Shetani Cheetah (Shetani Cheetah) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-12-07 00:19
Hitchedboy/Jaoqy/Oatiemeal/Seafowl
WHO: hitchedboy / jaoqy / oatiemeal / seafowl
WHERE: https://www.instagram.com/oatiemeal, https://www.deviantart.com/seafowl, https://www.deviantart.com/jaoqy, http://flightrising.com/main.php?p=lair&tab=userpage&id=146038
WHAT: 2 character digital painting with background
WHEN: July 15, 2018 - current
EXPLAIN: Note that there will be some jumping around between different websites/screenshots due to the artist attempting to evade contact. They also changed their usernames various times throughout the course of this interaction, so screenshots may not match up exactly with what I've written.
( Read more... )
July 15 - I commissioned the user hitchedboy on the petsite Flight Rising for a 2-character digital painting, which was paid for using site currency in the form of items. [1] Payment was sent using Flight Rising's 2-way trade system.
Weeks passed without word, and their FR profile indicated that they hadn't logged in to FR at all since a few days after I last heard from them. With this avenue of communication closed, I started seeking an alternate way to contact them, and found their Instagram account (which was also under the username hitchedboy at the time. The link on their profile led to a DeviantArt name of jaoqy.)
August 27th - I messaged hitchedboy on Instagram to inquire about a turnaround time for my commission. They said they had lost their FR login info but were still willing to do the art for me. They informed me that their preferred method of contact was Discord. [2]
August 28th - Our correspondence moved to Discord. I provided them with the commission info again since they stated they lost access to their FR account. I was told that I could check in with them "as much as I wanted" and that my art would be finished in "most likely only a week." [3]
September 5th - A week later, I asked to see a sketch. hitchedboy said they weren't at their computer and would send it to me in 2-3 hours. I gave them an extra 4 hours before poking them again. They told me to message them again to remind them in 5 hours; I did so and received no response at all. (Time discrepancy in their message is due to hitchedboy being in the GMT+10 timezone and myself in GMT-5.) Though I was irritated at being brushed off, I decided to give them some time. [4]
September 22nd - Life got in the way and I wasn't able to touch base with hitchedboy before this date. I told them the reason for my delay; they responded with a situation curiously similar to mine, and informed me they had completed the base colors on the art. I had not seen so much as a sketch from hitchedboy at this point, despite being promised one several times over. I felt uneasy and asked them to show me the art at its current stage for approval before progressing - again, my message was ignored. [5]
September 29th - I logged into Discord, saw that hitchedboy was online, and shot them a message. They immediately switched their status to "offline." (I don't have a screenshot of this, sadly.) In response to this action, I asked them to just let me know if they no longer wanted to do the commission, as I needed it by a certain date and this would give me enough time to find a replacement artist. They assured me that they still fully intended to finish the art, citing extreme forgetfulness as an excuse for blowing me off in the past. They once again set a bizarrely unrealistic time frame - this time just 10 minutes - in which I should expect to see the art. At this point, I was severely doubting that any work had been completed at all, and sent a bit of a lengthy message expressing my frustration about being given the runaround time and again.
