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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/910500.html Included are links to screenshots of the journals etc in case of deletion. WHO: soaru@dA (old account) / hatchimi@dA (new account/formerly Dollrot) WHERE: http://soaru.deviantart.com/ http://hatchimi.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Digital art - Pixel icons x4 - $40 total (+paypal fees) (92 total icons owed to others on her to do list) WHEN: Soaru had claimed to have been diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in early May 2014. We were all very understanding of her situation and that there would be delays with her commissions. ( https://i.gyazo.com/2d18a1584409cebc7fd6d15f3f87241e.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Carpal-Tunnel-Diagnosis-453965909 ) and then another notice to commissioners: ( https://i.gyazo.com/cda7fca79f835063a19bd737fd96fc10.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Attention-commissioners-454227201 ) I first noted soaru about the icon commissions on July 17th, 2014, then the agreement was made and I sent the payment the same day. (see screenshots in ‘proof’) Soaru had then made a journal on July 26th 2014 to state that she had unlimited pixel slots open for the summer ( https://i.gyazo.com/ff5ccf459452bb685191edc39e486352.png Journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/work-work-work-470968786 ) Unlimited slots never being a promising sign, but I am a patient person, and didn’t think much of it at the time. A few more updates regarding soaru’s recovery and commission progress were posted between August 2014 until August 2015 (I will get into these in my explanation below). The final update on August 25th 2015 was about her recovery and any updates for commissioners, and since then the account has been dead. PROOF: commission note paypal transaction EXPLAIN: As stated above, soaru had been diagnosed with Carpal tunnel syndrome. She posted a journal about it on May 14th, 2014 and continued updates on her situation. When soaru had opened commissions, I sent her a note expressing my interest, and the agreement was made on July 17th. I sent the payment the same day. On July 26th 2014, soaru posted a new journal stating that she had unlimited pixel slots open for the summer, ( https://i.gyazo.com/ff5ccf459452bb685191edc39e486352.png Journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/work-work-work-470968786 ). I didn’t think much of this at the time. On August 20th 2014, Soaru posted a commission update ( https://i.gyazo.com/1b08df12e524cd8658c41b2a8160a8c6.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Commission-update-476955835 ), stating that she was working very hard on completing her commissions right now. She asks for our patience due to work and having to take breaks because of her carpal tunnel. I was in no rush for my commissions and only wished for her recovery, as I really couldn’t imagine how awful it must be to suffer from carpal tunnel as an artist.. She adds “I did not forget about your commission, don’t worry.” The next update was on October 6th 2014. Soaru states that commissions are now closed for a good year or so. She tells us that she is very busy with work, so commission progress is moving very slowly, and apologises for the wait. I can appreciate that she is going through hard times, so a few months isn’t much to wait given her situation. “I will not update you on how your commission if coming along because there are too many of you to note. I assure you I WILL complete the commission as soon as possible. So please be patient with me. You will receive your commission when you get it.” And no, I have no idea as to when you will receive it, and for that I'd like to apologize. I also won't be providing any refunds. You will get what you paid for.” I’m a patient person and I could appreciate that taking unlimited slots as there would be a lot of people on her to do list, but looking back now, not receiving any kind of progress report on how your commission is coming along is a pretty bad sign as well as stating that you have “no idea when a commissioner will receive their commission.” But again I was willing to wait and a few months wasn’t anything to complain about given her life situation. (https://i.gyazo.com/83b4d48b277187c21701d02963b5f5f7.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Commissioners-PLEASE-READ-486724217 ) Between October 2014 and February 2015, there was no real update on soaru’s commission progress or her condition. Apart from posting a journal in December asking if her commissioners would mind if she used her new base for their commissions or not. (I requested to stick to the original base I had ordered as it fit my characters better). ( https://i.gyazo.com/934a152cd6297a6082aef184dc9e00f3.