So I commissioned Alzeaker a few weeks ago before this happened. His customer service was great, and had a quick turn around. I got two cheap ($10 each) sketches for my characters which turned out great. I found out he would be opening again, so the next time he opened (15/03/2019) I grabbed a slot as a gift for my partner.
I paid as usual and let him know. Sent over all the commission details, pose, character reference. Everything going well.
Proof of payment:
After about 10 days I get a sketch.
Sketch:
I asked if he could relax the brow and in fix the hands a bit, he said he would. That was 3 months ago.
Since then I've tried contacting him 3 times on FA via notes,
And twice on his page via a shout.
I've also tried contacting him over telegram , Facebook and Twitter, neither of the texts have been viewed.
I don't really expect this commission to be completed due to him removing all details from his FA and replacing it with this:
In addition to this there is a post Facebook with someone calling Alzeaker out for lack of completed work (Can easily be found by typing Alzeaker into facebook)
On top of all this he has been active and posting art on his Facebook,
You can find his Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/alzeaker/?ref=br_rs
as well as his other account here: https://www.facebook.com/caffeinedblackwolf
However, this is personal art. Not commission art which he appears to have a back log of.
At this point I don't think my commission will be finished seen as his customer service is limited, and just want to warn people by posting this to show his lack of professionalism (As I am aware there is another post regarding his lack of commission completion on Artist beware).
I contacted Shiro and asked about commissioning a refsheet for one of my characters, we discussed and agreed to payment, he stated that the commish would take about 2 weeks, I'm usually pretty lax with this kind of stuff but i did ask him if there was something after 3 weeks or so. no replies at all for about 2 months. He then returned and explained something about the government and military service. understandable so i didn't look further into it and even commished him a few more time, sketches and the like. bad move.
what soon followed was him completely ghosting me despite still being quite active, i gave the benefit of the doubt perhaps he didn't check the messages so i commented on a post telling him to check his messages, he saw it but didn't reply, he was replying to other people, and even saw others were dealing with this as well. While checking other twitter post he even stated that he was clear of coms, despite me having nothing from him.
Then the kicker, another person form the Thai furry community talked to me and informed me he is in a way their problem child, he was banned from any events in Thailand for his behavior and its common for him to pull this kind of stuff and keep people waiting a year or more. so in other words a ghosting artist who doesnt fulfill their end of the bargain and is very rude and unprofessional, I've filed a dispute with paypal and am currently waiting on that. but this is more of a warning for others, if you see this artist Avoid him and save yourself the annoyance of trying to deal with him.
November 13, 2016 was the time I reached out to her when I saw her via Lemma Soft Forums and discussed about a commission I wanted done. She was a little slow in regards to replying to my messages but I understood considering how she seemed to be a popular pick for commissions based on her website via deviant art. Nonetheless, she replied, gave her the benefit of the doubt, and paid her the amount of $150usd on November 30, 2016 upon agreement on the details I gave her and how much it'll cost me overall. Two other reasons why I thought she's not a fraud are:
1.) She immediately sent me 4 sketch options based on our discussion
2.) I read no negative feedback about her through Lemma Soft and Deviant Art at the time I commissioned her
I started becoming concerned when I noticed that I had to keep asking her about updates regarding my commission. Contacted her through her Deviant and Email and the last message she sent me is through email, January 20, 2017, telling me that she'll be sending me the second wip within that day but it never came. She didn't blocked me or anything and becoming a little more worried, I went to check on her deviant art again and saw that while she had thousands and thousands of lined up commissioned list, she barely responded to people who were starting to demand regarding their orders. I also noticed that she placed my order as almost done when she hasn't even updated me regarding my commission ever since that 1st sketch she sent which was on December 2016. ItaSlipy made several excuses, I say this now as an excuse as it has become ridiculously long, such as she's been sick, she's dealing with her wedding, she's sick again, her hands are giving her problems, etc etc. When the list of complaints were starting to pile up, ItaSlipy deliberately deleted her entire journal, slate clean, and "started all over again" as if nothing had happened. This lead me to believe that she's pretty much stolen people's money not only from Deviant, but from other websites as well where she offers her services. Surprisingly, she's still active in Lemma Soft and Deviant Art and I honestly cannot believe that she had the nerve to still accept commissions and now including Patreon.
I've attached the screen shots that I managed to snag. The payment, the emails I sent to her, and the supposedly "status" of my commission that she never even updated me about. I understand that this is like 2 years ago, but I would like for people to become aware of this artist. For those who has already commissioned her and wasn't fooled by her, you're very lucky. I just hope there are no more victims of her scheme. I've posted this on my Deviant Page and someone messaged me, redirecting me to this site.
So this all starts with Geckorobot1 (Nyx) Messaging in April asking for a commission. I happily accepted as, while i was working full time at this point, i still made time to do commissions but they were a bit slow going. I kept this person updated as frequently as possible, so communication wasn't an issue.
Fast forward to June, the commission is complete and needing to be sent out. I start seeing multiple bewares on twitter about this person filing charge-backs on people even when the art is completed so i hesitate on sending it out for things to die down and see the outcome of all these bewares, more to protect myself than anything.
