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  1. **The initial date of “when” is a guesstimate as Zephyr had deleted the chat logs to hide all the evidence. I was unable to get a screenshot of the initial agreement.** Zephyr was someone I had been introduced to via a YCH group commission completed by the artist Karukuji a handful of years back. After the completion of this YCH we decided to stay in touch. We remained mostly friends on and off for the past several years where I could go several months without hearing from him only to have him message me if he wanted something from me for his own selfish reasons. An example of this is when I was able to get a commission opportunity with a very skilled animator so I was trying to see if any mutuals wanted to split the art with me. He had ghosted me for several months only to shoot me a message to get in on this commission. To which I had told him “no” because I found it odd he only just then decided to message me when I was fishing for people. I had a discussion with him about how this wasn’t ok to do after ghosting me for so long and he apologized. I declined his involvement with my commission and said if he wanted to get art with me in the future he would need to do better about communicating with me rather than only messaging me to get art. He did end up getting better at messaging me. He even ended up commissioning me for one of my Scales & Tails commissions. Normally I require a $100 deposit to reserve the spot since I had issues in the past of people backing out last second when I was ready to start the commission (I do these commissions on a monthly basis) but since he was a friend I was able to waive the fee. When his month eventually came up he was in a financial situation where he couldn’t afford to pay me the full amount. We had discussed it and agreed that I would work on finishing the art for him with the promise he would pay me back later for the finished art. (advertisement date of the Scales & Tales commission slot availability) I finished his commission in June of 2023 and as of writing this have not received payment for its completion: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/52654113/ During this time I had been friends with Zephyr, I had seen several people posting warnings about him saying that he was very irresponsible about money where he would bid on YCHs despite not having the finances to actually pay for it. Despite these warning signs from others I was still on Zephyr's side being sympathetic to his situation. I even sent Zephyr some of my paystubs so he could use me as a reference to try and get an apartment to rent. I would NEVER do this for someone online but I had considered him a good friend so I was willing to do it to try and help him out of a bad situation. At this time I was also expecting art from the artist Karukuji (that I had been waiting years for) who Zephyr was also expecting art from. Karukuji would message me saying he was going to be canceling all active commissions and would be issuing refunds to all parties in his queue. Karukuji insisted on refunding my money to Zephyr since I didn’t have a Boosty account and then Zephyr would just forward me the refunded money. I rejected this idea because I didn’t trust Zephyr to actually send me the money because Zephyr already owed me $250 and has yet to pay me so why would I trust Karukuji to send him an additional $485 to MAYBE send back to me? Karukuji would end up refunding my commission money to Zephyr anyway despite my concerns that Zephyr would be dishonest about forwarding me the money. I had discussed this situation with Zephyr about how Karukuji wanted to cancel all owed art and issue refunds to which Zephyr. I figured with Karukuji refunding him he might finally be able to pay me back for the money he owes me. Zephyr would end up sending me my money but only the amount that Karukuji owed me and nothing more. If Karukuji was refunding everyone of their commissions then why wasn’t Zephyr able to pay me back the money he owed me? If Zephyr got refunded from Karukuji then surely he should’ve had no problem paying me for the art he owed. I tried to challenge Zephyr on this by asking him about it and he would respond saying it’s “none of my business” but I think it very much is my business. Zephyr said he would pay me when he has the money to do so but didn’t have it at this time. Over the next few months after this I would have futile efforts to try and get the money he owed me as he always had a new excuse for why he couldn’t pay or he would promise payment and then ghost me. Finally we agreed to a payment plan where he would make payments until he paid off his full debt for the art I completed and then we could finally go on our separate ways. Instead of paying off his balance, he would instead just end up blocking me and pretend like the money he owed was nonexistent despite promising me over and over he will pay it. He would also end up deleting the telegram chat history so there was no incriminating evidence and he would also block me on PayPal so I would be unable to send him money requests. Here are a few of the screenshots I was able to salvage from this: (screen cap date January 8, 2024) (screen cap dates January 11, 2024) (screen cap date February 9th, 2024) (mod note: 2 payments of 50$ equaling 100$ has been confirmed, one additional 50$ payment is unaccounted for. For the purposes of resolution, Fr0stbit3 is willing to settle for 100$ to consider the payment owed)
  2. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/952805.html WHO: Tahmuz WHERE: http://tahmuz.deviantart.com WHAT: Digital Bust commission WHEN: Nov 27th, 2016 - Present day EXPLAIN: On Nov 27th, 2016, I decided to commission this artist. I had been watching them for a while now and had some points to spare, so I bought a slot, as you can see here. Tahmuz always seemed to be polite and kind and always compeleted commission with a consistant quality so I didn't feel suspiscious or anxious about it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, I very politely asked on their profile how my commission was going. I understand that commissions can take a while to complete due to life. All I was wanting was a "yes, Im working on it" or a "No, I havent reached yours on my list yet due to the other slot holders", just something along those lines. I was ignored and more recently my comment was hidden. I dont have a link nor a screen cap of my co mment due to the fact the comment was hidden. I didn't think much of it, I thought they simply didn't like those kinds of comments, but later another Deviant who-shall-not-be-named asked me if Tahmuz had answered and if not, then to send a note to them to which I did.. It appeared that none of the people who had commissioned tahmuz for their busts had received their commission nor been able to contact Tahmuz for a refund. There are multiple comments regarding commissions and asking when they would be finished on some of the art in their gallery (too many third-party people for me to link). These people were all ignored but Tahmuz proceeded to reply to comments unrelated to commissions. Eventually on Mar 16th, 2017, I decided to try and send a note to request for a refund. Of course, they didnt reply. A while later---in response to some journals that people had made, calling them a scammer---Tahmuz uploaded this journal, saying that they did not have the internet to upload. They also mentioned that they always do refunds but to my knowledge, none of those asking for refunds have received one yet. I do not understand why Tahmuz took commissions when they knew they wouldnt be able to upload them. The most recent activity I have seen from tahmuz is this comment and this image, both uploaded on Jan 12, 2017. The more recent drawings they have uploaded have been personal projects, and though I do not think it is bad to work on personal projects, the fact that they have been working on those rather than working on their todo list is irresponsible. The most recent commission they have finished is from Nov 21st, 2016. They also opened more commissions eventhough their first batch had not been completed yet. Since these updates, Tahmuz seemed to disappear from DA completely from what I could see. They havent answered any comments nor uploaded anything. I know that 300 points for a commission is not a lot, but that has accumulated over a large group of deviants, some who have even been waiting since the summer of 2016. I apologize for the lengthy post, however I do not wish for more Deviants to be misled like I was.
  3. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/935990.html WHO: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/jonsie/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/meilkei (this account has been disabled) WHERE: FurAffinity WHAT: A custom 'Keijin' which was/is their closed species - Paid $150 WHEN: May of 2015, payment was sent on May 22nd 2015 PROOF: Everything, from the beginning until now, is in these screenshots. Oldest is at the bottom just like how you would read it on FA. This was when she was still on her Keiiba account, where the original transaction took place. Here's the sketched of my commission This is from the past 2 weeks or so from her new account JONSIE. These are refs that I had sent her when she asked if she could do art of my characters instead. I believe she sent me a message on facebook asking about it. And lastly, proof of payment. EXPLAIN: I'm not really too sure what to put here that's not already in the screenshots, but long story short I had followed her and her art around for quite sometime. We were actually even friends at one point, not super close, but you get the idea. I've always loved her art and she's always been a kind person with a good reputation so what could go wrong? I can't remember if I've ever commissioned her before this point, but other people had and always got what they paid for and in a pretty timely manner. When I first saw her species floating around I kind of fell in love with them and wanted one of my own and once she started to offer customs I jumped at the chance to get one. And the rest is pretty much in the messages. This has been going on since May of last year, and I've tried my best to be patient and understanding because I know life happens. I even opted for different kinds of art to make up for what I had paid for and never even received that. I actually just counted this as a loss after a year of waiting until she messaged me two weeks ago. So here were are a year and seven months later I have nothing to show for the $150 I paid to her. UPDATE 9/26/17: Just wanted to give an update to this. I never received a refund or art. I contacted her a couple weeks ago and this was
  4. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/811861.html WHO: Nayel-ie, Nayelfox WHERE: FA: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/nayel-ie/ Due to Nayel-ie requesting to the mods that all other links should be removed, I have removed them. You can still find her on DA, Weasyl, FB, Tumblr, Instagram, and with her TOS Homepage on Wordpress. You should be able to guess her username 😃 WHAT: Digital Drawing of my OC, later changed to Digital Drawing of Krystal from Star Fox WHEN: Initial contact was on December, 31st 2013. Payment was completed on the same day. Contacted her about the commission at 23.01.2014, 03.02.2014, 21.03.2014, 07-12.05.2014, 14-20.11.2014, 21.11.2014, 08.12.2014 EXPLAIN: Commissioned a digital drawing of my OC on Dec, 31st 2013 when she told during her stream that she needed quick money for some medical bills. I later changed that commission, with her consent, to "draw whatever you like" since she posted that she never had time to draw stuff she likes, because she is always occupied with commissions. She then started drawing Krystal from Star Fox during one of her streams crediting it to me. She never finished that drawing and when I asked about it she always told me that it would be continued shortly. In my latest inquiry I only get very short, unprofessional and quite rough answers that she will do it when she has done the newly-accepted commissions. She, however, has no problem with accepting discounted commissions with the promise of "tonight completion". I had commissioned her before and got time image completed in a very timely manner (if I remember correctly it was below a week, which is very fast), hence I didn't think that it would take THIS long... PROOF: Since I'm not a huge fan of posting several images, I will post you the links with a small explanation. All images are SFW! 31.12.2013: First contact. I wrote her the note after I had watched her stream and saw that she needed money. I would have donated it at this point, but since I don't like the concept of a donation very much I asked for a commission. This includes the PayPal address (censored) and payment details. http://imageshack.com/a/img540/6291/ErXrK4.jpg (Censored) PayPal payment details for the transaction: http://imageshack.com/a/img540/6007/QlPlw3.jpg 23.01.2014: Second contact. I wrote this note after I had read in one of her journals that she had very little time to draw for herself, since she was always occupied with commissions. So I offered that she could use the time she would take for my commission to draw something that she enjoyed. She asked me what I wanted but I thought that would defeat the purpose of the idea. http://imageshack.com/a/img674/8775/er8scm.jpg 03.02.2014: Third contact. This time she wrote me a note when she had an idea that she could draw Krystal from Star Fox. Of course I agreed, and thus the change of my commission was official. http://imageshack.com/a/img673/683/pXwRe9.jpg 21.03.2014: Fourth contact. I wrote her a mail (during this time, her preferred way of contact) after she wrote a journal about all the commissions she still owed. If we didn't see our name on that list we should write her a mail, which i promptly did. http://imageshack.com/a/img912/5250/2AiLOr.jpg 07.05.2014: She then did a journal (again) asking for everyone who she owed commissions to, to write her a mail - she needed this for sorting. A screenshot of said journal is included below: http://imageshack.com/a/img746/5023/opGVke.jpg 07-12.05.2014: Fifth contact. My mail answering her call to the journal above. During this mail I offered to take a different form of compensation for my money (Sketches, Lineart), because I was learning to draw and would have used those as study objects. She refused and reassured me that she was still doing the Krystal picture. http://imageshack.com/a/img908/9935/spVJNi.jpg 14.11.2014: She created two journals selling discounted commissions. One with a promised "tonight completion" turnaround. She even said that she would stream those commissions on her Livestream. http://imageshack.com/a/img537/5365/vUF9c9.jpg 14-20.11.2014: Sixth contact: I noted her about my commission and this time I didn't get a single friendly reply like in the last notes or mails. She seemed very short tempered and busy and didn't answer any of my questions in a manner that I would expect from a professional artist. In between I even asked for some better communication, but this request was simply ignored. http://imageshack.com/a/img673/3372/lwW0Lr.jpg 21.11.2014: Seventh contact: I sent her a note after I spoke with my lawyer about possible legal steps. I've set a deadline to give her enough time to either finish the image, refund me or find a suitable solution. The deadline got extended, since she wasn't at home until 2 weeks later. http://imageshack.com/a/img538/1575/RCT3Ov.jpg 08.12.2014: Eighth contact: I sent her a reminder since she should have already been back from her trip. http://imageshack.com/a/img901/1170/O7lI6S.jpg Well I haven't heard anything after that. Now I think about suing her for fraud, which would be a felony. Sure, it would cost me a lot of money beforehand (would have to hire a lawyer in Canada .. from Germany) but since I can throw all those charges at her I am not very worried about it, especially since I have a legal insurance which would cover those things as well. reading the comments on the other A_B posts about her (http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/807348.html and http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/802050.html) she seems to owe art for multiple thousands of dollars.. however she doesn't have a problem scamming those customers and accepting new commissions or even do free art streams: http://imageshack.com/a/img540/7766/1U0E19.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img661/4571/cT7WqP.jpg PS: As for everyone that she owes commissions to, I can only give the advice to REPORT her to PayPal. You won't get your money back (unless you have purchased physical goods from her), but the more people report fraudulent transactions with her account the more likely it is that they will investigate and/or stop her from using PayPal which would slow her shenanigans down by a huge amount, at least for future commissioners. -> and no, if she would like to issue a refund with PayPal they would gladly allow those transactions, even if they banned her from using it! UPDATE: I had to remove all links to her profiles, except her FA page. Nayel-ie requested this from the mods and I complied. Here are a screencap of her old TOS, since she changed her since. http://imageshack.com/a/img661/4160/YVbr3S.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img538/5366/a0a8pW.jpg Also I received a reply to one of my last notes and she said that she would complete the image in the following days. http://imageshack.com/a/img913/9884/BjG2FC.jpg 2 days later (the day she wanted to give me the image) I watched one of her Livestreams and she showed me (and the other viewers) a progress shot. The image was 80% completed at that time, thus I gave her 2 additional days. Since I didn't hear anything from her after that I sent another note. http://imageshack.com/a/img910/6646/h96zQF.jpg On December, 21st I received a note with a link to the final image (FA Version shown below) which brings this annoying journey to an end. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/15279262/ It's sad that you have to threaten an artist with legal action for their own incompetence to stick to a contract. It's also sad that Nayel-ie never apologized for the delay or her attitude. It looks to me like she thinks she's done everything right and has nothing to fear. Well from a legal standpoint that might be correct at least with this case. I just hope that her other customers are just as "lucky" to get their work done as well.. there are far to many out there who have to wait for their art; Art they already have paid for.
