Beware: scaretactik

Back in January 2022, I contacted scaretactik via email to inquire about a commission. I originally came across their art via twitter and at the time and still since then, their display name has always read as their commissions being open; they have taken more comms & emergency comms since. I did read in the artist's carrd beforehand that they can be slow with completing comms, but I admittedly still didn't expect to be waiting over a year later– this and the lack of communication and other surrounding details has me unsure of whether the art will be completed, hence why I am submitting this beware. 

Here's the initial email from January of 2022 and a receipt for the PayPal payment:

Before sending the payment, I instead DM'd scaretactik on twitter since they stated it as being preferable, and that's where we would continue to communicate up until October of 2022: 

After January 2022, the next time I heard from scaretactik was when I reached out 6 months later in July to ask if an update was available. Scaretactik got back to me and brought up being agreeable to a deadline, so I asked if a month following this would be alright but that I would also just be happy to receive a WIP rather than the full finished piece. I did not receive an answer to my response/I did not hear back from scaretactik further at this time:
 

The next time I spoke with scaretactik was when I reached out a second time in September of 2022, another 2 months later. I was told that I could expect to receive a WIP shortly and that they were appreciative of my patience; I did understand that they had some things going on so I was still content to wait at this point:
  

However, I did not receive a WIP/any further messages from scaretactik at this time until I reached out again in October. These are the last DMs we exchanged before moving over to discord:


Scaretactik soon after messaged me via discord with a WIP on the 18th. It was very barebones, but I was happy to finally receive something and stated being okay with the idea they were going for:

The next time I heard from scaretactik was on November 4th then the 7th when I received another update, though the sketch/idea had been changed. I liked how it was looking so I didn't mind the alteration and also gave it my okay:

After this, I received another update on November 10th, but the sketch for my piece had once again been changed. I didn't mind the revision so I gave it my okay as well:

This is where the periods of silence started up again. I reached out a month later on December 11th to inquire about any possible updates and to ask if scaretactik had a trello or queue tracker. I did receive another picture of my piece, but there didn't seem to be any progress made and again, it had been revised without my knowledge. This time, I was unhappy with the direction of the unexpected revision, so I wasn't entirely sure how to respond & initially forgot to and didn't get back to scaretactik until the 14th when I voiced my concern:

This is the last time (December 14th of 2022) I have heard from scaretactik. I've reached out again on February 19 of this year and more recently on March 15th, but neither of my messages have been replied to. I don't know at this point if I will receive my comm or if the quality will be what I paid for/if more unexpected changes will be made since it's now going on 5 more months of silence, so I'm submitting this beware:

I don't mind waiting as long as needed but do feel forgotten about and am just disappointed with how communications & updates have been handled. I would be glad to still receive my comm but dislike pushing for updates and am already exhausted with this situation; I'm open to hearing from scaretactik and working something out, I harbor no ill will towards them.