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.
I've never made a beware before, so bare with me.
5/4//2019 I commissioned this user for a sketch page via Discord. Here is the screenshot of me commissioning her.
1.) https://gyazo.com/06441cec45ba67f0f6044514191211b6
5/13/2019 I asked for an update, and got this. Seemed to be going well.
2.) https://gyazo.com/5911dcfe3d61a128d4baccbcadab75ea
5/28/2019 I asked for another update, this was said.
3.) https://gyazo.com/df9273acf11c889ee6d7cf4584df2d23
Last Tuesday, reached out to her, and still no reply.
4.) https://gyazo.com/ff1d37724e7c9e770962c1ef6651c860
I go to check her DeviantArt page, and I find this.. An empty DA: https://gyazo.com/f670d3d94e9d98be2cb7934655b30711
I urge anyone wanting to commission this user to proceed with heavy caution. Fortunately, I was able to get my refund back from her after messaging her through toyhou.se and threatening to put a beware on her. Soon after, she went into "quiet mode" on her toyhou.se where we could contact her, and said left this message: "Going on hiatus for a while. Guest mode and quiet mode are on, dont contact me."
I have here some pics of our agreement regarding the following art piece I did for the trade (warning NSFW). This Trade started around June 4th, 2019.
She has not sent me any form of WIPs for a mod on SecondLife that she owes me. She has said that she would finish it multiple times. So I felt like i was owed either my mod or the money for my hard work and time. She asked me for WIPs and I sent them to her. I have been patient, understanding, and have been as professional as I could. Then when i confronted her one last time, she showed her true colors to me in a very unprofessional and childish way. She has been disrespectful and has demeaned my work out of anger.
Hi.
This is a story of two buyers who didn't pay us for our work.
A little explanation before I start:
I work together with FyreDraygg. I take care of public relations and make some types of commission; he doesn't talk to our buyers, but is always informed by me about everything he has to know. This is stated on our Terms of Service, automatically accepted when someone decides to commission us.
That being said, let's start.
Terri contacted us on 6 December 2018 asking for a Night in The Woods graphic (a type of commission FyreDraygg does) featuring four characters.
(If you're unfamiliar with the platform it's Plus Messenger. It's Telegram with a different interface)
(I know the correct total was 26€ (6,5 x 4 = 26€) when I wrote 24€, , I made a mistake, but I let that slide even after I noticed.)
Then they proceeded sending us the character references.
I gave them an indicative date as, per policy, we can't ensure any completion date.
I also explained them FyreDraygg will work on their piece (even if they should have known reading our ToS or, simply, my FurAffinity page).
We chatted a little bit, nothing relevant for this.
They contacted me on 12 December 2018, 2 January 2019, 28-29 January 2019 and 7 April 2019 asking about the WIP.
As I told them before, I have a proper channel where I send any update on any commission I'm working on, to let people know what I'm working on, but I still accept people asking me privately.
Finally, on 22 May 2019 I send them the final picture; I know, we took so long, but again we give no guarantees about completion dates and this is clearly stated in our ToS.
Then, problems arose. Again, as per our policy:
"A situation where we finish our job and the client delays payment due to not having the required funds available is not at all acceptable and lands said client directly in the blacklist, along with us reporting such incidents to all market platforms."
...but I tried to be understanding: we took a lot of time and I've decided to be more patient in turn.
I was still annoyed because it was just about 6€ per person, not a really large amount, but I kept this for myself. I just wanted to be payed, nothing else, I didn't care about judging other people's finances.
Then I contacted them on 27 May 2019, 10 June 2019 and lastly 21 June 2019. It was becoming a large problem because I had to file my tax declaration and I needed this payment to be done asap. I also explained this problem to them.
Then, they forwarded a message from another person (a friend who was taking part to this commission), apologizing and promising we will receive payment very soon (I'm censoring personal emails & Paypal addresses).
Then, suddenly they asked to change the price because "2 of the characters weren't used at all". We had been graceful enough to decline charging them extra delay fees when offered, the commission was already dirt-cheap discounted to begin with and while we took a long time to deliver, this gave them plenty of time to notice they weren't using a character and telling us about it. Furthermore, after receiving the WIP, they had yet another chance to ask for changes, which they didn't and now, when pressed for payment, they magically discover issues with the work.
They also complained about us not sending them any WIPs, which we clearly provided as a release candidate due to the nature of the work.
Thus, since work on 4 characters had already been done, that work would have to be paid.
We couldn't send any invoice via Paypal any earlier because we didn't have any email to send it to; the buyer seemed extremely reluctant to provide any such information and had to be solicited multiple times before complying.
The invoice expiration date was set for 15 days after issuing (my email is a public business email, I don't feel the need to censor it) and Maxx promised to pay after Friday (it was June 21, then payment should have been sent after June 28).
As you can see from the screenshot I took today it's still "on hold", while the second one (from another person) is paid. Just a comparison if you're not familiar with Italian.
The invoice will technically expire tomorrow, but since we are way past any set deadlines, we figured we weren't going to receive any payment and decided to cancel this order, ban these buyers from our service and initiatives and report them to the proper platforms as stated in our ToS.
I perfectly understand things can be hard in life, we took a lot of time to complete this piece, but on the other hand if a person commissions some work from someone else, they should keep the proper funds available by setting money aside from the start, not pay at their leisure and blaming it on the worker for completing their work at an inconvenient time.
I also offered them to pay after a WIP because I know it could took more time than expected.
And again, we're talking about 6€ per person; I don't think someone who struggles to set aside the price of a 12-pack of Pepsi should preoccupy themselves with ordering art, but that's just my personal opinion.
These users contacted me on Telegram and, apart from personal emails, I don't have any other contact.
I give you name, nickname and id because it's all I have directly; after some sleuthing I found Terri on FurAffinity.
Terri J. Flippo, @ZoopLoopz, id: 642843923
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/turriboo
Maxx "Wretch", @trashmutt, id: 353535756
