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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1016815.html (UPDATED 01 December 2018) WHO: FarisBatwan (FBsuits) - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/farisbatwan & https://twitter.com/fbsuits WHERE: Initial contact via gmail, conversation/discussion also via Twitter DM's & Discord. WHAT: Digitigrade Fullsuit - Head, Hands, Tail, Bodysuit, Outdoor Footpaws and Indoor Sockpaws WHEN: Initial contact on August 22nd, 2017. Paid in full on Septeber 02, 2017. Initial suspicion that things were not progressing as planned began in June 2018, especially moving into July 2018. EXPLAIN: I commissioned Faris after seeing her gallery on FA and seeing a couple suiters at Megaplex 2017 wearing her suits. Initial contact was good, and she was pretty responsive to messages. I was assured that Megaplex 2018 was more than enough time to complete this order, and told that paying in full sooner would assure me an even higher place in the queue. (1) After I paid communication began to go south. There were days, even weeks in between responses in gmail. Faris claimed several times that messages were not arriving from me, or that she had sent something I had not received. I thought this odd, but we agreed to move off-site for communication to Twitter DMs, and shortly thereafter to Discord. Communication problems continued throughout the beginning of 2018, although I always (eventually) received a response after prodding her several times. I was given a "100% guaranteed" completion of the suit by July of 2018. After this passed she told me she been handling her Anthrocon rush, but I would definitely have a fullsuit in time for Megaplex. On June 04 I was promised WIPs "this week" which never materialized until July 22nd, after a LOT of prodding, multiple failed promises of delivery on various dates and times, and eventually having to get pretty harsh with her and threatening chargebacks/legal action. As this date drew nearer with no updates - despite me asking several times - things definitely started to seem amiss. The bodysuit turned into a maybe, but the partial was "100% guaranteed." I did receive photos of a completed head, hands, and tail, and a tracking number only hours before she had to get it shipped out. I paid a premium for Priority Express shipping, but had no updates on tracking past "Pre-Shipment" until I left for the convention on August 02, 2018. (2 - collage of missed deadlines) After I got back from the con I dove into this with Faris, trying to figure out what happened. After an excessive amount of prodding I finally got a screenshot proving she had actually purchased a label - for a Priority package only, that wasn't destined to arrive at my location until August 02. I called her out on it and she had an extremely implausible excuse - I decided it was best to move on from that since I was still out over $2000 at this point with nothing to show for it, the shipping costs only being a fraction of it. (4, 5) During August and September I brought up numerous complaints from other customers to her. They were always "lying" or "not telling the whole story," or "out to ruin her," but she was never at fault for any of it, according to her. On the 31st things came to a head and I had a discussion with her about the poor communication, repeated failures to deliver WIPs as promised, and other issues. I gave her a 30-day ultimatum - if I had nothing in hand by September 30th, I would be moving on to expecting a refund - voluntary or otherwise. I made it very clear then, and at several other points throughout September, that chargebacks and small claims court were absolutely on the table. In the meantime I attempted to treat the unshipped package as a USPS issue, although I'd never heard of the USPS losing a Priority package without so much as an acceptance scan - it seemed extremely implausible. I did almost all of the legwork to initiate claims/seaches with the USPS, including talking to my local office on September 4th. My postmaster wanted to talk to Faris. Faris told me on September 6th that she had called in and given him all the info he requested. I called back on the 7th to verify as I was at a point where I was no longer able to take Faris' word for granted. My postmaster remembered specific details of my conversation with him on the 4th, but had no memory of talking to anybody about the case on the 6th, just a day before. After confronting Faris about this I was basically just given the same story: she had really called. My postmaster said they get at most 5-6 calls a day and that he definitely would have remembered a call about that. (3) I had no choice but to just move on from this point. Dealing with the original package and the constant delays and excuses over the bodysuit was taking a lot of energy from me. On the 22nd of September she was still claiming "100% guarantee" of delivery by month's end. I was also told on this day that the only thing remaining was to sew the front and back together, and sew in the padding. On the 25th she told me she may have to work out Friday shipping with her. I let her know I was not happy about this but as long as I had a tracking number that showed movement before the 30th (an acceptance scan or more) I would consider that acceptable. On the 30th was my last message from her - she contacted me to let me know the back had to be sewn together, and then the front and back had to be sewn together. Somehow in the span of eight days /backwards/ progress had been made, according to her. I was told proof would be sent later that day and that she would be willing to work with me on a refund. I told her that a refund would be best. I contacted her again Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning to let her know I was expecting her to work with me on setting up a refund, and that Tuesday afternoon was her last chance to get in touch with me. While I normally would allow more time than this for a response, her past track record with communication and near countless other clients waiting on suits, partials, and premades from her, I decided it was best to move on to legal options. At the current time I have a claim in progress with PayPal for a payment made for shipping & indoor sockpaws, and a chargeback with Discover for 50% of the commission price (she has a chance to attempt to refute both of these, currently). The other 50% was unfortunately paid via my PayPal balance which I have no easy recourse to outside of small claims court. Currently I have started that process and am awaiting small claims papers to be mailed to me. I will update this posting as more happens. I just felt it prudent to warn people that Faris is not a trustworthy person to work with. I don't believe she does anything maliciously - she's not trying to run a scam, but she is disorganized and doesn't have the integrity to tell her clients the truth when she gets behind or misses a deadline. For the most part she was polite and pleasant to talk to - but ultimately, I paid a four-digit sum of money for a product that never arrived, with suspiciously similar circumstances to multiple other clients of hers. I would feel remiss if I did not do my part to warn others in the community to avoid making the mistake I did. ~ 06 October 2018: I submitted a claim to the USPS earlier in September regarding the supposedly lost package. An initial payout was approved of $60.15. I thought that an odd number, so I appealed (Faris insisted she had purchased insurance for it, but never procured it when asked). Today I got a letter back with the results of the appeal — it was again denied, and as requested, they explained the $60.15 payout. No additional insurance was purchased to cover the value of the item at time of mailing. The baked-in insurance is $50 plus the amount of postage — meaning she spent $10.15 on the label for this, after I had sent her $107.30 for Priority Express. (6, 7) Faris made no mention of this when I confronted her with this evidence (I already knew she had spent less to do Priority vs Priority Express, via evidence she sent me, I just didn't know the actual amount). She is still insisting she purchased insurance, however, she says she doesn't have a receipt or any other evidence to prove it. She did say she was going to start making regular repayments later this month. At the current time she still owes me $839.85, pending the PayPal chargeback cases resolving in my favor. I am not holding her responsible for the $60.15 the USPS paid me. ~ 18 October 2018: Since posting this I've gotten in contact with multiple other people dealing with undelivered fursuits from Faris, conflicting stories and accounts, etc. I have evidence that Faris submitted, as approval images, the exact same fursuit parts for both hands and feet for both me and another client — and in the case of the hands, she even sent us both the EXACT same image, down to the pixel. See images 8 & 9. PROOF: https://imgur.com/a/uu8eRgf (1) https://imgur.com/BKYiNx9 (2) https://imgur.com/dqEMLK9 (3) https://imgur.com/xp2wZSl (4) https://imgur.com/TwD8QyU (5) https://imgur.com/6ToDOrQ (6) https://imgur.com/j1W8bPy (7) https://imgur.com/8CHFShz (8) https://imgur.com/1yzI5vc (9) https://imgur.com/RAxem7q ~ 01 November 2018: Faris has sent a small repayment toward the total amount she owes me. She says she is planning to make monthly payments until the debt is paid off. 01 December 2018: Next refund payment has been made.

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/1004598.html WHO: Otter'n'Daughter (FA) / WaterdogWharf (FA) / Keryu (FA) / KeryuOkami (twitter) WHERE: Initially - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/otter.n.daughter/ Later - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/waterdogwharf Also - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/keryu WHEN: Payment took place from 6/14/2015 to 3/29/2016, the only visual progress was 11/29/2016 (referenced in emails below) EXPLAIN: The overall process started June 2015. Below is the string of emails regarding the quote, details and the agreed upon payments: https://imgur.com/a/6w2ywB1 As of this time, while I had the initial concept art for the sake of the quote, the full turnaround reference wouldn't be available for another five months. However they were made aware of this from the initial quote. (Referenced in the gallery above at 006 with the initial ref below it.) The email with the finished reference would explain that it was layered to view various details (ei. arms, legs and other pieces could be hidden to see the shapes): https://imgur.com/a/LCCwePu The final payment would be sent March 30, 2016: https://imgur.com/a/94JDLy6 Later on in June / July 2016, I would ask about cancellation. https://imgur.com/a/OkYfA45 Fast forward to October 30 and November 29, 2016, these would be the only signs of visual progress for my own suit. https://imgur.com/a/UO1Xk47 The DTD would finally be sent around February / March 2017. Unfortunately, correspondence that took place on Twitter before October 2017 was deleted because I had assumed that things were moving along. However there is a DM referenced in an email for May 15, 2017 whose contact was unanswered until June 15, 2017. https://imgur.com/a/1SEjIY2 October 23, 2017, I bring a proposition regarding the change of the suit design and offer the majority of the fur to be used: https://imgur.com/a/98Ih8Cp After that, I found the most success in contacting them through twitter and would follow up about once a month. https://imgur.com/a/IO8siPx And the last final emails recently sent: https://imgur.com/a/WELE6Ce As of the time of this submission, there has been no reply from the final email on July 4, 2018. However I will correct myself regarding the large July 1st email as the body suit for the previous customer is incorrect, that I’m aware of. This was the rest of a full suit commission, to which they had only recently received the bodysuit for, over two years after the head (and assuming partial of the full) was completed. The following gallery is to show posts documenting visual progress on their commission list in general, as well as public client posts that I’ve been able to search for. The purpose is only for timestamps for the completion of parts or projects altogether, how they correlate with Keryu’s public Trello page, and the time elapsed for the length of the project based on dates. https://imgur.com/a/mrG7Xcs Here is also collection of visual posts regarding from or around November 2016 up until recently. This will be broken down into categories: Auctions and Commission Openings Bases Premades Collaborative Premades Commissions or designs not listed on Trello I've probably missed a few things here and there, my apologies. I won’t deny that progress has been made on their list in general. However, with no way to gauge that other than whatever pops up on a search or the few posts there are, I have no confidence with this transaction any more. It wouldn’t have been so bad if there was some consistency in the queue, updates or progress actually occurring when said instead of just being pushed back further and further. Not to mention premades and unlisted work looking to be on priority. It also seems that they rarely do body suits themselves, if at all nowadays, or has them done by another maker. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong as I’m only aware of the collaborative bodies. This post is not meant to be against the other makers either considering I don’t know how aware they are of Keryu’s workload or practices when agreeing to these collaborative, premade suits. Even more baffling, for a short time, they had a senior seamstress that worked with them on at least one body suit. (Referenced here: https://i.imgur.com/OMCqDGo.png ) More often than not, Keryu only makes heads, tails, hand paws, and at one point feet. However those haven’t been posted in roughly a year. Granted the majority of the commissions they’ve taken on are usually for heads or partials without feet. In the end, if you absolutely wanted a costume piece from this person, you’re likely better off getting a premade or a base and finishing it yourself. ------ Update - August 23, 2018 There has been no reply since the final email. I made a couple attempts to contact there after to request the dtd and fur sent back by email and twitter, including a mailing address and requesting a tracking number. No replies. Not surprisingly, they're open for more commissions: https://imgur.com/a/2EAyd4S I also attempted disputes on the payments. Paypal directed me to speak with the source of the funds for the transactions. Upon attempts between a credit card company and bank, they were too old to dispute, which was expected. However, something I did learn from the credit card company. Based upon what the rep told me, Visa and Mastercard type cards have up to 540 days to dispute transactions of which they have the ability to request funds from the merchant. But again, only if your dispute holds up.