  5. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1016815.html (UPDATED 01 December 2018) WHO: FarisBatwan (FBsuits) - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/farisbatwan & https://twitter.com/fbsuits WHERE: Initial contact via gmail, conversation/discussion also via Twitter DM's & Discord. WHAT: Digitigrade Fullsuit - Head, Hands, Tail, Bodysuit, Outdoor Footpaws and Indoor Sockpaws WHEN: Initial contact on August 22nd, 2017. Paid in full on Septeber 02, 2017. Initial suspicion that things were not progressing as planned began in June 2018, especially moving into July 2018. EXPLAIN: I commissioned Faris after seeing her gallery on FA and seeing a couple suiters at Megaplex 2017 wearing her suits. Initial contact was good, and she was pretty responsive to messages. I was assured that Megaplex 2018 was more than enough time to complete this order, and told that paying in full sooner would assure me an even higher place in the queue. (1) After I paid communication began to go south. There were days, even weeks in between responses in gmail. Faris claimed several times that messages were not arriving from me, or that she had sent something I had not received. I thought this odd, but we agreed to move off-site for communication to Twitter DMs, and shortly thereafter to Discord. Communication problems continued throughout the beginning of 2018, although I always (eventually) received a response after prodding her several times. I was given a "100% guaranteed" completion of the suit by July of 2018. After this passed she told me she been handling her Anthrocon rush, but I would definitely have a fullsuit in time for Megaplex. On June 04 I was promised WIPs "this week" which never materialized until July 22nd, after a LOT of prodding, multiple failed promises of delivery on various dates and times, and eventually having to get pretty harsh with her and threatening chargebacks/legal action. As this date drew nearer with no updates - despite me asking several times - things definitely started to seem amiss. The bodysuit turned into a maybe, but the partial was "100% guaranteed." I did receive photos of a completed head, hands, and tail, and a tracking number only hours before she had to get it shipped out. I paid a premium for Priority Express shipping, but had no updates on tracking past "Pre-Shipment" until I left for the convention on August 02, 2018. (2 - collage of missed deadlines) After I got back from the con I dove into this with Faris, trying to figure out what happened. After an excessive amount of prodding I finally got a screenshot proving she had actually purchased a label - for a Priority package only, that wasn't destined to arrive at my location until August 02. I called her out on it and she had an extremely implausible excuse - I decided it was best to move on from that since I was still out over $2000 at this point with nothing to show for it, the shipping costs only being a fraction of it. (4, 5) During August and September I brought up numerous complaints from other customers to her. They were always "lying" or "not telling the whole story," or "out to ruin her," but she was never at fault for any of it, according to her. On the 31st things came to a head and I had a discussion with her about the poor communication, repeated failures to deliver WIPs as promised, and other issues. I gave her a 30-day ultimatum - if I had nothing in hand by September 30th, I would be moving on to expecting a refund - voluntary or otherwise. I made it very clear then, and at several other points throughout September, that chargebacks and small claims court were absolutely on the table. In the meantime I attempted to treat the unshipped package as a USPS issue, although I'd never heard of the USPS losing a Priority package without so much as an acceptance scan - it seemed extremely implausible. I did almost all of the legwork to initiate claims/seaches with the USPS, including talking to my local office on September 4th. My postmaster wanted to talk to Faris. Faris told me on September 6th that she had called in and given him all the info he requested. I called back on the 7th to verify as I was at a point where I was no longer able to take Faris' word for granted. My postmaster remembered specific details of my conversation with him on the 4th, but had no memory of talking to anybody about the case on the 6th, just a day before. After confronting Faris about this I was basically just given the same story: she had really called. My postmaster said they get at most 5-6 calls a day and that he definitely would have remembered a call about that. (3) I had no choice but to just move on from this point. Dealing with the original package and the constant delays and excuses over the bodysuit was taking a lot of energy from me. On the 22nd of September she was still claiming "100% guarantee" of delivery by month's end. I was also told on this day that the only thing remaining was to sew the front and back together, and sew in the padding. On the 25th she told me she may have to work out Friday shipping with her. I let her know I was not happy about this but as long as I had a tracking number that showed movement before the 30th (an acceptance scan or more) I would consider that acceptable. On the 30th was my last message from her - she contacted me to let me know the back had to be sewn together, and then the front and back had to be sewn together. Somehow in the span of eight days /backwards/ progress had been made, according to her. I was told proof would be sent later that day and that she would be willing to work with me on a refund. I told her that a refund would be best. I contacted her again Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning to let her know I was expecting her to work with me on setting up a refund, and that Tuesday afternoon was her last chance to get in touch with me. While I normally would allow more time than this for a response, her past track record with communication and near countless other clients waiting on suits, partials, and premades from her, I decided it was best to move on to legal options. At the current time I have a claim in progress with PayPal for a payment made for shipping & indoor sockpaws, and a chargeback with Discover for 50% of the commission price (she has a chance to attempt to refute both of these, currently). The other 50% was unfortunately paid via my PayPal balance which I have no easy recourse to outside of small claims court. Currently I have started that process and am awaiting small claims papers to be mailed to me. I will update this posting as more happens. I just felt it prudent to warn people that Faris is not a trustworthy person to work with. I don't believe she does anything maliciously - she's not trying to run a scam, but she is disorganized and doesn't have the integrity to tell her clients the truth when she gets behind or misses a deadline. For the most part she was polite and pleasant to talk to - but ultimately, I paid a four-digit sum of money for a product that never arrived, with suspiciously similar circumstances to multiple other clients of hers. I would feel remiss if I did not do my part to warn others in the community to avoid making the mistake I did. ~ 06 October 2018: I submitted a claim to the USPS earlier in September regarding the supposedly lost package. An initial payout was approved of $60.15. I thought that an odd number, so I appealed (Faris insisted she had purchased insurance for it, but never procured it when asked). Today I got a letter back with the results of the appeal — it was again denied, and as requested, they explained the $60.15 payout. No additional insurance was purchased to cover the value of the item at time of mailing. The baked-in insurance is $50 plus the amount of postage — meaning she spent $10.15 on the label for this, after I had sent her $107.30 for Priority Express. (6, 7) Faris made no mention of this when I confronted her with this evidence (I already knew she had spent less to do Priority vs Priority Express, via evidence she sent me, I just didn't know the actual amount). She is still insisting she purchased insurance, however, she says she doesn't have a receipt or any other evidence to prove it. She did say she was going to start making regular repayments later this month. At the current time she still owes me $839.85, pending the PayPal chargeback cases resolving in my favor. I am not holding her responsible for the $60.15 the USPS paid me. ~ 18 October 2018: Since posting this I've gotten in contact with multiple other people dealing with undelivered fursuits from Faris, conflicting stories and accounts, etc. I have evidence that Faris submitted, as approval images, the exact same fursuit parts for both hands and feet for both me and another client — and in the case of the hands, she even sent us both the EXACT same image, down to the pixel. See images 8 & 9. PROOF: https://imgur.com/a/uu8eRgf (1) https://imgur.com/BKYiNx9 (2) https://imgur.com/dqEMLK9 (3) https://imgur.com/xp2wZSl (4) https://imgur.com/TwD8QyU (5) https://imgur.com/6ToDOrQ (6) https://imgur.com/j1W8bPy (7) https://imgur.com/8CHFShz (8) https://imgur.com/1yzI5vc (9) https://imgur.com/RAxem7q ~ 01 November 2018: Faris has sent a small repayment toward the total amount she owes me. She says she is planning to make monthly payments until the debt is paid off. 01 December 2018: Next refund payment has been made.
  6. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/932724.html The incident occurred earlier in the year, but the artist is again taking commissions without finishing her current list. (Some of the people on the list have been waiting for over a year.) I am putting a record up here just in case. WHO: Sharkfu on DA Fraud on FA Vicious on Weasyl dydoe on Tumblr Former usernames include: bohemianjc (Twitter/Twitch/?), Atroci (DA), Debauches (Facebook), Plushiez, JamieBroLol WHERE: http://sharkfu.deviantart.com https://www.furaffinity.net/user/fraud WHAT: Several digital art commissions. There were at least two that were spaced several years apart. (screencaps below) WHEN: Our interactions began in early 2013. She was in a financial crisis and her bank had charged her an overdraft fee. I helped her out by giving her a small loan and when she still could not make ends meet, I commissioned her for a drawing. We fell in and out of contact until summer of 2015, when she was once again in a financial crisis. I commissioned her yet again. In the summer of 2016, I began noting her about the commission, whether she intended to finish it or issue a refund. I got one response saying that she would be willing to refund me, but nothing afterwards. She then posted her journal offering to sell a gryphon design, which is when the screencaps begin. PROOF: Our conversation: http://sta.sh/222ie5e1znd0?edit=1 Backup link: http://imgur.com/a/UC2WV EXPLAIN: I approached offering a trade: clear all of her debt (and then some) in exchange for the gryphon. I included PayPal screenshots in case she had forgotten about the art. She refused the trade, then attempted to get out of refunding the full amount. (The latter might have been a simple misunderstanding on their part.) She then claimed that she had not received any payment from me. After having PayPal send copies of the receipt to her and providing additional screenshots of receipts, she acknowledged that I had paid her, but insisted that I had sent the money as a gift or loan instead of payment. She also seems to be under the impression that after PayPal buyer protection runs out, she is under no obligation to complete owed work. In addition, she posted several journals asking commissioners to remind her of owed work. Though I did indeed comment on two of them, she deleted the journals and declared that not commenting on the journals meant that I voided all of her obligations. In the end, I provided a screenshot where I did indeed commission her and I finally got my refund. Though I was lucky enough to receive a refund (and indeed, several others have), there are others who are still waiting. The artist always seems to be in some sort of financial crisis and takes emergency commissions which she does not always complete. EDITED 11/14/16 with more alternate usernames.
  7. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/923369.html WHO: TheAquaticRebel (dA) -- Deactivated August 2016 -- New account http://kreayashion.deviantart.com/ Deactivated as well (August 28, 2016) -- (edited) http://loyderwo.deviantart.com/ New new account (Appears to have been abandoned) WHERE: http://www.theaquaticrebel.deviantart.com // http://kreayashion.deviantart.com/ // http://loyderwo.deviantart.com/ WHAT: $150.00 YCH fully detailed commission WHEN: May 27th, 2016 - August 4th, 2016 PROOF: http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurora-Singers-YCH-CLOSED-611035951 (Original piece) http://comments.deviantart.com/1/611035951/4137225015 (Comment inquiring to purchase) http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurora-Bringers-YCH-Comm-612444595 (Completed piece) EXPLAIN: In May of 2016 I opened a YCH with multiple characters which were $150.00 each 'The Aurora Singers' (YCH CLOSED). One was bought by someone and a short time later the other was bought by TheAquaticRebel. At the time I was doing commissions under post-pay -- Meaning I would be paid after completion. I had done this originally to save myself anxiety by feeling the need to rush to get a piece of artwork done because it had been prepaid. While TheAquaticRebel had offered originally to pay beforehand -- http://sta.sh/0e24dsjhdb6 I declined because I was pretty busy at the time and didn't want to run the risk of taking too long to get work done (I was in the process of packing to go overseas for a few months). Between May 28th and June 1st 2016 I had completed the commission and sent a note to let TheAquaticRebel know it had been completed and I was ready for payment to be made -- http://sta.sh/026ikm0uink5 I figured it had only been a couple days and I hadn't heard anything back from them to warrant a possibility that they wouldn't be able to pay. The other person who had bought the other half had paid promptly within a few hours after I'd sent the finished product. Unfortunately, that's when the situation went downhill and I received this as a reply -- http://sta.sh/085pjoiu0ra I had never heard of this happening but I asked around a bit and prodded Google.com for information of similar situations and ways to fix/repair it, not only to be paid but for TheAquaticRebel's sake as well because I imagined that situation is a pretty scary one to be in. A few people told me that PayPal doesn't shut down your account or delete it unless you ask them to under the pretenses that your account has been hacked/used by someone else without permission. Also, someone else pointed out the "PayPal bill" section which TheAquaticRebel spoke of -- PayPal doesn't send bills... They send business activity and payment histories monthly to show how much you have made/earned and how much you have bought in that month. Still, I gave TheAquaticRebel the benefit of the doubt and figured if anything they had a bank account and would likely offer to pay with that instead should their card take too long to arrive. The day after (June 4th, 2016) I sent a reply to their note inquiring as to when I could expect payment as banks usually only take 4-7 business days to send you a new card (even in the UK) and I was going to be unavailable for a week and a half or so as I would be traveling and thus unable to view my dA notes http://sta.sh/0rqa1qoxwye A week and a half's time seemed ample time enough to get everything sorted, more so when money and possibly identity theft was involved; I'd be chomping at the bit to try and get everything sorted! A day later I got this http://sta.sh/0bl5yxjjcnb as the only reply which seemed to be the tipping point for me to understand this person was yanking my chains. Their reply was so lackluster and 'meh' -- as if to say "I owe you $150/115£ but I can't be bothered" -- which really kind of annoyed me as I kept thinking of how I'd be in that situation. I'd be in slight hysterics because this is finances that were being messed with AND I'd owe someone 115 quid for work they'd already done. However, I digress -- I replied with as at this point I was beginning to realise the outcome was likely going to be dismal and it was looking less and less likely like I was going to be paid. Time warp to a few weeks later in which I hadn't heard any updates or gotten any notes from TheAquaticRebel about what was going on despite asking them to keep me posted. I don't know of any banks that take 2-3 weeks to send a new card and it's pretty easy to set up a new PayPal with a bank card (I use it myself and have had to change cards before). There had been no word from them so I sent them a note to inquire -- http://sta.sh/024dabpy0amk and funnily enough they replied the same day with -- http://sta.sh/07l9sx60i0e I had NEVER heard of PayPal doing this unless the person didn't have the amount in their accounts (PayPal or Bank) and even then, looking up this situation all I could get close to was a glitch that was a one time thing and usually sorted itself out after re-sending an invoice. However, after talking to other people about this -- I was curious for multiple opinions at this point -- they openly admitted that this just seemed like another excuse; a convenient one at that -- Fake a PayPal glitch. Regardless of my unease -- More so at the fact this all seemed phishy to me and I was not sure I wanted that kind of connection to something of that oddness -- I sent them my PayPal.Me link instead for them to send the payment. I got nothing, including no notification from them letting me know they'd even bothered to send a payment. So at this point I wanted some kind of visual proof of this situation happening, a screenshot if anything -- http://sta.sh/0s60gw7erao because I was ridiculously confused by that time. I couldn't find any direct information about this glitch being consistently replicated like TheAquaticRebel was claiming. Again, I got nothing -- no proof nor reply. August 4th, 2016 -- a couple weeks later I once again wanted to try and touch base with TheAquaticRebel on what was going on with the payment as I felt surely by this time they would have figured something out but at this point with the lack of proof that there was something wrong I was being told by several people to flip them onto Artists_Beware because to them they seemed to be nothing but a scammer -- http://sta.sh/01izcvl8v9et I got this reply -- http://sta.sh/018l60fboufu This is where there was the massive red flags -- mostly over the "PayPal won't do anything about it" because I knew damn well PayPal's support team are not that useless. I've had issues with my account before and any time I'd called them, no matter what the issue, they were always willing to help. They would pretty much always have an answer and if they didn't they would advise on ways and things I could manage things. The fact TheAquaticRebel spoke as if PayPal's people were like "Oh, you can't pay merchants for things? HAHA, OH WELL, nothing we can do :lol: Sorry~" The only thing; the ONLY thing I can see happening is them saying "The issue wouldn't on our end but your bank's as there's likely something going on with your account there. We'd advise you to call your bank and discuss it with them. For now what we can do is suspend any payments leaving your account within the last month since the time of the invasion until now to prevent any further unauthorized usage of your account and funds. If you are continuing to have issues using your account even after calling your bank and getting the OK from them that everything is fine, please contact PayPal again and we will investigate further." Which is pretty much what I got in an email reply when I inquired about the situation with PayPal's help team. TheAquaticRebel also made it out as if they were upset which their lack of cooperation really betrayed that -- More so when all they had to do was provide visual proof of what was happening as I even offered to give insight to help them. However, again... I gave them the benefit of the doubt and offered once more to help alleviate the situation -- This time by offering to bill their bank directly so it would be easier as there'd be no faffing about with PayPal as it was obvious there was issues with it -- http://sta.sh/029jxiy70vor I was concise but stern on the matter and I heard nothing back. A few weeks later I sent them http://sta.sh/019bmkyv12n3 and from then on I had heard nothing back AND they have since deactivated their account... So, here I sit -- Literally having to just deal with $150/115£ worth of work done never to be paid. However, if I can do anything I can warn people about this person. I gave them more than enough time and patience when dealing with the situation. I know it seems harsh but again, with the lack of proof and cooperation I feel genuinely put off and therefore I was told to place this publicly as a warning. I wouldn't be nearly as upset about $20 or even $40 worth of work as I could simply redo the piece but $150 is too much to just throw off without a warning. I'm well aware I should have taken prepay when it was offered, but I had my reasons for not doing so at the time -- Not to mention there might have been bigger issues if I had. EDIT-- (Apologies but they made a new account AFTER I had submitted this so there's some things to be added) TheAquaticRebel deleted their new account which was kreayashion after someone who'd seen my warning asked about the YCH. They then moved to the new new account loyderwo in which they noted me asking me to read a journal they'd written addressing the issue. The claimed to have been harassed before and after on Instagram -- which I should mention I never even knew their Instagram nor did I mention any other site they were on as I didn't even know of any others. So, if they were indeed harassed on there it wasn't because of anything I'd said. I had also not made this situation public until a few days ago when I was advised to make a warning in case others had had the same thing happen with her. It was only then that I had someone note me with other accounts she had made elsewhere but I did not mention a single one of them other than her dA. I was unable to see any comments posted on her page, or even if there were any as she'd deleted her account very soon after. I read the journal she'd written and it basically states they cannot pay me due to being hacked and their PayPal again being messed with so at this point I'm just severely at odds on the situation. I'm out $150.00 of work and I feel like I've been played. I know I should have asked for prepay; lesson learned. However, this just feels like she didn't have the payment even when she said she did otherwise she would have been okay to pay through her bank instead.