A few days later, i get a charge-back filed through his credit card company. He claims he is not filing any of these chargebacks but i have proof via paypal this isn't the case and im very distraught, because along with the commission cost i now have to swallow the 20$ paypal fee (half the cost of the original commission+)
Dispute
Paypal transcript (Blocked out my name)
I wait to see if i get a message from this person explaining themselves, and i dont. Not a word. I end the dispute and eat the loss, and block them. I then contact paypal and was thankfully able to get a payout so i can safely keep the art and not have to worry about being scammed out of work already done AGAIN.
Without adding too much unnecessary info about the drama surrounding this and my conversations with this person arguing about insisting to pay after betraying my trust, I dont believe the list of excuses he gave as to why this happened. It went from, my paypal glitched to i deleted my paypal and it caused charge-backs to its my card messing up. None of which i believe as none of these things actually happen and i have proof from a paypal representative saying these were filed manually.
This made me so nervous to continue using paypal but the representative did say that digital artists have protection, so all i can really say is keep receipts of everything and contact the help center if something goes wrong. You are protected.
Since i didnt get to save messages of the transaction before i blocked here are messages admitting the charge-back and me denying further payment. I wish i could provide more info but since i shut the situation down so quickly after hearing from others i really didnt have the energy to hear more excuses/ arguing ways to get the art from me.
In November of 2018, I contacted Lui-Ra on Telegram to discuss a commission. I asked them to draw a character of mine, since at the time said character didn't have art. Once I contacted them and sent payment, they asked me for more details before suddenly going quiet. I have reason to believe I was blocked, though I can't imagine why that is. I also contacted them via Discord.
I have asked for a refund, but I doubt I will receive one any time soon.
I comissioned pinkbananaa at the end of november 2018. The comission should have been an christmas present and she knew that.
In december I got the update that she would start the comission now. In January she apologized because she had much to do, her dad was apparently sick and so on. I was understanding, since that can happen to anyone.
I havent gotten any updates since then, she also ignores my notes.
I will preface this with saying that I am genuinely actually very happy with the result. I am just displeased with what had to be done to get it.
This is the final result, and I do genuinely think it's a good one.
Moving forwards to the content to the beware:
Initially no problems were had aside from it being overdue. I don't have a screenshot of it but the journal stated a turnaround of 2-3 weeks and this took over a month. I consider this pretty negligible, however. I took no issue with this as I know life happens and I had seen some journals about her going through a rough spot so I just waited quietly until she got to me.
Payment was sent on May 25'th 2019 through paypal, and promptly paid up front.
Moving forwards to the 20'th and 21'st of June, correspondence began through email. The initial product that I got I did like, however I just wanted a minor change for character accuracy sake.
This was the ref provided
This was the secondary reference I had provided for clarification
This was the initial result
This was the second change
This was the correspondence surrounding that. Following this second change was radio silence, and someone brought to my attention it was being posted in its unfinished state. This understandably annoyed me a little bit. I can understand menstrual pain needing someone to take a break but this was over 24 hours of no correspondence before I found out it had been posted(End of my workday on the 21'st). The result was me asking her to respond or I would open a dispute with paypal.
Following this final correspondence, I had gotten radio silence for a bit more than an hour. At that point I decided to opt to open a paypal dispute - the problems I had were quickly resolved afterwards to her credit and within an hour of the dispute having been open I closed it having been satisfied.
Proof of the dispute being closed
The following morning I woke up to this. In the comments she proceeded to slander me more, and has offered to disclose my name to attempt to force me out of the community by being unable to commission artists.
Overall I would say this behavior is overly dramatic for the type of situation it was, and I hope it doesn't continue in future. Customers should not have to open disputes to get minor changes like this with the reasoning of "I'd rather move on to other projects, you'll have to deal" nor be slandered behind their backs.
On December 10th, 2017 I ordered a custom Gator Dog (A Closed Species Custom Character) from GatorBite.
This was the original custom post, but it has since been deleted even though not all customs were finished and it was the only link to the custom character Trello GatorBite Posted(more on that in a bit).
Here is where the original contact began, as well as one of the first attempts for me to get through to GatorBite about the commission. This will be relevant again later.
Here is the original note where we exchanged ideas about the commission and settled the payment.
After a few notes back and forth to get paypal working I got it paid for in full immediately.
Note 1 - Note 2
Payment Proof - Payment Proof 2
After the initial order I gave GatorBite a while to work on the order. Gatorbite had taken a few othe custom orders so I knew it would take a bit of time, however around April of the next year I started to get worried.
My Note To GatorBite In April 25th 2018 Which Was Read, But Never Responded To.
Another In June 25th 2018 Which Was Also Read, Never Responded To
Then on July 15th 2018 I noted GatorBite about a custom GatorDog I got from another artist with a slot from Gatorbite. For Gatordogs you must have GatorBite approve them before they are official. In this note I asked Gatorbite to approve of the Gatordog, and it was approved with an almost immediate response. However Gatorbite has STILL not responded to my other notes up to this point. (to be clear, this note was about another Gatordog custom by another artist that simply needed to be approved as an official Gatordog. No art or WIP have been sent by GatorBite at this point.)
