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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/923623.html All information is below. DO NOT HARASS THIS USER! This violates community rules and I don't condone ill will directed at them. You will be reported to a moderator if you're caught doing this. WHO: brideake/orangekissess/greycakechii WHERE: http://www.brideake.tumblr.com (Main Tumblr), http://www.orangekissess.tumblr.com (NSFW Tumblr), http://www.furaffinity.net/user/greycakechii (NSFW FA), https://www.patreon.com/orangekissess (NSFW Patreon) WHAT: Sketch Commission ($21 USD) [PayPal Receipt] PROOF & EXPLAIN: I've been a follower and admirer of brideake/orangekissess for awhile now, so I pounced on the chance to commission them when they opened in February 2016. I'll confess that my idolization of them has made this entire situation much, much more difficult because I didn't want to upset them, but I feel that this situation more than warrants a beware by now. Posts about commission openings were posted on both of their Tumblrs with a contact email address, where I contacted them and received a same-day response. Once I received their prices and options, I responded with what I wanted. There was a slight issue here because my Gmail account was currently failing to send and receive messages properly, so I had to resend the email. After I resent, I received a response quickly, the commission details were confirmed, and I paid. This was the last time I ever heard from them about the commission. [Email Transcripts: 1, 2, 3] brideake has no public queue, so there was no way for me to know how many commissions they accepted or where I stood on their to-do list. So, I waited patiently for awhile, under the assumption that they were busy and mine would be done in due time. However, the first red flags came when I noticed that brideake was taking requests nearly weekly, often in streams. Still, I said nothing, until I attended one of their streams and saw them accepting new commissions. (All I have from this is this screenshot of a link to the stream. I have no screenshots from the stream itself. [link]) When I saw this, I thought it was time to request an update, believing my commission might have been forgotten or overlooked. Mistakes happen, after all. On April 29th, I sent them an email, requesting an update, but never received a response. [link] No responses or updates come. Sometime later, an anonymous user sends brideake this ask, wanting to know if it's alright for commissioners to request updates on their commissions. Please note that this wasn't me, which means at least one other customer wanted updates, but I took it as a chance to request an update again. [link] (Sometime before this, I also sent them an ask, but I don't have record of it because Tumblr doesn't save outbox messages at all. I believe it was sent around the same time as, or even the same day of, the first email, because I was afraid the email would be eaten. This screenshot shows Tumblr's new instant messaging system, which is much, much more reliable than both emails and asks.) On July 26th, I requested an update via email once more, after the above instant message was also ignored. [link] Again, there has been no response to this email. I can believe that the first email and the ask were eaten, but it's extremely unlikely that both of them and the two latest messages have all magically vanished, so I know I'm being actively ignored, unfortunately. This appeared on their NSFW Tumblr sometime after I sent the email, which I believe might be a passive response to my message. Supposedly, brideake has two commissions remaining, but, without a public to-do list, it's hard to tell if I'm even included in that number anymore. I was offline for several days and missed the deadline to dispute this through PayPal, so I have no choice but to wait patiently, it seems. I love brideake's art and I would much rather have the completed commission than a refund, even now, but I find their work ethic and customer service inexcusable. While this post was in the moderation queue, brideake also had time to create a Patreon account, as linked above, rather than complete preexisting commissions. This was very upsetting for me because it shows how little of a priority I am as a customer. I feel it is relevant to mention because additional commissions are being rewarded to patrons, as seen here. This is not to mention the many, many pieces of personal artwork, fanart, and free requests that brideake has had time to complete since I commissioned them. Overall, a very poor experience. EDIT [09/02/16]: brideake is opening for more commissions and accepting more free requests on Tumblr. I don't know how relevant this is, but it's discouraging to again have a commission I paid for half a year ago put on the back burner for new commissions or free art. EDIT [09/10/16]: On September 7th, brideake emailed me and I responded within the hour. The emails are heavily censored because brideake included details that were explicitly personal and I feel are highly inappropriate to advertise here, so I have blocked them out accordingly with only the comments that I feel are relevant to this beware uncensored. Personal comments I made in my response are also censored. The most important thing here is, brideake offered me a refund. I agreed to either accept the refund (and provided my PayPal address) or continue with the commission if the money wasn't available. I haven't received a response since and, seeing as it's been three days, I thought it was worth adding here. [Emails] EDIT [09/17/16]: This situation has hit the ceiling because it has, as I feared, come to Tumblr, where I actively tried to remain silent on the matter because I didn't want to be at odds with someone with over six thousand protective followers. As I'm writing this, I'm very upset. brideake sent me an email, reassuring me that I would be refunded as soon as they had the money, to which I replied that there was no rush. [link] This email came rather out of the blue, so I checked out their blog to see if something was amiss and, as suspected, an anon violated the rules of this community and sent brideake this lovely message. Whoever sent this was completely out of line, and I don't condone the sending of hate mail or negativity to anyone, no matter how wrongly you feel they've behaved. [link] brideake responds publicly with details that were previously shared with me in an email (seen above). This is where I feel the most wronged of all, because it's as if I was supposed to know what was happening in the artist's personal life. I had no idea. brideake was a complete stranger to me before this situation unfolded. Although brideake opted to share the details publicly, where anyone can freely see them, I have censored them in this screenshot because I still believe it's inappropriate to share details like this here when it's none of my business. What bothers me the most about this is the comment of, "Sorry I have to post this information publicly..." because there was no need to out oneself like this, or even answer this ask. Until this, I hadn't even seen mention of this beware on Tumblr, so I doubt brideake's followers even knew about it and, if they did, didn't care. brideake's followers don't even read the beware, but proceed to defend them in reblogs, calling me all manner of names. Here are two in particular that have really gotten to me. [link] [link] So, now, I'm an "entitled jerk" who doesn't understand that artists are real people and went on a "witch hunt" for someone when I tried repeatedly to contact them with zero response. Writing bewares is a last resort for me, and this situation is ending exactly how I feared it would. Edited one more time on the same date as above to add that I sent brideake an email, apologizing for the anon sending them hate mail. I found this to be absurdly unacceptable on the anon's behalf and felt like I should apologize for causing it. [link] EDIT [09/17/16]: This should be the last edit to this beware. I have received an ungodly amount of hate mail over this beware, so allow me to reiterate that harassing people who are posted here violates the community's rules and will cause needless problems for both parties. It isn't pretty, it's caused an enormous mess, and it could have been so easily avoided if my emails were simply answered over the past few months, but this situation is now resolved. I have received a refund in full and, while it's disappointing to not receive the commission after all this time, I'll take it. [Proof of Refund] EDIT [09/25/16]: It's been a week. I'm editing this a final time to correct a few grammar errors and add closing thoughts. Sorry again to the mods for the number of edits here! Because of the anon ask brideake received and their public response to it, people who I assume to be their fans and followers came here, saw the beware, and connected it to my dA account (linked on my profile) and my Tumblr blog (via my icon). The resulting anon hate would last for four days, when it finally ceased. I was away from my computer for much of the first day, but, when I returned, I had 68 inbox messages on Tumblr, only six of which were things I would normally have. I don't know how many others came in total, because I didn't read them, simply deleted them as soon as I saw them. I estimate it to be between seventy and eighty messages total. (I have no screenshots of this, but I believe it wouldn't prove anything, because it's as easy to send yourself anon hate on Tumblr as it is for others to do so.) I don't know why brideake responded to the ask publicly; it drew attention to this beware, caused trouble for us both, and ultimately solved nothing. I'm relieved the messages have stopped now. It was hard to consider this truly "resolved" while this was still happening. The other things I wanted to add, as closing thoughts, were that, on September 17th, brideake tried to convince me to delete this beware in our final email conversation. I found it noteworthy because their concerns were with their reputation than with me as a customer. [link] Finally, brideake tweeted this on September 18th, after I was refunded, and has had it as their pinned tweet all week. I don't hate them. I don't think customers ever hate an artist over commission issues. [link] In conclusion, I can't recommend this artist at all. The fact remains that their customer service was exceptionally poor. All the unnecessary drama that ensued on Tumblr could have been prevented altogether if brideake had simply answered my emails months ago.

I need to say that we worked with Chloe Wintermane before (you can see payment history) so they were a trusted person (as I thought). I have a strict ToS, but even with it there is a human factor. ♦ June 19 2022 - Chloe wrote me about the idea of 5 page comic. It was a huge project including Chloe Wintermane and their friend Jacki Northstar + three YCH slots. There were a lot of art and price discussions, creating sketches and then in August 8 all YCH preparations were finished and in August 10 I uploaded YCH to my gallery on FA: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/48501288/ ♦ August 18 2022 - auction was ended. Everyone paid for their slots, Jacki too but later. Chloe owed me $450. ♦ August 19 2022 - ChloeWintermane said that they "would love to pay a half now and the other part next month", well okay! ♦ September 5 2022 - I wrote them first since I started to worry. Chloe said they lost their job and promised to find a job and pay as soon as possible. This project is a huge one and included too mane people so I decided to start working on it. ♦ September 17 2022 - I sent Chloe final WIPs with flat colors and didn't receive any answer. But I decided to continue and finish the comic no matter what because I felt responsible for 4 other people. ♦ September 30 2022 - 5 page comic is finished. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/49321560/ The same day Chloe wrote me that they have a new job. What a good news! ♦ November 16 2022 - Chloe sent me $150. Another $300 remains to be paid. From that time, silence or ignoring, sometimes accompanied by empty promises, began. I don't think there is any chance that this person will pay for my work. On April 25 2023, I wrote them a message and a final warning. You can guess that I was not paid anything. You may rightly point out that it was my own fault and should have waited for full payment, but on the other hand 4 other people paid for everything and I was trapped. If I hadn't finished the comic by today, it would be a reputational blow to ME. It is very painful and disappointing.

