Who: Dubmutt
Where: Twitter @dub_mutt
What: Graphic art print
Amount: $19.49
Details:
On May 11, 2019, I purchased one of Dubmutt’s prints on a site called Storeenvy. The order came to $19.49. The description said that she ships these same day if purchased before 2pm, which I had done.
June 5th comes along and I still don’t have the print or any shipping email. I messaged her on her email asking about the print status, explaining that I don’t have a tracking number, shipping confirmation, or the print itself after almost a month of purchase.
I had also messaged her on Twitter on June 7th after no reply from the email, explaining the same thing in case she didn’t check her email/was more active on Twitter. To be on the safe side, I also opened a PayPal dispute for item not received on the same day.
Later on the 7th soon after I open the dispute, Dubmutt conveniently gets back to me through Twitter. Her excuse was that she “never got the notification that I bought the print.” Which I find weird because obviously she got my money for the print, it’s not like the money appeared out of nowhere.
She promised to ship the item right away which I then received on June 10. She had provided a tracking number and I got the shipping confirmation email. I had closed the PayPal case (which I now know was a bad idea).
I open the print from the rolling tube it was packed in and immediately notice large, visible creases all over the print. Dissatisfied, I messaged Dubmutt on Twitter again, telling her the situation and providing images of the creases. She blamed it on tampering from the post office, despite the package being securely sealed.
She had promised me a refund as well as a free replacement print. I provided my email for the refund in case she needed it again. She had said that she was out of town and wouldn’t be able to send the refund or the replacement until the “beginning of July.” I was fine with that and waited.
July 3 comes along, I message her on Twitter politely asking about the refund and replacement. No reply.
I wait, and email her on July 11, politely asking the same thing. No reply.
The 18th comes along and I still have not heard from her or got the refund or replacement.
Because I had stupidly closed the case on PayPal too early, I am out of luck. I am new to disputes with PayPal and I was unaware that you couldn’t open a second case if something else went wrong with the transaction. I contacted PayPal and they could do nothing for me.
Today on the 19th, Dubmutt has finally gotten back to me via Twitter, after saying she would at the beginning of this month. She now says that she wishes I would have sent her images of the packaging that the print was shipped in to “prove” to her that it was not tampered with. I insisted that the packaging was in perfect condition and that only the print was damaged, for whatever reason. Also, I told her that there was no reason for me to think of randomly taking images of a perfectly intact package. She had no reply to that.
She is now denying my refund that she promised over a month ago and is telling me to file a claim with USPS instead for tampering. First of all, I’m not going through the hassle of a usps claim for $20. Second, even if I wanted to, I don’t have any of the packaging, paperwork, or the print itself anymore which I also told her. So how on earth would I even make a claim with usps with nothing to show them?
So not only did Dubmutt make me wait way longer than she promised, she is now denying the refund that she assured I would get, instead coming up with a ridiculous excuse to not to and has no concept with what I’m saying to her.
Lesson learned to never close a PP case until you get the item and it’s in good condition with no other problem. I know now I am ultimately to blame because I wasn’t unaware you could open a second claim.
Woke up to a charge back on Paypal this morning.
I sold an adopt I previously bought to Fytch back in March, I have the conversation where you can see she clearly agreed on the payment and agreed that she saved/received all the art of the character.
I have already sent all of this to Paypal, I have also spoken with Paypal to which they told me they are aware of Fytch doing a lot of charge-backs recently. They stated that unfortunately Fytch went through her bank/credit card and that they would have to send my proof to them and wait for a decision.
Until then, I just want other to be aware that this is happening a LOT and I hope that it stops.
It's been nearly two years from commission date and having only ever had limited contact that has always been initiated by me has left me to believe this is the only viable choice left for me as I'm well out of the charge back window through PayPal. I messaged the user on my birthday planning to get a piece done in honor of the occasion as they had been advertising previously about doing in-stream commissions. I had commissioned them once before that had somewhat of a waiting period which was understandable at the time. However, with this being in-stream I had imagined that the turnaround would be far briefer than the last one. When we agreed to the terms of the commission it was over Discord because I had established that connection with them during the prior commissioning.
I paid them $80 and would go months at a time without hearing anything from them. I would occasionally mention at the subject and try to get some sort of update but would often be ignored. When I would recall that I still had the commission outstanding with them, I would even go so far as to try and talk to them and change up the idea to something that I hoped would pique their interest enough to knock it out. Overall it had no effect and I would continue to be ignored as things carried on. I was never officially added onto the queue and so when I had brought up in notes through FA that I hadn't received any progress or word on my commission it was met with skepticism until I dug the chat logs up to show them. After promising they would add me to their queue and finish the commission, this was never followed through.