An hour later, hitchedboy sent me a progress photo. This honestly surprised me, given that I'd been convinced that they hadn't even started, and the completion level seemed to me to be more than could be done in an hour. I informed them of corrections that needed to be made, making sure to be thorough since I didn't know if I would even get a chance to see another WIP before the picture was finished. [6]
October 3rd-5th - I ensured that hitchedboy was aware of, and agreed to, the deadline for the piece. [7]
October 21st - For the first time, hitchedboy sent me a progress update without being prompted. They said they hoped to have it done by the next day (of course, this didn't happen.) [8]
October 24th - hitchedboy apologized for the delay, citing issues with the background. [8]
October 30th-31st - The day before the due date, hitchedboy contacted me to say that the art was done, but they were unable to upload it. They claimed to be out of the house again and they would have someone else try to upload the picture while they were gone. Not only had I not gotten to see and approve the final product, I wasn't even told what website I should expect to find it on. In addition, I was extremely confused as to why they didn't just try a different site if they were having trouble with one in particular. I heard neither hide nor hair from them on the actual due date. [9]
November 2nd-10th - I would otherwise have just written this off if not for the fact that they had actually completed a good deal of progress on the commission as per the one WIP I received, so continued to message hitchedboy in an attempt to just wrap up the whole ordeal. They claimed to have been in the hospital. No progress was made towards resolving the situation. [10]
November 15th - I made another contact attempt on Discord, directly @'ing hitchedboy when I saw them appear as active. [11] While gathering up info to make this beware, I noticed that their Instagram username had been changed to oatiemeal. The account showed activity as of 10 hours earlier (no screenshot of this), and the link in their profile now led to a newly made DeviantArt page under the name seafowl. [12] The recent submissions in this gallery were pieces that had been completed and uploaded on November 3rd and subsequently, when they claimed to not have internet access. Giving the benefit of the doubt, I sent them a polite Instagram message. They responded only to request that I contact them on Discord, which I had been doing for the past 2 weeks. I admittedly lost my cool at this point, which I should not have done. Despite the fact that I knew they no longer used the website where the commission originated, I gave them a deadline to produce either the supposedly completed art or a refund. [13] To this date I have seen neither. (I also messaged them on Discord again as per their request, in case that would produce results somehow - it did not.) [14]
I'm very upset because I was really looking forward to getting art from this artist. Quite frankly, I'm not too broken up about losing the payment for the commission, as I would much rather have the art. I can only count myself lucky that I paid in non-monetary currency, and hopefully they aren't doing this to customers on DeviantArt or Instagram as well.
PROOF: All screenshots in this folder and linked at the appropriate points within the explanation.
xtm45 (xtm45) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-25 20:50
DevilAnney - Ignoring Messages, Unfinished Character Design\Sheet, Refusal to Refund
Was told to post this if I didn't get refunded. So here we go again.
WHO: DevilAnney on FurAffinity.
WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/devilanney/
WHAT: Character design and reference sheet
WHEN: First started on September 30th, 2018 and has been ongoing.
EXPLAIN: On September 30th, I had been browsing FA. I stumbled upon Anney's FA page where she had a character for sale, a green sabertooth tiger. After browsing, I saw she had been open for custom characters and I was interested in one as I wanted a saber of my own as well. She had given me her Discord to talk business. The character design itself was $10 and then, a couple minutes on, I asked about if I could have it made into a full reference sheet. She agreed and said the price would be $15 instead of $10. I agreed and was told I'd get two poses, a headshot, and a closeup of the characters paws. The character was going to be a saber, as well. We had agreed on the piece taking two days to complete. However, I don't have this exact proof since she deleted the post we discussed that on off of FurAffinity. However, later on in the messages it's pretty much implied as such by our conversation. I paid the $15 and the wait began.
( Read more... )
Two days later, I received a sketch of the character. She wasn't... really a saber but I loved her regardless. After I gave her the okay to continue, I didn't hear from her for another two days. At this point, she's already past her deadline she told me but a couple days wouldn't kill me. I didn't honestly expect it that quick, but still. On October 3rd, I messaged her and asked if there was any update. She told me she had been busy with other commissions and that she'd work on lining and then coloring the piece the next day. Fine by me.
Two weeks went by without hearing a single thing from her. I messaged her again and asked asked about an update and she said that she had been busy with school and work now. I was then told I'd get an update when she got home from one of the two and I took that as an okay. I had a feeling things were getting sketchy at this point. I never got that update. Another week went by and I asked her what was up. I voiced how I was getting frustrated being told I'd get updates and progress but I never got any. All I got were empty promises. I then told her that I was starting to get to the point of asking for a refund. When I did, she REALLY started ignoring me.