Going back to the original comment chain on the custom post now, Here you can see that I contacted Gatorbite again on August 8th of 2018 about the custom and about not being listed on the custom trello. Gatorbite said they would note me in a second, but never did. The trello was never updated with me on it, and is still not updated to this day. (again more on that in a bit).
On September 3rd, 2018 I filed a refund request with Paypal. Even though it had been longer than 6 months I was hoping they could do something to help. After it was declined, I got this message from Gatorbite. It is the ONLY time Gatorbite has reached out to me with an update without prompting in the almost two years its been since I ordered the custom. After responding back that I was glad to hear from Gatorbite, I was immediately ghosted again.
On January 25th, 2019 I contacted Gatorbite yet again asking about my refund or for an update, and again never got a response.
The VERY NEXT DAY, Gatorbite posted a journal titled "Sorry If I'm Slow" about not being around to respond to notes much. I found this rather suspicious and weird that it was right after I noted Gatorbite to no response.
On March 4th, 2019 I tried to contact Gatorbite yet again. This time I was much more detailed and to the point. I am usually easy going about commissions, but I admit I had enough at this point. To my surprise I actually got a response this time, however right after it was radio silence again.
My final note to Gatorbite was on June 12th, 2019. Once again I kindly poked Gatorbite to see what the progress was, and once again I was ignored completely.
Here is proof that Gatorbite read my note but still has not responded.
And now finally for the trello. The custom character trello has not been updated since June 4th, 2018. I can link the actual, live trello if the mods would prefer, but to protect the other commissioners I have attached just a screenshot for now. As of now I am STILL not listed on the trello at all, and Gatorbite tried to delete the original submission with the only link to this Trello. If I didn't screenshot all of this months ago, I wouldn't have it now as proof.
During the last year and a half, Gatorbite has continued to take on more commissions and complete and sell adoptables. There have been a few adoptables that would have met almost exactly what I wanted for the custom even. Despite this, I still have not received even a WIP for the commission.
Beyond posting this beware it seems that there is not much I can do to get the art or a refund when the artist is avoiding me so much. I feel like i've wasted precious time and money on this, only to still have nothing come out of it. I will try to contact the artist again soon and see what can be done. If the issue is resolved I will come back and mark the beware as so. Until then I am extremely unsatisfied with the artist level of communication and professional skills.
I paid for a commission that cost me 40 USD plus 5$ to convert it to her country's currency. She told me it would be done in a week or less and a MONTH later there was no update, her last message to me was that it would "be done tomorrow." After that she ghosted me, never did the commission and never refunded me.
This happed 10 months ago. I refrained from posting it here because I assumed something must of happened with her personal life because she became absent from FF altogether. Now she is back. And I nicely asked her for a refund, but, she never answered me. I'm quite sure if she blocked me I would not be able to note her in the first place.
I also gave her time to refund me and even just apologize, but she continues to not answer me.
Paid for a Commission to Olivedrake for a Two character (Recipient's sona and my own) color digital commission. Poses and setting were left up to the artist to choose. Payment also included cost to cover a package to be sent, however artist only used $15 of the provided $50. Agreed amount was decided and payment was sent on February 21st. Artist works two jobs and I was aware of that, and was understanding of that. Paypal payment shown below.
I continued to ask about the commission (as well as the package) off and on during the following months, since the artist is bad at proactively keeping her clients up to date on what is going on.
May 28th, 2019: Package was sent at a cost of $15.58. Less then half the $50 originally sent.
May 30th, 2019: She had sent the package I asked her about it as well as the commission and she said she was going to use what was left from the package to send another one later on. She also stated that it would "take her a little longer to work on art", however she did not say if this meant she had started the commission or not. Simply that it takes her a little longer to work on art. No Work in Progresses or sketches had been sent to me at this point, nor had visual updates been provided from her. As she continued to say "I've been busy with work and haven't been able to work on it yet" until this point.
Something I was not privy to prior to paying for the commission was that she has a health condition that becomes inflamed due to pushing herself too far in Art College.
June 6th, 2019: Went to message her and ask how she was doing, and found out she had blocked and removed me on Telegram, Discord and had blocked my phone number on her phone. There was no indication of a problem from her and no issues with hearing back from her nor getting a hold of her until this point.
Here is the Telegram Chat.
She also cleared the entire Telegram chat history, thus preventing me from getting any documentation from program.
I have no way of getting my money back as of now. Paypal was unable to help (due to the artist asking that I use personal payment to pay for the costs) and Paypal instructed me to go to my bank. My bank was also unable to assist me because they can no longer help their customers with a dispute after 60 days.
I hope this Beware will help others avoid losing money to this artist like I did. Please do not support or buy from this artist, unless you wish to risk throwing your income down the drain. Don't make the same mistake I did.
