ravensmoon666 (ravensmoon666) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-12-31 16:40
Artist Beware: Underthedarkness
WHO: Underthedarkness
WHERE: Furaffinity, Toyhouse, Trello.
WHAT: A 40$ full body flat and a 90$ YCH.
WHEN: 05/01/2018 for the flat colours and 05/19/2018 for the YCH until the current date.
EXPLAIN:
I will say in advanced I do not have as much proof of all of this as I'd like, we used to talk over notes for previous commissions but after she invited me to her Discord server we talked over Discord DM's. I never had her added as a friend on there since I could just DM her because I was in her server. While this was going on I had closed our DM conversation by accident as I close ones I am not currently using and only found out about her jumping ship after I went to message her and noticed she removed me from her server (or just deleted it all together.) I cannot open our DM's unless she is a friend or I know her ID which I do not. Everything below is mostly written from memory with rough date estimates.
I used to commission Under a lot and didn't have that many issues outside of her being very slow with commissions (From personal experience and dates I had noticed on her public Trello from other people commissioning her). Recently I had commissioned her for a reference of my persona and she did a really amazing job (I did end up paying her extra money to rush it though as I wanted it done soon) so when I saw she was steadily posting journals talking about how she was desperate for money and opening for emergency commissions I felt bad and had messaged her asking her if I could commission her to do a dragon-taur rendition of my persona. She said she had never drawn one before but she could try. I told her that if it was too hard for her and she ended up not liking it she could scrap it and chose another one of my characters to draw instead. She agreed, I linked her my characters to chose from if stuff went wrong and we exchanged details.
She had been posting a lot of journals still talking about how she needed money and posting YCH's. She was having a hard time selling this one YCH commission I liked a lot but I didn't have the money for. She had reduced it from 100 down to 80 before removing it later, and I ended up messaging her to ask if it sold. She told me no that she didn't think anyone was interested so she just removed her. I asked her if she could hold it till next pay period and she agreed. She told me I could either pay the reduced price or more but it was my choice and I met her in the middle and sent 90$
About a month later she gives me an extremely rough sketch (basically just the body roughly sketched and the top half being the anatomy skeleton shapes) I approved it and she went quiet.
I didn't hear much from her but kept an eye on her journals. She majorly had journals over the next few months talking about breaking up with her ex, losing her job, getting a new job, family problems etc. She kept taking on more commissions, even doing in-stream ones and not really working on her others.
Sometime in October I noticed the chargeback date was coming close and given her history with being slow on commissions and noticing how bad she "needed money" I was worried that she wouldn't get my commission done for a while and messaged her telling her I was sorry and I felt like an asshole but that I had to put my foot down despite knowing everything she was going through but I was going to be needed a refund. She messaged me telling me that she understood and that I wasn't an asshole but that since she had no money it would be a while, but if I gave her another month she would get the art done. I told her I loved her artwork and wouldn't mind waiting but if it went further than that I would have to go down the refund route, she said she understood and we went on. (My mistake as I should have started the dispute then)
Occasionally she'd send me a message telling me she would work on my comm soon, and halfway through the time she started working on the YCH and sent me a sketch. It barely had any work added to it, basically just went over the already drawn outlines and reduced the characters breast size (something I had asked as my character is supposed to have small breast and the YCH by default had large ones) I approved it and she went silent once again.
The date for a month had come and gone, I even gave her a few days longer just in case before I went to Paypal to open a case, I knew I was already too late for the first commission but thought I still had a day or two for the second one (I opened both anyways) and Paypal automatically declined them because of them being outside the date. I knew the only hope I'd get my money back was if I messaged her so I went and messaged her telling her I would need a refund. She said that she thought I would at least give her "till the end of the month" (when I asked for a refund the month before it was midway through the month, not at the end) and that she didn't have the funds but would give me a refund when she could. Not too soon later I saw she had uploaded a journal saying she would be refunding EVERYONE on her queue and that she was depressed and no longer felt like drawing so she felt this would be easier. She said she would be looking at how much she owed everyone and would post how much she owed everyone on a public list. She also started "spamming" her TH trying to sell her characters for refunds.