For two days, I got no response back. On the 21st of October, I messaged her again and asked if she was really going to start ignoring me. She then apologized and said she was going to go home and work on the picture. FINALLY I got an update. She sent a picture of the colored character and asked if it was fine. Just wanting my character and art done, I agreed and said that the colors were fine. From that point on, I've gotten NOTHING from her.
On November 11th, I asked for an update. I got nothing. So on the 13th, I grew tired of it. I told her I wanted a refund as what she was doing was VERY unfair to me. I had given her plenty of time and chances and got nothing but empty promises and lies in return. On the same day, I filed a PayPal dispute to get my money back. She has not replied to any of the posts on PayPal. She has had time to post links to t-shirt designs she's selling which was posted four days ago, along with many other adopts. She's constantly online on Discord, as well, so I KNOW she's seeing my DM's. I also happened to go on her page and saw someone else asked her to reply to her Notes.
UPDATE 11/25/2018: I started a PayPal dispute on November 11, 2018 and she never responded to it. Instead, she has vanished into thin air. She is no longer using Discord or she unfriended me. Not sure which. She has also deactived her FurAffinity and any other sites she used for art. Because she did not respond, I won the case and was given back my money.
PROOF:
PayPal Payment. Had to censor a ton because she used her real name on her PayPal and also had to censor my Credit Card info -> https://gyazo.com/22d34db7901cb9be377fd62fdc0d768f
All the Discord conversations we've had about the business. Her PayPal had to be censored because it had her first and last name in it. I can uncensor if I need to. -> https://imgur.com/a/c7tyudx
E-Mail from PayPal saying she didn't respond at all and they issued me a refund of my money -> https://gyazo.com/3b0ca840894e98374e62a0266c326861
screaminsiren (screaminsiren) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-27 11:13
Foxiful/ Laseros
After waiting and waiting I have yet to receive any kind of payment or notification from her.
WHERE: DA https://www.deviantart.com/laseros FA https://www.furaffinity.net/user/laseros/
WHAT: Digital Art
WHEN: July, 30,2017 to Ongoing
EXPLAIN: Alright so to start this was a wonderfully normal interaction between an artist and commissoner that desperately needed help. Hearing from a friend this person needed it I decided to do so and here are those interactions.
https://sta.sh/21sj3oko36j0?edit=1
See? Normal. Now this is when it starts to get bad. I noted her after waiting till Jan of 2018 seeing I had heard nothing from her not even WIP's
Then again in Mar seen below
https://sta.sh/01lchc0oot1w
This was never responded to.
Now, carrying on I started noticing journals going out. Now, I understand crap happens and all but it became more strange when I kept seeing more and heard absolutely nothing about my commissioned piece back in July.
I bought another piece in a small emergency journal
https://sta.sh/21u1znxuq0b?edit=1
Not a problem! Was done live stream and everything! Ok! Awesome so waiting a bit longer I noticed more journals as seen below.
https://sta.sh/21rdlvl91hrq?edit=1
https://sta.sh/01h6279lkmev
So, waiting a bit longer I was finally added to her discord group and therefore was able to get in contact with her via the messenger
https://sta.sh/21ypoz22u92p?edit=1
( Read more... )
Here became a slow progression of feeling overwhelmed with having to gently ask what is going on every now and then. Finally after waiting for a long time with no response I officially gave her an apology and asked for a refund if not a partial as seen in the proof above
After waiting and waiting I have yet to recieve any kind of payment or notification from her.
This is still an ongoing problem.
Anjel (anjel_kitty) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-27 05:13
Teahound/Shroom Yeen
When and Where: Furlandia 2018
What: badge for 20 dollars
At Furlandia this past year, I commissioned @ShroomYeen for a 20 dollar traditional badge when I met up with them working in the artist alley. I remembered them from the days of 'yore here on LJ, and wanted to support an artist that I knew from before who lived close to where I lived now. ShroomYeen was very affable at first, and I even invited them to some of the events in the local area since we lived in the same town. But after the con, the messages became fewer and further between, until finally they started flat out ignoring me and refusing to respond to me. I have contacted Furlandia to let them know that an artist in the AA still has not come through with their paid commission so they won't be able to steal from anyone else at Furlandia 2019. At this point I am just going to cut my losses and let people know, especially here in the West, not to commission the artist known as ShroomYeen, formerly known as Teahound, and also goes by Travis. I thought that after this many years, this artist would have changed their ways, but apparently I was wrong.
