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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/915331.html WHO: mrpickles66 FA NSFW WHERE: On Furaffinity via notes. WHAT: Line art piece [X] of his Spaxk character [X] WHEN: First note sent on July 4th at 5:30PM EST, finished artwork on July 8th and continuing trying to get the payment. PROOF: First note string [Read from bottom up] NSFW DISCUSSION https://www.dropbox.com/s/vp25rf5pb07hu63/notes1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gb2q278vy34kmw9/notes2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/cayaxwqar9d8dy7/notes3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/dp6xih8ofpqq01r/notes4.png?dl=0 Second string [After artwork was done] https://www.dropbox.com/s/a02jrnnmi1z08zq/string2 1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/dkg1xh55dvyc6m3/string2 2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/e6y7sll3llcq5qx/string2 3.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: After a long day I check my FA notes to see if anymore commissions and I have a note saying "hi" and in it, they explain they want a piece of art, no explanation or what exactly they want. [X] he counitines to be a bit hard to get information out of until finally I start getting some answers. After what style he states he wants, he requests some scat and farting porn with on my commission price sheet it CLEARLY states what I do and do not do for NSFW pieces.[X][NSFW DISSCUSSION] This was my first red flag that something didn't seem right if he didn't read what was on the commission prices. He then mentions that he wants to see it before it's done which is strange since it's a very simple line art commission and there tends to really be no WIP updates for it.[X] which also raises another HUGE red flag for me. I finish the artwork anyway because I figure I could hope he would pay me, either way it's good practice. I note him up stating I was done and it's now time for payment. He starts trying and TRYING to get me to show him the finished artwork before he pays for it.[X] I stood my ground however. Then when it comes to payment he starts lying about sending it and still trying to see it [X] also mentioning that his Paypal "wasn't working" , then changing his story to that he doesn't have 5 dollars only 3.[X] I send him one more note stating: "Or maybe this entire time you've be wanting to "see it" so you can just upload it elsewhere without having have paid for it." He hasn't responded shockingly. EDIT [July 13th 2016]: He has since paid but I am still watching out for refunds so for a bit this may be resolved. EDIT [July 28th 2016]: He has since been banned off of Furaffinty however I just received an email from Paypal for a money request [because he can't get it refunded] from him. https://www.dropbox.com/s/xmd2utxwj8bxzm7/Untitled.png?dl=0 Aka he is trying to get his money back from the completed artwork. Which has been given to him. I set him a email in huge red font NO EDIT [August 1st 2016]: He has now taken it to claims for Paypal as a dispute and I right away filed for Paypal to make this a claim since he cannot be reasoned with. EDIT [August 4th 2016]: Paypal has oddly enough decided to refund me AND him at cost to them which is weird but this saga is now finally over.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/914985.html WHO: I am only including their name on here, as it started on FB and that is the name they have displayed on Facebook. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/dusqueravelle/ And Peyton Carpenter on Facebook. WHERE: Same as above. WHAT: 40.00 downpayment on a Kigu. WHEN: October 2014 to now. PROOF: Intial transaction and attempts to contact via facebook: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oc8mtapqiapg0s0/proof1.png?dl=0 Contact on FA after attempts to contact on Facebook had failed, and reply and agreement for refund which did not happen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mv35h8ss30q9by/proof2.png?dl=0 After failed refund, sent another note which goes unread to this day: https://www.dropbox.com/s/xg096dl2ay9i8sg/proof6.png?dl=0 FA was apparently hacked, friend took over access to the account to remove the hacked image uploads. Contacted friend to see if there was another point of contact for seller: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ayp5iq2yc9pr6w/proof5.png?dl=0 Journal posted today (7/7/2016) asking for people to get in contact with her if they are owed something: https://www.dropbox.com/s/aupjukn3xjjyijk/proof3.png?dl=0 unable to contact due to block: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvb310exlk43thf/proof4.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: In October of 2014 I was looking through furry facebook groups for sales, seeing one for a Kigu I contacted the seller. a design was agreed on, price, and deposit was made that day. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oc8mtapqiapg0s0/proof1.png?dl=0 I was promised WIP's of the work, and it seemed like it would be a relatively quick turn around of a few months initially. After a few months I contacted them back. Over time, responses became less and less, until I eventually was given no response at all and my requests for contact ignored. In an effort to get some contact, I attempted to contact them on their FA. I was initially greeted with a response! Great! I thought maybe we could just close out the whole situation and move on. I was promised a refund that coming saturday after a stream: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0mv35h8ss30q9by/proof2.png?dl=0 Saturday came and went, no contact. I let some time pass, maybe something had come up. I contacted them again, on FA. The note is still unread. https://www.dropbox.com/s/xg096dl2ay9i8sg/proof6.png?dl=0 When the note failed, I left a shout. I didnt think to cap it, and it is now removed. At some point after the shout was left, I got a note from someone (cannot find said note, if I do I will add a cap of it here) saying not to expect my money back, and the seller has done this before with many people waiting for refunds. Some more time passes, and their account was apparently hacked for awhile, a friend had taken over their account for the mean time to remove the hacked images. I contacted the friend in an effort to establish a new form of communication, as FB had been ignored for a long time, and FA had been the only form of contact I had had in months. https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ayp5iq2yc9pr6w/proof5.png?dl=0 I thought to myself, awesome, at least they know and will get in touch with me after the move and life stuff. Things happen, I understand completely. Time passes. I moved back to facebook, per the first screen shot to try and get in contact again. Ignored once more. Today (7/7/2016) I see a journal from their FA. Great, they are back, maybe we can get this resolved. Journal says to contact them if you are owed anything. https://www.dropbox.com/s/aupjukn3xjjyijk/proof3.png?dl=0 I attempted to contact her via note, only to find out that I was blocked. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvb310exlk43thf/proof4.png?dl=0 That leaves us where we are now. I am blocked, unable to get resolution at this time. I have to say I am very disappointed, I was and have been willing to work with this person. Reading back over some of the facebook messages, I probably should have worded some of them differently. The comments about noticing an icon change so I know they are active seem a little stalkerish in my mind now, but at the time I thought it was a good way to let them know I did notice they were recently active and I would like a contact back. EDIT: After I submitted this beware I attempted to contact them on facebook once again: http://puu.sh/pVrjW/d5e658d2bf.png http://puu.sh/pVrla/3a31b7de86.png Today has come and gone, no refund once again.

