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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1005457.html WHO: Athena The Jackal WHERE: Biggest Little Fur Con 2017 Twitter: http://Twitter.com/athenathejackal Telegram: @athenathejackal FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/~athena~/ WHAT: headshot Perler bead badge WHEN: June 4, 2017 - present EXPLAIN: I realize some of my Twitter photos are out of order and I’m omitting a LOT of our arguing in-between some posts, but feel free to peruse her public Twitter for the full conversation as well as her attitude toward dealing with myself and others. I commissioned Athena for a Perler bead badge on June 4, 2017 at BLFC. I paid somewhere near $130 in cash, so I have zero paper trail. (A stupid move on my part, I know) At this point I have accepted I will not be getting a refund, and at this point I don’t even know when or if I’ll be getting my badge. We never really had good contact, but I’m a relatively patient person. As you can see from my Telegram posts, I let months sometimes slide in-between contact with her before trying to get something from her. On November 16 on Telegram, she said that my badge would be completed by MFF, and then shipped to me after the show. When nothing came about it, I asked again about my badge and on January 11 was told my badge would be done “at the end of next week”. https://drive.google.com/open?id=13RzS3kgroWv8RZOhmepHr4pBYtPpyO_L On January 10 on Twitter, she posted a batch of badges she recently completed — mine was not among them. I still have no clue what the size of her queue is, since she doesn’t have it publicly posted, so naturally I get worried. It takes her another solid TWO MONTHS from the original post to finally come forward about what’s happened to her. On March 15, she starts replying to messages, saying that her PayPal was hacked, and she had a bunch of personal drama going on. I totally get that real life sometimes takes over, and she did show another batch of badges March 31 that were finished. I don’t know how long it takes to make these badges, but I think I have waited long enough. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-oUSM7y4zAeWTC7_hlrwYpTiLavLuaHa Little did I know her queue was over 200 people deep by the time I commissioned her at BLFC’17. My commission is “11th from the bottom.” https://drive.google.com/open?id=1J1h-7LTavLznLvLFpSIXHzML_sYy1mff She told me on Twitter she was doing badges in order of who’s angrier. I’m not good at being angry, and I haven’t been particularly vocal about her until recently, so apparently people on her queue have been shuffled around ahead of me. Of course, no one knows this because she has no public queue visible anywhere. I told her she should stick to her queue in order of who ordered first, and not jump around. Due to the insane wait I’ve already had (uninformed on wait due to no public queue) and her saying that she’s doing the badges out of order, I requested a refund. Instead of offering a solution for her to get my refund, she merely showed me the screenshots of her PayPal and bank statement a second time, telling me how she had bills coming up. In order for me to get my refund, she tells me that I have to find someone to take my spot, essentially advertise for her. I’m sorry, but finding my refund is not my job. I told her this, repeated that I wanted my refund, and said I would be taking my business elsewhere. I do not want the thing I paid for. I do not want to advertise for her. She threatened in a Tweet that she would rather just vanish instead of completing everyone’s commissions. https://drive.google.com/open?id=16xGdffhNCYBhTubJsy8lh8EjKj_G9Kpj She told a friend of mine that she didn’t owe me anything because “I didn’t sign a contract.” https://drive.google.com/open?id=1qXNPGxpGLRCOWAjriz-Q73NeWj3p_yyX https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ENjpL5krhTmkR-VwZGIxliFMRlM_ej-a It has been clear through her dealings that she will never refund me, nor does it seem like she’ll ever return to posting her Perler badges. She made a post back in all this hulaballoo that says she can make 1-2 badges a day https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M0IJ6qpuDbKvMkwnKknRY-Xff5n4Vnli but yet, since March 31, hasn’t posted a single new finished product. A Twitter user pointed me to her Facebook, where I messaged her privately to ask about her queue and my refund. She accepted and saw the message, but didn’t reply, which blatantly told me she’s stealing my money, and probably countless others as well. I am currently in the process of reviewing my county’s laws about a small claims court case. PROOF: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-CRMnWk74TjWb1NF7NtTCujDcfI_HMUz

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1008092.html WHO: Wi-Fi The Sergal WHERE: On Furry Amino, their profile: http://aminoapps.com/p/1e02sa WHAT: Filed a false chargeback on a digital art order. WHEN: 4th of August, 2018 EXPLAIN: I was browsing through Furry Amino on my phone and saw Wi-Fi posted a blog entry about looking for commissions. Since I had nothing to do, I posted a comment along with examples, a link to my prices and to my reviews. Since they wanted a badge, we found a compromise, he wanted to order a YCH from me instead, conversation was moved to private messages on the same plattform. Proof of commission ad: https://sta.sh/0u65u1xmtul We talked more on what they wanted, after I was given enough instructions, I started working on their order immediately. When I was done, I showed them my sketches which were promptly approved. I gave him my payment instructions and payment went through, after this, I continued working until I was finished with the flat colors. Proof of conversation: https://sta.sh/21h8etmftqsh?edit=1 After then, I noticed I got a chargeback filed against me, an unauthorized payment claim. I, of course confronted the client (can bee seen in proof above) about it, I got told it was their mother who did this. I immediately stopped working on the pieces all together and blacklisted and blocked the client. Proof of chargeback: https://sta.sh/0jzd63mq1k9 I have contacted Paypal through their Twitter in DM's, they'll look into this. The YCH has been re-sold to two of my friends, so no money was lost. PROOF: https://sta.sh/2vj2q5qj1lz?edit=1 Edited broken HTML code to just links. Sorry about that! UPDATE:The case got reviewed by Paypal and was decided in Wi-Fi's favor, meaning they got their money back. I myself don't mind it as no money was actually taken by me (friends who covered the loss). It's just kind of funny Paypal wanted me to provide proof when I couldn't do so. I got no strike whatsoever, so I'm fine with that. Proof of the closed claim: https://sta.sh/01ujtmqpg41q

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/906872.html WHO: Eulerami WHERE: Eulerami.tumblr.com / the-sword-saint.tumblr.com WHAT: Digital art (apologies for some lack of screenshots, an unreliable method of messaging was used (tumblr fan mail) and some chunks on my end are missing) I requested a painting of one of my original Thief fancharacters (a series she was familiar with, which led to our mutual following), in an appropriate forested setting. ** A misunderstanding occurred and she drew a completely different character in a completely different setting than I had requested, and I had not caught the error the first time it came up (I did not make the connection that the image she sent me was part of the commission because it was so radically different than the reference image and setting). WHEN: Contact was initiated in Early May (the original tumblr post appears to be gone) discussing emergency commissions. I messaged them and sent them the upfront payment of $25 on May 21, 2015. Because I used an unreliable messaging system, they never received my reference images and began to draw the wrong character. I mistakenly did not recognize the problem until 26 days later on June 16, 2015. At this point, I corrected the issue and emailed them with the appropriate references. An additional 27 days passed with no mention about the progress of the commission, and around July 13, 2015 is when I began to grow very concerned about the state of the commission. A general statement was made July 27, 2015 stating she was no longer working on commissions. I heard no word back about my commission until she opened up commissions again May 5, 2016 and initiated contact. PROOF: 1 - Original correspondance of the agreement to the commission 2 - Eulerami asking me what I'd like to have completed and agreeing to the transaction 15 - Proof of payment ** Note: reference image of character was sent, however the assumption is that Eulerami never got my message 4 - Aknowledging payment, describing setting for commission and Eulerami stating she would begin work 5 - After messaging them about the length of time it was taking, I got an update from them 6 - Eulerami sent me a link to their progress (June 16th), but I noticed she had the wrong character and messaged them back about the issue 7 - I clearly indicated earlier what type of setting I would like (docks or woods) which were disregarded, and though I assume my reference images never went through, Eulerami also never made any clarification on the matter. However I take responsibility for not catching the issue earlier. 8 - Issue resolved; character being corrected to the right one 9 - July 23, messaged them again about how it was taking a long time and was assured it would be completed shortly 10 - July 27, Eulerami made a general post indicating that she was dropping all requests to work on her project; I received no message on this personally 11 - May 5 the following year, Eulerami opened up commissions again 12 - I messaged them reminding them of my commission and they stated they did not have my payment, despite clearly remembering having worked on it (with the whole misunderstanding) 13 - Emailed them proof of payment and told that it will be completed soon EXPLAIN: Eulerami opened up emergency commissions, and I sent her $25 in payment with the understanding that I would also get a commission. At first it was very good, communications were excellent and we were exchanging information via tumblr. I sent in my reference images, and waited for the commission. From my understanding the message never went through despite me sending it, and Eulerami never received the reference image, and instead assumed I meant a different OC than the reference I tried to send. So when a WIP came into my inbox, I wasn't aware that it was meant to be the commission until much later since the character and setting were completely different than what I had originally requested. I apologized profusely for the misunderstanding, and this time sent the reference images through email to ensure they made it through this time. After that, I stopped hearing word about the commission entirely, except when I was the one initiating contact. Again, after this brief exchange, there was a lot of silence and no word at all about what was going on and when I might be getting it other than "soon". Naturally, I was content to be patient since she was working on multiple projects, and I understand what it's like to have a lot of things to do. On July 27, 2015 (67 days after I commissioned them), Eulerami posted a message: http://eulerami.tumblr.com/post/125203723681/tiny-announcement This message was a general post, and not once did Eulerami communicate directly with me that she would be working on my commission or pausing it. After this point, I had dead silence from them about everything regarding the commission. On May 5, 2016, Eulerami posted a new message opening up commissions: http://the-sword-saint.tumblr.com/post/143919832550 I messaged them again about the status of my commission and she said she didn't remember receiving any payment for the commission, so i had to send them screenshot to remind her that she had the payment As of May 19, 2016, I have still not heard any word back on my commission or any progress yet. UPDATE (6/27/2016): Eulerami has stated she will not be finishing my commission and that she will refund me. I have yet to receive my refund. UPDATE (6/29/2016): I received a refund and the sketch of my commission (to note, Eulerami had stated she'd redone the sketch with the CORRECT character and lined it/that it was ready to color, but it was the same character as before/still incorrect), and would like to mark this as resolved. I also want to apologize, as I had messed up typing her other tumblr username and edited it from the-saint-sword to the-sword-saint to amend my error. I will update with screenshots ASAP. Our last correspondence before I received my refund. (Sorry about the additional update, I'm done now. Thanks guys!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/814455.html WHO: Fossil The Undead Artist (aka Fossil) WHERE: Mostly talked in emails. His FA is: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fossil WHAT: 4 commissions; the exact amount was removed from evidence for privacy WHEN: Started September 26th 2012 and continued on until now MY SIDE OF THE ISSUE: I had been a longtime supporter and friend to Fossil and well over time I finally was able to commission him first a tattoo for my wife at FurFright and then finally some artwork. Things had been going along smoothly until Hurricane Sandy hit. After this point it seemed things hit the fan for him which was understandable at the time. I had paid in full for four commissions and over time talked to him about it, but mostly was worried about him and seeing if he was alright; then he dropped off the grid. Below are two Dropbox Links that show proof of agreement and then payment: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/tjit34og1tuophr/Payment discussion.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/a4pnnbjwh6aq2ce/Payment Confirmation.png?dl=0 At this point I naturally did what any friend would do and waited patiently and he did come back for a moment or two and told me things were bad, but getting better. He finally finishes one of the four commissions and had even began work on the second one as far as inking goes with the third already being sketched out too. So I was confident at this point things were finally on the right track. The following links show multiple contacts and finally the first image sent and date it was sent: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/4o0w4l7diatazns/Feb 5th 2013 checkin.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/o6w9v2ro6dqo74x/Feb 18th to March 29th 2014 checkin.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/vjls76jrrlqvhxn/April 17th 2014 Checkin.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropbox.com/s/h8g03szw81gvvj4/May 14th Checkin and FIRST picture received.png?dl=0 Next, after two months, he contacts me out of the blue with progress showing two more images. One being completed with the third being sketched out: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/jbhrpgfbifw6ofi/July 21st and SECOND image with THIRD sketch.png?dl=0 He falls off the grid again; this time for good. I go to another con and asked my contacts if they had seen him and come to find out that he had moved to another state and then dropped off the grid to get some affairs in order. Now I had been in contact with him via email up to this point as well and would get the occasional "Still Alive" messages until I tried to email him again to check in on how things had progressed after he had moved, not about my art, but his own situations. This is when I found out he had deleted his email account and I received the lovely return email saying the address is no longer valid. Next shows the email confirming that his email is no longer valid: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/hy2rlzdk3u2bjgd/Email Failure.png?dl=0 Moving forward I had heard and saw he was working with Crowchild as an artist for High Tail Hall and figured that he had dropped out of that part as well given how much of a hermit Fossil had become, but after today, I have recently found out he is still indeed working with the HTH project and completely disregarded anyone else even if they paid $XXX for a set of commissions. Finally below is the screenshot on FA of Crowchild confirming that Fossil is still working with them: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9ddfuob2um2qf4r/Fossil still at HTH.png?dl=0 Two years have come and gone now; now I am not sure what to do or how to go about it because we all know how Paypal has such a small window of reporting and charging back one's account. So I guess this message is to warn others about what happened as well as getting some advice of how to tackle the sum of money, albeit not a full refund as he has finished one image and worked on two others, and how to get anything from him even if it ends up being a message of "Hey I can't do it; sorry". Also for clarification; there will be some areas that have been removed. This was done to insure the anonymous side of a third person that was involved with this in which I was getting two images as a gift for.