I do not have a receipt for the badge (something I will not make a mistake like that about again) but I do have chat logs between myself and the artist, with the artist agreeing to mail me my badge and then subsequently ignoring me from that point on.
inklopbunny (inklopbunny) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-10 12:46
Dog-Bone / XenoForge
WHO: The XenoForge, Dog-Bone, DogBoneArtwork, Leachymonster
WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/dog-bone , https://twitter.com/TheXenoForge
WHAT: Digital art, YCH
WHEN: Early December 2017 to now.
EXPLAIN: Dog-Bone had posted a Christmas YCH auction, for multiple characters. I purchased one of the slots, and sent payment on the same day or the next. I have contacted them. multiple times since, they've ignored my messages for the most part, and no progress has been made.
PROOF: PayPal confirmation screenshot, 7th December.
On the 29th December I emailed them for an update, using the address they had on their YCH entry's description (dog-bone changed their email later on).
At some point I managed to get through to them via Twitter DMs, but I've lost the messages: they said their computer died.
6 months ago, the artist deleted their entire gallery, announced they were abandoning FA, but assured their watchers that the account will remain open until all owed art is done. I leave a comment asking for details, and they claim they never received my message.
I emailed their new email address on the 2nd of November; I still haven't heard from them or seen an update on their Trello, which they update every few days, or their Twitter. Dog-bone accepts and finishes commissions every week on Patreon. Their Patreon price sheet lists their two contacts, so it's not as though they have multiple inboxes to check. They only accept telegram and emails.
The activity for the YCH hasn't changed since 26th March.
?Year of the Pupper? (JinxWolf34) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-02 13:58
Artist Beware: Matchadrool/QTCoyote
Text: WHO: Matchadrool/QTCoyote
WHERE: Megaplex 2017 - Artist Alley
WHAT: Traditional badge
WHEN: August 6, 2017 - September 6,2018
EXPLAIN: I ordered a traditional badge from Matchadrool at Megaplex last year. At first everything seemed fine. I got the sketch and it looked cute. However, there was an anatomical error with the badge and as an artist myself, I wanted to let them know how to fix it for the future(see images below). I told them not to worry about it for my badge. This was the last time I heard from them. We originally talked through text but after they disappeared I found them on instagram after a friend got a commission from them after I had bought mine. I saw that the badge had progressed since I had talked to them but, as of me typing this they have not sent a badge. I have tried to reach out both via text and instagram but no response.
PROOF:https://imgur.com/gallery/aC0LHXy
col_eviscerator (col_eviscerator) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-02 10:15
Beware: Izacmafia, EmperorZheng
WHO: izacmafia on FA, EmperorZheng on DA
WHERE: FurAffinity
WHAT: Zerosuit special colored sketch.
WHEN: October 15th-31st 2018
EXPLAIN: Did not make corrections on a WIP sketch, and was abusive when such was requested. Admittedly, I could have handled it better, but I'm unused to such behavior. The latest/last notes exchanged through FA was shortly before I left for work this morning and when I got home this evening, I found that he'd already deleted the work and approval sketches before I'd been able to save them. I know English wasn't his first language, and communication was difficult at times, but he managed to satisfactorily complete one piece prior to this, despite him misreading or ignoring how I'd requested the characters be posed.
I'm unsure if I should still press him for a refund seeing as he did the work, but I am now without even the unsatisfactory art.
Edit: He did restore the image in question and I was able to save it, so the beware is now primarily about his behavior and advice on how to proceed.
