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Regarding fursuit care instructions, I can offer up a few things: Washing/Cleaning -Faux fur is safe to put in the wash, but I would turn the suit inside-out first. This will give you access to the digitigrade padding, which may allow you to remove it (If you do remove it, take notes/pictures of what you removed from where, and maybe also mark the pieces with a fabric marker so that you can put them back together in the right place). -Always wash your suit in cold water. -A delicate detergent is generally ideal, but your mileage may vary. (Sometimes, carpet cleaner is the only thing that works.) Some detergents, delicate or not, don't interact well with some furs. If you have concerns and have some of the fur available fur repairs, test it on a scrap piece before using it on your suit. -If you use a washing machine, use a delicate cycle. Also put your suit into a laundry bag to prevent it from getting caught on anything. Put your paws, hand and foot, into pillow cases to keep them from getting any weird stains onto anything else. -If you're hand-washing, your tub is your friend and you can use it for soaking. Drying -Fans are helpful. Very helpful. -Do not use heat for drying. It will melt the fur. -While a lot of folks will hang up their suits to dry, the weight of the damp fur can cause stretching at the shoulders. At Con Care -Dryer sheets are super useful for quickly drying out your head and paws. Scented ones can also help combat odors. -Disinfecting sprays (water and rubbing alcohol) are your friend and will help keep your suit fresh between wears. Keep the spray away from anything airbrushed or electronic on your suit. You may also need to keep it away from the eyes, depending on how they've been made. -If you haven't, invest in some UnderArmor and a balaclava to help keep moisture away from the suit whenever possible. -Take frequent breaks and put your health at a priority over anyone else's idea of magic. Travel -Have some kind of tote for travel. Some folks have things like footlockers. Others have plastic totes. I use a hard-shell suitcase. Hope that helps with some of the confusion around fursuit care. Sorry I can't help with any of the other issues!

We can mark it approved yes, just give us the heads up when the refund is completed and we'll do so. Very glad to know she made a point to contact you and resolve things, it's always good to hear when anyone is able to own up to the issue and address the problem considerately.

I would like to get this updated as resolved, but I don't think that I can on my own without an admin marking it as such or adding in the additional tag. Shortly after posting, Pucca did reach out to me and was very professional in addressing things. She quelled my concerns and assured me that something was going to be done about the situation to help rectify things. She gave concise and consistent attention on the matter while dealing with it, she was always available in case I had any further questions in the meantime. She was very dedicated and candid with getting me a refund as well as being very empathetic to my position in the situation. I could not have wished for a better result for this unfortunate situation. She did not shy away from taking fault in the situation and was very adamant about finding a solution that worked.

So I've gotten a suit from Lemonbrat and they have been nothing but kind and courteous and prompt with their responses. This to me looks like buyer's remorse. The images you provided make it seem like you were contacted in March about your due date and work had started on the suit in June. Which you received wips for. Where are the rest of the emails from them? In order to clear the air I would provide them. Tmk Lemonbrat doesn't make changes unless it's requested by the customer. They send wip pictures and you need to approve them before more work is done on the suit. They have their customers choose the fur colors, they even send swatches. So that's on you. The fur looks like short pile fur, maybe sable or seal, it wrinkles. It's gonna happen with shorter furs. You're going to see seams unless you're using lux or another long pile fur. Lemonbrat has a team of people who work on these suits, I have met several of them and they're always super friendly. You sound like an awful customer. You provided a ref from the lion king first off. You need consistent reference images. Looking at the main one the tail is curved. Have you seen a big cat like a panther? Their tails naturally have a curve so they don't drag on the ground. I don't see the airbrushing you speak of, to be fair I see absolutely nothing that would suggest it was airbrushed at all. It all looks like fur and shadows of fur in the images.

Since this is a bank chargeback PayPal has little say in what happens. If you used their automated system, then it's imperative that you drop everything you're doing and call them. Using their automated system is almost a guaranteed loss, and it's always best to call them. In some instances PayPal has been known to cover the loss themselves. Unfortunately this usually can only happen if you call while the claim is in process, but PayPal has been known to help after the fact. It's also important to remember that we don't know if this is a case of buyer's remorse or if Fytch was using a CC they had no authorization to use. If the CC was stolen, then there's an unlikely chance the bank will back down as the victim of theft should be made whole.

Honestly, my advice for the future is always take payment upfront. Now that you have paypal, that should be much easier tho. As for the commissioner them self, there's not much you can do besides warn others. Have you considered selling the design as an adopt design? It may recoup some of the lost money for your efforts, and if they haven't paid you by now it's their own loss for it.

Always a massive red-flag to ask for money as 'friends and family'. I think you lose buyer protection doing that. Hope you get your money back, that's a sizeable chunk!

He was irked by this, saying that he'd rather I not reuse it, since he would be using the sketch. Holy heck, I simply cannot NOPE this hard enough. Everything this person has done during your interaction is beyond comprehension. I know writing one of these isn't always easy, but thank you so much for the heads up.