  8. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/885613.html WHO: Ninjakato http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/ ScarlingRagdoll666 http://www.furaffinity.net/user/scarlingragdoll666/ WHERE: They're mostly active on dA than FA WHAT: A long overdue trade with them that took place on FA. Communications eventually took place on dA through notes WHEN: A trade was agreed upon April 9th 2011. My half was finished relatively quickly, but their half is still unfinished. More info under cute PROOF: First initial trade contact was made on April 9th, 2011 https://www.dropbox.com/s/pluqssxagsbbnyu/proof%201.jpg?dl=0 (my FA here is Charu) My half of the trade was completed May 4th, 2011 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5691889 Communications on FA were made. Unfortunately my notes on FA have been cleared out since then. They mostly contained information about what I'd like Ninjakato to draw for their half. Eventually I started to note her on dA as it appeared she was becoming less active on FA. Note pointing out I finished my half https://www.dropbox.com/s/wb27h1reywz2gyl/Proof%202.jpg?dl=0 There was a point she posted a journal asking her watchers if she had missed anything owed. However, I cannot find the journal anymore, but I did note her on dA https://www.dropbox.com/s/40volnp6m2yy3l0/proof 3.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/wu3kgjknydfs3cd/proof 4.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ya85gjdo9qaamg3/proof 5.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ckrzqijrjo2k7ky/proof 6.jpg?dl=0 After this communication had stopped until 2014 came around. I had stopped asking as Ninjakato seemed pretty busy in real life and I didn't want to be a bother. https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6cslbr0dkabp4m/proof 7.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3ax54y49okn5zq/proof 8.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/h5ynncfmdjut8iw/proof 9.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/9onvgxjz5fqg6h6/proof 10.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/at93e8bo9flkknj/proof 11.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/k30co67uueaqqo9/proof 12.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/roal3atboh43vj4/proof 13.jpg?dl=0 August 20, 2014 she had made a journal calling out to the person she owed a trade to (which was me). My ref links did not work so I had noted with fixed links. http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/journal/One-art-trade-477049101#comments https://www.dropbox.com/s/5nrarciibugpru9/proof 14.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/m8i4mljt8dawynv/proof 16.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/mauwqzmx0qii5vo/proof 17.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/woqc5v73w388obn/proof 18.jpg?dl=0 More time passed and I saw no sign of my half of the trade. I gave her another nudge about it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7uyt58myn7lyzi/proof 19.jpg?dl=0 I gave one more nudge just recently. The note had been opened but went unresponded. https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ge7uwcew3o6r5y/proof 20.jpg?dl=0 EXPLAIN: In the start of this NinjaKato was opening up for trades on FA. I was one of the ones picked to trade with her. Excited I began to work on my trade and posted to FA in a timely manner. Eagerly, but patiently, I waited for for mine to be finished. I knew very well NinjaKato was really busy with her real life and commissions, so I was in no rush to have it completed. As time passed and weeks turned to months. Months turned into years. We've had some communication throughout the time span, yet I was still mindful not to rush her. She was still posting art on dA of finished commissions and personal art. 2011 had turned to 2014 and I admit I should of poked her more often between those few years. But I was nervous to do so as she was posting frequent journals about difficulties in her life. As a artist I know very well commissions always take priority over trades, thus I didn't pressure her. Eventually I did poke her and communications had picked up once again. I had hope she'd finish it after I did remind her about it. A time of silence started again. NinjaKato was still posting personal art, newly finished YCHs and sometimes trades from others. I had given her one final poke on Nov 11th, 2015 and the note had been read. No response back. She continued to upload new art of personal sketches, redraws, YCHs, and adoptables. At this point I am not expecting to see my half and have accepted it. Primarily posting this beware to give a heads up that this artist may not always finish pieces they promise to do. EDIT: NinjaKato finished their half. This AB can be marked as resolved
  9. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/851017.html This is something very difficult for me to do, but it needs to be done. This happened over the span of a couple years, so much is undocumented up until issues arose as I did not think it would be a problem. However, I feel there is more than enough after the fact. After much advice, I’ve decided to come forward and make a post here about this, mostly to warn people. I took my time writing this as I know there is no action I can take at this point and am very busy. WHO: Ritz_Bitz / Frostcat-Studio (and FA) / Ritz_Tweeting WHERE: Online, texts, emails, twitter, and at Further Confusion 2015 WHAT: One full fursuit (~$950) WHEN: Discussions starting in 2012, first purchase of materials March 4th, 2013, payment from a sponsor on November 25th, 2014, agreement of $200 of payment finalized with attendance at Further Confusion where the suit was delivered, and serious troubles starting shortly after. PROOF: Many images linked throughout explanation. EXPLAIN: This originally started as one of my best friends offering to build me a fursuit for a “friend” price. I had worn one of her suits once and got hooked on the fun it was. Over the years the details swapped around and much was discussed in person when I had lived nearby. Nothing was really set in stone for a long time and it was purely talk. March 4th, 2013 I purchased an order of fur and fleece for the project at Ritz’s request and had it shipped to her. I can't remember what happened, but she had to backburner the project. The fur sat around for almost 2 years before the project could finally be worked on, so there is a large time gap. (At some point I had also sent her DTDs of my feet for sockpaws, a pair of thick, long socks for the sockpaws, a tracing of my hand for the gloves, and extra fleece I had from a previous project based around my character.) June 2014 After attending Califur 2014 with my good friend (who I will refer to as Bob for this,) he started talking about how much he had wanted a fursuit after trying one of his friends’ suits on at the convention. He was hoping to purchase a fursuit and get it by Further Confusion that next year, and I referred him to Ritz as she was also doing my fursuit. When he found out my suit was on backburner, he offered to sponsor some of the cost for the project so it could be put into her paid queue so we could suit at Further Confusion together. I spoke to Ritz and she agreed to reserve space for Bob’s suit as well as mine and a guarantee for completion by the convention in January. I was happy to be helping her get some bills paid and to be helping Bob get a quality suit. Ritz had always told me steps she took to ensure her suits were durable and of high quality craftsmanship, so I had much trust in her work. June 27th, 2014 Bob contacted Ritz about a quote for his suit, also mentioning to her his intentions to sponsor a portion of my suit’s cost. Everything seemed pretty cut and dry at this point and Ritz waited for the payment so she could start the process of constructing the suit. Ritz confirmed that she can complete the suit by Further Confusion and states she planned to start work on my suit in August. September 20th, 2014 Bob placed a down payment to secure the slots. November 4th, 2014 I text Ritz asking when she will be needing my DTD. She answers asking it be sent the start of December. November 15th, 2014 Ritz has started constructing the head. She sends me a text asking about the eye color and shows me an early WIP of the foam sculpting, followed by more complete WIPs of the sculpt and what she planned for it. I was surprised she got the snout acceptably shaped in her style off the bat as it’s the most often misinterpreted part of my character. I praised her for this and asked one small request to the brow which she said wasn’t difficult to add, and informs me of things most people worry about in case I start to worry about similar things. November 16th, 2014 I receive an image of the progress she made as well as the change to the brow that I had requested. I was very pleased with the shape and happy it worked out so quickly with only that one minor change needed. November 20th, 2014 Ritz texts me asking that I bug Bob about making the second payment. It was weird that it was my job to ask him, but I overlooked this as this was a friendly transaction I had helped to arrange. We discussed the confusion, making jokingly grumbling about it as was custom of us when we spoke. We continued on to negotiate $200 of the suit payment to be taken out of what she would owe me for room and dealer’s table costs at Further Confusion. November 21st, 2014 Ritz texts me asking about the ears for the suit. It’s a little difficult to communicate, but I was happy with the shape and aware she only had two hands so just curious about the final curvature at the top. I jotted on the notepad what I meant and it was understood and she says it’s not hard. (This was laden with a very inappropriate joke and I have censored it out.) She also reminds me to send my DTD within the next two weeks. November 25th, 2014 Ritz contacts me asking about more details for the head. At the end I tell her she has my trust in recreating the mouth due to color limitations of fleece. November 29th, 2014 Ritz contacts me while at the store purchasing fleece for the mouth. We figure it out and even settle on the wings ahead of time to just be white due to the lack of proper shades available. I inform her I’ll be making my DTD the next day and shipping it out soon. November 30th, 2014 I ask her if she needs me to retape the dummy before sending it and inform her the lines were cut a little weird. (They were slightly wobbly in a few areas, but I had no issue matching it all back up for retaping.) December 1st, 2014 After seeing Ritz tweet pictures of the finished head, I contact her to question if it’s too late to add the fur tuft my character always has. I was a little upset that she didn’t offer a solution, but it was just a fur tuft. I wasn’t going to make a big deal about it. It still looked good, which I made sure to communicate to her. I also inform her I’m sending the DTD the next day. December 8th/ 9th, 2014 I ask if she received the DTD in the mail yet. The next day she responds that she has. December 14th, 2014 Ritz texts me during conversation about how big the tail for another suit is, using my head and DTD as comparison. My DTD appears to be partially stuffed and looks fine. December 16th, 2014 Ritz texts me informing my my DTD split at the seams during the stuffing process. She claims every seam that was cut split apart because I didn’t use long enough strips of tape. I felt bad because I knew it would be annoying to retape. She says it can be repaired (it’s just taping seams back together) and she was working on it. This is very important for an issue later, as she tells me she’s going to stuff and pattern one half and mirror the pattern. December 20th, 2014 Ritz texts me asking if I want the feet separate or attached. We’d discussed it previously, but it was so long before I understood many things were forgotten. January 1st, 2015 After seeing tweets of the completed sockpaws, I text her in private to ask her if it’s too late to add larger claws. Again, this is something we’d discussed many times in person down to the shape and how she planned construction, but I understand forgetting. She’s clearly upset at the mere question of the possibility, so I immediately try to reassure her I’m just curious and not trying to upset her. I was very concerned as a friend that my question may have been upsetting to her, but from a client’s standpoint I knew it was very wrong and I began to worry about voicing my opinion on anything being wrong with this very expensive product. January 12th, 2015 After seeing only one WIP of the wings being completed on her twitter since the sockpaws were complete, I am now texted with the completed suit only a few days before the promised deadline. She first informs me that the magnetic wings wouldn’t work and that she had to sew them into the bodysuit. Not a big deal. However, I instantly noticed the padding on the legs looked… odd and lumpy. I also became worried that the bodysuit fit her as I’m a very small person. From the backview you can also tell the ears were not evenly shaven and have bumps in the structure already. It was days before the convention and I knew bringing up the issues would cause a very tense upset, so I kept quiet and informed her I was happy with the suit and we began talking about the fun we’d have at the convention that weekend. January 15th, 2015 The first day of Further Confusion for us, as soon as we set up in the dealer’s den, we went up to the room eager to suit up and go have fun. Ritz begins to help me put the suit on for the first time and issues already arise. The bodysuit is extremely baggy on me, which was odd considering I’d gained a lot of holiday weight since I had made the DTD. When it came time to put the sockpaws on, I noticed there was a hole in the inner sock, but shrugged it off considering it was difficult to get my feet into the paws. I had provided her with DTDs of my feet, so this was also confusing. We discussed it and since she only patterned the right foot and flipped it, it being my smaller foot caused the sizing issue for my left foot. The worst problem came when I tried to put the gloves on. They couldn’t fit past my second knuckles. She immediately became upset and, again, I took the blame upon myself and said it wasn’t her fault and that I probably traced my hand wrong. She gladly accepted this and it became the new “fact” of what went wrong. When putting the head on, I noticed a part of the zipper was separated from the fur of the head. An easy fix. We quickly discussed the issues. She explained she was extremely busy with personal suit projects she wanted to get done for Denver Comic Con and didn’t have the time to do these repairs and make new gloves. I felt bad and said I could probably handle it with the small amount of sewing experience I have. This seemed to clear things up and we went out suiting. I tried not to pay attention to the flaws and just enjoy the con. January 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 2015 We only suited up once more after that, and I wore the suit as a partial a third time out with her because the padding in the thighs of the suit were unsecured and chafed me to no end when I walked. Nothing stayed in place how it was intended because the suit was so baggy. Meanwhile, tensions rose during the con due to Bob’s suit having issues. Ritz was extremely upset by this so I absolutely couldn’t bring myself to say anything negative about my suit. In fact, I rushed to defend her despite having my own issues with my suit. Sunday night when we were going to suit a final time, tensions blew up, drama happened, and we cancelled our plans and stayed in the room. The con ended and I took my entire suit home with me with plans to try to repair it myself and save Ritz the time. January 21st, 2015 After coming home and getting unpacked, I finally had time to look over the suit and prepare myself for the work I had to do. I realized there was far more than I could handle and I was not experienced enough to fix most of it. A list of the issues in full is provided after my next piece of information. February 14th, 2015 The issues in my fursuit worried me. I wasn’t sure what was normal and what wasn’t. I attended the local furmeet this day and brought the head and paws (having issues easier to see in person) and asked some friends with more experience on the issues as well as asking advice on how to handle this delicate situation between my friend and myself. I briefly wore these to demonstrate some of the issues and interact with two young children. I got the advice I needed and confirmation that the flaws in my suit were not acceptable and not my responsibility to fix as she was paid to produce a suit in working condition that I could wear and enjoy. Many told me how clear it was that she rushed it and took shortcuts, which is no surprise given the circumstances. I needed to approach her on the issue and hope for the best. I couldn’t keep pretending it was