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/910025.html WHO: Lingling-arts WHERE: Lingling-Arts WHAT: A digital YCH for two characters for 500 points (roughly the equivalent of $5.00) WHEN: The YCH was submitted on February 1st 2016, and I contacted her the same day. Our last interaction was on May 23rd, 2016. PROOF: http://imgur.com/a/WaVBa Some links are provided within explanation. EXPLAIN: On February 1st, I saw a really cute Valentines Day YCH was posted. Since I had points to spare, and it was within my limited price range, I scooped it up. I transferred 500 points to her. The first was completed on February 5th, and the next was submitted the next day. It was kind of strange, since it appeared she had skipped over me (I was the first) and went onto the next people. I didn't think much about it. She submitted the next, and so far last one, on February 12th. http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/TakeALook-MyGF-gl0wstars-588957466 http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/TakeALook-MyBF-ClockworkWillow-589170834 http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/TakeALook-MyBF-Thoughtful-Stargazer-590435859 The day before Valentines Day came, and she posted a journal. It was about her entering an artistic slump, so there wasn't going to be much art coming. I was a bit disappointed due to not getting it in time, but I didn't fret. It was going to be a cute pic any of my favorite anthros. About two weeks pass, and she posts another journal on February 27th. She claims she has no inspiration, she's leaving, that she knew taking on 5 slots for her YCH was a bad idea, and she'll repay the remaining people. http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/journal/No-Inspiration-Leaving-again-593432926 Alright, stuff happens. I'm very sad that I wouldn't be getting the pic I really wanted, but at least I'll get my points back. March comes along, and I'm getting kind of impatient. I ask her if I'll be getting them back soon, and she says she doesn't have any at the moment. March 8th, March 14th, and March 17th she steadily posts art again. http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/PrincessDay-WIP2-595419685 http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/WALK-596722555 http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/Family-Matters-597132702 On March 18th, she posts another YCH. http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/YCH-5-597466305 She completes the slot on that and does two more pieces on the 20th and May 20th. On the last piece, she mentions her inspiration came back for a moment, but left her as soon as she completed it. http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/YCH-5-PrincelyPixels-597613247 http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/Theres-A-First-For-Everything-597869166 http://lingling-arts.deviantart.com/art/Spideypool-pone-610256124 Fed up, I warn her on May 23rd that if I don't have my points back by June 1st, I'll be making an artists beware. She tells me to go ahead, and that she's lost all her inspiration and has no points to give me. May 30th comes, and she posts a journal. She states she's not coming back because her inspiration has left her. She also says she doesn't care if we report her for not returning our points. It may have been just 5.00, but 5.00 wasted. I don't care about inspiration, I paid you to do something and you've scammed me. I haven't reached out to the other person who hadn't received any art from her, so I do not know if she paid him back or not. Current Mood: Mad Update 12/17/16 - Today I have recevied my points from Lingling back in full. I'd mark this as a resovled.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/908926.html WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bakasnowbunny/ and https://mobile.twitter.com/BakaSnowBunny WHAT: Partial fursuit commission, later refunded. WHEN: February 22nd; payment was held until March 14th. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736210837000.jpg Refund issued on May 20th. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736230758000.jpg PROOF: PayPal transactions are above. Unfortunately my Gmail isn't letting me retrieve the emails sent from February to March. I updated them weekly as I was working on other commissions for clients whose payments were received before hers. I'll explain what went down in those emails below. Initial reference sheet given: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682757348300.jpg Colors change from pink to purple (were pink on the reference sheet, later change to purple when the design changes) http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682780450500.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682799660500.png She asks about the color again 2 days after ordering the fur, which she had approved then. The new reference comes up a few days after this but I can't seem to find that e-mail. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682770468700.png Having the nose moved: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682757572500.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682773362000.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682799789500.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682743573300.png (in reference to where the nose was first) Her asking about the dots above the eyes when I mention the ones UNDER the eyes (so maybe there's another dot not on the reference sheet?): http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682743277600.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682713249500.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682759983300.png Me refunding her, starting with the tail issues: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736274181200.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736210648100.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736214488700.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736215937600.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736241789200.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736254110500.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736269066900.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736260942300.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736269846400.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736220547700.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736285150000.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736288180900.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736249328300.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736264931200.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736286129200.jpg Twitter posts: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736274107100.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736299628000.