beware Beware: FurItUp

I started interacting with this artist because I fell in love with a pre-made design that she was wanting to develop into a suit (she has now changed the description of the post as just a character she owns, but was once a ref sheet for sale to make a suit from. The comments on the submission show that it was once for sale, but don't give any real detail on the original description).

I started messaging about it asking to purchase. We spoke through notes on furaffinity.net, getting the details of the commission down.

I was told there were 14 commissions ahead of me, but once my commission was started it would be completed within 2-3 weeks, and she explained my payment plan to me. $200 per month after the 35% non-refundable deposit.

I ended up changing my mind and asked to have the commission done of my own character, to which she agreed. I was sent an invoice for $5600 through PayPal.  She confirmed receipt of my 35% deposit Nov 3rd, 2019.

Reference for the new character:

I paid $200 monthly, sometimes a little more if I could afford it, and was able to pay off the last of it in one lump sum on May 15th, 2020.

Once I was able to pay off the entirety of the suit, I kept up with her on Twitter, where she was clearly more active at the time. I just figured it would be easier to contact and also I really don't like the format of FA notes.

Things were okay, for a while. She responded within a reasonable amount of time. She did explain things had slowed down due to the pandemic, which I completely understood.

But after that is when everything started going downhill. I know it takes a while to make these things so I only messaged every now and again when I remembered the commission, or if I got on Twitter and saw she updated on someone else's suit.

But then an ENTIRE YEAR passed with no updates at all. And I had some things come up and thought it would be better to just get a refund since I had already waited two years with no results. She responded within a few days and apologized for not sending me any updates because she wanted to dump it all at once. 

I thanked her for her response, and said that if it's already been started then I won't cancel. 

I heard nothing after this until Feb 2023, when I asked for another update. This time she sent a picture of a carved head, which wasn't in the style I was expecting from her previous works, so I asked for an adjustment and she agreed.
 

I ask for an update at the end of the year and get no response. I wait until Feb 2024 and she ended up leaving me on read. I message again in March 2024 telling her that I'm pretty much fed up and I'm going to look into legal action. I messaged her on Twitter and on her website, furitup.com. 

This is the email conversation. She begs me to give her another chance even though this all should have been completed within one month of her starting the handpaws.

I explain my frustration and tell her the requirements for me continuing this commission. She gave herself about 19 days to fully finish a head and digitigrade body suit. I have not sent a dtd (as I was never given an address to begin with) and ask for an address so I can have one made and sent asap. I never got aresponse.

April comes and I've still heard nothing. So I send another message through Twitter. Nothing. May comes and I've had enough. I tell her to stop production on anything and send it to me, finished or not, and she can send me the rest of my money. Today is May 20th 2024 and I have not received anything on FA, Twitter, or email. I will be emailing her again and repeat what I said in Twitter dms.

This is my first commission experience and I want to know if any of what happened is normal or to be expected.