They continue to take in stream commissions, ychs, post art on twitter and FA but refuse to pay me back or give any kind of set date for payment. It's hard to believe if they are out of town and are too busy to get me my refund that they would have enough time to take in stream commissions for hours at a time.
As of right now I have been given the seventeenth as the next update time. I will update accordingly until things are resolved in some way.
On the 19.03.2019 a person nicknamed Fytch contacted me in order to commission a custom base from me, which they would later use to sell YCH art with. On the 20.03.2019, they asked me for my PayPal link in order to pay me.
I haven't received the payment at that point but I continued to work on the drawing nerveless. On the 21.03.2019, I finally received the payment and was able to send the base in a psd file to Fytch. They also paid me 25$ instead of 15$ for my hard work.
And all was fine until today (17.07.2019). I logged to my PayPal, just to learn that the payment from Fytch got refunded because of an "unauthorized transaction". My account got sustained until the whole situation gets cleared out.
At the moment when I'm typing this, my account is still at loss for 23,27 USD.
Please, let me know if you find someone using the base seen below to earn profits with it. THEY DO NOT OWN THE RIGHTS TO IT! Thank you.
On July 24th 2018, I messaged Leone on Furry Amino asking if he had anymore slots left since he's an artist that I've commissioned several times before with no issue. So, I assumed that there would be no problems this time either and that all should go well, and I decided on a $57 half-body commission. An invoice was sent to me the next day (25th) and paid in full.
I followed up with another message on August 10th asking if the commission could be changed to a different character if he hadn't started on it yet, which was OK'd and I provided a reference for the new character I wanted it to be of. Some messages are left out due to irrelevancy, since we were on friendly terms and would chit-chat about things unrelated to my commission in-between things. A character name is also censored due to them (the character) no longer belonging to or being associated with me.
This is where the gaps in communication began. I didn't hear from him again until a month later (September 18th) but was aware of IRL issues that he had been experiencing at the time, so I didn't mind being patient and waiting as long as he needed. After September 18th, I didn't hear from him again until October 2nd and apologized in case a username change on my end had caused any confusion. He stated having more issues, so I didn't want to cause him any additional stress and was content to continue waiting.
After October, I didn't hear from him again until November 9 and was made aware of a post that pertained to his IRL happenings and why the delays were happening. So, again, I was content to wait as long as needed and didn't hear from him again until January of this year when I was the one to reach out and message him on the 4th & 7th. I was becoming less active on Amino at this current time, so our conversation switched over to Twitter DMs after this point. I was told that my commission had been completed and that the file had simply been misplaced, although I never received or saw any WIPs of it prior to this whereas I had been sent WIPs every other time I've commissioned him. I tried to remain as understanding as possible and politely asked for a refund.
After speaking with him on January 7th & 8th, I then heard from him on the 15th and was given a partial refund since he stated being unable to deliver the finished commission to me due to problems with his computer. Was also told that he was having issues with misplacing completed commissions in general. I was happy to receive an update and partial refund of my commission, but then another large gap ensued where there was no further communication from him until March. After March, I didn't hear from him until three months later (this past) June when I was the one to message him asking for another update.
I mentioned that I wouldn't mind commissioning him again sometime regardless of the issues concerning this particular transaction, since I do love his work and had always had pleasant experiences working with him prior to this. Details were discussed, and I decided that I would be fine with a newer character of mine being drawn rather than receiving the remainder of my refund.
I was updated on June 19th and told that he would be beginning work on it and also saw that he had simultaneously posted an opening for more slots on Amino. I was more hopeful that my commission would be completed this time considering that I did receive a sketch, but this hasn't been the case seeing as he's completed everyone else's commissions for the batch he just took mid-June excluding mine, which is something that I've been waiting on for almost a year now. I've received no further updates since July 8th and am somewhat frustrated with this and feel guilty about pressing for more updates, because I'm a very quiet and anxious person.
I still have yet to receive the finished commission or any updated WIPs beyond the sketch.
Our entire conversation starting at the point where I confronted them regarding the charge backs here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kytjdKIUkqUK82fOgdv-Rz-1h1-ZOUMn/view?usp=sharing
Geckorobot1 received their artworks:
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/30840303/
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/31188488/
Starting at 06/14/2019
The first piece totaling $180 and the second $220, with the breakdowns sent via invoice on paypal, my TOS is listed here : https://www.charmrage.com/terms-of-service, since I want everyone to have all the information at hand. I began by asking them what had happened though already another artist had contacted me since this chargeback happened along with several to 7 artists that I know of in total. They began by telling me that they paypal glitched out and opened all of these cases, and that the account was then deleted.