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736297296300.jpg Her boyfriend sent me notes on FA, again blaming me for her depression: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736275769200.jpg FurAffinity journal about me: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160525C/ezimba13736275402700.jpg EXPLAIN: In late March I started working on my clients fursuit. I should have refunded them then, because despite saying that she was patient she would ask for changes (the nose, for instance, was moved 4 times), questioned how I did things compared to others (not as a compliment, as if I was doing it wrong) and she gave me odd measurements (I have it recorded that her hip to heel measurement is 44" and the head size changed three times). I was sent two different reference sheets, which changed in late March again. I was incredibly patient until we got to the tail, in which the furs she picked out herself were apparently not long enough, and she questioned how I made it. At this point I put my foot down and decided to refund her. She threw a fit at work, blamed me for her depression, sent her boyfriend after me, posted about me on Twitter and then later made a journal after the supplies arrived. She would not give me her PayPal address or shipping address so I had to find them through PayPal myself; she switched off receiving payments while I looked too (as there was a period of time where she wouldn't answer my emails). She was taking PWYW commissions during this time so that's how I know she switched it off on me. I sent her everything I had involving the commission: fabric, the base, feet, tail, claws, patterns, etc. I was more than halfway done with the commission when it was refunded which is why this situation is difficult. A week after canceling her father decided to contact me on behalf of the commission. He sends me very threatening e-mails and demands a larger refund than what I had given her. He even gives me his phone number and asks me to call him (which I don't do; the phone number was sent in a side e-mail that I did not include because it solely contained the number alone). http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682752279400.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682791641300.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682783556000.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682771676200.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682776155700.png He also forwards me the first set of measurements I was sent which I have left some notes on. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682757783500.png There is an error somewhere where I mention her shoe size is US women's 8 instead of 10 1/2. I have it marked that I got her 10 1/2 shoes. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682740583600.jpg http://www.ezimba.com/work/160531C/ezimba12682788472100.png (The purchase through eBay) Do not work with this individual. It's unfortunately one of those situations where you just can't please someone, no matter how hard you try. EDIT June 1st 4:30PM: More tweets about me. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160602C/ezimba12682785868100.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160602C/ezimba12682749512500.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160602C/ezimba12682723872100.png EDIT June 4th 6:45PM: Found this in my spam as I was looking for an e-mail from another artist that accidentally went there. My parents are fully aware of the matter and will not be contacting him as they helped me with the number crunching with the refund and relaying of e-mails with him. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160605C/ezimba12682792641600.png EDIT June 9th 7:00PM: Came home to see that the client (or her father) issued a chargeback on my account. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160610C/ezimba12682772759100.png EDIT July 27: A second chargeback has been issued by the father. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160728C/ezimba19677183466200.png

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/908567.html WHO: Bioblaze WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bioblaze/ WHAT: The user had won the primary sought after spot in a large multi character auction that has STILL not been paid for. (All screencaps will go in the explain section for timeline consistency) WHEN: Feb 5th, 2014 to March 29th 2016 PROOF: All screencaps will be in the explain section for timeline consistency. EXPLAIN: Back in early 2014, I decided to expand my capabilities and do a mind numbingly heavy project auction consisting of 10 characters in a butcher shop scene to please my vore community. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12671477/ (mature rated due to FA's rediculous maturity laws though there is no actual mature content in the picture) A great deal of haggling occurred over the coveted position of the butcher himself, with the price VERY swiftly rising from 15$ to a whopping 75$ over very little time. There was a minor scuffle between Bioblaze and another bidder, as he accused them of just trying to drive up the price with no intention to pay. I smoothed the fight over, explaining that the other bidder was a long time commissioner of mine and that they always paid up. Argument now over, the two had some friendly competition for the spot which Bioblaze eventually took. He insisted on paying for it partway through my actually drawing it, which I normally frown upon because I dont want to leave someone screwed over if my laptop dies or something, but I gave up my contact information anyways and even offered him a preview of how it was coming along. Afterall, he had the most unique character in the set and I wanted to make sure I got it right. It took him a while to reply to anything but I assumed he was busy with work so I let it slide. Right after I gave him my contact information for payment, he went missing. Totally. Nobody could get hold of him, none of his notes were being answered, he just dropped off the face of the planet. He resurfaced a year later claiming to have been hit by a bus, saying he was in the hospital this whole time but now he was loose and wanted to pay up any debts. Little fishy but ok, shit happens, right? (the journals he had talked about the accident in have all been deleted and i did not get screenshots at the time because I wasnt overly suspicious yet.) I answered the journal, thinking I could finally get the 75$, which at this point was starting to become a needed thing as I was slowly falling into financial issues with my credit card. Lo and behold, he goes missing again. Resurfaces several months and a good many notes later with this gem: By now I am suspicious AND annoyed, but still. Relapses happen and I am nothing if not forgiving. So I give him another chance to..... apparently go missing. Another almost full year passes before he shows activity on his account again. All his journals had been deleted and replaced with a call out for people willing to work on some sort of programming project with him and paid commissions he bought started popping up in his submissions. So I mail him one more time thinking ok THIS TIME he should be good, right? Play it cool, keep it casual and lighthearted, and maybe he won't know that I have been stewing in frustration and debt for two years? Ok! looking good! he seems willing to play along and he CLEARLY has recovered and is looking to throw money around. Should be a piece of cake for him to get me off his back. Apparently its easier to brush me off as being impatient and petty over a measly 75$ that's been owed to me for 2 years. At this point I am too pissed to answer him back. It has been two months now and I haven't heard anything from him. No payments, no "hey i got paid but something came up so i will be another month", no anything. I don't want to contact him again since I have a feeling he will throw off some excuse and brush me aside AGAIN, or worse he will go missing for some reason or another again. I am so done with this guy. That commission would have pulled me out of debt enough to be able to pay off the rest myself with my part time job but instead I had to get my parents assistance years later when I realized he wasn't coming back. Apparently I am the only person on FA who he is refusing to pay. I have contacted other commissioners and they all say he paid up immediately. I don't know what I did to offend him so much but anyone else who is doing art for him may want to get paid up front before he walks in front of a bus again.