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/943223.html WHO: MintyMudi (twitter), MudiCommissions (twitter), Mixeddisaster (FA, relatively inactive) WHERE: Twitter DMs, @MintyMudi WHAT: An adopt purchase, turned into a traditional badge trade. WHEN: August 9, 2016 – Present Day PROOF: Here's an Imgur album, but I will link appropriate images accordingly: http://imgur.com/a/JN1yv EXPLAIN: On August 9th, 2016, I posted several characters for sale, and MintyMudi expressed interest in one of them. I was asking $20, and they offered $15 and a small doodle, which I accepted. They sent me the $15 promptly. http://i.imgur.com/q7shtqO.png http://i.imgur.com/QAwRZvM.png ETA: Minty has come to me with an apology and acknowledged their behavior following my previous communication with them. This shows a willingness to improve and admit fault, and I'm pleased that they did so. http://imgur.com/nzOJQvu September rolls around, and I remembered that they owed me a doodle, so on the 3rd I inquired about the status of that. They told me they’d been busy working, and they’d get to it that week. They offered to do a traditional badge, and having liked the style of the badges they were doing, that interested me. However I didn’t feel like it would be a fair exchange for just $5 worth so I offered to do a badge for them as well and we could turn it into a full blown badge trade. They agreed, and we chatted briefly about characters (I omitted this from the screenshots, it’s irrelevant info), and I completed my half very shortly afterwards. Usually, I send off my badges right away, but having experienced a trade gone awry earlier that summer, I decided to hold on to it until they had completed their half. http://i.imgur.com/35KjtAF.png September 19th arrives, and they ask me the name of my character. I told them, and they replied that they would do it on their day off the next day (would have been Sept 21). I missed the reply until the next day, the 22nd, and told them that there was no rush. I assumed they had been busy since they didn’t have it done by then. http://i.imgur.com/YK6yGi0.png October 26th rolls around, and they came to me asking if they could make the badge Christmas themed, to provide examples for MFF badges. I’m not really one for holiday themed things, so I declined and said I’d prefer a neutral theme. They then asked if they could put a snowflake background on it, so I told them again that I did not want that kind of theme. This kind of rubbed me the wrong way, so if my replies look a little short then that’s why. They finished the badge that day, and showed me pictures of it. http://i.imgur.com/YK6yGi0.png http://i.imgur.com/NFUgzSL.png It slipped my mind for a little while, but mid-November I realized that they hadn’t asked me for my shipping address. I realized that the timing would be pretty poor due to Thanksgiving, then MFF (which I knew they were attending based on their previous inquiries), and then Christmas, so I waited until after all that passed to ask about it. I asked if they needed my shipping address, on January 13th. They told me that they were in the process of moving, but they would try to send it out beforehand. After giving them my address, I told them I would ship mine out after I received their half of the trade. http://i.imgur.com/ndgzQxP.png So, February 1st rolls around and I ask them again, if they’d had the chance to mail it. At this point I was getting pretty frustrated, because it doesn’t take much to put a stamp on an envelope and put it in the mailbox. http://i.imgur.com/zUnctqw.png A week passes, and on Feb 8th they messaged me to let me know that they would be mailing my badge out the next week. I was pleased that they had taken the initiative to update me, as it usually was me asking for progress. http://i.imgur.com/eiGOmHr.png After the next week passes, I ask on Feb 14th if they had the chance to ship the badge out or not. I let them know at this time that I am frustrated with the transaction, and give them the option of just cancelling the trade since I had refrained from sending out my half until I got theirs. They told me that they had shipped it out that morning, which immediately sent up a red flag. It was awfully convenient that they had put it in the mailbox the day that I asked about it. I decided to give them the benefit of a doubt, though privately I was planning on checking out what the timestamp on the envelope said when it arrived. I didn’t intend on doing anything about it, just mostly to confirm my suspicions. http://i.imgur.com/eiGOmHr.png http://i.imgur.com/2TIbX01.png Today, 2ish days later, Feb 17th in my time zone but not quite 3 whole days later, they DM’d me again letting me know that the mailman apparently hadn’t picked up the mail. For 2 days. Now obviously I don’t have any proof of them being dishonest, but I had a bad feeling about it in the first place, so this was just the final straw. I told them that it felt suspicious, and I was very frustrated. At this point I tell them that I’ll be writing up a beware, and that I don’t wish to speak to them unless it’s confirmation of shipping the badge. http://i.imgur.com/2TIbX01.png http://i.imgur.com/lMk2rCP.png As the screenshots show, they then proceed to tell me that I’ve been rude and hurtful, along with some comments that are very guilt trip-y. Included in my screenshots are some subtweets about the whole situation. http://i.imgur.com/lMk2rCP.png http://i.imgur.com/yv3dZkP.png They don’t admit to anything and either situation is equally as likely imo, but regardless of whether they put the badge in their mailbox or not, it’s still been since August of last year. So I feel like this beware is justified. I get that “real life” happens, but it takes so little time to send an envelope in the mail that it quickly becomes an invalid excuse. I would probably have been more patient if it had been something that required boxing up or packaging, but this is such a simple thing that I just ran out of patience. As soon as I receive my badge, I will be shipping out theirs. But at this point I’m not sure when that will be. So that being said, be careful when dealing with MintyMudi. They are unreliable, unprofessional, and I do not recommend it. As soon as I have received the badge, I will update this post and ship out my half. UPDATE: I have received the badge on the mail. regardless of the reasoning behind it not being shipped when they said they would ship it, I consider the transaction resolved. However, there are issues with cutting of the lamination that is fairly sloppy that I pointed out to them. ( http://imgur.com/lgiVQCT, http://imgur.com/WACmX6f, http://imgur.com/suBW6gz, http://imgur.com/zzHp25K, http://imgur.com/OKXFwlW )If this were a commission, I would request it be redone and fixed, but since it's just a trade I don't want to bother with it. They also have yet to own up to their behavior and outbursts, and I don't think they will. So resolved, yes. But still be wary of working with this individual. I would not recommend it until they improve their attitude and work ethic. Update: Minty has come to me with an apology and acknowledged their behavior following my previous communication with them. This shows a willingness to improve and admit fault, and I'm pleased that they did so. http://imgur.com/nzOJQvu

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/925839.html EDIT 11/2/2016: Received both sketches in the mail this past Monday as well as one of the WIPs that was not chosen to be completed. With a lot of poking and prodding, I can happily say this entry is now resolved. EDIT 10/22/2016: Received the second sketch this week! They actually ended up redoing the WIP of the second, doing two different versions which was super cool http://sta.sh/01937bqah6te http://sta.sh/0t3usskymsy (and will be getting the wips sent to me along with the finished sketches). So here's the finished product! http://sta.sh/0vujuwdnoqh It turned out absolutely fantastic, and I honestly couldn't be happier with the result. I was also told that the sketches would be shipped out sometime this week. Waking up today, I got notified that both sketches and all the WIPs have been shipped and was provided with a tracking number. Once I post another update receiving the sketches, I'll ask for this post to be marked as resolved. - EDIT 10/7/2016: I'm assuming the artist knew about the dispute automatically closing on the 4th if it was not issued to a claim. So in spite of that, they did complete one sketch on Monday ( http://sta.sh/017w66edr8e2 ). I have to say, it turned out really beautiful, and makes me super pumped to see how the next one turns out too. They added a bit of extra detail to it too, to make up for all this trouble, which was nice, although since then I have not heard anything back about the second one. Not only that but I only received a photo of the sketch..no high res scan (though I wasnt expecting one as I did pay for the physical copies to be mailed to me as well). I don't know..I'll send another message asking for an update this weekend..but I'm really hoping they don't decide to just..ditch now, considering the dispute is now closed and I can never reopen it again if I don't receive the second sketch or the physical copies of both. We'll see...but I'll continue to keep you all posted. - EDIT 9/14/2016: Issued a dispute over PayPal. Artist immediately contacted me via Twitter and has agreed upon a completion date, that being towards the end of the month. (https://www.dropbox.com/s/if8mxpaqzt3horm/Screen%20Shot%202016-09-14%20at%206.47.48%20PM.png?dl=0 ) If I do not receive an update, refund, or the artwork itself, I will be getting PayPal involved by filing a claim. - EDIT 9/12/2016: Added some examples of what the finished sketches SHOULD look like to dropbox! WHO: Vani / AshKetchumSays WHERE: Twitter WHAT: Traditional Portrat Sketches ($86.50USD Total) WHEN: Initial Conversation: Began June 4th 2016 Payment Agreed Upon & Sent: June 14th 2016 Received first pass/WIP of commission: June 25th 2016 Signs of Trouble Began: July 21st 2016 PROOF: All messages are through twitter, stamped with appropriate dates, PayPal info as well-> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/oeaqa7f60h04n7k/AAAwREd1IFwb0rshXCNV3uPEa?dl=0 What my finished commission SHOULD look like -> https://www.dropbox.com/s/yypupu1d604gljn/Ck7aZUzUUAE2odg.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/084xnnkgzv0optk/CkH1H4HUUAEEWTv.jpg?dl=0 Explain: First of all, I am an artist myself who does freelancing, and normally I wouldn't make reports on other artists as I am a very reasonable person when commissioning other artists as I understand how stressful the process can be and how long it can take. But anyway! Always been a fan of Vani's work, and seeing that they were offering sketches for a good price got me super excited to finally order something featuring my characters. June: Communication started off really well! I knew they were taking a lot of commissions, so I honestly wasn't worried about how long they'd take, as I am a very patient person. An agreement for the final paymet was made, and commission progress began. Within a couple weeks, I received WIPs. They DEFINITELY didn't seem as good as her previous sketched portraits she was doing..I could tell they were likely feeling burnt out, but I didn't bother judging too hard as they are just WIPs. Still looking forward to the final pieces. July: Towards the end of June she gave me a good long update about how they'll be busy prepping to sell at a convention, therefore making a delay on the sketches. Completely fine with that, as I had seen the roughs so I knew they'd get done in no time..or so I thought. Sent in an update of a reference for one of my characters...no response whatsoever, even though they were/are on twitter quite frequently. If you check their twitter account, this was also around the time their troubles rose and they began taking on more commissions, creating adoptables and selling them, trying to earn more money and moving old commissions, including mine, back in their queue. August: Tried contacting them again for an update. Finally got a response; a lengthy one at that, which I honestly don't care about. I just want to know a time estimate for completion. This was when their housing troubles and whatever else were brought to me personally, though I already sort of knew about based on their twitter posts. I come back rather short, as my frustration began kicking in, knowing they clearly have time to work on my commissions, but is yet, focusing on others, new orders at that, in order to make quick money. I bring up the option of a refund (partial, considering they did have WIPs completed), because at this point I'm doubting itll ever get done and I'd rather give my money to an artist more reliable and professional, despite how talented Vani is. No means for refund at given time, so we agree that the following week she'll have them done, and once again, I remain patient with them. September: At this point I'm just fed up and frustrated. Way past the date we agreed for completion, so I ask for a refund. Comes back saying they're completely unable to, yet, oh look! In one of the screenshots I provide, they just received money from a recent auction, but yet, still can't refund me my portion of payment for the pieces I commissioned from them (no idea how much the Auto Buy went for in the auction, clearly a lot more then the previous bid though). At this point I stop replying. I'm not getting my money back, my art will not be completed. If it's done, it'll be a miracle, but for now, I HIGHLY recommend NOT commissioning this artist until they smarten up, sorts out their financial situations and develop a better professional attitude when doing business with clients such as myself. I've spoke with other friends who have commissioned them and they're also waiting on art from them (though at a much longer wait period than myself) and they're equally frustrated. I'm just completely disappointed in this whole situation, and definitely don't want others going through this with her as well. I'm fine waiting long periods of time for art, but when I see her posting more art, adoptables, commissioning openings, etc, its like a big slap in the face to those still waiting on art from them.

Mod Note: This artist has completed all their outstanding commissions. Posted on Mar. 28th, 2013 by lorenafa WHO: Pirate-Cashoo (FA) WHERE: www. furaffinity.net/user/Pirate-Cashoo Pirate-cashoo.deviantart.com http://www.hentai-foundry.com/user/zombiepirate/profile http://pirate-cashoo.tumblr.com/ WHAT: Couple Icons. WHEN: October 15th, 2012 - Ongoing. PROOF: PAYMENT:: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/53660315/PC_LJ/paypal_pdf.png NOTES: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/53660315/PC_LJ/oct15.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/53660315/PC_LJ/oct25-response.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/53660315/PC_LJ/nov12.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/53660315/PC_LJ/dec17th.png https://dl.dropbox.com/u/53660315/PC_LJ/feb23.png DETAILS/EXPLANATION: Disclaimer: Okay, first of all I -really- hate to do this because I’ve read from her updates that she’s been going through a hard time and I really don’t do confrontation. That said I feel like I need to warn potential buyers again (she’s been doing this a lot.) about Pirate-Cashoo/Cachet. All I would like to do is get in touch with her and get what I paid for or to have her reimburse me as 60 dollars is a lot of money to me and I could put it elsewhere or towards another artist who actually wants to do the artwork I‘d asked for. Now: On October 15th, 2012 I decided to get myself and my boyfriend at the time a set of icons from her as a gift, I have a screen cap of how that went above. I’m keeping anyone who is not me or Cashoo anonymous as I am the person with the problem here, and not the others involved so the grey text is only usernames/references that are not mine. Just so we’re clear. As you can read for yourself from the links, She seemed a little hesitant but told me that the wait would be a few months as she had a pretty big queue and so forth. I didn't mind waiting as I’d purchased another set of icons during the duration of the time, and as an artist myself I understand how art takes time and artists are not robots etc. I contacted her again on October 25th because the person I had originally wanted the icons with and I had split ways and after communicating with him I switched the person I wanted to get the icons with and she okayed it with me. Told me she had not started them yet which did not really surprise me as she’d mentioned prior until November she would be pretty busy. So I was okay with that response, and didn't contact her back until November 12th. I hadn't thought about when she told me she’d start them and had forgotten she had family plans. Again just being friendly and curious about them I shot her another note. I can’t unfortunately find the message she responded to me about but it was something along the lines of “Sorry I haven’t started them yet, my family is down…” It was all good, and I told her to have a good time with the family and again not to rush. I then contacted her in December as I was curious why she hadn't gotten a sketch to me, but figured it was Life issues. Told her I wouldn't mind seeing a sketch before she completed a final product as I was curious if she had made any progress on the icons. She in this time started to just entirely not read or ignore my notes, and I have not been able to anchor her down for a response since then. She did however -read- this note, so there is that. My last note I left on February 23rd 2013. I actually noted her on deviantART account prior to FurAffinity (i copied and pasted the message directly from the note i sent on deviantART) but she didn't respond to either or read the note on FurAffinity (I have no idea if you can check who reads what on deviantART as I don't use it aside from a place holder.) I’m not making this to get people mad towards Pirate-Cashoo, but I will say that I'm severely disappointed in her business management skills and as an artist who does this as a full time job I don’t understand her complete avoidance or lack of a schedule. I love her artwork but I feel like I need to warn others about her business practices, I'm very disappointed. I wanted to let you guys know that if I were you to watch out and maybe hold off on getting art from her. She's a friendly artist to communicate with but I'm kind of tired of lack of updates/getting a bunch of excuses from her. I hope that she reads this and gets at the very least in touch with me so either discuss a refund or give me a concise deadline. ~Lorena.