PROOF: I apologize for how disjointed and difficult to follow the conversation may be, FA note system is kind of difficult to use, and I had to bounce between my inbox and outbox. Please do note that 11 is not a duplicate, as it shows a different response.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l10trvc31ed4wfa/01.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/n7ecsz1wlvh9y6a/02.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/01hxkt0j3xzlb46/03.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ey3pem5syi6yymh/04.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7gqhzcwcg0jqwut/05.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/lj8eq5nnlcd4fuv/06.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8vgj6g1dfcvz0yu/07.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4hya4anavfhpboi/08.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gh6oqhcaf051ead/09.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pkh09hragdekg8e/10.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/c0mbv7gxpu8644g/11.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xnqwddcd7dzq4lj/12.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0l5d3q6agtksyok/13.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/k25xwl7kl6u26nf/14.png?dl=0 Edit: Art was received, 14 just remains to demonstrate it was infact deleted.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5fqytygw7nkzqq5/15.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/y7rt2p3k9372xy1/17.png?dl=0
The work in question: https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/intermediary/f/d0419ad4-d23f-43fc-ad3c-41fbd79202b4/dcqsi1k-0f6c89a2-6327-47cd-b61b-2821d10f7af5.jpg/v1/fill/w_764,h_1046,q_70,strp/commission_for_eviscerator_2_by_emperorzheng_dcqsi1k-pre.jpg
And as in my first screencap, I requested heights of 160cm and 185cm respectively, and supplied a visual aid when requesting the correction: http://www.mrinitialman.com/OddsEnds/Sizes/sizes.html?base_ft=&base_in=185&comp_ft=&comp_in=160
I don't know what good a paypal screencap would be, as the art is done and I'm no longer pursuing a refund, but here goes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/v381vs704trfryg/16.png?dl=0
Bourbon. (dead_punk_fox) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-11-01 15:47
Commissioner Beware - Prince_Vaxis
WHO: Prince_Vaxis on FA, Vaxi on Discord
WHERE: Through FA, then through Discord DMs
WHAT: Commission fell through, he wanted to commission me for digital artwork to have one slot auctioned off.
WHEN: October 29-30.
EXPLAIN: At first I was hesitant to post a beware about this, but the more I thought about it the more obvious that his conduct was wildly inappropriate with me. A few of my associates (commissioners and artists) also felt a beware was necessary to warn other artists about him. Especially since it can be intimidating dealing with a client who has a good amount of watchers and commissions more well known artists, and it's common for artists to acquiesce to a client's demands because of these things.
It started off as him claiming a slot on FA (since deleted) and then wanting to discuss it further via Discord, which I don't mind. I keep my Discord public and am fine talking to whoever.
At first he wanted a bust commission, which would have fit within his budget. Then he waffled and decided he wanted a much larger idea, however he fought me every step of the way on cost. He was pushing for more and more to be included, things which are way outside the amount of time I have to devote for so little pay. At the end, I told him he was demanding way too much for what he was paying, because what he wanted was essentially a two character full color, which I charge $300 for per image.
The end of it has him cursing me out, trying to call me over Discord (I assume to yell at me over voice, had this happened I would have recorded it as well), which I am EXTREMELY uncomfortable with and what really pushed me to write this beware. I don't voice chat in private with random people, and certainly not with someone who's behavior turned suddenly sour. It was likely an attempt to intimidate me into handing him a full refund (which I have done at this point). And him bringing up breaking his commissioner's TOS (??? which sounded extremely sketchy to me, since a TOS is a terms of service for the person providing a service).
PROOF: Some of the screenshots do have NSFW art in them, this was him illustrating what he wanted. The conversation is also NSFW as it delves into the aspects he wanted included in the picture.
Also included is the sketch work I had done for him that he didn't want to pay for.