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

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/904784.html In July 2015, I posted a lost contact on this artist, but was never able to contact her. As she seems to have vanished from all her known accounts, posting a beware on her seems pointless, but this is still something everyone should be aware of in the extremely unlikely event that she returns and continues to accept commissions. All information is below. WHO: EyeKissa (deviantART) or iKissa (FurAffinity) WHERE: http://www.eyekissa.deviantart.com or http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ikissa WHAT: Traditional Design Commission ($10 USD) WHEN: The commission correspondence began on April 3rd, 2014. The commission was paid for on May 26th, 2014, after I approved a sketch. As of May 2016, the commission still hasn't been received and the artist has vanished, with the final conversation I had with her taking place in November 2014. PROOF/EXPLAIN: Since our correspondence was over two years ago, some messages have been deleted, but here is what I managed to find in my dA inbox. Read from bottom to top, please! April 2014: EyeKissa opened for design commissions and I sent her a note about one, including a form she specified for prospective customers to use. She replied that nine other users had ordered commissions before me and that my custom might take "up to two weeks at the most," which I agreed to. She also told me to wait until an approval sketch was sent to pay. May 2014: I didn't hear from EyeKissa in awhile, but she was progressing on her other commissions rather quickly, so I didn't mind the wait. On May 26th, she sent me a note and asked if I was still interested in the custom, to which I replied that I was and requested a species change, since it hadn't been started. She told me this was fine and to expect a sketch later that day. A few hours later, she sent me this note with a sketch included for my approval. I approve and pay. (The red box censors an email address.) November 2014: After this, I don't hear from her until November, when she unexpectedly offers me a refund. Here, I will confess that I was rude in my response, which I know now was unnecessarily guilt-tripping and could have been said much better. Essentially, I told her that I would accept the refund, but I was disappointed in her service because she had finished almost all of her other commissions, most of which had been paid for after mine. Someone who had been added to her to-do list weeks after me had their commission finished before me, which is why I was so displeased. Still, this was rude of me and I regret it. She responds with the offer to both refund me and finish the commission, to which I tell her that I don't expect her to complete the commission after she's refunded me. I receive this response, in which she tells me that she wants to do it, which is the last message I have on record from her. She claims she will send the refund the next day, but it was never received. I've sent follow-up messages, but none of them have been opened, as well as posted on her pages to see if anyone has been in contact with her lately. This comment on her page suggests that she might be overseas at the moment, but there's no solid evidence of this otherwise. If this to-do list is to be believed, there's at least one other customer out there who never received their commission. Before she vanished, EyeKissa was always pleasant to work with, so I'm sad that I had to post a beware on her, but the fact remains that she didn't refund me or complete a commission I paid for two years ago. It's a lost cause by now, but I hope she's okay. EDIT (06/05/16): Here is evidence that the artist has internet connection and has been on her dA account very recently. Someone drew her character and she added the image to her favorites just today. The notes I have sent her still haven't been opened, however, and she hasn't reached out to me. EDIT (06/23/16): After I received the note that is pasted in the comments below, I responded to EyeKissa on dA. She promised me a refund the next day, when I instead received notice that she was unable to make it to the bank, but would be able to the next day. One week passed with no response or refund, so I noted her. Five days later, the note still hasn't been read, so it seems like she has vanished on me once more. (I'll add screenshots of this as soon as I'm able.) EDIT (06/23/16): Here are the screenshots of the above transaction! Notes 1 (Read Bottom to Top) Notes 2 (Read Bottom to Top) The latter includes both the request for an update that I sent five days ago and the response I received to it literally thirty minutes or so after I posted today's update. The most recent correspondence promises a refund later tonight, but I've received nothing thus far. (I didn't intend to update this so frequently, or include literally every update as it comes, but a response happened to pop up today.) EDIT (06/30/16): EyeKissa has refunded me. This matter is resolved. (I also want to mention here that she has been extremely apologetic for her absence and has went through a great deal of trouble to right her wrongs. While it doesn't erase that this happened, I know she had no ill intent in the situation and I believe she's safe for others to commission!)

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/904389.html WHO: Onnanoko WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/onnanoko/ http://onnanokoart.tumblr.com/ Rainfurrest 2015 WHAT: Artist was paid $80 for a three-character digital art piece while at RainFurrest 2015. Commission was agreed upon in person and paid for up-front over Paypal. WHEN: Initial payment was made on September 26th, 2015. First contact email to explain details of the commission sent on September 27th. First email requesting an update on the commission sent on October 9th with no reply. Second email requesting an update of the commission was sent on October 24th with no reply. Third email requesting an update sent on November 29th with no reply. Fourth email requesting an update sent on January 1, 2016 with no reply. Fifth email containing ultimatum of commission update or reporting to Artist Beware and an invoice for the refund by the end of the month sent on April 17th with no reply. Invoice email for refund sent out on May 1. PROOF: Receipt: http://imgur.com/qr4D47t Initial Contact: http://imgur.com/2OnWMnQ First Check-In: http://imgur.com/gW5NRaF Second Check-In: http://imgur.com/Nrkg5vM Third Check-In: http://imgur.com/iPmcJmV Fourth Check-In: http://imgur.com/XapfZnq Final Check-In: http://imgur.com/uOYKY6v Conversing with the FA user (see Explain): http://imgur.com/4561BpW Refund Invoice: http://imgur.com/ZIPi0Kc EXPLAIN: Artist was met at Rainfurrest 2015 and agreed to a three-character commission done digitally and "take home", as the convention was coming to a close and there was insufficient time to have it get done before. The email containing the details of the commission was sent the very next day. Five emails requesting an update on the commission were sent out over the next seven months (from October 2015 to April 2016) with no replies. Refund invoice sent out on May 1. Emails were accompanied by shouts onto the artist's FurAffinity page (listed above), however those shouts and the shouts of other customers who had not been contacted seem to have been removed, though their correspondence to me over notes has been provided under proof.