Caution: Pisqcurio/Pisq

The client I would like to report is known as Piscurio/Pisquared.

They are a former client and patron who saw fit to terminate their commission halfway through, as well as all communications while I was away for college, etc. The reason I am posting this beware is because now, after over a year, they have returned and are trying to use threats and blackmail to receive a refund when it is explicitly stated in my Terms of Service that I do not give refunds once the work has begun. Unless no work had been done yet/the commission is still waiting in 'queue', or I am unable to continue due to being hospitalized for longer than a period of 1 week, the refunds will not be given. Two separate clients have received refunds from me in the past following this policy. Once who was still in queue and needed to back out, as well as one in 2019 where I could not work as I had been fully hospitalized.

Prior to this issue, the user received artwork from me in the form of patreon rewards. They claimed their tier’s ability to have a custom sketch done of their character, which was completed 09/17/20. They were very happy with the result and voiced no issues and we had a fairly strong relationship at the time.

Prior to commissioning me fully, the user attempted to ‘haggle’ with my prices. I did not see this as a red flag initially and ignored it at the time in favor of giving them the benefit of the doubt and explaining to them why my prices were the way they were, etc. They then disappeared for some months, only to come back and go through with commissioning me at a lower price.

The Issue

The commission inquiry was made on the 09/04/20 with payment given on the 10/30/20. No set deadline was discussed with the client and they were aware that I am a college student with health issues and therefore take time working, shown by their references and thus awareness of this later on. Regardless of however long the commission would take to complete, it was clear I would honor it.

Please review Image 0. 

As time went on, they began to grow impatient despite knowing that they were listed under ‘queued’ and would be until the commissions I was currently working on at the time were finished. Complaints were made and I moved them to ‘In Progress’ on November 8^th, 2020 to put them at ease. An unwatermarked WIP image with the linework nearly completed was then sent to the client around November 27^th, wherein small errors in the design were pointed out. These errors were made due to the client’s reference being largely unclear, but it was promised that the mistakes would be fixed and were fixed at a later date. The WIP was posted again on my discord server, where they were a member.

The unwatermarked sketch, however, was deleted from direct messages when I realized the client was posting it online into their own gallery without permission. The issue was later resolved over a stream on Picarto, where I whispered them privately. The user was an active viewer of my streams at the time and would often visit to watch for several hours on end, the content of which included their own commission on many occasions. On December 11^th, I marked on Trello that the sketching phase had been completed, as I had fully moved on to lineart by then. I was struggling a lot medically around this time, hence the delay in Trello being updated compared to discord.

Despite having expedited their commission (moving it ahead of two others), starting and completing roughly half the work, the client asked for a full refund on January 31^st of 2021.

In response, I explained to them their options, reminded them of my terms, and once again informed them that refunds were not guaranteed at this stage. The commission was already past the sketch phase at this point, despite the client’s words, as can be seen in the earlier image of their character. While it was not complete at the time, it was well underway and at roughly 98%.

I attempted to put their concerns at ease by informing them of other customers who had and were waiting just as long for their commissions, all of which were roughly the same level of complexity and cost as this client’s. It was also explained that I would, regardless of how long it took, complete the commission.

Given that this was at the height of the pandemic, and evacuation orders were being given to neighboring colleges in response, I was often unable to respond to long periods of time. However, clients remained informed of this and whenever an update was available on my condition, their commissions, and the like. In the case of this client, I offered to DM them directly when my next stream would start so that they would be informed and could watch their commissions being worked on. The client refused and stated that they had alerts on. The third WIP image was sent to them shortly after.

Some weeks later, they left my server, blocked me via discord, and discontinued communication with me. I attempted to reach them and sent a friend request via discord to try and reestablish communication, but they never accepted it. Confused, I continued to work on the commission to near completion.

With the sketching phase marked as complete, I did not mark off the next stage (lining) until much later. The reason for this being I was still trying to reestablish contact with my client and had questions that prevented me from finishing this step fully. Despite this, I continued on with the background while I waited.

*The dates in this image as of Dec 11^th will be further explained below.

However, my time working was not without issues. I was forced to not work due to my laptop dying in March. Following this, my college issued an evacuation order in response to a breakout of COVID-19 on campus. Regardless, I continued to inform my clients and sever members of these problems via discord announcements and so on.

Unfortunately, the border of my country closed for several months mere hours before I could return home and I was forced to return to the US. They did not open until May 27th, which was around the same time I was allowed to arrive home being on the first flight back. From there, I updated my website, my Trello, and continued working. On June 1st, I resolved that I had waited long enough for my client to reappear and went ahead with marking off both Lining and Color as I had now completed those two steps. This was done tentatively with steps taken to allow corrections should they return.

On August 28^th, 2021, Pisqcurio sent me a message and demanded I terminate their commission for lack of communication – despite them having blocked me – and alluded that I should give them a refund while fully aware that I would not be due to the commission having been almost completed at the time of termination. Due to rising medical issues and having just returned to college, I was not active on FA and for that I take full responsibility.

On January 11^th, 2022, the client reapproached me with threats of defamation and claimed I manipulated and gaslighted them when I did not. Their message was accompanied by another over discord that also included more threats, insults, and the promise to continue to harass me. Again, they asked for a refund despite knowing my terms of service and all the work that had been done. They also claimed to have sent an email to me regarding the issue, but I, to this day, have never received an email from them.

As can be seen by the above image, I am still, to this day, blocked by them and unable to communicate via discord. We share a server, as can be seen by the image following it, which shows that it is a block and not just us not being in the same community. Upon checking FA, I saw that I was no longer blocked and responded with a message to explain my side of the story while also trying to reason with them.

The response I received showed their refusal to cooperate or come to an understanding.

I responded with a reminder of what happened, once again, and finally blocked them. I am not proud of this message, but I am including it as well.

Edit 01.19.22

Another important thing to note is that the client claims to have emailed me on January 11th, 2022. I checked both my emails and found this;

Absolutely nothing. Hence, either they sent their email to the wrong person or fabricated it. I do not have any emails dated on the 11th of January, 2022 from this client and have never received one since from 09/04/2020 to 01/19/2022. What I do have are a total of four twitter notifications and a Buzzly activation email.

I checked my gmail as a courtesy, but only the one on outlook is provided or associated with the public and used as my work email.