VosurAekira

If you feel they have a rather consistent pattern of 'take the money and run' as shown by evidence on here, then I'd recommend you ask for your money back. If they do not provide a refund, you file a dispute/claim. Their TOS does not over-ride Paypal's client protection in any way shape-or-form. 

If they're not willing to give an ETC (Estimated Time of Completion), then I feel you have every right to ask for your refund (or step it up to a dispute/claim if they're unwilling).

If you feel like you need to bring Paypal's dispute/claim system into this though, be ready to provide proof that the artist in question does not show a willingness to work with you and be ready to no longer commission the said-artist. To help guarantee success in this route, do not back down until you either have the art in hand or the money returned. the artist could possibly ask for the dispute to be cancelled, do not cancel it. Step it up to a claim if they are trying to get you to back down.

The maximum I would recommend waiting (to give enough time for communication) would be 5 months from paid-date if you want a timeline to start up a dispute/claim.

In all honesty, I would still follow the "cover your rear" mindset and ask the Date of Birth in both communication and in form. It's not common for it to happen, but if it is ever needed, you're covered if the situation should ever arise.

There is an email listed on the shouts for the FA page [email protected] . Then there's also https://www.deviantart.com/yuki-moon and https://www.youtube.com/user/Naokishi listed on the FA page as well

To further on Celestina's and NovaCandy's mentions, definitely ask for the date-of-birth during the planning and have them fill out a google-form where it asks for the birth date (not just age) in among the information. If they do not keep consistent or blatantly tell that they are a minor in one or both ways, then reject the commission. If they say the same thing for both, and you find out that it is a lie for both times, report the account with screenshots that they lied two-times about it.

If you haven't already, compile all the evidence of the situation right now. If you have to escalate it to a claim , you might need the evidence to support your case. Also, do not close the dispute until you've gotten the work (even if the artist asks for it to be closed before continuing the work), you cannot reopened a closed dispute. If it looks like you won't get the art within the 20 day window before the dispute becomes auto-closed, escalate it to a claim. Do not wait out the full duration as some might try to do this to get the dispute to be closed automatically.

Ah, last time I've had to do a dispute-to-claim was a week, so it must've changed, thank you for the update.

And yes, Celestina's linked topic is the one that came to mind on how to go about in doing this.

Depending on how much time has passed since the auto-buy, you could try contacting them through the email (as paypal does keep track of emails through the transactions) and if that doesn't work or if you are nearing the deadline in which you can do a dispute, then I would recommend starting a dispute. 

As it has been mentioned in one or two topics of advice: if you do start a dispute, make sure you have all the evidence to support yourself and be ready to escalate it to a claim if absolutely necessary. If you do this, expect to no longer do any business with that artist though as this is an ultimatum. If you start a dispute and you don't escalate it within a week of the start of the dispute, the case could very well be dropped and you will not have the chance of escalating it to a claim or starting a dispute on that transaction again.