A few days later she posted a journal stating that someone had forced chargebacked her and she was in the negative so refunds would take longer.
Halfway through December, she sent me a message saying she would be able to give me at least a partial refund in January and I told her I was happy she was keeping me updated and thanked her. She had also moved her refund list to her profile info.
12/30/2018: I was going through my Discord servers and noticed that hers was no longer on my list. I had a sinking feeling and went to check her FA and sure enough, it's disabled. I tried all kinds of methods to try to find our closed chat to no avail, I remembered a user that used to be a friend of hers/ on the refund list so I decided to message them and see if they knew anything/ at least knew her Discord ID so I find our messages.
12/31/2018: I woke up to a message from the said friend and they said they were pretty sure she deleted her discord as it no longer showed them as friends anymore and that she wasn't answering her text but if they found out anything they'd let me know. Before I could respond they then sent me another one saying that Under had blocked them on everything, including Twitter and Instagram and that it was heartbreaking as they were best friends. So I'm pretty sure Under has completely jumped ship. (I have these notes still if screencaps are needed but since it was kinda personal I didn't feel comfortable/ thinking it would be allowed)
I saw that her TH was still active so I left a shout telling her I was appalled and that I would be writing an AB/ trying to go through my bank.
PROOF:
Proof of payment: https://i.imgur.com/6bQZYYc.png
Announcing refunds: https://i.imgur.com/1QIy2fH.png
Chargeback journal: https://i.imgur.com/bN8Q3ZQ.png
Refund list journal: https://i.imgur.com/AiG3nwi.png According to this she owes people in total (including me) at least 1,271$
I honestly somewhat wouldn't mind just having the art completed but in the end, I'd rather just have my money back and be done with it. I'm very upset with her and myself as I knew better than to let it go outside the chargeback date but I did it anyway. I'm thinking about contacting my bank to see if there is anything that can be done from other transactions I've had with her but even then it won't add up to the amount she owes me.
Back in March 2016 i commissoned Mitha for a full digitigrade lynx fursuit. I paid 50% upfront, 1250$ with paypal. Suit should be finished january 2017. I never wanted to post a beware like this and it took me about an year to make this decision but i don't want to waste more time on this person. I have always been polite, tried to be patient and helpfull to resolve this issue as you will see but i got nothing but worries, anger and lies!
Mitha please just sent this money back i want to be done with this and you finally, get back to me again and stop running away from your mistakes!
FA note about claiming the slot
Payment poof
I contacted her several times but didn’t get real updates for my suit, sadly i’m not able to provide the full conversations since this ist he only chat that is completly gone but i made a few screenshots at the time i got the messages because i was really excited about getting a fursuit.
I asked about the timeframe to get my suit before and i sent secondlife screenshoots of the character design, i think,we talked from time to time but nothing related to my suit i asked about her jaw sculpting and showed her a suithead i build meanwhile.
Before my paypal protection ended she messaged me to send my DTD including shoes i should buy for the feetpaws.
I did and was waiting again until she noted me that she got my DTD, that it was well made and my body would be the next she is working on.
A couple of weeks later she contacted me on FA, because of the pawpads and nose color of my suit, she said skype is not working, could have been around my birthday within the first 2 weeks of november because i had been on holiday at this time.
After this i tried again to get in touch with her on skype but i got no reply.
We decided to keep in touch in telegram from now. I asked about any updates, she told me she is sorry that she is slow with this an that she is behind, my suit would be finished 2-3 month later. I was ok with that at this time, early december 2016. Since she was answering i didn't worry about getting nothing...
I asked again for updates in febuary 2017 without a reply, in march i asked again because she posted some stuff on Twitter, i might have gotten wrong, but i still didn‘t get any info about my suit. I started to get afraid to get nothing from her since she didn't reply and was posting this on twitter.