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1013574.html WHO: ToBeABird/Bird/Pheonix/Otternonsense/PB_Willow/@StrawberryJemma on twitter. Old known aliases include CynicalSergal on FA WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tobeabird where I initially contacted them and bought the commission. WHAT: 2 Sided Digital (Open Species) Bat Dragon Reference $40 WHEN: 5/6/16 May 6th 2016 to present day (ongoing) EXPLAIN: I specifically commissioned bird because they did the reference sheet of a character that I liked and I wanted something done of the same species. I had found the character through youtube, then found out they were purchased by someone, and actually stumbled on their FA page finally finding the artist behind the reference. I messaged them asking them to help me make a character of the same species. I asked for some basics for the character, it would wear a skull on its head, neck fluff like a bat, a long tail like a dragon, and big ears like a bat. They told me they didn't feel comfortable doing that because it would be copying their friend's character. Whatever I understand that though it is quite disappointing when generally most bat characters have all these characteristics. I was just thankful someone was actually going to be able to help make me a character from scratch with no images at all. I gave them some artistic freedom but generally its a bat dragon, it needs to look as such. The agreement (https://imgur.com/byYQg1X ) and the proof of payment. (https://imgur.com/b95ZIn9 ) Bird said in the messages the estimated time for the completion of the reference sheet would be finished in 7-25 days. So it should have been finished between May 13th 2016 and the very end of may, and if I'm being generous, end of June of 2016. Messages took place on May 6th 2016. The dates came and went, and I sat wondering what happened. I don’t feel like dragging their personal life through the mud, or trying to locate every single journal they posted about art delays, needing money or any other kind of inconvenience because there are many. I remained understanding and considerate during this time because it is the human thing to do. I am aware things can be delayed and people have home life and personal issues to deal with and it's fine because at the time the art was only a month late. Sometime in June or July of 2016 they did a stream on picarto and I saw the line art for the character they would be making for me. I saw them open the file of the old bat dragon reference they made for their friend, and they just edited the lines, as in directly opened the line art file for an older commission, and shorted the ears, changed the tail, the nose, the mouth, everything. The character didn’t look like a bat at that point, it just looked like a dog with wings. I do not have a copy of the line art because their queue/trello is no longer available. I didn’t feel like fighting them so I said the lines were fine but I really felt cheated. June came and went, July came and went, August was coming to an end so I decided to message Bird about the commission mostly to get an update if they finished or if I was able to get some things changed (https://imgur.com/A89OtmH ) this was mostly a message to remind them they had a commission due to me. Months go by with no update to their trello (which was available at the time,) I at one point in time they whispered me on picarto in October 2016 saying they hadn’t forgotten about the commission and they’ll work on it soon. Another time they said they would start working on owed reference sheets during a stream, and ended the stream earlier never touching any art. I sadly have no proof of these things because I never saved the messages and it was all on picarto so there's no actual saved evidence. I was never contacted again, nor did I contact them until they messaged me on my twitter in July of 2017 accusing me of sending my friends after them. (For the lazy, I don’t know who this person was, I never sent anyone after Bird, I solve problems on my own.) Bird's first message accusing me to of sending "my friends" after them https://imgur.com/ftj67RR the continuing messages https://imgur.com/ThYfcFM (obligatory "I know you've been waiting a long time," it was over a year at that point). Bird also asking me to find this person (despite me not knowing them) to get them to stop "harassing" him https://imgur.com/C5F0mHD . At this point I had started to scroll through the main feed of my twitter and saw Bird had tweeted these out https://imgur.com/SM68woa and https://imgur.com/Gp15wux . Whether or not they were actually about me I still made the notion to call them out for it since they previously accused me of sending people to harass them. Probably unprofessional on my side, but I also found it unprofessional to come after someone and accuse something they did not do. Also in the proof 4 they mentioned that my commission was 85% finished. https://imgur.com/sPv6Uzj and finally https://imgur.com/6m78KTM . Since the final message I had not received any kind of update about my commission being "85%" finished. I never received the line art and there were no updates to a queue, a trello or message to me. All updates from Bird of any kind seem to be journals about their personal financial issues. Their journals seem like a general place for them to ask for them to ask for money for overdue bills and vet trips or uber money. I had quit following their FA over a year ago because I was tired of seeing them open for emergency commissions and in stream commissions every other day but never actually show up with anything completed. If you just delve into their journals on FA you can see how chaotic and ridiculous it has been as a commissioner trying to get any kind of information from them. They have constantly locked, unlocked and deleted their twitter and since these previous messages from @pb_willow, they made a new one. I had to actually find their twitter from their fursuit business account in order to get ahold of them a year after they said the art would be completed in a week. I contacted them on twitter JULY 13TH 2018 The First Message https://imgur.com/PrvCE6Z My first message to them asking for a refund because I have been waiting over two years for this piece. The Second Message https://imgur.com/xTfAVy0 : Bird mentioning that on their FA journals (I stopped following them over a year ago) that their computer has died and they have debts to a cable company equalling over $500? They also mentioned to not contact them through this twitter and contact their art manager. The third message https://imgur.com/9ELAJAi They’re now saying they owe $900?) They said I need to wait Saturday to find someone to give them the time to use their friends’ laptop to plug their external hard drive into. I don’t know how long their computer has been broke, but why they didn’t get this done this as soon as they could makes me really skeptical of everything they’ve told me. If I delved deeper I feel like I would have been met with a ton of excuses. I told them I want either the art or the money whichever comes first, which sounds really rude, but it has been over two years. I do not trust this person to get me either the art or the refund. Every promise they had made to me has never been achieved. I feel like I have been lied to several times about this commission, and any time I have ever asked about seeing a work in progress I never see it, I am given a bunch of excuses among other things. I said I was going to message them saturday (July 14th 2018) but I gave them some time and messaged their manager (since they told me to) July 16th I messaged their manager https://imgur.com/vaPwZbF and never received a response. (JULY 23RD 2018) https://imgur.com/30j8Ww2 I messaged bird on FA asking for an update because their manager never messaged me back. I get a short message stating they sent me an update via twitter, which i can assure anyone, even if I could provide proof, I NEVER GOT AN UPDATE on twitter. Nothing else was in the FA message. Not even an update. Even if they did message me an update via twitter then they could have provided the update in the same message in FA as well to be professional. Instead I get a short and snappy message replying to me me asking about a commission that is TWO YEARS overdue. Message on July 23rd 2018 https://imgur.com/30j8Ww2 July 24th 2018 https://imgur.com/0Dctzas my patience has gotten very thin. I’ve not been given a real update, thus me lashing out. I’m tired of dealing with this individual. This is completely out of hand, two years waiting on a commission and I’m getting treated like I’m the one inconveniencing them. That Night July 24th 2018 https://imgur.com/6Vy6882 They asked me for my paypal email so they could send me the refund that night, later changed to when they wake up https://imgur.com/zmMAZLI to no one's surprise the refund never came. I gave them 5 days. (July 29th 2019) I messaged them to tell them I never received the refund https://imgur.com/UZixicK gave me some excuse about it being "summer in the south," (it's also summer in my state?) They have also seemed to forgotten that THEY TOLD ME THEY WERE GOING TO REFUND ME that same night several weeks ago because they no longer wanted to deal with me. But in this message they are accusing me of "not wanting to wait for the art." (Again it has been WELL OVER two years, I think we have gone above and beyond wanting to wait for this art.) It is now September 4th 2018, I still have not received the refund, only tons of excuses which is apparently the only thing I seemed to have paid for(?) I've checked their FA there's no indication that they've made an attempt to reach out to people to give them refunds or the art they're owed. I don't know how long it takes them or their friend to build a computer but over a month seems a little ridiculous (I know people work at different paces, but it took me four hours to build my computer and it was my first build.) Remember in previous messages they said they owe 14 people art that are stuck on their hard drive. I'm assuming since I messaged bird they have made zero attempt to try and retrieve these pieces for myself or for people by either a completed computer or by visiting a friend to use their computer. I have not been contacted to be paid back, this all started May of 2016, it is now September of 2018. Will Update As Necessary (September 9/4/2018) Most recent update (September 9/14/2018) Most recent update (September 9/16/2018) Sept 14th https://imgur.com/essiCtS (outgoing message) Sept 14th https://imgur.com/sTXgJvc bird’s message to me. I’m sort of dumbfounded and have zero idea of how to go about replying to this mess. This is where I get tilted and I’m sorry for that, this has been an emotional rollercoaster of all this back and forth nonsense. To recap: they had told me they “finished” the art (whenever that was) and I was never once notified before their computer happened to die. All this is riding on the fact we would not be having issues if they had either given me the art or refunded me when I asked a year ago. Several weeks ago they just told me they bought a computer (messages in the beware, but also here:https://www.furaffinity.net/journals/tobeabird/ in their journal where they also talk about going to IFC) So no money to refund people, but money to buy a new computer and go to conventions? JANUARY 4TH 2019 They sent me a PM in FA asking for my paypal and wanted to search through our notes to find how much they owe me, which I told them straight off the bat (eheh ) because i had a feeling they'd be searching for several months. In any case they finally sent me my refund today. So not exactly three years but close enough. Tired of ads? Upgrade to account with Professional package of service and never see ads again!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1004177.html Who: AshleyZombie/AshleyZombieArts When: May 16, 2018 — July 11, 2018 Where: http://ashleyzombiearts.tumblr.com/ What: A finished digital painting for $100 This artist usually gets a positive reputation from her fans and community, so this might seem like a shock. No artist is perfect, and surely no artist is bulletproof. I hope any fans of hers will see reason, and not an intent to do harm. This is my story. About a week ago from writing this (July 1) AshleyZombie canceled my commission because of con booth prep and "personal issues." I asked her to not do this, that I was willing to wait until con season was over and she was ready. But she did not want to hear any of it. She then kept half of the money I gave her for the commission and sent me a terribly done rough draft of the image, which is not what I was paying her for nor do I think it's worth half of the amount she charges for a fully rendered painting with cleaned lines and refined color work [see example here]. I expressly told her I don't agree to these new terms for a half payment, and that because she is the one canceling our project, that she is breaking our contract. She then slapped me with a bunch of horrible terms from her ToS page, which we never discussed beforehand. I initially contacted her on Tumblr after seeing a post about her being open for commissions — which was back in May, so over a month ago — and we hashed out the beginnings of what I thought would be an amazing commission project. Not once did she mention her ToS, and furthermore that because she was the one breaking our contract that she has no right to enforce her ToS onto me. It's already bad enough that to be on her commission list you have to pay 100% upfront. But now that she's able to cancel any commission she chooses, and is able to keep half the money for doing very little work, is a VERY BAD business practice. If all you are going to do is open for commissions, then cancel the commissions you just took while barely working on them just to keep half of the payment, then maybe you shouldn't be doing commissions in the first place if you do not plan to complete them. I understand bad things happen in life. I am completely forthcoming about personal issues, and I am willing to bend over backwards to help you out if I can. But this is something I feel she is doing to take advantage of clients, who will mostly remain silent and let these things go. I did not feel this was fair for her to do, and I was more than happy to negotiate a new settlement for the work she has done. However based on separate terms unrelated to the canceled commission. If you start a commission for a digital painting, and the end result is a rough doodle, then I am willing to pay you for a rough doodle. Just to put prices into perspective here, she was offering commissions for half-body and full-body paintings, at $100 and $180 respectively. I am glad I only purchased the $100 slot, because if she considers what she gave me to be worth half of $180 I would legitimately lose it. Either way, the practice of canceling someone's commission and charging them half for very little work is most unbecoming of her reputation. I haven't even mentioned the communication timeframe, usually taking weeks before getting a response. For the most part I was quite unassuming. After the first day of making payment, on May 16, she told me she would be able to send periodic WIPs. About 8 days later, on May 24, she sends me a rough sketch of my character which I absolutely adored, and told her to continue on after making some small fixes on the character. Again, another 8 days of waiting for a response, and on June 1 she informs me that there are no updates and to check her commissions queue. That didn't help clarify what was her situation was, but I reassured her that if she needs time to just let me know what's going on and keep me in the loop. At this point I ask her to let me know when she thinks she will be able to resume or get back to me about my commission, but no response. Twelve days later, on June 12 she finally responds with an update asking me to confirm the color palette and eye color. I comply, and I confirm the things that are correct and things that aren't correct. However I expressed slight dismay at the fact that we never discussed the changes to the preliminary sketch that was first drafted almost four weeks ago, and that the changes needed were not reflected in the update. I even clearly stated the issues unaddressed at the end of the email, verbatim. She then reassures me that the corrections will be reflected in the final painting, but I was already having doubts — my trust in her to do what she says was really all I had left to rely on. I tried to press on a conversation about the initial changes to the first draft, however that was shut out with another 4 days of silence, and finally on June 17 I received a response comparing the first draft to the second with color. At this point I was somewhat troubled by the lack of progress on the commission. An entire month has gone by, we haven't discussed the details or how we should go about fixing said details, I am receiving updates arbitrarily which only address the artist's concerns and not mine, and I personally found myself frustrated and contemplative about the appearance of the initial draft. So I withdrew my responses for a time, as it seemed the artist was not interested in having a conversation about my commission. I had the intention of responding later, or looking forward to AZ keeping her word that she will make the changes I am asking for in the next update. That was not to be so, because a week later on June 23, she sends me an email. "Hi, i hate to be doing this but im send out refunds to clients that's waited over a month or so due to the fact that i have con prep to worry and i've