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/995190.html WHO: Jinx_In_Boots, jinxsis, Jinxsis Sinatra, K9Jinxsis WHERE: https://tictail.com/naughtydogworks/bad-dog-pin-pre-order WHAT: Bad Dog enamel pin "+extras" WHEN: Preorders ended around 09/30/2017, payment was sent the same day EXPLAIN: I preordered a pin from Jinx_In_Boots in September, in the time, they've had factory problems, then said they needed the backing cards. Before preorders were sent they tweeted about selling them at FWA, with what looked like backing cards. I sent them a DM, they said they still need backing cards. Awhile passes, I notice them in other furry's photos on instagram, I ask and the user said they got the pin as a free gift with a badge. I ask Jinx again, who said they will send them the 2nd, and give a tracking number, the time passed and I have no tracking number. In a DM chat with Jinx they said the pin would arrive on the 6th, the 6th came and went with no pin or tracking number. I have been keeping in contact with other's who have preordered and Jinx. On May 7th, I sent another message, they said they are preparing them, even though their last message said they were sent previously. PROOF: Payment https://i.imgur.com/nbe8WHk.png Email saying there was a manufacture probem https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/289609229948682240/399012964570497034/Screenshot_20180105-193419.png Pins being sold at FWA, preorders still haven't been sent https://web.archive.org/web/20180504183202/https://twitter.com/Jinx_In_Boots/status/961028777534021632 Saying the pins will be shipped on May 1st https://web.archive.org/web/20180504184528/https://twitter.com/Jinx_In_Boots/status/990683255161737216 Instagram user saying they got 2, 1 was a free gift with a badge, preorders still not sent https://www.instagram.com/p/BiI3C5YF86Q/ https://i.imgur.com/XZDnS7y.png Jinx's response to being asked about not getting a track number when it was expected https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/295251611360559114/442025250100609025/unknown.png Price changes on Jan 21st from USPS https://stamps.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1685/~/usps-rate-changes-january-21%2C-2018 Jinx's promise of "lots of goodies" https://twitter.com/Jinx_In_Boots/status/911646003039735808 My personal DMs with Jinx https://i.imgur.com/9XdcjsT.png https://i.imgur.com/DF3Cb7l.png Edit On 8/3/2018 I have gotten a refund from Jinx.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/985962.html (Update at 7th Jan 2019 for 21st April 2018: See Below) WHO: Faris Batwan / Fuzzy Bat Suits WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/farisbatwan/ / http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fbsuits/ / https://www.facebook.com/pg/fuzzybatsuits/posts/?ref=page_internal WHAT: Partial fursuit / paws (Initial payment $975, been refunded $350, $300, $186 ($139 remaining)) WHEN: Starting March 8th 2017 – Still ongoing as of 28th February 2018 EXPLAIN: Everything was fine to begin with as was usually the case. I ordered a pre-made head that came with a tail and custom paws, the maker was very eager for the sale and replied very quickly on FA notes until I payed via PayPal. [FA Notes screenshot] A couple of days later something happened in my personal life that meant I had a large bill to pay for, as things hadn’t been shipped yet and I hadn’t been told that the paws had started being made or received other notes so I tried to cancel the order. To which I didn’t receive a response for another few days, and was ultimately told that they had spent all of the money on new equipment as soon as they received it and don’t have any money to refund me. [FA Notes screenshots] We went back and forth in notes a few times before I was told that the paws couldn’t be refunded since they were custom and so was the tail, even though the tail was in the listing to begin with and there had been no photos of the paws sent to me to show they have been completed. [Telegram screenshots] I reminded them the tail was from stock and therefore not bespoke to me and then I still had the paws sent out to me since the quality of their work seemed excellent. There were no photos taken of paws that were sent to me at all, additionally I was told that they had been sent by priority mail. [Telegram screenshots] Up to this point I had been told a few times that they were having bad weather pretty much seemed to be on a daily basis that didn’t allow them to check emails/telegram/notes etc. I had also been told to contact them on Telegram as it was their preferred method and then after not replying to me for a long time they said they preferred email and would definitely respond within 48 hours which they didn’t unless it affected them monetarily later on in the year. [Telegram screenshots] I originally bought the partial, and ultimately just the paws, for CFZ17, but they never showed even after the delivery time frame was weeks in the past, remember it was supposed to be priority mail. I asked the maker to contact the delivery company about it and the maker waited weeks until they eventually did and told me that we had to wait until half way through July before a claim could be made for a lost parcel. [Telegram screenshots] July came and went after I sent a number of messages to no response, which is around about the time they changed their mind and said to email them since they no longer like Telegram. Time passes and I still hadn’t received a response from the maker so I filed a PayPal case on them since they wouldn’t refund me or respond to me after numerous attempts to reach out to them. [Telegram screenshots] I had an message effectively calling me a scammer and saying I was damaging the business and she couldn’t pay me anyways even if I won the case [Telegram screenshots] After a few messages they eventually agreed to pay part of the money owed to me, but not the full amount. [Telegram screenshots] I was however promised once more that they were going to sell some pre-made heads to be able to refund me the final amount due to me. [Gmail screenshots] The last communication I had was in November from the maker with no final refund or communication, I contacted them again in the new year at the start of February and also got no response. [ Gmail screenshots] Apologies for the length of this post and any incidental errors, it has been ongoing for a year now. PROOF: FA Notes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgo77onymfvhmwx/FA Notes Screenshots.png?dl=0 Telegram : https://www.dropbox.com/s/s1rldas9khzz0nx/Telegram Part 1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/nj8fq4iakomlbdd/Telegram Part 2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/sa5lvtq0kxud0ev/Telegram Part 3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/2dozgo95j38b3mx/Telegram Part 4.png?dl=0 Payment Screenshot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kwt966haw4l53by/Payment Screenshots.png?dl=0 Gmail: Update 7th Jan 2019, overdue from 21st April 2018 Faris got in touch with me on 21/04/18 via email apologizing and stating she will issue a refund for the remainder when she can. I replied simply that I would like to be able to mark it as resolved and to let me know when she could refund the final amount. As of 7th Jan 2019 I have not heard anything further. Tired of ads? Upgrade to account with Professional

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/981816.html WHO: Sugar N’ Spice Costumes: Primarily CorpseCat aka Kittencheshire aka Prince Mocha aka Neo via Sugar N’ Spice Costume email contact. Other members of Sugar N’ Spice Costumes should be noted: Cackle aka Bullie and Fortune WHERE: Mainly dealt with them via Email and Telegram; their business is based on FA under Sugarandspice, http://fursuitcontact.wixsite.com/sugarandspicecostume, and http://www.sugarnspicecostumes.com/ however they do deal with business via Telegram WHAT: 2 Partial Fursuits WHEN: 1st payment was on April 24, 2016 with final payment on May 26, 2016. Trouble started around August which was two months before the original deadline. EXPLAIN: At first everything seemed fine and was going as planned; I asked about their turn around for suits and they state it’s about a month or so after 80% paid off (See capture here: https://imgur.com/w21eazp ). I ask if final payment was done in July if it would be done and shipped before October in which I was assured it would. We spoke about the suits periodically and on June 13th they stated they were ordering a base for the head as they work off of bases (See capture here: https://imgur.com/lGaKQkm https://imgur.com/ZbaBTgr ) and on July 14th I inquired if they had gotten the base for the head in which they then told me it takes 3-5 weeks to cast them let alone ship it plus the dealer had to deal with AnthroCon and another con (see capture here: https://imgur.com/r3vj5Lh ); at this stage I started worrying naturally as things sounded a little shady, but gave the benefit of the doubt. As time progressed I contacted back around August 5th to see how things were going on our partials with zero response until the following day on the 6th in which I heard nothing from them about it. On August 8th I asked again and received no message from them until the 12th in which they reassured it will be done by October as planned. (see capture here: https://imgur.com/PMdTcad ) and then proceeded to check in on the 30th of August and finally on September 3rd they show me they have the head; the previous screen cap shows this as well. Back and forth takes place and by October 1st they finally state that they are trying to get our suits done on time while dealing with other things and no word about it again until I contact them on the 11th which proceeded to fall on deaf ears until I got word on the 16th; however nothing was said about the suits. Needless to say the deadline, as it was for us to wear at a specific convention, came and went. On November 29th I asked casually if I could put some design changes in as they hadn’t been working on it just to see if I’d even get a response in which they said sure and would resculpt the head as if they were still working on it; though at this point it really red flagged me as no suit maker in their right mind would agree to something that would be significant in the way of change to simply resculpt it no problem (See capture here: https://imgur.com/f4gqaPr ). We converse from time to time between then and February 27th with no message about my two partials. I ask again on the 27th (See capture here: https://imgur.com/lsq0Btp ) and no message until March 15th of 2017. April 24th comes by and I ask about my partials with putting my foot down; they said progress is slow, but would be before Halloween in which that was the con we needed it for again (See capture here: https://imgur.com/N8xAvmp ). June 8th comes by and I am getting even more concern (See capture here: https://imgur.com/uie6Ep4 ) in which I state if we should even continue with it after all this time; they tell me if everything goes well it should be September 1st when they are done. Next time I talk to them in August I find out they switched to another Telegram handle and on August 25th I am getting really concerned as they’ve shown me no WIP images then they try reassuring me that they’ve made 2 partials in 3 days… Another red flag that I was pretty sure wasn’t possible (See capture here: https://imgur.com/U5zlvBG ). On September 29th I voice my concerns again with a more “putting my foot down” tone. They tell me they are working on it which considering all this time it should have been done three times over (See capture here: https://imgur.com/1niS9Vn ) and we even talk about shoe sizes (which I have captured here to show they then eventually give us the wrong shoe size: https://imgur.com/owCHbbp ). We speak periodically with no updates on the suits until October 11th where they ask me for a reference in regards to BOTH of the suits (See capture here: https://imgur.com/xVLbIRI ). On October 16th, mind you again all this time I have had no WIP shown of the partials, I finally put my foot down as the deadline has passed once more (See capture here: https://imgur.com/XcVI4VC ) and time goes on with no response until I ask how they are on the 18th where they tell me they’ll send screenshots soon. I ask again the following day for those screenshots of the partials with no response. I proceeded to bombard them with messages between the 19th to the 23rd in which they finally say they weren’t ignoring me, but was having issues with Telegram. They provide a picture of the feet (See capture here: https://imgur.com/4e0fgAb ). Another blackout and multiple demands later, between October 24th to October 29th, I finally threaten to get Paypal involved for a dispute (See capture here: https://imgur.com/kVSFHpB ). I then start emailing them over this and they proceed to tell me that it was lost in the mail and that they would remake them (See capture here: https://imgur.com/CxvrpwZ https://imgur.com/Pt6yUoz https://imgur.com/R1jp1Wz ); this would be the final red flag that told me they were scamming us as no artist would just simply say this and then just “oh well we will remake them no problem!” attitude. I give an ultimatum and they accept a November 10th final deadline and even state (in the previous capture) that they’d provide an extra gift for our trouble with all of this. Time progresses and no response nor reply to my email on November 11th. Finally I get pictures coming in here and there; we talk briefly from time to time. Eventually January comes around and they ship it. I receive both partials on January 12th with something interesting; the feet that were supposedly “lost in the mail” that were shown to me before AND the extra gifts mentioned were not even there which was the final straw that lead me to make an artist beware about this business/person. I also would like to add that you can clearly tell the partials were rushed and attention to detail was missing in which ear heights are miss-matched, heads were too small, feet too small, misaligned jaw, and other problems that should have never happened. Main purpose of this is to warn others that this is a common process with them as I was informed by others after my experience that I was not alone in how flip-floppy they are with their business with some not even receiving anything be it a refund or product. PROOF: The proof provided in this section are various screencaps of comparing the original “lost” suit images to that of what came in the mail. I only have the feet to provide, but those are exactly the same. This also contains the Quality Promised image to compare to the Quality Received. Shoe size issue (Told them one size and they send the wrong size): https://imgur.com/vcwBn31 Proof of first payment: https://imgur.com/3Tr0svb Proof of final payment: https://imgur.com/X43Qnxv Quality Promised (Notice uniformity, proper trim of the fur, and attention to detail): https://imgur.com/EmcnLXp Quality Received: >Head/cheek proportions are off - https://imgur.com/C4AoQrF >Misaligned jaw - https://imgur.com/h01lafA >One ear is larger and higher up than the other as well as horn being stuck on the top of the head rather than forehead area - https://imgur.com/cfjjPrg >Hair was too short so they threw on extra hair at the end of the head making it look messy and done in a hurry - https://imgur.com/5tzZg1w >Jackal ears misaligned and misshapen as well as eyebrows being misaligned https://imgur.com/zMSCpWk https://imgur.com/LgvX2Pw >Jackal face being misaligned and skewed - https://imgur.com/M101jk2 Lost feet compared to feet received (notice they are exactly the same; as in they were never “lost”): https://imgur.com/8Uyn1DG Received feet: https://imgur.com/9nHs987