**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)

Amtrask reached out to me and requested I make them a plush on Nov 14th 2023. We went back and forth a bit discussing this. They wanted a plush that looked like their OC, a human named Max. I said I would do this for $250. They agreed. However they said they had issues with their bank card. I said this was fine and we agreed on split payments. Here's the story of our transaction. Amtrask commissioned a custom doll from me and has received it. They were pleased with the plush and said quote "Max finally arrived today, which was amazing and such a relief! He's gorgeous!". They also received the fabric they requested. The only request I received was to send them more of the fabric from my sewing supplies, which I never agreed to. I explained there was a misunderstanding and that I sent them fabric for their clothes. Amtrask was unable to accept this and demanded I send them more of my fabric. While making the plush, there were various stages that went through personal approval with the customer. Each step before I continued I would reach out to Amtrask and they would accept the work before I moved on. This was a long and lengthy process. I finished the body of the plush and it was approved by the customer. Then I moved onto the process of making clothes. The customer requested the clothes be made as removable so that they could play with them. Since these are handmade items, the plushies I make can definitely be cuddled and played with but they aren't suitable for rough play since they do not have safety labels or certifications. I suggested that the clothes be sewn on. They insisted I leave the clothes as is. The customer then asked if I could send the leftover material fabric so they could use it for their own personal sewing. Since we are at the stage of discussing the clothes, I thought this would be fine since the clothes did not meet their expectations, that way they could make their own clothes. I gave them a quote for the fabric and they agreed to buy it from me. It was sent and received with the plush they bought. Everything they paid for is accounted for. The only reason a claim was filed was because I did not send them more of my personal fabric, which I explained that I never agreed to do. Their next message again demanded I send them the minky fabric I used for the body. They claimed it was something I promised. Again I explained there had been a misunderstanding. This time I decided to block them as our business had been concluded. They were happy with what they received and only asked for more fabric from me where I was not going to be sending them additional fabrics. In retaliation this customer went on Etsy and began sending me aggressive messages. They begin demands for 1/3 of the payment for the plush be returned to them and the fabric they paid for to be refunded. I respond to them refusing the refund since they received the plush happily. The only problems you will see arise after I refuse to send them the remainder of my sewing supplies. I also make a request for them to stop contacting me. In retaliation for refusing the fabric and blocking them, the Paypal claim is then filed at this point. They file two separate claims against me. The first is for the fabric ($15.33) fraudulently stating that it never arrived. The second is for roughly 1/3 of the plush ($83.00) now claiming it was not as described. After I responded to the Paypal claims Amtrask sent me messages on Etsy attacking my character, questioning my character for responding to their Paypal claims. After not getting their way, Amtrask begins to refer to me by my legal name instead of my artist name. This is a tactic (in my opinion) to intimidate me. I do not go by my legal name online, I go by Starful on every platform. The only reason they have my legal name is because on Paypal it is required. I also believe Amtrask attempted to gaslight me, making me feel as though these events did not happen as I perceived them to. Except I have proof that they were satisfied and thankful during the process of creating their plush. I will also explain after I accepted the order and after Amtrask sent me several messages with revised references, they went on my Etsy store and purchased two small plushies from me. I will include those as well. This is why they decided to move to Etsy to begin harassing me after I blocked them. We had no previous communication on Etsy. This smaller order was in November. Unfortunately if you block someone on Etsy they can still continue to send you abusive messages as much as they'd like. Some additional details about our transaction. These weren't necessarily blacklist worthy to me, they just caused me a lot of unnecessary grief during the process of completing their plush order. After I accepted the commission, I explained that it would take me some time to fill. I wasn't exactly sure how long, but I explained I had other orders and that I would fill their order last. I gave an estimate but still explained I wasn't sure how long it would take. This is not the type of order I usually take after all. While I worked on other orders Amtrask began sending me their reference over and over. The pictures had very little difference between them, if at all. They would also delete their previous photo that they sent me so it was hard for me to compare. I did not save any of the reference photos to prevent myself from being confused, I have the first image they sent me as well as the final reference photo. You can decide for yourself if there are clear differences between the first and last image to warrant the amount of pings I received to my inbox. This plush was sent internationally. Amtrask requested that I upgrade the post, but it had slipped my mind at the time. After the plush was sent, there was a period where the tracking did not update for 4 days. Amtrask began to send me many messages concerned their package was taking a while and that it was lost. I reassured them to wait and apologized for not upgrading their post. I gave them the estimated date I had been given. In their response they projected their feelings onto me and were unreasonable. I tried to reassure them after this. I reached out to Etsy two days in a row on the phone calling to see if I could get information for them to comfort them. Even after the tracking was updated they expressed worry that the package would not be delivered. [removed cap was here] - admin

PLEASE NOTE: In any screen cap dated after April 4th 2019 I had moved and there is now a 5 hour time zone difference between she and I. (this means that it may seem like I am messaging very early, but for her it is 5 hours ahead of my time stamp.) I was directed to Tamsin (Tammy) via a friend from whom I was purchasing a fursuit head. I had wanted to commission matching hands/tail/arm sleeves in time for Confuzzled. Tammy and I discussed prices and materials and I agreed to pay once I got paid. (The total was 130 GBP which is about $160 USD). I paid promptly upon getting my pay check: After I sent the payment there was apparently a hold up in paypal where they wouldn't release the money to her until I marked the item as shipped with no tracking needed. I was concerned but did as she asked since I had no reason not to trust her. She specifically stated that she needed the money released so she could order the materials quicker. I had some issues come up and ended up not being able to go to CFZ (Confuzzled). Due to this I expressed that I did not need them finished by the con deadline. I was still under the impression that she had already ordered the materials because that was why she needed me to promptly release the funds into her account. After the con passed I didn't hear from her, so contacted her in order to set up a deadline. She expressed that it was a bit hard to do the deadline I suggested because of work/school. I tried to compromise and just prioritize the most important parts first. By June 14th I was starting to feel a bit ignored, as I would see them online and they would check my messages and not respond. The friend who had originally sent me to them (Cas as mentioned in screen shots) mentioned that there were some issues between the two of them at CFZ, and I became afraid that she wasn't communicating with me because of my friendship with Cas, as I had been told that she was answering other messages. I admit that my behavior was a bit pushy in these screen shots, but I have been burnt several times by fursuit builders and was feeling anxious. We agree here on a Halloween deadline and I express that I will make a new ref with the updates I had previously discussed. I make sure to mention that I absolutely must see some sort of work started in July, since they said they would probably start mid July, due to my paypal protection window. I am still fine with the Halloween completion deadline, but just need to see some sort of progress, or materials to show the project is in the works. They express they are stressed due to personal issues. Concerned that this commission is adding onto their stress, I offer to just take a refund in parts if they are no longer interested or have the motivation/time to work on the parts. At this point she starts to seem a bit aggressive, so I inquire as to her having purchased the materials in case we need to work out her shipping them to me and subtracting the cost of shipping/materials from a refund. I was told by our mutual friend that she didn't actually buy the materials, and so I requested pictures from her in order to just prove that she had bought the items needed, as that was the whole reason she asked me to release the funds, so that she could more swiftly buy the materials. At this point she makes excuses one after another on why she can't provide pictures. I give her a deadline on when I must see materials. I agree to a Wednesday deadline to see the materials that week and reiterate that she said she needed the funds to order materials promptly. At this point SHE offers the refund and expresses when her paydays are. I feel this was done because she had never bought the materials and knew she couldn't provide proof in the time frame requested. At this point I feel I am being scammed and lied to, so I agree to the refund and offer her the option of half and half payments on the 27th of each month. I leave her alone for the rest of the month until the 27th where I then message her and remind her of my email. I see her active all day and get no answer while our mutual friend confirms that she's been answering their messages. They finally respond and claim they were working and then go silent again. I get a bit snippy and let them know that I will just file a dispute if I don't get the half payment on the promised day. She finally makes time to attempt to pay me and then gets upset about paypal fees based on currency differences. I try to remedy this by adding GBP to my paypal options, but it still charges a fee, which I tell her I will cover. She sends the first half of the refund, I confirm I got it and then leave her alone until July 25th, where I just send a reminder of the email for the refund. After contacting on the 25th of July 2019, Tamsin expresses that she needs a bit of an extension on the payment time because she is at a con. I thank her for letting me know and leave her alone until the day that SHE set as the new payment day for the final half of the refund. I decided to send an invoice for the remainder to see if that would keep her from having to pay a fee on her end. She claims she can't pay and cancels the invoice. I express that I am not really wanting to wait longer, as I already extended the deadline to Monday (which was the day SHE asked for). I give in and ask her to give me a definite deadline on when she can pay. She ignores me and I wait till the next day (July 30th ) to message her again asking for a definite deadline again. She says she couldn't pay because she had bills. I express that I am unwilling to wait another month because I feel at this point she is jerking me around. (Our mutual has expressed that she' had been spending money on frivolous things, so I felt I was being jerked around and scammed.) She makes a snippy comment about "not relying on her as a source of income" and it really rubbed me the wrong way. I got extremely upset and rather argumentative, as I felt that her statement was in direct contrast to her own behavior, (taking my money and spending it at an event while not even purchasing my materials). Our conversation deteriorated quickly. She continues to claim she bought fur but cannot provide any proof (pictures, receipts, tracking on shipments, etc), and completely twists the situation to paint herself in a better light. (Claiming I wanted a refund because I was broke, when she was the one who chose a refund over just providing proof of the materials that she swears she has bought.) At this point I feel that I am being jerked around and that she has no intention of paying me at all, so I decide to take things to Paypal and open a dispute. I know due to me changing email addresses between payment to refund, that it will dispute for the full amount paid. My intention was to simply send her back the half she had refunded previously once Paypal handled the transaction if she was unwilling to work something out. She proceeds to completely go ballistic once the claim puts a hold on her account. She claims she was going to pay me aft 8 because she was waiting on our mutual friend to pay her for something. This is information that she NEVER once brought up until I filed a claim. She in fact explicitly stated that she didn't know when she'd be able to pay. I initially refuse to cancel the claim because I don't trust her at this point and know that she is a liar. I attempt to make arrangements for the mutual friend to just pay me directly but he can't, as he is doing a bank transfer to her instead of paypal. They claim they will send the money as soon as I cancel the claim and their account comes out of the negative. I make the mistake of trusting them because I am not out to hurt someone, just want what is owed me. Big mistake. I cancel the claim and she ghosts me completely. I send a couple of reminders and get nothing. Cas (the mutual) confirms later in the week that they already paid her, and I still am getting nothing from her, either messages or money. I decide to try to be nice and just leave her alone except to send a reminder on the 16th asking if I will get pair, then left her alone for the rest of August until the 27th and message her again to see if I can get this finished. As of now she has read the messages and still refuses to respond. She has been active on her Instagram (selling adopts primarily), but has failed to answer or send the money. In summary, she is a liar, a scammer, and a thief and I hope that no one else ever has to deal with her or falls for her lies. The below screen caps show her publicly available information / social media accounts so that hopefully others can avoid her.