After she told me pretty rough that i should contact her on twitter i noted in the end of april because she didn’t got back to me. Got no reply so i tried again in may with what i am thinking about all this and got a reply a couple of days later. She told me about the situation and agreed to a full refund on 04.05.217. This wasn't an easy thing to me i really liked her stuff and i don't wanted to get her in trouble i offerd a payment plan even.
I was waiting abou 2 month without any contact, refund or info about the timeframe of the paymentplan i contacted her again first time without a reply, about a week later she answered. Her excuse was the gender thing on twitter she did.
And there was no refund but silence again, i contacted her several time before i got a reply. I suggested a paymentplan again with rates and dates...
Since she wasn't pretty activ on twitter during this time i asked her where to find her now.
I was sending my bankstuff to her emailadress and several emails where i asked her about the refund but i didn't get a reply so i started to get back on her on twitter. Sadly i can't provide screenshots of this emails they are gone out of the sent objects because its too long ago ? For sure i didn't get emails on the other email adress too because she never send them ?
She got back to me with excuses she had to make and save this money first, wait who was stating on twitter that is is always easy to refund 2k? Mitha!
There was silence after this for 3 weeks, then she got back to me with blablabla excuses and of course she lost our whole conversation and memory about what happened before...
Of course she wasn't able to show me a thing but wanted to send a refund again, but suprise she didn't and suddelny the paypal option was gone too. At this point i opened up a etsy shop with an offer for her to buyout to refund me but she ignored this option and me, i sent another message 5 days later and provided the info again but nothing happened. Weeks later she noted me she is able to do the banktransfer now and offerd a free mask to me but guess what, i got nothing xD
She got back to me again with excuses, i offerd the esty thing again and got ignored, then i asked for the otter partial instead of money but it was gone. a few weeks later she announced that she is closing up her shop and that there will be no more premades. I worried about our agreement to choose one of the upcoming premades because she said she won't do premades anymore and asked her about. I explained why i wanted the partial instead of money and that i take money when there are no more partials available and she agreed again and wanted to get back to me when she is able to afford the refund. She really got back to me but again i got nothing ?
After this i haven't heard from her until i commented below her actual IG posts where she was trying to sell a fullsuit and a head, she blocked me after our conversation in IG and i'm still waiting for my refund.
On September 21st of 2018 Kircai posted a journal, that has long since been deleted, offering up "Nintendo Themed Commissions" I jumped at the chance to get one, requesting a pic of my sona dressed as Majoras Mask link while also having been regressed with Skull kid/Majora teasing him about playing the song of time too many times. The finalized pic did NOT represent this, and Kircai was very rude towards me, neglected to give any form of progress pics or sketches, and ended up blocking me so i couldn't let him know i was displeased with the final product. This was the final pic:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0xj12f7dtxwgx7g/Nintendo - Guba 2.png?dl=0
The only proof i have of him accepting the commission is the paypal transaction:
https://i.imgur.com/bvAAR6U.png
No further notes or messages were exchanged, other then a comment form him saying he had received payment and would get to work right away on the journal he has since deleted. I opted not to bother Kircai for over a month, as a previous attempt to speak to him resulted in a very rude response and him telling me not to bother him. After a month of not hearing anything from him I tweeted at him asking about the pic, he gave the following reasoning for not giving any updates:
https://i.imgur.com/42WFwuF.jpg
Everything seemed fine, he gave a reason for being delayed, wasn't rude, and said he would have an update 'tomorrow'. But tomorrow didn't happen, in fact i didn't hear anything from him for another 2 months, during which time he took on piles of new commissions, deleted the journal on FA, and even stopped posting to FA altogether. Finally i decided to tweet at him again about the commission after he opened new commissions for the new year (and had posted a couple as well), but this time he was very rude, made up multiple excuses, and even tried to blame me for his delays:
https://i.imgur.com/MyRkvBe.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qh4tCgz.jpg
He proceeds to lay all the blame on me, claiming i "Didn't fill the form out correctly" and that caused him to "draw the wrong thing" then my attempt to ask about the commission (which he states in the previous message i didnt reach out, then says i did in the next?) caused him to rush the work and mess up. Then he tried to tell me in the same message that he was planning to do a second free pic for making me wait and because i was 'patient and kind', again saying this in the same message where he blames me for everything.