I do agree that you messaged them way too much; unless you two were friend, I dont see the need to do friendly chatter within a business transaction. As an artist this would bother me a lot. Did they have their TOS in a public place? For a suit, something that will almost always have down payments and non refundable parts, Im surprised they didnt show it to you personally. And the fact that they didnt keep receipts seems odd too. They missed way too many deadlines, and they should have owned up to that. Also 'heads are quick' versus 'over a year wait'.....

this seems to be a common issue with the maker and it’s a wonder he’s still allowed to set up booths in cons. i purchased an artist’s liberty gatordog partial from him at furrydelphia nearly two years ago. i was given a first date for it to be finished in early 2018 (the con having been august 2017) which i was okay with. never got updates aside from the design which was done by his partner or friend or something. whenever i try to contact him, unless i bring up wanting a refund or being forced to charge back, there is no response. when there is, it’s always with an excuse of being ill or having been busy with other projects (despite seeing no updates for any projects anywhere). often he puts down other commissioners by calling them childish or difficult, which at this point i’m assuming that means they just want some semblance of a suit and aren’t afraid to be a little pushy about it. despite messaging him about twice a week, i have not heard back from him over telegram since november 2018, nor it seems has anyone else who has commissioned him.

Oh it can absolutely be nerve wracking to take the initiative on that sorta thing! I've been there myself, but at the end of the day, the artist is running a business (and if they don't treat it as such? definitely look elsewhere for someone who will actually take their work seriously!) and they should have no reason to be nasty if a client is keeping things on the up and up! You paid for a service, and you are within your rights to ask for progress or if there's delays in the process. Some artists may take a negative approach, but if they get nasty when you just ask a question, it will reflect poorly on them and not you. And nine times outta ten, even if the work is nice, it tends to be tainted by the bad experience had by the artist you worked with. You did nothing to warrant their mistreatment, so don't be afraid to stick up for yourself in the future! There's always others out there that will be more than willing to take you up on a future commission <:

I want to applaud you for keeping your cool and calling their bluff on their obvious attempts to scare you, well done. You hold full copyrights to your work and they have no right to use it, regardless of whatever strange "client ToS" they try to throw at you. I agree with Bornes above, I'd definitely consider watermarking your WIPs when sending them to a client. I once had a similar situation to this and from then on I have used a WIP watermark that explicitly states that "artist retains rights" etc. etc. Safe to say for reasons like these I always mark everything I do and I highly recommend you to aswell ♥ I've gone ahead and pre-emptively blocked this person on FA - definitely not someone I want to interact with.

This behavior is rather normal for Mr. Hoyt. Having worked with Inkedfur myself in the past, I experienced similar issues regarding undocumented sales and his lack of professionalism. I left IF about three years ago and have spoken about my experiences in the past, but I want to give a brief overview again as I feel Artist beware is a fitting place to comment on it. Back when Inkedfur was a brand new company, I applied to join and was quickly accepted. From day one, I had issues with the lack of professionalism in small ways that I overlooked at the time. Mostly how James addresses his artists and tries to be a bit too friendly and casual in what is meant to be a business relationship. I don’t personally approve of casual approaches to business because I take my own very seriously. Immediately after joining I noticed my sales were not lining up with customers claims of purchases and some even sent me visual proof of purchases that were never reflected in my sales figures in the artist portal. I again, gave it a pass because “it’s a new company and these are growing pains”. James and I did not have a great relationship at any point because I often would tell him I disapproved of his choices at times, such as using the company twitter to make and participate in call out posts, getting involved in fandom drama, etc. I politely told him that such things are best suited for his personal Twitter because he was effectively speaking on behalf of all of his artists when he did this and his response was very vitriolic and aggressive. He then proceeded to tell me I made him cry to guilt me into backing off; he did this on many occassions and I always found it to be manipulative. We constantly butt heads on these issues and between the failure to accurately report my sales for a YEAR and his attitude and demeanor, I was very close to leaving. One evening, in a telegram group chat in which many of IFs artists were present, there was a discussion about tags and content on the site. He and I specially were discussing a tag when he dropped that IF was selling cub artwork. This made many of us in the chat suddenly focus on this as we were unaware that CP was being sold along side our work and the fact it was never mentioned in the TOS and was not present on the site when we had joined. I personally had pressed the issue because it was extremely alarming to me and I did not want my work associated with that content. James blew up, accused me of calling him a pedophile, then posted a picture of a destroyed office insisting that I pushed him to damage his office. James ghosted for a while that evening and If staff were having private conversations with me to try and fix things. Meanwhile, James was threatening his own employees saying that if they spoke to me, they would be fired. I was also trying to speak with James myself, however he was being very avoidant and ended the evening with cutting me from the site, locking me out of my account and freezing any further pay outs to me. The interesting thing to note is that I was sent an email that said I was terminated from the company because of “insubordination” as if I were his employee. The notion that he views artists as his workers when his entire business is built on their backs rubs me the wrong way until this day. I planned on resigning from the company anyways after that debacle so in the end I was fine with the choice, however two years later, I was still never sent a final payout nor have I been given access to the account for sales figures ever again. Because of my butting head’s with him, the next day CP was formally removed from the site (however there is still questionable art on the site to this day such as pornographic art of characters who are canonlogically tweens such as inklings from the Splatoon series ). Upon leaving, James told me that he would either send me the remaining products or destroy them. I agreed that destroying them would be best (I did not want someone this unhinged having my address) and he stated it would be done. I also explicitly forbid any further sales of my work. I’d also like to add that, because of me, James would later add a rule retroactively for artists that states if they leave, they need to buy their remaining stock or forfeit it to Inkedfur to sell; a very entrapping rule for those who may not be able to afford a departure and given another large scandal relating to James criminal history with soliciting minors, this was stressful for many trying to leave. On top of that, James never gave any visual confirmation of stock in hand so it’s highly believable that he would continue to print new copies and claim it was old stock or demand more money from artists for stock that he’d make after he gave a false number to make leaving the company harder/more expensive out of spite. Fast forward to the next con and a client of mine sends me a photo of IF’s table with one of my prints for sale. I immediately issued a Cease and Desist letter to Inkedfur and threatened legal action ; that was the last time I contacted them. I am not the only artist who had had this happen, as others who have left (and even bought out their stock) have had issues with James continuing to sell their products without permission. I have heard many horror stories from artists who have worked with this company, however their stories are not mine to tell and I hope they come forward to this thread to share. I’d also like to mention that I have visual documentation of everything mentioned here and have securely held onto it for the full three years since I departed from the company and would be alright sharing it if necessary. James Hoyt is a dangerous, unstable individual who is a threat to minors and mistreats his artists severely. I won’t go too far into his criminal past here as it’s not entirely relevant, however when it became known, many artists tried to leave and he did his best to spite them and make the transition as painful as possible. I’d also like to mention that James has ties to Alt Right groups that came out en masse to attack me when I spoke against his business and criminal past on twitter and also want to caution people to tread lightly if they have to deal with him. From sending me threatening pictures of a destroyed office to gathering alt right groups to attack me, I can say that I am glad to be away from him and I am so sorry others have had to suffer under him as well.