been slowly burned out with work. I've got a lot going on irl too and I've been stressed about it I don't think im doing this character much justice and im not following the guild lines too well with whats shown on the page. This character's been sketched and colored already so i'll be giving you a partial refund. I Just need your paypal email and i'll send you the full image when i send the money back !" Basically she's decided to scrap the project for her own reasons, but also — by the way — she'll be keeping "part" of my funds as tribute for her efforts thus far. Under different conditions, as I stated before, I'd have been happy to compensate her for her efforts. But the way this was imposed upon me, with disregard for her own incompetence by not completing her end of the deal, seemed to have disingenuous intentions. I sit on this email for about a day, contemplating alternatives and then I arrive at a solution. I ask AshleyZombie to reconsider putting the project on hold until she is able to collect herself and is ready to continue, preferably after "con" season. I was open to a new timeframe, and expressed that I'd be happy to wait. She refused, twice, and it was basically a one-sided conversation. Actually, come to think of it, the entire conversation since day one was very one-sided. I'm not very aware of many one-sided business conversings, but they usually don't end well for the receiving party. A few more emails, and it seems she's actively pushing for me to just accept what she's saying. From her tone, I can tell she's frustrated with my noncompliance and pleading. And to be fair, I am just about as equally as frustrated with her unresponsiveness and authoritative diction. I grind our pleasantries to a halt and let her know my thoughts on what she is trying to do. Specifically that I do not agree at all with her new terms for a partial refund for an item I do not want in its current state, at a price of her choosing. I lay out the barebones of our contract and how she did not complete her end of the deal. As a result, I asked that she consider completing the piece at full price — or that I demand a full refund and that she keep her incomplete efforts. Perhaps to count it as practice work or something to stuff into a sketchbook. I tried my best to be reasonable and logical, also taking effort to acknowledge her "apparent" hardship. But even this was met with incompetence, as she accused me of trying to bully her into not paying. I told her I would consider paying, but under arguably different circumstances. Nonetheless, seeing as how negotiating with her has gone so far, I wasn't optimistic that she would agree to anything else. Then she slaps me with her ToS. Which states that if the client should ask for a refund, and if she is halfway finished with the piece, that her terms would apply as such and a partial refund of "half" of the original commission price. And that would make sense, if I were the one requesting the refund. I even told her if I initiated the refund, I would be okay with paying half. But that isn't the case by far, and the complete opposite is true. She has termination terms, but she's exempt from terminating herself? And because she's broken contract, I don't understand how her terms can still be enforced. That got cherry picked to mean what she wanted it to, and as such she says it doesn't matter who initiated the refund. That if the work itself is halfway done then she is entitled to half of the payment. No negotiations. Had she simply imposed a cancellation fee, she wouldn't be able to enforce it. Our situation wasn't any different. That out of the way, this argument continued for one additional response from her, basically telling me that I'm bullying her, that her ToS are to protect her, etc, and that she will be enforcing her terms regardless of how wrong she was for breaking our deal. So far, I am taking this up an echelon with PayPal. Hopefully they will be able to resolve this issue where I cannot. And if they can go no further, I'll take it to civil court if I have to. It's the principle that's going to cause more harm in the long run, in my opinion. And not just from AshleyZombie, but from other similar-minded people as well. This is what I expected to get. [link] And this is what I got. [link] Still, the issue isn't about worth. It's that the original deal was not honored. We agreed on $100 for a finished digital painting. But instead of that, a new deal was shoehorned into this one, involuntarily, for a partially completed work for half the cost of the original price. Which I never agreed to. However it will be difficult for her prove what constitutes as a "half work," and what justifies "half payment" based on her ToS. Had this been a normal cancellation fee, I'd gladly pay it but... wouldn't you know it, I didn't cancel? Please beware of this artist, and others like her! Proof: Emergency Commissions Post | The original was deleted, saved on archive.org Payment | on PayPal Email conversation [PDF][NSFW?] PayPal case is ongoing! UPDATE (July 11) PayPal has ruled in my favor. The case is now closed! Proof of decision (July 10) I also discovered that AshleyZombie reopened commissions not even a few days after canceling my commission! This means she lied about her reasons for needing to cancel, in stating that she needed time to de-stress, etc, yet just hours later she reopens extra fresh on Twitter. In other words, AshleyZombie is accepting commission slots, only to later cancel any commissions she doesn't want to do while keeping half of the money given to her by clients. Do take note she leaves that part out, as if a full refund was offered. This is beyond reprehensible. Please be VERY aware of this before commissioning her. I'd offer to help revise her refund policy, but for someone to scam their clients like this I cannot bring myself to want to help. My perspectives on AshleyZombie have definitely changed after this discovery, and not for the better. Archive.is link: [Reopened Commissions] Rant on Twitter: [Rant]

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/979396.html WHO: SilverDeni WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/silverdeni/ WHAT: $60 Digital Flat Commission, don't care if completed at this point WHEN: Commissioned Feb 27th, 2013 EXPLAIN: Back in 2013, I replied to a journal post on SilverDeni's page for flat commissions, she mentioned college work but also laid out a plan to get the commissions done so I already had an expectation that it might take a bit to get the art and was perfectly fine with it. [Journal in question is here - http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4385634/] [Journal with work plan — http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4403494/] Time passes and she posts an update that things will be slow due to IRL things, and also that she'd be taking on some more commissions in another journal. I also sent a PM to her letting her know to delay mine a bit if she needed some breathing room, her response in is PM1 in the proof below. [Update http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4445386/] [More commissions — http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4473308/] I also sent her a couple PMs later that year to check in, PM2 below has those conversations. I did not receive a response from either, and the second one was because she wrote a journal complaining about impatient commissioners, this was recently after I asked for an update so I wanted to apologize. I unfortunately don't have a link to this journal as its been deleted. She then disappears from the web for about 2 years minus various journals about trouble in college and life. Eventually I decide to PM her again, she posted a sketch of my character that I commissioned in her scraps so I was inquiring about this, this conversation is in PM3 below. I didn't receive a response from the last message I sent, I tried contacting her again later on that year, This is in PM4. I also then tried to contact early this year through PM again, PM5 and 6 have these conversations. I realize I may have been a bit nice about it since it was frustrating to see her pumping out personal and friend art constantly with commissions few and far between, especially when at one point I was 'second to last' in her queue. It was a $60 dollar commission and unfortunately I've changed banks so I don't have proof anymore. At this point I really don't care about getting the art or a refund, i'm just really let down that an artist I was really excited to finally commission has so much trouble communicating with her clients, I shouldn't have to be the one to try and force updates on a commission. I can understand life happens, but almost 5 years of waiting for something that I'm led to believe is almost done is just a bit much. PROOF: Imgur album with all screenshots — https://imgur.com/a/4y4yi Tired of ads? Upgrade to account with Professional

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/973731.html WHO: alienpaw / bootiehole WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bootiehole/ http://www.twitter.com/alienpaw https://www.instagram.com/alienpaw/ WHAT: $40 favorite food badge. WHEN: I paid on 11/30/2016 and A WIP was posted on instagram on 2/13/2017. I received the finished piece and contacted them on furaffinity about changes on 3/27/2017. I contacted them again on twitter on 3/31/2017, this was the last time they communicated with me. I tried contacting them again several months later on 8/17/2017 and 8/22/2017 with no response. EXPLAIN: I commissioned alienpaw back in 11/30/2016 for a favorite food badge of my fursona. They quickly responded to my inquiry and sent me a note requesting info required for the badge and their Paypal address. I paid the same day I received the note (https://sta.sh/01ulggzyispv). A couple months went by with no updates on their Trello. I understand how long art can take so I didn't mind at all. At this point I also began following their Instagram account because I had seen that they would upload WIP pictures. On 2/13/2017, they posted a WIP on their Instagram (https://sta.sh/01nps8rvvq0h). I thought the WIP looked great and I was excited to see it finished. One thing that I didn't understand then though (and that I don't really understand now), is that they stated in their T.O.S. that they don't send out WIPs (https://sta.sh/0nfnlhie2l0). I don't really understand why you would publicly upload a WIP but not send it to the commissioner. I tend to be non-confrontational and everything was looking great so far, so I didn't say anything. Another month or so passes, and on 3/27/2017, I received the finished piece (https://sta.sh/01bs8m6agxn6). I was very upset with the finished picture because I had imagined it would look like the WIP, but for some reason they completely redrew it. I don't think I would've had too much of a issue with that if they hadn't left out my fursona's hair. I commented on the submission on Furaffinity on the same day thanking them for the commission and asking if they could possibly add my fursona's hair (https://sta.sh/06xfn20ulfr). They never responded to my comment, so I DM'd them on Twitter on 3/31/2017. They responded to me this time around (https://sta.sh/01mqqfp02kf6). They stated that they would see if they could find the time to add the hair because they had school and other commissions to work on. This was understandable to me. But what made me upset was them trying to blame me for causing them to not draw the hair because I never specified for them to draw it and there being a small part on the reference sheet without it (https://sta.sh/0lvfro2do56). It honestly confused me because the original WIP they posted had hair... I tried not to let it bother me, and told them that that section was there for markings (https://sta.sh/01lnzvpkiw9m). This was the last time they communicated with me. I waited months with absolutely no updates while they took more commissions and opened a online shop. I got fed up as the end of the summer approached, as it had been months with no communication, so I DM'd them again on 8/17 and 8/22 (https://sta.sh/07s53x2ba53) which got no response either times. PROOF: https://sta.sh/2wsjchuxvne?edit=1 Update #1: I sent them another DM on twitter making them aware of the beware. They responded back to me and then offered to completely redraw the badge and send me WIPs along the way. I'm very grateful that they offered this, because I know some artists wouldn't do that! I accepted, and received a WIP of the lineart. Now all that's left is to wait for the finished piece and this will all be resolved c:! Alienpaw also replied to this post clearing up some more things (https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/973731.html?thread=33299619#t33299619)! DMs can be read here (https://sta.sh/212x1ecghbnf?edit=1). Update #2: I received the finished piece on 11/9/17! This has been resolved :)!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/971057.html WHO: Vani / AshKetchumSays / stripesandteeth WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vani/ http://stripesandteeth.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/AshKetchumSays/ WHAT: $50 digital bust/ waist up commission WHEN: I commissioned them in 2010/2011 (I don't have screencaps and the commission Journal was deleted, so I'm not 100% sure about the year but it was during that time) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - EDIT: I tried contacting them again today (08.10.2017) via Twitter and got a fast and professional response. They gave me an estimate when I will get a WIP and the finished badge. To be resolved. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - EXPLAIN: Back then I was really happy so snag a slot, they posted pretty regularly on FA and I wasn't too worried about the long waitlist they had (sadly they deleted the Journal with the old list before I was able to get a screencap). I am a very patient commissioner and have waited up to 3 years for a commission to be finished so I did not contact them for a few years after the initial payment was sent via Paypal. Sadly I don't have a screenshot of said payment since I didn't think I'd need one. They never once contacted me about my commission and suddenly disappeared from FA, leaving a giant list of waiting commissioners behind. I knew no other way to contact them, so I waited and gave them the benefit of the doubt. At some point they returned, saying they were sorry and they would pick up the outstanding commissions but then they disappeared again. They had at least 2 people trying to manage their commissions as kind of a 'secretary' so far as far as I know but this also did not work out. 2 years ago they returned to FA again, asking for commissioners to contact them, so I did - here is the note I sent and their reply . I was hoping they'd work through their old list then but as far as I know not much progress has been made. They were inactive again for some time after that. In March this year I sent a mail to the mail address they left on their Journal, asking for a refund (I assumed it had been 4 years when it had been 6 to 7 years of a wait already). I never got a reply. They took (and keep taking) new commissions via Twitter and at cons, some of which have been completed and some that seem to have been added to their list. I've seen AB posts of their more recent commissions. They also do a lot of adopts and by now I don't think I'll ever see my money again. I don't recommend commissioning this artist. PROOF: their trello list(s) - https://trello.com/b/dU3cUcEA/vanis-full-commission-queue-updates screencap of their Trello with my name on it just to be sure - https://imgur.com/11H1aSW (edited for screencap censoring & link fixing)

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/964292.html WHO: Soy-una-puta WHERE: http://soy-una-puta.deviantart.com ORIGINAL POST: http://soy-una-puta.deviantart.com/art/YCH-couple-unlimited-slots-OPEN-639057637 WHAT: Digital Couple WHEN: October 10, 2016 to Dec 7, 2016 to June 20, 2017 to Current EXPLAIN: I commissioned this artist back in October for a YCH couple, to which things started out a little rough because English is their second language, which was fine. We were able to come to an understanding and an agreement of what I wanted done, and they sent me their PayPal email and I sent payment. ( Screenshot 1) (My username on Deviantart is Nigou.) I hadn’t heard anything from them so in December I asked for an update to which they told me they were working on and were having a lot of life problems. Totally cool, it was only two months since they accepted my commission no big. (Screenshot 2) Now we fast forward to June, which is the first time since December they’ve responded to me. They now are saying they lost all the files because their computer crashed and they won’t be able to finish my commission and they won’t be able to refund my money. I wasn’t allowed to request a refund because they had no money. (Screenshot 3) Now at this point I am getting increasingly upset, because it had nine months since I commissioned them, and seven months since I last heard from them, so I demanded either the commission or my refund. (Screenshot 4) After that they sent me another message saying they don’t draw females, even though that was the same characters I sent a year ago. (Screenshot 5) If you refer back to the original post they draw both MxM and MxF. Then they sent yet another message stating they would refund me in point, and I responded saying I didn’t want point, I wanted the cash that I had sent. (Screenshot 6) Then they told me they couldn’t send money on PayPal because I ‘blocked them’ and they no longer had PayPal and kept insisting on Point. (Screenshot 7 & 8) And that brings me to the most recent exchange. I basically told them I would dispute the transaction on PayPal because it wasn’t fair they kept dodging my request of a refund. They basically told me I was irrational for not thinking about what they are going through in life and why they can’t refund me. (Screenshot 9) And now I get the joy of dealing with their friends telling me I am a horrible customer everything else because I don’t want to accept points. (Screenshot 10) I don’t use points as a way to commission so it wouldn’t be a fair refund. UPDATE : So they messaged me again on a different account this time, basically giving me an excuse for why their friends came after me, also telling me why they no longer draw women, despite accepting my commission last year. (Screenshot 11) And their solution is a refund of points, not my cash. The journal they refer to is one I posted on dA, per the advice of a few people there. UPDATE TWO : So I just recevied a refund some a different paypal email adress, so I suppose this has been resolved, but I am rather disapointed they lied to be about not having paypal. All of this could have been avoided. (Screenshot 12) In under no circumstance would I reconmend doing business with them, but I did receive my refund after a few grueling days of arguing with this person. Anyway, this is long winded, and I am sorry but after all of this here I am posting my first AB because I am so frustrated. I apologize in advance if this is messy or not the proper way to post, but I don't want anyway to have to go through what I went through. I would also love advice in how I should continue to approach this artist. PROOF: 1. http://imgur.com/tw9RvTv 2. http://imgur.com/yquWSwa 3. http://imgur.com/5SGyQJQ 4. http://imgur.com/U3vy5Zr 5. http://imgur.com/u8Pi6TU 6. http://imgur.com/gWwLhlM 7. http://imgur.com/a/ZOqo8 8. http://imgur.com/WY53ZaH 9. http://imgur.com/f5JXZ5j 10. http://imgur.com/LkzKIAN 11. http://imgur.com/iZPbYNV 12. http://imgur.com/a/sah6V Current Mood:uncomfortable

