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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/995528.html This imgur album may be easier to follow, but I will copy the relevant information in the proper template as well. https://imgur.com/a/vqw5xcR WHO: The artist is named Fr0stbit3 on Furaffinity. WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/fr0stbit3/ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26222681/ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/27231252/ WHAT: Digital art, solo character NSFW commission, offered by the artist in pre-posed slots. WHEN: Initial contact was February 3rd, 2018 when the commission was accepted. Payment details were provided on February 4th, and payment was also sent on February 4th. On March 19th, email communication began inquiring about the commission, and then a month's deadline for a refund was communicated and accepted. On April 20th, I opened a PayPal dispute to reinitiate contact. The refund was refused, and the dispute was elevated to a claim. On April 24th, the claim was resolved in the Buyer's (mine) favor. On May 1st, the Seller/Artist, Fr0stbit3, reopened the claim to appeal to PayPal. On May 4th, the appeal was denied by PayPal. Fr0stbit3 proceeded to post an unauthorized image of my character, using the title and description to insult and defame me. I decided to create an Artists Beware entry. EXPLAIN: This began when I asked for a pre-posed commission slot Fr0stbit3 was opening in February. The idea was a line of dragon characters in pre-made poses would be completed individually for the buyers and then posted in a group pic at the conclusion. https://imgur.com/m6Yru9V This is my initial comment on the submission page inquiring for a slot. Page is still available as of 5/4/2018. I inquired after a slot for the "Dragon Wall", pre-posed pictures for dragon characters to be lined up in a group picture. [NSFW link] https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26222681/ https://imgur.com/cm67HUZ Here is the note after the comment. I provided references and my paypal information, he replied with the price and his PayPal information. https://imgur.com/Qst1p6l As you can see by the date I paid the same day (with tip!). The payment has since been refunded after I filed a dispute, which the following screenshots will show. https://imgur.com/8Kje8Iz About a month and a half later, I checked Fr0stbit3's Furaffinity page to see if he'd made any progress on the Dragon Wall. When I tried to navigate to the page from my note inbox, I got the error "user has voluntarily disabled access to their userpage", which was a big red flag for me. He has since reactivated his page. Worried that an artist had taken my money and run, I tried using his paypal address to email him, and to my relief he responded the next day. He assured me he would be providing a refund as soon as he could, but couldn't due to issues in his personal life. https://imgur.com/LHNOaEr I expressed my sympathy and asked for a deadline for a refund, and he said it could be up to a month, but he'd try to get it to me earlier. After this, I had no contact with him for a month. https://imgur.com/fF6AtiY This image is read from bottom to top. After a month of no contact and no refund, I reinitiated contact via Paypal by opening a dispute. Paypal's first step of the dispute process is simply the Buyer (me) contacting the Seller (Fr0stbit3). I explained what had already happened and informed him I had opened a dispute for this reason. He responded with "I told you to be patient with me" while simultaneously denying he had received any previous email from me. After that I realized that he was not going to be willingly provide any refund to me, was providing no revised deadlines, so I escalated the dispute to a Claim in order to have the transaction refunded. https://imgur.com/qkgo9uV He proceeded to send me several messages on FA, urging me to check my email. I did, and saw nothing, until I thought to check the email address I use as my Paypal. He also seemed to be confusing me for someone else named "Matt". https://imgur.com/YKjhrvO I checked my alternate email and found this from him, finding out that he'd gone back on his promise of a refund and went ahead and completed the image. I found this surprising, as he'd never even mentioned the possibility of him actually completing the commission, he'd only spoken about refunds. I also found it surprising that rather than actually send me the completed image to complete the commission, he'd chosen to hold it hostage instead. https://imgur.com/yBjpVIW For organization and clarity's sake, I forwarded the email he sent to my own email address, that I'd used to initially contact him, forwarded it again to him and then reopened our email thread, so that he could easily see my prior messages and stop having me confused for whoever Matt is. https://imgur.com/gK4yCmt I used slightly sterner language in response to his decision to hold the image hostage rather than fulfill his end of the transaction. I made it clear that he had communicated to me that the image was not going to be completed, and that I had been waiting for a refund. At this point, I had no interest in the completed image, as this commission had proved to be an extremely frustrating experience. However, I was very much looking forward for this experience to be over, so I made it clear that if he wanted the dispute to be resolved, he could just send me the image and I'd call it even. He responded as you can see above, with a pixelated/censored version, insisted that he could not trust me, and that he would only send me the file after I dropped the dispute, reiterating it with two emails in a row, making sure to mention in both that I could not be trusted. I was honestly surprised to see that he had done the image, but he still had not sent it to me, only a blurred version, so his part of the transaction was still incomplete. https://imgur.com/WnHAltB I did my best to clarify my position and made it clear that the Paypal claim existed because he had failed to provide what I had paid for, and that if he fulfilled the transaction, the claim would be dropped. But he doubled down, refusing to provide the image, and also claiming he never provided refunds. https://imgur.com/qqWOPKn Despite my better judgement, I tried to make the situation crystal clear about how the ball was in his court, and that he could either let PayPal settle the dispute or provide the full image to satisfy the claim. I did not have much hope for the results, and I was tired of arguing, and made it clear that it was my final communication. https://imgur.com/GTO96pO He then proceeded to be far more public, filling my shoutbox with messages. I provided a shout back asking him not to contact me unless it was with the image or a refund, via Paypal or email. I then blocked his Furaffinity account. https://imgur.com/KwZcvIF PayPal resolved the dispute in my favor, and they forced the refund. I was content to drop this particularly frustrating experience and move on, but I then received another email from Fr0stbit3 informing me that he would be appealing the claim and providing screenshots to PayPal, and also threatened to write a Buyer Beware against me. I was not overly concerned, as the screenshots demonstrate several times that he refused to provide the image he was paid for. https://imgur.com/7AfpLsB A few days passed and the PayPal dispute was closed, again, in my favor. Fr0stbit3 responded by posting the image to his FA scrap gallery, which includes a depiction of my character and my character's name, with the title "Scumbag Wall", claiming I had cheated him. I reported him on FA for harassment. At this point, the situation has concluded. I have received my refund and am happy to leave it at that, though I hope the submission he posted is taken down after my ticket is reviewed on FA. I hope this Artist Beware entry will help provide context for this transaction and help warn other commissioners from attempting to do business with this individual. PROOF: All screencaptures are in the following Imgur album, as shown above: https://imgur.com/a/vqw5xcR Update: At this time the submission he was using to defame me has been taken down and his FA has been suspended, along with another user who was posting death threats to my shout page. Their suspensions lasted about two days.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/995064.html Where: OneFurAll Studios - www.onefurall.com What: A full fursuit commission including head, bodysuit, paws and additional set of feetpaws. In addition, a design sketch for the fursuit. When: Payment in May 2014 — issues ongoing Explain: The issues I have experienced with OneFurAll (OFA) are twofold: an inability to manage expectations and meet contractual obligations, and lack of communication. April 2014 saw conversations with OFA regarding a commission, with estimate of an “18-24+ month queue” given. In May, I indicated my willingness to commission, and asked for confirmation of the wait time; I was told that there would be a more concrete “18-24 month wait. Our wait times shift minimally…” (see email 1); this was the final estimate given prior to payment, and with the qualifier of minimal shift, suggested that I could reasonably expect the fursuit to be completed at, or close to, 18-24 months. No further communication was made at this stage regarding the fursuit, only payment. Paid in-full via an invoice from OneFurAll in May 2014 (see Paypal Invoice). On 24th June 2015, in reply to an email from me, OFA restated the timeline to build to be "around the 24 month mark from your deposit" (see email 2). In September 2016, replying to another email from me, they stated it would be "a few more months" before work started, but that it was a good time to take measurements, which I supplied; while the time estimate had run-over, I expected work to start soon so chose not to raise a dispute. In June 2017, following my enquiry as to the expected timeframe, OFA said it would be "later this year when we'd be able to fit your character in" (see email 3). My reply to this stated that I would consider the end of the year to be an “agreement between us that this deadline will be met; if further events beyond your control mean the ‘suit won’t be finished by this estimate, please can you inform me as soon as you become aware of this?” I wished to make clear that I considered the end of 2017 a hard deadline. In January 2018, in reply to my chase email, they stated they still had not reached my position in the queue (see email 4). I therefore began the process of cancelling my commission. I requested a full refund, due to the unreasonable and excessive degree by which the build estimate had been missed (almost 2 years), and the poor communication received. I cited a clause I was sent in their Terms of Service during my preliminary discussions, which stated 30% of the commission price would be forfeit except in “extreme cases” (see TOS). I considered my case “extreme” due to time the process had overshot by, the exceptional and unforeseeable circumstances the studio had claimed to be going through which slowed production, and my communication issues. In response, OFA outlined that they would not offer me a full refund and said that the entire fursuit building industry has adopted a firm non-refundable clause, and also apologized for the communication issues I had experienced. They offered the opportunity to keep my fursuit in the queue (see email 5), with a promise to improve communication, which I refused. When they replied in