I met Finley at AnthroCon while they were running a booth in the Dealer's Den. There were suiters attending the con in suits that Finley had made, and the tails they had on display were of good quality. We talked for a while about pricing a fullsuit, how long delivery dates were, how deep the queue was. At that point, I decided to commission a Full Digitigrade suit from them for $1600. Communication was great until December, at which basically all communication ceased. The only reason that Finley responded here was because I had 2 emails: I am open to marking this Beware as "resolved" if and when the refund has been processed on PayPal. New information as of 7/1/2019. I was promised a refund (partial in June, the rest in July). Finley has not been in contact since those promises were made. I've attached the email conversation below, and you can see comments for more info. At this point I'm forced to raise this to Beware status from it's current Caution status.

May 27, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/769814.html Who: Porter Corgi aka Little~Bit Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/thecorgi/ What: a tradition bust badge When: I commissioned the badge in 2012, was supposed to be done right away (within the week) as it was advertised as an "emergency commission" (couldn't get screen caps of the journal she posted as she deletes them often) then I got excuse after excuse, "I'm so busy" "computer/tablet broken" "I work all day, then train horses and give lessons all day. I'm trying to get your badge to you", I was then sent this link to this unpleasant digital badge, the quality was bad, it looked messy, pixel-y, rushed and not her art style at all, I reminded her I asked for traditional, she apologized and said she'd fix it no problem. The excuses continued. I then had to leave FA for a while because my account was hacked, I looked for her often, and tried to contact her multiple times, for a while she was gone doing stuff in armed forces, and then she was "done with FA forever" as seen on her old account http://www.furaffinity.net/user/little~bit/ I finally joined FA again this year 2014, over 2 years later. Since I joined I've been contacting her, 3 months ago I noted her about the long overdue badge, with the warning I was thinking about posting on artists beware, she apologized a lot and said she'd get it to me asap. It's been 3 months since she's said this. Proof: I don't have screenshots from my old account but these are the conversations we've had since I re joined http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/162C47C0-FCA0-4362-B493-F4B4BCA0D1CD_zps489xrvjh.png.html?sort=3&o=4 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/469ED320-CB6D-4224-B845-63869D0D2E50_zps7nxziwvl.png.html?sort=3&o=1 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/D6095F5B-86A1-4E31-B0C9-3DB138AC42A0_zpsn3jcovau.png.html?sort=3&o=2 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/F35A5704-3FDB-4B3E-97E4-76B24698748C_zpsu6llokgr.png.html?sort=3&o=3 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/F4C79565-D2A9-4C69-9AD9-B76550D2B744_zpspqvonhli.png.html?sort=3&o=0 Explain: I've been trying to get this badge from her for over 2 years now, I'm so upset because I used to look up to her, I loved her art so much now I just want my badge so I never have to talk to her again. Apparently I'm rude for asking for my overdue art because she's doing charitable things. But I paid her to do this, you need to take your job as an artist seriously. Since I've been complaining she's posted this journal http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5708600/ (sounds like I'm not the only one she's ripped off" saying "I have so much way overdue art I'm never doing commissions again unless I really want to" I hope she doesn't because I don't want someone else going through what I did from someone I used to think was so cool, and used to look up to. I'm very upset about this and I wish she'd see that. I don't think I'm ever going to get this badge, I'm going to talk to her about getting my money back. She's rarely on FA and always takes a few days to respond to me. I can't get screenshots of our notes in 2012 as my account was hacked and the password was changed.

For privacy concerns, I have censored my username on these images. Around October/November 2021, I had discovered Mayo1nomor1 while browsing for some artwork & had decided to message them on furAffinity first to ask if they were open for commissions. They said yes, and we agreed to move it to Discord afterwards. Unfortunately, I no longer have proof of this as I have since then deleted the PMs from fA, but I had asked the artist on furAffinity how long they generally took to finish artwork. They replied saying no more than 8 days. (This will be important later) I sent them my commission details for what I wanted—two flat-colored pin-ups of an OC of mine, of which I paid $100 in total. 1st pic was a thigh-up pin-up, and second pic was a bust-up pin-up. Commission details were sent on 11/09/2021, and on that same day I paid for the commission—the artist later got back to me hours later with WIP sketches of the first pin-up, of which we were discussing what to change on it and whatnot. The 1st pin-up was essentially finished on 11/10/2021, one day after I had paid for it—though it was finished, there were some slight coloring errors I noticed that I told them about on the same day the pin-up was sent and finished. One of said errors was fixed in a new version that was sent on 11/13/2021, however I had noticed the other error was still unfixed so I let them know about it and provided them with a custom edit I made to demonstrate what & how exactly it should be fixed. Nothing unusual here. This is where it begins... Admittedly, I may have acted a bit impatient here, but it had been 8 days since I commissioned the artist and I hadn't received an update back on what I wanted to be fixed. So I asked if they had gotten the chance to fix that coloring error on the 1st pic, and if they had also been able to start on the 2nd pic. 11/22/2021. Still nothing. The artist had been posting lots of new artwork pics and adoptables on their Twitter profile since the last time I messaged them (11/13/2021), so I asked once again about the commission. Reminded them about what they told me in regards to how long it'd take to finish a commission, and also asked if there were any hold-ups preventing them from continuing further. I finally got a reply back on 12/07/2021. Artist had finally fixed the coloring error I mentioned and apologized for the delay. They didn't answer my question about the "hold-ups", so I asked once again, to which they told me they had been struggling to get work going due to issues they were having with their laptop. Anyways, the 2nd pin-up was all that was left, so this is what I was currently waiting for at this moment. January had come by and I hadn't gotten back any more updates from the artist since 12/07/2021. As seen in the pic above, I messaged them on 1/12/2022 for more updates on the commission. Artist continues to post more artwork on their profile, so at the very least I was aware that they weren't inactive or anything. Sent them another message on 2/08/2022. At this point it had practically almost been 3 months since I paid them the money for the commission. Still no response. The pic above is the last message I sent to the artist, on 2/14/2022. Originally I had planned on waiting one more month before deciding to ask for a refund, but I dug through Twitter that day and found out that the artist seemingly had a history of ghosting their customers the same way I was being ghosted here. Having known that, I send a message to the artist stating that I no longer had any interest in the 2nd pin-up and wanted to request a refund for it. The artist still hadn't replied back hours later, so at this point I decided to dispute it with PayPal and escalate the issue over to them. Thankfully I won the case and got a refund for that 2nd undelivered pin-up. I have since then unfriended the artist on Discord and ceased communications with them. Although I got my refund, I still STRONGLY recommend you do not work with this person under any circumstances whatsoever. I would've been more than happy to continue supporting the artist via more commissions but I can't really justify that anymore, given how I had been treated here throughout the entire ordeal.

