I approached Voegel in February of 2016 for a chibi style commission, they promptly replied and we discussed prices. I immediately sent payment, and waited patiently for a response.
June 3rd, i gently poked for an update and pretty much insisted that i wasn't in a rush. Being a full-time artist myself, i understand and know that it takes time. I never recieved a WIP, either.
I then poked again on November 13th, i sent my final set of notes before I lost contact. Saying that i understand that things happen, and that i understand it taking a while. I did not want a rushed product, or to stress them out. So i unfortunately did not put my foot down after 9 months of waiting without a single WIP and sparse communication.
Someone else had taken over their account and Trello (queue) to do small updates for customers. Fortunately i still see my name on this trello, but the links are broken and it hasnt been updated since 2017.
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7748095/ (trello)
https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8187732/ (Google docs refund form)
Time passes, and an artist i follow posts a finished commission on twitter and i recognize the character, so i very politely message them and ask if i can get the handle to the owner. They give me the new handle of Voegel and im able to message them once more. If not for this one random occurrence i would have never found them again.
This last set of screenshots is our very short conversation about how to deal with this situation, that i never got a response to. I left the conversation open ended to get their feedback because at the time they were offering a refund AND the art, and i really didnt feel like that was necessary. I was okay with either, but i wouldnt feel right with taking both. I said i needed to make a new reference for my character and that if they wanted to do the art, that was fine. And i never got a response.
Its coming back around to that same time of year in a few months, and i honestly think ive waited long enough without any contact. Like i said, im a full-time artist and have been for many years. I know things slip through the cracks, illness and self doubts/anxiety get in the way, and it takes time to put out work. Its hard. And i would have been okay with the wait if they would have kept contact with me, which they did not do. Account hopping without trying to get in contact with your commissioners is also not okay.
I had to hunt this artist down to have them leave without a word AGAIN, and its become unacceptable. I just want to make it aware that this person may resurface again and that they still owe people work that they have not done.
Last year I commissioned the artist Seoir for an image of one of my OCs. They were offering $25 bust commissions, which was a bit steep for me at the time, but I really liked their art style.
So, I send them their money and all is fine. I wait a couple months, because I know how long art can take, and go to message them to see what's happening and where they are at. Turns out that they have deactivated their account, and I have no other way to get in contact with them.
So, in conclusion, this is somewhat of an undelivered commission story and definitely a beware story.
Hopefully the attachments work. Here are some guides to understand what is happening:
png 1-4: My back and forth with Seoir about getting a commission from them.
$25 Bust Commission Sheet: One of the pieces that Seoir was using to advertise their commissions. (Sorry I didn't include their name, this was found on Google Images after the fact.)
I’ve asked Seiruii, for a commission that I never received from a year ago. I went to a Anime con, they were super busy but my friend’s back was hurting her so I had to leave. They finished my commission and promised to send it...I gave them my address so I can get my commission and...flash forward a year later tada! I got nothing...FREAKING NOTHING! They were busy with work but I didn’t receive my commission. I gave them my hardworking cash from my job that I got had to quit from. they only texted back three times. They claimed that it was sent and also said that they will look in their room and do another one but I haven’t gotten anything. I’m doing this beware because as a reminder and a anime con tip.
make sure you get your commission at a anime con, if a artist says that their busy or it will be in a week. Don’t buy from them.
I can’t trust Deviant Art Ych/Commissions and Artists in the artist galleries anymore. Because I got ripped off too many times in my life.
Never agree to commissions outside of written proof guys. As I don't have the first half the proof will start from the second point onward where they try to resolve the matter. Years ago I made a commission deal on skype to a partial friend (silly me) which was still a professional commission however. They were unresponsive for a while and I inquired about the commission to which I got no response. I since deleted Skype since I don't use it anymore and simply put them on an "owed" list on FA for quite a while.
Last year they come to me out of the blue and post this where they do admit to everything.
They put the blame on me and then proceed to dock me for a sketch done years ago. At this point a normal person would just demand their money back right? Well I decided to be curt and professional but still give them a chance.
They respond to this in a way that even makes me feel embarrassed where they state that they are going to make it faster, messier, and sketchier... but still get their usual quality??? I was confused because it almost seemed like an insult to themself and was also annoyed because they should have made up for not responding for so long.
I was again short with them but still polite and gave them a small amount of information to get through the commissions. They say they'll note me by next friday at the latest.
The 4th of May, 2018 was a Friday so that meant the 11th which was the next Friday.