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/977067.html Who: Mithacal Creatures - Alaska business license 1052001 Twitter: @Mithacal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mithacalcreatures/ Website: https://www.mithacal.com/ FurBuy username: MithacalCreatures FurAffinity:http://www.furaffinity.net/user/Mitha/ Where: Furbid Auction - https://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1092553.html What: Fursuit head commission, won at auction. The auction was won for $575, and the agreed-upon price after enhancements, modifications, and shipping was $905. Custom features were to include custom eye cuts for better vision, whiskers, and a silicone nose. When: The auction was won on February 14, 2017, and lists a completion time of 5 weeks after full payment is received. Full payment was made on February 17, 2017, after some initial communication difficulties. Delivery of the head was delayed repeatedly. On July 12, after a disagreement about what features were included in the increased price, Mitha offered a full refund, then asked for a legal agreement to be signed as a pre-requisite for the refund. On July 13, Mitha refused to honor that offer, and said that only a 50% refund would be available. On July 17, after I had requested several days to decide what to do (which was also over a weekend), Mitha stated that she would be giving me a 50% refund in 14 days whether I wanted it or not. At that point, I filed a credit card dispute, which was resolved in my favor in September. Explanation & Evidence: The commission got off to a rough start when Mitha didn’t get my emails, but that’s on me. Eventually we made contact via Twitter, which is where we would do all of our subsequent communication. I sent Mitha a long explanation, including a web page with references and desired features. Screenshot 1 Mitha agreed to this, saying that she could “do everything I wanted” on my reference page. Screenshot 2 The features added $280 to the price of the head, which made the total with shipping $905. Screenshot 3 Payment was made immediately via credit card on her website, http://www.mithacal.com. Screenshot 4 Some additional discussion about fur kinds and colors followed, since I wanted to try making a body suit for the head and wanted to coordinate on the fur we were using. At the end of the discussion, I mentioned her move, something that she had been talking about on Twitter. No mention was made of it impacting the deadline. Screenshot 5 One month later, I check in. No progress, and we talk about fur choices, but don’t exit the conversation with an unambiguous decision. Screenshot 6 Another month goes by with no communication. It’s now April 23rd, with no WIPs. I check in again. Apparently Mitha thought that she was still waiting on fur choices, and after getting the go-ahead to use whatever she wanted, says that she’ll finish up the mask and will have updates in a week. Screenshot 7 At the time, she also asks me what color eyes I want. LED eyes weren’t part of my request list, but I had thought they were just something standard she did. Her last message says she needs to wait for them, but had said just before that she’d report progress in a week. Screenshot 7_1 Another month goes by, and it’s now May 30th. I have not yet heard anything from Mitha without me prompting her. She says she’s still waiting on the eyes from DVC. Screenshot 8 Amazingly, the eyes come in the same day! Or so she says. She also now says it will be another few weeks before there’s any progress to see. Screenshot 9 Screenshot 10 June 13th, and I finally get a communication from her asking me to choose eye backgrounds, and to say that the head is still a couple of weeks away from completion. Screenshot 11 June 21st , and I message her again for a status update, and to let her know that I was going to be out of town from July 1 – 10. She indicates that she’ll have the head shipped so that it arrives around July 10th. Screenshot 12 Screenshot 13 July 11th, and I haven’t heard anything from her, so I ping her again. Apparently there’s been a delay due to her wedding and honeymoon, which she didn’t mention anything about. I congratulate her, and ask for some WIPs, especially of the tear duct modifications. This is where things start to go very wrong. Screenshot 14 Mitha claims she never agreed to the modifications. I ask where she said that, because the last message I got from her about it, before I paid, was that it wouldn’t be a problem. She says she sent something saying she wasn’t capable of that kind of modification, and offers a refund if that’s a problem. I ask again to just point me where she said that, and after 24 hours of no response, I’m pretty fed up with the whole deal and agree to the refund. Screenshot 15 Mitha goes off, but agrees to the full refund. Fine, I just want to be done with this; I’ve seen scant evidence that my commission was even being worked on (nothing other than the eye backgrounds), and we’re now 5 months into what was promised in 5 weeks. Screenshot 16 And now things get really weird. Mitha wants me to sign some kind of contract – I was guessing a non-disparagement agreement – as part of the refund. But, instead of sending me something to sign and review, she sends me a contract that she signed, between herself and her dog breeder, over some dispute that they had. Real names redacted below, but they weren't in what she sent me: Screenshot 17 One, sending me this unredacted was probably a violation of her agreement with her breeder. Two, it’s really odd to send somebody a legal agreement that isn’t actually ready to be signed, and is in fact between her and another party, with all of those details. Because I've had some experience with contracts and NDAs, I’m going to get a lawyer to look at any contract I’m being asked to sign. I’m not trying to be aggressive here, and in most business environments when you say you need a lawyer to look at a legal document, that’s a sign of being sane and prudent, not that you're making a legal threat. Screenshot 18 The whole thing has taken a turn for the strange, and I’m asking her for options. I feel she’s had a really poor record of communicating with me, so I’m trying to be proactive about communication and expectations. Asking for a mailing address for legal communications is pretty standard business practice, and signing a non-disparagement clause is a lot different than a regular commercial transaction. As a registered business in the state of Alaska, she has to have a publicly-available mailing address, and it can be found very easily online at the Alaska Chamber of Commerce website (https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/cbp/main), so I'm not sure why it would be a problem. Screenshot 19 And then Mitha changes her mind, says she won’t be giving me a full refund, that only a 50% refund is on the table, and accuses me of threatening legal action, apparently because I uttered the word ‘lawyer’, after she asked me to sign a legally-binding document. Screenshot 20 I want to take some time to think about this, because none of my options here are good: I can lose $450, or I can maybe get a head that doesn’t have the features that I wanted, from a maker that I no longer trust. Since this is already months late, I didn’t think a few extra days would be an issue, especially over a weekend. July 14 was a Friday, July 17 is a Monday. Mitha feels differently, and by Monday evening is saying that she will give me a 50% refund whether I like it or not. Screenshot 21 I’m still not clear on what’s going on – do I still have to sign a document of some kind, even for the 50% refund? I’m not sure, and I don’t want to make a decision until we can hash this out. Mitha doesn’t want to wait though, and just after midnight on Monday she decides she’s going to keep half the money and not send me anything, no matter what I want. After 5 months of me waiting for her, she’s definitely not going to wait for me. Screenshot 22 To me, and to the lawyer that I had review all of this, this is a breach of contract on her part. What she’s saying here, as evidenced by all the previous tweets, is mostly false. She offered the refund first, I just took her up on it. She asked me to sign a legal document, I just wanted to do it safely by having a lawyer look at the contract. At this point, I’m pretty upset. Screenshot 23 Screenshot 24 After her message on July 18th, and blocking me on Twitter, I filed a dispute with the credit card company to get my money back. I’d received nothing, no WIPs beyond the eye backdrop photos, no proof of work done, and no product, and was only going to get half of a refund after waiting 5 months for something that Mitha agreed to do but later decided she couldn't, or wouldn't. Finally, on July 30th, Mitha unblocked me long enough to tell me that she was going to sue me in small claims court. To date, Mitha hasn’t served me with anything for a lawsuit, and the credit card company finalized the chargeback in September, so I have 100% of my money back. As things go, this could have been worse, but I think Mitha is somebody to avoid doing business with.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/975718.html EDIT: Paypal Customer Protection Refunded me the $50 that was owed. Artist never tried to talk to me or solve this problem thus this beware will still be kept up. WHO: Telegram: @BarkingEllie https://www.facebook.com/pg/DorkyDogSuits/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/Ellieshepherd http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dorkydogsuits https://twitter.com/barkingellie?lang=es https://barkingellie.tumblr.com/ https://www.instagram.com/barkingellie/ WHERE: Telegram WHAT: A Fully Detailed Reference Sheet. Value of $100. Got Refunded $50. WHEN: April 30th I Got the offer from her, and after a few days we got a deal. May 10th is when I paid for the comission. ($100) with a plus of $50 that I did as donation. Problems started in August when she started to ignore me for long periods of time. EXPLAIN: Everything started fine, we discussed prices and options, etc. I would often check on her afterwards since I consider $100 to be quite a high price, though I was willing to pay a lot because of how complex the character is. This person denied giving me access to a ''to-do list'' at all cost. (seen in screencaps) She would often give excuses to explain why she ''doesn't'' have a to-do list. We had a few random days where we would have long chats about life and this one time she mentioned her friend and her run a fursuit business and her friend wanted to buy some fur supply and I donated $50 to help them buy it. I want to say, I am NOT interested into getting this $50 back since it was donation and plus has nothing to do with the actual comission. After August is when I started to feel discomfort towards the treatment amongst the artist and me. Being ignored for almost a whole month made me doubt about this comission so I asked again about the to-do list. Got again another explanation why it doesn't exist and decided to keep quiet for some time. During ALL this time I was given the same ''I will do it this upcoming week'' message over and over though NO sketches OR Work in progress were shown to me AT ALL. Once September arrived I gave her a final message asking for either a To-Do list, to see a WIP OR a Full Refund. Got a reply two days after that telling me they were doing the lineart. I got frustrated and asked why would they be doing the lineart already if I had not seen any work prior to that nor had I aproved it. Artist replied with a short message saying ''If you don't like it then it's not worth finishing it :)'' I got mad over this message and decided to ask for a full refund. She promised to do it 'next week'. I had to wait for a whole month until that happened. BUT I only got half of it refunded. Got a promise of the other half being done as soon as she gets her next payment. A whole month has passed and this person has been ignoring my messages since. Plus I got adviced by one close person to check her furaffinity and facebook (Dorky Dog Suits, her business page) since people have been starting to show up leaving comments about her ignoring them and not getting refunds either. PROOF: Transcript of the Conversation here in both spanish and english(translated): https://sta.sh/2qsuuicgafp?edit=1 All Screenshots of the Conversations both in the telegram group (decided to keep the name of the group hidden) and in private: https://sta.sh/21mm46gupc6e?edit=1 PS; Conversation Transcription was cut in certain parts because the topic that was discussed in those parts had nothing to do with the comission. It was all just simple daily life chatting.

