Beware Rohunt
By Yoko, in Artist Bewares,
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Artists Beware
The namesake database. Submissions are categorized by "Bewares" and "Cautions".
Originally commissioned the artist back in October of 2018. Some time went by and I found they were taking a hiatus for mental health. Perfectly fine and reasonable. When they returned in the middle of 2019 I messaged them, to make sure I was not forgotten and in que. I gave them the details again. I then messaged them afterwards a few times asking for an update, only for the messages to have been marked as read with no response to them.
Originally submitting commission over a year ago. Initially Artararam responded rather quickly and professionally, they were highly recommend by a friend so I submitted full payment upfront as opposed to the half now half after fulfilment I normally follow for unfamiliar artists. (I really need to stick to that more.)
Some thumbnails were drawn and things were going well, but then the first delay happened. The Artararam stoped sending updates or responding to my messages for a month, even though I could see they were being read.
That on its own is poor form, but they did eventually respond. Things went well if not slow for a little while after that, but then it happened again for another month, same cycle. They eventually came back for a short time with the excuse of a broken laptop. (Even though throughout that time they did show to be online in Telegram and never once updated me on their status.)
I brushed it aside as these things happen, and some progress was again made. (The first half of my commission was more or less brought to flat colour with the shading and detailing left untouched.) But then it happened again, this time for even longer. Same deal, they were online often, changing their profile picture a few times, but complete radio silence.
By that time between the slow progress and large moments of MIA it was getting close to a year since my original order was processed. Finally they messaged back saying they were sorry for the delay, while not really answering why they were gone but making some vague excuse about having to leave the country and cutting off communication to everyone they knew.
I once again asked them to finish the shading and details on the part of my commission they had been working on, then send me a high res transparent copy. (As of writing, I have not once gotten a full res or transparent copy of any progress points across my entire commission. Only Telegrams poorly compressed previews...)
They said they would that evening. It has now been another three months without any word from them, and yet they are often online and have again been updating their profile image. Twice over the last year+ I have offered taking partial refund if they simply did not have the time or ability to finish my commission, but no response to my offers was ever made.
I would say I have gotten roughly 60-70% of what I paid for over the course of over a year with multiple months of silence in-between, and from what I can tell I've been lucky. Looking over their Furaffinity, it sounds like multiple customers have received even less progress than me.
Artararam did release a statement over three months ago at the time of writing that had an explanation and a promise of commission fulfilment, but I tend to be sceptical. Artararam has repeatedly disappeared for months at a time over the last year+ with multiple excuses being given, the latest of which imply legal troubles, however all thought those times of ~"having to cut off communication form even [their] closest friends~" (loosely quoted), they have been actively online and speaking to others on Telegram, as well as taking new commissions from others.
I want to have sympathy but this feels like a cry wolf case and the lack of communication despite seeing my message and being able to respond even with just a few words along with a poor track record and other inconsistencies to their excuses leaves me feeling as though they are not trustworthy with potential customers commission money.
An acceptable resolution would be either for my commission to be fully completed and delivered (along with her other unfinished customers) and an explanation provided as well as them closing their commissions untill they are able to reliably bring them to fulfilment. Alternatively I would want to see a full refund given to all those affected. Either of these would go a long way to restoring good faith.
(P.S. for review team: I have included real names due to them being not only publicly available but also it appearing that the artist in question takes commissions under their real name at times and not just a username. I can censor if this is not acceptable, but from what I've read it seems to be allowed under these circumstances.)
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Beware Coyot_tea
By Hero, in Artist Bewares,
Commissioned artist on October 23, 2018, payment sent same day with a completion promise of 2 months. There was a queue available on FA which showed me ahead of my friend MajorWolf. Multiple, several month long lapses and a deleted FA later, he got his commission indicating that I was skipped. Fast forward to 2020 and the artist recently stated that they would be opening for new commissions once the queue was finished. As of today, February 18, 2020, I've been blocked from their account. I've not had a single bit of interaction with the artist since payment was sent.
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Beware: VeraMundis
By Veskie, in Artist Bewares,
This was a piece I commissioned a year ago today. Artist sent the sketch, I asked for modifications since they were redoing the pose (allegedly). Modification request was ignored, still okay with the commission at this point. Sent a pretty decent tip and thanked them, then requested a few major errors to be fixed after completion. Artist said they would be making the edits and working on them.
It's been a full year and I'm completely ignored. They've opened my messages asking for updates and continued to ignore me, taking on and posting more commissions and acting like my requests didn't matter at all. Really disappointed to be posting here. At this point, I'm planning on having it professionally edited after spending so much already.
Link to character ref: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/29836829/
I'm embarrassed how I talk in commission notes, but I just get super excited for art.
Never made a beware/caution post before so apologies if it's formatted a bit off.
Thanks!
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(this article includes screencaps featuring conversation involving a musical artist and collaborative partner, Caero, who granted me permission to include screenshots featuring his dialogue:
proof 1
proof 2)
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In march, I hosted an auction in collaboration with a musician where the winner would receive a custom theme song for their character and I would make an illustration of the character using the music as my inspiration.