February, they stated that their policy has “always been that we never contractually promise a start date” and that “we are still technically at 24+ months” (see email 6). They went on to say that their non-refundable clause was "firm" and they would not refund me in full; they said the “extreme circumstances” condition was intended to allow them to be sympathetic to someone who found themselves “in a genuine state of need...” citing customers who had encountered “…dire life circumstances and we helped as we could”. They found it “problematic” that I was referring to this term, and they felt that I had attempted to “reinterpret that outdated phrase against us” (see email 6 cont.). They went on to say in their February email that they would "no longer offer waiving that clause for any reason", and offered to refund my payment beyond the 30% refund penalty in 3 instalments (see email 6 cont.). I did not take this offer as I felt it unjust that they should retain the 30% penalty, and because I paid the entire commission price up-front and would feel more confident receiving a refund as one payment. They also restated that non-refundable percentages are a prevalent feature across the fursuit building industry and cited the TOS of 7 well-known makers (see email 6 cont.). Email discussion continued over refund amount, with little progress. Given the log-jam on both sides, I emailed OFA on 7th February 2018 offering a compromise: OFA get 10% retention on the full commission price (see email 7). Apart from acknowledging receipt of this on 5th March, I have yet to receive a substantial response despite regular chase emails. It now appears the process has broken down, and I am unlikely to receive any refund soon due to our lack of ability to agree over this dispute and the lack of response from OFA. As resolution to this issue, I would like OFA to issue a full refund. I do not believe they have upheld their contractual obligations to me, nor do I feel they have provided the level of service one would expect from a company I have paid almost $3000 to. I feel that attempting to withhold a 30% penalty constitutes an unfair term of contract given they have not indicated that they have spent anything on or worked towards my commission, and are likely to make up the entire amount very quickly in new commissions. In addition, I feel the application of a ‘no full refunds’ policy should have common-sense boundaries with protections for the customer laid out explicitly on the face of the contract. I can understand a refund penalty if a commissioner pulls-out within the given timeframe and simply does not wish to continue the process. However, taking $2950 up-front, providing a timeframe estimate and then missing this by two years should surely warrant the return of the full amount paid, especially when the customer is told that their wait will be 18-24 months with a “minimal” shift of wait times. I do not claim to know how other makers apply their no-refunds clauses, though if it is an industry-wide practice to do this, I feel it’s a sad reflection on how we are doing business with eachother. I regret that it has come to a point where I have needed to post this; as I have outlined to OFA, I sympathise with their position, the studio having been through many unexpected events of some gravity over the past few years. However, I cannot recommend the studio based on my experience, having been left disappointed with ephemeral time estimates and difficult communication on many occasions. Proof: Email 1: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3a6y8rjuhyjqrjk/Email 1.png?dl=0 Email 2: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ffjtmxn8jxwsymf/Email 2.png?dl=0 Email 3: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a54gyehmgmzyopy/Email 3.png?dl=0 Email 4: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ejoyfwq6mmiom08/Email 4.png?dl=0 Email 5: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tgifcsay9ookqo0/Email 5.png?dl=0 Email 6: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jc377vs6b0giksh/Email 6.png?dl=0 Email 6 cont.: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2infyun44507g3t/Email 6 cont..png?dl=0 Email 7: https://www.dropbox.com/s/feokqxqveekxabb/Email 7.png?dl=0 (I typo’d the dates here, writing 2013 instead of 2014) Paypal Invoice: https://www.dropbox.com/s/irjcj3ycagq4hcq/Paypal Invoice.png?dl=0 TOS: https://www.dropbox.com/s/48gmljcjmui210g/TOS.png?dl=0 Tired of ads? Upgrade to account with Professional

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/989740.html This is a mod repost as the original by @MystWuff has been deleted. MOD COMMENT: Please keep the comments focused on the beware itself. How/why the post was originally deleted is NOT the topic of this post. WHAT: Commissioned Shaynox Studios for a pair of fursuit pants and outdoor feetpaws. WHEN: Around Late August 2017 Shaynox studios posted on Facebook that they were open for commissions for both fursuits and fursuit parts. They posted examples of their works. And I contacted shay telling her I was interested in commissioning her for a pair of fursuit pants and feet paws. On September 12th 2017 I recieved an invoice and paid $325.00 USD for the commission and she added me to her qeue on her Trello. She stated she could ship the completed to commission or pick it up from her table at the dealers den at Furnal equinox 2018. The original completion date was to be February 2018 before furnal Equinox (march 15-18) EXPLAIN: in January 2018 I began contacting shay regarding updates if work had begun on my commission. She said she began working on my feet paws. Then in early Feburary I again contacted her for updates and to ask if they would be completed in time for furnal Equinox. She said they would be ready and available for pick up at her table Saturday March 17th in the dealers den. On March 17th 2018 I arrived at Furnal Equinox and messaged shay to ask if I could pick up my fursuit parts. She contacted me saying she had left them in her room and would have to got get them around 12 pm. After 12pm me and my finance went to her table at the dealers den and then she told me in person that she had forgotten my pants and feetpaws at home. But she was going to send her husband back home to pick them up. And that they will be here to pick up the next day (Sunday March 18) On March 18th I again spoke to shay at her table at the dealers den. She said her husband did not pick up my pants and feetpaws. She offered to ship them to me with no cost as soon as she returned home from the convention, and offered to make me a pair of handpaws for the inconveniences. She took down my shipping information in her laptop. I had received no further messages from shay since we spoke on March 18th at Furnal Equinox. On March 25th her husband posted to her Facebook requesting that her clients contact him as shay had a mental breakdown. I spoke with her husband and he said I had the choice of a refund or to ship my item. I requested that I would like my item to be shipped. He said he would look into shipping it. Since I last spoke with Shay's husband. I have made efforts to contact both with no reply. The last message I sent to both her husband and shay said the same thing and my concerns. They both have been online and active on Facebook since we last communicated but they do not respond to any of my messages. To this day,I had never seen any pictures or proof that my suit parts had been made. The last few months there has been minimal communication. I had been very patient and understanding. But have become very frustrated, Not knowing where my money went or if I'll even recieved what I paid for. I feel like I've been played around with, and there has been a complete lack of care about client. I noticed other commissioners were posting to her Facebook requesting updates due to her lack of communication. This is a Beware for those looking to commission fursuits/parts from Shaynox studios. I will update if I receive any further communication, but I won't hold my breath on a response. PROOF: I've included the most important conversations including commissioning, payment,and the last message that was sent (to still which was never replied to) in chronological order here. https://imgur.com/a/UNE2U

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/972886.html WHO: Millenium-Millie-Gryphon AKA Millie AKA Onyx AKA Onyx Art Studios WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/millenium-millie-gryphon WHAT: 2 x circus poster style images of my otter shape WHEN: Claimed slots, provided references and paid on February 14th. Inquired on progress April 10th, got response and first pic on April 16th, which was of a wrong character. After informing the artist of that, she did the second pic, then said she will redraw this one, then delayed past the paypal dispute deadline after which stopped responding to notes (still reading them and taking other commissions). EXPLAIN: Millie opens these commissions via journals/picture announcements on a regular basis. I took two slots and sent info February 14th, 2017, paid same day. After no progress for a couple months, I’ve contacted Millie on April 10th to check on the progress, and got a response with one image April 16th. There was one problem with that though, it was a wrong character, which I told her. We have reconfirmed the correct references, and May 7th, I got the second picture. That one was pretty well done. I again informed Millie that the first one was wrong, and also mentioned that it was supposed to go with another picture with the same subject from another artist. I have also requested the picture with the wrong character taken down. She said she will redraw it, then it took a series of delays until paypal dispute deadline has expired (in hindsight, I should have opened it, but her staying in communication and being polite kind of led me astray). After that, she stopped responding to notes while reading them, being active and offering further commissions.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/968377.html WHO: Meadow_The_Deerling, Meadow The Deerling WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/meadowthedeerling (the only existed account as I know and now disabled) WHAT: NSFW animation YCH WHEN: She paid the whole summ on 26th May 2017, when YCH ended. The animation was finished and posted on June 9th, 2017 (NSFW - http://www.furaffinity.net/view/23783954/) and the payment was refunded by her June 14th, 2017. Proof: http://imgur.com/a/GnEx5 EXPLAIN: I've done and animated YCH for 3 slots, one of them was taken by Meadow_the_deerling's character (http://imgur.com/I4U9tpX)NSFW. She also has a red deer character(http://imgur.com/a/RTwhb), but we worked with her dragon girl at the end. Everything was ok and after the YCH was done she told she liked everything (http://imgur.com/a/ib3Yl). But several days later I got a refund note from PayPal. Though I thought maybe she have had some troubles or maybe its a mistake and I wrote her, she answered - http://imgur.com/a/IeMt8 I believed her and waited till the end of the week. But nothing changed and Meadow stopped answering my letters. (http://imgur.com/a/an2DZ) But I couldn't do anything and the money was finally refunded to her(July 15th, 2017). (What was strange for me what she refunded them from another PayPal, with the same surname though) On the day of refund she read all messages but didn't answer any of them. Shortly after she has disabled her FA account page. I just hope she will not create another characters and account to cheat other artists too.