I asked for them to reach out to paypal, and have the disputes removed, at this time I had paypal funds and I had not been in financial danger so I wanted to find a resolution. They offered to send a new payment, which i declined since you are 1. not supposed to take money for services through friends and family 2. would not remove the cases against me on my business account which would affect my credibility with paypal, they also offer a contract which I also reject. I asked if they would call, but eventually called my self and the disputes were removed by paypal, and they stated that the bank denied their clients claims and ruled in my favor. At this time I believed it was over, the situation made me feel uneasy, but the claims were removed. This all happened over the course of the weekend.
06/19/2019
On this day I was notified that one of the cases was re-opened and that, I lost the other one due to lack of shipping. I immediately contacted paypal and they informed me that the bank had re-opened the cases at the clients request. At this point I wrote my quick AB on twitter since this person was still getting art and there were too many things pointing to a potential scam. They reached out to me again offering to pay, and I ask them to reach out to their bank and have the cases removed. This also brings up the fact that it was not a paypal glitch or account cancellation that had triggered any of this like I was told, it was a dispute filed through the bank. I told them to reach out tho their bank and they find reasons why they are not able to opting to e-mail them. They continue to ask me several time to take care of it like I did before, which I already mentioned to them was not possible. It seems at this point all of their payment methods are failing and no change occurs. They offer to use square, which the same thing can happen on in the same way.
06/21/2019
They continue to try to pay me in methods I refuse since they are not legitimate, I cannot trust this person so I don't want to receive payment in a method they can repeat this. These other methods would then not be attached to the services done so then their disputes would become valid.
07/02/2019
By this time I have lost both my cases with paypal, their bank sided with them. Their bank won't re-open the cases for them and state they opened the cases.
07/04/2019
I offer them the ability to pay me back through Zelle which is another payment service, but would not be attached to my business account and is not possible to chargeback on. They offer to use Western Union but at this point I refuse to spend more time going to a location to pick up[ money when the payment service I mentioned can be done via a phone, involving no parties to go anywhere just sent the money.I ask, since I was left under the impression that I was going to receive payment, turns out that they still need to pay other artists.
07/14/2019
They offer to mail the cash even though I have explained that I will only use Zelle, which to me is again not safe of legitimate. They then proceed to become upset over the post AB on my twitter.
They at this point have still not paid me, and I don't feel any progressive change occurring only arguing, I included the rest of the chat so as to not hide anything.
In November 2018, I contacted Cakepawss on Etsy about commissioning a large custom plush. They quickly responded and service was great, however after I paid and received the initial sketch, they never contacted me further. Roughly every two months I politely requested an update, and only received replies when I voiced feeling I might be scammed. They have not sent me any proof they even have the materials to make the plush I ordered, much less any intention of completing it. By July of 2019 I filed a complaint with Etsy and informed the artist, who quickly responded they would send proof soon. They did not send proof, and since then Etsy has refunded my purchase. Several months prior (sometime around March I believe?) their Etsy shop was shut down. They still continued to claim they were working on my order, however. Attached are some screencaps of their responses on Etsy, and the post they made on Twitter immediately after I contacted them. They did claim they had a lot going on in their life, which is why I was willing to work with them as long as I was. However they refused to even acknowledge any questions regarding when they would actually send proof, much less the complete work.
I commissioned Poyu September 15th, 2016 for a NSFW YCH of my OC, Elizabeth. I paid $250 (AB price) instead of the highest bid of $80. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21088105/
Poyu provided a Lightshot screen capture link as proof of receiving the money.
In addition, she provided this link in a note towards me confirming the payment had gone through.
On September 29th, 2016, Poyu had messaged me how she would be working on this YCH, among other commissions, that week and provided a Trello link for me to check for updates.
https://trello.com/b/knQJ6GEr/belle-poyu-art Allegedly the lineart was complete, but there was no proof of that; no WIP provided in both the Trello or message to me.
That was the last I ever had contact with Poyu. I attempted to contact her several times through Twitter DMs and stream whispers since that day. All of my attempts to contact her were ignored. As it turned out, she had quietly abandoned the furry community, a commission that had not been finished, and closed commissions indefinitely. Given how she completely disappeared I gave up at the time and did not know of Artists Beware.
However, she made a sudden return to FurAffinity and very clearly forgotten about the commission. I addressed it to her:
I gave her a full week for the refund, and she still has not replied whatsoever.
It has been a full 7 days since then with nothing but radio silence. Had Poyu at the very least acknowledge the situation she is in and explained any issues she may have in her life that would otherwise prevent her from refunding me, I just might have been more lenient, but this is same exact behavior she had several years ago.
While this artist has seemingly closed commissions indefinitely, that does not leave out the possibility of her reopening for whatever reasons she may have. In any case, this person is not to be trusted.
