Beware: Terri J. Flippo/ZoopLoopz

Hi.
This is a story of two buyers who didn't pay us for our work.

A little explanation before I start:
I work together with FyreDraygg. I take care of public relations and make some types of commission; he doesn't talk to our buyers, but is always informed by me about everything he has to know. This is stated on our Terms of Service, automatically accepted when someone decides to commission us.

That being said, let's start.

Terri contacted us on 6 December 2018 asking for a Night in The Woods graphic (a type of commission FyreDraygg does) featuring four characters.
(If you're unfamiliar with the platform it's Plus Messenger. It's Telegram with a different interface)

(I know the correct total was 26€ (6,5 x 4 = 26€) when I wrote 24€, , I made a mistake, but I let that slide even after I noticed.)
Then they proceeded sending us the character references.
I gave them an indicative date as, per policy, we can't ensure any completion date.
I also explained them FyreDraygg will work on their piece (even if they should have known reading our ToS or, simply, my FurAffinity page).

We chatted a little bit, nothing relevant for this.
They contacted me on 12 December 2018, 2 January 2019, 28-29 January 2019 and 7 April 2019 asking about the WIP.
As I told them before, I have a proper channel where I send any update on any commission I'm working on, to let people know what I'm working on, but I still accept people asking me privately.

Finally, on 22 May 2019 I send them the final picture; I know, we took so long, but again we give no guarantees about completion dates and this is clearly stated in our ToS.
 

Then, problems arose. Again, as per our policy:

"A situation where we finish our job and the client delays payment due to not having the required funds available is not at all acceptable and lands said client directly in the blacklist, along with us reporting such incidents to all market platforms."

...but I tried to be understanding: we took a lot of time and I've decided to be more patient in turn.
I was still annoyed because it was just about 6€ per person, not a really large amount, but I kept this for myself. I just wanted to be payed, nothing else, I didn't care about judging other people's finances.

Then I contacted them on 27 May 2019, 10 June 2019 and lastly 21 June 2019. It was becoming a large problem because I had to file my tax declaration and I needed this payment to be done asap. I also explained this problem to them.
Then, they forwarded a message from another person (a friend who was taking part to this commission), apologizing and promising we will receive payment very soon (I'm censoring personal emails & Paypal addresses).



Then, suddenly they asked to change the price because "2 of the characters weren't used at all". We had been graceful enough to decline charging them extra delay fees when offered, the commission was already dirt-cheap discounted to begin with and while we took a long time to deliver, this gave them plenty of time to notice they weren't using a character and telling us about it. Furthermore, after receiving the WIP, they had yet another chance to ask for changes, which they didn't and now, when pressed for payment, they magically discover issues with the work.

They also complained about us not sending them any WIPs, which we clearly provided as a release candidate due to the nature of the work.
Thus, since work on 4 characters had already been done, that work would have to be paid.


 

We couldn't send any invoice via Paypal any earlier because we didn't have any email to send it to; the buyer seemed extremely reluctant to provide any such information and had to be solicited multiple times before complying.

The invoice expiration date was set for 15 days after issuing (my email is a public business email, I don't feel the need to censor it) and Maxx promised to pay after Friday (it was June 21, then payment should have been sent after June 28).
As you can see from the screenshot I took today it's still "on hold", while the second one (from another person) is paid. Just a comparison if you're not familiar with Italian.



The invoice will technically expire tomorrow, but since we are way past any set deadlines, we figured we weren't going to receive any payment and  decided to cancel this order, ban these buyers from our service and initiatives and report them to the proper platforms as stated in our ToS.



I perfectly understand things can be hard in life, we took a lot of time to complete this piece, but on the other hand if a person commissions some work from someone else, they should keep the proper funds available by setting money aside from the start, not pay at their leisure and blaming it on the worker for completing their work at an inconvenient time.
I also offered them to pay after a WIP because I know it could took more time than expected.
And again, we're talking about 6€ per person; I don't think someone who struggles to set aside the price of a 12-pack of Pepsi should preoccupy themselves with ordering art, but that's just my personal opinion.

These users contacted me on Telegram and, apart from personal emails, I don't have any other contact.
I give you name, nickname and id because it's all I have directly; after some sleuthing I found Terri on FurAffinity.

Terri J. Flippo, @ZoopLoopz, id: 642843923
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/turriboo

Maxx "Wretch", @trashmutt, id: 353535756