They get back to me May 26th or more than 3 Fridays later to just apologize and make an excuse again. (Some blurred out as per guideline rules.)
I haven't heard from her since and it's now September of 2019. On her profile it says she is even accepting commissions at the moment.
As you can tell I have a lot of patience and have literally given them several years to do this. At this point I just want my money back. I didn't really want to have to put someone up on here in the end.
Okay so back on the very first of May I commission Hunter for a 3 character colored halfbody piece that was suppose to be an in stream commission. After first it went well. The sketch was done in the stream the next day, but it was cut short for reasons I don't know, but wasn't really a problem. fast forward three months to mid July and I ask for an update. She replies saying she got busy with work. Again no big problem we all have at one point.
Jump another month to mid August and I again ask for an update. She proceeds to show me the sketch from the stream back in May. She once again says that life had gotten in the way and such. Now I'm a little annoyed because it seems like I'm just getting the same excuse. While I understand life happens in all that it's hard to overlook the fact that nothing had been done in almost 4 months at this point. On top of that she had been streaming an at least twice a week doing personal art and even once a birthday stream for her friend.
I didn't wait as long last time as I had asked for an update on the 7th of this month and all I received as a reply is "Slowly, but surely". That tells me nothing and just lead me to believe that nothing further had been done at all. At this point I was frustrated and decided to take some time and ask others what I should do. They all advised I be direct and confront her about it which I did. At first I was trying to be calm and civil about it all, but I was met with the same excuse as well as a few new ones. All of which summed up to mean that is almost 5 months she hasn't done anything from that first stream. She calmed she was too busy with life, but could stream personal art twice a week and had even taken a commission this month and finished it in 2 days. But that wasn't the end apparently. She also decided to go to her server and basically badmouth me to everyone there thinking I wouldn't see it I guess and again using all the same excuses as before.
Mod Note: The caps from the discord chat were removed as we couldn't verify how public this chat is. We did see that Scourge was named directly, not vented about anonymously.
I had commissioned Nexy way back in the summer of 2016, because I saw through a mutual friend that he was taking commissions to raise enough funds to attend Megaplex that year. I bought two badges in the style displayed in the attachments (character pictured is one he owned at the time; not sure if he still does!). Sadly, I no longer have access to the account I initially commissioned him from, but what I have left is a screenshot from that account proving that I tried contacting him for updates and, consequently, a refund, because of his lack of response and lack of WIPs. I later tried contacting him in 2018 via my personal account, providing that screenshot, as well as the original paypal transaction to prove it was me, and got ignored (and blocked from messaging him ever again).
I never had him added or followed anywhere, so I am unaware of any situations he may have gotten into (and his twitter currently appears to be locked at the time of writing), however, he still has a responsibility to keep in touch and communicate about what's going on to his clients. Granted, it's partially my fault for sending the money via friends and family, so I have no way of filing a chargeback (and it's also my fault for waiting this long), but obviously, since then, I've long since learned from that mistake.
As of now, I still have not heard back from him at all regarding where I stand as far as getting a refund.
(His FB name has been blocked out as it contains his real name, however, you can see his profile pic to note that it's actually him.)
Artist riajoi took my commission (worth 250USD). The agreement was some art of a character. Received updates until a few months ago when my (Discord) messages went unreplied for over 2 months. Noted their account requesting a refund and filed a paypal dispute, received a reply about a week later accepting a full refund and they replied to the dispute allowing the refund. Dispute closes, refund bounces and is cancelled. Unable to get money or open new dispute. Filling out small claims court dispute now.
So, to start off with, the stuff here will be quite NSFW (Gore, porn). Just a head's up.
Some months back I had a user on my FurAffinity page comment on one of the commissions I had uploaded. The content of this comment was inappropriate and disturbing, so I removed it and then blocked the user. My reference sheet for the character in question is available on my account, it's a submission anyone where anyone with an account that can see mature/adult content view it if they so desired to. The link is below:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/19500037/
This is relevant because the user I blocked, known by the handle EhJay on FurAffinity, then saved a copy for themselves (fine in of itself) and went to another artist to commission some gore/porn material. Needless to say, this was done without my permission. A friend somehow found these images on EhJay's FurAffinity gallery and brougth them to my attention, and they've been on FA for a few months. So likely not very long after I blocked EhJay that user went and got these commissions done.
As I am not sure when FA support will get back to me and if the commissions will stay up, I won't link them from EhJay's profile but I have attached a small folder containing the relevant commissions. Again, gore/porn warning. I have (hopefully) removed the artists' name from the attached screenshots as I have spoken to them and they were very understanding about this situation.
