beware Beware: Shinjoui

January 18th–22nd

I was browsing FA and saw that Shinjoui had posted a Valentine's YCH that I liked and wanted to buy as a gift. I placed a bid, and a few days later Shin replied, telling me that they were ending the bidding early and sent me a note. I was busy IRL and didn’t respond right away, so they sent me another message saying, “Hi?” I replied as soon as I was available, paid them through Boosty, and sent them the characters. They responded, saying thank you and that the characters were cute.

Note: The bidding was tiered, and because I bid under $80, the finished quality was supposed to be just a sketch in the same style the YCH was already in. I also wouldn’t be getting the NSFW alt.

February 19th

Valentine’s Day came and went without any word from them. I checked their FA and saw them posting that they were taking sketch commissions with a three-day turnaround. I was a bit peeved but thought that maybe they’d be finishing mine soon, since they were opening for more commissions.

February 23rd

They had posted a sketch from the batch from the 19th, as well as another post opening for more sketches with an even shorter deadline. So, I decided to message them. I sent a note asking for an ETA and mentioned that I thought the YCH was supposed to be done by Valentine’s Day. They responded, apologized, and said they’d finish it soon. They also offered to draw a gift to make up for the delay. I replied, thanking them for responding.

Three weeks went by, and on the 27th they posted a few openings and three finished commissions before going radio silent.

March 15th

I sent them another message, saying it had been two weeks (I apparently can’t count), and I was checking in again. I said I didn’t mean to be pushy, but it felt like a long wait for just a sketch.

I checked today (May 1st) and saw that they have deactivated their page.

Also, I don’t have proof of this because I forgot to take screenshots and their page is now deactivated, but I had, at two separate points, left shouts on their page after my note from the 15th went ignored for another two weeks or so. I left one asking them to reply to my note, and another about a week later saying that I felt like I was being scammed.

I’m not expecting to see them come back.