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/956024.html MOD COMMENT mithical has deleted the post therefore we are reposting the screencap we've taken. Screencaps of comments will come shortly after. How/why the post was originally deleted is NOT the topic of this post. Please stay on topic of the Beware itself. Thank you. WHO: Zephyr The Floof (Customer of Mithacal Creatures) WHERE: Initial contact about customer wanting a commission was on Twitter @Mithacal WHAT: A custom made digitgrade fullsuit WHEN: Commission Date 12-24-16. Dispute filed 5-3-17. EXPLAIN: This customer approached us (Mithacal Creatures) on 12-24-16 to inquire about commissioning a realistic style fullsuit of her dragon character. After purchasing materials including a resin base which we had completed work in preparation for furring, she (Zephyr) changed her mind about what she wanted and asked that we change her suit to a toony style one. After some back and forth about the cost of additional materials (which she initially did not want to pay) she agreed to the additional $290 to cover new fur and toony base, eyes etc. Zephyr had been in frequent contact with us regarding the state of her commission as well as general conversation and was well aware of the production timeline and completion state of her commission when she suddenly and without notice filed a fraudulent non-receipt dispute on PayPal. We had initially agreed to a completion time in late 2017, which was pushed back to early 2018 (March at the latest) as a result of the style change. Zephyr made no effort to ask for a refund and had previously showed no complaint nor concern for her commission, in fact she had stated just the day before the dispute that she was looking forward to seeing it done... Following her dispute filing with PayPal, she ignored our attempts to contact her via text and Twitter. When she finally did answer us she said she "had an emergency" come up and said "I knew you wouldn't give me my money back" so filed a non-receipt dispute despite knowing full well that the project was not yet finished. She admits to this in fact, both to us and on her Twitter account. Her dispute had nothing to do with her being dissatisfied in any way with our work or communication, it had everything to do with finding the easiest way to get some fast cash. Knowing that we could not provide tracking numbers to PayPal a decision in her favor was almost guaranteed. She used PayPal's policies to her advantage to scam both us and PayPal, to the point of calling them and declaring that our dispute had "been settled amicably" and cancelling her claim. This effectively shut down the investigation into her account and review of our evidence that we had requested of PayPal. There was nothing "Amicable" about the settlement of the claim at all, as she has in fact stolen our time and labor put into her commission to date as well as the materials cost invested and blocked all attempts at communication. Additionally this buyer after using a "family emergency" as an excuse for needing money, she in fact immediately began commissioning a number of artists for new artwork of her characters as soon as the refund hit her PayPal account. Her behavior has been immature, fraudulent, and extremely disingenuous. Accept commissions at your own risk, especially given that just a month prior to her dispute she said she would never do such a thing and that it was "wrong" to do that to an artist when showing support to us following an issue with an unrelated customer. http://sta.sh/01bjus6wtj1s This is the buyers Twitter account following her blocking us from communicating with her following the dispute filing. http://sta.sh/21iujrp12kky?edit=1 These show the buyer asking for a basic quote and acknowledging the 50% NON-REFUNDABLE deposit required. http://sta.sh/01yob8jv6s4y Here is the buyer agreeing to an early 2018 completion time before sending the deposit of $1900. http://sta.sh/024shatfi0e9 This screenshot shows the buyer texting us the day before the dispute was filed. Everything seemed fine, then she finally answered us and said she was "asking for a refund" (Never asked, if forcing one through a PayPal chargeback is "asking" then someone needs to learn some serious communication skills...) due to a "serious family issue". She later spent this refund on more art. The "slander" she speaks of was simply a beware post on Twitter showing the exact same screenshots as those shown here. http://sta.sh/219jghos82qr?edit=1 This series of screenshots shows us and the buyer discussing the dispute and completion time which after showing her proof she admits was not until next year. http://sta.sh/02a13fp98aji This is the buyer showing support for us a month prior to filing a dispute when we had an unrelated issue with another buyer. She also shows intent to continue with her monthly payments for the remaining balance due, just days after sending her payment for April, the last one we received. http://sta.sh/2mu5glqiy9g?edit=1 Buyer on her Twitter telling someone else that we in fact had not been late completing her commission, this posted days after filing a PayPal dispute. http://sta.sh/21udk4q4y9ay?edit=1 These show Zephyr commissioning art on 5-10-17 following her "family emergency" and claiming a desperate need for money. This happened to be the day a partial refund from PayPal for $211.11 was credited to her account... http://sta.sh/02641usqyh0k Proof of being blocked by her on Twitter Thank you for reading and please beware of this customer. SCREENCAP OF BEWARE: https://www.dropbox.com/s/70z6ztbb4c1isb8/Community_Moderation_-_2017-05-21_16.20.01.png?dl=0 SCREENCAP OF SOME COMMENTS: https://www.awesomescreenshot.com/image/2520217/638739d4042d0d55d34ad144035c5961

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/924990.html Who: Art Fox Ninja and Art Fox Studios Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/artfoxninja/ (NSFW) http://www.furaffinity.net/user/artfoxstudios/ What: $15 Inked YCH (Sketch link NSFW) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19408285/ When: March 3, 2016 Proof: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nncnt3664u2x00c/Screenshot (55).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/n95pdnwktjypu9u/Screenshot (70).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v29o17v61f6maf/Screenshot (69).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/6r3p1kgixqpkcuf/Screenshot (68).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/z89geopa9sozukp/Screenshot (67).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/jpgxxzdzqhdztsc/Screenshot (66).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/uouemztdilbdxr1/Screenshot (65).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/xob2yo50wbavtml/Screenshot (63).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/2229ziqm3vwgzr9/Screenshot (74).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/3zapnjcjv7me5bs/Screenshot (62).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/snjcyyff4kdngdb/Screenshot (75).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9avych09ihpvek/Screenshot (76).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/1qn63xdqlwu8iem/Screenshot (61).png?dl=0 Explain: I had come across her work while browsing the YCH section of FA, saw one that I like, and bought it. Things started off good at first, but got a bit slower though at the time I really didn’t mind being as that can happen with any artist. I eventually got a sketch which I was good with and was not just waiting for it to be inked. After a while I messaged him about the inked version and was took it would be done soon and that there were people ahead of me. No biggie. Fast forward to about the middle of May. The artist has not uploaded anything, contacted me or anything for that time. Will when he does finally come back in late May he goes on about not having internet, yet when you look at his facebook link on his page you can see he had been updating his profile picture. Yet he wasn’t able to post a journal updating the people who paid him. Never received a word back about my commission after the sketch. And there still isn’t one finished commission on his whole page unless you count his personal art.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/864661.html WHO: Wyldfire/Wyldfire7/Fr0stbit3 WHERE: http://furaffinity.net/user/wyldfire http://furaffinity.net/user/fr0stbit3 http://weasyl.com/~wyldfire7 WHAT: Traditional 2 character NSFW sketch commission http://i.imgur.com/JCcdnQ0.png (details blurred out for NSFW reasons) There was more notes before this, but they just include me at first wanting a comic, but then not being able to pay, so we decided on a sketch image. WHEN: As you can tell from the timestamps on the notes, the commission was discussed, agreed on, and paid on August 1st, 2014 A rough time line of the situation from initial conversation, to 1st payment (or agreement of trade) to signs of trouble. http://i.imgur.com/tISUOYg.png I've blocked out the end of the email as the first part proves that Wyldfire is Fr0stbit3 PROOF: Discussion of commission: http://i.imgur.com/JCcdnQ0.png Payment: http://i.imgur.com/tISUOYg.png Note that the sketch is too hard, artist wanting to change it, and me asking for a refund instead: http://i.imgur.com/Y1gShFI.png More screenshots regarding the situation can be found in the explain area below. Explain: On August 1st, 2014, I contacted (on Weasyl) Wyldfire7. At first, I wanted a comic commission, but it was changed to a 2 character NSFW sketch commission involving a dragon of mine and one of his. It was paid for that very night. As I waited, I feel deathly ill and was unable to access the internet (nor was I physically able to) as I spent the next 8 months in the hospital. When I was finally able to get online again, I was expecting to see the sketch commission, as it'd been close to a year. Instead, I find a note that had been sent on the 24th of August, 2015, saying that the sketch was too hard, and if I wanted the commission still, I'd have to request a different pose. I was a little disappointed, but at this point in time I'd fallen away from the fandom and my characters, and was more interested in a refund. A refund was agreed on, and I'd sent my paypal information, the amount, and started to wait. About a month later, I poked him about my refund and received this. http://i.imgur.com/uUA9bh8.png I understood where he was coming from, so I resumed my waiting. Though I didn't log on for a while after I sent my last note, as I had a lot going on in my life and just assumed that he'd get to it soon, so I tried to give him space and not badger him about the refund. So when I logged back on about a month later to poke about my refund, and I received a note that contained a personal means of getting me my refund. I shall not repeat what was said here, but I will say that I was rather grossed out by it. A little while passed, and I decided to check my paypal to see if I'd gotten my refund. I, of course, didn't, but on my payment summary, I noticed something strange. The paypal email address that