Beware: NikaInfinity

Just as a heads up: it’s against PayPal’s TOS for the seller to charge you the PayPal fee! (which is another strike against this artist for sure) if an artist tries to make you pay it, inform them about the TOS violation and don’t pay it. It could get their account shut down, and also it’s just rude to do??? sellers are using a service to accept payments and there’s no other fees that have to be paid besides per-transaction ones.
 

also I hope they either refund you or complete the art they owe you 😕  

20 minutes ago, Kaku said:

Just as a heads up: it’s against PayPal’s TOS for the seller to charge you the PayPal fee! (which is another strike against this artist for sure) if an artist tries to make you pay it, inform them about the TOS violation and don’t pay it. It could get their account shut down, and also it’s just rude to do??? sellers are using a service to accept payments and there’s no other fees that have to be paid besides per-transaction ones.

I did not know this, and sincerely thank you for the heads up! I certainly won’t make that mistake again.

I thought it was strange at the time, but I didn’t question it - having dealt with many other artists since and reflecting back, that was definitely a warning sign.

35 minutes ago, Celestina said:

Do you happen to have any updates after the 13th?  Has she said anything since then?

Unfortunately, although not unexpectedly, no. She is going in to a “remission period”, where she stops posting on all platforms and vanishes for up to two months at a time. I can only speculate that this is when the money runs out - this is now the third time I have seen this pattern since the beginning.

Keep in mind, when she is active she posts upwards of 10+ reminders a day about YCH’s or commission openings, before vanishing again. I have attached a screenshot of her last submission time... golly gee it was the 13th!

This looks a lot like spam from the way she posts her reminders. it's every few minutes. would be better to just post one reminder with a link to all of them.

8 minutes ago, Celestina said:

Let's keep things focused on the beware at hand and less on how she runs her gallery.

Can I just say, however, how awful it feels watching all these reminders get blitzed for about two weeks while you beg for an update.

I have lived that hell a few times now, and when you are months out of a commission the *last* thing I enjoy seeing is practically begging for more more commissions, with such a huge workload.

It *is* spam and it’s how she’s trapped this huge client list - myself included.

Adding to this post I'm another victim she scammed. Her scam is to ghost you long enough Her scam is to ghost you long enough that once enough time has passed, paypal has difficult cracking down on it (The default refund period is 180 days from the transaction date.) 

She has ghosted me completely and I don't expect to ever see this commission, it's been 8 months. Lesson learned from me, I am never paying upfront unless its a well trusted and well known artist.

50 minutes ago, Tayuta said:

Adding to this post I'm another victim she scammed. Her scam is to ghost you long enough Her scam is to ghost you long enough that once enough time has passed, paypal has difficult cracking down on it (The default refund period is 180 days from the transaction date.) 

She has ghosted me completely and I don't expect to ever see this commission, it's been 8 months. Lesson learned from me, I am never paying upfront unless its a well trusted and well known artist.

 

This is really quite irresponsible of her to do this to you. Would be best to make a beware on this since more of these pop up the more often they show up on google search.

As of this time and if https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/9738898/ is to be believed, Nika has 45 commissions (including collabs) that are awaiting completion. 

Of those 45, 28 are not even started if I'm reading that journal right (21 being listed as (%0) and 7 having no progress % listed). 

Of those that have a progress amount: 11 are below %50

So in total, 39 out of 45 (or approximately 87%) of Nika's total commissions are not yet out of the lineart phase. 

If you all want me to break it down further from what I can see, most of these are YCH's that aren't even out of the 'presketching' phase.

As update to the situation:

Rumblings have no doubt moved things a little bit, and progress on my piece was made! However, Nika is now aware of the beware, as she has confronted me directly.

I enjoy the progress on the piece, and it seems as if she is still going to finish it, which I greatly appreciate ~ I will keep everyone appraised of the situation. I am hopeful for a happy conclusion!

Maybe is she actually communicated with her customers better not guilt tripping, and lying she wouldn't be in this mess in the first place. 

I never understood the practice of blocking a client when they point out something that needs to be pointed out. Waiting that long for art especially when the artist promises clear communication that they, themselves, default on just screams at me that they may have done it to multiple people. It certainly doesn't make me want to work with them  o matter how nice their art may be. 

It also seems to be a really good way to chase away your customer base. Repeat customers can bring tons of business if you treat them well. 

15 hours ago, Sophibarks said:

I never understood the practice of blocking a client when they point out something that needs to be pointed out.

The purpose is to strip complaints and criticism from her FA page because her business model is to rope in new customers that have not seen the warnings she's already cleared out of her shouts. 

7 hours ago, Cryptozoo said:

The purpose is to strip complaints and criticism from her FA page because her business model is to rope in new customers that have not seen the warnings she's already cleared out of her shouts. 

Also if anyone noticed her recent journal about updates she really not doing herself any favors on taking more commissions than she is doing.

It's like she doesn't get why you're upset and why you made this in the first place.  This "situation" (really? that's what she called it?) is what she made herself.  Clients shouldn't have to keep asking for updates months on end.  Forgetting is one thing, but acting like this is just ridiculous with all the guilt trip and lying.  

3 hours ago, Camy said:

It's like she doesn't get why you're upset and why you made this in the first place.  This "situation" (really? that's what she called it?) is what she made herself.  Clients shouldn't have to keep asking for updates months on end.  Forgetting is one thing, but acting like this is just ridiculous with all the guilt trip and lying.  

Yeah - I would have to be honest and say that being blocked at this point is hardly a punishment. Truthfully, I may not notice much of a difference...

As can be imagined, the week that passed saying the piece would be done has come and gone, and with all of the other submissions being posted I was definitely not “next”, as was promised early January. I’d be much less annoyed at that if a timeframe wasn’t given, and broken - and of course, no update why.

With the situation as it is, I haven’t asked because I don’t want to harass and give ammunition at the point the commission is so close to being done - it feels almost like a Mexican standoff and I just want this to be over. I *will* update when this is completed, and not cause any trouble, so if it’s stressing... just finish the piece??

She is still, however, charging a 6% PayPal feel on other YCH’s, as a heads up.

1 minute ago, ToastyPoodle said:

She is still, however, charging a 6% PayPal feel on other YCH’s, as a heads up.

Wait isn't that really against paypal terms of service. Considering her own list of commissions and doing that as well she really digging herself deep in trouble.

30 minutes ago, RTKobold said:

Wait isn't that really against paypal terms of service. Considering her own list of commissions and doing that as well she really digging herself deep in trouble.

I imagine it would be, although someone better at PayPal law and TOS would be better suited to confirm that.

I would imagine that PayPal wouldn’t know otherwise, as she did the calculation outside of PayPal and simply invoiced $212, which as far as PayPal would know is the cost of commission without fees.

I have commissioned many many artists on FA since I have joined and to date she is the only person I have *ever* seen charge that, however. I have always made it a habit to tip the artists to cover the fees myself without prompt (often because many undercharge as well), but she was the only one to demand it upfront.

Great success! The art has been finished - and, the results are, in fact, excellent!

As promised, I am updating the beware to state this fact. As far as I am concerned, my issue is now resolved. Nika has requested that the beware be removed, but it is my understanding that’s not how this whole thing works - so I will leave action up to the moderators or at least get it downgraded to a caution as a sign of good will.