beware Beware: OmaOti

TL;DR Summary:

In July 2022 I commissioned OmaOti/Kaylachi/Oma-Chi for $75. As of September 25th 2023, I still have not heard from her, despite reaching out to her, nor have I received any evidence of my commission being worked on. Screenshots are after the full summary.

Full Situation:
In July 2022 I requested to take an open commission slot for her to draw my OC Andrea, via Twitter DMs. She accepted, and I sent her $75 via Paypal, which is what she was using at the time for payment. Sometime in August she deleted her Twitter. I remember her posting saying it was temporary and for her health, so I was not worried. 

In late November, after the initial 1-4 month period had passed, I sent her an email (via Paypal’s ‘contact the merchant’ option), checking in on my commission. I received no response. 

By December, I was a bit more concerned, and filed a dispute with Paypal in order to send her a message there. I asked for an update by Christmas and said if I didn’t hear from her by then, or if she’d changed her mind, I’d be fine with a refund, and then I waited. The deadline for the Paypal dispute was nearing, and, because it was the holidays and her Twitter post had said she was ill, and I was naively trusting that I wouldn’t be scammed, I canceled the dispute. (That is entirely on me and a mistake I will not be making again.)

I searched for her on Twitter and Deviantart constantly, waiting for her to be active again. Eventually that slowed down a bit. In July 2023, I checked her Deviantart (link warning: NSFW content) again, and saw that she’d posted mid-May. I left a comment on that post, wishing her well and asking for an update. 

A few days later, I sent her a Discord message, again wishing her well, and asking for an update or a refund if she was unable to complete the commission. A few days after that, I sent another message, realizing that since she deleted her Twitter she no longer had the link to the OC I wanted drawn, so I included that, as well as saying again I’d be fine with a refund instead if she needed, and asked her to at least get back to me.

After a couple weeks of waiting, I sent her another message, as I’d seen other comments on her DA and on Twitter about being ghosted by her. I explained that I understood that stuff happens, but I would really like a response and/or a refund, and that if I continued to not receive a response, I would have to make a post about the situation. I gave her some more time, as I really wanted to avoid this scenario.

A few days after that DM, I made a comment on her DA profile letting her know about the DMs in case she just hadn’t seen them pending on Discord. Another few days after that DA comment, I sent her yet another Discord message saying I’d be fine with a refund at this point. The next day, I told her I would be filing a bank chargeback and posting a beware if I didn’t hear back from her within 36 hours. I also tried one last attempt at contacting her: I sent her $1 on her Ko-Fi with a message to contact me.

Which brings us to now. It’s been about a month since that last DM and Ko-Fi message. I did file the chargeback, which I lost, as the transaction was ‘technically’ authorized (which I half-expected, as I’ve worked in the disputes field.) I’m making this beware to hopefully prevent anyone else from losing their money to her.