I apologize for how many screenshots there are, I wanted to include everything. The only part I left out was conversation about our pets and other casual stuff.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GhKNGZqpq0ZsFPMAmvPV1k8ZPuP9MxzC
Edit: Update 4.12.19
I actually do have an addition to this caution. Several weeks ago another artist DM'd me on Twitter saying that Vaxis had told them he'd apologized to me and was trying to be a better person. He has NOT spoken to me since before he was removed from the original A_B LJ community. I have had absolutely no contact and he has not made any apologies to me. If he's messaging anyone claiming he has, he's lying.
HatchetHaro (HatchetHaro) wrote in artists_beware,
@ 2018-10-29 01:26
Beware: Talen / Talen27 / Seagull / Seaguii
WHO: Talen27 / Talen / Seagull / Seaguii
WHERE: FurAffinity, Discord, Telegram
WHAT: Design and reference sheet
WHEN: July 8, 2018 to October 27, 2018
EXPLAIN: Before I start, most of what happened between us happened in voice chat, so any evidence on the matter is scarce. I am fortunately able to salvage enough from our text chatlogs (that he didn't delete) that should be enough to piece together what happened .
This person commissioned me for a design for his character, along with a reference sheet. I charged him $50, and since we were lovers, I told him to hold onto it so we could put it towards a commission for us both. We fell out, I lost my desire to take any commission with him, but he refused to give me my $50 back.
To begin, Talen and I used to be in a relationship, and I was the one who introduced him to the scalie community. As a symbol of our love, I made for him, for free, a design for his character along with a reference sheet for it.
I'd like to say here that the process of creating that reference sheet for him was painful, with me streaming the process of the art to him and creating design after design that he kept asking for tweaks or redesigns on, bouncing between every little detail asking me to make drastic changes again and again. Nevertheless, I completed it and sent him the finished file. The date was July 8.
After a week of finishing the reference sheet, though, he asked for changes to the design, and along with some other personal disputes, I told him that I would charge him no less than $50, and he agreed. [1]
Honestly, $50 for a full reference sheet at this quality is one hell of a deal, so to this day, the fact that he is unwilling to pay up is due to pettiness.
I continued to stream to him, in the exact same process of him asking for change after change after change on the designs that I came up with. I finished up the reference sheet on July 30, and told him to hold on to the $50 so he could pay that much in my stead when we decide to go for a commission together.
Fast forward to early August when he broke up with me for other relationship-related reasons. He still wanted to be friends, and though it hurt me, I continued to be friends with him, and he was still holding on to the $50 that he owes me. [2]
Since then, throughout the next two months, I've made repeated mentions for him to just return me my $50, though every time he tried to convince me to just get a commission with him. He never denied it, but he knows he owes me $50. [3]
Fast forward again to mid-October, I made a request of him to stop mentioning all the new friends he's trying to date because I was still hurting from the breakup, and he straight up flamed me in voice chat, in the most toxic manner one can imagine, all for being "soft" or "overreacting". At that point, I snapped, and demanded my $50 back, but he refused, going between excuses such as "I can pay you the $50, but I won't" to "I only have $7 in my bank account, I can't pay you", all between a lot of name-calling, flaming, and accusing me of "blackmail" (in his technical terms, "defamation for the purposes of monetary gain", which you can totally twist "I'll tell peeps you're a thief if you steal money from me" into). He proceeded to block me from all communications. [4][5]
Upon contacting one of his friends who know him better, I learned that Talen is simply that way and that my $50 is lost.
I have contacted another of his friends recently, who willingly acted as an arbiter between me and Talen, and given him an ultimatum: pay me, or stop using my design. At this point, Talen had removed my reference sheet from his gallery, and currently plans to use one of the art commissions he got from another artist as his new reference sheet, except that commission's character was fully taken from my design and refsheet.
[1] July 26: https://i.imgur.com/zRfFAgj.png
I have blacked out all things related to our personal issues; I can provide the non-censored text if inquired.
[2] August 10: https://i.imgur.com/zx96ExG.png
The "Option A" and "Option B" was, explained simply, "cut off contact from each other" and "remain friends and help each other recover" respectively.