I'd originally sent it to (which was related to his Wyldfire/Wyld name) had been changed to Fr0stbit3works http://i.imgur.com/tISUOYg.png I was confused, as his name was still the same, it was just different. Soon after that, I visited the journal of one of my favorite dragon artist's on Furaffiinty, as I noticed that were opening for commissions and I wanted to see if I could afford one. Well, in the comments, I saw this http://i.imgur.com/2ACVkkX.png They have the same name as what the paypal address had been changed to. So I visited the userpage and saw that they're skype address was the exact same as the paypal address http://i.imgur.com/rfoF11b.png Please note that the Tier 1 commissin slot started at $60 and went up, so it's clear that he has enough to refund me. So I go back onto Weasyl, sent (and received) this http://i.imgur.com/eREiIAo.png I'll admit I was a little frantic as red flags were going up quickly, but I tried to control my emotions regardless. I was frustrated when I read the reply, about how I needed to be 'patient', so I just didn't reply as I'm sure I'd let my emotions get the best of me. About another month passed, and I visited his userpage again, and saw that he'd going to the movies to view Ant-Man, and would only have $15 left until he got paid again http://i.imgur.com/evnKMEA.png Him saying that he had 'nothing he needed to buy' is really frustrating to hear, given that I've been waiting for a while now for my refund. So I finally decided to shoot him a note (7/18/15) asking for a time estimate for my refund. What I got back... http://i.imgur.com/g0ryPTl.png He's claiming that I have him confused for someone else, even when I have all this evidence that he is indeed who I can prove he is. http://i.imgur.com/QUqHeB8.png I confronted him with a screencap of the paypal summary, and this is what he said. I was angered by this, so I didn't reply, as I know, again, my emotions would've gotten the better of me. (as a note, I've moved from Weasyl to FA, given that the note system is easier for me to keep track of) Mere minutes later, I get this note on my Weasyl http://i.imgur.com/NglAIdX.png After everything I've seen, I have the feeling that I'm just getting the run around at his point. As of 8/4/15, I have yet to receive a refund. I don't know what to do at this point. I paid with my paypal balance, so I can't contact a bank at all, and I'm well past the 45/180 days to file a chargeback. And I'm sure that posting this will cause me not to get my refund at all, but the least I can do is try to warn others about him before they get taken advantage of too. Please be very VERY wary of commissioning this artist.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/846553.html WHO: Erro / AlterForge WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/erro http://www.furaffinity.net/user/alterforge WHAT: A digitigrade fullsuit commission. WHEN: Concerns first arose around January 2015 when I was informed my suit was behind schedule. Fur had only been ordered for the project that same month, https://dl.dropbox.com/s/66r297amnvxs5gd/Skype Fur Chat.png?dl=0 Early into February I was informed I'd only have a partial suit available for my due date of February 21st, Texas Furry Fiesta. PROOF: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/5zv4p2t06sqww50/PayPal Proof.jpg?dl=0 Contained is my original transaction for the suit, a one thousand dollar deposit. The refund was issued after requesting I send it as a gift instead of "goods and services." I have no log of this exact request but the refund was issued on his part and resent after funds were added from my bank account. Hopefully that can be somewhat conclusive. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/d7fc033qdr1g6kn/IMG_20150220_135933.jpg?dl=0 As of my due date, this was the only progress he had to show. It is also the only picture I have of any form of progress. This artist is against progress pics as he feels they aren't representative of his final quality. EXPLAIN: I need to preface this by mentioning that this commission was originally taken one year ago from a (former) close friend. The standard ToS and contract wasn't really brought into the picture due to this relationship. The PayPal transactions are the most concrete evidence I have of the initial agreement--A fursuit maker taking fursuit amounts of money. That being said, upon receiving payment he'd informed me his queue was empty and the due date was not an issue. We'd be attending that convention together again anyway. For most of 2014 I got very little in the way of evidence it was being completed besides the occasional "It's being worked on." and "It'll be done in time." All of his payment was given far in advance as a means to help him out during a moving crisis. Since he had no queue, there was no line for that to put me to the front of. Into February he'd told me I would only have a partial suit available (unfortunately communicated through a skype call. I wasn't thinking about logging my steps at this point.) The subject was largely avoided by him at the convention. As shown above, the only progress was a few foam blocks, and it wasn't until weeks after I was able to get in touch. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/d35u4co8qtx1up5/SL Recent Conversation.jpg?dl=0 After failing to hear back from many messages, I dropped back on trying to around once every two weeks in an attempt to be reasonable, but this most recent update that it won't be resumed until after May was what finally brought me here. He had accepted around an extra 175 dollars--money he owed me from the hotel stay--to continue working on the suit after he returned home. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/pbu17xx403fbksp/SkypeLog2.png?dl=0 Again, it's not exactly the most formal "Do this by then or else..." But an understanding was there. By mid March he still had not completed the head he was working on at the convention in place of mine. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/r50cwuzcr3qy711/SL Recent Conversation 2.jpg?dl=0 It's still worth noting that commission was taken after mine as well. Another example of the several failed communications. SL logs aren't the clearest things in the world, but he simply never responded to the message. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/b7bh24s2rao231r/SL Recent Conversation 3.jpg?dl=0 Edit: 7/15/15 -- I've just returned from Anthrocon 2015 which was our newest deadline for completion on the suit. The time leading up to today has unfortunately been filled with even more trouble and I had to attend without a suit again. Discussing the new ETA - https://dl.dropbox.com/s/rb45ftu1r5ius42/AC Deadline.png?dl=0 Our interactions have grown increasingly short over the months. Just about all of the following are a good example of the breakdown in communication. Missing the original ship date - https://dl.dropbox.com/s/s5pkmwqifmck2ex/June no deadline.png?dl=0 Asked to ship overnight because of the extreme time crunch - https://dl.dropbox.com/s/vrnlujha7qthqwu/Overnight Interact.png?dl=0 PayPal payment for $100 - https://dl.dropbox.com/s/0x7wvlnjlk2l1an/PayPal Statement.png?dl=0 It probably goes without saying here, but he gladly accepted that 100 dollars and then didn't deliver me a product. I requested progress pics after the second week of unsuccessful shipment. Didn't go that well - https://dl.dropbox.com/s/jd7codiogwjnu67/ProgPics June.png?dl=0 I'm not about to say I've handled all of these interactions as well as I possibly could, but under the circumstances it was difficult to be perfectly patient. Calling me out on this very Artist Beware - https://dl.dropbox.com/s/db8et9tf44ea8b5/AB Callout.png?dl=0 This is where he just shut down on me. Now, you've all read this. Nowhere in this article have I suggested or complained about my suit not being completed in 6 months. I knew about a one-year completion from the start and never questioned that. Completely dismissing my issues in this article was just outrageous, and citing that many makers charge more and take more time, after this long, is just outright untrue. If someone's going to take 2 years they mention it ahead of time and it's due to popular demand and a large queue. Plenty of fursuiters I met this weekend reassured me of that. It pains me to have to update this article with yet more bad news, but I've been left with little choice.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/845464.html Who: Thera Where: FurAffinity: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thera/ Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~thera Deviant Art: http://theramutt.deviantart.com/ What: 1. Animated Icon ($15 CAD) – One slot of several offered for animated icon. (Link to FA note) 2. 1-Character Digital, Soft-Shaded ($50 CAD) – Part of “Black Friday” commission sale. Subject was a SFW portrait of my werewolf character Vaarak. (Link to FA note) 3. 2-Character Digital, Cell-Shaded ($80 CAD) – Part of “Black Friday” commission sale. Subject was an NSFW kink picture of Zaelgolin and Sabre Dragon. (Link to FA note) *Note that Thera has since deleted all journals and comments referencing the above sales. When: 1. Animated Icon: Paid in full Nov 19, 2014, no progress of any kind to date. 2. 1-Character Digital: Paid in full Nov 27, 2014, no progress of any kind to date. 3. 2-Character Digital: Paid in full Nov 29, 2014. Requested a completion date of Feb 14, 2015 to be a valentine’s gift. The date was agreed to (link to FA note), but was missed with no progress. It was after this time I requested a refund for all three commissions. Thera responded by saying she could not offer any refunds, but would complete both this and the single-character commission during the following week (link to FA note). This date was also missed with no progress. Proof: 1. Link to payment receipt for animated icon ($20 CAD paid) 2. Link to payment receipt for soft-shaded commission ($50 CAD paid) 3. Link to payment receipt for NSFW commission ($80 CAD paid) Note that all of the above receipts are the result of Interac e-Transfers: a money transfer system only available in Canada. Explain: Let it be said that I never wanted to escalate things as a means of dispute resolution. This case is a simple example of an artist not following through on promises. While the above points illustrate the case rather well, I’ll try to give a broad synopsis: Having previously commissioned Thera (and quite liking the results), I jumped when I saw her sale on animated icons. Brief comments were exchanged, the fee paid and I was added to the list. A few days later, I saw Thera open another set of commissions for Black Friday. Having not commissioned any work lately, and really liking her art style, I took two slots: a single-character SFW commission and a two-character NSFW commission. All commissions were paid for in full as shown above. Having paid for the commissions in late November, I was really hoping for at least the NSFW piece to be completed by Valentine’s Day. This date was agreed to, but despite several notes (Note 1, Note 2) requesting