I attempted to point this all out to him, explaining that if i did the form wrong he should have asked me to correct it prior to taking payment, as well as him taking on new commissions, and tell him that i didn't 'reach out' because the last time i tried he told me not to bother him. From there he just kinda goes off the rails, i attempt to apologize for making him feel rushed, he claims he owes me NOTHING despite not even doing the commission i paid for properly, then blocks me.
https://i.imgur.com/LbcQMPx.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Z9kSwTN.png
https://i.imgur.com/17wBKn1.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hXHvxYk.jpg
Tyrah New posted to artists_beware
December 26 2018, 18:29
BEWARE: DOBERMANMORALIST
WHO: DobermanMoralist @ FA
WHERE: FurAffinity
WHAT: Digital Artwork
WHEN: September 29th, 2018 to Today
EXPLAIN: So I ordered a YCH from DobermanMoralist on September 29th. It is nearing three months since this date, and I have received NO updates on progress, NO messages, nothing. So on Monday I asked for either progress updates or a refund, and they said that they would complete mine AFTER they finished their new Christmas YCHs (which were ordered 3 weeks ago). I said "So.. you're doing the Christmas ones first, before the one I paid for three months ago?" Just to clarify, and they confirmed.
So I said "I think I'd just rather have the refund then." To which they responded "I don't do refunds, there was no queue, you weren't given a number on the queue, I'll do the art and you won't get your money back."
PROOF: https://sta.sh/01zyqqabwcpd EVERYTHING is in this one image.
kitsunewaffles wrote in artists_beware
December 7 2018, 19:08
WHO: WarriorKniightSkye/KniightSkye on Furaffinity, Deviantart, Discord. They link everything they have on FA.
WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/warriorknightskye
WHAT: Stolen/Sold Traced Artwork.
WHEN: Really unsure when she started tracing/selling my work, but I was informed of it in October, 2018.
EXPLAIN: I was informed by someone that WarriorKniightSkye/KniightSkye had been spotted trying to sell traced artwork that looked like mine. I checked it out and it was definitely mine. I was provided links to side-by-side images and it speaks for itself. They have apparently been doing this to my work for a long period of time. As a precaution, I deleted almost all YCH template holders on my FA.
I did notice that she actually tried to buy a YCH from me before, rather recently actually, which is funny, but I digress. You'll see me mention it to her through Discord/FA.
I did contact them via note on FA and DA as well as directly through Discord. I didn't receive a response through FA or DA, but did through Discord. They admitted the theft and apologized and I let it go. I was informed again, today (Dec. 7, 2018), that they were at it again, this time trying to sell something for almost $200 using Discord to advertise it. I know she's primarily active on Discord, which is a place I'm really not, so I guess that makes her feel comfortable to keep doing what she's doing.
PROOF: Side-by-side images of my old work/her tracings of it (Nsfw warning) -->
https://gyazo.com/68ea06e1c24cbac2dc38913644c714ea
https://gyazo.com/87bb8f96da9fe2261fb57294233b02ed
The Discord conversation where she admitted to tracing and selling -->
https://gyazo.com/7ea1183811eecfe43b7090dfe25ea52f
FA note --> https://gyazo.com/1bb08d6c25cf2f8acce65b3119b08c99
The most recent tracing job w/ overlay on the original and her trying to sell it on Discord -->
https://gyazo.com/fb7a60347a6fcddf203a97616300722e
https://gyazo.com/150675260cac75b3215c7feda31cd84d
midderoo (midderoo) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-12-23 22:03
Xhybora
WHO: Xhybora
WHERE: Furaffinity ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/xhybora/ ) and Discord
WHAT: Single character short looping animation
WHEN: First payment made December 30th Second payment made January 12th.