[3] August 10: https://i.imgur.com/7yULthl.png
This one is where he suggests artists and I explain fully what I meant. In the end, it is still clear he owes me $50. I have blacked out the exact values that he had bragged about spending on commissions and toys already as well as how much he still had at the time. I have also blacked out other names and the segue into the discussion about our own personal issues.
[4] October 18: https://i.imgur.com/Vs7uxB8.png
This is our full conversation on FurAffinity directly after the last straw. Since they were all separate responses, I have taken the liberty to format the screenshots into a chatroom structure for the sake of readability; no content has been altered. Personal issues and discussions have been blacked out, except for the final one.
[5] October 19: https://i.imgur.com/sLEJ1Dy.png
These are excerpts from our final argument in a separate Discord server, highlighting his denial and hypocrisy. There have been many repeated mentions of "blackmail" and threatening legal action on his part that do not contribute to the discussion, so I have cut those out. I have also blacked out what he claimed to have in his bank account; the decimal place should tell you enough.
Honestly, I was very angry at that point, so some things I said was cringe-worthy; I have left those in for the sake of context.
There are lessons to be learned from this story, in particular for me. I have learned to recognize red flags that would ruin a relationship, and I have also learned that I should never provide the final finished commission without payment first, whether I trust the person on a romantic level or not.
I understand that this may be a more "special" case of Artist Beware in that the business is intertwined with personal feud; I have tried my best to omit most of the personal stuff from my images, but some I have kept in due to their vague relation to the transaction at hand.
Another thing I am unsure of is whether I should include the artwork in question in this post for clarity and also as proof in case he actually does continue to get commissions with the same character design. I'll edit it in underneath all this if you guys want me to.
I currently plan on selling the character design and reference sheet to someone else with little to no changes to the actual design, since the design of the character is still mine.
sergallysergal (sergallysergal)
@ 2018-10-25 20:53
Just A Little Mixed Up
WHO: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/just-a-little-mixed-up/
WHERE: Discord and Telegram
WHAT: Eight flat pinups.
WHEN: February 2018 to October 2018
EXPLAIN: Asked to buy 8 pieces in a discord we both shared. Was given an invoice, and gave her payments to the invoice(1) for the images she completed as she did them. First went pretty quick, the next one took a month, and the latest was not received until August. Between the second and third, she claimed she needed to get money together to move, and my response to that was to finish paying off the invoice completely. I also attempted to try to make the investment easier to handle by suggesting we switched out things, which is why I talked about getting a ref sheet instead of the last four pinups in the log. At the time I wanted to at least get something for the money I put down, and asking for a refund was the last resort.
After that I waited a month assuming it would take that long, without response, until the artist asked for email communications in reply to an inquiry on telegram that I had sent her(2), which threw me off since we had been working through telegram for the majority of the work. I inquired about it, but complied and resent her the material she needed for the work to be done.
( Read more... )
Another month later (and three days ago) I tried getting in contact with her again, with no response.(3) After asking a mutual friend I learned that she's been refusing contact under claim that she will only respond to email. I was frankly, tired of my investment going nowhere so I sent an email asking for a refund for the 5 pieces that were never started. As of this post I have yet to receive any compensation, not even a reply.(4)
Under the artist's ToS, linked here, the artist is responsible for keeping open communications to the best of her ability. This has unfortunately been broken seeing as she's still working on commissions while ignoring my inquiries, and with no faith that I will ever get a refund, I am washing my hands of this.
PROOF:
(1) https://www.dropbox.com/s/draztmtjxc9bslc/invoice.PNG
(2) https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8xl0judwcz4fbj/log1.PNG and https://www.dropbox.com/s/ayvni8aecpsw6tg/log3.PNG
(3) https://www.dropbox.com/s/qc05x9n8ox74kq2/log2.PNG
(4) https://www.dropbox.com/s/ccupob7bh138nhw/photo_2018-10-24_05-22-09.jpg
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