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.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/829508.html It's really disheartening to have to come forward with this report, but after having patience and trying to negotiate with the artist, I have begun to feel like I had no choice on this matter, especially after many people have instructed me to come forward. I apologize for this post being very long; I wanted to make sure I included all the details I possibly could. Who/Where: Fursuit Maker: Frostcat-Studio / Ritz_Bitz / Ritz_Tweeting When I originally considered looking into getting my first fursuit, I had only heard of this maker through the recommendation of a mutual friend. From looking at their gallery, they seemed to have very nice work and I was given the impression that they could provide me with similar work. What: One Partial Fursuit ($1200) I had originally contacted Ritz for a fursuit in June of 2014 and on June 27th we agreed to a price of $1200 to make my partial, which included a large tail and also a set of wings. Here you can see Ritz had offered to add a magnetic feature to the wings so they could be worn under a shirt with a harness and I was charged and extra $170 for this addition. ->The email can be viewed here <- (Our conversation is very casual as we had been united through a mutual friend) On September 20th 2014, I confirmed my slot and placed my 50% down payment. -> Link for Proof <- (Ritz real name has been blanked) Then, on November 25th 2014 I paid my remaining $600. (The screen shot shows a total of an additional $1200 as I also paid off the remaining $600 on the mutual friend's balance to help them out. That amount is not related to my entry) -> Link for final Payment Proof <- Explain: At first, Ritz kept very good communication when working on my fursuit and seemed interested in making it "just right". She replied to my inquires often and kept reliable contact with me, even sending me work in progress images from time to time. While I would get pictures, I never really was sure what I was looking at in terms of what she had been doing; I was never given any explanation and was issued vague descriptions, which is possibly my fault for not speaking up on but I had never commissioned a suit before and felt I should place my trust in the maker to do their job. The first red flag that came to me was when she would inquire about my second payment and instead of contacting me directly, she would ask the mutual friend to remind me on her behalf. This really struck me as odd given the mutual friend was not working for Ritz and my contact information was established prior. I ended up ignoring my gut on this issue given the mutual friend was close to both of us and since this was a friendly transaction, I considered it to just be another casual aspect of the entire affair. Ritz proposed the completion date (By Further Confusion 2015) and said that having it complete by this time would be no issue, so I planned to attend this convention so I could have a good time fursuiting for the first time. Overall, the anticipation building for this costume was immense as I would be flying in from Florida to attend the convention in California just to have a chance to wear it for the first time. On January 4th (approximately 10 days before the convention), I was shown images of my completed fursuit via Twitter and Skype. The images were not close ups or anything, so from first appearances I was excited. While it wasn't the quality I had expected, I was still excited to have a costume regardless. I should take responsibility for my qualms with the quality as when browsing her gallery I had not noticed the suits that stood out to me were all built on headbases made by other fursuit makers when mine would be built from scratch; That being said my expectations for what I would receive were not completely accurate and it was my fault for not researching further. Regardless, I told her I was happy with it visually and was eager to wear a fursuit for the first time. Overtime, I ended up coming into a disagreement with the mutual friend who had connected Ritz and I for the commission and we began to grow apart. I didn't think it would effect my commission with Ritz in anyway, but later on I would find it was quite the opposite. (This is only important to note as it will become relevant later on.) Originally, the suit was going to be shipped to the mutual friend and delivered to me at the convention however due to (what I can only assume to be) rising tension, the mutual friend opted not to deliver the costume to me. Given I was flying in from across the country, I asked a friend from Southern California to have it shipped to them instead since they would be driving to the convention. The friends who ended up having the fursuit shipped to them did not open the box in any way until they found me at the convention and I opened it myself. January 15th When I made it to the convention, I met up with my friends from Southern California (I was also rooming with them) and they had my fursuit box in the hotel room waiting for me. At first glace, I was already very upset. The box was very poorly packaged and looked very ragged. I would have thought it could have been mangled by the postal service but it seemed the degrading box was actually taped up in areas where it was falling apart and that tape was laid beneath the original packing where the shipping information was. It was very clear that Ritz reused a battered and trashed box to ship my $1200 product and my concern began to grow before I had even seen the costume. Upon opening the box, the first thing that was staring at me was a foot paw that was falling apart. The box had just been opened and the suit was already damaged in quite visible ways. Thankfully, I had a room full of witnesses that helped me gather pictures of the unboxing. Here is a visual collection of the damages that we discovered. -> The footpaws were separating from the shoes (That I had to purchase myself and ship to her) before they were ever worn. -> The bottom Jaw and horns were crooked and the head was barely foamed so it would lose it's shape when not worn. -> The seam in the fur on the direct center of the muzzle was popped despite never having been worn yet. -> The balaclava was not attached with only a few tiny dabs of hot glue and separated from the foam and also has various holes in it. -> In fact, the Balaclava had MANY holes in it. -> The fur on the hand paws was poorly shaved and some of the claws were upside down. -> The shave job was uneven and jagged. -> And in some places, the fur was shaved all the way down to the backing. Now, as you can imagine, I was not very pleased to open the box and discover the suit was in such a mess after never being worn. Some of the mistakes I saw were very common from beginner suit makers however I was given the impression that Ritz was NOT a new maker and had enough experience to warrant the $1200 price tag (which could buy a partial from many makers who would not have made these mistakes). On top of all these issues, I discovered that the set of wings I had ordered for this costume did not feature any magnetic attachments at all. Instead, the wings were sewn directly into a harness made from elastic straps, making it impossible to wear them without having the harness worn on top of my clothes. This was also very upsetting given Ritz had offered to make this feature for me and charged me an additional $170 for it, yet never once mentioned to me during the construction process that they would no longer be doing the magnet idea. I immediately decided to contact Ritz as she was at the convention and perhaps she could do enough quick fixes so I could at least wear my fursuit; I did fly in from across the country just to wear it around afterall. I didn't mind waiting on fixing the other issues, but I at least wanted some help fixing the shoes. I decided to contact our mutual friend to get in touch with Ritz because I had no other way to reach her at the time. We met up and I explained what the problems were and she agreed to get the feet fixed. We went to Ritz's hotel room and she did a quick hot glue job on the paws with me standing there. It was not very thorough but it seemed like it was enough to keep them together for the time being. I also had the chance to ask about the missing magnets and she explained that there were no magnets strong enough to hold the wings in place (which isn't true since you can order some that can hold up to 75lbs!) so she opted to sew them to the harness without informing me to meet the tight deadline. After Ritz "fixed" the feet, I went back to my hotel room and decided to wear my suit as it was to try and enjoy the convention. The next morning, I went to participate in the fursuit parade and that was when the fur on my foot paws began to separate again; this time on both feet. Additionally, the buckram connected to the plastic to make the eyes began to separate and peel from the plastic. This was also when I noticed that the plastic has been hastily cut and there were strands of of debris going into the space where my actual eyes were. After the parade, I found Ritz again to show her what was happening with my brand new suit and she seemed very disinterested in my issues. When I brought attention to the issue with the eye popping out, both Ritz and the mutual friend (whom was with her the entire con) began to give me sass and snark about not being "too rough" with the costume then walked off without making any attempt to help me with the situation. I was pretty appalled at this reaction given I paid so much money for a costume to wear and was basically being told not to wear it if I didn't want it to fall apart. I had been just wearing the suit like any normal person would, I wasn't jabbing the eyes in with my finger or anything for goodness sake. It was at this point the mutual friend decided to get involved and began sending me text messages that said I was being rude and "mean" to Ritz for contacting her about these issues and the issues in question were not her fault. Why was the suit maker's friend getting involved and handling this situation? This had nothing to do with them so why were they acting as a messenger for Ritz? At this point, I was given the very strong impression that Ritz no longer wanted to provide me with any help for the costume, so in order to make it wearable I asked for the help of my friends (I was rooming with) to help me do minor repairs. I was forced to go out and buy a glue gun and ask a friend to cut time from her convention experience to keep the suit intact. During the time we spent fixing it, we also began to see even more issues with the craftsmanship. -> The zipper on the back of the head was glued to the fur instead of sewn and began to separate. -> The horns were discovered to have no foam to anchor them, explaining why they were crooked. I think the majority of my convention time was spent with a friend trying to repair this costume. We were absolutely sure not to modify anything, just attempt to repair the poor craftsmanship. After a certain point, my friend explained to me that we should stop repairing it all together because the state it was in just couldn't be saved at a convention. I attempted to contact Ritz once more via twitter DMs to try and show her the state of the suit before the end of the convention but she unfortunately decided to start ignoring me. I was polite and kind because I wasn't mad as much desperate to fix these issues. It was such a frustrating experience because I just wanted some resolution for this costume that I spent a large sum of money on and the person who sold it to me made me feel like they had zero concern for the situation now that the money was already in their hands. To make things worse, a few hours later Ritz began tweeting about me to try and detract from my issues, implying that I was picking on them because I had a disagreement with the mutual friend. This was just the end to my willingness to work with this fursuit maker anymore and I ended up sitting in tears while friends comforted me. One of my friends began discussing things with Ritz on twitter because it very strongly felt that she would not be dealing with me beyond this point and Ritz began stating that the problems with the costume were not actually there nor her fault and began to explain that the situation had very much been influenced by my falling out with the mutual friend. My friend then decided to take the conversation with her in private and they discussed the situation because Ritz still would not talk directly to me. During the private conversation with my friend, Ritz admitted to rushing my fursuit and stated that she could not afford to refund the costume but would work out a plan after the convention to make things right. She also stated that it was "shitty" or me to not want repairs at this point and called it unreasonable. I may be unreasonable for not wanting repairs, but I don't trust this individual with my money anyone given these problems would not exist if the care needed was put in to begin with not to mention the constant avoidance with my problems. I did not feel this person wanted to fix things correctly. After Ritz had conversation with my friend, it was decided that after the convention she would absolutely talk to me about the problems with the costume and find a resolution. (I can provide screen shots of this entire conversation if necessary, however I opted to leave them out initially as so my friend would not be dragged into the issue. I firmly believe this should have stayed between Ritz and myself and the constant involvement from third parties has really caused more drama than needed.) January 20th (2015) Two days after the convention, Ritz contacts me on Skype and begins trying to work out a situation from the suit. She begins by offering me two options; One is to send the suit back for repairs or I can send the suit to be stripped and turned into a different character that she can sell. She tells me that I can not be refunded 30% of the fursuit cost as the cost of the materials can not be returned. Despite finding that option to be very unfair (given I would be returning the suit to her so she could recoup her losses and the reason for refund was not a cancellation but rather the product was broken and the fault was hers), I agreed and stated that after all that had happened and the personal involvement of her friend causing tension I did not want it refurbished; I just wanted a refund. She also explains to me that she -can not refund me at all- until I return the suit and she resells it, thus leaving my money weighing on the uncertainty of weather or not the suit sells and if it does, would it sell for the $800 she says I am owed? She insists she will not refund money until I send the suit back, however that was understandable and we agreed. She also mentions at the same time that she will send $200 refund in "good faith" (that I have never since seen). I am kind and understanding with her and even apologetic for the situation that unfolded despite being at no fault myself. I wanted to make things right and I felt bad that she had spent the last few days tweeting about never wanting to make suits again. I felt guilty for the distress I put her through so I even said I would think about letting her repair the suit after she pushed that option on me constantly (despite saying I did not want it). She additionally admits to her friend's presence having effected her business with me and even the way she treated me as a customer, which sent even more red flags to me, but she genuinely seemed like she wanted to make things right so I did my best to return it. Her main concern throughout the entire conversation was her name and reputation, which seemed very off-putting given I felt her main concern should have been to fix the situation with my costume. -> Conversation can be found here <- January 30th (2015) About ten days after our conversation, I gave Ritz my final decision. I took note to how stressed she was over the decision and gave her time to come down from the ordeal. I politely explained to her that I did not feel comfortable sending her the suit and waiting for her to resell it before I would receive any money. I stated that I would gladly return the suit after I was refunded and left it at that. -> Link to Conversation <- The Next day, Ritz replies to me stating that she can not refund me for the amount I am owed until I return the suit in parts for her to resell and asks for a week to figure something out. She explains that she will use her tax refund to pay me the money I am owed and I reassure her that I can wait for a refund as long as it needs to be. My main concern is still that I do not want to return the goods until I am compensated for them. This is when her contact slows to a grinding halt. She openly begins to dodge my communication and puts me on the back burner and does not contact me in any way unless I put an effort into contacting her. February 12th I end up contacting her as it has been nearly two weeks since her last contact with me. Again, I am civil and I calmly ask what the game plan is for the situation. On February 14th I get a reply in which she states that her tax refund was small and she would not be able to refund me from that money. She also goes back on her word in stating that she would refund me and takes an aggressive tone, calling our agreed upon solution to be "unfair" and says that my failure to trust her is preventing me from getting my money back. Now, I'm going to throw some personal opinion in here but...how am I being unfair? She agreed to refund me and suddenly is changing her tune and even going as far as to insinuate that this situation is my fault for "not trusting her". The problem is, I already trusted her with $1200 to deliver a product to me in functioning order. She not only failed to do that, but she also insulted me, ignored me and went as far as to try and claim her faulty craftsmanship (which she admitted to) was -my- fault. Yes, I do not trust her with giving me my money back and I will not relinquish the costume until I am given a refund. I am not asking for both the suit and a refund, I am asking to be compensated -before- I give up the costume. The artist's financial issues are not my concern, what is my concern is the money that she had taken from me and will not return. -> This reply can be viewed here <- She has dodged contact with me and has put me in a situation where I am not sure if I am going to have this situation resolved. On February 17th, I contacted her asking for her to talk to me when I was online as I didn't enjoy playing message tag when the subject was so important. I tried once more on the 18th to reach out and beg for conversation on the topic and reaffirmed my stance about her taking back the product to resell. I even went as far as to offer my phone number to try and resolve the issue but she had left me in the dark, all while spending time on twitter and talking to other people on skype. I am fully aware I am being ignored and it's gotten to the point where I am getting ready to file a charge back on paypal if this doesn't get resolved soon. -> Proof of contact attempts <- (screen shots were taken on 2/18/2015) 2/21 - Ritz contacted me in response to my final message in which I explained that I felt that I didn't believe it was fair to charge me for materials when I would be returning the suit for her to recoup that loss and because the issue with the costume was not due to cancellation or error on my end. I admit that I did change my mind in terms of the refund I was willing to accept though the advice of many friends and other artists swayed my mind. I did agree that taking a partial refund for having zero product on an issue that was no fault of my own felt very wrong, but I may be out of line for having brought that up and changing my stance I take responsibility for that. She responded aggressively, again cursing at me and using profanity. I was given a "final option" in which I was told I will wait until she gets her tax refund after I return the broken merchandise she had given me before I will receive any financial compensation. I don't feel that this is ever a way an artist or suit maker should ever talk to or treat a client, but maybe I am bitter and misinterpreted her reply as more rude than it actually was. I politely asked her to calm down because her abrasive reply felt very flustered and asked her to give me a phone call so we can figure things out. She explains that she can't handle phone calls due to anxiety so despite it being a difficult work around for me (my work generally keeps me very busy) I understand her position and tell her I can easily wait for her to finish helping a friend move out. She asks me if I would "actually want to resolve this civilly" which struck me as rude given I don't feel I have been anything but? - > Conversation <- As of now, it is 2/27/15 and we have not resolved the issue at all. I feel like I am constantly being fed excuses, ignored and just treated very poorly in general and as a customer that paid $1200 for a costume that is barely wearable, I feel like this shouldn't be the case? I just feel like I'm stuck in a run around and I can't help but think I'm not doing the wrong thing? This is the first time I've ever commissioned a fursuit so perhaps my inexperience is what keeps this situation from being resolved? I'd be happy to take fault if I knew what I was doing wrong! I'm hoping that in posting this entry, I can warn people about this maker's shady business practices, lack of professionalism and lack of concern for their customers. I'm also hoping this may be the final nudge needed to get Ritz to acknowledge me and resolve the situation before I file for a charge back on Paypal. $1200 is quite a sum of money to be over drafted and I would absolutely prefer not to financially break this artist. I just want resolution, I want her to give me a game plan and show concern for the situation and give me a refund for the broken product she gave me. EDIT: 3/4/2015 On the day this entry had been posted, Ritz returned from attending an Anime convention and contacted me. She has posted the caps herself below, however just to be sure, here is the gist of what was said: -> Conversation <- While yes, she did offer to refund me $800, she also went on to bring up unexpected bills she mentioned on twitter and debts which made me feel extremely guilty in accepting any money from her when her personal life needed the money so much more. As I have said countless times, I am not out to be a bully in any way; I just want a refund for the broken costume I was given. Later in the day while I was at work, Ritz confronts me on skype with this: I wasn't even aware the entry had been posted at that point as I was on patrol at work (I am a police officer) and she begins getting aggressive on me, stating that she thought this was resolved and saying she was insulted. For one thing, this post was made days prior when I had not yet received any contact, secondly I would never consider this issue to be revolved until the money is in my hands and the fursuit was in hers. At this point, she offers me a NDA Contract because she no longer "trusts" me for having made this entry. Ritz is well aware that I have now requested a full $1200 for my refund because as others have mentioned here, I should not take a material cost loss when the issues with the transaction were not my own. The contract is incredibly damaging for me in which is states that I am unable to speak of the event in public or to third parties and states that Ritz may deduct from my refund if she is unable to sell the broken suit she crafted. I have screen capped the contract issued to me (I had to censor our names) and would like AB's input. -> The NDA/Contract I was offered <- (Ritz is the first party where as I am the second) I do not feel comfortable having to sign a contract to have the money I am owed returned to me; I feel like this is a form of blackmail in order to try and silence me if I want the money I am owed back, furthermore the amount offered is not what I am requesting. I want a full refund and that is what I am standing firm on, especially if Ritz is going to refurbish and sell the broken merchandise I was sold. I do not feel fit signing a binding legal agreement that states I am unable to make "any other online postings about the other party" I am additionally saddened by Ritz response here in the community claiming I have falsified any documentation in this entry and went as far as to accuse me of Libel and Slander within the proposed contract. I have not fabricated any of the content within this journal nor would I have had to should I received a functioning product to begin with. I also asked a few friends to review the contract that was presented to me, to which Ritz stated I should never do unless I approach a lawyer. I am in disbelief I was scolded for asking for input before signing a binding legal contract and that made me feel like Ritz knowingly attempted to shaft me. Additionally, while discussing the public image Ritz has gained from this entryI was suddenly confronted with Ritz's fiance (who could not bother to spell my name correctly). I expressed to him that I have no interest in talking to him about the transaction and want Ritz to be present. She returns and demands I resolve this tonight -> Conversation <- At this phase, I am done playing games with Ritz. I am tired of being treated like a bully or a bad guy when I have done all I can to be agreeable and helpful with this situation. My job requires a very taxing amount of my time and I can't be bothered to jump through hoops anymore. I have issues Ritz a final statement and that is where I am leaving it. I will not be accepting any amount under the original $1200 I have paid and if a resolution is not reached within the week, I will be filing a charge back OR if that fails I will be taking legal action. Ritz has proven to me that her reputation takes precedence above her clients and that is why I can not be bothered to be involved in her personal financial matters or give leniency anymore. -> My final statement to her about the matter <- At this point, this issue is not resolved despite Ritz claiming it to be so on social media. Edit 2: Ritz has now hidden her twitter from public view due to her initiating issues with people discussing this entry and claiming she was harassed. I do not support anyone causing her trouble on social media and I have not encouraged any of that behavior. Edit 3: Approximately one hour after I had amended this entry with the NDA they proposed to me, Ritz contacted me again and negotiated a refund. Her reply was as unprofessional as the rest and was of course not without an attempted guilt trip. She assumed my commentary about conventions and ski trips were about money when in reality it was about her lack of contact with me (in the cases where I was told she was too busy to negotiate with me). After accusing me of harassment and reminding me about her tax refund, I was asked to give her my paypal and complied. Despite constantly being told that she could not afford to refund me in full, I was suddenly sent the full amount of $1200. This left me a bit unsettled, however I wasn't going to ask any more when I got what I had requested. I have informed her that I would alter the entry and mark the situation as resolved. I will also be shipping the fursuit back to her this week and will edit the entry one last time to prove I have made good on my end of the bargain. I want to thank the Artist's Beware community for it's insight and help on dealing with this situation. This community is a valuable resource and I am glad to have been able to use it. As far as this entry goes, while it is now resolved I would still consider it a more than valid beware. I think the entry speaks for itself and down to the very end this maker could not handle a professional attitude. I also want to note that this suit will be refurbished and relisted for sale, so buyer beware in the future. I am very disappointed that things between this maker and I had to come to this. I was very polite and willing to work with them to accommodate their own situations if they would help me with mine and that refusal just made it impossible. Ultimately, it was not the desire to right a wrong that got me my refund, it was the desire to salvage their reputation that finally made a nearly two month long ordeal come to a close. If the maker had just shown the same concern for me as a client as they did for their reputation, this post wouldn't have had to be made. EDIT: 3/6/2015: The fursuit has been shipped to Ritz. I can provide a tracking number to the entry if needed and also visual documentation was taken to provide proof the suit was shipped in the most protective way possible, including the individual parts being bagged to prevent weather damage to eliminate any claims proper care was not taken.