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/945778.html WHO: OtterN’Daughter, KeryuOkami, WaterDogWharf WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/otter.n.daughter/ https://www.furaffinity.net/user/waterdogwharf https://twitter.com/KeryuOkami WHAT: Fursuit, Full digi-grade with extra padding in legs/arms/tail. WHEN: First payment was made to Keryu on 7/15/15. I completed my payment plan (Paid in full) on 11/7/15. I did not receive my suit until 2/28/17 PROOF: http://sta.sh/0fch8p7k9cm All payments including shipping EXPLAIN: Before getting my suit: The biggest problem I experienced with WDW was their lack of professionalism, time management, and manipulation via contract. WDW had a contract that protects her very well but does not at all hold her accountable to her end of business. Not only did she not take deadlines but she did NOT stick to her public queue. I commissioned Keryu back in Mid 2015 for a fullsuit(with additional padding in the tail, arms and legs). I often had problems with her ignoring or just not replying to emails. I eventually had to contact her on Twitter publicly to get her to respond. From then on we talked mostly over twitter. I only got updates from her if I asked her directly and my messages would go unanswered for days if not weeks despite her activity on twitter. I confronted her in Decemberof 2015 about her lack of communication( http://sta.sh/01ehajotfho9 ). She apologized and for a short time was better. However things got really spotty again maybe a month later. She was hardly showing progress and I had to poke at her a lot to see anything or know where she was at. In October of 2016 I confronted her again about the lack of work she was doing on her queue and the fact she was putting out premades more often than suits on her queue(http://sta.sh/0t5egnpnyh6 , http://sta.sh/0awufn79jq , http://sta.sh/02a4hdnoxwfp , http://sta.sh/01kxj6w3zvha , http://sta.sh/0tpxdgasxw1 , http://sta.sh/029rl5mp7po5 , http://sta.sh/01tjnclpu6rj ). The premades were incredibly frustrating to me as she was making little to no progress on my suit but was making multiple premades during the time she was supposed to work on mine(http://sta.sh/2b0lsxb0dga ). She snapped back at me and we went back and forth for a short bit before she said she would send me a free head mount for the wall. I said no but offered to commission a second tail because she had not made the tail the way we had originally agreed. She did not respond. I had to message her again later on for updates. In late january I asked where she was at on my suit and was told she had finished it but hadn’t told me yet(http://sta.sh/0iysrwc7rwx ). She then told me she would ship the suit out on 2/14/17. She also told me that the suit would arrive in time for an event I had on the 25th(http://sta.sh/02fwjvo5xevl http://sta.sh/017x9xkfjsez http://sta.sh/0s1q4mf86w9 http://sta.sh/077ih0wftoq).However she then didn’t ship until the 21st and the suit did not arrive until the 28th. She told me she had misplaced my quote forum and asked me to find it in my emails. She eventually found it(http://sta.sh/0itfq51jvwm ). She disappeared for a few days without saying anything about why. It had been 20 days since I knew of the completion of my suit and she wasn’t shipping it. I waited about 18 Months to get my fursuit and it still came with problems. Upon receiving my suit I knew not everything could be perfect but I was still incredibly disappointed with the things undone despite her taking so much time. I ordered large stompy feet, she left all of the inside foam exposed and the ankle area does not go up high enough for the leg to stay down over it ( http://sta.sh/01tj44b4btih ). The paws are large like requested but there is no foam inside to keep its shape or keep the paw from sliding down and off the hand completely( http://sta.sh/021ueii3k1c8 ).. The one area there is foam is around the claws which is left completely open. The head is too big and moves around a lot, I find myself touching the muzzle a lot just to keep it in place while I’m moving. The holes for the tail are not reinforced in anyway, they are just cuts in the fabric which is very worrisome especially with the size of my tail. The tail is a bit lumpy in areas and the foam doesn’t fill all areas properly, instead it slides around a bit, not stuffed enough. http://sta.sh/0258ef8joryb fullsuit arrived.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/944483.html WHO: Cuttleb0ne WHERE: twitter.com/cuttleb0ne WHAT: A plantigrade fullbody fursuit WHEN: Quote sent 12/28/15 Down payment sent 01/13/16 PROOF: Proof of all current payment Only wip I've ever recieved EXPLAIN: Cuttlebone quoted me $2,500 for a fursuit of my saber character with a payment plan of a 30% down payment and the remaining 70% due on completion. I was very excited for this commission so I sent the down payment on the 13th and told him that my only deadline was this coming MFF in December, expecting that this would be plenty of time to get things done. For a while things were going smoothly, I sent my DTD and some extra payments because I was nervous about making sure I could pay him all off on time, since I wasn't quite sure when he would be complete. I would ask for updates periodically, as there hadn't been any progress on the suit other than him sending me a picture of fur samples in June. He suddenly stopped responding to my inquiries from September to November link . When I finally got an update (no progress) I told him I didn't mind if just a partial were done by MFF, trying not to cause stress. He did not respond again until the weekend of MFF, telling me he had no progress, but was going to give me a schedule of when the parts would be done, hoping to finish the suit before the end of the year, I never got that schedule link . I asked for another update on January 12th and got no response, noticing that he was active on twitter I got a little flustered and sent a message saying that I was tired of having to fish for updates and that if he didn't want to do business with me anymore to let me know and we would talk about refunding. We agreed to continue the commission , but I stated that I would need weekly updates even if no progress had been made. He complied for about a week until I got no response from Jan 23rd to Feb 12th link and I had to threaten an AB and Paypal chargeback to get him to respond. I have currently been waiting since the 18th for a reply from him link . In conclusion, do not commission this maker if you don't want to have to threaten an AB to get a response. UPDATE 02/28 After letting him know about this AB and a dispute on one of my older payments (since it was the last day I could do it), along with firmly asking for a refund when I had previously asked him to decide whether he wanted to refund or continue, he replied and apologized for the unpleasant experience I had. He said he was unable to work on the suit due to not having access to materials. I confronted him about some suspicions I had that he was making premade suits, and he confirmed, stating that they were to refund other customers (and myself now). Currently I am waiting for a payment plan for the refund.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/942850.html WHO: SugarNSpiceCostumes or as she goes by on social media, Corpse Cat WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sugarnspicecostumes/ WHAT: The product was a full fursuit, $1,918. 2 full bodies, 2 sets of feet paws (indoor/outdoor), 1 set of hand paws and of course a head and tail. The quality of the suit was to be the same as the ones advertised on her FA page WHEN: I made the first payment for the suit in 2015, she claims that she started it in April 4th of 2016. I was the only suit she was working on (so she told me, which I have screenshots of and will display) PROOF: This is a small section of screenshots. To screenshot our ENTIRE chat it would be too many links, but this is times where she's ignored me, times where's she's lied to me, and times where we discussed the product quality, when it would be completed, and the price/payments. I blurred out her paypal and the addresses that are there All payments. The last one was refunded by Paypal but the rest of the purchases are over a year old and I can't refund them http://imgur.com/brixFYe The original advertisement in the Dealer's Den http://imgur.com/4hVMoGx Talking about prices/payment plan http://imgur.com/EeHH6Hg http://imgur.com/ZkHGTX1 The date I finished enough payments for her to start on my suit, she already had all of the materials and she had my DTD http://imgur.com/pqNzufp The first progress update I got, then being ignored for a few days while she comes online and offline of telegram, but still ignoring me http://imgur.com/g02hjo7 http://imgur.com/iHv3vYn A small update she gave me with no pictures, then being ignored again. She's never sent me a picture of the 2 body suits, 2 feet paws or the tails http://imgur.com/OilUrwR Her reading my messages and still ignoring them even after going online and offline repeatedly http://imgur.com/HDg8Ni8 Her finally responding, but with more excuses. She changed her settings on telegram so I couldn't see her last time online so I got a little upset. She was active in her SoCal Furries telegram chat while ignoring me. She got a side job and had even less time for my suit http://imgur.com/h7t93TH http://imgur.com/aPxIUio Her ignoring me again and giving me ridiculous excuses like "Yea sorry I'm out grocery shopping for a week"... http://imgur.com/BDoTuHh http://imgur.com/zxVLIit Gave me a picture of my paws with fur and pads, I came back a week later asking what's new and ignored again. Another case of coming online and offline and being active in other chats during the time http://imgur.com/uib5pY1 For a while she kept giving me the excuse "I put your suit back in my shop and I can't get to my shop right now". Then she said she would go to the shop and instead ignored me the entire day and did nothing http://imgur.com/ELxjWZk After being ignored for a long while I just asked for my money back and got this. This is what I will be using when I open the small claims file because she explicitly says she will give me either my suit or money by a specific date. I of course have neither right now http://imgur.com/HMMbDK2 Still saying she can't get into her shop, but she said she finished it and needed my address to ship it. It was never shipped http://imgur.com/4rcOCB3 The 2 partial suits she made for MFF while ignoring me and telling me that my suit is finished but never sending pictures of the body, or mailing the suit http://imgur.com/Rn9GSw9 http://imgur.com/G0wWW2T Constant struggles to get her attention http://imgur.com/xcaOOk7 Final proof of her ignoring me and blaming it on being "Spacey" http://imgur.com/uke09GA Ignored again even after she told me she won't ignore me anymore, and another fake deadline where she didn't finish it http://imgur.com/QPCAJwR She told me she had the box with the suit in her new apartment after she moved and just needed to "find it" before she could ship it. Apparently it takes a week to find a box http://imgur.com/Pd3NI8r http://imgur.com/P58ZBz4 http://imgur.com/QeoT2do Another excuse. She got a tooth pulled and said she can't ship the box, even though she has a roommate who could do it for her http://imgur.com/u6weqDm I had to bother her roommate in order to get her to respond and stop ignoring me again http://imgur.com/N11eRkI Lying about the suit being shipped and the USPS "losing her package" but the package was never brought into the USPS. She bought a $22 shipping label and never brought the item in http://imgur.com/VwWsT7I The unused shipping label/tracking number http://imgur.com/AN6blhe Her threatening to put a cease and desist on me just for posting about this on twitter http://imgur.com/XfeRG2g http://imgur.com/rPWbWqn Some screenshots look different because they were taken on my computer and not my phone EXPLAIN: I payed her in full and she never delivered the product, but the thing is that she lied to me long enough and gave me enough fake deadlines that I ran out of time with Paypal, my only option now is to go to Small Claims Court. I've threatened with that and she just keeps giving me these lies, and even bought a $22 USPS tracking number and sent it to me saying "I shipped your suit" but never brought the "package" in to USPS, so it's still not in use to this day. There are constant times where I had to threaten to take my money back on Paypal in order to get her to respond. In the end, she's still ignoring me, my only response from her is her telling me on Twitter that she'll give me a cease and desist because I posted about this on my Twitter. After all of this she still swears up and down that she shipped the package and says she has an open claim with USPS about the "lost package" but has no proof of that, and still has no proof of the "$2400 in insurance" she bought on the package, because she sent me a receipt for a $22 shipping label but the insurance alone on a package that large and that heavy is $34. On top of all of this, when she was supposed to be working on my suit, she went off and made 2 partials for MFF (they're in the screenshots) during the same week she said it would be shipped to me. Then she ignored me for another 7 days until I threatened with a refund again. After she started ignoring me I started to get a little more aggressive, as you can see in some of the screenshots. Eventually she told me "I was ignoring you because I'm spacey"... that makes no sense, no one should ignore their customers especially if you owe them money/a product. I took back $440 because that is all I could get back from the payments. The rest is over a year old and Paypal won't touch it. Just getting her to give updates was a pain, and I really do hope that no one has to go through this again like I did, this is the reason I'm making this Artist Beware, not as revenge or in anger. She's still open for commissions and keeps taking on suits while apparently working on mine. It's obvious she's either doing them instead of mine, or stealing other people's money as well. UPDATE: After speaking with Vitai Slade to get her removed from Dealer's Den, she "found" the unshipped package inside of her apartment and took it into USPS once and for all. After all of this mess and drama, the suit is the right quality and there are no missing parts. Glad it's finally all over http://imgur.com/a/wKPpS http://imgur.com/a/3cF4t The suit! http://imgur.com/a/xf2zI http://imgur.com/a/kOYlx