EXPLAIN: This'll be a bit all over the place because of how FA's notes work. And I want to get every single screenshot so it shows everything. (It reads from bottom to top when it comes to the back and forth, in case it looks a bit confusing to read.)
Note: Some of the conversations via discord are NSFW.
29/8/2017
I was first approached by Xhybora on the 29th of October where they expressed interest in doing an animation for me. [1]
I of course responded, not having had many people actually express interest in me and my OC's so much they actually come to me. I try to keep it buisiness like but friendly at the same time. [2]
30/8/2017
The next day he replies telling me how much the base price normally is. [3]
I respond to them, telling them where it's easier to talk to me and how to keep in contact with me as well as telling them which characters would be good for the animation they had in mind. [4]
They then ask for my Discord. [5]
I give them said Discord. [6]
Through Discord we discuss the idea. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]
11/12/2017
He messages me to check up on if I'm still on board with the commission and when I will be able to pay. [12]
I suggest a payment plan since my PC had kicked the bucket and I had to spend any money I'd been saving on a laptop. He also reiiterates the idea he had in mind as well as which OC he wanted to use, which was my Fursona. [13]
He tells me how much it will cost and what it will come with. I also express interest that if the animation turns out well I'll return for more. I think you can tell how that went. [14]
I work out roughly about how much I can pay for and when I'd be able to. As I always like to give explanations on how/when I get the money and when it'll be in Paypal. As being transparent with the artist and explaining everything to them is something that I find they like. [15]
We continue talking about the commission and not much else. [16]
28/12/2017 - 29/12/2017
He messages me again to make sure I'm still interested. [17]
30/12/2017
I pay the first payment. 30/100 USD. [18]
The Invoice. [19]
Him and I discuss when I'll be able to pay it all off/make another payment. [20]
12/1/2018
He asks for the rest of the commission payment, which I pay in full. [21]
The Second Invoice. [22]
25/5/2018 - 23/12/2018
I ask how the commission is doing. To which he says he'll get me a wip soon almost a week later. I wait a few months, ask for the update he said he'd give me months prior. I wait 12 days before giving up waiting any longer. [23]
I make a payment request through PayPal since I don't know what else to do. [24]
Overall I kinda just feel crappy. I got a bad feeling once or twice around the time I was paying him. But I didn't listen to it because I always feel bad saying no and/or making people upset. I was just too naive and gullible.
I am not sure if it'll get solved. If it does that's a plus. But I'd like this to be here as a warning. Do not commission someone if you get any sliver of a bad feeling. And please, be wary of people that come to you for a commission.
nickh49 (nickh49) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-12-18 18:47
Unfinished Art Trade: SinfulDreams15
WHO: SinfulDreams15
WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/sinfuldreams15/ https://sinfulwhispers15.tumblr.com
WHAT: Art trade
WHEN: May 27, 2013 — present
UPDATE: After being informed of this post, on Dec. 22 2018 she noted me on FA with her alt account her half of our trade. I'd like this beware to be tagged as "Resolved" but also would like this to have a "Caution" tag if possible due to these messages she left afterwards trying to claim it was personal reasons with me that she ignored my messages for the trade instead of just doing the trade from the start. https://sta.sh/028o4ohtup64
EXPLAIN: I had an art trade with this artist in which I've waited 5+ years for her to finish her half and periodically asked for updates throughout those years. When I actually confronted her about it a few months ago, she said she's been too busy and can't do it, yet I've seen her take trades after mine and do theirs and done gift art for other people. She also admitted to ignoring the messages I asked about it. When I said I was gonna let everyone on her discord server know (because I think they deserved to know), she kicked me from the server and blocked me.
