I paid for a custom Cinnadog from byronbae on 1/18/2019, which were $40 base price + extra for other trait add-ons. The total transaction was $45 after adding 1 $5 trait to the custom base price. They mentioned there would possibly be a long wait time due to taking multiple slots. deviantART journal, claim proof, and payment proof below.
I waited with no update until I received notification on 5/3/2019, where byronbae let everyone still pending know that they were having IRL issues, but should still expect sketches soon. Hearing nothing for several more months, I messaged them again on 9/15/2019 asking for status updates. Byronbae replied that they would be able to potentially get their queue done in October.
On 11/28/2019, with no other updates in October and November, I asked for a refund. I received a reply that byronbae was willing to refund me but had no income, so I would need to wait until January. I let them know what I paid and waited for an update.
I do not follow byronbae directly on deviantART but checked their page to see if they were active, and noticed they posted a journal on 1/3/2020 mentioning the outstanding commission issue. They claimed that they would be working on refunds and pinging people involved. As of 1/27/2020, no communication has occurred and no refund has been issued. I commented to ask status updates, but it has now been over 1 year since the initial transaction.
I first began the commissioning process with Beasthorizon back in February of 2019, where we spoke about what I wanted and they told me that a head would take 4-8 weeks :
This agreement was reached on February 2nd, then I was not responded to for several weeks. When I reached out again they were able to answer within the day, claiming they had been injured but that my project still interested them, and that in 2 weeks my project would be first in line. This would set a completion date of roughly May 8th to June 3rd. Note: I say 'claiming' because they were able to finish a separate project without communicating to me at all.
Over the next few days we worked out a 3d model for the head, and the base was printed after I paid my half down. I was told that they would contact me once the horns were finished being printed. I was never contacted regarding that.
At this time, they posted on their twitter about making a model for a 3d head, and then finished the head. In their sales post they mentioned a new email to contact them at which was an email I had not been given. Since they made that tweet they deleted it, but I have a screenshot of the email I sent them after they posted it.
Note: This is on July 26, already almost 2 months past the original expected completion date. My head was mysteriously halfway done without them ever contacting me. This has been a series of red flags I ignored because I was happy to see progress had been made. I am told by them in this email that everything but the LEDs will be finished by July 30th.
On August 9th I reached out to them because they have mentioned on their twitter about opening commissions once again. I ask for a second set of horns, thinking my head is nearly finished. They agree to adding on the second set of horns.
Looking at the time stamps, you can see that after they spoke to me on August 9th, they then never answered again for months. The time stamps read: Aug 31, Sep 23, and Oct 6 on this thread. On November 1st I sent another email to them, detailing the timeline of events up to that point and asking them to respond or face a chargeback and/or beware. They answered the next day, apologizing and offering that my head be finished or shipped as-is for the price of what I had already paid.
I stressed the need to have my head by November 19th, and did not hear back from them. On November 13th, I reached out to them on Telegram after finding it and other information online that had been posted. I warned them about how I found that information, which has been censored here.
They claimed they were finishing the final touches on my head and asked where it should be shipped. As of January 2020, I have not received any form of communication from them. They are still active on Telegram and have moved from Twitter to Etsy. If you go to any of their Etsy listings, it can be seen by scrolling down to the bottom left that they have been active on there as recently as December 19, 2019. They are offering customs there, while ignoring my continued attempts at contacting them. I have offered compromises wherein I pay more past the down payment to receive my head, still I am ignored. Shortly after January began, they removed my access to the fursuit head WIP folder, meaning they are aware of my attempts at contacting them and the subsequent Beware I was forced to write when they continued to avoid me.
I have paid for a headshot YCH posted on March 12, 2019. I inquired about a change of character and my question was not answered.
I then found another set of commission slots that they have opened up for, I requested for a slot and the artist agreed. I did have an issue with sending the payment and asked the artist to cancel the YCH and use the funds to pay for the other commission. The artist agreed, I had offered to use the over payment from $30 to $20 as a tip.
I have asked for updates over the next few months and I have not received replies. The messages are not read, and the artist is active on Twitter.