updates, the date passed with no progress of any kind. Agitated, I asked for a refund. Thera apologized, but said she could not offer any refunds. In recompense, she assured me the drawing would be completed within a week, and even offered to do another piece for free. Giving her one last chance, I wanted until the end of the week only to again have the date missed with no progress. A few weeks passed before Thera finally posted an outstanding commissions list (now deleted from FA), dozens and dozens of pieces long. I contacted Thera with my concerns, but she assured me the piece would be completed that same week, and suggested I attend her stream. The date was schedule and I logged in, only to find Thera doing impromptu commissions for others. During the stream, she said she would not be working on any outstanding commissions that night, since she needed to take on new work. It was at this point that I sent a note threatening to post to Artists Beware if I was not refunded. Thera requested my payment details, which I promptly provided. After an additional three weeks of waiting, I have still not been paid, and am left with no recourse but to post my experiences here and hopefully warn other commissioners. Throughout all this, I do want to stress that Thera responded civilly and amicably in all notes, and made numerous promises to set things right. It is just unfortunate that none of these promises were ever fulfilled. Update: I have since been refunded in full for all payments noted above; this beware has been resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/816794.html WHO: NEFUR-STUDIOS on FA/DA/Weasyl WHERE: Either http://www.furaffinity.net/user/NEFUR-STUDIOS/ or http://nefur-studios.deviantart.com WHAT: Full Color w/ background digital drawing of my character. WHEN: October 21st PROOF: 1: Original Post about Commissions: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/Original_zps67f46558.png 2: Comments I made with Nefur's responses on the Original Post: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/opcomments_zps5d738ff8.png 3: Note stating they were a little sick and it could be a delay in completion: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/sicknote_zpse5010621.png 4: Piece has started and will be completed "next week": http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/started_zps0b9301ad.png 5: Checking in with Nefur note: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/checkingin_zps197ccbc9.png 6: Shout on her page to contact me: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/shout_zps14aadae3.png 7: Message to a friend: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/contactingfriend_zps478bcdc8.png 8: Another of Nefur's commissioners reaches out to me: http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/comments_zps96c95483.png EXPLAIN: October I came across an artist who was doing some wonderful artwork and noticed they had a piece in their gallery that said “Emergency Comms [3 slots] OPEN full detail 10-25$” and I was SHOCKED. The artwork was STUNNING regardless if they were doing emergency ones or “full price” I wanted to commission Nefur!! So I posted on the piece that I’d take one where they promptly responded with a note asking for the details (reference images 1-2) where we worked out the price and I promptly paid! (Fast pay makes fast friends in my book!) Now on that same day they mentioned that they were a little sick, and that it might be a bit before they get to me and I was MORE than happy to wait their recovery and for my turn! Im quite a patient person within reason. (reference images 3) Well they messaged me on the 23rd stating that they started my piece and I would have it by the end of the next week! Goodness fast turn around. So I patiently waited for my commission and didn’t message them regarding this piece in hopes that I’d be seeing it the following week. (reference image 4) Well November rolled through and no communication. I thought oh well maybe something came up! So I waited. December is now rolling through and two weeks ago (Dec 11) I shot her a Note on FA asking if she was ok and that I hadn’t heard from her in a while. (reference image 5) With no response a week later I posted a shout on her page, asking her to please contact me!(reference image 6) Still no response so I reached out to a friend on her profile asking if she was ok. Her friend told me she was fine, dealing with some troubles and away visiting family. Well I post on her DA because it appears it’s the only place she’s active for her to PLEASE contact me. I’m past my PayPal dispute/refund period, and I'm out of communication with my artist despite seeing activity on her Deviantart account. (reference image 7) Its since been 3 weeks since my last attempt to contact Nefur with no response from her. I did however get a response to my shout on her Deviantart page from another person who commissioned Nefur LONG before I had who is also suffering from non contact from this artist. (reference image 😎 I have since contacted Nefur on DA/FA about either giving me my finished piece or a full refund to which, no surprise, I havent yet received a response. This is my last hope in getting my art or my money. If I can't even get those I'd more than anything just like to warn other commissioners to be cautious of this artist as it seems they are a scam, and will more than likely take your money and avoid you. *sigh* The commission wasnt for very much money but for me thats money I could be spending on an honest artist who would actually produce a finished piece. EDIT 1: adding the page break so I dont take up the entire front page of A_B EDIT 2: the artist is now in contact with me again! Just got a note after a few months of trying to contact them! http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/finally_zpsb65a3eeb.png hopefully we see some progress!! EDIT 3: Nefur posted a rather.. upsetting journal which I feel was indirectly... directed at me. They explained how they didnt intend for it to appear they ran off with peoples money, they dont trace, and that apparently I've pushed them to attempt suicide (kind of freaking out like holy crap i didnt mean for it to go that far!! what do i do!?!? i feel so bad now guys oh my gosh!) I responded to the journal because I felt MY side of the story should be shared as well. In fear of my comment/journal being deleted I screenshotted the whole thing. I asked for a refund for fear of A: not seeing the art or B: it being traced and I'm 100% against owning stolen art. http://i1381.photobucket.com/albums/ah215/Sev_Discovery/umwhat_zps463af5c6.png Edit 4: its been a week (1-22-2015 today) since Nefur has stated that they were working on my piece. Have yet to receive anything, updates, notes, anything. low hopes are low. Edit 5: its now February 3rd and I have yet to get anything, a response, a note, art, a refund.. anything from Nefur. Left a shout on their page. losing hope. *sad panda*

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/812055.html Who: TojotheThief: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tojo-the-thief Where: purchase was made on Furaffinity, progressed to email because the artist does not have notes enabled on FA. What: The purchase was several vinyl stickers. When: original purchase was made in August, stickers were to be delivered in October. Proof: screenshots to follow Explanation: basically, I purchased several vinyl stickers from Tojo in august. She has since deleted the post on FA, so I do not have a screenshot of the stickers. They were dragon stickers that said F*** You Im a Dragon. I contacted her to find out the delivery date, and was told in october. I again waited patiently and contacted her about them after that date had passed. She said she had difficulties with her original printer, and was having to go with a different printer. I attempted to contact her to talk about getting a refund, at which point she told me the stickers were already printed and on their way to her.  She told me that she would only refund me the price minus the printing cost.  As these are NOT customized stickers, they are generic stickers, I feel that she could easily sell the stickers I do not want and I should be entitled to the full refund. She has refused. Paypal has stated that it is past the date that I can ask for a refund, so at this point, she has my money and will not give me a full refund. I no longer want the stickers at all. At the moment, she has my money AND the stickers. Resolution: Refund has been given, issue is considered resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/801747.html WHO: Toichi on Furaffinity. WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/toichi/ WHAT: Digital art. WHEN: September 4th, they commissioned me as I was holding special Feral dragon commissions. http://gyazo.com/3db79b314364aa883a3ff76a93a09dc6 None of my other customers have problems with these prices, but he gladly paid etc. I finished it on September 11th and showed it to him. Finished (NSFW): http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14509992/ SFW: http://gyazo.com/88d0c0fdfca9c8d321d9d8dd928396d1 There are two versions, one sfw and one nsfw. PROOF: That same day this happened: http://gyazo.com/f410cb7be992875659a83a1e25754225 (Sorry for the mess in the note, but I'm sure you get the point) As you can see I was trying to be as patient as possible with this guy, and in the end, he was just expecting free art. NOW a month later, he's stiring up trouble again. http://gyazo.com/09369226ef99511a73465843d73c90d7 http://gyazo.com/03ddffadbce2a4008931e4a2d18e420b And I only find out he's tampered with the original art, which is against my TOS. http://gyazo.com/1e5de2e4b4811dc0baef3a7c70e1f653 (The bits and the toe) He says he feels horrible about the conflict, then goes on saying that my art is crap. He was back and forth about this as you can see in the note, saying he loved it etc, then putting my stuff down. EXPLAIN: I tried my best to accommodate him as you can see in this note: http://gyazo.com/f410cb7be992875659a83a1e25754225, I fixed things, and i gave him the amount he wanted in a refund. Many people I've talked too have said my art is par with everything else I've done, and I really love this piece. EDIT: He is now posting about me on his Twitter: (He posted it after he emailed me.) http://gyazo.com/f7b6701bf80afa070ab9297a63ea037a And contacting me through Email. http://gyazo.com/721f4d669081d991d3e83a1298147519 I have contacted neer himself about it, and his original journal was removed, Neer posted this to me: http://gyazo.com/2c7ab3d90475c59463aaeea40c65ca82 Right after he got the journal taking down. Toichi posted another, saying I was harassing him now. (I didn't get a chance to screen shot it as he removed it right after.) The whole time, I calmly tried to reply to his notes, but then after I blocked him as I didn't want to deal with the stress, only to see that he had emailed me and was pestering me on there. Please watch out for this guy, he's very confusing and I don't want anyone else to deal with this.