PROOF: My half of our trade >>> http://fav.me/d66uh5x
Her admitting to ignoring my messages >>> https://sta.sh/01jzi3bd3mez
Proof that she now has me blocked >>> https://sta.sh/01ah80dhjf53
vera_snep (vera_snep) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-12-16 05:38
Advice: Lost Contact with CanineKuroki
(Please pardon my formatting and such, this is my first time posting)
EDIT: Not long after making this post (a couple weeks), CanineKuroki contacted me, apologized, and provided a full refund. Due to personal issues I will not get into detail about, she was unable to finish. She also sent me what she had made for the price of shipping. It's unfortunate that she wasn't able to complete the commission, but I give her some serious props for providing a full refund and sending what she had made.
WHO: Canine Kuroki/Kuroki Yami/HoneyspydeR
WHERE: https://www.facebook.com/CanineKuroki/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kurokiyami/ https://www.deviantart.com/honeyspyder
WHAT: Fursuit partial
WHEN: Initial contact: July 16th, 2016 First Payment: July 24th, 2016 First Loss of Contact: September 16th, 2016 Second Loss of Contact: December 21st, 2016
EXPLAIN: So, I contacted Yami through Facebook in July to ask for a quote. She responded pretty quickly and all conversation until September was quick, taking no more than a week for replies. She would send occasional WIP photos and I was happy [1]. My first payment via PayPal was on July 24th and the second one was on September 6th [2]. She was fine with how the payment plan was and there were no disputes whatsoever.
( Read more... )
But then, she just seemed to drop off the face of the Earth. I’d contact her about once a month to try and see what was going on [3]. Her Facebook page never updated and I had no other ways of contacting her. So, I sent a dispute into PayPal in December for both of my payments. She then responded to them fairly quickly, apologizing for her lack of communication. She then offered to give a partial refund, promised to improve her communication, and promised some extra goodies when I got the suit (Unfortunately, I do not have any screenshots of our conversation through PayPal, though I have tried to get them recently). I accepted and she sent a refund [4]. She also recommended I use her email, which she gave me, in order to contact her more efficiently. Unfortunately, I was naïve and dropped both cases, saying they were resolved (because at the time I thought they were).
She sent one last set of WIP photos within a week, then disappeared again afterwards [5]. To this day, I’ve contacted her about once a month to try and get her back. I have contacted her through every form of media I could find, including FA and DA. I have threatened, though not followed through with demanding a refund and taking legal action. To be honest, I don’t know how I would go about doing all that, I just wanted to get her attention. I honestly just want my fursuit. I’m hoping that someone out there can help.
1: FB First WIP 3 (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18Rqi1veWRSJZwXyHUa7aaRphusWzxVfe)
2: InkedPayPal Payment 1_LI and InkedPayPal Payment 2_LI (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lo0tY1x5KwHZ2lMfTKs1tvpOSe5LMUV4)
3: Everything in the Facebook folder titled “Lost Contact” (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18Rqi1veWRSJZwXyHUa7aaRphusWzxVfe)
4: InkedPayPal Refund_LI (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lo0tY1x5KwHZ2lMfTKs1tvpOSe5LMUV4)
5: InkedEmail Sent 12_17_16 - 12_21_16_LI (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16_NkSjpftzPa0etb1Sh2o6YmmF20XKM_)
PROOF:
PayPal: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lo0tY1x5KwHZ2lMfTKs1tvpOSe5LMUV4
Emails: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16_NkSjpftzPa0etb1Sh2o6YmmF20XKM_
FurAffinity: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1L8BUFSDmPU8W7CeEsKYiaw561QNEkdde
Facebook: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18Rqi1veWRSJZwXyHUa7aaRphusWzxVfe
DeviantArt: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aza_Pfcm-wV6f2DnOw2rpNcVFi-ldddx