The winning bid was 960 usd (to be split 480 for each of us.)
The musician sent an invoice and on July 3rd 2019 the invoice was fully paid. The musician delivered my half of the payment without incident.
The musician proceeded to experience some life turbulence and his correspondence with both me and the client suffered as a result. Trixx requested an update on how things were going with him and he responded.
Feeling a little antsy as some more time passed after this, I contacted the musician and offered the idea to draw the illustration first. He assured me that he would have something to show soon.
I unfortunately do not have screencaps for this part but he was true to his word and submitted a musical sketch, which Trixx approved. I then produced an illustration sketch based on what he provided. She approved the sketch, and requested a background that was a “kingdom, city devastation through the battlefield.”
Following this, the musician fell out of contact again, and once again, Trixx inquired for an update, and received no response after two days. At which point, I apologized for her inability to get in contact with the musician and told her that I would reach out to him.
Here’s the conversation I had with the musician.
Following this conversation, I followed up with Trixx, letting her know that I understood the musician had spoken to her, adding that I would hop on ahead and complete her illustration within the week, providing updates each day until the work was complete.
The following is what transpired:
This is the link to the previously completed collaborative auction linked to in the screencaps above: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/27946332/
This is the link to Trixx’s completed illustration: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jd7o726jjdq7yi4/trixx.png?dl=0
(Version without the radial blur: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qdtk31qyfksez9u/trixx_2.png?dl=0
The conversation continued down this trajectory, eventually leading to a very confusing moment where Trixx began linking me to examples of work that were not provided as examples in the auction description, eventually going as far as to accuse me of editing the auction details (effectively gaslighting her). She dropped that particular topic as soon as she realized that she had been looking at the details and pulling up examples provided in the description of an entirely different auction than the one she had bid on.
Eventually, I had considered completely redoing the background and most of the character for an additional charge (which she had warned me not to make too steep, on the premise that she has already paid for the illustration). I offered to redo things on the condition of her trust that I was putting forth my best effort for her. She voiced her lack of confidence, and I quickly determined that the safest course of action was to encourage her to take a partial refund.
I had her invoice me for the partial refund, and promptly paid that invoice
I left the group conversation, and she sent me one last personal DM
Not wanting to continue the conversation with respect to my own time and emotional resources, I blocked her on discord following that last message I sent.
The musician told me that he was going to issue her a full $480 refund.
I sincerely believe that Trixx is not a wholly unreasonable person, and that the responses from her as seen in these screencaps were shaped largely by the wait time and lapses in correspondence. I tried my best to juggle the issues surrounding the musician and the needs of the client, but in the end, the variables failed to line up in a manner that was conducive to good business and a happy customer. This is my very first experience with both a situation and a client like this and it has been a great teacher.
However her conduct, her assertive devaluing of my work, dismissal of my numerous attempts to problem solve with her under the assertion that I’m trying to rip her off, the moving goalposts, and her aggressive attempts to pursue the matter even after a refund had been issued for completed work has been disrespectful beyond what was called for.
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Space Meme
By VX666, in Artist Bewares,
"Fursuit maker" "Space Meme" (herein refered to as "Maker") was paid $625 to create a costume / fursuit, (herein referred to as "Fursuit") materials and money, along with a ":duct tape dummy" were sent.
Maker never created the Fursuit or produced any product, and was asked to refund money and or return materials, neither of which were refunded/returned as of 2020 Jan 3.
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On 31.01.2019 I contacted ChazThePanwhere over a Furry Marketplace Group on Telegram. She made an offer for a comic she and a friend were working on. The role should be the mascot of a school and thus the main character of the project. She said there would be art, t-shirts and all kind of merch on that comic so the slot would be a bit pricey, but for 700$ I could join, but I had to be fast because anotherone already was interested in the slot. So I agreed to pay for it.
She then sent the Invoice via Paypal and I paid roughly 700$
The first days went good, the first pic arrived only 4 days later. (Also she forgot to draw my hair, but that's a minor issue)
Next thing came on 20th February
And then she took one month to fill it, but she said she was super busy and so I didn't want to be rude and thought it was okay (I know how it is to be busy sometimes). But then things changed. She didn't write me anything over months, so I decided to write her in June.
She told me she was in some serious trouble because she doesn't have money anymore and was sick and everything. I said it was ok and wished her well.
Next thing again I had to write her because I heared nothing from her. It was 15th September meanwhile and so I decided to drop out of the project. I tried to make her a fair offer, because she already did some art and had some trouble, so I didn't request a full refund.
Followed by the picture of the invoice in case she doesn't even remember it. She took it easy and said she couldn't pay it all by now, but she would do in installments and I was really relieved that it would go this easy.
I also wrote with her partner (the storywriter of the comic) at this time. I just wanted him to know I wouldn't be part of the Comic anymore and it turned out he didn't even know that ChazThePanwere took money for drawing, she told him she would do it as a sparetime project.
