Beware: Artararam

Originally submitting commission over a year ago.  Initially Artararam responded rather quickly and professionally, they were highly recommend by a friend so I submitted full payment upfront as opposed to the half now half after fulfilment I normally follow for unfamiliar artists.  (I really need to stick to that more.)

Some thumbnails were drawn and things were going well, but then the first delay happened.  The Artararam stoped sending updates or responding to my messages for a month, even though I could see they were being read.

That on its own is poor form, but they did eventually respond.  Things went well if not slow for a little while after that, but then it happened again for another month, same cycle.  They eventually came back for a short time with the excuse of a broken laptop.  (Even though throughout that time they did show to be online in Telegram and never once updated me on their status.)

I brushed it aside as these things happen, and some progress was again made. (The first half of my commission was more or less brought to flat colour with the shading and detailing left untouched.)  But then it happened again, this time for even longer.  Same deal, they were online often, changing their profile picture a few times, but complete radio silence.

By that time between the slow progress and large moments of MIA it was getting close to a year since my original order was processed.  Finally they messaged back saying they were sorry for the delay, while not really answering why they were gone but making some vague excuse about having to leave the country and cutting off communication to everyone they knew.

I once again asked them to finish the shading and details on the part of my commission they had been working on, then send me a high res transparent copy.  (As of writing, I have not once gotten a full res or transparent copy of any progress points across my entire commission.  Only Telegrams poorly compressed previews...)

They said they would that evening.  It has now been another three months without any word from them, and yet they are often online and have again been updating their profile image.  Twice over the last year+ I have offered taking partial refund if they simply did not have the time or ability to finish my commission, but no response to my offers was ever made.

I would say I have gotten roughly 60-70% of what I paid for over the course of over a year with multiple months of silence in-between, and from what I can tell I've been lucky.  Looking over their Furaffinity, it sounds like multiple customers have received even less progress than me.

Artararam did release a statement over three months ago at the time of writing that had an explanation and a promise of commission fulfilment, but I tend to be sceptical.  Artararam has repeatedly disappeared for months at a time over the last year+ with multiple excuses being given, the latest of which imply legal troubles, however all thought those times of ~"having to cut off communication form even [their] closest friends~" (loosely quoted), they have been actively online and speaking to others on Telegram, as well as taking new commissions from others.

I want to have sympathy but this feels like a cry wolf case and the lack of communication despite seeing my message and being able to respond even with just a few words along with a poor track record and other inconsistencies to their excuses leaves me feeling as though they are not trustworthy with potential customers commission money.

An acceptable resolution would be either for my commission to be fully completed and delivered (along with her other unfinished customers) and an explanation provided as well as them closing their commissions untill they are able to reliably bring them to fulfilment.  Alternatively I would want to see a full refund given to all those affected.  Either of these would go a long way to restoring good faith.

(P.S. for review team: I have included real names due to them being not only publicly available but also it appearing that the artist in question takes commissions under their real name at times and not just a username.  I can censor if this is not acceptable, but from what I've read it seems to be allowed under these circumstances.)