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Question-for-people-who-have-commissioned-me-498366584 ), though you could hardly call this an update. Finally on February 10th, 2015, soaru posts her public to-do list and an apology for the delay with her commissions. (https://i.gyazo.com/67931c13a0edf8575e38623994e9681c.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/TO-DO-LIST-UPDATED-PLEASE-READ-THIS-OMG-512941211 ) On this list there are a total of 96 commissions yet to be completed. At the time, I simply thought she’s stated many times she is working hard to get these done so over the course of months hopefully her list will get shorter and shorter, and she will get through these and can look past this tough time in her life. The next and major life update was posted on July 13th 2015: ( https://i.gyazo.com/8e096687c3b8c8bc92baef371ba68a41.png https://i.gyazo.com/7e8bc4738ff1ea001597797b8e525eec.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Life-Update-ADDED-546016180 [screenshot & link to updates journal linked at the bottom: https://i.gyazo.com/12e87e334c506d2f8477ef92f83e50d7.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/updates-447349674]). Soaru talks about how she realizes how unhappy a lot of her commissioners are with her services, her surgery and the date being under negotiation, and that she has been going through recovery. “I'd like to assure ALL MY COMMISSIONERS that I am not running away with your money. I WOULD LOVE to provide refunds to all of you, I cannot stress that enough. But I simply do not have the funds to do so. I know I've already asked you all to be very patient with me, and some of you have and I'm very grateful for that. I do not expect everyone to be understanding of my situation financially/mentally/physically, but you WILL receive your commission.” Her last update and sign of any activity on her account was on August 25th 2015. ( https://i.gyazo.com/0153602488fb599d70ff0bb7bad6a9fa.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Recovery-Update-556158826 ) A promising recovery update stating that soaru’s wounds are healing well, she still experiences some pain but it should disappear soon. She says she should be able to start commissions mid-September. She says she’ll be sure to post a journal update, as well as join.me streams of commission work, and finally that “You will also be provided with WIP's of your pixel so you know I'm actually doing your commission.” I cannot speak for everyone on her list but I have not received any kind of work in progress shots from soaru. Since then, soaru had provided no updates about surgery dates, delays, or any kind of work in progress to assure people that she was indeed trying to work on these commissions as she had been stating for the last year. Many of the comments on her page and in her journals talk about the lack of any kind of update given the situation and the wait for all of her commissioners. Soaru is even ignoring notes and comments from her clients. Many of the comments urged her to think about trying to refund even just a few commissioners to lessen her workload and to just resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Soaru also states that once her recovery is over she will be working her hardest to finish all of her commissions in response to another comment. I tried to note her back in January: ( https://i.gyazo.com/cf393ed24d2d8fe08285099283e79359.png ) to ask about changing characters since it has been so long that I had forgotten who I had even requested, but there has been no response. However, in my sent notes it is marked as read. Around late February, a friend and I (who is also on soaru’s to do list) came across a deviantart account named dollrot, but recently changed to hatchimi. At the time there was no evidence that hatchimi and soaru are the same individual, however we did find her art style to bear very close similarities to soaru’s. For some time we just kept an eye out since there wasn’t much posted to hatchimi’s gallery at the time and it could just be a similar style. Here is a comparison we compiled of all the similarities we found (style wise) : http://orig03.deviantart.net/d537/f/2016/154/f/1/comparisons_by_theangelofmemories-da4ubbh.png Over the course of the last few months we’ve tried to gather as much evidence as we can that links hatchimi and soaru as the same person. A few things we noticed: Her icon style is in the same style as her old one (they’re not made from the same base, but the way the eyes are pixeled have the same technique done on them, plus they almost overlap in terms of head placement over body) She still uses bases extremely frequently and they all have their toes pointing inwards with their hands by their sides with closed fingers. A similar technique with the way she shades her noses, and the highlights in the character’s eyes Handwriting comparison