Originally posted on Jun. 18th, 2013 by draeling Mod note: All images were hosted on the OPs website, but the site seems to have gone down since. Update 2: 30/01/14: It's been 7 months since the refund was agreed. Only $260 so far of the $645 has been refunded, with the last payment being 4 months ago. Iko still does not keep in contact unless a shout and note is left, which receives an apology but no dates of when the next parts will be refunded. Update 1: Since the AB, Iko has agreed to a full refund in weekly increments. Will update when it is complete. WHO: Iko, Sierra Tudor, Kay the Dragon, Pathetic Dragon Studios WHERE: http://furaffinity.net/user/Iko, http://www.furaffinity.net/user/patheticdragon, http://www.furbuy.com/seller/Iko.html?as=a WHAT: A Nightfury Fursuit for $850 on 2010/04/29 WHEN (with proof): $410 Downpayment on 2010/05/05, $86 materials on 2010/12/12. EXPLAIN: In 2010 Iko posted an auction on Furbuy for a Nightfury fursuit, and though she did not have many recent good examples of her work, she was really excited to be spending more time and working on Fursuits, and the concept art posted of what she intended to make was looking really nice. We had a lengthy email discussion to confirm the features, design and looks, and the initial downpayment was sent. I bought two pairs of good shoes & created a DTD, and shipped them all at total extra cost of $145. As much as I really wanted to give her a chance, and I was really patient during those three years, it was a frustrating and prolonged flop of a project, with lost costume parts and need for constant requests for updates. :c Timeline of issues: 2010/05/05: Payment sent. 2010/09/08: Asked for update: Bodysuit sewn, needs zippers/spikes/airbrushing. Said she has been slow because she doesn't know what to do next. We discuss and agree on features and design looks again. Motivation issues mentioned because someone had criticized her work. 2010/10/05: Asked for update: Foam base for indoor paws and tail done. 2010/12/12: Iko emailed over some pics of the head in progress, mentioned another $86 of materials needed to be bought, sent via paypal. LEDs for the head almost done. 2011/04/13: Asked for update: long period of no contact: Iko mentioned work was slow because she was unsure what to do about zippers (Handpaw and head zippers). Iko asked if I was willing to send the second payment, but I declined until the suit was ready to ship, due to some small worries about the lack of updates and progress photos. 2011/08/18: Asked for update: Iko says most of suit done, still waiting to install zippers, make outdoor feet and wings. Sewing machine broken. 2011/11/22: Iko emailed: Says it's nearly finished, but is tweaking it after someone helped model it. Apoligises for how long it has taken due to how complex the suit is. Sewing markings. 2012/04/07: Iko emailed: She had lost the duct tape dummy due to leaving it out when apartment cleaners came. Requested I send a second one, but I declined, though I provided detailed measurements instead. (I was also wary at why it was still needed after the bodysuit was said to have been completed.) Said progress is slow because of complexity and working on four other fursuits at the same time. 2012/07/03: Asked for update: I requested pics to see everything in progress, as I wanted to see exactly how she has been doing. Iko mentions she doesn't have the bodysuit due to a recent move, but will get pics soon. 2012/10/03: Asked for update, multiple emails before getting one: Bodysuit & rest of costume has been in storage in another city due to a recent move. Promises Christmas shipping date. (After how long and dragged out this had become, I started getting more insistent about regular contact, emails, updates and pictures) 2012/10/30: Asked for update: Bodysuit still in storage, until she has free time to go and get it. Zipper problems cited as reason for slowness again. 2012/12/04: Asked for update: Iko said she has lost the bodysuit, cannot be found anywhere. Again requests another DTD so she can begin making a new one. (I really didin't have enough trust in her left after all the previous delays.... to make another DTD and ship it over). I politely declined and she gave a reference sheet explaining all the measurements she would need. Sais she still intended to get it done by Christmas, but that it's probably going to be late. (Emails become unresponsive/sparse, so we start communicating on FA Notes) 2013/02/26: Asked for update: Iko said her water heater exploded, and was afraid of mildew affecting costumes, so didin't want to bring them out for work yet until it was fixed. (I was a little sad and frustrated with the issues so far, so I started requesting fortnightly updates and requested a firm deadline of when the suit will be done) 2013/03/04: Iko came to the conclusion she doesn't have the skill, time or motivation to continue working on the suit, and apoligised profusely about lack of contact and unprofessionalisim. Offers to send me all the materials she has available, including the Head, tail and one set of feetpaws, as well as a $100 refund. She says even though her auction said the downpayment isn't refundable, she'll be nice and offer the token refund anyway. (Due to how few parts there were, and the head not even being complete, it wasn't worth me asking her to ship them over, so I ask her to list the parts on furbuy and refund it all.) 2013/06/13: After direct questions & requests for exact payment dates, Iko mentions she will not be giving a full refund (FA note transcript), as her auction says the downpayment is not refundable, but she is willing to be nice and will cover half. After 2-3 months of notes & eventual direct questions of when and what she intends to refund on FA, it turns out her idea of the refund was $320, given in 5 $64 installments over the next months. I was out $645 at this point, and she is adamant that she is not responsible for the other half of the refund, due to materials and it saying on her auction that downpayment is non refundable. I'm really sad the project ended this way :c I do understand life gets in the way at times, but the final staw in deciding to post this was her refusal to offer a full refund, even in light of how many years it took for Iko to put her hands up and say she doesn't have the skill or motivation to continue the project. I also wouldn't like to see anyone else experience what I did during this project. It is also a painful lesson that researching your seller and seeing how professional they are, in both communication & their existing work is really -really- important. I sadly gave the benefit of the doubt her few fursuit examples were just because she was just starting up... but that is no substitute for seeing real professionalisim & ability in completed & delivered works. I also understand now that $850 is a very low price for full suits like this, including wings, digitigrade, leds and features, which I should have saw as a warning flag too.