To summarize, I blocked a user for leaving a disturbing comment on one of my commissions I uploaded to FurAffinity. That user then went to use my character, without my permission, in some sort of revenge commissioning with very uncomfortable content. Hoping this serves as a head's up that this user is fine with using stolen characters in case they attempt it in the future.
So initially I commissioned them in January 2017 for a body suit of my bat oc. I do admit I didn't have a set date to give and was never given an eta on when it would be completed. I made a payment plan with them, so payments were sent at different times.
Proof of payments:
I paid 700 in total.
I commissioned them through FA but getting in contact with them became a bit difficult, so conversations moved to Twitter.
Read from bottom to top:
After I tried to get in contact with them via FA and then their email, where I didn't get an reply. I contacted them on Twitter. Where it was still hard to get replies and updates on my commission.
As seen it took several months for them to get back to me. I did my best to be patient. I know fursuit making isn't a quick process but we were into a year now. And they didn't have anything to show me, I could only take their word for it.
Those were the only updates I received from West. With them saying they would draw the markings and cut up the patterns. I was happy to finally know progress was being made.
Months go by and we're in 2019, it's basically been more than 2 years. And at this point I was fed up and requested a refund. They agreed to the refund and said I would have it that same month. Which was a lie and I am still waiting on a reply/refund.
And at this point it's too late to do a chargeback. So I'm pretty much at a lost on what to do. I just thought I would warn people about their unprofessional business practice.
On October 6, 2017, I commissioned art fro Badcoyote during his Meatober Stream. It was a commission in which me and another person (known as Charrwolf) split the price for a two person image. Included is record of us discussing the piece, me paying my share on paypal, and a confirmation email from Badcoyote.
In the confirmation email, he states that the work would be completed in November. But then he reported publicly on twitter that he ended up in the hospital Nov 1, 2017 and was there through Nov 6, 2017. This news primed me to be forgiving of delays, because obviously it was a huge crisis.
It got to December, but then on Dec 5, 2017 Badcoyote (and his partner Lobo) publicly reported that their home was caught up in the California fires. Which was heart wrenching to hear and I knew it would mean that the piece would be in limbo for a while until they could get their lives settled. I mean, it would be insane to assume otherwise and I was alright with that.
While I was aware he was streaming again by Jan 1, 2018, he later indicated on Jan 10th, 2018 that he was still homeless due to the fire.
On Feb 16, 2018, Badcoyote opened up for more commissions in a stream. I admit, I didn't see anything wrong with this at the time as I imagined he would surely still be in financial distress and honestly trusted him to get to my commission as soon as he was able to.
On Mar 14, 2018, Badcoyote opened up for more commissions in a stream again. During this stream, I had asked his partner Lobo about the commission in private chat and was told it was in the process of being worked on and I would hear more soon. (I had failed to screen capture this as I still trusted them and simply accepted the answer given).
Then on Apr 2, 2018, Badcoyote further revealed publicly that he had been dealing with further medical issues which had taken precedence. Public announcements revealed that these issues continued through much of April. Obliviously, I could not argue with this as health is important.
Finally, on May 1, 2018, Badcoyote provided the sketches for the commission and asked for feedback. Which I provided on May 2nd and he responded again on May 3rd. (note: the second picture also includes an email on May 4th, 2019, asking for an update, which he never responded to).
At this point, I thought "Awesome, he hasn't forgotten me and is still working on this. No worries then." And, regretfully, was content to give him the benefit of more time. So when he had another stream on May 22, 2018 where he took more commissions, I thought nothing of it because I "knew" he was working on it.
Then June comes around and more public announcements of medical emergencies. So, again, I give him leeway because like....that is terrible luck.
September comes along and Badcoyote is having a month of streaming. I will admit the commission had slipped my mind at this point between a busy summer, returning to grad school, and my birthday coming up (also in September). Towards the end of the month of streaming, I remember it though and ask his partner Lobo again about it in stream private chat. He insists it is almost done and will be released in the upcoming Meatober stream in October. Figuring it was just another month, I accepted this (but again didn't think to screen shot it).
On Oct 15, 2018, he publicly announces that due to medical issues with his dog and new jobs for both him and Lobo, the meatober fest would be delayed until after the election in November. Deciding that I would be able to wait till then, I said nothing (plus, like, his dog was hurt :( . I'm not a monster.)