okay, and I started preparing myself to for this rather difficult step. The Problems - The excess amount of fabric on the bodysuit is around 10-14 inches on the midsection. This can only mean when she patterned the half of the DTD and flipped it, she overshot the middle point. Even overshooting this by a few inches can cause excess (2-4x the length of the overshoot) and wouldn’t have been an issue had she taken the time to fully retape the DTD. The thighs have an excess as well, though not as bad. - I discovered the zipper on the head was glued on instead of sewn. This is why part of it was already separated when I received it. - The shaving on the head was very choppy. I had actually taken time to hand trim the face to smooth it out, but there was little I could do for the ears. - The ears were glued directly to the balaclava with no foam to anchor them or keep them stable. This causes them to flop around pretty badly. - Instead of being sewn to the rest of the fur of the head, the ears were poorly glued on. There are small open gaps at the side of each ear on both sides, as well as at the front of the ears near the fleece. - There are crinkles in the fleece on the ears where it was glued to the inside material. - The ears are anchored off-center. - The balaclava was spottily glued to the inside of the head and was already pulling off bits of foam. It is glued in such a way that it overlaps a portion of the buckram from the inside, unnecessarily limiting the vision further. - The gloves do not fit past the second knuckle of my hand. They’re also not hemmed at the edges so the fleece was left raw cut. - On top of the sizing issues, the sockpaws had a hole in the inner sock when I received them from being cut sloppily. - The sockpaws weren’t hemmed. In fact, the fleece was glued to the sock at the top. It began to fall apart with the small amount of wear they saw at the con. - The magnets she’d promised me and stated she could not get to work were left in the wings and sealed over with giant globs of glue. You can still see them and the gluey mess is left uncovered to get at the wearer’s back. - The wings were glued together and you can see the wire in some spots by peeking into the open spaces in the glue seams. (Originally we were planning on realistic wings with wiring, feathers, and vinyl. I told her “Just do simple plush wings like Telephone’s since it’s easier” later on. While the wings she made are cute and a creative middle-point, they’re going to fall apart because glue doesn’t last very long.) - The elastic loops on the tail were not sewn very securely for such a large, heavy tail and had begun to fall apart at the convention along with a small hole. February 15th, 2015 I have a short, rather comical discussion with another previous client of Ritz’s who also discloses that many parts of their suit are glued together. I feel this is necessary to disclose to help support my discontent with the quality of my suit prior to the next events as I am accused of "retaliation" later on. March 2nd, 2015 Unfortunately, I’d been very busy with life, so I had not yet been able to approach Ritz before this point. I don’t like to bring drama into this discussion of business, but this severely complicated the smooth resolution of things. We had not been speaking much as Ritz had blamed me for the drama at the convention and I was giving her breathing space. On this day, she reacted negatively to a tweet I had made on Twitter (she brings it up later) and the resulting misunderstanding caused her to remove me on social media. I contacted her concerned about her and trying to resolve the issue, only to be ignored. (I can provide screenshots, but would rather not as this is just drama.) In a panic, I discussed parting out the suit as a last resort as I was certain I would now not be given the repairs I deserved. It did not help when I saw photos proving similar quality work on other suits, leaving me more upset at what had been given to me. After speaking to many people and getting advice on this new situation, I removed the comments out of courtesy (despite never once mentioning her specifically) and went forward with their suggestions to attempt getting a rightful refurbish. March 6th, 2015 At the advice of many, I contacted Ritz with my intentions. I tweeted at her asking for an email to discuss repairs with her, being clear it shouldn’t be my responsibility. She replied with the preferred email. At that point I began to write a thorough email to her. This took me about a week to get finished up. March 13th, 2015 I finally sent my email. I noted not only the issues with her craftsmanship, but also with the customer service she gave me that led to increasing problems in the work that had upset me and led me to be quiet for so long. I leave the option open to negotiate a refurbish or simply work out a refund as it seems like it would be easier with her busy schedule that caused the burden of refurbishing to be placed on me in the first place. March 14th, 2015 I woke up to a rather hostile email back from Ritz. She immediately accused me of retaliation, being unreasonable, and picky. Our correspondence is plain to see and everyone I’ve asked said I was very kind. She accuses me of getting a suit “for free” even though she received a $600 payment from Bob, a $200 traded payment from me, as well as my purchasing $160 of materials. She then blames me for all the problems she possibly can, while ignoring half the issues that she can’t try to blame me for. She blamed the bagginess on my DTD, which she now attacks me for. I spoke to numerous suitmakers and they said 10-14 inches is definitely not due to retaping seams. (Also note the 2 day gap between the lightly stuffed DTD image and her telling me it split apart as vs. her story now.) The fact she still continued and even brought up personal drama with other clients as well as further wild accusations that, even if true, have nothing to do with the quality of my suit, is baffling. I’m not sure if she was trying to guilt trip me or try to scare me out of pressing the issue to resolution, but it was absolutely uncalled for. She even accuses me of being the reason someone was bringing up issues on another suit she worked on. The fact she finished it up with blatantly insulting me was the icing on the cake. I was also a little disturbed that, despite our cessation of contact on social media, she had still been checking my accounts. I immediately wrote her a response, on my phone, to address this unbelievable reply she had sent me. Admittedly blunt, but necessary, and deciding at this point I cannot handle a refurbishing process due to her hostility and request a refund. As she showed aggression about Bob having paid in a portion, I made it clear I could contact him to work things out how she’d like. March 17th, 2015 As I’ve yet to receive a response, I sent Ritz an email to remind her and request she handle the situation civilly. I make note that Bob is aware of the situation and we all just want to resolve this. March 29th, 2015 I had to duck out to handle life for a bit and figured giving her time to cool off was good. Sadly, I saw signal boosts that she was selling her leftover furs. I saw some of the very same fur used on my suit and contacted her immediately. It seemed like the 6 yards she told me to purchase was a lot and it was likely some of it was mine. At this point I was notably frazzled by this ordeal. She surprisingly responded, again accusing me of things I am not guilty of and bringing other clients and drama into dealings about a fursuit she did not make properly. She seems to even agree with the fact that the quality is bad and that I should be fine that I only spent $200 on it. Her logic in thinking because I only paid $200 along with $160 in materials means she doesn’t have to give anything back, despite that she took the $600 from Bob, and that is what he would get back, not me, in a refund. She claims it was wrong to take Bob’s money, yet she seems fine keeping it despite not doing her job properly for it. All she has done is avoided owning up and fixing mistakes she made on an expensive product while hiding behind excuses that drama somehow nullifies her responsibility in business. I made a final response to her as well, and that was where it ended between us. Currently: I have been refused repairs or a refund on a suit that was paid for and delivered in poor quality. It’s very clear Ritz has done a good job to avoid everything wrong with the suit she made for me and justify not fixing the issue and attacking me. She blames me for all that she can and resorts to bringing up drama instead of addressing why half my suit is glued together. I feel she has been trying to take advantage of the fact Bob sponsored part of the suit cost and her sudden grudge against me to avoid dealing with resolving the matter. She took a large sum of money for a product of a certain quality and did not deliver, and I’m honestly upset with how she’s treated me in this ordeal. The suit needs entirely new hands and feet, major tailoring of the bodysuit that includes redoing the legs entirely, redoing the tail's backing and elastic loops, completely redoing the ears and refurring the head with a new balaclava. Most suitmakers have told me it's not "refurbishing" so much as making an entirely new suit with some scraps. I basically don't know what to do aside from hope nobody else runs into the same troubles as I have with this suitmaker, but any advice would be welcome if anything can possibly be done at this point. June 16, 2015 Update I just took the head out of the storage box for the first time since photographing everything months ago. I've been getting advice on how to salvage as much as I can from the head to go towards making a new one, so I was needing to take a closer look at some things. A small clatter and objects falling out confused me, until I realized that the teeth have started to fall out with even this small amount of age and absolutely no use. The teeth are sculpey, I believe, and left unfinished. Some bases of the silver molars were unpainted, the rest of the teeth are just straight sculpey or whatever they are made of, no paint, and are all starting to separate from the beds of hot glue. This just adds to the poor quality product I was given and the work I am left to cover out of my pocket to fix. I honestly don't have anymore words to describe how I feel right now. February 2016 Update This disheartens me to have to even add to so long after the fact of this all happening, but I would like to update this to add a further warning to Ritz's poor business behavior if you happen to get on her bad side as I have with this ordeal. I placed an advertisement up on Furaffinity, in which I used a commission she had gotten from me as it was in my top 10 favorited pieces in my gallery and a great example. My Terms of Service states that I am allowed to use the work I create for people for portfolio and other purposes, and thus I had the legal right to use the image in an advertisement as it's a form of portfolio. I assumed this would not be an issue as I have personally gotten over the drama and moved on past this all quite a while ago, and had assumed she had done the same. She, however, saw this as an opportunity to attack me by approaching the advertisement organizer stating that her character was in my advertisement without her permission, essentially wanting it removed. This was orchestrated with a friend of hers whom also had commission work in my advertisement, also demanding the removal of their commission despite them having both agreed to and being bound by my Terms of Service. This alone was a nuisance, but in having to handle the issue, I saw that she had been publicly trash talking me, clearly stating her intention to try to cause a problem for me for the sake of causing a problem. At this point she obviously holds a grudge against me and I am being bullied for having spoken out about her practices, showing also that she has absolutely no respect to my Terms of Service that was agreed to. I am attempting to resolve the issue with the advertising organizer, but will be forced to avoid exercising my legal rights to display the artwork I created involving her characters in the future all because I want to avoid her malicious acts to attempt revenge for speaking up. August 19, 2016 Update After being urged by friends and seeking advice from the community on if I should add further updates, I'm sadly here again. While I'm relatively wary to share due to more fear of retaliation, I don't believe this will ever stop regardless of anything I do. I am urged to warn people the extent of the poor behavior that I have been subjected to for over a year since posting. Occasionally third parties will inform me of things that have been said and I honestly ignore 90% of things, but I had the displeasure seeing one instance myself. I have been ruthlessly slandered since the posting, and at this point been brought aware of possible threats of either legal action against me or potential harm to my person. (If it escalates any further I will contact law enforcement, but at current there is not enough to hold up considering the distance involved.) I have had absolutely ZERO contact with Ritz since the last email shown in the original posting here. Even during her attack on my advertisement, I did not say a word to her, only spoke to the advertising department at FA. I am going to point out ahead of time, it is EXTREMELY easy to figure out who is being spoken about (me) in all of these instances even if names aren't attached cause a simple google search nets you all the info you need. I already know I'm mentioned frequently by name otherwise anyhow. Onto the point, what I saw for myself... Was on Wednesday, June 22 in a Facebook group for Fursuiters and Fursuit Makers. A notification popped up onto my phone for a sale posting that was receiving many comments. I'm going to be 100% honest I was wildly curious as I'd heard she quit suitmaking (I'm only human), and I saw this exchange brewing that had apparently been what sparked it into popularity. I avoided the desire to jump in and say something cause NOPE I have zero desire to speak to her. I just screencapped away cause I couldn't believe what I was reading and figured it'd be taken down, which it was. Color guide for censoring (cause identifying photos/names): Black = Not involved or moderator names Ritz commented to alert Blue = Ritz Red = Some fursuiter who spoke up Yellow = Ritz's IRL friend https://www.dropbox.com/s/7nixak1x72bdqmb/Group1.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/j3j2m8mw22mswoo/2.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/oeibrn7q6amudni/3.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/b189gvqz44ge3r5/4.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3527bkjzuev7qx/5.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/voe431whjd9eul3/6.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/feofjf0gk1tkdqy/7.jpg?dl=0 I don't even need to make commentary on how messed up this was. You all can think for yourselves. I avoided updating with it at the time despite people telling me to. I didn't want to deal with it. I didn't think it was that bad. Now here's what broke me on trying to ignore things. I was shown these earlier this week. Despite being from May, it opened my eyes to how serious things really were this whole time as I attempted to ignore it all. This is only HALF of a conversation someone had with Ritz's locked twitter, but it's very clear what's going on. I was shown this for obvious reasons. This was shortly before BLFC, which we both happened to be attending (I avoided her at all costs, and was apparently wise to do so.) Censoring: Blue = Ritz's locked twitter handle, Purple = Ritz's friend (Remember to read bottom to top in each for chronological order cause it's twitter.) https://www.dropbox.com/s/v36ao3uyd8d10r4/21.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/accjt9cl35ieovk/22.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/yf7mwvzbbwgyhc1/23.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8hq2cioflujxoz/24.png?dl=0 Let me point this out there. Whatever is being said on the other side of this conversation, her friend thinks I should be scared of her. This is NOT okay, and relatively alarming considering things I know about her that are not for me to share publicly. The suggestion of a restraining order despite that I have not had ANY contact with her whatsoever even despite her attempted harassment, is outlandish. Furthermore, the clear discussion of potential legal action because I caused her loss of income due to this beware posting is even more unsettling. This is bonkers. I don't even care about the disgusting and immature names they casually call me when this other stuff is going on. People are right, they need to know what she's doing because this is, and has been, crazy. Exercise caution when doing business with her, because you never know when you'll end up like me.
