Furfancy Artist Beware

I originally contacted Furfancy for a fursuit as of Sept 14, 2019. They provided me the link to their website and we continued with conversation from screenshot1.jpg:

We had discussed the details and around December I made the initial payment for my partial fursuit for $2000 and the start date to begin working on the suit around the end of 2020. 

After December, I started making payments via Paypal. 

Thankfully, I requested a written contract on Jan 2, 2020. The contract was created and signed. (Not provided since it contains personal information of both client and seller)

Aside from the occassional late response, things went fairly smoothly as I continued making payments. It wasn't until September that I started seeing some big red flags. I'll also note that in the contract provided, there was a 1-4 day window for communication which I thought was fairly reasonable. Going forward on this beware, it was mostly the lack of communication that resulted in me wishing to end this contract. 

On September 18, 2020, I sent the following message on telegram:

At this point, the lack of communication was already becoming an issue. This was something that I tried to contact her on so that we could continue working around this but kept getting worse as things went on. 

Throughout this process, other commissioners were having the same experience as me and were backing out. On top of the fact that she was so far behind deadline and also the lack of communication, I was (and still am) worried that she has no intention of really completing my fursuit. Despite no work being done on the suit and breaking her own terms on her contract, she never offered me a full refund, and when I requested one eventually, she said that she could not provide a full refund. My initial $400 payment was non-refundable. If any work was done on the project or parts were already purchased, I may have understood. However, at this point, we are already a year after the initial request to commission a fursuit. There was no work completed and still 20 people in the queue before me which meant I would need to wait approximately another two years before she could even start working on my fursuit. 

At this time, I had also joined her group chat which I will not provide screenshots of since Victoria largely provides updates via voice messages. Every update that was provided has been about personal problems and why she needs to extend her deadlines for all of her clients. These were the only updates that were provided for approximately a year. I can sympethize with these problems. However, I paid $2000 for a commission. This means that I'm working with a company to provide me with a product. I understand that roadblocks occur, but at no point of the process did Victoria hold any accountability or responsibililty. 

This screenshot is from September 22, 2020. Please keep that in mind while you look at the next screenshot from October 2, 2020. 

This last screenshot I found out that she had apparently purchased my furs apparently months ago and didn't bother to inform me. 

"If a charge back is made, I'm going to assume you no longer want the slot. If you are backing out 35% is non refundable." 
If the communication up to this point was a red flag, then threatening me for 35% of what I paid so that I can guarantee I don't get screwed through this process should be just straight up illegal. 
At this point, I managed to call her. Only after a full year, did she share her trello board with me. I contacted her asking her to update her contract for a deadline and a full refund if she did not complete the fursuit by August 1, 2021. 
After signing the new contract, we stopped communicating for a while. Then we pick back up in February. 

At this point, this brings us up to where we are currently in the discussion and I'm mentally checked out of this whole process. I just want my full refund so I can move on with my life. I was really looking forward to commissioning my first fursuit and now I'm not sure if I want one anymore. Victoria has completely ruined the idea of fursuiting for me at this point.