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/942680.html WHO: Victoria10717 known as "FurFancyCostumes" on Furaffinity WHERE: Links to their Furaffinity accounts http://www.furaffinity.net/user/victoria10717/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/furfancycostumes WHAT: Fursuit handpaws, feetpaws, bodysuit with tail attached (fursuit items) WHEN: First agreed upon commission on the 16th of March 2016, it was also agreed upon that said items would be delivered to me by June 17th 2016, this is still ongoing however and they have not started the commission as I am writing this 16 February 2017, I finally worked up the courage to ask for a refund 2 months ago PROOF: Proof can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/RAgOm Proof is in the form of screenshots of conversations I have had with the maker EXPLAIN: This all started after I purchased a fursuit head off the fursuit auction site "furbuy" from someone who bought it from the maker. I decided I wanted to upgrade it to a partial so I reached out to the maker as I needed it done for a specific date which I wouldn't be able to finish the parts by due to life circumstances, this was my only reason for commissioning the maker at the time so I'd have the partial to wear to an upcoming convention. The maker agreed and assured me it would be there in time for the convention http://imgur.com/rCI396A so I went through with the commission and paid. http://imgur.com/HZDcMjl I know artists don't like being bombarded with questions from commissioners so I gave them space and just assumed that they would work on it. Time passed and I hadn't seen any progress at all so I contacted them and they told me it was fine and will be done. I contacted them again 2 weeks before the date they assured me they'd have it completed by (as shipping from the USA to Australia takes 2 weeks) and by this point I knew they wouldn't have it done in time, which I was upset about but I let it slide. Time continued to pass and I was getting more stressed and worried about the commission, I was constantly given sob stories for why the commission wasn't worked on (moving house, relatives dying etc.), which I gave her more time because of, however I was noticing too that she was working on commissions that were paid off after mine. It became difficult to get into contact with the maker as they began ignoring my messages, I tried switching over to email on numerous occasions which were ignored completely, whereas with notes I would receive occasional replies. Late September to early October I messaged her asking what was going on and she told me that she was working and making great progress and I started seeing a lot of work from her that she was doing on others commissions suits and I became confident that soon she'd do my commission as she was posting progress as well with her assuring me my suit would be worked on soon http://imgur.com/rrnAKmd so I decided to add a bodysuit to the commission as they also assured me it wouldn't slow my commission but be done with it. Time continued to pass and more and more I noticed other commissions being done over mine and when I tried contacting the maker I was ignored. Eventually I decided I was putting too much time into this and it was making me too stressed so I wanted to put an end to it and as they had breached the agreement many times I believed I was entitled to a full refund and all they responded with was to follow their "trello" http://imgur.com/oT70pkB to try and get me to no longer ask for a refund. On other occasions I had told them they hadn't made a slot for me on trello which they ignored so even looking at that list, I had no idea where I was on it or if my commission was even being considered in her queue Then the maker proceeded to provide excuses and reasons as to why they couldn't or hadn't worked on the commission http://imgur.com/AZ7StD9 then claiming that I hadn't paid it off before others she had placed ahead of me, this continued for a little longer with conversation difficult as they continued to ignore my messages http://imgur.com/OhKbuo8 Finally I was able to get them to agree to send a refund and at this point I was so over it I didn't care about the 35% anymore, so I waited. I hadn't heard anything in over a month later after them claiming they'd send the refund that never came. So I proceeded with the Paypal claim, in order to actually receive a refund. I called PayPal customer service and explained the situation to someone there who told me that I was entitled to a full refund as they hadn't made a proper effort to work on the commission, regardless of what their TOS stated they had broken the agreement. That's when they finally replied however I still am yet to receive a refund from them as they claim they "don't have the money to refund".

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/917946.html WHO: Thatdangcat / Toradoshi WHERE: They have heaps of places to contact them, these are all the ones they have listed on their Furaffinity. All contact we had was via emails or FA notes. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thatdangcat https://www.furaffinity.net/user/toradoshi/ https://beta.furrynetwork.com/toradoshi/ http://thatdangcat.deviantart.com/ https://inkbunny.net/Toradoshi https://www.weasyl.com/~toradoshi https://toradoshi.sofurry.com/ https://e621.net/post/index?tags=toradoshi https://twitter.com/thatdangcat https://www.facebook.com/ThatDangCat https://payhip.com/thatdangcat WHAT: Premade partial on Furbuy to be made into a digitigrade fullsuit. Purchased by myself and my partner as a joint commission with him doing the majority of the contact for ease of commission. WHEN: Premade was bought around 4/4/15 and stopped responding after 7/25/15 Premade partial was bought from Furbuy around the 4/4/15th, the furbuy page has long gone so not sure on exact date. 3/6/15 - Picture of the suit from the makers account, same image used on FB auction - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16108694/ / http://sta.sh/024rc3ccl2xt 4/17/15 -7/25/15 - A list of all the payments sent - http://sta.sh/0s05lkb1rkh 4/8/15 - 4/11/15 - Details worked out with payment plan and details for suit http://sta.sh/011ulmr8x6gw Some progress was made towards making it into a fullsuit 5/15/15 - Hands and claws were started https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16558995/ / http://sta.sh/01hr2nqi3a14 6/12/15 - Padding was made https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16815559/ / http://sta.sh/01w4ocx52yro A full list of the emails + content http://sta.sh/2d1uiynbyjz?edit=1 7/25/15 - Where emails start going unresponded to http://sta.sh/09t98px9sjc Repeated unread notes on both their FA accounts http://sta.sh/013qhfpa8g9v 2/4/16 - 6/5/16 More unresponded emails http://sta.sh/01qcb3sj803y / http://sta.sh/0n78pdoevi 7/27/16 - After repeated ignored/unpened notes and emails I sent them a note from my FA account asking about a commission enquiry on the 7/27/16 which was replied to on the same day. I sent them a note saying they obviously weren't having any issues getting notes and to either update us, or refund us. http://sta.sh/0ukeca1eaq1 That note was read, and I have yet to recieve a reply but they have been uploading art to their Toradoshi account since then. http://sta.sh/010e0yogvhvy Obviously this has gone on way too long and we should have followed it up over a year ago. The suit was intended for my partner and myself to be able to wear. He was the one organizing and doing the transaction itself along with the details for it so the artist wasn't communicating with both of us, but the commission was for the two of us. Most of the details were run by me to agree with as well, but all emails and payments were sent by him. Unfortunately he's pretty new to the commissioning game and while I'd have bailed out and followed this up a year ago, he kept going in the hopes this would actually get completed. In putting together this AB I saw (He actually probably told me at the time but I forgot) that this suit had a timeframe of 2-4 months 😕 We're in the process of trying to contact paypal and his bank to do a chargeback on Toradoshi in an attempt to get our money back. I'm not holding out hope on a refund seeing my last note has gone unresponded to and going by their Trello https://trello.com/b/pQoLLQU4/tdc-commissions they have other people waiting on refunds (See Blue/white wolf head card) and no suit work done since November 2015, but with two new suits added this year. EXPLAIN: Bought a premade partial from Thatdangcat/Toradoshi on 4/4/15 and they stopped updating us after the 7/25/15. At first chalked it up to emails not getting through, so I bugged my partner to send them a note on their FA to their fursuiting account (Thatdangcat) and their main account (Toradoshi) which was being updated almost daily. Repeated unread notes and unreplied to emails I sent them a note from my own account, which they promptly responded to then stopped replying to once I asked about our suit. ADDED: Since writing this the artist has contacted us again http://sta.sh/0b7tpy16bg4 At the moment still deciding how best to proceed. *edited to fix spelling and unfilled dates* Update: so Toradoshi has been replying since all this, and we've decided to continue with the commission but with a 3 month deadline with weekly updates. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly now! [Editor's note: Update from 2/2017] https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/917946.html WHO: Thatdangcat / Toradoshi WHERE: They have heaps of places to contact them, these are all the ones they have listed on their Furaffinity. All contact we had was via emails or FA notes. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thatdangcat https://www.furaffinity.net/user/toradoshi/ https://beta.furrynetwork.com/toradoshi/ http://thatdangcat.deviantart.com/ https://inkbunny.net/Toradoshi https://www.weasyl.com/~toradoshi https://toradoshi.sofurry.com/ https://e621.net/post/index?tags=toradoshi https://twitter.com/thatdangcat https://www.facebook.com/ThatDangCat https://payhip.com/thatdangcat WHAT: Premade partial on Furbuy to be made into a digitigrade fullsuit. Purchased by myself and my partner as a joint commission with him doing the majority of the contact for ease of commission. WHEN: Premade was bought around 4/4/15 and stopped responding after 7/25/15 Premade partial was bought from Furbuy around the 4/4/15th, the furbuy page has long gone so not sure on exact date. 3/6/15 - Picture of the suit from the makers account, same image used on FB auction - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16108694/ / http://sta.sh/024rc3ccl2xt 4/17/15 -7/25/15 - A list of all the payments sent - http://sta.sh/0s05lkb1rkh 4/8/15 - 4/11/15 - Details worked out with payment plan and details for suit http://sta.sh/011ulmr8x6gw Some progress was made towards making it into a fullsuit 5/15/15 - Hands and claws were started https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16558995/ / http://sta.sh/01hr2nqi3a14 6/12/15 - Padding was made https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16815559/ / http://sta.sh/01w4ocx52yro A full list of the emails + content http://sta.sh/2d1uiynbyjz?edit=1 7/25/15 - Where emails start going unresponded to http://sta.sh/09t98px9sjc Repeated unread notes on both their FA accounts http://sta.sh/013qhfpa8g9v 2/4/16 - 6/5/16 More unresponded emails http://sta.sh/01qcb3sj803y / http://sta.sh/0n78pdoevi 7/27/16 - After repeated ignored/unpened notes and emails I sent them a note from my FA account asking about a commission enquiry on the 7/27/16 which was replied to on the same day. I sent them a note saying they obviously weren't having any issues getting notes and to either update us, or refund us. http://sta.sh/0ukeca1eaq1 That note was read, and I have yet to recieve a reply but they have been uploading art to their Toradoshi account since then. http://sta.sh/010e0yogvhvy Obviously this has gone on way too long and we should have followed it up over a year ago. The suit was intended for my partner and myself to be able to wear. He was the one organizing and doing the transaction itself along with the details for it so the artist wasn't communicating with both of us, but the commission was for the two of us. Most of the details were run by me to agree with as well, but all emails and payments were sent by him. Unfortunately he's pretty new to the commissioning game and while I'd have bailed out and followed this up a year ago, he kept going in the hopes this would actually get completed. In putting together this AB I saw (He actually probably told me at the time but I forgot) that this suit had a timeframe of 2-4 months 😕 We're in the process of trying to contact paypal and his bank to do a chargeback on Toradoshi in an attempt to get our money back. I'm not holding out hope on a refund seeing my last note has gone unresponded to and going by their Trello https://trello.com/b/pQoLLQU4/tdc-commissions they have other people waiting on refunds (See Blue/white wolf head card) and no suit work done since November 2015, but with two new suits added this year. EXPLAIN: Bought a premade partial from Thatdangcat/Toradoshi on 4/4/15 and they stopped updating us after the 7/25/15. At first chalked it up to emails not getting through, so I bugged my partner to send them a note on their FA to their fursuiting account (Thatdangcat) and their main account (Toradoshi) which was being updated almost daily. Repeated unread notes and unreplied to emails I sent them a note from my own account, which they promptly responded to then stopped replying to once I asked about our suit. ADDED: Since writing this the artist has contacted us again http://sta.sh/0b7tpy16bg4 At the moment still deciding how best to proceed. *edited to fix spelling and unfilled dates* Update: so Toradoshi has been replying since all this, and we've decided to continue with the commission but with a 3 month deadline with weekly updates. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly now!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/906397.html WHO: Gideon Hoss WHERE: Anthrocon Pittsburgh, PA, July 9th-12th, 2015 http://www.furaffinity.net/user/gideon / http://www.gideonscorral.com/ WHAT: traditional "con sketch" for $40 WHEN: Friday, July 10th, 12:45PM Pittsburgh time EXPLAIN: As soon as the dealer's room opened, I rushed in to get several commissions for a friend of mine in Sweden, knowing that sketch slots fill up fast. One of my friend’s requests was NSFW sketch of his zebra/dog character (Gideon is well known for his hyper-genetila pictures.) After securing commissions from several other artists first, I arrived at his both around 12:30pm. I purchased a sketch commission slot for $40, along with one of his CD compilations for $10. I gave him my friend’s character references, along with a description of what he wanted, and paid the $50 at that time using my PayPal debit card (see receipts above). I was told he would complete the sketch that night and it would be available for pick up the next morning. The next day (Saturday), I went to his booth to pick up the sketch, but was told he didn’t have enough time to complete it, and that he would try to get it done that night for me. Ok, fine. Things happen, sketches take longer then they expect, etc. Again, when I went to his booth the next day, I was again told that he did not complete it, but he would try to get it done before the end of the con. We exchanged phone numbers so that he could text me when it was ready. Instead, later that evening he texted me to say he did not complete it, but would do so when he got home and mail it to me. I waited several weeks with no messages from him, so I sent him a text message inquiring about the status of the sketch, but he never responded. I tried several more text messages after that over the following weeks, and again received no response. I was able to locate his email address on his website and attempted to contact him that way, but again received no response. As it turns out, my friend was going to be attending Eurofurence in August 2015, and Gideon was to have a booth there. They exchanges several emails and made arrangements to meet to pick it up, but Gideon never showed up at the arranged time. After that con, he again failed to contact us. Both my friend and I attempted to email him every couple weeks or so after that, and he yet again didn’t respond. In September, I again tried contact him as I saw that he was going to be at the Rainfurrest convention in Seattle later that month and could make arrangements to pick up the sketch, as I was going to be in the area visiting friends. Again, I received no response from him. In November, I tried to contact him via his Furaffinity.com account. Needless to say, I was very surprised when he actually *DID* respond. He claimed he was not receiving our emails (which I find very hard to believe since they seemed to work just fine when we could “pin him down” at a con, but whatever.) After a few exchanges on the fur affinity message system, he stopped responding yet again. My friend and I both attempted to contact him several times in December and January, to which we again received no response. At some point I also left him negative feedback on his credit card merchant account, citing the long overdue delivery and lack of response, and yet again he never replied. At this point, it’s now been over 7 months since the con it was originally supposed to be done at, and we’ve been given him more than enough chances to correct the situation. My friend is heart set on getting this sketch from Gideon, so I would very much like to receive it, and soon. At this point, if he has any intention of completing it, I feel he should mail the sketch to my friend in Sweden at his cost: Has he actually completed it at Anthrocon as originally promised, I would have been able to send it in a package of other “con goodies” I got for my friend – an additional sheet of paper probably would not have raised the postage any more. If he has no intention of completing it in a reasonable time, I want a $40 refund. I’m sorry, but there is no excuse for this lack of customer service on his part. A paying customer should NOT have to try to hunt down an artist like this, only to be given empty promises or be completely ignored. It makes me wonder how many other people he’s done this to that maybe gave up after a few tries. My friend was actually considering getting a full colored commission from him at some point, but after this experience, I don’t think that’s going to happen anymore. PROOF:

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/880349.html WHO: vexthehuski WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vexthehuski/ WHAT: a halloween themed multi-slot nsfw ych ("eclipsed" with the werewolf from here NSFW http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/colesense/folder/18059/Open-YCHs-and-adopts ) WHEN: october 7th until now PROOF: proof of first contact http://i.imgur.com/x8d6PWa.png conversation proof (bottom to top) with personal details blanked out (nsfw conversation) http://i.imgur.com/9ecS7yI.png proof of him buying more art is all over his gallery and favorites. EXPLAIN: Commissioner asked me to remind him that he wanted a ych on a specific date (no longer have access to those comments) and so i did. I told him that if he did not want one he should let me know, he insisted that he wanted one. He then disappeared and refused to answer my notes so i let him know that sadly i may have to blacklist him for this. he then started responding again making wild claims about his money being stolen, his dog died, him sending the money but me having no record of it, and now he claims that his xbox, paypal, and bank account were hacked. i tried to give him the benefit of the doubt because he commissioned me but as he gave me excuses he continued to buy ychs from other artists. i finally decided enough was enough and i blacklisted and blocked him. i am posting this beware to warn mainly people who do ychs. some people do art before they were paid and i do not want to see them scammed like this. edit: I do want to emphasize the fact that he tried to insist that he actually sent me the money to convince me to do the art without payment. This is extremely suspicious and i am glad i checked it before doing the work. I have experience with people asking for a ych and later being unable to pay and letting me know. i have no issue with this. i have issue with this person making these wild claims and trying to convince me to work by lying about paying me.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/879013.html I feel like this is a rather unusual beware, but here it is, anyways. All information is under the cut! WHO: Paxerle @ deviantART WHERE: http://www.paxerle.deviantart.com WHAT: Contest Prizes ($8 USD, 1 Chibi, 2 Pixel Icons, 1 Custom Design) - Only the chibi was ever completed and sent to me. WHEN: Paxerle noted me on June 23, 2015 and requested that I enter her contest. The journal with the information has long since been deleted, as well as the results journal, but I believe I was announced the winner on August 2, 2015, as that's when my note to her about prizes is dated. This is still ongoing. PROOF: Screenshots will be linked below. As said above, the original journals with the contest information and results have been deleted, so this proof is based off of what has been said in notes and I hope it's sufficient. EXPLAIN: June 23, 2015: Paxerle contacts me about her contest, the theme of which is to design a character for one of her MYO Sushi Dog Slots. Sushi Dogs are a closed species belonging to another user, which is important because it means she had to have the design approved by the species owner and I can no longer revoke it from her without backlash from the species community. She did pay the species owner for the slot, but, as explained below, she never compensated me, the designer, for the design, which was the original agreement. (I apologize for the confusion of this; I know this is an unorthodox situation that might require additional explanation.) August 2, 2015: I decided to enter because I had no workload at the time and I liked her art, which was also offered as prizes. On August 2nd, the results were posted and I was announced the winner, but this journal, like the one with the contest information, has been deleted. I also provided her with my email address for the small monetary prize. August 21, 2015: Paxerle sends me one of the completed art prizes. I'm including this because I believe it shows that she's acknowledging owing me something, and I don't have much evidence of that, unfortunately. September 10, 2015: I sent a note about the monetary prize because I never received it and, as mentioned in the screenshot, other artists often send payments to me to the wrong email address. (My dA username is Bottled-Rottweiler; my email address has no hyphen.) She claims to have sent it and I let her know that I never received anything. As of this posting, this is the last I ever heard from her. She could have easily responded with a screenshot of the transaction if she actually did send me the money, so I believe she never did and doesn't intend to. Here, she also acknowledges that I'm the designer of the character to the closed species owner, who approves it. This is why I cannot revoke the design from her; it would be viewed as poor etiquette in the community and I could consequently be banned. I was hesitant to post this due to the complexity of the situation, but the general idea of this is, I entered Paxerle's contest and designed her a character, under the belief that I would receive art and monetary prizes in exchange. I never received them, so she now owns a design from me that I was, in a sense, not paid for. I hope I'm not overreacting to this, but the idea that she scammed a free design out of me has left a bad taste in my mouth. Additionally, she has paid people for adoptables and completed personal artwork in this time. EDIT (11/11/25: I want to place emphasis on the fact that this is an issue with an individual artist who failed to compensate me for a character design, not an issue with the closed species community. At the advice of the comments below, I did contact the moderators of the community for assistance, but this is a conflict between two individuals. I have no issues with this community and have always felt welcome there. 🙂

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/872392.html WHO: Apocalypse ReFurred, Thysyrael WHERE: Facebook Apocalypse ReFurred page and via messages WHAT: A pair of resin/ polymorph pastic clawed hand paws and feet paws with promise of quick turn around by April 4th. WHEN: March 18th 2015. – Commission placed. March 22nd – Fur I supplied arrived at maker’s address. March 24th – Commission paid for in full. April 3rd – Photo of hand paws WIP received, April 4th – Original deadline. April 16th – Photo received of feet paws in ductape wrap, ready for furring. ( Several different life problems occurred for the artist, such as pet passing, theft etc. throughout the months. I can try to give specific dates for these if required) 6th September – After no updates, I ask again for one or for a partial refund and what’s been made to be sent to me so I can complete myself or resell. 