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/949564.html WHO: purqleguy WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/purqleguy WHAT: Fursuit head, one time payment. WHEN: April of 2016 was when I bought the head, the deadline was supposed to be July 2016. At the time of writing this (3/24/17) it has been almost a full year past the deadline, and he will not respond to my emails asking about the tracking number of the package he told me he shipped (he said he shipped it a month ago.) PROOF: Emails: http://imgur.com/a/txDnh Paypal transaction: http://imgur.com/x5G4jo5 I don't remember why I sent it in two parts, but it was sent on the same day as you can see. EXPLAIN: Long story so I put it under the cut In early 2016 I had plans to go to Youmacon with a friend that year. So I was on the hunt for a fursuit head commission that I could wear to the con. A big problem I was running into was that at the time I was 17 and a lot of people didn't accept fursuit commissions from minors. I was turning 18 next month, and was hoping I could use that to hold a spot with someone. I found a commission ad for purqleguy on furaffinity, that he was selling cheap heads as an emergency money maker. I like helping people out, they were cheap and I liked his work, so I bought one. (Initial emails: http://imgur.com/onQQ1kU http://imgur.com/v2yLQUO (a big chunk of the convo has been cut out here, since it was mostly just talk of what material I wanted the horns to be made out of and isn't relevent to my case.) The initial agreement was I wanted it completed by early July. He told me that was doable, and he thought he could have it done even earlier than that. (Email: http://imgur.com/8Ca1JUy ) I got one update ten days after the payment (April 30th) showing me the completed face of the foam base. ( http://imgur.com/0LsBJAh ) After that the only updates I got were from me emailing him to ask. ( Email, note the date, continuing to talk about this in the next paragraph: http://imgur.com/vXC831l ) At the very begining of July, I sent him an email, hoping to confirm that he would have it finished by my deadline. He did not send me photos, but he told me he hadn't begun furring it. Keep in mind, I had not heard from him in a month, and seeing as he sent no photos and said he was sewing the fur pieces, I am to assume he had not made any progress on my head since I last contacted him. He promised to send photos the following day, he did not. His excuse was he went on a mountain trip, (for over a month?) and that's why he wasn't able to contact me. I didn't get on him about this but he should have told me he was going to be away and would not be able to update me. I told him as long as I got it by October then I would be fine with not meeting my July deadline. A few weeks later, I contacted him again, asking if he could send some images of the fur pieces he supposedly cut so I knew he wasn't lying. (Emails: http://imgur.com/jrmTg8d ) He did not reply until early the next month (August) with update pictures. Once again, he told me that a huge thing came up he couldn't work on my suit. He did not tell me that this was happening, this is the second time he had to pause on my suit because of life events without telling me. At this time I told him I was extending the deadline, as I had cancelled my Youmacon trip. (Email: http://imgur.com/8w63Gwg ) For a little bit after that, he did start updating me regularly, and then suddenly stopped without warning. Again. (Emails he sent me, I didn't screenshot the emails themself since it wasn't really much relevent to my case. Just some progress photos and comments on them. These are mostly to prove the dates and that he sent them. http://imgur.com/Z0k4iNL ) He stopped sending me emails until late December, I asked him for an update because the last he checked with me he told me he was almost done. (Email: http://imgur.com/nRJNrrI ) He told me he was going to put in the piercings and then he'd ship it off to me. I did not get any correspondance until February. I sent another email asking for an update, and his exact respond was "[your head] has been packed up for a while now!". He had my head packed up, I'm estimating for at least a month, and he did not ship it off to me. He told me he shipped it February 23rd. (This is the last email he has sent to me, so there won't be any more embedded in this post: http://imgur.com/fvTwOBD ) It has been a full month since he told me he shipped it (I am writing this on March 24th), and I have not recieved the head. He did not give me a tracking number, he did not give me an official confirmation he shipped it. On the 22nd he told me he was going to ship it out the following day, he did not confirm he shipped it but I was hoping he did. I don't know where to fit this into my story here, but it should also be mentioned some updates he didn't even send to me. I had to dig up his instagram account and looked at some photos he had posted to there (ones he didn't send me). I have sent 2 emails at this point asking for a tracking number, in the 2nd I said if he didn't give me a tracking number I was demanding a full refund. I was willing to give this maker a little bit of leeway since he told me he was a minor (didn't give me an exact age, I was guessing 16-17), but this is unacceptable. Do not buy from this artist until maybe he learns his lesson and gives some better customer service. Until then I'm hoping to get that refund I'm demanding and am going to a more high-profile maker with some good reviews. UPDATE; After having to hunt down this guy's tumblr to send him a message asking what was up I FINALLY recieved the head. And the condition is terrible. Here's a photo of the head, it looks fine from the outside but the construction is horrendous. http://imgur.com/Y1NGstB From the outside, notice; no piercings. My character has a nosering and two ear piercings. I even TOLD the maker how he could make the piercings, and he said he couldn't find green paint and I said he could cover it in fleece if he had to. I was very lenient with that because I know green spray paint exists online, but at this point I was tired of fighting with him so I was letting him do whatever he wanted. He didn't even do that, he just put no piercings in at all. From the construction; god where do I even start? I'm guessing he used matrice's head making method, but he did not ventilate the head AT ALL. The mouth is open and that's about it. The foam piece between the head base and the muzzle wasn't cut out, as from my understanding is standard for foam heads, and I had to cut it out myself. He was expecting me to get all my ventilation from the eyes and slightly open mouth, in an all black foam head. The horns don't look anything like I wanted them too, I gave him a link to an etsy store (I believe it was DVC) who had resin ram horns that looked how I wanted but he said he didn't want to use them. There isn't even ridge lines (I'm not sure what the lines on ram horns are called, sorry) on the horns. It's super easy to embrodier something like that on, he didn't even bother. The pink hair piece is tiny, and isn't even pinned down in anyway. If I move too much it flips up. My character I asked some artistic liberties to be taken since my actual fursona has his hair covering his eyes, but I need to see so I asked to make it a little smaller.but not THAT small! The jaw looked like it was about to rip off when I got it, and I had to put some more hot glue in it as I was paranoid it would fall off. And the neck mane has foam under it to make it stand up, which isn't that bad in itself, except he didn't cover the bottom with fabric or more fur, the foam is on display whenever I move my head. I will admit the eyes could've been a little bit tricky to work with, since I asked for slit pupil goat eyes, but the vision isn't very good. The pupils aren't even placed where they would be over my actual eyes, and they're pretty thin. I waited almost a year for a horribly made head. I am not happy. I basically wasted 300$, since I don't want to talk to this guy anymore to get a refund. I'm going to a more reputable maker to get a new head since I'm in the market for a bodysuit anyway.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1011083.html WHO: Rayd / Hytyle / Aprilycan WHERE: fur affinity WHAT: reference sheet WHEN: July 21 to yesterday morning EXPLAIN: user posted to FA forums in search of an artist for making a reference sheet. we agreed that I would be paid 60 during the process and remaining 40 upon completion. since being around 60% of the way through, I have been asking for partial payment; user has in response, acted like a victim by me asking for payment, suddenly reversing the affirming that my style works for them, that they like what I'm making, and claiming they hate it and therefore don't need to pay me. they have even said i'm witch hunting them, which is hilarious! since I've given up being paid the rent money i still need and have moved on to simply wanting to warn other people that this person is insincere and dishonest in their dealings. at first it seemed like a good fit. I gave them a choice of pose and got started. I asked them for feedback about the quality of linework and style. I started in on color and texture, adjusting when they had feedback, but the word "perfect" was thrown around a lot. Created multiple versions for comparison and customer design choice. Started in on the extra offers I included - poses with his outfit, offers to illustrate him using magic. Things people usually don't include in one reference sheet package. Around this time I started asking for payment and realized they most likely weren't planning on paying me. making a personal post to vent about what happened, they comment to harass me, while blocking me, meaning I technically can't reply to their weird victim posing. all said, I think some people are just best avoided at times. I don't know what's going on with this person, but I'd glad a platform exists to warn fellow artists. am I sad? yes. can I pay the rent without this income? not yet. am I going to waste my time harassing this person like they're harassing me? definitely not. but now I know I can check for names here if someone I'm working for seems fishy, and hope everyone stays safe out there.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/907161.html WHO: Kanel WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/kanel WHAT: Digital image. 2 character, Fullbody, Painted and simple background. Later 'upgraded' for the wait. $40 initially + $20 simple background added later = $60 WHEN: February 7th, 2012 initial payment and commissioning. Restarted commission around May 2013. Restarted again in December 2015. PROOF: Agreement of commission Payment for initial commission Journal showing all commissions initially Second payment for background added on later First WIP image in July 2012 Restarted WIP in 2013 Asking to restart again in March 2015 Second restart WIP image (December 2015) February request for update March request for update April request for update and notice of intent to go to AB EXPLAIN: Just for my own sanity of how long it’s been, I organized the events of what happened in each year since this whole commission got started. It might be unusual but it also seems unusual for a commission to take this long. Because it’s been so long, some of the pictures, skype logs, and other things have been lost but I’ve done my best to try and get everything relevant. ------------- An explanation before I begin, I’ve had three different computers. One is where all the screenshots I have on here is the oldest and I don’t actually use anymore because of various issues with it after 2012. Second one, where all of my logs were died last summer. Hard drive gave out around June 2015 and no way to recover anything on it. Third is this computer I’m using now which I received in in September 2015 has virtually nothing on here. So I have a dead spot in skype chats between late 2012 till late 2015. Kanel and I used to be good friends at one point. I found him on FA early one before he really got noticed and achieved popufur status. We played video games together several times and talked together quite a bit over the years. I commissioned him 2 separate times before all this with no problems. Over time though we started talking less and less until we drifted apart as we have now. 2012 Kanel opened commissions and I managed to nab a spot. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3163112/ We shortly afterwards we discussed and agreed upon an idea which cost 35 dollars. I’m not sure why at the time but I paid 40 dollars instead and sent it to him. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gct6e4aw31t4ytb/DS 1a.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvtcergu1fc0oja/Pay 1.png?dl=0 He then posted a journal with a commission list, later in the day, with my commission and two previous completed ones I had with him along with several others in the batch I’m in. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3163656/ Later Kanel expressed concerns about the subject matter as something he wasn’t very interested in doing (which now that I look back even I now I was wondering what I was thinking) so we changed the commission to a fight scene between our characters that could both enjoy. Suggested I cover the cost for a background to make it look better but Kanel didn’t want me to pay because he felt a bit sorry for such a long wait. I thought it was only right that I pay the cost, at the time being 20 dollars, and sent it out. First half of combined screenshots Second half of combined screenshots For those who can't read those two for any reason, here are the individual screenshots. Quite a lot of them though. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Payment of background: https://www.dropbox.com/s/in1mzrt5y5qz163/Pay 2.png?dl=0 About a month later Kanel would stream work on the picture. He would get his character colored and shaded while my character was mostly done except for some shading. There were some ‘sketchy’ background ideas drawn in but none of them he liked though and were cut out from the progress he stopped at. https://www.dropbox.com/s/kxch66sk24f3t4s/SK 29.png?dl=0 Shortly afterwards he asked for my opinion about opening up some commissions again. My commission and the majority of the others that he had accepted back in February were not done yet. He needed some income at the time to support himself and his family. My opinion then, and still now, is to be open and keep everyone updated one what’s going on with you and why you need to take more commissions. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Later opened commissions journal 2013 I’m not quite sure when exactly Kanel worked on the picture again but he had started over actually and gave me a screenshot of the new picture. I was very surprised at the time but glad that he had worked on it and was farther along than the last picture. Unfortunately the skype logs during this time are lost but I still have the screenshot from then and is dated to have been created on May 17th, 2013. https://www.dropbox.com/s/q76ajxu0is3amks/b59215f815916d704c309f3a465827f7.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/zidj2xmwewblrew/b3942fd923921.png?dl=0 Because of the update and the image looked farther along, I was satisfied with him making progress and left him alone for the rest of the year. Like I said at the beginning, I have a lot of patience and didn’t want to stress him out. 2014 No notes were found for this year and any skype logs I had died with my last computer. No data available for this year. 2015 Every year after this point I would ask for an update on the commission in late February as sort of the anniversary of when I commissioned him. Once again he asked if I would agree to change the subject of the commission again, something league related. I thought this might be just the last motivation he needed to finish the commission so I approved the subject change. If he wasn’t liking the old subject then hopefully this new one would motivate him to finish it. At the time, were we both starting to get into league of legends so it seemed like a good idea. Originally it was something along the lines of us working together to fight Baron Nashor, my character as Rugged Garen (DEMACIA). All screenshots mashed together: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1qjjqu535do32v2/FA screenshot 1.jpg?dl=0 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 It was getting a bit annoying at this point that Kanel didn’t have any significant update for me and wanted to start it over again. He was accepting more commissions and opening his patreon pages with his personal projects and commission rewards (Reward tier where you get the equivalent of a commission). I knew the adopts that he did every few month were to cover his rent and a bit more for food but still hurt that he was doing new stuff rather than old commissions. Eventually in October and November, I finally started pressuring him a bit more about the commission. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vli216e7tsbqy39/DF 1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/jjcmejo0quww2pl/DF 2.png?dl=0 December, shortly after I asked if he made any progress, he started streaming my commission with the league related subject. He did two separate days of it but I missed most of the second day sadly since I passed out mid-stream. Last I saw was of our characters and him working on a very detailed background with us both having killed Teemo. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18520987/ 2016 I was still pretty satisfied with him having worked on it back in December but was surprised he handed worked on it again to finish the image. When I asked for an update in late February, he let me know that he still planned to finish it and wanted to give me a refund as well. I replied letting him know it was 60 dollars and that he would send me the cash the following weekend but nothing came. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oyi0z4ol8bl83dr/DF 3a.png?dl=0 End of March, I asked for an update again but he had none. Also he wanted me to refrain from asking for updates on the image part of the commission as well after he had sent me my money back. The image would be considered a giftart apology for waiting or interest for such a long wait. Still didn’t receive a refund. https://www.dropbox.com/s/h7n8t3nf54c08ke/DF 5.png?dl=0 End of April, I asked for an update again but he still had none. At that time I mentioned my intention to eventually go to Artist Beware with the issue which he was understandably irritated about. I would be too if someone was going to make a post on here about me. Still with no progress on my commission and no refund, it does not appear to be coming to an end anytime soon. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fm3m0iiw4n3w9xy/DF 4.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9p230lwlr7e7rl/DF 6.png?dl=0 I don’t think there is any true malicious intent on his part at all but more leaning towards negligence. Probably he wanted to get the commissions done that were newer and of people where were bugging him more to get them done. This month so far he has made work on his patreon rewards but seems behind on those as well. I don’t really know what his situation is as far as his commissions and patreon rewards but I do wish he would talk about it and be a bit more open. It really sucks that it’s come to this but I don’t quite feel like my commission is going to get finished without this and it would probably be a few more months before I get my refund too. Posting this here probably burns what bit of friendship we still had but seems like this is my only option. It has been over 4 years since I commissioned him. Each time he gets past half way done before scrapping it and starting over because his style changed, to do more for the picture as an apology for taking so long, or because he lost his motivation to finish the image before this one. His art has improved but his work ethics hasn’t quite kept up with the demand he has gotten for his art. I know I’m not the only person he owes art to. There are others that have commissions from him in the year 2013 (Some done others not). Plus he has been having a bundle of (NSFW) patreon commission rewards pile up every month. Occasionally he will take a simple sketch commission or do in (NSFW)stream commission he announces on twitter. He also has his own patreon for his personal comic art that he used to do but hasn't touched for a while. (I could probably fill out a long list of different times he has taken commissions over the years but that would be very long a bit more work that needed. If requested though, I can add them later.) I’m probably not his first priority to do at the moment and that’s fine. Unfortunately my patience has essentially ran out now and a more aggressive approach is needed. This will be held here as unresolved until his promise is fulfilled back in February. Refund of $60 and the commission image. I think that's fair since that's what was offered. Update: Kanel finally sent the refund. That was fast.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/880870.html WHO: Honesty. [current account], Sailor., SailorBases, yoloswagdoctor [old accounts] WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sailorbases/ & http://www.furaffinity.net/user/honesty./ WHAT: Custom bases for my species for rp/adoptables/etc.. 3 separate bases [1 for each species] or 1 base with tons of options for customization. WHEN: May 29, 2014 - First contact made + commission + price agreed upon + paid. Asked for update September 2014. Heard nothing back. Asked for another update on Halloween 2014. Heard back & gave info again. Heard back Nov. 11 - Offered to try to get sketches for preview that night. I agreed. Didn't hear back again. Posted public journal about refunding everyone on Christmas day 2014. June 25, 2015 - Offered art to those who wanted it instead of refund. Took art option. June 29, 2015 - Sent info to new account when I realized the old one wasn't being checked. Oct 27, 2015 - Sent a note asking for updates so I could add that to my owed list. Nov 4, 2015 - Note was read, not responded to. Sent a rather abrupt note asking for a response and got one - asking for all the info again + price paid while indicating I might be refunded instead. Sent info back and stated I would prefer my refund SOON if that was what she preferred to do. PROOF: Initial PM requesting a base - http://i.imgur.com/KA5MDKm.png Accepting commission, price given, me accepting it - http://i.imgur.com/cUfXKz0.png Paypal info given, told her I paid - http://i.imgur.com/mXHL3QA.png Paypal proof of payment - http://i.imgur.com/j8tQOVI.png Checking in September 17, 2014 - http://i.imgur.com/ItQhZ05.png Inquiry on Halloween 2014 - http://i.imgur.com/Btc7IeU.png Response on Halloween 2014 to my inquiry - http://i.imgur.com/jCe5y8T.png Offer to sketch things up that night, Nov 11, 2014 - http://i.imgur.com/JSImwcx.png Last contact from them that year. Refunds instead of art, leaving community, etc journal on Christmas 2014 - http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6370870/ Offering art instead of refunds June 25, 2015 - http://i.imgur.com/kfd3p1v.png Telling them I wanted the art instead as per their journal - http://i.imgur.com/D381Bi6.png Note sent on June 29, 2015 - http://i.imgur.com/thJbatg.png [cut off custom info at bottom of note] Checked in with them since I saw them posting and doing commissions on Oct 27, 2015 - http://i.imgur.com/szFqbOG.png I was admittedly short here on Nov 4 2015 due to frustration at seeing them post but not responding to my note - http://i.imgur.com/S82hYoR.png My final note on Nov 4, 2015 - http://i.imgur.com/OW6Has1.png [blocked out my custom info as I didn't think it necessary to the beware] EXPLAIN: I commissioned Honesty. back on the 29th of May in 2014. I contacted her asking about a custom base - she had a journal up on her bases account [now abandoned] offering them. Once we'd worked out the details I paid her $36 for them total. She had a lot of RL issues happen and I was happy to wait. I realized she was not really doing much on her bases account and contacted her on her [then] new account - Sailor.. I didn't get a response initially and contacted her again on Halloween 2014 asking what was going on and for updates. Got a response [you can see in the screencaps above] and I thought everything was worked out. Didn't hear back from her til over a week into November, when she offered to sketch up previews for me to approve. I was happy with that and said as much. I didn't hear from her again at all that year. On Christmas she posted a journal [listed in proof above] about refunding everyone. I was unhappy since I'd wanted the bases but understood that she'd had a hard time. We got slow updates for a while, with promises of refunds but nothing really being done, up until June. She made a new journal offering art instead of refunds for those of us who wanted it. I really wanted my art so I contacted her as requested and let her know I'd love to do that instead. I figured she would get on them and it wouldn't be too long a wait. Wrong. She has taken on many new pieces, continued to work [slowly] on old pieces, but rarely gives updates. I was getting somewhat frustrated and decided to contact her to touch base and see what was up on Oct 27 since I saw she'd been posting owed art and new stuff as well. My note was read but never responded to, and I saw her continue to post and interact with people on the account. I got somewhat frustrated and sent her a short note requesting a response to my note. She did respond, but indicated she might need to do a refund instead of the work. I responded back letting her know that was fine, but if she was going to refund I'd really prefer it SOON since I've been waiting for almost a year and a half at this point and that is a ridiculous amount of time to be waiting for anything. At this point I just want to be done - art or money asap so I can mark this as done in my records and stop stressing out over it. EDIT: I have finally gotten a response, though only after I sent a new note. I've seen her post up repeated new YCH flat priced pieces and auctions and complete personal pieces as well as gift art + a few commissions, but I don't know how much of that is old owed things and how many are new things. I know that she has taken on far too much and is still taking on more work, because of various situations in her life. With that said, I don't think that taking on even more pieces when she's already so far behind is wise - at the very least the older pieces need to be done before the new ones. I am probably getting a refund she says [as of 2/13/16 when I sent a new note]. She says it may take a while though and will be in payment plans. I'm more than slightly irked by this because I didn't get to pay her in payment plans to order, but it is what it is. I do not consider this resolved and will not until either my art or the money is fully refunded. EDIT 2: I delayed my response to her for 2 reasons. 1- I needed time to cool off because I was angry. 2- I had some things going on elsewhere. I sent my response to her on 3-3-16 and apologized for the lateness. You can see that here - https://gyazo.com/52a50045a15b08d379c0f54b51c07966 and then noted her again on the 6th when I checked and she'd read it, posted journals and other things, and not responded. You can see that here - https://gyazo.com/e77ff4cfa2fb8b7df3c130ba042e279e . I feel I was fairly neutral, though I am admittedly growing impatient because I just want my money or my art, or at the very least a better estimate than the very vague 'it might be a bit' in the notes. I don't mind if the money isn't right away, but then I saw her taking commissions for spotify premium, which bothered me as I feel a refund should take priority to luxuries of that sort. I have also left a shout on her main page today asking her to please respond to my notes. Both have been read, she's been active places, and I'd really just like this to be resolved. You can see that both have been read here - https://gyazo.com/52a50045a15b08d379c0f54b51c07966 EDIT 3: I left a shout on her page on I want to say the 12th of March. It's been deleted [should have screencapped, my bad] but I did get another response. I proposed swapping the base, as it was a large commission, for a single full body piece since the amount was the same [within the range listed for them, anyway] and after my shout she responded asking me not to leave shouts. I pointed out that's been the only way I get timely responses, but dropped it since I was getting communication now. She agreed to the swap to a single full body piece and is supposed to be updating her queue soon with a public list so everyone can see where they are. While I'm still upset, I'm less angry now that I've gotten some responses and have moved forward on at least swapping for something that should be easier for her to complete and is fair with her rates [admittedly the base was priced quite low for the number of things I'd be getting]. If all goes well and she gets her queue down, I may consider commissioning her again in the future should she be willing as I really do enjoy her art style. Still don't consider this resolved, but will come back to let you know once it is. EDIT 4: I got my finished piece, and it's perfect. I consider this resolved and would recommend people commission her once she's got her queue down a little bit. She's gotten a lot better about communication and I'm pleased with the outcome.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/862572.html WHO: Pastel_Paws *old account*, Ribbons.and.Fangs *active account*, MuttStar_Studios (commission account), Creepyinpink, and Sushi.dog WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/pastelpaws http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ribbons.and.fangs/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/muttstarstudios http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sushi.dog/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/creepyinpink WHAT: 2 Colored Headshots WHEN May 12 2014 PROOF: I don't have the original journal but I do have the proof of payment and the follow up journal screenshot and replied emails and notes where she is aware of the artwork. Payment: http://sta.sh/01pov5hop4fn Follow up journal: http://sta.sh/01zwahv18u46 Original replied notes *she deletes my side of the conversation*: http://sta.sh/02djyrpuk0hp http://sta.sh/02bebdaqjqjj Explain: Okay so Ribbons/Pastel/Sushi/Munstar last year posted a journal stating that she was doing I think 5 colored headshots. And since my friend's birthday was coming up I decided to order two of them and plus they were cheap and I was crunched for money. I had a good previous experience with her when I bought an adoptable from her and she was very nice and quick and responsive to my notes and questions. Plus I like her artwork and didn't see why not to buy something. So I send her the money and we discussed in notes what I wanted. This was also around the time of FA's longer downtime so I got her email address just in case and she was okay with this. I'm a patient person so I don't mind waiting plus she said she was busy in the follow up journal and I didn't want to bother her. In August of the same year I sent her a note asking for an update about the commission. And she said that she thought that she finished them and just forgot to post them and apologized. Which I said fine because she said she was done with them at least. Proof of conversation: http://sta.sh/01kv3ah4knsx She never posted the pictures. By then my friend's came and past and in October I sent her an email (I think FA was down that's why it was an email and not a note) and I ask her the same thing. She said the same thing and thought she posted it and asked if I could describe what I ordered. I tell her I checked both her pages and neither had the headshots and she apologizes and even says she'll upgrade my headshots to chibis or if I would like a refund. I choose the chibis and that I'll have a WIP soon. She never did that. I ask again in November the same thing and she apologizes again and says things have been hectic and that I'll see the pictures by Monday. Harley isn't her real name its the name of her character. Proof of conversation: http://sta.sh/01wfpymeo0n7 http://sta.sh/0t0k53zcrkf http://sta.sh/0pr8mdhhikd All of that never happened. And that was the last time she ever replied back to any of my notes and emails. She'll open them almost within minutes after I send them but she never responded back to them. And I wait awhile to send her notes and emails (except for maybe two of them) so I don't bombard her or make it seem as though I'm harassing her. All my questions about updates are months apart but she just doesn't respond back. On May 25th 2015 she finally responds back to a shout I posted on her page saying that she hasn't gotten an notes and hasn't checked her email despite the fact that FA has shown that she has opened the notes. But she states that I will get a refund. Proof of shout: http://sta.sh/02b4jao3qi9m Proof of all the notes I sent her: http://sta.sh/01kv3ah4knsx It is now July of 2015 and she still hasn't refunded me, responded back to my notes/shouts/emails, or even made the pictures. I've tried contacting her one last time asking if she's getting my notes and that I was thinking of doing an artist beware. Once again she opened it and never responded back. Proof: http://sta.sh/0bh3bxgttef I even forwarded the email of the actual paypal statement saying that I paid her: http://sta.sh/07aronw8dud I see her post commissions that she gets from other people so she's active and she responds back to other people's shouts on her page ones that are newer than mine. So I do believe she's ignoring me. And I know this isn't a lot of money. But I hate being cheated you know? I gave this person no real reason to ignore me when they responded back to me in a kind and quick manner earlier. Plus I paid her and she kept saying she'll do this or its done. If it's done than why can't she just deliver what she said is done so we can both put this behind us? She's a good artist and whatnot but I don't want people to go through this with her.