Initial YCH: https://twitter.com/Ohmnog/status/1105679509519392768
Hypno Drool Slots: https://twitter.com/Ohmnog/status/1151616449737216000
Inital YCH:
Second YCH:
Conversation History:
Transaction Receipt via Email:
I joined snares group for his closed species, apophares, in late August 2019. It was an unfinished and unofficial closed species and I was allowed to make one. After an unrelated personal conflict, snare took away my character, Terra, and resold her without my explicit permission.
I contacted him and offered to redesign her from being his species into a bunny, as the species is a rabbit and snake hybrid called apophares. From what I was told I was under the impression snare would keep terra or she would be terminated. I reluctantly sent the art to avoid conflict under this impression. This was not the case.
Snare is attempting to sell terra without my permission, and was selling her without crediting the art I made of her. I was willing to work with snare and he refused to come to a consensus with me keeping her despite me frantically apologizing and trying to work with him. I was speaking and working in a calm manner but he refused to let me keep her without even talking to me about why other than I was mean to him, when all I did was leave the group chat.
If this was a full blown, complete species with a huge following I’d understand, but this species is not even complete or released to anyone except a few people that are his friends. The rules in the group chat were also not explicitly stated, as it’s a work in progress species, but they still applied fully even though it’s not listed anywhere specific.
He also is selling her saying he will give half of the profits to wildfires in Australia, which although that’s a good cause and decision, I feel he’s doing this so if I try to take down his post he can say I support Australia burning, in reality I’m absolutely terrified and think it’s horrific what those people and animals are enduring.
Attached are Terra’s original design as an apophare, her edits to be a rabbit, and then a full redesign. I drew both the edited one and the new one, and the ref was made using snare’s lineart (with permission).
Videos are of me and snare’s conversation including my apology (although this is not what this beware is about, it’s about terra being sold unfairly). Instagram part is showing snare not crediting my art or design (he later did give me credit but he blocked all my accounts and I had to use the page of my dying cat to be able to contact him, which he then blocked). Telegram is what I was told regarding possession which I both misread and was misinformed of the real truth of what snare would do with her.
Besped sent me a note on FA wanting to do an animation commission for me.
We then continued to talk on Discord about the commission. I agreed on having an animation done of two of my characters. They said that the animation would take 1-2 months.
Then they sent me an invoice, and I paid it. They added that there would be weekly updates.
After about a week, they sent me an update. I approved the sketched 3-4 frames, and agreed to add on another bit of animation. (The WIP sketch is no longer present due to them deleting it just today.)
They sent me an invoice for the additions, and I paid it.
I didn't get another update for another few weeks. This update added a few new frames, but did not have any changes to the rest of it. I approved that update, and they disappeared again. (The WIP sketch is no longer present due to them deleting it just today.)
They disappeared again through the Holidays. I messaged them again after the new year. I did not get a response for weeks. Once I messaged again, they responded, stating that they'd be gone for another week or so.
At this point, I've asked them for a refund both on Discord and PayPal. On Discord, they said just to go through PayPal. I have not received a response as of yet on PayPal.
I will update this post once things start moving forward again.
I was commissioned by blake wusky to do a piece for him and as I finished up the piece he contacted me asking for me to return the money so he could urgently pay for his sick dog , I choose to accept this a genuine excuse and his promise to return the money in a week or two seemed fair (I was guilt tripped because who wants to be the cause of a dog dying because you don't send someone back money) I never got the money and when I inquired about payment he blocked me.
On July/23/2019, Exactly 6 months ago, I bought out a set of YCH Telegram stickers from Kaseypaws, proof of which can be seen below.
I have not received a single note, DM, or any other kind of communication since I have paid this artist, and around a week and a half ago I decided to check up on them.
I monitored this note and noticed that It wasn't read for an entire 5 days, but when it was, I haven't gotten a response since.
I could understand If the artist has something going on in their life or If they're still working on the stickers, but I'd like to at least be told that rather than being swept under the rug like I'm stupid/gullible. They've been continuously active on both Twitter and Twitch since I sent the note, which solidifies my belief that my commission has been/is being neglected.
I'm willing to give updates on the situation as It's either resolved or when I'm pushed to ask for a refund.