Nov. 30th, 2012 at 7:44 PM WHO: She goes by Vanyabear http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vanyabear/ Dymitry http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dymitri and her old name was Shwee http://www.furaffinity.net/user/shwee WHERE: I commissioned her on fa through her vanyabear account http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vanyabear/ WHAT: I bought two badges off of her when she was having a sale, they were traditional badges laminated with clip. She started deleting all of her submissions after I bought them though so no screencap. WHEN: I paid for the badges August 29th 2012. PROOF: Paypal payment http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyapaypal.jpg EXPLAIN: I contacted vanya on one of her submissions during a sale for badges she was having and paid for the badges August 29th later that night. She posted on my page pictures to the badges the next day. Aug 30th. http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyascreenshot.png Shortly after she posted them to my page she deleted them from her gallery. The pictures were of two finished, laminated badges of my characters though. Two and a half weeks went by and I sent her a simple and friendly shout asking if she had shipped the badges. She replied with this http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyascreenshot2.png Sept 19th The journal she is talking about she deleted less than two days later. The end of the month came and went, and a month after the last shout I sent her another asking again if she had sent the badges yet. She replied on October 18th http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyascreenshot3.png saying that she would have them out the NEXT DAY. I didn't get the badges in the mail so I asked her again this time I was getting impatient because I wanted the badges for a convention on November 3rd. October 26th http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyascreenshot3.png She told me to read the journal she posted, which said that she just had a minor surgery and was in the hospital for a couple days. Now I understand that she wasn't feeling well but at this point I had already waited 2 months for these badges and she had no excuse for the previous delays. At this point she had explained in her surgery journal that she was too broke+busy+sick to do anything. She then posted this journal begging money and commissions for a dildo from bad dragon Oct 30th http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyadildo.png I felt I had to ask her again when my badges would be shipped. She was already taking on new commissions but she didn't have the time to ship out one envelope. I then threatened to post her here on Artists Beware. She said she was shipping the badges with a refund as soon as she could make it to the post office. Another month had come and gone and I never received anything from Vanya. Then on Nov 27th she posts this http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyagoodbye.png She took the time to go through and delete all of her submissions, journals, shouts and favorites and all out abandoned her account. On the Journal two other people beside myself commented asking "what about our refunds?" So I started talking to other people who had commissioned her. She left every single one of us without a way to contact her and never refunded anyone. The next day Nov 28th the account that she had "given" to her "friend" posted a shout http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/dymitripost.png I won't lie, I don't believe for an instant that she gave away her character and her brand new fursuit to anyone. I sent her "friend" a note asking if there was anyways to contact her. http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/dymitriexplain.png They tell me that Vanya is without internet and that is why she is no longer online. Yet I still see her posting updates on facebook http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyafbshot.png There are also no posts at all about her having a surgery on facebook and it's pretty obvious that she is still the owner of her Demitri character. All I can say is stay as far away from this person as possible. She owes money to so many people and I am surprised she has never been posted on here before. I never received my badges or any sort of refund or even an apology. UPDATE: She did send me a refund for the badges on the 11th of December but today(Dec 14th)she sent me an email calling me a stalker http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyaemail_zpsadc17d72.png even though all these screen caps were all directed at me or were posted publicly. I had hope for her when I saw that she posted her suit up for sale to pay back all the money she owes, but then a friend linked me this http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k305/Wahaneta/vanyafurbuylie_zps6f5e147a.png Apparently she plans on spending all the money for refunds on a new $800 suit when she is only selling hers for $700. Needless to say after the whole experience with her I hope to never hear from her again and I wish the best for the other people she owes money to.

Hello all. This is a bit of a tale so apologies if I end up typing way too much. I will try to explain every detail that is pertinent and submit as much proof as I can along with it. Additionally, this commission was for a NSFW story. However, I have made sure not to include any details of said desired story in this post. I could have screencapped even more of our conversations but I am only including the pertinent ones for this report. To start with, I posted a SoFurry post in the Market looking for someone to create a story. Ayrrenth replied to this posting via message on SoFurry on August 3rd, 2017. After some discussion on the story details, we agreed on a price of $60 for a 7000 word story. The price was agreed upon on August 4th going into August 5th, 2017. I submitted my payment on PayPal according to my records on August 4th, 2017. (All private data has been blurred. If unedited screenshots are needed for proof, I can provide them.) What then followed was messages of me checking up once in a while and the author telling me that they were working on it. And then Irma happened. They said they had to evacuate and that their house was destroyed along with their computer. Of course, I empathized. I was patient and awaited a message from them once things were better. They said things were semi-normal and they were trying to complete commissions. They said they would have my story done by Friday. And then they just disappeared. No further communication. And then 9 months ago, I had finally kind of got to a place to stand up for myself. But that's a more personal thing I won't really get into here. I decided to reach out to this author on SoFurry and try to find out what happened to my story. I figured I wouldn't get a response so I ended up looking elsewhere for this person. There was someone on FurAffinity with a dragon that looked like them. So I reached out on September 9th, 2019 and, surprisingly, finally got an answer on August 24th, 2019. They offered a refund or to write the story. I stupidly continued on with wanting them to write the story. On September 11th, 2019, they said they had some of the intro done. This would be the last I heard from them. On September 26th, 2019, I reached out to check on the story and they left the message on read. I believe at that point, I decided to just give up and not bother reporting them and figured I'd take the loss. But recently, I kind of started to find my own voice and confidence. So here I am. Over 2 years later. Reporting someone I should have reported a long time ago. Tired of being walked all over and just letting people rip me off. Out of curiosity, I looked at their journals and found one that mentioned "previous bad customers". I am not sure if this author is referring to me or others, but I felt like I was pretty nice in my messages. Not to mention patient. Just wanted to throw that tidbit of irony out there. Anyway, I've reached out to this author on FurAffinity and SoFurry today to try to get a refund or my story. Based off my last message, I have a feeling it will be left on read and ignored. So here I am. Hope this helps someone else. Especially anyone that is trying to get a joint commission with them or any artist that they are currently trying to commission. Stay safe out there. (If any further screenshots are needed, I can provide them. Or if any of the screenshots need further censoring, that can be done as well.)

Good day to you all. Small notice - As requested by moderation staff from the original post I have removed a number of screenshots with just plain conversation not quite pertaining to the topic of the commission. But showed a regular source of contact for some of this situation with the artist in question. I am rather upset the situation has come to this. But here goes in as concise and explanatory a situation as possible. This would be my second commission from QWERTYDRAGON aka Xubuntu. With my first having been a successful piece commissioned from them in January of 2019. They completed this commission on time and to a high degree of quality. Thus as you will see from the posted discord screenshots we had a conversation about a Mecha-Dragon version of the Red Dragon character of mine - Rakarth Cinderscorn. A price was agreed and set to be paid for. Months went by, with a initial sketch being provided by the artist as you will see in one of the screenshots. From then on, time went by with regular communication going on between myself and said artist. As it came to the later part of the year - I asked for deadlines that could be set for the art to be completed (With myself under the belief it was in progress and being worked on). The first of these was around my Birthday in the July period, and the second was in the month involving Halloween. Both of these deadlines were missed and multiple attempts at communication were attempted. Not only via discord which was the preferred medium of contact. Multiple emails were sent to their direct business address which they confirmed they had received and yet hadn't answered because 'I just get lazy sometimes'. I have attempted to contact Paypal for a resolution, which has been denied given the time-frame involved. This was an individual I believed I could trust, they do make quality artwork for sure. But their focus it seems had turned to completing other newer commissions and a Patreon of specified artwork which you can search based upon their name Xubuntu / Qwertydragon (Their artist alias, Real name is unknown and censored for site reasons). I would like to make sure no one else ever has to go through such an experience with said artist, nor ends up waiting for inordinate amounts of time. Nor losing out on the costs of said artwork. For me the cost is the lesser of the two lossess here. Sincerely recorded, Rakarth

Disclaimer: the screenshots I have are the best I can get from discord chats where I talked with others about the commission months ago. Commissioner blocked me (see attachment 1) immediately after my saying I wasn't content with my commission compared to others they've done, thus I cannot get any other screenshots than those I have here. -- Proper: Our first contact about the commission was right after they posted they were open for commissions and (of I remember right) in need of help financially. I had talked with them previously, as they made a nice little $10 pinup of my lizard boy (Attachment 2), and I even made them a little art as thanks in return. They seemed nice, so why not help them out and see what they can do for a full piece? April 7th, I paid the $140 (attachment 3) for a full shaded piece with a background and showed them all my references for my Y/veltal and U/mbreon characters performing missionary position and its supposed to be romantic. I will note that shaded characters is worth more than background (attachment 4), and the background ended up being the subject in the end piece. After the start of our commission, they seemed to go pretty fast! They got me the first sketch within 3 days, which came in the form of just a fully lined "background". (attachment 5) Took me off-guard because that never happens, getting the background (lined) before even seeing a sketch of any sort, especially the subjects. Thought maybe the subjects would go on the couch or floor or something (since I didn't specify where, which was in retrospect may have been my first mistake, and they wouldn't tell me what they were about to do). I figured I would wait it out and see what they do. Waited quite a while, a month went by, another month...I was beginning to wonder, so I asked if there was any progress. Each time I asked, they simply answered "no progress". Meanwhile on Twitter I had noticed them saying they were too depressed to work or some such thing, then it turned to them being in art school all of a sudden. And whenever they were in the mood, they'd spit out about 5 pinup commissions at a given time. By the time I even got an update (which I will touch on in a moment), there had to have been about 30 to 40 commissions finished by them. That is not an exaggeration. I confronted them about it and after a few times of trying, they did indeed confirm that they took many MANY commissions at once, and it's been piling up ever since. And yet they are still asking for commissions and taking over a year to finish what I assume to be most of them. Moving on, the first update I got since the lined background was on February 11th, 2020 (attachment 6) I voiced my concern that the subjects weren't in the foreground and were instead in the background (attachment 7) while also trying to be nice because they were supposedly my friend, and the fact they'd been going through a lot (allegedly). Their only response was "this is what it looks like zoomed in" (attachment 8 ) which is a big yikes because, not only was it low res if you did zoom in, but it's also the fact it's not the focus, is a big no-no. I voiced my concerns again, and she left me on read. February 13th, another update. They only showed that they had colored and shaded the "background" which I thought looked pretty dang good, all things considered. (attachment 9) But no sign of whether Chio decided to move the characters anywhere else. Figured I would wait and see. Fast forward to APRIL 15TH with no prior WIPs, the characters were lined and flat colored already. I was so done and tired at this point and just wanted it done that I just couldn't bear to say anything. Other than just shade them, because obviously there was nothing I could do at this point. They had already got it set in stone without my permission. (attachment 10) Their reaction to "shading" the characters? (like I had bloody paid for) They darken the room. (attachment 11) So I figure, well, if you're going to do that, maybe can shade it nice with some glow effects from the U/mbreon that bounce off the Y/veltal and the walls and all? No. All that happens is that they add a glow around the markings. (attachment 12) Nothing spectacular. I paid full price for this. And the BACKGROUND is the FOREGROUND, and the characters aren't even shaded. Full piece: (attachment 13) Friend asking if full piece is a wip: (attachment 14) Proof of talking with my friends about this even early on when I found out it was in the background: (attachment 15) Other examples of art released at the same time that is better: (attachment 16) I'm sorry, but that is a failure to do what you have to do. Failure to communicate and make sure. Failure to get things done. Failure on the level of taking on way too many commissions and getting none done for an eternity. And then screwing up a full piece, which should be considered having /more/ care and effort put into it than your average pinup. Tl;dr -Takes too many commissions, and thus takes over a year to do your art -Not good at communication on commissions to make sure its what the commissioner wants -Overly sensitive if you say anything negative at all There were no WIPs before this.