Communication occurred on Discord after we contacted each other on an art commissions server. We agreed on a set of 12 emotes of the client's original characters. I had completed 11 of them and this specific transaction is concerning the very last emote I had owed. Our transaction was initially paid for by April 20, 2021 and completed by May 1, 2021, while the last emote was paid for by June 28, 2021. It is worth noting that this client was also a friend of mine at the time, so keep this in mind when looking at our screenshots. My work ethic after the first set of commissions is not acceptable, I am willing to owe up to having not provided wips or relevant business communication regarding the final emote until recently. I want to be transparent that I am not a fully innocent in this situation, however the client's behavior due to this incident is the reason I am reporting for accountability. Prior to/included in the original transaction were 11 emotes paid for by April 20, 2021 which were finished by May 1, 2021. Along with this, I was paid for commercial rights for the emotes to be used for their server. After this set of commissions we had agreed upon a final commission, which was the 12th emote. We agreed upon this by June 28, 2021; and it was paid for on the same day. In the middle of that existing commission by May 30, 2021 I was also commissioned to draw a profile picture. This was completed while having the emote commission in the background. Said client had messaged me on December 14, 2021 attempting to confront me about claims of other people that I have asked them for money and have not compensated them. Our interaction ended in the following screenshots. I cannot provide proof for claims of others that Tyrian contacted them as the ones who I have testimonies from consented against their names and screenshots being used. After this confrontation I refunded the client his money for the emote in full. The refunded money was then sent back to me with the following comment "It's not about the money, keep it." We had one final discussion before I blocked the client for my own safety and began writing this post. I also received this message on Twitter today at 2 AM, December 21, 2021. Having sent the screenshots of our conversation to a friend, said friend messaged this client on December 19, 2021 without respecting my wishes for them to not contact the client. I do not condone this behavior, but it is what transpired. In light of the event I upgraded my PayPal account to protect my privacy and also hid my public waitlist for the sake of me and my clients. I am unsure on what to do with the 30 USD which was sent back to me, as I am worried that this money will be sent back to me a second time. I overall advise fellow artists to not receive commissions from this individual. ----- This is the start of the problem transaction ---- Post-Confrontation Address: Block-Evading via Twitter: [Mod Note: Former client continues to use TNR's artwork via discord, and is erroneously claiming theft via their profile]

I ordered 10 YCH's (1 in May and 9 in June), as well as multiple PWYW arts (in their now deleted discord server) from Brokenvocaloid between May and June of 2019. I ended up only recieving one of the PWYW pieces during an art stream they did, while all the YCH's as well as another PWYW were left undelivered. All of the undelivered art came to be worth $435 (though I was only able to find proof of $360 of that during my request for a refund, which was my own fault in not thinking to maintain recipts as I was completely new to the commissioning scene at the time and never thought to do so.) I requested a refund and only ever recieved $25 of the $360 I requested back. I was also asked at one point to give them $25 as they needed help with money, though at the time I didn't even have $10 in my account, I still gave them $5 because back then I was naive and just wanted to help. I realize that I was far too passive during the whole encounter and let them get away with too much. I was far too passive in general back then and it's something I had to learn the hard way. But even so, they shouldn't have taken advantage of that. I never received any more correspondence from them after this and eventually gave up. I'm not sure if they are still active online anymore, since they're constantly changing accounts, but just in case I felt it was important to share.

In September of 2023 I contacted koenvgraphics with an inquiry to get a logo made. I was quoted $700 for the logo, including a few revisions. I indicated that I wanted to proceed with the commission, and was directed to pay via Wise. I made the payment, and had been told to expect three weeks for turnaround time. In November of 2023 I emailed koenvgraphics asking for an update on my commission. This email was ignored. Meanwhile, I would regularly see koenvgraphics posting pictures of other icons they had made. I then sent them a message via twitter, which was again ignored. Eventually, in February of 2024, I responded to one of their twitter posts with an inquiry about my commission. I was immediately contacted. Koenvgraphics stated they had been going through a really hard time (understandable) and said they would still do the logo if I wanted. I indicated that I still wanted the logo and they agreed to do it. A few days after they agreed to do the logo again, they messaged me stating they were sick and asking that I understand why they haven't made it yet. I tell them that it's ok, and go back to patiently waiting. At this point it is March and koenvgraphics continues to post and repost various icons to twitter, but I have heard nothing else from them. I feel like they have intentionally scammed me. I post again a few times (admittedly in anger, and probably not the best way to handle the situation) under their posts once more. This time, I'm asking for a refund. My posts go ignored. I then send a direct message via twitter asking for a refund, which is again, ignored. I do acknowledge that I probably should have sent them another private message first, before jumping to posting publicly. However, they did take my money and then not do the work, and they have been at least keeping up the appearance that they are continuing to work.

Who: Holomouse Where: https://x.com/MouseHolo When: Apr 1st, 2021 & April 9th 2021 What: 2 digital art commissions This has dragged on for almost 3 years due to a combination of life happenings, and the fact that I was on my way out of things I had been involved with for almost a decade, and it sat on the back of my mind for a long time because of that. No WIPS were ever shown to me after multiple claims that they would be done. Initially this was for a 2 character NSFW MLP commission, but subsequent offers were made that I accepted (regretfully). Much of the details of things are blacked out to maintain my privacy as best I can. My first commission inquiry was in March 2021, and I initially made contact on Discord to ask if they could provide with quotes so I could get the money to pay them with later: After that exchange, they provided a quote of $135 for a two fullbody character piece, and I told them that I would get back to them after my next paycheck: On April 1st 2021, I paid for the first commission: Proof of payment: On April 5th, Holomouse messaged me on Discord asking me for $20 and said they would pay me back in a few days. They cited personal matters stressing them out and needing some help. This is unrelated to the art I paid for, but I did end up giving them $20 as a gesture of kindness. This also started the trend of Holomouse coming to me in private begging for handouts and money, and this happened multiple times: On April 9th 2021, Holomouse messaged me on Discord and begged for money, but this came with the offer of another 2 character art piece at a discounted rate of $110. I accepted this offer and sent the payment to them on CashApp. Told them I would give them the commission prompt after they completed the first commission: Proof of 2nd payment: On April 16th, 2021, the first commission had no progress, but I gave them the prompt for the second commission: April 20th, 2021, Holomouse begged me for another $50, and I declined. On April 28th, 2021, I poked Holomouse on Discord to try and see if any progress was made on the commissions. They sent back with an excuse: May 7th 2021, Holomouse came to me and said that they would be starting work on my commissions soon, but also begged for $25 at the same time: The next day on May 8th, they sent me a big message with a screenshot of a note that mentioned paying me back and other personal matters that they needed to tend to: Another 20 days pass, and there is no progress to show. Holomouse messages me and begs for money again, and shares an image of their bank account being in the negative as an attempt to manipulate me into sending them money. I declined: Another week passes, and Holomouse comes to me wanting to reconfirm the details of the commissions. I told them to scrap the details of the 1st commission and that I would give them a new prompt. Also told them to take the prompt of the 2nd commission and work on that one first. I would give them details for the 2nd after the first one was completed: On June 17th 2021, I poked them and gave them details of the prompt for the commission idea that was scrapped. It took them another 2 weeks to respond to this message: Now we jump to December 27th 2021. I poke them on Discord for an update and did not get a reply for another week. Things started to get very chaotic after this point, so my attempts at keeping up with this matter become much more delayed going forward: On February 11th, 2022 I messaged them and asked when they would be able to start working on the commissions. I got a response, but it was another fake out: Another 3 months passed, and on May 26th 2022 I poked them to try and get an update. This went nowhere: We get to September 21st 2022 and I poked them yet again. Took them 3 days to respond, and also went nowhere: More time passes and this sits for months with no updates. On February 12th 2023, Holomouse sends to me and says that they will be starting soon, and also wanted me to reconfirm what I had wanted. Blacked out section was a Discord screenshot of previous exchanges between the two of us: I changed the prompts for the art I wanted from Holo, and gave them references so they could start working. The references and details of these prompts are blacked out to maintain my privacy: Several months pass after this, and after confronting them on twitter I was mad because they had taken commissions and completed them several times in the times that I was waiting for the art that I paid them to do. They had deleted Twitter posts of their offerings, and also posts of them begging for money to the public. This is a screenshot of me responding to a deleted post of them offering new commissions to their followers. Note the username that it is a reply to: I had already contacted their other customers and clients that Holo had completed work for, and also clients that had waited for months for Holo to do art for them. There were several others affected, but this post is about my experience with Holomouse and not theirs. Needless to say, it was a big problem. After confronting on Twitter, this moved to Discord in private. They try to tell me that they will be starting to work on the art soon, and I was having none of that. This all went down on September 14th 2023. At the same time, I was trying to be merciful and set up a way for them to work with me and make it easier on themselves. They could pay me back partially with some art, pay fully in art, or pay me back fully. In their replies they mention that they owed back $2000 to other customers... We set up a payment plan to pay me back $300, and Holo also took an extra step and said they would fulfill the art while paying back the money they owed me: The next day, I gave them a prompt for art they said they would do as repayment: 3 days later they message and ask for a few clarifying details, and I provide those: September 23rd 2023, I message them asking if they will be sending the first $50 as a part of the payment plan, and I received an excuse: I message again after another jump in time, and get a delayed response: On November 16th 2023, I finally get the first $50 back: After this, I continue to get ghosted, and so I gave them an ultimatum after discovering from one of their other customers that they refunded them $95. The whole time I was coordinating with other clients of theirs to try and pressure them at the same time as one another, but this did not work out. Holomouse had already started to pay me back, and then decided to tell me that they are prioritizing other clients money before mine. I informed them that I would be making a beware post to this site, and they acknowledged this. As of now, they still owe me back $250, and they have scrubbed their Twitter account of recent examples of begging and some posts of commission offers. There are screenshots of many of these posts, but they have a fuzzy time format so they do not hold much merit. Holomouse has started to become active again on Twitter and has also started to stream on Twitch. I still want my money back and it will hopefully make its way back to me eventually. Holomouse is still likely going to continue to beg for money on Twitter, Twitch, and in private, but I hope this makes it clear how irresponsible and manipulative they are.