7th September – Refunded and items sent to me 11th September – Items recieved PROOF: ( Me in purple, her in green) Facebook messages part 1 Facebook messages part 2 Paypal receipt Message mentioning the polymorph plastic I missed Items themselves; Overall paw shape ( My ref for character, notice the paws are more lizard or simian shaped) Animal hair 1, 2, 3 Unglued edges Hand paws Claws They look like Fimo to me EXPLAIN: Back in March, I was preparing for a convention on April 4th when I found that my fursuit feet and paws where in very rough condition from general use. I asked about on the UK Furry Facebook groups for a maker or someone seller paws and a maker came forward. I looked at their stuff and while they weren’t high end makers, their paws looked fine and they offered to complete it within the admittedly tight deadline. I already had some fur left over from when I tried to make the fursuit and we agreed for a lower price ( £80) if I sent this fur over. A day before the deadline ( April 4th ) I received a phone photo of the hand paws. They looked a little rough, but I assumed it was just the camera quality. I later received a photo of ductape covered feet paws. They looks a little odd and I asked if the tape was pulling the toes apart, giving them a wider look. She assured me they were fine so I continued with the commission a little apprehensive. Then a myriad of personal and family problems for the maker reared up, from a pet passing away, to a parent being very ill and then robbery. There were also problems with the dye not adhering to the resin claws that I’d asked for. She said she would contact the maker and complain. Every so often, I’d ask for updates and get told that there was a problem and she couldn’t send photos. After the April 4th deadline, I’d hoped that the paws would be ready for Confuzzled in May. No such luck, I ended up going suitless which was kinda sad. 7 months later, I was promised an update within 2 weeks. No update came and I was fed up. I asked for a partial refund ( as some of the commission was complete) and for what was made to be sent to me. She agreed and the £5 refund along with the unattached claws and paws where sent to me. The paws arrived quickly but in very poor condition, which I’ll detail in sections; Feet Paws – They are way too wide and off model, looking more like duck feet. There is glue blobs, holes between the fur and the sole, but the worse thing is the smell. They stink badly of dog so much that it’s as if the animal has sat on the foam or fur. I reported this to the maker ( as some of my family suffer from allergies), she explained that the fur and foam was kept away from the animals and the only way they’d smell is if she’d passed it on from petting the animals. However, there is white and brown animal fur on the paws as well as general fluff. This hair cannot be from when I supplied the fur as we have no pets. Hand Paws – very roughly made, though they are incomplete, they too are smelly. They also fit ill. Claws– These are not polymorph plastic, but instead hand sculpted Fimo clay and have finger prints and dirt in the clay. I googled the plastic, which appears to be a shiney, usually white product similar to glue gun glue. In the end, I am very disappointed. I don’t think I can even sell these items without thorough repair and cleaning. She seems to be a young maker and as such, isn’t very professional yet. Edit: Update 2/10/2015 I contacted the maker a couple of days ago about the animal fur with pictures. I asked her again if the animal had been in contact with the paws and she said the fur ( which is clearly animal with colouring and tapering... plus, y know, the stink!) was faux fur from another suit she was making.

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/856045.html WHO: Rubbertex Raccoon, Rubbertex Cooper WHERE: FurAffinity. He has a website as well but it doesn't seem to be operational. WHAT: Partial Fursuit. When I last heard from him back in January neither of us could find the initial Skype conversation hashing out specific details, but we both remember the price was $750 and that sending smaller payments was already, as such I had sent about $100 every couple of weeks when I was paid. There was also a $41 comic but that was resolved in April after waiting several years on that as well. Most of that follows the same story as the fursuit. WHEN: The original conversation I remember was held in October before Midwest Furfest 2012. The first payment/deposit was sent on October 31st, with the rest of the payments following when I could afford to make a payment, which was originally agreed upon that several smaller payments would be alright. I first started to become uneasy when I was told that he would have the fursuit done by Further Confusion '14 (roughly a year and change after he first agreed to take it) and getting a hold of him to ask if the fursuit would be done in time was becoming an issue. Due to flying to California, if I could take the fursuit home as a carry on bag rather than shipping it, I would have preferred that to save us both the shipping costs. PROOF: As mentioned before, neither of us can seem to find the chat log from when we first agreed to it. I've got logs from before October and after October, but none during that month and I'm not entirely sure why. I've got screenshots of afterwards, but this is the closest I've got to an agreement on the suit http://i.gyazo.com/9e0299d70cd46ceb647ac6d2c5230953.png For the comic: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/x69zsz5l26we5tw/9360d0db4dc965cb5386435c8d72d13e.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: Rubbertex and I were chatting on Skype, and the conversation has drifted towards me being dissatisfied with my current suit. He mentioned that he built suits himself, and showed me some examples. If I recall correctly, he then offered to make me a partial for "the friend discount" of $750 which I agreed and we started talking about payment and specifics. The original date that I was told was that he would have it done by MWFF, which I thought that, while impressive, wouldn't happen, but he assured me he could have it done by then. By November 1st he apparently already had the head and feet foamed, and he already had black and white fur and just needed to order the brown. He said he would have it by the 16th but ended up getting sick for a few weeks and by the time MWFF rolled around I didn't have the suit. I wasn't too bothered since I had only paid him the deposit at that time, and didn't expect it to be done so soon anyways. Fast forward about a year, I hadn't been saying much and sending him payments when my income could afford the breathing room, which was about $100 every month or so. Due to not hearing anything about it being finished or near finished since the note linked above, I admittedly wasn't in too much of a hurry to get it paid off. I had been monitoring his journals and he had a Google Drive spreadsheet with progress on all his commissions set up. It hadn't been updated in a while, but it was listed as being "Currently going through final sewing up. Need approval on toony or follow me eyes for the suit head." for a while, so I got into contact with him, I believe through AIM, and told him about the eyes since I hadn't heard anything from him about it. For a while, I had been contacting him through Twitter DMs whenever I had sent a payment, then as it got closer to being paid off I started sending him emails to give him more details about things like shipping address and dates. The "last" payment was on November 13, 2013, just before Midwest Furfest again, but I had no plans of going so I didn't ask for any other updates. When I had concrete plans made for going to Further Confusion 2014, I started emailing him asking about if it would be completed on time. On December 5th I was told he would have it done in time. About a month of not hearing any sort of updates aside from occasional journals filled with bad news and I was trying to find out if it would be complete or not cause the day that I left for FC was fast approaching. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/k6c0renm70ka7ht/ac729cc3a9da620c09e416d6e9a21621.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/66dcxtw4kind73n/9f6fa591d23922573a47d7eb10364c49.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/3kwc46xnlm3uhng/e7c6365bf7c5c34b1e14cfdea865c097.png?dl=0 At FC when I ran into him, he had told me that the suit wasn't able to be finished because he ran out of black/white fur. I found that excuse highly unlikely, but I was there to have fun with friends so I just bit my tongue and let it go. Keep in mind that up to this point, I have still not seen a single photo of anything regarding my suit, so I was going off of the faith that the Google Doc that hadn't been updated in months was still current, along with him having several cases of getting sick, a car accident, his bank account being compromised a couple of times, and general stress and anxiety making him unable to work. I had tried to remain patient and understanding about all of this, but my sympathy was running low when it seemed to be one excuse after another about general lack of communication or why work wasn't being done. After the con I had sent several emails, and only got a response to two in the next 4 months. For a period of time, he had his FA page disabled, which had me more than a little worried, so I continued to try and contact him via email. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5ul8xkiwxsc0fdv/fefcbd7984badc5348ea4abc9a0bc441.png It turned out that he had the FA note system on the wrong tab or something? I find that hard to believe since it would still notify you of new notes until they were read, but again, I bit my tongue and didn't raise a fuss. Another 6 months pass, no response to several emails/notes/FA Shouts/Comments/etc any form of contact I could think of that was more than commenting on a random journal which didn't seem to have much luck most of the time anyway. He posted another life update journal and I thought there was a general tone of him taking on new commissions, so I spoke up and said something, cause at this point I still hadn't received any recent updates and was also still waiting on the comic commission which he had posted several times before that it was completed and just needed to be emailed out. That prompted this conversation. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ub40cqmdhwut6m6/08f62da4d8990a3205ad3403683e9cea.png?dl=0 I had been in contact with him for the last year and a half, and he claimed he was trying to use an entirely different email than the one I had been using the entire time prior to this conversation. Again, I found that extremely hard to believe, but bit my tongue. He also told me again, that he would have them done by FC 2015 which was about 2 months away. A couple weeks later, he started to take stream commissions, while he still had his entire backlog from May of 2012 to work through that from what I had gathered from contacting a couple of other people in that same backlog, they were in the same boat. A couple of people commented on the streaming journals asking about their work that was in the backlog, but he ignored the comments and deleted the journals. A couple weeks after that comment, I decided that I was done waiting and to give him a final chance. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/a2x2j48n3umupjs/13e9f9f9e0d3c9f372e107bea70c5257.png?dl=0 I had sent several emails to him asking for updates in the time between that one and FC asking for some sort of update. Around early December/January he started to use Twitter again after being on hiatus from there for a while. The couple weeks prior to FC he mentioned working on a "puppy" and a "beagle" and one of my friends who was in a stream of his told me that he saw Rubbertex working on my suit. When I tried to reply to his tweets asking if the suit in question was mine, I never got a reply, nor to the email asking if he even saw those tweets. FC comes around, and I still haven't heard anything. I ran into him several times due to us having several of the same social circles, but he was actively avoiding me, and since I didn't want to make a scene I didn't confront him about it. I sent him a few Twitter messages, since I saw him actively posting on there and responding to people, so I figured that would get a response, but they went ignored. After I got home, I waited a few days for a response to any of the messages I had sent him. Afterwards I decided to give him one last final chance, and sent this email. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/rw2l8xf8sx836a7/Email.png?dl=0 Shortly after sending it, I went to Paypal Support to ask how I would go about getting a refund on something I had paid for that was well beyond their usual Buyer Protection date. I was informed that if I wanted a refund for this all, assuming that he wouldn't cooperate, that I would need to go through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which is a branch of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). I informed Rubbertex of what I was told to do via Twitter DMs, and that finally prompted the response from the email. I haven't heard a response from in to any emails I've sent since that last one 4 months ago. The only contact I've gotten out of him was when I went into one of his streams and he showed me the comic that he was finally working on, and posted in April '15. Other than that, I haven't heard a word from him about any sort of progress on my suit, but he's still active on FA. I know that stress, anxiety, and depression can all suck big time, but it has been two and a half years since he agreed to do a partial fursuit, and it took me threatening legal action to even get photos from him that he had something started on it. I'm not entirely thrilled that I'll only get a %50 refund considering that his main excuse for it not being done on time has been that he's ran out of materials, so I don't really buy that he's spent all $300 of that on materials for my suit. At the same time, I'm doubting that the suit will be completed in the foreseeable future. UPDATE: Sent an email on July 4th saying I was done waiting. Recieved a response on the following Monday that he would refund, but he's also got other refunds to do first. Also in posting a link to this, word reached other people in his queue, and from the ones who responded, they all said they're in pretty much the same boat. Waiting several years, months of no contact, excuse after excuse, etc. A few are heavily contemplating legal action. UPDATE 2: Still waiting on a refund, I was told on September 3rd that I was next in his refund queue, and upon sending an email a month later about the refund, because I had been going on the assumption that I was only getting half, was told that I would be getting a full refund. There were other things mentioned, but that starts to get off topic of the refund.