In a late Nov 2018 stream (however, not the Meatober stream), I asked his partner Lobo again about the commission and again was told it would be ready soon and would come with the Meatober stream, but did not say when it would be. At this point, I was growing frustrated, but I did not know what options I had available as it was well past the 180 days for Paypal and I didn't really have any friends in the furry community who I could ask for advice. This was also the first time I was having an issue with an artist I commissioned. So I just bit my tongue and accepted it, hoping it would be "coming soon" as he promised.
Through Dec 2018, he continued to pump out finished works from the streams throughout 2018 but gave no news regarding the 2017 commission in question. He even held another stream, taking more commissions, on Dec 15th 2018.
This continues into 2019 with another stream and taking more commissions on Mar 15, 2019. Again I asked his partner about the commission and was told it would be out by Apr or May. Not knowing what else to do, I again accept this answer.
On May 3rd, 2019, Badcoyote announces he will be slowing down to work on grinding out commissions. This brings us to May 4th, 2019 when I emailed him to check for an update (and hoping that the email would jog his memory about the piece I was told repeatedly was "almost ready")[previously included]. Getting no answer, I message him on twitter on May 6th as I was unsure if his email was still accurate. He responds promptly and promises it will be done around May 22nd (give or take 3 days). "Sounds great" I think and set my concern aside, especially since I noticed on Furaffinity that he stated he was taking no new commissions until he got caught up.
May 27th comes by and, getting home from work, it suddenly strikes me that I hadn't heard from him. So I ask for another update, unaware I was catching him in a stream.
Now this news disappointed me, but I interpreted it (I would later realize mistakenly) that it would be done sometime in June and I went to bed figuring I would consider what to do (if anything) in the morning. The next morning is when I remembered that he had claimed he would take no new commissions until he was caught up.
Frustrated and angry over the fact that again he was telling me it would be "coming soon" all while he was doing yet more streams. I asked some new friends in the furry community what to do and they told me to go to Paypal and try to get a refund, even if it resulted in shutting down both of our paypal accounts (due to the commission being a sexual piece in nature, which violates the Paypal terms of service). I was worried this was a bit extreme. At this point I remembered I had the discord info of Charrwolf (the person I shared the commission with) and asked for his advice on this issue. He advised a more moderate approach by publicly bringing it up in the next stream chat.
I stated exactly what Charrwolf advised in the stream that evening. But it was deleted before I could even screenshot it. His partner Lobo then chastised me in private chat. Which, ok, thinking back on it. maybe it was a bit out of line, given it was a charity stream. but the commission in question was part of a charity stream from over 1 year and a half ago, so it seemed reasonable. (Following is the conversation with Lobo)
Badcoyote then contacts me on Twitter and, in re-reading the messages, I realized (as stated earlier) that in my frustration I had misinterpreted what he said as meaning it would be "done sometime in june" when what he said was that he was putting off working on it till June (which isn't better, but means I was in the wrong to bring it up in stream). The following is the conversation we had.
During the conversation, he states that there are others ahead of me with older commissions. When I ask about it, he deflects saying he won't talk about them. Frustrated again, but feeling bad for my misunderstanding, I sit back to wait and see if he delivers.
Badcoyote holds another stream in June where he takes more commissions.
So on June 20th, 2019, I ask for an update.
In his refusal to provide an update on the commission, he does imply that he had at least 27 commissions from 2017 or older (based on his previous insistence that he could not prioritize me over older commissions). Again he states it is coming soon with a 2 week deadline if I leave him alone to work. I do so, though not entirely out of my free will as I had my own health crisis in July and August.
In August, he again publicly blames job issues for delays in commission completions for the previous month.
On Sept 6, 2019, he opens a stream to take free sketches.
With my own life back in order, I asked for another update today (Sept 14,2018 at 9:03 am CST), to which he has given no response at this time (11:33pm CST). My instincts told me to give him time to respond, but my friends have urged me to post this to warn others. Seeing as giving him time has earned me no results, I have followed their advice. I hope no one else will have to deal with this. Beware Badcoyote / CritterCanvas.
Note: I don't know if I'm out of line for commenting on what occurred throughout the 2 year time span especially since I didn't include images to prove that occurred. I have evidence of most of it (except where I specifically state I don't), but did not include it as I worried it would be regarded as violating the restriction against personal info, even though it was publicly posted. So I summarized it to give explanation to why I had nothing in evidence for such a long period of time and why I kept giving him time to work despite how long it was overdue.