A client named Garyolah7 didn't pay me after I finish the commission So I do the WIP, although I hardly understand what the client want Some day later, the client suddenly want naked variation as well The client didn't pay me after I almost done, and instant block me.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/958083.html WHO: Ignri on FA WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ignri/ WHAT: Digital art. $180 commission with alternate versions and additional background through my moving fundraiser. WHEN: June 14th (6/14/17), and ongoing EXPLAIN: User commissioned me for a commission through my moving fundraiser. After they approved the sketch, they decided to get a partial refund to buy a similar commission elsewhere to “save money.” After the conversation, I told them I would be giving them their refund in 2-3 business days after the money transferred back into my account from my bank, but they filed a dispute against the invoice and refused to let me properly refund them for the commission when the funds became available. The user approached me wanting to get a commission through my moving fundraiser with an alternate version and a background added to the piece. He sent in an order form with all of his information for the commission, and I reviewed it and quoted him the price of the commission on June 14. He agreed to the price and paid it same-day. FA note commission quote and agreement: https://www.dropbox.com/s/scda3kskug1yisl/AB_Ingri_01.png?dl=0 Paid invoice: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k7h6brggzw59aqw/AB_Ingri_003.jpg?dl=0 Commissioner notifying me of paid invoice: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e1c3bv6ci9ofecy/AB_Ignri_02.png?dl=0 Because of a bigger log of commissions I’ve gotten through the fundraiser, I was able to get the sketches done for him to review the next week. The sketches were done and sent to the commissioner on June 20. He responded positively to the work, so I was confident to continue working on the commission to completion within the next couple days. Sketches completed and delivered: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykdw77beap7zfy4/com_Weavile2_Ignri_v1.jpg?dl=0 - NSFW https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca3qq5pos1bdtvl/com_Weavile2_Ignri_v2.jpg?dl=0 - NSFW Positive response to receiving the sketches: https://www.dropbox.com/s/wg1cv7nae5tu3fx/AB_Ignri_03.png?dl=0 The next morning on June 21 I received another note from the commissioner stating that he wanted me to put a hold on his commission, as he was waiting to hear back from another artist that was doing a similar piece for him and he was considering requesting a partial refund from me to “save some money.” I responded explaining I couldn’t hold the commission, as the commissions through the fundraiser were meant for the fundraiser only (all fundraiser commissions had freebies for the fundraiser ONLY) and it was going to be ending at the end of the month. I asked him in the same response to let me know quickly whether or not he wanted the refund, as I would need to make time to transfer that money back into my PayPal from my bank immediately for him. His note: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8w5oe7r9w5cchtr/AB_Ignri_04.png?dl=0 My response with two of his questions: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nhgpv85hscs9bu8/Screen Shot 2017-06-22 at 3.07.48 PM.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/jb47h7vncmz73n8/AB_Ignri_05.png?dl=0 This led to a series of notes of him asking me questions regarding the commission, and me responding to those questions as concisely and clearly as possible while asking again if he wanted the refund. I explained to him that the partial refund total would be $140, where the original first version sketch would be $25, and the alternative second version would be $15, totalling $40. I also explained that I wouldn’t be able to continue the commission later, because on top of moving at the end of the month I’m starting a new full time job and having a backlog of commissions wouldn’t be timely or ideal for my schedule. I started becoming uncomfortable with the conversation, and thinking back to his original reason for the refund that I found to be rather skeevy, I decided to explain that I would be cancelling the commission and refunding him for his partial refund he told me he was already considering. FA note chain: 1. https://www.dropbox.com/s/lt3ikfpt6u51yxr/AB_Ignri_06.png?dl=0 2. https://www.dropbox.com/s/q0tb67fj7ek3r69/AB_Ignri_07.png?dl=0 3. https://www.dropbox.com/s/t7jo3thortzcjxg/AB_Ignri_08.png?dl=0 The refund being transferred to PayPal from my bank: https://www.dropbox.com/s/63j36vp3i0zi8vs/TRANSFERFROMBANK.png?dl=0 He responded in defense to having his commission cancelled and refunded (linked above as number 3 under the FA note chain). I responded to this by noting him the completed sketch files that were finished for his commission that his $40 expense paid for, and that I would note him as soon as the transfer for his refund completed and the money was sent back to him on PayPal. After some time, he responded to me in defense once again. His note: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lfq407aao4qhizq/AB_Ignri_09.png?dl=0 I responded to his note clearing the air of why he was refunded and my stance on the situation, and that I no longer wished to continue this topic of conversation and the only notice he would get from me was when his refund was available and that I transferred the money back to him. My response: https://www.dropbox.com/s/rqk5a1ht5hqs1p4/AB_Ignri_10.png?dl=0 He had read it, but never responded to my note. On June 22nd, I came home to find over $100 in the red in my PayPal account and an unresolved dispute issued by the commissioner, stating it was a precaution for “just in case.” My girlfriend sent me money to get me out of the red. Dispute and bank transfer: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pa0dywv1t25jpk/AB_INGRI_PAYPAL_02.png?dl=0 I contacted the commissioner on FA regarding the dispute. (At the time I referred to it as a chargeback, as I was mistaken. I realized after the fact this wasn’t a chargeback, but a filed dispute with the commissioner. I got confused since the funds had been taken out of my balance and assumed the taken funds = chargeback.) I explained that because he filed it, all the funds for the FULL amount of the commission ($180) were immediately taken from my account, and that wasn’t the agreed upon refund total of $140. I further explained that, because of the dispute, he would not be receiving his refund when it arrived from my bank because he wasn’t entitled to the full $180 amount. My note regarding the dispute: https://www.dropbox.com/s/crm79s1m8ynlo6u/AB_Ignri_11.png?dl=0 Instead of speaking to me directly, I found that the commissioner was using PayPal’s Resolution Center to relay information, so I chose to respond there. Eventually after a brief back-and-forth, he stopped using the Resolution Center and replied to my note on FA. First Resolution Center conversation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3gcregue1qj2x2r/AB_Ingri_PAYPAL_01.jpg?dl=0 I tried to work with him in resolving the case one-on-one, despite the nature of his replies. I had gotten the refund earlier than expected and explained that I was readily available to issue him his partial refund when the claim was canceled, as I couldn’t refund the agreed partial $140 amount through the invoice if the claim was still open. It was forcing me to refund the full $180 amount. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem like he was willing to work with me. I couldn’t trust that the commissioner would return $40 to me if I gave him the full amount of $180. Conversation about the dispute (I mistakenly referred to it as a chargeback at the time): https://www.dropbox.com/s/edbs1jf05jrwyt1/chargebacknotes.jpg?dl=0 I updated the Resolution Center messages stating I was ready to refund the commissioner once the dispute was canceled. PayPal Resolution Center conversation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsagu2pumaqss2z/PayPalResolutionContinued.jpg?dl=0 (The website footer was blocking a portion of the messages, so I had to get snapshots of the comments from my phone and put them to the side of the covered messages.) He never read my last response, so I sent him one final note to give him a chance to comply in the morning (June 23): https://www.dropbox.com/s/hbpv3gmfyvz4tig/finalchargebacknote.jpg?dl=0 On the morning of June 23, the commissioner hadn’t read or responded to any of my notes, so I contacted PayPal over the phone about the matter to see what should be done. The commissioner didn’t seem to want to take the partial refund anymore and seemed to want a full refund (as suggested in this chain of notes https://www.dropbox.com/s/edbs1jf05jrwyt1/chargebacknotes.jpg?dl=0 ). The representative reviewed all of my evidence and information right then and there over the phone, and decided to escalate the dispute as a claim right away on my behalf due to the commissioner’s behavior after I explained the issue with the refund situation. Though I wish it didn’t have to come to that, I did what I was advised to do by the representative and submitted the same evidence to the claim regarding the payment - me canceling the invoice, me stating the agreed-to terms of the partial refund amount and when the refund would be delivered, me delivering the sketches/work done prior to canceling the commission, my notice that the refund was available to the commissioner and him not complying or allowing me to refund him. Basically, every single note exchanged between myself and the commissioner. The representative stated the commissioner could either cancel the claim to accept the $140 refund now, or continue the claim and have to wait up to 30 days for PayPal to review the claim and it would be out of my hands until the investigation was finished and the claim is closed by PayPal. I had hoped he would decide to cancel the claim so that he could receive his refund immediately. He later read my note, but never responded. I looked back at the dispute and found that he had decided to continue the claim for PayPal to review: https://www.dropbox.com/s/dzfciwch5ou0ka8/underreview.jpg?dl=0 I finally did get a response later in the evening, and I responded to let him know of the situation as it stands now: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9wsgn3wuq93spy5/paypalclaimexplain.jpg?dl=0 In hindsight, I believe I was rather defensive myself in my response to his note explaining why I was refunding him. A similar (but much less severe) case happened with this same commissioner in early 2016, which guided my decisions to cancel his commission and my response. I also know now it would have been best to leave the funds in my PayPal account for just such a situation as this. I had been transferring all the funds received from commissions for the fundraiser as soon as the commissioners had approved their sketches, as I was completing these commissions within 1-2 days after the sketches were approved. My thinking on transferring the funds this way was to make sure they were there during the duration of the fundraiser and so that I could organize the funds in preparation for signing a lease and putting down the deposit and first month’s rent on a new home. I’m honestly not sure what to do at this point other than to just… wait? I ultimately only want to be able to give him his $140 partial refund as soon as possible. I’ve been wanting to block him, but I know it would be inappropriate to do so as he’s still - despite this situation - completely entitled to his refund, and I don’t want to cut him off entirely due to that reason. PROOF: Chain of FA notes in order from when the sketches were originally delivered before the commission cancellation to the final note sent to the commissioner regarding the reason for his refund: https://www.dropbox.com/s/fqnxuigtd39b69f/notechain.jpg?dl=0 Chain of FA notes in order regarding the dispute: https://www.dropbox.com/s/edbs1jf05jrwyt1/chargebacknotes.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/9wsgn3wuq93spy5/paypalclaimexplain.jpg?dl=0 Quote agreement and paid invoice: https://www.dropbox.com/s/scda3kskug1yisl/AB_Ingri_01.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/k7h6brggzw59aqw/AB_Ingri_003.jpg?dl=0 Artwork finished before the cancellation of the commission and delivered to the commissioner: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ykdw77beap7zfy4/com_Weavile2_Ignri_v1.jpg?dl=0 - NSFW https://www.dropbox.com/s/ca3qq5pos1bdtvl/com_Weavile2_Ignri_v2.jpg?dl=0 - NSFW Dispute with refund transfer and full Resolution Center conversation: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9pa0dywv1t25jpk/AB_INGRI_PAYPAL_02.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/fsagu2pumaqss2z/PayPalResolutionContinued.jpg?dl=0 UPDATE: I had called PayPal and spoke to a representative about the case, and they told me there was nothing more I could do on my end until the claim was closed, or PayPal contacted me via e-mail if they needed any more information. This evening (June 28), I received this e-mail from PayPal: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pg8dwwonrc66xi6/claimemail.jpg?dl=0 I responded to the claim: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ug92hs7046qlhec/claimupdate.jpg?dl=0 I received this e-mail in response: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vedz5or60tbav1e/claimemail2.jpg?dl=0 Hopefully the refund is accepted, he can receive his refund and the claim can be closed. UPDATE 2: I received another e-mail response that the commissioner agreed to close the claim by accepting the partial refund of $140, so the claim was closed in my favor. I've since notified the commissioner that the refund was delivered to him and blocked him. E-mails: 1. https://www.dropbox.com/s/43o1q5fzf9428hu/closedclaimemail1.jpg?dl=0 2. https://www.dropbox.com/s/un6qlp07fc4b78o/closedclaimemail2.jpg?dl=0 FA Note: https://www.dropbox.com/s/efoq411k83k6ayz/closedclaimnote.jpg?dl=0 Hopefully this experience helps others who've experienced similar situations with commissioners, and can see how the process worked for me so it gives some insight on what to expect in case an event like this happens with someone else. PayPal was nothing but pleasant with me and had an absolute willingness to work with me on the matter.