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/903826.html WHO: PossiblySatan (DA), ActuallyCrowley (IG), HabaneroPup (AC website). WHERE: http://possiblysatan.deviantart.com/ , https://www.instagram.com/actuallycrowley/ , https://www.anthrocon.org/user/70644/habaneropup ; Transaction took place on Facebook. WHAT: Trade; pre-designed fursuit partial for some DVC supplies. WHEN: January 13th, 2016 to now. PROOF: Agreement cap, rest will be below: http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682725615300.png EXPLAIN: Transaction began January 13th, see cap above. The post where we made our initial agreement is unfortunately not available any longer, but I think the screenshot explains it. We then discuss them purchasing me extra items from DVC, in which I make a basket and ask if it's okay to which they agree. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682735037900.png At this point we exchange shipping addresses. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682737813000.png I send out my half and give them a tracking number, they don't look at my messages for a few days so I give them a poke. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682780400500.png They apologize for the lack of replies and tell me why they haven't shipped their half yet. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682780328800.png They end up shipping out their first half of the trade that same day, giving me proof of the transaction. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682720564800.png Their half arrives in the mail. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682742967600.png Like they had predicted, it got damaged and one of the horns fell off. I don't know much about apoxy so I end up selling it to someone else through FA (post was removed after sale went through, sorry). Couple days go by, I ask them about the supplies. They reply that they're in a tight spot financially. They didn't reply to my messages (or look at them, Messenger will let you know if someone does) so I make a pre-mature threat about writing them up on here. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682712344900.png They get upset and tell me that they're having a hard time with their job and such, then get mad at me for selling the skull head after offering to send me back the partial I traded to them. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682799866700.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682710160900.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682764952200.png At this point I'm tired and I just want my second trade half so I say this. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682719969000.png They send me some videos of the suit (unrelated) and we agree that they will end up buying me the rest of the supplies. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682778083300.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682712646600.png Over a month goes by with no word from them. I ask about the parts again, they're still not ordered. I suggest selling the suit to get more funds and they agree. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682745650400.png The suit is re-sold at this point (again, post was probably taken down since it was sold). A week or so later I poke them, they let me know that they've worked out a payment plan with the new owner. We're now into April. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682775133200.png April 23rd I ask again. Still not ordered, car problems. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682711462400.png Today (April 29th) they order a tongue and the jawset. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160501C/ezimba12682743587100.png They let me know they're ordering it all in parts and not in one order like we originally agreed to. Note that they said "everything will be ordered" in the April 24th message, then say that they corrected themself without telling me. http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682714629000.png They tell me how long they think it will take to order the parts, then let me know it's "whatever". http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682763995900.png http://www.ezimba.com/work/160430C/ezimba12682780857900.png At this point I just hope I'll get my stuff at some point. It's being dragged out for too long, multiple financial excuses, "whatever".

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/902185.html WHO: Commissioner https://twitter.com/ShadowTheFox2 / http://www.twitter.com/ADshadowfox “Shadow” WHERE: Google Docs form & Messages exchanged via email & twitter DMs WHAT: Digital ¾ soft shaded badge, single sided printed, laminated & shipped 1st class usps, plus a rush fee to be bumped to the front of my queue WHEN: November 2015 PROOF: Story and Screen caps provided in chronological order after the break. It is a unique case of eCheck failure via paypal even though the invoice was clearly marked in paypal as Paid... Yet it wasn't when I cross referenced it with my active balance. 11/4/2015 - Shadow submitted a commission via my google docs form here http://fox.ci/z8HybCy https://www.dropbox.com/s/onevhf1lbbeqqpf/1.png?dl=0 - I Emailed him back his forms details https://www.dropbox.com/s/9m3nbli32xrhe9f/2.png?dl=0 - I sent an initial invoice https://www.dropbox.com/s/owut0bpvhbsy1x1/3.png?dl=0 - He asks on twitter DMs to put his as priority https://www.dropbox.com/s/01o5z0zccdr9a8g/4.png?dl=0 So I up the cost in the invoice to include my rush fee https://www.dropbox.com/s/utlz4h30csfr6f0/5.png?dl=0 - And he says he paid it, and I inform him I got an echeck https://www.dropbox.com/s/oj7nxc0cs53d1jr/6.png?dl=0 *This is the First Red flag I should have listened to when he says “Most payments go through but they get canceled later on” - E check email from paypal https://www.dropbox.com/s/3oq1ui70ps9jjbz/7.png?dl=0 11/6/2015 - I received a notice in payment delay via paypal via the echeck https://www.dropbox.com/s/n7yrrghzy0lw7ga/8.png?dl=0 - I inform him of this notice in DMs https://www.dropbox.com/s/0bhh3emigw4a53s/9.png?dl=0 About here