  10. I don't like the fact that I'm having to do this, but as I couldn't resolve this in a pacific way with this client, I've decided to make a beware so that other artist don't end up on the same situation as I am right now. Costumer: @lopinhojaneiro ~ https://t.me/lopinhojaneiro (Telegram) Telegram ID: 6328315414 On December's end (most specifically Christmas) he came on Telegram to me asking for a animated icon of my Star Fox YCH. I accepted and started working on it the day after, soon I sent him the sketch for approval. Everything before asking for the payment. (Something that I always do, and that is stated in my ToS that can be found on my art channel @JellyBeansArt). Besides that, the user ignored me without reason for more than a week regarding the payment of 50$ BRL (around 10USD) for the commission, and was incredibly rude when I questioned him about it, who answered me saying that I "Haven't finished it yet so I won't be paying". On my advertisement of that specific YCH I explicitly say that I finish it up to 24h after the payment (I said the same on the conversation with him, but he just ignored saying again that he won't be paying). So if you doesn't wish to fall on this pit, I suggest avoiding this person's fursona. I'll be leaving here links that lead to his fursona's reference sheet and some extra artwork of him. Along with it I'll also leave a video that shows all the conversation (portuguese only) and prints of it on both Brazilian Portuguese (original) and English. Sorry for the poor quality of the english translated images, I took photos of them from my computer screen using my phone to use the Google Translator. The video have good quality.
  11. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1017283.html WHO: Edalie https://www.deviantart.com/edalie-chan (she used to have a twitter, but it's been deleted) WHERE: Discord PMs WHAT: Digital art commission WHEN: Commission was paid for on April 11th. EXPLAIN: In April, I came into contact with Edalie. She had been posting her art in a discord server I frequent at a steady pace. After noting her quality and ability to draw different styles, I asked her for a commission. A character design sheet, with three total drawings, all shaded, and 6 total facial expressions. She charged me $290 USD for the transaction. It was pricey, but I could afford it at the time. On May 21st, I received lineart for the first pose. Simple enough. It was colored the next day. We would go about a week's worth of silence, before more contact on June 6th. She promised that she would get me a sketch of the second pose by the next day. It did not come by the next day. In fact, it wouldn't arrive for two whole months, during which contact was very scarce and was almost always initiated by me engaging in small talk every now and then. In early August, I finally received the sketches promised. And then more silence. On August 23rd, I was told that she would be streaming this commission on her Twitch channel, and she asked me if she was okay to begin working on lineart. To the best of my knowledge, this stream did not happen. I tuned in briefly and she was not working on my commission at all. However, she has past broadcasts turned off, so I have no real way of verifying this. I have reason to believe she did not work on my commission at all, however, because the next update I received from her would just be a revised sketch and not the lineart I was promised. A full month passed, and on September 24th, I messaged her again, this time with a pretty passive aggressive message. She responded and apologized, stating that she had accepted other commissions, and had given them priority. Her reasoning for this was because I didn't ask for a deadline. She asked for a chance to make it up by working on the commission all day. At the time, I accepted it. However, I sought counsel from friends, some of whom are also artists, and they understood my concerns. Mainly that I felt like it was unfair for my commission to just not be worked on even though I paid for a spot in the queue. Following our exchange, she finally got the lineart to me (mind you, this was supposed to be completed in August). I began to ask her for revisions, but instead I decided that it was best we called it off. I felt like it would be enabling that kind of behavior if I let her continue to work on the commission with no accountability, as she had already shown me that she was likely not going to give my commission priority if other commissions came in, despite the fact that it had been five months since I paid for it. After asking for a refund, she became very combative, initially saying that 2 months is the average turnaround for a commission based on what other artists have told her. She also tried to insinuate that because I was patient, that I was okay with being pushed back constantly due to her prioritizing other commissions paid for after mine. I told her I felt that the art I was going to be given in only hours would not match the quality I would expect for a $290 payment, and also due to how long it took for us to get to that point. She seemed to think that my issue was with the quality of the art and the price, not with how long it took for me to get lineart for the sketch. After a little bit more of back and forth (screenshots of the full discord conversation from the time of payment to the end will be provided) she agreed to calculate the refund price. I reasoned that the refund would be around $170 to $190 due to the fact that only one out of 3 poses had been colored, lineart for the other two poses had been finished that day, and nothing had been shaded. Her refund amount was $80. She tried to justify it saying that her prices at the time were $70 for lineart ($100 now, apparently). I agreed without thinking about it at the time, but upon further review of our logs, there was no such price specified at all. She also mentions a discount on cell shaded fullbodies. That was also not in our agreement. We go back and forth a little more, and our logs end with her telling me that after our conversation, she will be instating a no refunds policy and that it's based on her own kindness not to enforce that on me. I have since attempted to go through PayPal for a chargeback, and am currently trying to get half of the agreed amount back, as I do not feel like she should keep $210 for less than half of the work. Following this situation, she has since blocked me on Discord, and banned me from her server. The mod message states the following (a friend joined the server and sent the screenshot, which will be provided below): "Hi @everyone! This post is a warning of a recent commissioner. When doing business with someone, it's never wise to be fickle and change things unless the other party agrees. It can cause confusion, and a hassle for both sides. When you give money to someone for a service, you are forming a business relationship. A successful business is all about the satisfaction of both ends, and the responsibility of the commissioner matters just as much as the Artist's. Feelings must be mutual so the Artist can happily receive their payment, while the commissioner can happily receive their product. The safety of the Artist is just as important as well, so the commissioners that disrespect, and mistreat the Artist will result in being Blacklisted. The commissioner that will be Blacklisted is @yung nero, and will now be banned from the server. With research and from recent events, he's had a history of disrespecting creators for his own satisfaction and unrealistic views upon forming a business. So please, be cautious if he makes contact with you." This post makes me feel like 1) she told her mods false information about me to slander me ("With research and from recent events, he's had a history of disrespecting creators for his own satisfaction and unrealistic views upon forming a business" despite the fact that said research and history doesn't exist) and 2) it feels like an attempt to sweep everything under the rug. This could prove problematic in the future, as if there are any artists that accept commissions in her server, that could potentially prevent me from trying to commission other artists in the future. PROOF: Imgur gallery containing the full Discord conversation top to bottom: https://imgur.com/gallery/VRydPgT direct link to the screenshot of the mod message: https://i.imgur.com/lRCYhjN.png direct link to what was finished of the commission: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/433424408808259585/494201477372444702/unknown.png EDIT: PayPal denied the chargeback request. She got away with murder, ggs.
  12. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/995064.html Where: OneFurAll Studios - www.onefurall.com What: A full fursuit commission including head, bodysuit, paws and additional set of feetpaws. In addition, a design sketch for the fursuit. When: Payment in May 2014 — issues ongoing Explain: The issues I have experienced with OneFurAll (OFA) are twofold: an inability to manage expectations and meet contractual obligations, and lack of communication. April 2014 saw conversations with OFA regarding a commission, with estimate of an “18-24+ month queue” given. In May, I indicated my willingness to commission, and asked for confirmation of the wait time; I was told that there would be a more concrete “18-24 month wait. Our wait times shift minimally…” (see email 1); this was the final estimate given prior to payment, and with the qualifier of minimal shift, suggested that I could reasonably expect the fursuit to be completed at, or close to, 18-24 months. No further communication was made at this stage regarding the fursuit, only payment. Paid in-full via an invoice from OneFurAll in May 2014 (see Paypal Invoice). On 24th June 2015, in reply to an email from me, OFA restated the timeline to build to be "around the 24 month mark from your deposit" (see email 2). In September 2016, replying to another email from me, they stated it would be "a few more months" before work started, but that it was a good time to take measurements, which I supplied; while the time estimate had run-over, I expected work to start soon so chose not to raise a dispute. In June 2017, following my enquiry as to the expected timeframe, OFA said it would be "later this year when we'd be able to fit your character in" (see email 3). My reply to this stated that I would consider the end of the year to be an “agreement between us that this deadline will be met; if further events beyond your control mean the ‘suit won’t be finished by this estimate, please can you inform me as soon as you become aware of this?” I wished to make clear that I considered the end of 2017 a hard deadline. In January 2018, in reply to my chase email, they stated they still had not reached my position in the queue (see email 4). I therefore began the process of cancelling my commission. I requested a full refund, due to the unreasonable and excessive degree by which the build estimate had been missed (almost 2 years), and the poor communication received. I cited a clause I was sent in their Terms of Service during my preliminary discussions, which stated 30% of the commission price would be forfeit except in “extreme cases” (see TOS). I considered my case “extreme” due to time the process had overshot by, the exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances the studio had claimed to be going through which slowed production, and my communication issues. In response, OFA outlined that they would not offer me a full refund and said that the entire fursuit building industry has adopted a firm non-refundable clause, and also apologized for the communication issues I had experienced. They offered the opportunity to keep my fursuit in the queue (see email 5), with a promise to improve communication, which I refused. When they replied in February, they stated that their policy has “always been that we never contractually promise a start date” and that “we are still technically at 24+ months” (see email 6). They went on to say that their non-refundable clause was "firm" and they would not refund me in full; they said the “extreme circumstances” condition was intended to allow them to be sympathetic to someone who found themselves “in a genuine state of need...” citing customers who had encountered “…dire life circumstances and we helped as we could”. They found it “problematic” that I was referring to this term, and they felt that I had attempted to “reinterpret that outdated phrase against us” (see email 6 cont.). They went on to say in their February email that they would "no longer offer waiving that clause for any reason", and offered to refund my payment beyond the 30% refund penalty in 3 instalments (see email 6 cont.). I did not take this offer as I felt it unjust that they should retain the 30% penalty, and because I paid the entire commission price up-front and would feel more confident receiving a refund as one payment. They also restated that non-refundable percentages are a prevalent feature across the fursuit building industry and cited the TOS of 7 well-known makers (see email 6 cont.). Email discussion continued over refund amount, with little progress. Given the log-jam on both sides, I emailed OFA on 7th February 2018 offering a compromise: OFA get 10% retention on the full commission price (see email 7). Apart from acknowledging receipt of this on 5th March, I have yet to receive a substantial response despite regular chase emails. It now appears the process has broken down, and I am unlikely to receive any refund soon due to our lack of ability to agree over this dispute and the lack of response from OFA. As resolution to this issue, I would like OFA to issue a full refund. I do not believe they have upheld their contractual obligations to me, nor do I feel they have provided the level of service one would expect from a company I have paid almost $3000 to. I feel that attempting to withhold a 30% penalty constitutes an unfair term of contract given they have not indicated that they have spent anything on or worked towards my commission, and are likely to make up the entire amount very quickly in new commissions. In addition, I feel the application of a ‘no full refunds’ policy should have common-sense boundaries with protections for the customer laid out explicitly on the face of the contract. I can understand a refund penalty if a commissioner pulls-out within the given timeframe and simply does not wish to continue the process. However, taking $2950 up-front, providing a timeframe estimate and then missing this by two years should surely warrant the return of the full amount paid, especially when the customer is told that their wait will be 18-24 months with a “minimal” shift of wait times. I do not claim to know how other makers apply their no-refunds clauses, though if it is an industry-wide practice to do this, I feel it’s a sad reflection on how we are doing business with eachother. I regret that it has come to a point where I have needed to post this; as I have outlined to OFA, I sympathise with their position, the studio having been through many unexpected events of some gravity over the past few years. However, I cannot recommend the studio based on my experience, having been left disappointed with ephemeral time estimates and difficult communication on many occasions. Proof: Email 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3a6y8rjuhyjqrjk/Email 1.png?dl=0 Email 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ffjtmxn8jxwsymf/Email 2.png?dl=0 Email 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a54gyehmgmzyopy/Email 3.png?dl=0 Email 4: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ejoyfwq6mmiom08/Email 4.png?dl=0 Email 5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgifcsay9ookqo0/Email 5.png?dl=0 Email 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc377vs6b0giksh/Email 6.png?dl=0 Email 6 cont.: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2infyun44507g3t/Email 6 cont..png?dl=0 Email 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/feokqxqveekxabb/Email 7.png?dl=0 (I typo’d the dates here, writing 2013 instead of 2014) Paypal Invoice: https://www.dropbox.com/s/irjcj3ycagq4hcq/Paypal Invoice.png?dl=0 TOS: https://www.dropbox.com/s/48gmljcjmui210g/TOS.png?dl=0 Tired of ads? Upgrade to account with Professional
  13. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/989961.html WHO: Hornedfreak @ Furaffinity & Tumblr WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/hornedfreak/ http://hornedfreak.tumblr.com WHAT: 2 Character sketch commission totaling $40 Note: I have commissioned Hornedfreak many times before, and never had I had such bad service from them before this. (I even have pieces that were paid for after this and completed.) WHEN: About 2 years ago, contacted via Tumblr for opening of their sketch commissions. Unfortunately I cannot find the original tumblr post but I do have a screenshot of the replies sent (Tumblr doesn't have timestamps for them for whatever reason.) PROOF: Number 1 in screencap. EXPLAIN: In 2016 I ordered a 2 character sketch from Hornedfreak totally $40. Payment was sent via Paypal on September 3rd 2015 PROOF: Number 2 in screencap. In March 2016 I asked for the characters to be changed, since they had not even shown me a sketch, as I had changed my idea. (they said they had a sketch of a sketch but what even is that?) PROOF: Number 3 in screencap. Also note in Feb 2016 I did order two sketches, with one of the characters being from the two character sketch ordered in March 2016. I later confused this one being finished as the two character sketch when it was not. PROOF: Number 4 in screencap. Said character from single sketch order: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17978096/ Proof they did finish the single character (from their trello) finished in June: Screencap Number 5 Also on June 30th They ask there was another sketch I ordered that had been changed to something else. PROOF: Screencap 6 This is where I mistake the single sketch linked above for the two character sketch from tumblr. But they say they will work on it after they clear everything. PROOF: Screencap 7. On July 28th 2016 I ordered another sketch, which was finished. PROOF: Screencap 8 On October 17th I ordered and IA from them which was finished. Meanwhile during this they never updated me on the tumblr sketch commission, but continued to take in new commissions. On Sept 2nd 2017 I sent them a note about my sketch, which was read but never replied to. In it I describe that if they didnt want to do the old sketch (I still thought it was one character missing at the time, so my bad!) that they could just sketch a single different character and all would be good. I did say feel free to ignore the request though, not the note! PROOF: Screencap 9 No contact from them after that until I called them out about it taking so long on their front page, to which they sent me a rather rude and unprofessional note accusing me of not reading their journal. (I always make sure to read journals about delayed commissions if I am one of the commissioners. And then accusing me of not sending her a note months before and ignoring it. PROOF: Screencap 10. They then noted me again saying that they did find the note they had ignored months before, which was before their journal they linked me. Here I also call them out for doing tons of personal art and things on Tumblr which they refute saying it's only a few a month, which by looking at their Tumblr is a lie. PROOF: Screencap 11 And that is the last I have heard from them. It is now MARCH 2018 and my sketch commission was ordered back in September of 2015. Since then they have taken on even more art via Tumblr, but their fA hasn't been updated in months. My sketch commission isn't even listed on their trello anymore. I am just frustrated at their lack of communication, being ignored, being lied to, and their lack of professionalism when they did not even complete the commission from 2015. PROOF: ALL IN ONE SCREENSHOT and marked by number (NSFW): https://www.dropbox.com/s/qodtruxgwqcus80/HFproof.png?dl=0