Commissioned art and YCH purchase on 5/24/2023 This Beware does contain NSFW elements, All communications were handled in discord After some difficult communication due to a language barrier, we finally came to an understanding and payment was sent These are the two payments through boosty, one of these is an error as boosty charged me twice. Here is the YCH that was purchased along side a REF sheet slot Here is the initial communication between me and the artist, it took a while to come to an understanding but we came to agree that its two ych slots and one commission if they are able to get boosty to send me a refund for the extra $200, knowing boosty from my perspective they is no way to really get a refund unless i want to get my account banned by doing a chargeback as in their eyes it would be considered fraud from some of the other cases i have seen They made an announcement on their discord saying that they are burned out due to them working on furry art and would prioritise working on working on human art if some of the people in their discord would like that instead So five months have passed from the initial commission DM's so i sent a DM in discord to see if they have a trello to see where i am in the queue, they apparently do have one but they keep it in private access and its supposedly in their language (even though i could work it out with a translator) in addition they state that the art would be worked on in november, After two months have passed including november which was the supposed date that the commission's was being worked on, so i sent another message to see what is going on... and no response, i waited until january to send another dm and still no response (image includes overlapping DM's from earlier images) I gave them a warning that if they continue to ghost me, i will be forced to look at my options such as posting an artist beware, after i gave them the warning they responded with this reasoning for their absence despite them streaming on twitch days prior Image includes another member of the artist's discord who also became frustrated with how long they are having to wait Due to the nature of this i decided to give them time to sort things out on their end and continue to wait, i waited a week as they would supposedly be working on art and sent another DM, they still did not reply, I then waited until this February to send another message and still no response still no message from them to as of typing this 2/26/2024 Here is their twitch activity for this month and prior They seem to be working on art for themselves such as emojis for their twitch discord and personal pieces it even seems some some of the newer streams are missing

On the date December 31st, 2019 I was messaged by Lori Peters for a commission of a headshot. The headshot I advertised only cost $10 USD at that current time. She claimed interest for the headshot, asking if I was still open for commissions. I explained to her that I was, but it would be a 2-3 day turn around time. Normally, I do send invoices but she did ask me for my e-mail. I informed her that it would be $10 USD. She verbalized understanding w/o question, and sent a picture verifying that payment was sent. Upon the verification, I then had informed her that I would start the piece. I had sent multiple works in progress once she had sent the reference to me. Once the piece was completed, I sent it to the e-mail address that she asked for me to send it to. That was the end of the transaction. I thanked her for choosing to do business with me, and that the transaction was indeed complete. Today, on January 1st, 2020 I recieved an e-mail from (I am not putting the person's name out there due to the wishes of not wanting their name out there). The E-mail states "Hi there Danielle, My name is ------ and I have been scammed by your niece, Lori. On the 31st I sent $15 to your PayPal as Lori’s request - I used this email address. She had sold me a character on Instagram that was not hers to sell as she did not own. This is scamming. I politely request that you send the $15 back to me or I may have to raise this with PayPal as a scam and it may block your PayPal account. I really am sorry as you’re probably not aware that she has scammed multiple people using your PayPal. Also I do apologise as it isn’t your fault but I really would rather to settle this between us. Thank you, ---------." So upon my confusion, I stated that I do not have a niece named Lori. Which, in reality I am a 21 year old. I do have a 16 year old niece, but she does not associate with the fandom what so ever, and she does not use paypal. After putting the pieces together --- this is what happened. Lori claimed to be me, while her and my transaction were going on and sent my paypal to this person for an adopt that they had no right in selling. The person sent the payment to my paypal thinking that I was Lori's Aunt or Lori herself. While I was thinking it was Lori that sent the payment to me. Pictures are attached. I am currently resolving this issue, as I did not have any knowledge before hand about this issue until today (after) artwork was completed. So, now I am attempting to hash this all out. The e-mail that is on there, shows proof of her claiming to be me to get the transaction process started. My e-mail is public knowledge.