is where in the middle of screen capping the conversations in twitter DMs today (3/25/2016) and writing up this beware he suddenly removed his name and profile image once I inform him today on 3/25 that I will be writing this beware. He is now a black circle as a profile image with only “.” As a name. Removing the Shadow @RMFC name he once had. 11/16/2015 – 11/18/2015 - I ask him to tell me what the payment reflects as on his end as I never received a payment canceled or confirmed from paypal. He tells me via twitter it showed as paid on his side so I began the work. https://www.dropbox.com/s/u3u5a0b5016ml5k/10.png?dl=0 - I checked the invoice link and trusted the paypal invoice stating it was paid when it was in fact not. ** https://www.dropbox.com/s/su3mzv1mif2xnhk/Invoice shown as paid.png?dl=0 **This is an issue and I explain later why* - I show him many wips via DMs and I completed the work and shipped it to him https://www.dropbox.com/s/ni90k2hze8g0osg/11.png?dl=0 - He confirms that the invoice shows as Paid on paypal but when he speaks to his bank they had actually canceled the payment due to no funds. We both agree we are both at fault on this issue https://www.dropbox.com/s/g7que2i1p1pq2h6/12.png?dl=0 However he does promise me he is no con man and will sort funds out soon. - This is next confirmed later by me physically checking my "Activity with Balance" in paypals detailed transaction log: I had actually never received funds. And Paypal never emailed me a second time stating it was ultimately never sent by his bank after the 1st email of “Delay in eCheck payment” on 11/6 https://www.dropbox.com/s/751a981pkbcjl43/Transaction not actually paid for.png?dl=0 I Should have verified this from the start when he said it was paid for but I trusted the invoice even though it was incorrect. From now on I have always confirmed payment was received by checking the detailed log with the active balance for reassurance. 11/25/2015 The customer received the badge. He also tells me he is trying to sell things on ebay https://www.dropbox.com/s/gddbc9ku58o0mv1/13.png?dl=0 11/30/2015 Now his “sister” DMs me randomly telling me a sob story about how Shadow feels so bad but is trying to get funds together. I acknowledge her and tell the customer not to be stressed. He tells me he is having a rough time and I do empathize https://www.dropbox.com/s/8e4avq8p4df9b8k/14.png?dl=0 12/6/2015 He used my art that he didn’t pay for and filled out a Fursuit form to a maker: https://www.dropbox.com/s/orxjlq29ge0asmm/12 6 Suit quote.png?dl=0 12/7/2015 He is still using the unpaid image as a profile image. I remind him not to until he has paid for it. Also commenting on peoples posts how he would pay $100 for things but when confronted says “It was a joke” https://www.dropbox.com/s/pice1tnq7yhrck9/15.png?dl=0 And https://www.dropbox.com/s/lg0dl9uo4i2lfmi/6MWZGRu_.jpg?dl=0 12/12-12/18/2015 On the 12th I ask for an update and he says he wants to mail the badge back. I explain that will not work. I do not hear back from him until the 14th when I confront him for using the art again as an icon after I told him a week ago not to. Says he will have the funds by that coming Tuesday. That day comes and goes and I don’t hear anything. This is when I warn him I will file an Artists Beware https://www.dropbox.com/s/d3u72vfp7g48s8q/16.png?dl=0 1/31/2016 I ask for updates in DMs and I am emailed back, more false promises and stories. He has a signature that he is actually in Job Corps https://www.dropbox.com/s/fbtdq2ha7glsx7y/17.png?dl=0 Further proving he has some kind of job er go income. 2/6 He says he will file his W-2 and pay me. I do not reply to him. See previous screen shot. 3/25 I catch him using the art, again (this time I took a screen shot before confronting him via DMs) He tells me his foster mom demanded all his return. I give him one last ultimatum May 1st to pay me or have an Artists Beware written up. I then see all the things I then list below ranging from 3/1-3/21 from him using the art over and over again and change my mind to submit the beware on Monday. The very last thing he says is to “Just put it up.” https://www.dropbox.com/s/n7jtwfzupuoztje/18.png?dl=0 Browsing through his timeline and notice he is using the art again and again that is still unpaid for: 3/1 Role playing again using the art I told him months ago to cease using it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8jxbawfbav95l6q/23.png?dl=0 3/21 Using the art again https://www.dropbox.com/s/9ewreoinsshpfg4/21.png?dl=0 3/21 Also using the art attempting to get more art https://www.dropbox.com/s/age5ozi129cx6la/19.png?dl=0 Still continues to use the art in other places online besides twitter as well https://www.dropbox.com/s/pmgdoes5lv3hx7k/Steam screenshot.png?dl=0 Im done with the excuses. I will see to it that this was a unique case due to the fact that the paypal invoice was marked as paid even when it clearly, once I checked my account with balance history, was not. I have NEVER had an issue with Paypal invoices being marked as paid before and this case was very unusual. I even contacted Paypal them seves over the phone to express my concern over this issue being very unclear as a seller. From the start I felt very rushed by the customer, played and now used. I do not recommend anyone ever working with him again. He has had 5 months and still continues to use the unpaid for art that I completed. EXPLAIN: Tl;Dr: I’ve been strung along since November 2015 for a rushed badge that when we both thought it was paid, I come to find out it was not. Customer confirms it was paid and then says, after speaking with his bank, that it was not. I confirm this only after viewing the details transaction log in my paypal, and contacting paypal over the phone myself, to reveal and confirm that the invoice stating it was paid, come to find out it was actually not. Was given excuse after excuse and the client still continued to use the unpaid art, even going as far as using it as a reference to try and get free art from other artists. I’ve let this slide long enough. He hasn’t paid me and I don’t foresee him ever paying me. I held off on writing an AB for this long as the $41.25 for the badge was clearly not worth this headache plus the time dealing with him over and over again trying to be paid for work I already did and now having to write out this beware. It is a unique case in the fact that the Invoice clearly states it was PAID, but proper precautions were not taken by checking my detailed log to verify this. Since then, I have never accecpted echecks due to paypals faulty system in marking invoices as paid even after banks decline a transaction. Do not waste your time with this individuals business proposals. I will update this AB entry should he ever decide to pay me for my time.