  14. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/987286.html WHO: Athena(TheJackal), ScribblyTees WHERE: Vancoufur 2017 WHAT: Pearl/Bead Badge WHEN: March 10th 2017 in the Dealers Den. EXPLAIN: I spoke to Athena at her booth while she was still setting things up. She had a BUNCH of pearl/bead badges on display including one from a popofur I thought was the most amazing pearl/bead badge I set my eyes on. I told her I simply must have one and she was extremely helpful and happy to help. I gave her all my details and I sent her the appropriate amount she asked for both the badge AND shipping. She told me right then on the spot she would have it done by MAY of the same year guaranteed. So here I am, a FULL YEAR later and haven't got even one image of at least a part of it done. I had her on telegram since the day I walked out of that DDen and I've messaged her many times asking for updates and I was always either told some story (Whether you choose to believe it or not isn't my problem, she had AMPLE time prior to that shit) or I was simply ignored. (The classic two checkmarks but no response) So here I am, finally making this post because any normal individual would. At this point I don't even care if I get it anymore. PROOF: http://furchee.com/files/athena/telegramchatlog.jpg & http://furchee.com/files/athena/paypalpayment.jpg EDIT: 18/07/2018 So after a couple days of backs and forths, we came to an understanding (or at least I thought we did) and things seemed to be coming together until yet another disappointment ocurred. I wrote Athena and actually got some progress. I'll attach an image of the badge she did in fact put together but never actually sent. She claimed she was going to melt it and send it at some point at the end of March and yet nothing seemed to have happened. At this point I do not care if she sends it in the mail or not. I do not understand why even after the conversation we had why this would still be an ongoing issue. It seems I lost nothing but valuable time and more importantly the 160 big ones I gave her. Oh and yes, I did see the twitter post on March 31st showing my badge apparently ready to ship. Sorry babe, it doesn't take almost 4 months to send or receive it. PROOF: Badges: http://furchee.com/files/athena/badge.jpg & http://furchee.com/files/athena/badge2.jpg Chat: http://furchee.com/files/athena/idgaf_edit.jpg
  15. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/979641.html WHO: TGBK WHERE (NSFW links warning): https://thegreenbookkeeper.deviantart.com/ https://www.hentai-foundry.com/user/thegreenbookkeeper/profile https://www.patreon.com/projecthime WHAT: NSFW art commissions that I bought from this artists that were never received or even started on. WHEN: I paid $200 for these commissions on July 2016 and I received nothing at all. Only excuses and fake stories that they are being worked on and will be delivered soon. EXPLAIN: I am posting this up so that no more innocent people will be scammed and have their money stolen from them by this guy. I paid $200 USD using paypal for some NSFW commissions that I never received since July 2016 from an artist known as TGBK. This person always makes up sad excuses about the art commissions being worked on but as of this day he has never even sent me a sketch. He stopped talking to me on August 2017 after he said that the sketches were done and I politely asked if I could see them. He actually would only reply to me if I supported him on Patreon as most of my later messages were only from Patreon as he would not reply to regular email messages. Obviously he had been lying to me all along especially since many times he said that the commissions were done when they weren't even started on otherwise he would have sent a sketch. It is now way too late for a chargeback on my visa card. Originally I filed a paypal dispute claim and after he begged me to close the case I fell for his lies that I did what he said because he said that the commissions were almost done and he had health problems going on in his life. I had no idea that he was scamming me. He has a Patreon site where he has changed his name from TGBK to KawaiiGirlsCafe/KGC and currently to Project Hime. Now he is trying to pull the vanishing act and ignoring all emails and I only emailed him once a month to ask about commission status. Even when I very politely ask about my commission status or how he is doing (if he is still around) he deletes all the comments from his Patreon page and hides them from his DeviantArt profile. This is an obvious sign that he doesn't want other people to know what he is doing as he is continuing to trick more victims. I have provided screenshots of all the email messages that I've gotten from him. PROOF: These are screenshots of the emails: https://img00.deviantart.net/cde0/i/2017/325/0/6/tgbk1_by_shinigamisenshi-dbuea27.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/7e7d/i/2017/325/2/e/tgbk2_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueail.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/050a/i/2017/325/7/0/tgbk3_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueahh.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/ad0c/i/2017/325/3/9/tgbk4_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueadi.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/b501/i/2017/325/4/8/tgbk6_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueajs.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/67d5/i/2017/325/1/a/tgbk7_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueakx.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/0f71/i/2017/325/d/6/tgbk8_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueamb.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/cbe4/i/2017/325/7/7/tgbk10_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueant.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/c1c8/i/2017/325/9/8/tgbk12_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueatk.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/f440/i/2017/325/3/c/tgbk13_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueauo.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/e0e8/i/2017/325/7/1/tgbk14_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueavr.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/2543/i/2017/325/b/d/tgbk15_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueax6.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/b983/i/2017/325/b/a/tgbk16_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueaya.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/46d5/i/2017/325/9/5/tgbk17_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueaz6.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/f163/i/2017/325/d/b/tgbk18_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueb03.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/3556/i/2017/325/4/7/tgbk19_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueb1m.jpg https://img00.deviantart.net/63d3/i/2017/325/f/d/tgbk20_by_shinigamisenshi-dbueb2x.jpg
  16. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/979026.html WHO: GreyScarborough, Grey-Scarborough, Grey_Scarborough WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/greyscarborough/ https://grey-scarborough.sofurry.com/ https://grey-scarborough.sofurry.com/ https://www.weasyl.com/~greyscarborough WHAT: NSFW Digital Flat Color Commission, for 25$ WHEN: Jul 19th: First contact Jul 20th: Commission details explained and paid Aug 18th: First time asking about the state of the commission (It was said to be completed within 2 weeks, instead 4 weeks have passed) (Artist responded). Sep 15th: Second time asking about the state of the commission (Artist did not respond). Sep 23rd: Asking for their response (Artist responded). Nov 3rd: Third time asking about the state of the commission (Artist did not respond). Nov 16th: Forth time asking about the state of the commission (Artist did respond, saying he "will dig it up today"). Nov 24th: Fifth time asking about the state of the commission and first time seeing a sketch. The sketch was not what I asked for, artist knew about it. Nov 25th: I complain about his inability to work with me properly and demand him to finally start working with me constuctively, or to refund me by the 10th of December. Nov 26th: His reponse: "Ok we'll eat shit and take a refund on the 10th you pompous fuck." He just kept insulting me, while I tried to work constructively with him. Nov 27th: He finally explains himself, yet keeps being insulting and blocks me. No further contact from then on. Dec 11th: Yesterday was the last day I demanded him to refund me. It didn't happen. Money is officially stolen by this date. EXPLAIN: On the 19th of July I decided to commission Grey_Scarborough for an adult piece of art. He was quick to respond, we exchanged details about the commission and I paid him the next day. He claimed it would take him 2 weeks to finish the piece. I am "free to request a WIP whenever" and contact him at any of his messengers. Sounds good to me. I didn't hear anything of him for 4 weeks, so I sent him a note on the 18th of August, asking if he forgot about me. Again, he was quick to respond, told me he was busy moving, admitted he was behind schedule. No problem to me. I responded with some kind of smalltalk, to which I didn't receive a response. Also, not a problem at all. September the 15th, another 4 weeks have passed. I'm asking for updates. Telling him I'm not intending to rush, telling him to take his time. Though I was giving an emphasis on the fact that 9 weeks have already passed. I asked about his queue, where I am placed at. I didn't receive a response. One week later I sent him another note, asking if he is going to answer me eventually. Slowly losing my patience. He responded the day after, saying he thought he responded to me already. He told me he "hit a pretty bad road bump, but we should be pretty square now." I should "keep an eye out", he'll "bump me an update soon". I responded ecstatically, telling him not to rush it. But I wished we would have a more active base of communication. Told him about a story of a previous bad experience with another artist (though resolved). He didn't respond to this. November the 3rd, another 6 weeks later, I ask him if he could start anytime soon. I didn't receive a response. I noticed he uploaded another artworks and YCHs especially. Apparently, he needed to make more money, while he couldn't finish anything else of his queue. November the 16th, another 2 weeks later, I told him he didn't respond to my note, and asked about the status of my commission. He responded the same day, saying he'll "dig it up today" and send me the "current version" of it. November the 24th, another week later, I asked about his progress. He responded the same day, saying he "found the work" (!?) and he "had done the dang pose wrong", telling me he was sorry about that. He included a link to a sketch, which didn't represent what I was asking for at all. I responded the next day, losing my patience, criticizing his work ethic, yet staying constructive and not being insulting (Even though I admitted, that "I am pissed right now"). I was in disbelief that it took him 4 months to work on my commission, while not even doing what I paid for. I told him about the times he didn't care to respond to me, how I expected him to come forward to me, instead of me having to poke and ask every few weeks, how I paid for this commission alredy, how he makes me belief he might have stolen my money. I questioned him about the other artworks and YCHs he kept posting, while he apparently could not bother to work on my commission. I told him his work ethic was insulting to me. I also told him that I'm sad it went this way. I had hoped it would've been better for us. "I sincerly hope you do understand." I made some demands to have him work with me more proactively and constructively. I gave him my contact data for Discord and Steam. I promised him to work professionally as possible with him. I would focus on the progress of the commission and I wouldn't complain to him about his work ethic any further, if he agreed. I told him the picture has to be finished within the next 2 weeks, as he originally promised, or I'll demand a refund. Which was due yesterday, which I didn't receive. His response was, I quote: "Ok we'll eat shit and take a refund on the 10th you pompous fuck." I was shocked at his response, to say the least. Yet I didn't respond back in any insulting manner. Again, I showed him how the situation was and how he tore my patience apart with that last piece. I criticized his work ethic again and told him I was appalled in which insulting manner he responed to me, a customer. His response: "No. Fuck you. I really don't care about you, or your views, or suffering to be polite to you. You do t deserve it. Fuck you." This only became more childish the more we went on. I told him he was taking my critique way too personal. Yet again, I criticized him. Especially pointing out, how he claims to be "overly social" with his customers and how he is "always seeking to improve", as it's stated on his profile page. I reinforced my previous statement, saying I never attacked him in person. I asked him to keep his dignity. I told him he can refund me at anytime, 10th of December being the deadline. He, again, responded with a lot of vulgarity. Later notes went a bit back and forth, so I won't explain the exact details of them here, yet I will post it in the screenshots below. It's interesting nontheless. - I warned him about carrying this issue towards artist beware, to which he said he didn't give a fuck, he would refund me eventually. He was still very abusive in his choice of words. - He claimed what he did could be done in a "quick edit", yet comparing the sketch to my instructions, it's obvious that it needs a complete redo. I wouldn't have complained if it was just a small error. - Admittedly, I lost a bit of my temper in between, though I didn't attack him personally. - He called me a liar and claimed he did respond to every single one of my notes. He prompted me to read his TOS (explained in the paragraph below). - I proofed him wrong and criticized his TOS. To which he "dares" me to make the Artist Beware post. - I asked him what his deal is. - He told me his personal opinion of me. - I responded and criticized him again. I told him that IF I personally insulted him in any way, I am sorry. - He told me I am delusional. Something about "stead pay"!? - After the last note he send me, to which I tried to respond, he blocked me. I wasn't able to contact him any further. It came to my attention that he claims in his TOS that he "will cancel the commission with no refund if you're abusive." And I believe he makes use of his own rule here, despite me not attacking him in person once. Besides, TOS rule or not, stealing money is stealing money. You can't make it legal by writing up a rule of your own, saying it is legal. Well then, the next 2 weeks until yesterday, I waited for my refund. He didn't do it, so now we're here. PROOF: Proof of Payment: https://i.imgur.com/D1oukQ9.png (as much as this proof goes, anyway...) Full conversation from start to finish and pictures (NSFW): https://imgur.com/a/xfXpl
  17. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/967113.html WHO: Vani/VanillaKitsune/Stripesandteeth/Ashketchumsays WHERE: https://twitter.com/AshKetchumSays http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vani (NSFW) WHAT: Digital sketch commission WHEN: Febuary 17th 2016 until present day Dropbox folder with screenshots from my communication with Vani. Images are numbered chronologically: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ovug6pf0uk2qr9k/AADhA-e5XgZqfCOnF8NbSX8Qa?dl=0 Proof of payment: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pihp63yjo0g4a2o/Screenshot Paypal transaction.png?dl=0 My communication with Vani: I contacted Vani on February 14th 2016 according a sketch commission after they made a Twitter post announcing 5 open commission slots (screenshot 1) . We agreed upon a digital bust commission which I paid $46 for. I accidentally sent them payment in wrong currency at first (AUD) but they refunded me immediately so I could re-send them the correct amount. On February 21st, Vani confirmed that the payment was received (screenshot 2-4). On March 30th 2016 I contacted them again asking if there was any problems with my commission and they told me they would be working on commissions again the following week (screenshot 5) On August 5th 2016 I asked if there were any updates on my commission and their excuse was a sudden relocation to Florida. Again they stated that the first thing they would get to was their remaining commissions. (screenshot 6) On March 17th 2017 I asked for a refund. They promised to refund for my commission, but never did (screenshot 7) On July 24th they uploaded a commission to their Furaffinity page, mentioning that this was their last colored bust commission from last year's batch. I commented on this submission asking what happened to mine and they quickly responded to this, explaining that they would complete my commission soon. This proved to me that they did not have a structured commission queue at all, since I as many others seemed to have been completely forgotten (screenshot 8-9) Vani gets a secratary: On May 24th Vani posted a journal on Furaffnity stating that they had gotten a secretary who would help them organize their commission queue, reach out to waiting commissioners and update with a new journal before June 15th. This is the last journal Vani has posted up until today(16/08/2017) and I never received a message from this secretary. Yet again I was left in the dark and according to the comment section, I did not seem to be the only one. Link to journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8241229/ Screenshot of journal: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yshphpggrhxw605/Screenshot secretary journal.png?dl=0 I honestly have no faith that I will ever receive this commission or get a refund. Even if I do, I would not recommend commissioning this artist. They always responded to my messages, but their response was repetitive empty promises. Thank you for helping me correct any spelling/grammar mistakes! EDIT 11/03/2017 In short: Vani refunds me after I Tweet about them (without publicly mentioning their name) about their bad work ethic. Full story: Today I received a Twitter DM from a person who claimed to be Vani's manager. They informed me that Vani was about to refund me for the commission, and honestly I was kind of baffled, I knew that I wasn't on the refund list, and I asked for a refund back in March 2016. I'm censoring their name, but here's the DMs: https://puu.sh/ye2jn/327db3b95d.png I did receive the refund from Vani in form of a gift transaction, and Vani wrote this in the transaction description: https://puu.sh/ye2nK/5f3b8a605d.png. I decided that it's only fair from me to remove these Tweets as the situation as has been resolved, but here is a screenshot of them anyway: (includes cussing) https://puu.sh/ye272/bbfa597c41.png. The deadline commissions I was referring to was two reference auction commissions Vani was holding on Furaffinity, one in which has a deadline for October and one for November. Side note: Vani said that I paid $46 for this commission, which is false. They asked for $46 for this commission, but I paid $50. Not very important, but I would like to include it anyway. Anyway, even though I am pleased that I finally got my refund (that I was promised in March mind you), I am very disappointed to see that showing displeasure in form of some salty Tweets was the only way to resolve this issue.