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/834579.html WHO: Skylar Young on Facebook; I don't know of Furaffinity or any other place she offers her services. WHERE: https://www.facebook.com/para.dox.7758 WHAT: A fursuit costume piece; four-colored goat tail. There was no set completion time but it was said that the product would be started as soon as money went through, as seen in the screencap. WHEN: Payment sent December 22, 2014, when it was promised it would be started in four days, when the payment went through. Still relevant now ( March 14th, 2015, at time of posting ). PROOF: Discussion of transaction, and me trying to contact them at all. I am Taxi Pony, any mention of her name is blocked out per community rules:: http://i.imgur.com/q4CgoDs.png Paypal proof of payment:: http://i.imgur.com/gr1W0Re.png Evidence of her continual activity since commissioning the tail can be seen just by visiting her facebook. EXPLAIN: I contacted them on December 22nd as they had made a recent post about being in financial troubles, and knowing they were a local suit maker, I decided to commission them for a tail for one of my suits. The above log shows me commissioning them. All was good and it was a fine, active conversation for a little bit, then I sent the money and we discussed possible future business ( I was wondering about getting hands and feet for the costume as well ) and then we went our merry ways. From then on, there was literally no conversation. I sent multiple messages just asking for a response at all, and preferably a picture of the WIP tail ( which, according to her promise, should have been started already ), and despite Facebook confirming that my messages were looked at, there was never any replies. Meanwhile she was posting just as regularly as always on her Facebook, reblogging, so on. I even got a little desperate a few times just to at least be ACKNOWLEDGED and commented on a couple of her posts. I only started getting aggressive once I realized these comments on her posts got deleted afterwards, even those not related to the business. As of right now there has still been no contact and I have started a paypal claim to get my money back as if she doesn't find her customers important enough to even say hello to then I doubt she finds them important enough to give paid-for product to. I'll admit I did a bad thing that isn't at all relevant to our business transaction, but I feel like the lack of contact and deleting posts may be related to it -- her boyfriend made an unsavory post that made me really mad and I called him out on it. I've learned since that Skylar is very protective of her boyfriend and anyone who says anything bad about them instantly gets on her naughty list. Again, nothing to do with the business transaction, but it's just further evidence of the lack of professionalism with this maker. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND COMMISSIONING THIS MAKER. She refuses contact with her clients and prefers to work on personal things over commissioned pieces. I know of someone else who posted a beware on her recently as well, so red flags all around. The lack of professionalism should be enough to keep future clients away.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/833310.html WHO: RubbertexRaccoon WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rubbertexraccoon WHAT: 3-page comic ($120). An inflatable suit and a matching inflatable toy ($2400 for both to be paid in three installments: $800 down to pay for materials, $800 on completion of prototype, $800 on delivery - $1,600 paid to date.) WHEN: Comic commissioned March 2013, the inflatable suit and toy commissioned in April, 2013. PROOF: Journal showing comic pages paid: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4396795/ Original Agreement for the inflatable suit and toy: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/07imdps245l9xw2/Original Agreement PM.jpg?dl=0 Project delivery date showing target date of Midwest Furfest 2013: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/dpe9cpb507dp24a/Project Delivery Date PM.jpg?dl=0 First payment made on April 15, after timeline agreed upon for MFF. Second payment made in 2013 after initial concept sketch was finished: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/wjbr3sh4acsepl1/Payment proof email.jpg?dl=0 EXPLAIN: I commissioned Rubbertex Raccoon for art, an inflatable Maximus Ursus muscle bear suit and a matching life-size inflatable muscle bear toy, all in 2013. All of the products were to be completed in 2013, but the only thing I have received thus far is the pencil drawing concept sketch of the suit. Rubbertex said in a PM he received the materials to build my suit and toy, but I have seen no evidence to support the claim. He said he would mail a swatch of the latex for my approval of the thickness and color, but that never happened. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/cxg2bza1fbjrsnf/Swatches 12-2013.jpg?dl=0 He mentioned in later updates he is finished with the foam body so I could approve the size and shape of the muscles, but no photos were ever sent. He has also mentioned numerous times that his emails are often undelivered as spam because of the “rubber” part of his name, but I’ve never had any problems receiving emails from anyone. He has told this to numerous commissioners, including my mate, TonkaWolf, to whom he also owes an inflatable suit. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ha54nx05dehqvag/Email issues 06-2014.png?dl=0 Here is the update from May 19, 2013 talking about receiving the materials: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/yr1rnswlgwi9shj/05-2013 Update.jpg?dl=0 And an update in February 2014 saying he is waiting for tools to arrive to finish the foam dummy for approval, as well as not yet having done the comic: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3na64moglubvrlz/02-2014 Update.jpg?dl=0 An update in May 2014 saying he is still struggling with completing projects and is having financial issues (none of which should have affected my commissions, since the materials were supposedly already purchased a year ago). https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ddqugvunlbr1m87/05-2014 Update.jpg?dl=0 After several PMs and emails later, I told Rubbertex that although I would be disappointed with not getting the suit and toy, I would accept a refund of the $1,600 paid if the projects were not completed by December 31, 2014. I can’t find any documentation where we talked about the drop dead date, so it might have been via texts or something. I have had it posted on my FA profile since October 2014: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/cgea1f13qu72wqs/FA Profile.jpg?dl=0 It is now March 8, 2015 and the projects still are not completed. Neither have the comic pages been completed, although Rubbertex has been doing LiveStreams fairly regularly since January, taking on all new work and completing that during the streams or shortly thereafter. Rubbertex is now avoiding the problem by not reading PMs on FA, such as this one I sent 10 days ago (02-27) asking for an update on the refunds for Tonka and me: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/mu2ybdt3pa6upnq/Unanswered PM 03-08-2015.jpg?dl=0 Even though he is still doing sketching live streams (this one is from 03-07): https://dl.dropbox.com/s/feg8woe1ww0pe10/Sketch Stream 03-07-2015.jpg?dl=0 He is also looking at FA as he responded to one of Oz Kangaroo’s journals on 03-01. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/xnppxkrjoe7yjed/Rubbertex journal post 03-01-2015.jpg?dl=0 I know Rubbertex is under a lot of stress and pressure and I honestly just want a refund of all of the money I’ve paid to this point: $1720. I would love to still get the items, but as far as I know, there are still at least 6 suits and toys in the queue before mine, so I don’t think it’s realistic that my projects will ever be done. *****UPDATE: 07-15-2015***** I received a PM from Rubbertex on FA, apologizing for not having the work done and saying he will give me a refund "within a reasonable time frame". I replied to him that I would still rather have the suit and toy, since he says "I'm taking a huge financial hit on the materials and labor", but I have not yet seen any evidence that the materials have even been purchased. I have tried to help him over the past few years to get his life and diet in order to reduce his anxiety, but it is up to him to change. our exchange is here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/i2t648eszcs6ath/Rubbertex Refund PM on FA 07-11-2015.jpg?dl=0 The suit/toy building queue I mention is here: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/r6v2umlhnmd2slb/Rubbertex queue.png?dl=0

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/807750.html WHO: Royal Tenrou WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/royal-dog and http://www.twitter.com/royaltenrou WHAT: Fullsuit WHEN: March 2011 to Now (November 2014) PROOF: Please note - You have to read the early emails from the bottom up. Click for larger versions. Proof of Payment: First emails (beginning of the breakdown): Previous Deadline: Last emails: EXPLAIN: In March 2011, I visited the Midwest and ended up staying with Royal for a few days after meeting him through a mutual friend on FA previously. He mentioned that he wanted to go beyond his regular 2D art and get into fursuit building and at that time I wanted to bring my alt character to life. He decided to take me on as his first project, charging me $500 for a fullsuit. In September of that year I sent him the $500 and sporadically communicated with him over the next two years. When I reached out to him in November 2013, he said that the project was on hold. I got upset and had a back and forth with him (illustrated above). I wanted the unfinished suit so I could get someone else to complete it and he refused. After a cool down period, I emailed him again in February 2014 and he finally made some decent progress. Over the next seven months he made great strides building the suit until he seemingly hit a brick wall in October where he stated that his workspace was being compromised due to a ceiling leak. After the 16th however, he stopped communicating completely, yet according to his still active Twitter he was able to find time to pursue other interests. It has been over three years for the suit and to be frank, I feel he has simply stopped working on it. At this point I feel a refund would be impossible to obtain and I simply want the unfinished suit so I can get a professional to finish it or for him to at least provide a update and finally get it done. I know things have been difficult for him, but three years is long enough to wait for something like this. UPDATE (12/18/14): After sending him an email stating that I was preparing to take him to small claims court over the issue, he finally sent a progress picture of the head. He also stated that he would not communicate with me until the suit is finished and he would send update pictures at his discretion only. Should I hold off on small claims court or should I pressure him into relinquishing the incomplete suit and just having someone else finish it? UPDATE (2/17/15): Around January he reached out to me with another update and ever since then he has been consistently in contact with me, complete with progress pictures. I'm really glad that this is working out without resorting court or anything. UPDATE (3/6/15): Communication has improved tenfold and the head is pretty much done! Only thing left are the paws and tail. I'm excited for the final product and it looks like this is on its way to being resolved. UPDATE (5/8/15): THE SUIT IS DONE! Since the previous update, he has been working all out to get it finished and I cannot put into words how happy and proud I am of him now. Communication was excellent the last two months (via DMs on Twitter) and the work itself blew my expectations out of the water. Waiting for the suit to finally arrive next week so I can take pics. This should be resolved as soon as I get the suit! UPDATE (5/20/15): I received the suit about two weeks ago and after putting it through its paces, all I can say is WOW! The head is well built (love the attention to detail such as the velcro strips that replicate the character's eye black stickers), the paws are super soft, and the tail is great. Sadly though, the bodysuit is too small and will need to be altered, not Royal's fault though since it was the first thing finished and that was around two years ago (the body was based on a three year old DTD... yea I got a bit fat >.>). Also the head was a bit tight and I had to remove the moving jaw, just added fleece to the gap and its all good now! I gotta say that its one hell of a suit and I absolutely love it! This is definitely resolved!