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/899868.html Who: Eroishi Where: http://eroishi.deviantart.com/ What: 2 digital art pieces (1 nsfw and sfw) When: December 6, 2015 - February 12, 2016 Proof: http://imgur.com/a/wRZi4 Expalin: I requested 2 pictures, 1 nsfw and 1 sfw pic. Things went smooth until two weeks later, I messaged him about the payment I sent him. He told me that he never received the amount. I got worried and asked how he resolved the situation before since he told me that something similar happened for his patreon account. However, he simply said that the money was never received, leaving me to figured that he didn’t bother to resolve the solution. During the process, I called PayPal and they told me that the he received my payment. I told him to contact PayPal or find a way so that we can chat together, but he refused to comply, only to agree to talk to PayPal. I messaged him again after 3 days and he didn’t reply. So I waited. Since he never replied within a month, I could only assume the worst, which was that he’s lying to me and I was scammed. So I called him out for being a scammer, and he said that it was because he “had no internet” and had to wait until early February to get it back. So I gave him the benefit of the doubt. After two weeks, I asked him to give me a refund, but he refused. I questioned him again about showing me proof, and he had to wait for the internet to return. So I waited two days. During the process, I showed him my screenshot that I have proof of sending him the money. He said that everything is correct, yet he kept telling me that nothing was received. I asked him politely to the best I can to update me on the information he was trying to tell me. He finally showed me his end of the transaction to see that he “didn’t receive the payment”. So I proceeded to calling PayPal again (for the third time) and informed them of the situation. They refused to check and only said that he indeed received the amount I paid him. I sent him (and it was panic) a few emails to connect on PayPal together to resolve the situation together. Instead, he refused to reply to any of emails. 1 week later had passed, and it came to the drastic solution that he’s not willing to work with me at all. I had to resort to threatening him to contact PayPal immediately on what’s going on. He instead replied, declaring me a liar for the exact same proofs we showed to each other. This confirmed to me that he had scammed me for a simple $36 two picture commission. Since I had paid with friends by mistake, I’m not able to get my money back. This was a mistake on my end. Also, I feel that I learned not to freak out when a situation like this should ever happen again. And I also believe I shouldn’t be sending multiple messages at once out of panic (which may led to this). I also wondered if it was really on PayPal error if he really didn’t receive the payment I made to him. However, he refused to comply with my suggestion of calling PayPal again.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/898979.html WHO: kgosiarts / reverseinversefursuits WHERE: Kgosiarts @ FA (old account) Reverseinverse Fursuits @ FA (current account) Facebook page WHAT: Fursuit partial (faun legs) WHEN: Feb. 15 2015 to Nov. 3 2015 PROOF: Initial contact Agreement on details and payment Payment sent DTD is sent and arrives Issue with fur order Asking for an update Flood happens Contact stops Sent messages over FA (read, not replied) Contact on Facebook: One, two, three, four EXPLAIN: A long, long time ago… Back in Febuary of 2015, I was browsing through the forums of a boffer game I used to play in and came across a post made by Kgosi offering faun legs along with a special offer. I sent them an email expressing interest in the faun legs/special sale and had a couple questions about fursuit stuff because I had zero experience with fursuit stuff. Kgosi responded quickly, answered all my questions, and we agreed on a bi-color set of faun legs with resin hooves. Due to a small medical issue, Kgosi agreed to build the feet/hooves around a pair of boots I had and would install a hidden zipper in the back so I could easily take them on and off. I paid right away and sent out the DTD a couple days later. Kgosi lives about two to three hours from me, so the DTD arrived in no time at all. Progress on the legs apparently began only to hit a snag when the fur Kgosi bought over Etsy specifically for my faun legs was "destroyed in the mail." Kgosi was refunded, and progress resumed when they got new fur from somewhere else. I heard absolutely nothing from them until July of 2015 when I contacted them asking for an update. Kgosi responded, claiming a flood in their work area damaged the legs; however, the boots and DTD were in a tote at the time and thus survived, and they were already "half way done" the replacement set of legs which would be sent in about two weeks. Two weeks later, nothing. I sent Kgosi another email in August and received no reply. Eventually I made an account on FA and sent them a note that was read but never replied to. I sent another note later and once again, it was read and ignored. So I contacted them on Facebook and they finally replied, stating the legs had been sent in June. I showed them a screenshot of their email from July about the flood, and Kgosi replied saying they no longer had the emails so I forwarded the entire email thread. (Which is the blank email in the "Contact stops" screencap.) After some back and forth, they said they contacted their local post office and was told the package had been sent and was past reimbursement. So I asked for the tracking number and called my post office, and the helpful gentleman on the phone said the tracking number didn't exist. Remember how I said Kgosi lived about two to three hours away? I figured there was no way in hell a huge box going to a place a couple hours away would just vanish, and so I called the post office by Kgosi's known residence and was told the tracking number didn't work because it had "too many numbers." I sent Kgosi a final message on Facebook with this information and requested another tracking number, along with any evidence that these legs I bought actually once existed. The message was read and never responded to. During all the waiting, the fur mishap, the "flood", Kgosi was actively posting finished projects on their FA account. (Which lead me to believe I was being strung along the entire time because they post pictures of every piece of work they finish.) They originally had a Trello page with a list of their commissions and commission statuses, but it's been long since deleted. I do remember the list being pretty long, though. According to some messages left on their old FA account and their Facebook page, I'm not the only one who was waiting forever for work from them. I doubt I was the only one who paid to be scammed, either. I did try to contact Paypal like people suggested to do in my advice post, but I couldn't get through to an actual person and it was too late to get my money back at the time. More so now. I know this is all partially my fault as I let so much time pass between messages, updates, etc. and got snippy towards the end. I didn't ask for any WIP shots either. I had no idea how to handle a fursuit commission, but now I know better. Unfortunately, this experience has left me incredibly wary of fursuit makers.