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/827485.html Update - 3/12/2015 - Resolved I have finally been sent a refund by the artist. Proof of refund: This is the first time I've been burnt by an artist and my first beware. I really really don't want to have to post this, but I feel there is no choice left in the matter 6 months after being promised a refund that never came. TL:DR version is I paid for art, artist cancelled 3 months later, another two months went by with me trying to get my refund before they cut off contact. Now I'm posting this because, well, what else can I do? WHO: Avante92 WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/avante92/ WHAT: Basic digital art, $35 commission. Was to be a picture of one of my characters and a person who is dear to me. I of course had the permission of said person to get them included in this art. WHEN: I made the request in July 2014. At first the person contacted me, they were not comfortable drawing one of the characters as a plush, so I said it was ok to make them both normal furs. Months passed and in September 2014, I was contacted to say due to circumstances out of their control, they had to cancel my commission (and implied I wasn't the only one). I was promised a full refund that would be coming "soon". I'm sure you all can guess how it went from there. PROOF: Initial contact So I give the my info and pay my $35. Their acceptance is below: And my proof of payment: ... and then in September.. cancellation. And then the excuses start. I was pretty easy going about this given how long I waited to keep reaching out about it. Ok, so they are having trouble, but I'm starting to lose patience quickly. Its $35, not a whopping amount really. Most people spend that on a gas every week or two. Also there is the whole thing where an artist should not make their problems their customers problems. If it means asking your friends for loans, thats fine, its at least being up front and most artists I've seen who have this problem do just that. But jerking around your customers to get a free loan? That is just bad 😕 Finally I've had enough after antoher two weeks. No more Mr. Nice Fur. EXPLAIN: Pretty much explained it all above in the sceenies. I've seen this person finish many commissions, but I have to wonder how many people also never got art. If you see this person open, and their art is really quite good, I would steer clear because this person cannot be trusted with your money and there is no telling how many other people have been victimized. In the future I will now be paying via paypal using a credit card and having a 6 month limit on waiting so I can do a chargeback if things go south or they don't make the deadline. Sadly bank transfers don't have much more than 90 days of being able to charge back and by the time they cancelled on me, it was already too late to get my money that way. I really hate to adopt such a policy, but its people like this that make it necessary 😕 Oh and I'll also add, I don't know if FA will suspend people who do this crap, but I put in a ticket asking and in true FA style it was never gotten to by an Admin.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/793080.html I want to start off by saying I commission a LOT of people every year. I love buying art, and I LOVE the artists I work with. I so rarely have a problem - and I am that person who doesn't mind a long wait as long as the line of communication is kept open! That has been the biggest issue here, as the artist has failed to write back and has basically disappeared off the face of the sites where I can find her. - I apologize in advance for the length of this post; I was trying to be exceptionally thorough, as this has now been going on for a while. WHO: Deviantart user xJem - http://xjem.deviantart.com/ also known as Subeta user MasterBeauPre. (according to her Subeta profile, she is also on Gaia and FurAffinity, though I've been unable to hunt her down there yet) WHERE: Subeta.net; I made an art buying board and she sent me a mail on that site offering her services on 2/18/14 WHAT: Four pieces of art in a "noveau" style, two for myself and two for my wife as a gift, of four of our OCs. - My sMail to xJem with the details of the commission - xJem's response WHEN: The first contact was on 2/18/14, with the terms of the commission being agreed upon on 2/26/14. The $105 payment for all four was sent after seeing all four sketches on 2/28/14. Problems began almost from the start, as xJem stated she had 'deleted the files' and it was a good thing she had the sketches to go over, but I wasn't too worried. The first two completed images were received on 3/10/14. On 3/17, I received a mail from her saying her laptop was broken and she would be out of touch for about one week. I told her that was fine; I was going on vacation that very day, and I would look forward to updates when I returned. I returned on 3/24, and sent a message on 4/1 asking if there were any updates. After not hearing anything for a few more weeks, I went to DA to send a quick message. I think it's important to note xJem had been seen both on Subeta and on DA in this timeframe. I sent a DA message on 4/12. I did not hear back on DA or Subeta, so I eventually sent her an e-mail via the e-mail address she had provided me for Paypal. I sent this on 4/15, trying to keep it light and friendly, just in case she hadn't been on DA or Subeta! I finally received an e-mail back on 4/22, which was full of more excuses (internet issues, broken laptop, deleted files, etc). At this time she did indeed include the 3rd half-finished portrait. I responded telling her I didn't mind waiting, I just wanted to be kept in the loop! I did not hear anything back until 5/7, when she sent me the 3rd finished picture and two freebees to thank me for my patience. I want to interrupt myself here to say, that while I graciously appreciate the freebies... I feel like it would have been far more professional to FINISH the commission I paid for and then offer me something if you really felt so inclined (I flat out told her I didn't need anything extra, just my original commission!). I don't want to sound ungrateful. Free art is amazing. But... it is now 8/23 and I still don't have the final image I paid for. I wrote back on 5/8,and she did as well. I did not hear anything for a while and sent her a message on 5/23. She wrote back on 5/27 telling me of yet another issue and asking if I could wait a little longer. I told her sure. This e-mail on 5/27 is the last I've heard from her anywhere - on Subeta, DA, or via e-mail. PROOF: Oh boy, so many screenshots. I've kept them in chronological order to the notations above! - Completed Paypal transaction from 2/28/14 - sMail on Subeta stating that the files had been deleted and acknowledging she had received payment on 3/1/14. - sMail on 3/17 where xJem states her laptop is broken. - My quick sMail asking for any updates on 4/1 - My DA Message to xJem on 4/12. - E-mail sent on 4/15 - E-mail response on 4/22. - E-mail with the third image and first two 'free' images on 5/7 - Early May e-mail communication. - Last communication I had from the artist EXPLAIN: I wish I had an explanation. I don't know if it's the guilt of constantly putting it off that is causing her not to respond, or if she just bit off more than she could chew with other commissions. She is still around; her DA page says, as of today, that she was last seen a week ago, so she's at least been checking in since she last messaged me on 5/27. At this point, all I want is my final image, especially because... it was a matching set. I don't care about the 'free' art, and never did (and at this point, it doesn't feel free; it feels like the last part of my commission payment paid for two things I didn't order and that's it). I'm frustrated at how this entire thing went down, since she started off so reliable and kind and it turned into this. I'm not sure if she's still active on Gaia and FurAffinity, and just ignoring her existance on the sites that I happen to know her on, but if you DO run across her, please be careful commissioning her - at least for a larger order. Lesson learned.

I don't like the fact that I'm having to do this, but as I couldn't resolve this in a pacific way with this client, I've decided to make a beware so that other artist don't end up on the same situation as I am right now. Costumer: @lopinhojaneiro ~ https://t.me/lopinhojaneiro (Telegram) Telegram ID: 6328315414 On December's end (most specifically Christmas) he came on Telegram to me asking for a animated icon of my Star Fox YCH. I accepted and started working on it the day after, soon I sent him the sketch for approval. Everything before asking for the payment. (Something that I always do, and that is stated in my ToS that can be found on my art channel @JellyBeansArt). Besides that, the user ignored me without reason for more than a week regarding the payment of 50$ BRL (around 10USD) for the commission, and was incredibly rude when I questioned him about it, who answered me saying that I "Haven't finished it yet so I won't be paying". On my advertisement of that specific YCH I explicitly say that I finish it up to 24h after the payment (I said the same on the conversation with him, but he just ignored saying again that he won't be paying). So if you doesn't wish to fall on this pit, I suggest avoiding this person's fursona. I'll be leaving here links that lead to his fursona's reference sheet and some extra artwork of him. Along with it I'll also leave a video that shows all the conversation (portuguese only) and prints of it on both Brazilian Portuguese (original) and English. Sorry for the poor quality of the english translated images, I took photos of them from my computer screen using my phone to use the Google Translator. The video have good quality.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/977213.html I am willing to have a Civil discussion with this Artist and hope we can reach a solution that we are both happy with. Who: Mithacal Creatures Where: www.mithacal.com Twitter:@mithacal What:Fursuit head, Refund. When: May 24th- Present Proof: Mithacal Creatures Beware https://imgur.com/gallery/ukVAP Explain: On May 24th Mithical and I agreed to a trade: I would shop for clothes for her, and in return for my time I would recieve a Custom Half Mask. (See Screen Shot 1) https://i.imgur.com/q2jv2hg.jpg During my part of the trade I inquired about upgrading to a full mask. She told me $200 worth of clothes since she does not need the money right now. (See screen shot 2) https://i.imgur.com/q2jv2hg.jpg My part of trade took roughly 2 weeks; she recieved her box of goodies and loved them. (See Screen shot 3) https://i.imgur.com/q2jv2hg.jpg For Mitha's part of the trade, she told me the completion time would be 1 month for the half mask. I agreed, and she added another 2 months for a full mask. I agreed to this as well. (see Screenshot one and 6) https://i.imgur.com/q2jv2hg.jpg https://i.imgur.com/mr5jBE5.jpg July: I discussed with Mitha on what my mask design would be. Previously, we agreed on a red fox with Antlers. I gave her the concept design. It was verbally agreed that my mask would have some artistic liberty. Those conversations happened in person during a camping trip we had in Homer. (Enter Screen shot here 4) https://i.imgur.com/mr5jBE5.jpg August 3rd-16th: I started to get worried and asked her for an update, or at least a start date for my mask, and never got an answer. (See Screen Shot 5) https://i.imgur.com/mr5jBE5.jpg Late August: I see on Twitter and instagram that she is open for commissions. Being curious and wanting some sort of response from her I asked on her instagram what her turnaround time is. She responded "your mask would be done before these peoples if thats what you are really asking" (See Screen shot 7) https://i.imgur.com/4dlNEYN.jpg I continued sending her messages asking about the start point of my mask as well as asking if I can get some reassurance from her if I was bothering her, and if she does have a start point in mind for my mask. Not once did I ask her "where is my mask". Each message was a couple of weeks apart. I just needed assurance that I hadn't been forgotten. September hits a couple weeks before Senshi con happens. Senshi con was the con we planned on attending with the mask, and the end time Mitha had told me I would have my mask. I start asking about the fur again wanting to match fur. I still have not received a single response from her. When I finally did, it was her sending me her address because I asked for it so I can send a piece of sample fur to her. She got the sample and told me it was wrong. I asked if she can send a picture of the right fur, but received no response. (Screen shot 😎 https://i.imgur.com/4dlNEYN.jpg Then on september 4th she says she is giving me a refund of the $200 extra I spent on her, due to her wanting to close her buisness. (Screen shot 9) https://i.imgur.com/4dlNEYN.jpg I asked for clarification, wondering if we can work something out, and if she will be compensating me for my time I spent shopping for her rather then spending that valuable time elsewhere. I also offered to take a premade artistic liberty head instead, trying to work something out with her. (Screen Shot 9) https://i.imgur.com/4dlNEYN.jpg I don't get I response from her until I post on one of her Facebook posts agreeing with her that being ignored sucks. (Screen Shot 10) https://i.imgur.com/WehJCAs.jpg She takes offense, telling me she doesn't do buisness stuff when she is away with family, then demands that I give her my mailing address so she can send a check since she no longer does Paypal. (Screen shot 11) https://i.imgur.com/WehJCAs.jpg I comply, and ask yet again for my compensation, as well as explaining that I was upset becuase I had asked for clarification about the refund the very same day she told me I was getting one. (Screen shot 11) https://i.imgur.com/WehJCAs.jpg She gets angry and demands my address again saying she has asked 3 times now. (Screen shot 11) https://i.imgur.com/WehJCAs.jpg Ignoring the fact I have already given it to her, I give it to her again and state that I had already done so. I pointed that fact out. Her response was to request when I write a beware that I don't add her actual number. At the time I told her I don't write bewares. (Screen shot 12 and screen shot 17) https://i.imgur.com/WehJCAs.jpg https://i.imgur.com/MkKptPy.jpg I ask on the September 11th, and again on the 25th, about my refund. No answer to either. September 26th she sends me a message stating she is waiting to recoup the money. Screen shot 13 https://i.imgur.com/bju69X6.jpg October 6th: I ask for her plan of action. Still no refund. October 8th: she sends me a message stating she still doesn't have money plus she accuses me of posting snide comments on her Instagram. My snide remarks consisted of the word interesting and that is it. She tells me it takes time to close a buisness. (Screen shot 14) https://i.imgur.com/bju69X6.jpg I ask for a time frame for my refund. At first she ignores me and says that the reason for my refund is because of how I talk to her. My response. (Screen shot 15) https://i.imgur.com/bju69X6.jpg October 31st: I tell Mitha I need the refund by November 15th, and that waiting 3 months for a refund is unacceptable. No response, but the message is marked as read. (Screen shot 16) https://i.imgur.com/Ua10fx6.jpg November 8th: I get told that my check will be sent shortly and that she will be free to talk to me when business slows down. (Screen shot 16) https://i.imgur.com/Ua10fx6.jpg Thats the last I have heard from her. Edit: I am in contact with the Artist and we are working on a resolution. I will update again when I have more information.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/959501.html WHERE: http://shacklefunk.tumblr.com/ WHAT: Digital reference sheet of my character for 100USD WHEN: Sent out the comission request through their comission form back at the beginning of march (I don't have the exact date for this) and got a confirmation email on the 5th or march saying they accepted my comission. After a bit of trouble due to google wallet and different currencies (I'm in the UK so I couldn't send any USD, my partner in the US had to send it but I discussed all that with shacklefunk through email) I paid for the comission around the 7/8th of march. I checked back in if they got the payment on the 16th and they confirmed it the next day. I've managed to contact them a few times since then to ask about the status and on the 10th of May they informed me that they sent me a refund since it has been taking so long and they'd send me my finished comission soon. That was also the last time I've heard from them. EXPLAIN: I managed to grab a slot for a reference sheet when they opened up for just three slots of comissions back at the beginning of march. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/0zd5mo0xhhndhx4/1.jpg?dl=0 Everything went well and we communicated through email, I had some trouble using google wallet since I've never used it before and didn't know I couldn't change the currency. I informed them about this and we worked out a solution. My partner in the US sent the money for it and I made sure to have it sent out as quickly as possible. After I sent out the money I checked back in with them if they had received it. In their reply they said they'd send me the finished picture that day or the next. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/7gujszpqw8y5wim/2.jpg?dl=0 After not having heard back from the again for about a week I sent them another email asking about the comission status. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/v36wxttkirxj57t/3.jpg?dl=0 I still didn't hear back from them and was starting to become quite anxious since it was a large amount of money and I've had some really bad experiences with some comissions before so I sent them another two emails to check on the status of my comission. I tried not to send them too soon after each other since I didn't want to annoy them. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/t2by66donulev1t/4.jpg?dl=0 After not hearing back from them again I tried reaching out to them through the tumblr messaging system instead since they were actively posting there. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/byjgoczepxdn6io/5.jpg?dl=0 I also made a post and tagged them in it to ask them to reply to any of my messages. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/yumr7awje8u1yqe/4_5.jpg?dl=0 That finally got them to reply to me, saying they'd send me the finished pic later that day. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/0xw184kjp20iuye/6.jpg?dl=0 I thanked them for it but then didn't hear anything from them for another few days so I decided to send them another message. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/56d5lwiihskcird/7.jpg?dl=0 Over a week later I got a reply saying they've sent me a refund since it had been taking so long and that they'd send me the finished picture soon (?). I didn't see this message until a few days later but then thanked them for the refund. That was the last time I've heard from them. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/6593cczq7p0yfwh/8.jpg?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/15rwo9q6ypjqp8m/9.jpg?dl=0 (My partner did receive the refund and sent it to me later on) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ytlfkeced602omz/10.jpg?dl=0 After that I've tried to contact them numerous times through email, tumblr asks, the direct messaging system and posts (with quite some time between them) but never got any reply. I haven't seen anything of my comission at any point and even though they've said back in march that the pic was done (and they just have to send it to me) the only answer I have now is that they've never actually done the comission. I don't know what to do about this anymore since they don't reply to any of my messages at all.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/956264.html WHO: Remix Angel Dragon / Nightwolf Costumes WHERE: Facebook –business page apparently deleted; tags/links to business page are broken, did most business through personal page FurAffinity - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/nightwolfcostumes (business, has been cleared out and no submissions are in gallery) Furry Network https://beta.furrynetwork.com/nightwolf/ Twitter https://twitter.com/remix_dragon WHAT: Full digitigrade fursuit valued at over $1800 USD , fleece hat valued at $25 WHEN: Dec. 2014 (when first payment was sent) to present (suit was paid in full May 2015) Read below the cut EXPLAIN: I first commissioned Remix for a fleece hat of my Dutch Angel Dragon character back in September 2014. In December that same year she opened for fullsuit commissions so once again, after seeing her previous work decided to commission her. It was agreed upon that the fleece hat I had previously ordered would be sent along with the suit once it was done (however, I had never seen any shots of a WIP or even a finished hat). We agreed on a payment plan of 25% each month until the suit was paid off. January 2015 I sent her a payment of $450 USD(via Friends and Family to avoid the conversion fee, I was told -strike one on me) then mailed a DTD, a pair of shoes and a hand tracing. As soon as the next month rolled around I was messaged for the next round of payments, but I had to adult (to put it simply) and told her they may have to wait, in which I was then told if I didn’t pay I’d lose my commission spot but that she also wasn’t going to do that. I was able to pay her toward the end of February when things ironed out. Paid her again April 2015 and asked about a possible completion date of Anthrocon 2015. Was told she would start working in May after the last payment was sent. The last payment was sent in May 2015, and work began. We talked back and forth about furs and measurements. It was revealed that the suit would not be completed for AC ’15 but I told her I was fine waiting. September rolls around and we’re still waiting on fur. No other WIPs, such as foam work, were shown. She also asked to keep our conversations between her business page and myself instead of her personal one, but this transition never happened and we continued talking for another year on her personal page. Communication stopped Nov. 2015. After that I’d heard nothing from her again until April 2016. In the meantime she was posting other suit work and finished costumes, as well as sharing excitement over having a character of hers made by a popular maker. April 26 I am finally shown my first WIP picture: the handpaws. In May 2016 I received another WIP photo of the tail. After that I was told she couldn’t finish the bodysuit because my DTD had somehow fallen apart and was full of holes, thus requiring me to send and make another one. I didn’t hear anything for a couple months while the artist went to Eurofurence, despite seeing her post a redo of her own personal suit as well as more work. I messaged them August 20th to ask for updates and was told they were still settling in from the con and wanted another week. I reconfirmed sending a new DTD and was promised extras because of the wait. September 2016 I am notified that they received the DTD, but still no new WIPs. Finally, in October 2016 they send me an invite link to a telegram chat they had created to keep all their customers informed. This is the last time we spoke over Facebook messenger. After the move to Telegram I no longer received any updates regarding my suit, but the artist continued to show off work on other suits, her own suit being made by a popular maker and mention things going on in her home life. She mentions she will have four more hands in the studio to help her with suit work. November she posts another finished head and mentions she will change my sculpt to match that one- keep in mind I have yet to even see any WIP shots of a head at this point. Halfway through November she posts more suit updates but no mention of mine, just alludes that everything they have been working on will be shipped out. There's talk of having everything shipped in time for Christmas, yet still no mention of my commission. Updates in January are sporadic, she's posting that she's sick and disappears for days at a time or even a week. January 23rd she tells us things have gotten worse since she worked instead of bedrest so she's stopping for a while. February she lets us know more about her health, and because of this she is stopping all work, and no refunds are going to be given to anyone. She calls in another person to speak on her behalf and again states there will be no refunds, and to sympathize with her as it is a very difficult time for her, we have options, take them or leave them. I stated my case to this new person, first in the chat then in PM, explaining that while I understand the severity of the situation I can’t just walk away from that kind of money, especially where no other WIPs had been sent since May so I couldn’t even be sure the suit was that close to being finished. I even offered a partials refund of $1200 to cover the material costs and labor already put in and her “spokesperson” stated no, no refunds at all, and “this is the risk you take when commissioning”. They finally do agree on a $1200 refund, as a payment plan, and that they would ship me the parts finished and the remaining fur that I could then take to another maker. I was told I would get a track and trace (tracking number) when it shipped, and the first refund payment was due to start in April 2017. Towards the end of February I reached out to this person again for an update and was told they'd get back to me. I haven't heard from them since. It is now nearing May 2017, and I haven’t received a tracking number, my package, or even a cent of a refund payment. Inquiries to Remix herself are met with “I don’t have the money to refund you, I am ill,” and when asked about the package I am told her father shipped it and she would get it from him as soon as she could. I never have, and my messages are now going on ignored. The Telegram group for her business is now shut down and any business pages relating to Nightwolf Costumes are now wiped clean. Meanwhile, Remix posts actively on Twitter about her upcoming fursuit from a large maker, which as of this writing has been finished and is being shipped to her. She is also very active in a telegram chat for Dutch Angel Dragons, that I am also part of. I warned her about writing an artist’s beware if I wasn’t given the tracking number, and I have yet to get a response from her other than “I’m ill”, so here we go. I know I have a slim to none chance of ever seeing my full refund back, or even the fur. I know I shouldn’t have sent the money without an invoice, or without ticking Goods and Services. I learned the hard way, and I’m hoping others don’t make the same mistake I did. I'm posting this to not only warn people about what happens when invoices and paper trails aren't made, but to also stay away from this person, even if they get back in the business. PROOF: All aforementioned and linked screenshots. ADDING: At the beginning of May Remix reached out to me and asked for my email and phone number – she was referring me to a third party to get this resolved as soon as possible. As of this writing I have heard nothing from her or this third party. I reached out to her May 14th asking if she’d heard anything from that third party and I have heard nothing since. 5/26/2017-ADDING MORE: A rather lengthy response from the maker: here here here here here here here here here here here here I've also been called out on Twitter by Skypro herself, my name isn't used but it's passive agressive enough that I can figure out it;s about me. Note that not once in this entire beware have I ever said I'm insisting Remix finish building my suit. All I've asked for is my refund and the supplies to take my commission to a different maker. Proof is here. 5/27/2017 Woke up this morning to a messge from Remix, with photo proof she has shipped two boxes to me, and a refund via Paypal of $1,080 ($120 was witheld to pay for shipping). I had tried to be reasonable and suggest a payment plan again to make it easier on her but she refunded the full amount. I'd consider this mostly resolved, once I get the boxes in the mail and find what she sent is as she described (all the work she was able to finish, plus the remainder of the materials) I'd say this could be completely resolved. 6/8/17 I came home from work to find that two boxes had been delivered, but they required a signature to be turned over to me (they had been delivered at 9 am, I didn't get home till 6 and I live alone). I was away all weekend so I was only able to pick them up today. Frankly, I'm disappointed. I was told I would be getting handpaws, a tail, feetpaws, and a half sewn bodysuit, plus my fleece hat and materials to finish the suit. Instead I got no hat, handpaws that barely fit my hands despite the hand tracing I sent her, a pair of foamed feetpaws with only one showing the carving process, a tail that isn't even backed and closed up (basically unwearable), and a barely even sewn bodysuit, many pieces still have pins holding them together. I also received both DTDs back (one was cut up to make the fur patterns) and almost all the fur used to make her (I don't have the brown or the green used in the tail). I'm disappointed, largely because I was led to believe more work had been done than this when I agreed to a partial refund but also because any quotes to try to get this finished are going to be through the roof, there's still so much work to do.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/923124.html WHO: Robaato robaato.deviantart.com www.patreon.com/Robaato about.me/robaato twitter.com/robaatox robscorner.tumblr.com WHERE: Nearly all correspondence was sent through email, with a few messages sent on tumblr and twitter WHAT: Digital Colour Sketch WHEN: Originally made contact on November 8th 2012. Payment was sent November 23rd 2012 PROOF: Screencap of the paypal transaction https://www.dropbox.com/s/6i50r52q1lxtpkz/2016-06-27.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: On November 8th 2012 I commissioned this artist for a quick digital full body colour sketch. The artist was prompt in getting back to me and I sent payment on 23/11/2013. Between then and March in 2014 I had no issues with the artist. They were prompt with their responses and polite. However, on 14th March 2013 everyone who had commissioned him (including myself) had been sent an email stating that commission progress would be slow due to work commitments the arts had. As such they were offering full refunds to anyone who wasn’t willing to wait. At this point I thought it best to get a refund as I didn’t really want to wait a very long period of time for the commission to be finished so I sent him this response. https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbpqtrhxw4zbrld/14-03-2013.png?dl=0 On 1st April 2013 the artist sent me this response. https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9ws322uedwsuly/01-04-2013 reply.png?dl=0 Perhaps I was wrong in assuming this but it seemed like the artist had made significant progress on the commission and was relatively close to finishing it. I thought that would be great and decided to wait for the commission to the finished. Between then and May 2015 I had not received any updates regarding the commission. I had sent the artist a few emails on 1st July 2013, 16th July 2013, 9th September 2013, 17th February 2014 and 3rd May 2014, asking for an update. On 09th September 2013 in particular I actually had requested a cancellation of the commission as at the time I was desperately in need of the money. https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnvqiajfxeepjo2/01-07-2013.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/do0bvmxad21eojd/16-07-2013.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji7wv2kfbpkly4f/09-09-2013.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwq81wkk19hjgqf/17-02-2014.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/6acpuoof18tu0fh/03-05-2014.png?dl=0 I didn’t receive a reply to any of them. I will say that in that period I had sent a question to the artist’s tumblr, asking for an update, which they did reply to. However, I can’t remember when exactly I sent it and have since deleted the reply. The question was essentially asking whether they were still working on the commission, which they said they were. At this point I was getting concerned so on 8th May 2014 I sent this email to the artist (I used a different email account I was unsure if they were receiving the previous ones). https://www.dropbox.com/s/e52ilgg90irznnl/8-05-2014 Replied.png?dl=0 I was essentially trying to convey my annoyance at what had been happening without angering the artist. The artist did reply to this email the same day. Said email and the response I sent can be seen below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/geoqk5eexfs9y52/14-05-2014.png?dl=0 I was happy with the response and decided to wait patiently again. I was also expecting a full response to the previous email I sent, which the artist said they would send. However I never received this. At this point a long period of receiving no updates or such happened again. I asked for an update on 13th October 2014 and, after receiving no response to this email, I sent the following email on 14th November 2014. https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vboeaeulmzajon/14-11-2014 Replied.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/l68ddwcsum3020g/14-11-2014 Replied Part 2.png?dl=0 The artist sent a prompt reply to this email and sent the following response. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ces8u6o3n0rjtwz/Untitled.png?dl=0 I was satisfied with this reply and decided to wait again. I didn’t receive the progress update and the end of the year came and went so I sent an email asking for an update on 8th January 2015 and 1st February 2015. https://www.dropbox.com/s/81ip6v5p0ez98nh/08-01-2015.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/1grmzbrxkuwdlr6/01-02-2015.png?dl=0 At this point I was getting very frustrated and ended up sending the following email on 12th February 2015. https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hc27tjieb65gbn/12-02-2015 (Replied).png?dl=0 I’ll admit this email was very rude and I could have worded it a lot better. I sent a similar worded message to the artist’s tumblr. Neither received a response (most likely due to the tone of the email). I eventually sent an ask to the artist’s tumblr and got A response saying that he would refund me the money as I can't comprehend that if I’m not able to get back to your emails on your timetable, it must mean I’m busy" (I don't have a screen shot of the original message unfortunately as it has since been deleted). At this point I sent a hastily written response to the tumblr message on my phone where I compalined about the long periods of time between responses (again, don't have a screenshot of the orginal message unforutnately). At this point I genuinely still wanted the commission and thought both messages were very rude so I wrote an apology email which is below. https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6ymh6zmog38inc/28-02-2015 Apology email.png?dl=0 A Little while after that I sent this email to him. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ti76r3odcbx4zs/Robaato March 9th 2015.png?dl=0 The general gist of it was essentially me explaining why I was annoyed with him. The links are to pictures of the correspondence I have recieved from him. He sent me this response the next day. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ow1jj6jwu4d7ddq/Robaato March 10th 2015.png?dl=0 I then sent a response, giving him my paypal email. After not hearing anything for a while I sent him this email on January 4th 2016. https://www.dropbox.com/s/dfmqpe6fyxcsevl/Robaato January 4th 2016.png?dl=0 I sent this from two different emails. I never got a reply. Since then I have tried to contact him on twitter. He claimed he had never received the emails on one occassion and that he was waiting to be paid, but after that any messages I sent where eithier missed or ignored. At this point I don't think I will ever receive a refund from this artist. Most attempts to conact him have been unsuccessful. He has claimed that he isn't receving my emails, but I find this claim dubious as I have successfully contacted him in the past. But to get some feedback, do you think I have been overzealous or have done anything wrong here. I'd like to know if I have because I wouldn't like something like this to happen again in the future If I have caused it. EDIT: Chnaged some of the incorrect dates in the entry