  18. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/944093.html WHO: Mew / Xionica (fursuit character name) WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/mew | https://www.furaffinity.net/user/xionica/ WHAT: Fursuit partial (being resold) - fursuit shown on their Xionica page. WHEN: Around March / April 2016 is when I first paid on it. July 9th was my last payment. PROOF: Everything is chronologically placed in my dropbox but I'll also post the links chronologically through the explanation as well. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7obu4yppo7mpeoc/AABEqW-37KC12Re0dkVVD1eDa?dl=0 Proof that Mew and Xionica are the same person: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r09u3mcg7kz3df4/proofxionica1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qcv6ag4prt7ssy/proofxionica1-2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/od0mn2v4b0gwu4t/proofxionica2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/8w0zjqsaksgoeh6/proofxionica3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/4glw9wo9b0zb8bp/proofxionica4.png?dl=0 She sent me art of the character that wasn't even posted on Xionica's account. She said that's where the fursuit was hosted and that she would sell account, char art, and the FurAffinity profile along with purchase. This proof shows that I made payments on it and that it was to her paypal she specified: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bvs314m94rqpr26/proof1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ya9g567bal6x32x/proof2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/zffc0bfpv3o68x1/proof3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/n5yz7egwakzzfu2/proof4.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gbdp8rktycbmpot/proof8.png?dl=0 - This was my final payment. EXPLAIN: I was scammed out of 107$ on a fursuit partial, being sold to me by Mew The story behind this: Originally I agreed to buy this fursuit partial from this person that I considered a friend because I wanted to help them out with bills + the design was VERY well detailed for only 500$ + extra art included. You can see the fursuit in question on her Xionica account. This was back before I had a job, having no means to pay for this fursuit but Mew told me I could do it if I just posted commissions / adopts / etc and eventually it would pile up to equal 500$. Every payment for the commissions was sent directly to Mew through her paypal email. It was to avoid paying a double fee for paypal. She was very adamant about making sure I paid her buyer's fee for her which is against Paypal's TOS but I thought since she was my friend it was okay. Because of this, most of my payments are either small increments of 5-20$ or were sent directly via commissioners to avoid taking so much out of fees. In total, from my actual paypal, I only sent her 9$ from my own account. This is an image showing she was calculating the fees she was receiving from my payments into the total purchase: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7ubkcyszn826tx/proof7.png?dl=0 - "I'll let you know your total once I see the fees" That's when all the shit started happening in my life. Lots of my adopts and commissions wouldn't sell, highschool graduation, college, then medical stuff and I lost my job 2-3 months after being hired so now I'm disabled. But I always kept her updated to let her know what was happening and that I was just going through a rough patch in my life. https://www.dropbox.com/s/723gvbl09uhnjhg/proof9.png?dl=0 - as we were friends and I was helping her out because she needed money for bills, I thought she would understand. But then she sent me a message on Skype, January 30th of this year - saying it had been a YEAR since I paid.. which was a flat out lie, the last payment was 7 months ago on the proof images of 107$. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7oahsay2cmjxg9v/proof11.png?dl=0 She sent that to my skype probably knowing I was having skype issues because I talked about it often via statuses and I hadn't been online in forever (and MIA due to medical stuff) because I just couldn't sign on. At least 2 months of inactivity via my new skype. Plus she added my new skype from my status that told people my old skype wasn't working. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtwae9im4w4dnx7/proof10.png?dl=0 She didn't bother to message me on FA or Toyhou.se or try to get into contact with me, choosing the most convenient way for her not to get a response. About 4 days after that message, I remembered about the partial and contacted her on Toyhou.se to let her know I was still interested. https://www.dropbox.com/s/1a0wd49julhef9w/proof12.png?dl=0 I asked if she had discord. It was obvious I didn't see her skype message at this time. Instead of telling me THERE about the fact that she wanted to resell the fursuit, she just curtly said "No, I do not." And tried to cut off all communication. https://www.dropbox.com/s/g627j3bphjymkq9/proof13.png?dl=0 She never responded to my second note where I said I would try to get skype working and that I really wanted to discuss the fursuit payment. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qof5t18qf9g42ex/proof14.png?dl=0 She read it but never responded. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0e0ik0yrtzta7ed/readnote2.png?dl=0 So I finally got Skype working today and what do you know? I stumble upon the message. https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2runvyncuqyqw6/proof15.png?dl=0 So I responded asking her to refund my 107$ payment if she was going to resell the fursuit, since I'm not getting my product. NO WHERE in our conversations was a deadline mentioned where I had to pay in full by, no downpayment agreed to.. it was just one friend slowly inching towards their goal to help another friend and to buy a fursuit. And guess what? SHE UNFRIENDS ME ON SKYPE 30 MIN LATER, as you can see by the "messaging disabled" on the bottom of that screencap. Perplexed, I messaged her on FA, telling her that I WILL force refund the payments or sue her over this matter. You can't just take 107$ of my money and run off with it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmcmv7y636wl81k/proof16.png?dl=0 I also suggested that if she didn't have the money to pay, she could trade me a character I saw on her Toyhou.se that would be worth the price (plus she was selling it anyways) and I could come to an agreement after that, because it was some form of product. She read that never responded, has been active uploading art so I'm done. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a8pdbnvrtjiuhd/readnote1.png?dl=0 So after this TL;DR.. Mew is a scammer. She took 107$ of my money that was put down for a fursuit, and she ran off with it. She refuses to respond to me so it's clear I have to take this matter into my own hands with the public. I'm gonna post this in hopes that she'll never be able to scam anyone else out of their money again and so that maybe, just maybe she'll give me back my money or gives me something of equal value.. because I don't think this will settle well with a paypal dispute, even with the proof images from skype because all the money was sent directly from my commission / adopt buyers.
  19. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/940624.html WHO: xhyra/ adurrgtables WHAT: an egg adoptable that I also drew the larger version of. WHEN: Was purchased from me several years. Today he posted it to resell it without permission. PROOF: Him selling it without permission: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/22519095/ My original submission: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13741056/ Me asking him not to resell, which he promptly hid: http://sta.sh/0uv18sjgu24 EXPLAIN: This was an egg adoptable that he purchased from me a few years back. I have always had the full that my Adoptable's cannot be resold for money. Only given away as a gift to someone or back to me if you no longer feel a connection to it. The adoptable was put up for resale today without my consent. I politely asked him not to resell it and the comment was hidden by him.
  20. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/939315.html Where https://inkbunny.net/Lando What 60$ commission. I commissioned once before, took a month more or less, so as it was the same style as the first one, I thought may the same or two would do. When 23th june 2016 Proofs Skype deleted the first month of june, but here is the log from july to now. https://d.pr/pvFM https://d.pr/hLs1 https://d.pr/1FY5 https://d.pr/XoMN https://www.dropbox.com/s/2ang7hikop5m0p6/img1.png?dl=0 That's the last thing I know from him. Payment: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8i72d6rev8nm88x/img2.png?dl=0 Further details: So, last year, I commissioned Lando, from InkBunny, a pic from our munks, like a grey and white sketchy style that he does very well. It just took like a month or so to get finished. So, more or less after half year I tried to commission him again. I asked if he was taking commissions that time, and said me yes. So I payed him the amount he asked, more or less the same as the first comm (60$). Said it would take the same time, may a bit more, because he never drew rocket raccoon, I thought it was ok, we all want very good draws. But since then, I only started to have comments like "soon", "the next draw is your comming", and so, as you can see in the pics. I also know that I can be a bit impatient, basically because he WAS my fav artist, but looks he didn't get bothered at all, all the contrary. Once he said me real life things were happening, and I understood that, but since then he told that now could focus on the commission, but only the last pic of the conversation is the last I know from him. He just passed me some sketches from rocket he was practicing and the very initial idea of the commission. Nothing else. So, as you can suppose, I'm disappointed with who was my favorite artist, who I got friendly chats on skype, and now, I just get ignored and scammed. I don't know what else I can do. I tried to make in paypal a petition of "asking money" from him, like a refund, last week just to make contact with him, but as always, no response from him. Also mention that in his account of IB has activity.
  21. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/935156.html WHO: 0cean/Loreisle WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/0cean/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/loreisle/ WHAT: 5 colored digital pictures. WHEN: Aug. 17th PROOF: Proof of payment. Proof of agreement to her terms. EXPLAIN: So originally I bought a sketchbook commission slot from the artist for $100 back in October of 2015. After paying for the sketchbook I had given her a list of my characters I wanted in the book and choosing a book we both like I made sure to keep a somewhat constant communication with her. Eventually the artist went through a huge rough patch that including moving and a few more personal things. This delayed my commission severely, but I was more that understanding. I did check in with her every so often and was kept up to date. (1, 2, 3, and 4.) Eventually I did receive my sketchbook, but since it wasn’t everything promised in the original agreement that artist offered me 5 digital color pictures and I accepted. I gave my first four back in August of this year and later gave the fifth a little while later. Since giving my ideas I’ve kept in contact and check the status once in a while. (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.) For the last few months the artist has been doing multiple ych’s and getting them done in a few weeks. One of which I myself bought and had before any of the five pictures. (12) I try to be patience and not rush artists when I commission them, but it just upsets me to see others get their art a few days later where as I’ve been waiting months. Honestly a beware on this artist is really the last thing I wanted to do. She was one of the first I ever commissioned and has always been pleasant to work with whenever I do. Not even sure if this will even count as a beware. As of now I have one out of the five and have been told the others have been sketched out. (13 and 14) Current Mood: pointless UPDATE 12/2/2016: Artist has uploaded second picture of the list. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21886371/ UPDATE 12/28/2016: Okay so I doubt anyone will see this update. I submitted an update post to the mods and am waiting for approval, but in the meantime I have something new that came after I submitted said update. I finally managed to a reply from 0cean and this is what I get. Firstly I want to say this may just be me, but the whole note came off as entirely rude. I also want add that this reply came after I had to track her down on a DA account she did have listed anywhere. She did even respond to the pm there, but to one I sent a week ago on FA. So after not hearing anything for almost a month I get a rude note. If that isn't bad enough I found she was very active on this new account doing free art stream, adopts, art trades, and personal art. Funny thing is that nowhere on any of her account do it mention lost programs in fact her accounts haven't been active in almost 4 weeks. Clearly if she was active there she could have done some kind of update. I get everyone has a life, but clearly she had the means of updating people. [Misunderstanding] In response to my last edit about the Journal it seems it wasn't about me. She just happened to have posted it about people from an art stream shortly after I asked for and update. Huge mistake on my part there.
  22. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/931747.html WHO: BlueBreed WHERE: InkBunny - https://inkbunny.net/BlueBreed (NSFW) WHAT: $10 colored single character image WHEN: Payment was agreed upon and sent on April 5, 2016. As of now, the artist hasn't responded to any of my attempts to contact them. PROOF: The initial agreement - http://i.imgur.com/mr3UyHv.png The PayPal payment - http://i.imgur.com/CVv6vgT.png A tweet I sent to him asking him about the status of the commission queue - http://i.imgur.com/DCwSk1X.png His old Journal about offering refunds, where I posted about messaging him a day after I tweeted to him - http://i.imgur.com/nInfpih.jpg A second message chain I sent him in case he wasn't able to see the original one for some reason - http://i.imgur.com/v4wtuI9.png EXPLAIN: BlueBreed had a limited-time special going on for $10 colored commissions. After sending the payment on April 5th, he put me on his commission list. On the June 29th, he posted a journal saying that people who hadn't received as much as a sketch from him can ask for a refund because he was gonna be busy with work and school for a while. I decided to wait on it because I understand that artists are still people and things can't always go as smooth and fast as expected. After a few months and seeing a handful of images posted along with a journal for Pay-What-You-Want sketches, I decided to ask him for an update on October 13th just to make sure I haven't been forgotten about, and never received an answer. He was doing streams and working on personal Halloween stuff while posting journals and Tweets, so it's not like he was off the grid. I thought that maybe he just hadn't been paying attention to his messages on InkBunny, so I sent him a tweet on October 25th asking him about the commission and that I had messaged him a little while back. Still no response. I still gave him the benefit of the doubt for some reason, so I sent a different message asking about a refund on October 31st in case something happened to the first message and he couldn't access it, and then another message on November 4th to try and get his attention. He's still been streaming and decently active, but refused to even give me an update on a service I paid for.