The way Ryan treats her customers is bad. The first times she was AB'd she worked to resolve the problem and issued refunds. The last time someone posted a beware she kept promising the refund and dragged her heels on delivering. It makes me wonder if she is stopped caring. I feel like she has some problematic business practices. Her terms of service state that if she doesn't feel like doing a commission she can cancel and issue only a partial refund. I would be worried that if I hired her she would nuke her backlog and go, nope, you're not getting a full refund. I'm pretty sure she spends the money before doing the work, because a she often can't issue a prompt refund. She constantly promises refund streams to her customers and then takes on new work instead. And I feel like she gets too personal with her clients. There's always some excuse, like she is too exhausted, her child is clingy and won't let her work, etcetera. She needs to get her act together, refund people and quit taking on so much work.

Yes you are correct at the time I didn’t see any harm in posting updates the way I did. Thanks for everyone’s input I’ll take all of it into consideration of how I will post future journals from now on. I did not mean to come off as throwing a guilt trip or seem to do any such of thing. That is not what I am about, I’m a very open person in rl and I tend to always share a little tmi. I will work on that and better myself for future commissions and how I communicate. I don’t see it as an attack it’s an honest opinion. Thank you for sharing ?

I respect artist trying to get better and fix their mistakes, but honestly? This is probably the biggest thing that needs to be fixed. Right here. This is very unprofessional, as well as the constant stream of journals always including the "I am a single parent with no time" excuses. I'm sure transparency is appreciated by your clients, Chesta, but I'm fairly certain they have all heard this song and dance hundreds of times now. When providing updates, all that should be given is an update on the client's particular commission. No one needs to know what's going on in your personal life. If something gets in the way, "I got tied up, I'm sorry. I'll get your work done [insert timeframes here]" should be all that's necessary. (And actually stick to that timeframe on top)

I definitely agree with this stance. If someone came at me in this manner my response would likely be to kiss my entire ass, and they would get a block. People can't be "On" always.

I've been following Chesta for a while, and while it's sad to see her here, I can't say I'm surprised. Over the years I've noticed that she has a habit of taking on more work and building on to her queue without finishing work at the same rate, and it's always made me wary of ordering something. I hope you get a resolution to this, a year for art really is too long.

Sounds like someone to avoid. Bad communication and inappropriate behavior ("I thought you didn't like me. I always wanted to be your friend.") and a lot of angry customers on her FA page. Also way too much personal information on journals about all her problems. I think she should have issued refunds if she was so stressed out.

This is a real shame, I'm sorry you ended up with a traced piece. Tbh a LOT of the stuff on that particular site always screams 'traced' when I browse there, and the fact that user galleries only really exist as footnotes of the auctions themselves probably doesn't help when it comes to looking at their consistency over time. How good are they when it comes to site management of known tracers?

I'm not surprised to see her posted here. I've always found the way she does business to be problematic. For example here she is inconsistent about how she wants communication during the commission process. And in the past I remember her refusing to refund a client and blocking them because she didn't like him telling people she was denying his refund. I would never work with a "no refunds artist".