I've met through this client through discord server as I've noticed that he was looking for animators and decided to work with him. Everything was going great as the client was providing me with references and etc. The commission was a walking bouncy boob cycle and the second option was my choice which was the shaking butt animation... What I didn't know and it was something that he told me last minute after putting all of details and working on the second animation was that he wanted it as a sequence all together which I've declined because that was over the budget limit that we agreed on.
Until the client kept demanding for me to work on their project which I've declined till they paid me amount I've asked (which is half upfront and the other for when the project was completed) for which eventually the client did cover the first half of the payment.
During the process the client demanding as they kept asking for constant changes to the project which wasn't the part that made this person a bad client in my view. But the client requesting changes to where there's no end result.
Also, I've placed an hold on the client's project in order to work on a different project for a bit before going back to this one since I've had another commission to work on at the time before resuming the animation project. During the process he kept asking for animators including from me which I've gave him the name of another artist who was my business and romantic partner so that the client could chat with him. Everything was fine until I've noticed that the client was using my partner to replace me for a project the person already paid for and I was already in the process of working on (without consulting with me first).
Then things went downhill when the project was completed and all of a sudden the client couldn't afford it, so I had to cancel the project.
Before the fall out, this person was using their personal issues to gain sympathy from others. This client is still seeking artists to commission while advertising their condition and not having the funding to pay artists!
Beginning of commission:
Changes:
Asking to work on comm 3 days later:
Looking for other animators:
Request for donations in DMs:
Unable to send final payment.
Proof of first payment:
This is something I've put off writing for a while, but I figure it will never get out of my head if I don't write one of these.
At the end of 2017 I commissioned BadphometArt (now cowboyote) over twitter to redraw a tarot card in their style with two of my characters. At first communications went very well. Julius seemed kinda excited to work with the idea I had and was even throwing out their own ideas for the picture. They told me it probably wouldn't be finished until late January 2018, and I was perfectly fine with waiting that long. we agreed on a price of $75, but I felt like that was a little low and ended up tipping an additional $35; bringing the total amount paid for this commission up to $110
That was when the first break in communication happened. They had a trello, but did not send me a link to it until I asked, at which point they told me that they had somehow not added my commission to it. That was weird, but I figured it was just a simple mistake at the time. (You can see my card on the trello here.)
After that the only updates I got from them in general came from lurking their twitter. It seemed like they had a lot of personal things going on, but they also seemed to be actively working on commissions so I just waited patiently for a message from Julius. However, things became a little odd when my commission suddenly moved to the "finished" tab a month after the stated deadline while still having no image attached to it and not getting a single message from them this whole time.
The next time they talked to me was in April. This is after their accounts had been abandoned and it seemed like they left the furry community completely. To summarize what was said, they were overloaded on commissions and were starting to refund people. I was a little say to hear that I wouldn't miraculously get this art I haven't seen a single pixel of for months, but I wished them the best anyways.
Then I received a message a month later asking if I had gotten the refund. I hadn't.
Then another one 4 days later asking again. Still no.
Then a third message asking the same thing and also asking to confirm how much the refund was supposed to be. I wanted to see this over with and get some kind of refund so I just said the $75 and left the extra $35 as just a tip.
Apparently that was still too much money, though, as I never heard from them again or got any money back.
It was frustrating to have them tease me along for a few weeks before vanishing again. I figured that was the end of it until I was looking through old DMs and saw...
....I had been blocked and they rebranded as cowboyote. Looks like I'm not getting that refund now. And at this point, I'm not counting on it at all. There are things I could have done better. I should have pestered them a little more, and that's what I would recommend other people do too if they find themselves in a similar situation with Julian or any other artist. Having personal troubles is no excuse to ignore customers for weeks and lie about your intentions to give refunds. If they cannot afford to refund they can definitely afford to apologize to myself and all the other commissioners they failed to complete art/refunds for.
Twitter logs:
(omitting my description of what I wanted because it is very personal/vent-y)
Paid in full for 2 Hellboy commissions March 2012, with high level specs confirmed but no completion timeline.
Received jpeg of one prelim May 2013. Subsequent attempts to obtain status across multiple platforms have been ignored.
I have no hope that i will ever receive the commissions or a refund. Larry doesn't seem to be active in the commission market but in case he ever cones back, here is my experience.