  23. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/929598.html WHO: Worms & Bones WHERE: Homepage: http://www.wormsandbones.com/ Deviantart: http://wormsandbones.deviantart.com/ WHAT: $600 CAD for a one-of-a-kind art doll based on a werewolf character of mine. WHEN: So arrangements for this commission first started back around late September, 2014, but confirmation happened in November 2015. Details were exchanged from February-March 2015. I paid in two installments. The first installment was March 10, 2015. References were provided on March 21. The second installment was paid on April 8, 2015. Provided below are screen shots of all the email exchanges we've had. What's important to note here is that I've had to email them sometimes two or three times in order to get a response, though to their credit they did always eventually respond. I sent the emails a week, sometimes two weeks, apart (in between months of waiting) as I was trying not to be worrisome. But conversely, I was becoming worried about the lack of communication. The first email I sent asking for an update was on June 3, 2015 with a followup on the 10th. I sent another inquiry on August 15, followed by another follow up on the 29th. I received a reply the following day. This pattern continues for some time, with me checking in every two to three or four months. I was unclear as to how long a commission was actually going to take as no where in their TOS does it state that they can take a year or longer to complete and at no point in the email exchange did they offer an ETA. I eventually became too anxious at their lack of communication and finally sent an email stating as such on December 7th basically expressing this anxiety and the concern over how long it was taking as I had received my previous customs from them in 2-5 months. I assumed that a commission to take maybe 8-9 in between customs and whatever else, especially since Worms & Bones have previously provided great customer care and a superior product. As requested, they did provide me with a rundown on events that was happening/had happened over the past few months to explain why it was taking so long. Up to this point I had only received one WIP (on Sept 1). I received a second Dec. 7, which was included in the response email I got after my inquiry about the length of time it was taking. Needless to say, communication hasn't really improved. It's still taking a week or more for them to respond to my emails. I've received only 3 WIPs emails. I last requested on update on Sept. 13 as well as a possible ETA. Their response was pretty much the same as their last update - still waiting on their caster and were going fur shopping since they didn't have the right kind. It is now Oct. 11 and I haven't heard anything else. Although I just recently noticed they have put up a warning in the Contact section of their website that they maybe slow to respond. So at least they tell you that now. PROOF: November 30-December 1, 2014 - First discussion of taking on the commission. Feb. 27, 2015 - Worms & Bones confirms that they can take on the commission. March 21 - More Details Exchanged. This screenshot also shows me confirming that I paid the invoice. March 10 - First installment paid. March 21 - Details Finalized. April 8 - They sent me the 2nd Invoice. April 8 - Final installment paid. June 3 and June 12- First inquiry emails sent. This screenshot shows their response on the 12. Aug 15, 29, 30 - Second inquiry email sent. This screenshot shows the exchange for that month. Sept. 1 - First WIP. They emailed ME this time. I was sure things were going to be moving forward finally but two months later... November 23 - 3rd Inquiry. Dec. 7th - 3rd Inquiry follow up. This shows the exchange between the two of us during that time. I should point out that their responses are professional and friendly, and they do acknowledge that their commissions take a long time to complete (like, over-a-year-long, I suppose) - information I really wish I had known beforehand. They also provided a 2nd WIP. Dec. 7th - My response to that last email (Couldn't fit all of it on the same screenshot.) Feb 10, 17 2016 - 4th inquiry sent about a detail on the WIPs. So far, so good with their response here. I was pleased that they just responded even if they didn't have a WIP to show me. April 23rd, May 5 - 5th inquiry. This screenshot shows the exchange from that time period. Also 3rd and last visual WIP. July 17, 20 - 6th inquiry and their response. Sept. 13, 19 2016 - Asked for another update and a possible ETA, but no mention of it in their response. I have yet to hear anything about more about the furs and today is Oct. 11. EXPLAIN: I really hesitated to post this beware because Worms & Bones have never been rude to me and do eventually reply to my emails, but their basic customer service could use some improvement. This Beware is mostly in regards to that. So, perhaps it was the fact that I received their customs pretty quickly, and that the previous transactions had been pretty straight forward and the exchange pretty quick. And perhaps that I had mentioned in at least two earlier emails that I would "wait forever" (though I seriously didn't think I'd be waiting for over a year for it). And maybe it feels like I've been waiting longer than I have because details were first set in 2014. I tend to wait a week or more before sending followup emails because I'm aware that people have lives and they apparently make customs for a living. Which brings me to the other part of my complaint; in between all these emails, with very little WIPs to show on my $600 commission, they've produced many more customs for other customers as well as literal armfuls of customs for sale at conventions and at least three personal projects. All of which you can see on their tumblr. Let me just say here that I am NOT upset that they've got personal projects but it's just that on top of all the other work they've done for other customers - even potential customers that haven't even paid them money yet - and I haven't even seen what my werewolf's feet look like with the dew claws attached and it's been over a year. I also don't think I should feel awful every time I send off an email asking them for an update. I feel like I'm harassing them every time I do. Furthermore, there is no mention on their website at how long commissions can take. The only thing it is mentioned is that they seldom accept commissions but no reason as to why. Which I guess isn't important, usually, but if it's a super long wait time, then I think it should be mentioned. So whether or not I receive my doll any time soon, I still think people should be aware of how long it will take to receive their product. At least they do now have a notice in their Contact Me section of their website stating that they are slow to respond to emails. They did not have this notice when I first commissioned them and I'm not sure when it appeared. I also want to point out that, and I'm sure it's easy to see in the screen shots, that they have been nothing but polite when we have communicated and I genuinely believe that they aren't doing this on purpose. I suppose this Beware is more a warning about the lack of information these artists provide regarding the process of their services, at least in regards to commissions. So if you get a custom from them, you probably don't have to worry about this happening to you, but beware if you ever manage to score a commission. Considering it's been almost a month since they went fur shopping, I'm really starting to doubt I'm going to get what I paid for. UPDATE: Worms and Bones has finished the commission, and although I have not received it physically yet, given their previous track record of successfully shipping out items, I have no doubts I will get it eventually. I deem this resolved! UPDATE: I have Autumn firmly in hand. As usual the quality is wonderful and it's very satisfying to finally have it here. As mentioned above, Worms & Bones are overall pretty good to work with. It's mostly just their communication skills that could use some improvement. And be prepared for a long wait - especially if you're commissioning them!
  24. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/925839.html EDIT 11/2/2016: Received both sketches in the mail this past Monday as well as one of the WIPs that was not chosen to be completed. With a lot of poking and prodding, I can happily say this entry is now resolved. EDIT 10/22/2016: Received the second sketch this week! They actually ended up redoing the WIP of the second, doing two different versions which was super cool http://sta.sh/01937bqah6te http://sta.sh/0t3usskymsy (and will be getting the wips sent to me along with the finished sketches). So here's the finished product! http://sta.sh/0vujuwdnoqh It turned out absolutely fantastic, and I honestly couldn't be happier with the result. I was also told that the sketches would be shipped out sometime this week. Waking up today, I got notified that both sketches and all the WIPs have been shipped and was provided with a tracking number. Once I post another update receiving the sketches, I'll ask for this post to be marked as resolved. - EDIT 10/7/2016: I'm assuming the artist knew about the dispute automatically closing on the 4th if it was not issued to a claim. So in spite of that, they did complete one sketch on Monday ( http://sta.sh/017w66edr8e2 ). I have to say, it turned out really beautiful, and makes me super pumped to see how the next one turns out too. They added a bit of extra detail to it too, to make up for all this trouble, which was nice, although since then I have not heard anything back about the second one. Not only that but I only received a photo of the sketch..no high res scan (though I wasnt expecting one as I did pay for the physical copies to be mailed to me as well). I don't know..I'll send another message asking for an update this weekend..but I'm really hoping they don't decide to just..ditch now, considering the dispute is now closed and I can never reopen it again if I don't receive the second sketch or the physical copies of both. We'll see...but I'll continue to keep you all posted. - EDIT 9/14/2016: Issued a dispute over PayPal. Artist immediately contacted me via Twitter and has agreed upon a completion date, that being towards the end of the month. (https://www.dropbox.com/s/if8mxpaqzt3horm/Screen%20Shot%202016-09-14%20at%206.47.48%20PM.png?dl=0 ) If I do not receive an update, refund, or the artwork itself, I will be getting PayPal involved by filing a claim. - EDIT 9/12/2016: Added some examples of what the finished sketches SHOULD look like to dropbox! WHO: Vani / AshKetchumSays WHERE: Twitter WHAT: Traditional Portrat Sketches ($86.50USD Total) WHEN: Initial Conversation: Began June 4th 2016 Payment Agreed Upon & Sent: June 14th 2016 Received first pass/WIP of commission: June 25th 2016 Signs of Trouble Began: July 21st 2016 PROOF: All messages are through twitter, stamped with appropriate dates, PayPal info as well-> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oeaqa7f60h04n7k/AAAwREd1IFwb0rshXCNV3uPEa?dl=0 What my finished commission SHOULD look like -> https://www.dropbox.com/s/yypupu1d604gljn/Ck7aZUzUUAE2odg.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/084xnnkgzv0optk/CkH1H4HUUAEEWTv.jpg?dl=0 Explain: First of all, I am an artist myself who does freelancing, and normally I wouldn't make reports on other artists as I am a very reasonable person when commissioning other artists as I understand how stressful the process can be and how long it can take. But anyway! Always been a fan of Vani's work, and seeing that they were offering sketches for a good price got me super excited to finally order something featuring my characters. June: Communication started off really well! I knew they were taking a lot of commissions, so I honestly wasn't worried about how long they'd take, as I am a very patient person. An agreement for the final paymet was made, and commission progress began. Within a couple weeks, I received WIPs. They DEFINITELY didn't seem as good as her previous sketched portraits she was doing..I could tell they were likely feeling burnt out, but I didn't bother judging too hard as they are just WIPs. Still looking forward to the final pieces. July: Towards the end of June she gave me a good long update about how they'll be busy prepping to sell at a convention, therefore making a delay on the sketches. Completely fine with that, as I had seen the roughs so I knew they'd get done in no time..or so I thought. Sent in an update of a reference for one of my characters...no response whatsoever, even though they were/are on twitter quite frequently. If you check their twitter account, this was also around the time their troubles rose and they began taking on more commissions, creating adoptables and selling them, trying to earn more money and moving old commissions, including mine, back in their queue. August: Tried contacting them again for an update. Finally got a response; a lengthy one at that, which I honestly don't care about. I just want to know a time estimate for completion. This was when their housing troubles and whatever else were brought to me personally, though I already sort of knew about based on their twitter posts. I come back rather short, as my frustration began kicking in, knowing they clearly have time to work on my commissions, but is yet, focusing on others, new orders at that, in order to make quick money. I bring up the option of a refund (partial, considering they did have WIPs completed), because at this point I'm doubting itll ever get done and I'd rather give my money to an artist more reliable and professional, despite how talented Vani is. No means for refund at given time, so we agree that the following week she'll have them done, and once again, I remain patient with them. September: At this point I'm just fed up and frustrated. Way past the date we agreed for completion, so I ask for a refund. Comes back saying they're completely unable to, yet, oh look! In one of the screenshots I provide, they just received money from a recent auction, but yet, still can't refund me my portion of payment for the pieces I commissioned from them (no idea how much the Auto Buy went for in the auction, clearly a lot more then the previous bid though). At this point I stop replying. I'm not getting my money back, my art will not be completed. If it's done, it'll be a miracle, but for now, I HIGHLY recommend NOT commissioning this artist until they smarten up, sorts out their financial situations and develop a better professional attitude when doing business with clients such as myself. I've spoke with other friends who have commissioned them and they're also waiting on art from them (though at a much longer wait period than myself) and they're equally frustrated. I'm just completely disappointed in this whole situation, and definitely don't want others going through this with her as well. I'm fine waiting long periods of time for art, but when I see her posting more art, adoptables, commissioning openings, etc, its like a big slap in the face to those still waiting on art from them.
  25. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/908567.html WHO: Bioblaze WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bioblaze/ WHAT: The user had won the primary sought after spot in a large multi character auction that has STILL not been paid for. (All screencaps will go in the explain section for timeline consistency) WHEN: Feb 5th, 2014 to March 29th 2016 PROOF: All screencaps will be in the explain section for timeline consistency. EXPLAIN: Back in early 2014, I decided to expand my capabilities and do a mind numbingly heavy project auction consisting of 10 characters in a butcher shop scene to please my vore community. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12671477/ (mature rated due to FA's rediculous maturity laws though there is no actual mature content in the picture) A great deal of haggling occurred over the coveted position of the butcher himself, with the price VERY swiftly rising from 15$ to a whopping 75$ over very little time. There was a minor scuffle between Bioblaze and another bidder, as he accused them of just trying to drive up the price with no intention to pay. I smoothed the fight over, explaining that the other bidder was a long time commissioner of mine and that they always paid up. Argument now over, the two had some friendly competition for the spot which Bioblaze eventually took. He insisted on paying for it partway through my actually drawing it, which I normally frown upon because I dont want to leave someone screwed over if my laptop dies or something, but I gave up my contact information anyways and even offered him a preview of how it was coming along. Afterall, he had the most unique character in the set and I wanted to make sure I got it right. It took him a while to reply to anything but I assumed he was busy with work so I let it slide. Right after I gave him my contact information for payment, he went missing. Totally. Nobody could get hold of him, none of his notes were being answered, he just dropped off the face of the planet. He resurfaced a year later claiming to have been hit by a bus, saying he was in the hospital this whole time but now he was loose and wanted to pay up any debts. Little fishy but ok, shit happens, right? (the journals he had talked about the accident in have all been deleted and i did not get screenshots at the time because I wasnt overly suspicious yet.) I answered the journal, thinking I could finally get the 75$, which at this point was starting to become a needed thing as I was slowly falling into financial issues with my credit card. Lo and behold, he goes missing again. Resurfaces several months and a good many notes later with this gem: By now I am suspicious AND annoyed, but still. Relapses happen and I am nothing if not forgiving. So I give him another chance to..... apparently go missing. Another almost full year passes before he shows activity on his account again. All his journals had been deleted and replaced with a call out for people willing to work on some sort of programming project with him and paid commissions he bought started popping up in his submissions. So I mail him one more time thinking ok THIS TIME he should be good, right? Play it cool, keep it casual and lighthearted, and maybe he won't know that I have been stewing in frustration and debt for two years? Ok! looking good! he seems willing to play along and he CLEARLY has recovered and is looking to throw money around. Should be a piece of cake for him to get me off his back. Apparently its easier to brush me off as being impatient and petty over a measly 75$ that's been owed to me for 2 years. At this point I am too pissed to answer him back. It has been two months now and I haven't heard anything from him. No payments, no "hey i got paid but something came up so i will be another month", no anything. I don't want to contact him again since I have a feeling he will throw off some excuse and brush me aside AGAIN, or worse he will go missing for some reason or another again. I am so done with this guy. That commission would have pulled me out of debt enough to be able to pay off the rest myself with my part time job but instead I had to get my parents assistance years later when I realized he wasn't coming back. Apparently I am the only person on FA who he is refusing to pay. I have contacted other commissioners and they all say he paid up immediately. I don't know what I did to offend him so much but anyone else who is doing art for him may want to get paid up front before he walks in front of a bus again.
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