This got me a bit uneasy. On 21st September (6 Days later) she then contacted me again and said, that she would not give a refund now, because in her contract she said she will only give refunds if she doesn't make progress in 12 Month. She showed me the phrase and she was right.
So I gave her time until today (5th February 2020) to do some more art, but she didn't. So I wrote her a friendly but resolute message that I want my money back or I would take several actions (this Beware being one of them) and gave her two weeks (and again an option to friendly discuss it all out) to send it to my PayPal account and she said she wouldn't send me my money back, but rather rush six more pics and then close the project as done. This is the reason why I decided to write this beware today and not in two weeks as first said.
I am more than sure I will never get my money back, but maybe it helps other people to not live through the same thing.
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Beware: ChampagneCub
By Logan, in Artist Bewares,
On December 16, 2018 the artist posted openings for sketch commissions.
I contacted him that same day for a spot and began discussions for the picture. With the details agreed upon, I paid the very next day on December 17, 2018 via PayPal.
On January 8, 2019 I checked in with the artist and was told that the commission would be finished the next day. Although not complete, the artist sent me a WIP instead around January 15, 2019 that I accidentally deleted from chat while I was trying to save it.
The next day, the artist asked for my Twitter, which I believed he wanted to use to tag the completed picture. Two days later, I received notification that he had completed it and would be sending it soon.
This would be the last time I would hear back from the artist. I contacted him multiple times via Telegram (our main source of contact), which went unread even though his status continues to be “last seen recently.” I had also sent him an ultimatum via the email account he provided for PayPal, from which I got no response.
It has been over a year now and I still have not gotten a response from any of my messages or emails. I even checked his Twitter in an attempt to DM him and noticed he does not have those open to non-mutuals. I unfortunately did attempt a chargeback but PayPay stated it was beyond the acceptable timeframe I’m order to do so. At this point, I have chalked this up as a loss.
Thank you for your time.
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Beware: Kadohusky
By Gasaraki, in Artist Bewares,
On July 9th, 2016 the artist posted a YCH animation auction on furaffinity that I won via auto buy on July 11th for $2000 USD. Me and the artist agreed on 6 installment payments with the first paypal invoice sent and paid for on July 12th and the second invoice sent and paid on July 29th. I was getting regular updates the first few months with communication exclusively through telegram but then communication stopped for a few months and then after he got back to me with what would be the last update I sent my third and final payment on February 7, 2017 and after that I didn’t hear anything from him for months.
I didn’t get in contact with him again until July, 16th 2018 via email inquiring about the status of the commission as I haven’t gotten an update for it in well over a year and asked me if I wanted a refund or finish the commission with me choosing to finish it.
Didn’t get in contact again with the artist until April 2, 2019 via twitter direct message where he again said he was sorry for the wait and that he was going to finish the commission but still no update on the commission was delivered. On June 24th, 2019 they said due to health problems they weren’t capable of finishing the commission and was going to refund me the money I paid in installments of $200 a month sent to my paypal account. They didn’t send me a payment until August 5th, 2019 and it was only $50 with the promise of $150 later but it never came. I haven’t gotten in contact with the artist since with $950 USD still owed to me for the unfinished animation commission.
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One day on October 3rd, 2018, the artist asked me if I was interested in getting art from him. He was offering a discount: $50 USD for two character line art, $15 less than what he usually charges for it. He supposedly wanted the money that night (which I think is a red flag all on it's own), and it was an artist whom I really liked. I decided to get a friend in on this and we decided to commission Synx. He then explained that he needed it for his medication which I could completely understand. We pay and wait for him to be ready before we sent our details.
A week goes by and I ask for an update. He says that we are next and he will be able to make our commission in a few days.
A few more days go by and they mention that they are delaying our commission a few days because they're making a big move. Like before, I let it go.
Later in December, he tells us that he is now busy with work, also adding that our commission has "highest priority."
More time goes by... until recently when in another Telegram group chat, I see art with his name on it. We were not the "highest priority." I ask Synx about it, and he now says he is ready to get started. I will admit, that I did not discuss with Synx what we wanted, but I was waiting for him to be ready.
Full picture. Note the 2020 date on the top left.
I let him know the details of what we wanted all that time ago and he says he will update us with a time. He keeps saying "I will try tomorrow" only to find out he hasn't.
Recently, I have been bumping him to see if he has even started, only to find more excuses. He offers us more art in compensation for the lack of progress over the past year. Still nothing.
As of Feb 2, 2020, I had subscribed to alerts to his Picarto which tells me when he streams on that platform. Hoping that it would be our commission, I log in and watch the stream only to find out that he isn't working on our stream. I ask if he has a timeline for our art, only to have him say "no exact date."
Picture from the stream on Feb 2, 2020.
I am extremely disappointed with this artist, and would advise not working with them. At the very minimum, don't give them your money until they are actually starting the art. I love their art, especially since they hit kinks that I love, but this experience was just horrid.
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