having suits stolen, as I had problems with Pound Cake when I traded for him, Moki quelled my fears and we agreed to send both suits out at the same time the next day on November 25th 2019.
We continued to chat, an open friendly conversation about different suits and the tracking numbers were exchanged. They found a problem with the tracking number I sent and I very quickly fixed it, it was a simple type-o on my end, but when I started raising concerns about the number they sent me, I was ghosted for many days. The suit was due to arrive on Dec. 6th, it of course never came. They once again calmed me down by reminding me it was around the holidays so packages get a bit wonky.
Around this time Pound Cake arrived at their Customs. It was supposedly around 100 Usd to get it out of customs. They claimed to not have the money, then suddenly came into the money when their dad lent them some, and then suddenly was unable to afford it again. At the time I didn’t connect the dots but now I am fully aware this is the point where they stole my suit. At this point it was December 12th and the Protogen I traded for was still sitting in the post office because they “wouldn’t accept my address” After many days of back and forths they went on Vacation, promising to send it when they get back. In the messages below I contacted them On Dec. 23rd, a Monday, and then waited until the 28th to contact again. Through this whole time I was ghosted. They finally contacted me in early January (I have lost those screenshots) and asked to stop the trade. I agreed, thinking that Pound Cake was still in Customs. They told me that the suit would be sent back before the first week of February when no one picked it up. It is currently March when I am writing this beware.
During the time of trying to get in touch with Moki, also known as HTT Creations on other sites like facebook, instagram, DA, FA, and patreon, I posted Warnings on their Furry Amino, and wonone got back with me. They gave me Moki’s insta, where they proclaimed to not know me, never traded suits with me, and then blocked me. I then messaged them on every site I could find them on, all listed above, to no avail. I even got in touch with Pound Cakes maker, and had them help me.
During this time of trying to talk with them for the first time in months, I found out that they had already traded the Protogen suit, I am unsure if this was before or after our trade agreement but it it appears to have be either During or before our agreement since the suit they traded for has been on their social medias for a while. Leading me to believe they started the trade with me without having the suit.
Below is the conversation between me and Moki on Furry Amino, ranging from November 24th, to February 24th when I finally stopped messaging them since they ghosted me for so long.
That was the last I heard from them on Furry Amino. On March 3rd I got a message from someone (who wishes to remain unknown) and they gave me Moki”s Instagram.
Below are the screenshots of the Instagram messaged between Myself and Moki/ HTT Creations on Instagram. Things may get a bit confusing since these messages were happening at the same time as I talked with Unknown.
After clarifying who I was I was promptly Blocked. I continued to try and get in touch with them through all their social media to no avail, even contacting Pound Cake’s maker who also helped me message them, SourAppleSuits on Instagram was left on read and ignored.
TLDR: Moki Coyoti/ HTT Creations agreed to trade their protogen suit with my Monster Dog suit named Pound Cake on Nov.24th 2019. They cut all contact after 3 months and I was told they would send him back. I never got my suit. March 3rd rolled around and I was contacted by Unknown with their instagram (known as htt_creations) and when I tried to message them they blocked me. I also found out they have already traded the Protogen suit for another suit before/during our ongoing trade. I am still blocked and have gotten no response.
Thank you so much for reading, below is the last pictures I have of Pound Cake. He is currently somewhere in Ontario Canada. If seen, Report it as stolen to the local police and contact me On Twitter @Buttercream243, or by email [email protected]. A reward of an Artistic Liberty mini partial will be given to whoever finds and returns the suit.