TankDragon ran a YCH (Link here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/30306472/ ) over a year ago, in which I won a slot for 85$. It was called his Final Winter YCH, or also his 6th YCH. The censoring in the following picture removes my name address, and monetary information. He also also charged the person who came in after the YCHs close for the same slot that he charged me for. Since this time, he has repeatedly said I would get a WIP soon as I checked in every few months. However, the friend who bid after close showed me he had gotten a WIP with him in my slot instead (far left predator slot). My character is not a dragon. I have not been able to get a WIP of the YCH from the artist, and believe he has now just ran off with the money as it is now well past Paypals 180 day return period. He does still respond, but it is always with the same line of: It will be soon. Now, at a loss for other options, I submit this beware so others may not lose money to this artist.

Beware Written on September 11, 2019 Who: Ohmega Suit Studios/Ohm Protho/Ohmnog When: November 9 2017 - 2019 (Still ongoing) Where: ordered via Facebook messenger, other discussions via Twitter, Telegram, and via email What: A pair of all blue, no claws or pawpads: handpaws, feetpaws, and artwork- headshot Total amount: $231 -- most paid through friends and family Things to note: Ohm and I were friends at the time of the commission start, somewhere between it all we just fell through. Ohm will be referred to by they/them/theirs out of respect for their choice of pronouns. I understand the situation in which Ohm had injured their hand in 2017 and when they had to move out of their apartment in 2019 AZ due to AC and space issues. I understand there was a period of time where Ohm's messaging on almost all social media outlets was really glitched out and communication would be faltered. Hence why I decided to reach out to multiple at a time. I do not wish ill will towards them or their future, I really do wish and hope for Ohm to be successful in their endevours. Why: Failure to show updates of any kind, failure to keep client (myself) up to date, failure to provide a queue, communication issues, poor business practices. I would like to start off by saying, do not actively seek and harrass Ohm. This is an ordeal that is between the two of us, however, I am making this to make others aware of my situation and to warn others before possibly conducting business and/or trades. It has come to a point where I have to make this public in order to get some sort of confirmation, update and something set in stone from them. Back in 2017 I had just started really getting into the furry fandom. I had met Ohm online via Facebook and we started off being pretty good friends. I was so amazed to see their work and how much potential they had. I supported them in all of their work, progress images in art and suit making. I really looked up to Ohm and was so excited to have a new friend. Looking back at the screenshots, it seems as though I commissioned them for some artwork before we got to meet for the first time in person, also at my very first furcon. We talked about how our lives were and what we had planned for the future and I gifted them a very small badge. (I know the badge is irrelevant, but somewhere deep down I hope they still have it.) After meeting up with them at AZFC 2017 (just a few days prior Ohm had an accident where their hand got cut by their glass window.) I had saved up enough to be able to commission them for a set of feetpaws; specifically sockpaws. I had made my payments pretty quickly, all under friends and family because I knew I could trust them. I knew that they were my friend. (This was before I knew to always send payment for commissions in business PayPal.) I understood that I was going to be put at the bottom of the queue as there were others ahead of me. I wanted Ohm to feel comfortable knowing that I was going to be a reliable and understanding customer. If I remember correctly, a few people prior had either canceled commissions or asked for refunds from Ohm. I didn't want to cause anymore trouble or hassle than was needed. I do recall Ohm having trouble making ends meet for the apartment rent and even groceries a lot of times. I thought it might be helpful to add on to my order, handpaws, and to even buy artwork from them too, which were both added on at a later date. Throughout the whole process I did not have any knowledge of where I was on the queue, when my materials arrived, or when the sockpaws would even be started. The one time I did reach out to ask about it I was told that parts are not on the public queue because they would be done in-between bigger suit work. Ex: heads, bodysuits, etc. I was very patient and still hopeful, yet a bit weary at the lack of communication. Then there came a point where whenever I talked about my commissions I was ghosted. I would see Ohm's profile say "Online" and message them at those times, but never got responses. Then there came a point where what I wrote was not seen. I gave it some time, since I knew the IMs for Ohm was kinda glitchy, but then hours became days, days became weeks, and then months. Every chance I got to reach out to them it's always an, I'll get to you later. We can do it by x date. I'll be sure to get back to you. Deadlines came and went. Now here we are 3 years later I see commission after commission being completed. Heads, bodysuits, handpaws and feetpaws, many artworks, yet I have no idea where I am on the queue. I have absolutely no idea if my items have even been started since 2017. Now, I see Ohm opening up again for more commissions once more. I just want an honest answer, what happened to my order, to my items? I know now I won't be able to get my money back. As much as I don't want to admit it, I don't think I'll ever get my hands, feet, and art from them at all either. I know now that we're not friends anymore too. And it sucks that it had to end this way. I really wish the best for them, OhmegaSuitStudios can go far, but please Ohm, my once close friend, don't do this to anyone else. Don't let others wait for months, years even for a response on where they are on your queue. Leaving them wondering if you ever started on them. Making them feel like a burden to talk to you because the items have become the only thing to talk about. So that's why I wrote this beware. Be aware of what OhmegaSuitStudios, Ohmnog, Ohm Protho has done. I hope this never happens to anyone else. I hope I'm not too late either… Evidence: Note: I included all of their WIPS/Updates channel to date for proof of no knowledge of my own order being worked on Anything new will be added in the "new information" folder **All personal email, names, and addresses are drawn over for our privacy and protection. As of Sep 12, 2019 at 11:55 EST, I have been refunded in full. This beware will still stay up however as reference. All new evidence is in the "new information" folder. I can't believe it took almost 3 years for me to get refunded...

On December 31, 2018, I commissioned Bree Drake for a full body badge while we were both vending at NYFB. I have screenshot proof of this transaction, despite the fact that it was a verbal, at-con, cash transaction, because I sent them a digital copy of my ref sheet via telegram:, at which time they asked me to confirm the type of commission I had purchased from them. On January 10th, I was contacted via telegram with an update as to the status of my badge, at which time Bree informed me they would be starting work on my badge soon after having some personal issues. Two months later, on March 18th, 2019, I attempted contact on Telegram for an update. My message was read, but not responded to, meaning that Bree elected to actively ignore my message there. She has not been active on telegram since July. Shortly thereafter, on March 21st, I sent her Facebook Page for her studio a message, asking the same question. At this point I was concerned because I was not listed anywhere on her Trello and had not even received the promised WIP. As you can see, some point after this exchange Bree deleted her business page, leaving me unable to contact her here either. As of September 6, 2019, I have not received a badge, a WIP, any further contact (nor can I contact her, as all her accounts seem to have gone dark as of March 2019), or any attempt at a refund.