I won an auction for a Noivern fursuit a while back, and before I made my bid, I asked if the suit could be altered up a little to fit my size. She agreed. After winning the auction, I agreed to pay the extra charge, and I added her personal account on Facebook. Fast-forward to May 2016. I asked about updates, and there wasn't anything to show for. Fast forward two years, I asked again, and she claimed that her suit was lost in a move, and would have to remake it. Fast forward again, after more occasional and unsuccessful attempts at getting an update, this was the last correspondence where she had actually replied, which was on Discord. There has been no communication from her ever since that one message. I honestly should've made a post like this years ago, but what's done is done. And during this entire, years-long ordeal, she had continued to complete other projects, including other fursuits. I hope that this post serves to help people not go through what I went through.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/900218.html WHO: Peridotkitty http://www.furaffinity.net/user/peridotkitty WHERE: Furaffinity.net and Skype WHAT: 42 page comic with a Cover ( $1500/$3150 paid ) WHEN: June2015- Present(March 2016) PROOF: All payments First payment (Jun 14 2015) Second payment (Jun 28 2015) Third Payment (Aug 13 2015) fourth payment(Sep 29 2015) Incomplete cover work(From Peridotkitty's Trello): [COVER] NSFW Incomplete comic work(From Peridotkitty's Trello) [COMIC WORK][COMIC WORK 2] EXPLAIN: I work on an anthology comic project with my fiance which is set to be published. Both of us work on comics for this as well as hire other artists. Artist hired receive a retainer fee( I pay this) to start them off before moving forward. With hiring artist we also gather funders to be a part of the comic. There were three funders for Peridotkitty's comic (names are hidden at mods' request) Funders were invoiced through my paypal (I work under LLC) and funds were sent to the artist.Payments for hired artist were sent monthly until the full project amount was paid unless the artist failed to produce enough progress in a timely matter at the funders discretion, that progress being a minimum of 2 completed pages per month. Now if certain uncontrollable life situations occured, we are understanding and funders are notified of what's going on to give the artist appropriate time to recoup and catch up. If the required progression does not occur, then a refund is requested. Bi-weekly check ups were also required in order to make sure proper progress had been made and to keep the funders happy. Help to the artist for anything was always offered and provided if needed including editing, storyboarding, and scripting. The Beginning---------------- May 2015-June 2015 Discussion was made with Peridotkitty about the comic and how it would work out through furaffinity and eventually moving to skype.( Sadly,my notes will not appear past 1350 notes but logs are available [1][2])The agreed price was $75 per comic page(total of 42 pages) and a cover for $3150. During this process the idea of funders came about. Three were found and the retainer was sent on June 14th and a second payment on June 28th [SKYPE LOG 1][CASTING JOURNAL]NSFW More discussion was made about the comic and the script completion [SKYPE LOG 2] [SKYPE LOG 3] Sent another payment on Jun 28 [SKYPE LOG 4] July 2015-August 2015 References of the cast were provided in Peridotkitty's shared dropbox folder for the comic during this time. Conversations were friendly but quiet for July as my fiance and I were prepping for Anthrocon. Peridotkitty was contacted a bit about the dropbox progress folder set up for the funders which we shared with them to see the project progression. [SKYPE LOG 5] Anthrocon came and went and there was little communication regarding the comic until August 6 [SKYPE LOG 6] [SKYPE LOG 7] Correspondence during this month became harder and I believe this is due to Peridotkitty's Patreon and her owing a lot more work due to it. I was understanding of this and explained this to the funders.Another monthly payment was sent to her. [SKYPE LOG 8] [SKYPE LOG 9] No major progress was made to her sketches. September 2015-October 2015 At this point we became worried. I started to inquire about whether she needed any assistance with her pages.Attempted contact was made and became more difficult.No progress other than the sketches for the first couple of pages were done and Peridotkitty suggested that her public trello should be linked to the funders to keep their minds at ease. [SKYPE LOG 10][SKYPE LOG 11] [SKYPE LOG 12] [ SKYPE LOG 13] On September 25th, project structure was being changed where the freelancers were to sign a contract. Peridotkitty read the contact and found it to be fair. There was a tiny error in the contract (Wrong comic title) but was edited. (Contract will not be linked unless requested).Terms of the contract required a minimum of 2 completed comic pages monthly, withholding of monthly funds if progress was unacceptable yet gave the artist a chance to catch up in a timely manner before being fired and requested a FULL refund. PeridotKitty was set to fax the form...but she was told to wait until further notice due to the high cost of collecting faxes from kinkos. [SKYPE LOG 14][SKYPE LOG 15][SKYPE LOG 16] There was little to no response from Peridotkitty during October regarding the project and the funders were starting to get more agitated .On October 15th, she sent me a message that she had gotten a job which would take away more of her time [SKYPE LOG 17] November 2015-December2015 During November I hired my assistant Carmel in helping with correspndence with the freelancers. Communication became more sparce and Peridotkitty was spending most of her time doing other commission work and streaming. [SKYPE LOG 18] On November 15th, I dictated a note to Carmel to send to Peridotkitty seeing as contact with her through skype was becoming a major issue. In the note it was discussed the worry of the funders for the lack of progress and that monthly payments would be withheld until proper progress was made.[CARMEL NOTE 1] November 18th, Peridotkitty got back to me about withholding funds. During this discussion she also talked about making turnarounds for the characters. (Please note that this is not part of the project but her own doing). She even mentions that she was still refining the first page of the comic after months. [SKYPE LOG 19] November 20th, Peridotkitty was contacted again about the contract and the possibility of mailing it.Peridotkitty never provided the needed information. Afterwards the skype conversation fell silent. Rook dictated to Tia more notes to her on November 27th and two in December. [SKYPE LOG 20][CARMEL NOTE 2][CARMEL NOTE 3][CARMEL NOTE 4] January 2016-February 2016 Funders were pretty much unhappy with the major lack of progress and were ready to ask for a full refund. Contact was attempted again on January 4th with no response. Another note was dictated for Carmel to send to Peridotkitty stating that this is the ultimatum to keep her job. She was to complete the first 3 pages of the comic by the end of January and the next 3 by the end of February. Peridotkitty got back to me on January 11th and requested color armor references for one of the character as not having that stopped her progress. [CARMEL NOTE 5][SKYPE LOG 20] January was a rough month for us due to personal matters and getting the colors took longer than we expected. They were added to the dropbox folder on [January 28th] and because of this she was given more time to work. She had to finish the first 3 pages by the end of Febrauary.But it must be said that during the month of January, all of her sketches for the first 3 pages were not refined as seen in her progress folder and in her trello. Not even inked. Flats were added to the cover but it still wasn't done. Peridotkitty gave more excuses which we tried explaining to the funders...but their patience was pretty much over. [SKYPE LOG 21][SKYPE LOG 22][TRELLO 1: COVER]NSFW[TRELLO 2: COMIC1][TRELLO 3:COMIC 2] The pressure was on during February and I desperatly tried to get in contact with Peridotkitty. [SKYPE LOG 23] March 2016 In this time frame of 9 months she added flats to the cover and did incomplete sketches for the first 3 pages. Not a single page was completed. We decided to terminate Peridotkitty on March 20th and asked for a refend. During this correspondence Peridotkitty kept making excuses that not all of this was her fault and that blame should also be placed on me . I was patient, I was understanding, and I defended her when talking to the funders and kept them informed of her life situations but the lack of major progress after months was enough.She had the resources to do what she needed to do but didn't. She mocked me for paying in advance, for not having a signed contract and my overall position.The question of a refund was not responded to. What ensued was the following conversation: [Firing note 1] Initial termination note [Firing note 2]Peri's response. She takes little responsibility for not doing the work and adds the blame on me. [Firing note 3] [Firing note 4] [Firing note 5][Firing note 6](Question about refund. Peridotkitty did not address this) [Firing note 7][Firing note 8] [Firing note 9]Peridotkitty's attitude quickly shifted [Firing note 10] [Firing note 11] Her last response in regards to a journal I made which has nothing to do with this transaction. [Firing note 12] My last note to her where I cut off communication. I honestly had to step away. All correspondence has since ceased. On March 21st I filed a claim with paypal. Sadly only $700 of the money could be disputed. The claim was [closed on March 23rd] as Peridotkitty told paypal that ALL work was completed up til March and that I was just being an unsatisfied customer.This was through a phone call and we are requesting an email of what she said to post here. Paypal did not contact us to hear our side when making their decision so I filed an appeal. March 24th, our appeal was also closed and none of the money will be sent back. I am not fully blameless and there are things that should have been handled better. I dont think there's much of a legal standing in regards to the new contract...but that doesn't justify keeping money for work not completed from 3 people.A partial refund would be fine but after her insulting responses towards me I felt that I wouldn't be able to get a decent conversation out of her. Funders were notified of the loss and have been understanding and I am more than thankful for this. This is a huge lesson learned.I accept any critisim on my part to help me in my dealings in the future. [EDIT]------------ March 23, 2015 I forgot to add the final note she sent me in response to Firing Note 12 [Firing note 13] March 25,2016 edit Firing note 3 above has the wrong link. Correct link is below. [Firing note 3] March 26, 2016 update---- Peridotkitty has posted her side of this situation here and on her FA . Apparently her fiance was the one who sent the malicious notes against me (Firing note 9 and onward). Whether I believe it or not is another thing.I have discussed with my fiance the possibility of a repayment plan and she has left a message to her. "Rook was unwilling to deal with you at all... seeing as how an apology about how you or 'your fiancee' acted at the end; I'm sure everyone here can understand why. I wonder why you didn't put those up there so your fans can have context on why he stopped communicating with you all together. But if you are serious, it isn't about paying him back, it's about taking care of the 3 funders. He is willing to let you set up a payment plan of a reasonable monthly amount to the 3 funders. You can contact me for their information. He says you can pay back one their 575 and the other their 600 for a total of 1175. And that he will settle up the remaining balance with the 3rd funder himself writing off that amount as service rendered. It's more than you've done but he's going to make a show of faith as well as responsibility. He would like you to publically keep track of the repayment to those two funders, he also wants them to get the full 600 and 575, so you would be on the hook for the transaction fee amount as well." March 26, 2016 update 2---- Terms have been agreed to and Peridotkitty has been given the funder' pages to get their paypal information.Monthy payments are being scheduled. Although these terms have been agreed upon, I will not mark this post as resolved until both funders are completely refunded. I will be handling the 3rd funder's refund myself.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/892163.html WHO: Jace Wallace / Wakkawa WHERE: http://jace-wallace.deviantart.com/ & http://wakkawa.tumblr.com/ WHAT: $150 digital painting commission WHEN: November 26th, 2014; sketch received and payment sent December 12th, 2014 PROOF: Initial order: http://i.imgur.com/8VBVvr0.png http://i.imgur.com/szyi0dE.png Proof of payment: http://i.imgur.com/QV4EzFw.png EXPLAIN: Well, it's finally time for the official A_B post. I asked for advice back in June, and since the situation is more or less "resolved", it's time for me to put it all together and post this as a warning to others. I commissioned Jace at the end of November in 2014, the same day he put his commission post up. He's an art idol of mine and I'd wanted art from him for ages, so I jumped on the opportunity. He always seemed very professional to me, so a $150 commission seemed like a good idea at the time. The original commission post said they would be finished by Christmas (2014), and he sent me the sketch WIP on December 12th. http://i.imgur.com/Jy4btWg.png The WIP at this time: http://i.imgur.com/Vs5UUDe.jpg At that time, he said his plan was to send out more WIPs that weekend and have them finished the next week. http://i.imgur.com/TpYsWTe.png After that message claiming that WIPS would be sent out that weekend, I didn't hear from him again. In fact, he seemingly disappeared from the Internet altogether. Not too strange, possibly, considering it was the holidays. However, he had made a firm promise of a deadline, and with the commission being $150, I was a bit more wary than I normally might have been. I let the Christmas deadline come and go, but on January 10th I noted him asking for updates: http://i.imgur.com/keQ7LmU.png As it is still, it went unread and unopened. I continued not to see any activity on DA, Tumblr, or anywhere else. I was getting worried, mostly due to the $150 amount and the fact that I have been burned before. Since I hadn't seen him open my note, I decided to email him in hopes of getting an answer that way, on January 24th 2015: http://i.imgur.com/rvEROmB.png And I never got a response to that either. On January 30th, I sent Jace an email and a note on deviantArt telling him that I would be opening a Paypal claim. http://i.imgur.com/dDiUr7J.png As I say in the message, it was mostly to get the money back in case he was unable to access the computer as I didn't want to let Paypal's claim window come and go. Even with Paypal's claim window having been increased to 180 days, I felt uncomfortable enough to do it at this time given his complete lack of responsiveness. Jace must have seen the claim, for he mysteriously reappeared just a few days after I opened the claim. I received the next WIP on February 2nd, 2015. I cancelled the Paypal claim at this time, despite the fact that he made absolutely no note of it or that he had even seen it. http://i.imgur.com/S3umDjv.png The WIP he sent at this time: http://i.imgur.com/ZTqd2N0.jpg It was quite off putting to me that he made no mention of the claim or the wait much at all. But, then again, I felt a bit bad for filing the claim in the first place -- especially with his reasoning of mental illness. I figured, since he had given me an updated WIP, he would have the piece done pretty quickly. My response to him is here: http://i.imgur.com/kiuiFpu.png which he never responded to either. More radio silence. I sent him a note on May 15th, 2015: http://i.imgur.com/8gJHWmT.png to which I got no response. (I do believe he opened/read this note.) The next time I heard from him was in June of 2015, strangely and conveniently after I sent him a note telling him that I would be contacting my bank about the money (given that Paypal's claim window had then passed for me, by a few days) and posting an Artists Beware post about the situation. http://i.imgur.com/RXa81Ov.png (He was still active on tumblr during this time.) His response, with a slightly updated WIP: http://i.imgur.com/fwz0yd0.png The WIP at this stage: http://i.imgur.com/UHguQJN.jpg This was when I posted asking for advice on A_B. I was mostly just pleased to actually have him RESPONDING to me again, and at this point I assumed that if I went ahead and posted the A_B on him right then, I would NEVER get the piece. So I tried to get him to agree to a deadline. He then agreed to have the piece finished by the end of July, 2015. http://i.imgur.com/aIMFmDP.png http://i.imgur.com/YVLH7OX.png So, another month and it would be done. Obviously, that came and went. Surprisingly, he took the initiative to note me on his own on August 1st, telling me that his tablet had broken. (I had already seen him post about it on his Tumblr, which he was continuing to update regularly with paintings and posts.) Again, pleased that he was CONTACTING me and not ignoring me, I accepted his claim that he would have it done the next week. http://i.imgur.com/1Nk8ri2.png http://i.imgur.com/A3sUxI3.png Aaaand that didn't happen, either. He did not contact me again past that point, AT ALL. (I send him another note on September 3rd, 2015: http://i.imgur.com/BbhcdiY.png ) In fact, the only way I got him to contact me again was rather direct and annoying. On top of updating his Tumblr regularly while ignoring my messages, he had gotten into the habit of streaming quite regularly on his Twitch account. Sometimes games, sometimes painting personal works. I subscribed to the channel, and was receiving emails whenever he started streaming. At first I was just happy to see him working on something, and didn't interact with him. However, when he continued to ignore/"not see" my messages, I decided to bite the bullet and reach out to him during a Twitch stream. On October 25th, 2015, I entered his Twitch stream and inquired after my commission. He had his mic on, so I don't have a record of his responses, but here's the chat: http://i.imgur.com/jOrPowU.jpg Basically, he reassured me and told me a very long story about how he had gotten locked out of his DeviantART account AND the email account associated with it, so he hadn't been able to log in at all. He promised to email me after the stream. He sent me an email that night and he attached another WIP and claimed it was pretty much done, just needed to be cleaned up and tweaked. (Note: this was quite a small screenshot that didn't allow me to see closer details.) http://i.imgur.com/d7KZdbe.png My response: http://i.imgur.com/vW59uJl.png The WIP he sent at this stage: http://i.imgur.com/3kNQwSj.jpg And, again, that was the last I heard from him. I actually let him be for a while after that email, mostly due to how incredibly fed up I was at this point. Plus, he said it was close to being done, so I figured it wouldn't be long. Again, wrong. I emailed him on January 12th (3-4 months later) asking if he had any updates on the piece or on his situation. http://i.imgur.com/Lr2bYa6.png I got no response. He continued to be active on Tumblr, quite regularly posting text posts and art. So, on January 27th, I emailed him. http://i.imgur.com/1uUNoke.png Of course, I do realize asking for a refund at this point may seem out of line to some, but like I say in the email I figured it would be the easiest way to resolve it. I didn't want to wait around forever to get the finished piece and would have been satisfied with the file as-is and a partial refund, even 10% of 25%, ANYTHING so that I could FINALLY take it off my list and forget about the heartache. On January 28th, 2016, he emailed me and claimed the piece he had sent in October was the finished piece, minus the rendering of one hand. He then claimed he would send me the finished file as soon as he smoothed out the hand. As well as a quite P.A. comment about the fact that if this had been for a freelancing company, it would have cost me $2000. http://i.imgur.com/V2OP8si.png Half an hour later, he sent me the .psd of the 'finished piece'. It is almost entirely unchanged from the screenshot from October. And, to my dismay, it's quite rough and not as refined as the sample piece he used for his commission post. There's a part in one of the character's irises that bleeds into the eyelashes, really badly. The ear is a block of unrendered, unfinished painting. The male figure is very rough and untouched compared to the female figure. Overall, the entire thing is quite sketchy, quite unrefined, and quite unfinished -- when compared to his sample. At the very least, it is not what I would hope for after over a year of waiting for a $150 commission that had a much more refined example. Here is the final file he sent me: http://i.imgur.com/91E4qbU.png Note that it's barely changed (if at all) from the WIP from October. Over 3 months for that lack of work done on the piece. Here are some closeups of a few of the problem areas I identified: http://i.imgur.com/ePJmE2v.png http://i.imgur.com/FRBDd1n.png Again, here is the image he used in his commission post: http://i.imgur.com/t0PaIRP.jpg As it is, this situation is "resolved". I'm NOT happy with the piece, but I sincerely doubt he will ever give me any partial refund (the piece is, after all, 'finished' according to him) and I don't care to see how long it would take him to refine the piece more (I'd prefer not to wait another full year, really). And while I feel the end result is not in line with what he was offering, my complaint is about his unprofessionalism rather than the art itself. Art is subjective, and though I may not be happy with the piece, it is "finished" in his eyes. My gripe is his refusal to keep in touch, the constant ignoring of my messages, and the continuously broken deadlines. In the end, this is a beware to all other artists and commissioners out there. Do not commission Jace Wallace. I have no clue if he plans to ever open commissions again, but if he does, it's not worth it. This is hands down the most frustrating experience I have ever had with an artist. It's not even the year+ wait that bothers me -- I've waited that long before, I'll wait that long again. But EVERY time I attempted to contact him, I was ignored, unless I had made a direct claim that I would be pursuing action against him, or I approached him directly IN PUBLIC. (There were a few times when I commented on his submissions on DA or profile on DA, but he has hidden the comments at this point.) He set deadlines, and then he broke them with nary a word. He made excuses, avoided contact, and continued to be active on Tumblr regardless of the owed work. At least with other artists I've had this problem with, they disappeared entirely. With Jace, he was still active on Tumblr almost this entire time, just deliberately ignoring my messages on DA, Tumblr (where he was active, WHILE HE WAS ACTIVE) and via email. In the end, I feel disrespected, insulted, and disappointed - and I don't want anyone else to go through the same situation. EDIT: The final email he sent to me, after I submitted this A_B post and informed him I would be doing so.