http://orig02.deviantart.net/06b4/f/2016/166/2/f/handwritting_by_royal_jelliefish-da6ck3m.png The first semi-concrete proof comes in the form of a work in progress shot from soaru, and something I noticed when I popped in to one of hatchimi’s picarto streams a few weeks ago. This is Soaru's wip screenshot with her file location atop the SAI window. notice the "C:/users/mew/desktop/file/cootiewootie.psd" Now, look at the location on this screenshot taken from Hatchimi's picarto stream. Same user name and location as to where the file is saved. "C:/users/mew/desktop/file/BASEA.psd" Along with the similarities of their style, noticing that they share the same user name and have the habit to save on the desktop is too much of a coincidence. Now, the evidence we have found that positively links soaru and hatchimi as the same person was something I noticed when hatchimi posted her artvsartist meme. She has since taken it down but you can still view it via google cache here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://hatchimi.deviantart.com/art/artvsartiste-611370644 screenshot: https://i.gyazo.com/ad467bb0d3af2f1e4794c2464916a57f.jpg A while back soaru had posted a self portrait to her deviantart, and looking at the two images it’s hard to think they’re two different people. Please note the same piercings and gauge in her ear as well as the facial similarity. http://fav.me/d8hcuq8 screenshot: https://i.gyazo.com/090fdf9f9535898df2d0febda19d16d6.png A friend had found soaru’s old paypal/email address through the icon commission transaction. Hatchimi’s current paypal does not contain personal information linking her to soaru, but with some digging with the ‘soaru’ email address, we have discovered it is used for her instagram account that has been up since 2012 and is still active: https://i.gyazo.com/b536e315ee2473202d9842807a0a1561.png When lined up side by side from the image from the artvsartist meme: https://i.gyazo.com/09f0a7f2270ec47712465a1e29420878.png The name that appears in the transaction for the payment to soaru from 2 years ago also matches the name on the instagram account if there is still any doubt that they are the same person. The evidence collected in this case was through a group effort from her dissatisfied customers I have reached out to. **Edit : 17/06/2016 We have posted jorunals on deviantart revealing our findings and to spread the word. my friends (who has been in contact with hatchimi to send her the beware post and to see if the situation could still be privately resolved) : http://royal-jelliefish.deviantart.com/journal/ARTIST-BEWARE-Soaru-Hatchimi-615658826 Hatchimi has also posted a journal with her defenses and some evidence of a conversation between herself and soaru through email, as well as a note she sent inquiring about commissions to soaru. http://hatchimi.deviantart.com/journal/Harassment-soaru-drama-615813488 Someone picked up that there is a tab open in this screenshot for 'msn canada' it isn't by any means concrete but it could confirm her location, and this could be another piece of evidence that links another similarity between them. http://orig06.deviantart.net/ce3f/f/2016/165/e/a/ccb568bad3054274b7fe6f00b4a87a34_by_hatchimi-da6aqen.png anoher edit: a user found a page in the waybackmachine that has her country listed as canada: http://web.archive.org/web/20151024030234/http://dollrot.deviantart.com/ So we can prove that she and soaru share the same location. A big question for me in all of this is that why now of all times would she choose to reveal this screenshot of her noting soaru about asking about commissions? Surely its a strong piece of evidence to support that the two are different people, so why wouldn't she send it to us sooner rather than this much later? http://img10.deviantart.net/289a/i/2016/168/6/a/proof1_by_hatchimi-da6mxv6.png (screenshot in case of deletion: https://i.gyazo.com/f95a0191f17fd6a7aa8e13112f34e47b.png ) At first it looks fairly normal, but someone commenting on the beware journal checked their old notes from before they changed their username, ane the previous username shows up in older notes, not the new on since hatchimi was formerly Dollrot until earlier this year, why does it say "Hatchimi said the following" and not "Dollrot said the following"..? Another commenter then claimed that it is possible to run a test on images which will tell you if the image has been edited, and the screenshot came up as edited in photoshop, so this tells us that the note screenshot is fake. Here are the websites one can use to detect a doctored image: http://fotoforensics.com/ http://imageedited.com/ Hatchimi is still denying that she and soaru are the same person, despite all of these new revelations, I will continue to update as more light is shed.

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/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