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/899593.html WHO: Puppygas/AmyToes WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/puppygas (FA), http://amytoes.deviantart.com/ (DA) -> Has adult content WHAT: 7-version plus bonus mystery art YCH (8 images in total) WHEN: 9/19/2014 (Autobuy) -> 9/22/2014 (Payment) -> Present Day PROOF: (Identifiers and explicit adult details have been redacted to the best of my abilities) The YCH I autobought: http://sta.sh/0hja80pytsq Details of YCH: http://sta.sh/01u6pvchmrej Paypal payment: http://sta.sh/01ri84mz71o Last interaction with Puppygas: http://sta.sh/01nhv3vbk1uu Last journal entry of Puppygas: http://sta.sh/02dh8oem9oxy A note I sent 4 days after that journal was posted: http://sta.sh/01228bx1se1h EXPLAIN: On 9/19/2014, I autobought a YCH piece from Puppygas and sent over the details for it. On 9/22/2014, after reviewing the details, Puppygas gave me a Paypal address to send payment to. I waited a while, but heard nothing back. On 12/10/2015, I got Puppygas' DA name and sent her a note through that site, to which she showed me a few pics and asked me to be patient. Eventually, on 12/14/2015, she gave her last response after I asked her to fix a few things about the pic. After that, no responses to my other notes on DA and FA since then. I really did not want to make this entry, but for a pic series that was to be completed by the end of December 2014 with constant progress updates, only to have to fish out her from the progress sketch showed to me followed by finding out only one sketch (not even a complete picture) was completed in the year and 3 months after I first bought it, I can't stay quiet about it anymore. I do not want my money back at this time, but I do want what I paid for to be completed. Her last entry on DA was on 2/1/2016 and I sent her a DA note a few days after that. Perhaps it was bad luck that I missed her, but it would be even worse luck if this YCH remains unfinished. She should've had at least told me other ways to contact her other than FA and DA. I tried those, the email address I sent my Paypal payment to and I got no response as of today. I want to point out that she's not a bad artist, but her lack of communication with me is the reason why I'm posting this.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/893234.html WHAT: http://imgur.com/IsHqBOW http://imgur.com/kxUayIa http://imgur.com/2qAhpmy the commission was for a 16 page vorish art series involving 2 mlp ocs WHEN: i first contacted the artist on April 7 2014, i sent money for the full series on April 9th 2014, i received the first page on October 14 2014 i have not received any more PROOF: http://imgur.com/E9qRwMi EXPLAIN: on April 7 2014 i contacted the artist to ask for a commission. we worked out the details and on April 9th i sent the full price for the series. after that point i sent several notes asking for updates http://imgur.com/sIW5Ayc http://imgur.com/TmDPq1J http://imgur.com/zZFT3ZC http://imgur.com/ivxWdg6 on October 14 2014 he finally sent me the first page but since then i haven't received any more pages http://imgur.com/LoephSz after the images shown on the previous picture he stopped responding at all to most of my notes and i tried on both deviant art, and furaffinity http://imgur.com/NBcChGv http://imgur.com/hatJESP http://imgur.com/2jLGuXi the event that made me decide to post here was on January 19 2016 i attempted to send a message to him on furaffinity and found out he blocked me http://imgur.com/51HfXgQ

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/897763.html WHO: Huskynugget WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/huskynugget/ WHAT: Physical Art Badge WHEN: Commissioned/Paid December 22nd, 2015 / Paypal Claim filed March 6th, 2015 PROOF: Screenshot of commission entry saying it would be shipped Dec 26th-30th/Start of Commission & proof of payment This message is from January 26th, over a month after when they said they would ship. They did send me this image, proving that the commission was finished. Still not shipped by Feb 6th. I sent them on email on Feb 5th after they failed to reply on FA despite adding favorites on their account. Still nothing and hadn't heard from them by Feb 16th. Didn't hear from that that Thursday, but finally on Feb 23rd, they said they shipped it out. After not recieving anything... EXPLAIN: I commissioned this user for a physical badge on December 22nd, which they said in their original post would be shipped out between December 26th-30th. They finally sent me a completed picture of the badge On January 26th - nearly a month after the projected ship date. Though waiting so long was annoying, I wasn't too concerned yet, especially considering they sent me a picture. However, after that, it took them another whole month to get it supposedly shipped out. I would normally be understanding even considering this, but the artist never once contacted me first regarding this commission - it was always me sending them messages, asking for updates after not being contacted, and I even sent them an email once after not being replied to on FA. Their reasoning for being slow on shipping was because of snow and not being able to make it to the post office, and I get it - the weather gets fierce over on the east coast. However, after not receiving anything for nearly two weeks, they said they couldn't provide proof of shipping because they had just "dropped it in the mailbox." ...Despite their previous excuses. On March 4th, I very nicely explained why I was unhappy with this entire transaction, and asked for a partial refund. I felt this was fair, considering a) how long it took them to complete and ship out, b) poor communication on their part, and c) no good reasoning for why it took so long. They became defensive and said they were not trying to scam me (which I never claimed they were), and just gave me more excuses. They did offer to make me a full body badge free of charge, but I must admit that I'm no longer interested in working with them after this whole thing - for how long the first one took, I don't really trust them to complete and ship another one in a timely manner. I replied to them and told them all this, and they didn't respond. It hasn't been too long since sending my last message, but despite this, I decided to file a paypal claim after getting some advice on the matter from others in the community. They also said it was just a letter, so it's safe to assume that this was sent first class mail. While I acknowledge that mail could just be delayed, I've never had a first class letter take this long and actually make it to me. I also don't even have a high quality digital version, since they sent me a photo and not a scan (though I have no interest in owning digital art anyway, and the physicality of the art was important to me). Even if the badge does show up - which I think is unlikely considering my experience with buying/selling with the mail system - I still feel it's necessary to make this post based on their poor service. UPDATE 3/14/16: So literally a day after I submitted this post, the artist said the badge was returned to them in the mail. Thankfully they were quick to send it out again, this time with a tracking number, and showed me proof of shipping on top of that. I'm glad that it worked out in the end. ;-; Cause in the past, this type of situation has not for me, aha.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/893913.html WHO: Shakespeare @ WHF | http://klngandy.deviantart.com/ WHERE: Originally occured on WHF (Wolfhome forums), but contact eventually had to be moved to their DA since they'd been banned. WHAT: Two minis (a type of commission of mine), and an adopt they purchased. WHEN: Minis were ordered Dec. 3rd, and finished Dec. 6th, adopt was purchased Dec. 7th. PROOF: inquiry about purchases, as well as finished product; http://sta.sh/0197av9imegn http://sta.sh/017ncw7x1mek http://sta.sh/0ihtuh4ly5p messages regarding chargeback; http://sta.sh/01g6lh4aldl0 http://sta.sh/0weoyrifv9e - their only response http://sta.sh/010l6c20zicm http://sta.sh/0wf1mhlsyeg http://sta.sh/033xm3cxm3x http://sta.sh/01nf98k45ajc - was a little more blunt here, because I thought maybe if I mentioned making an A_B they might finally talk to me, and we could start working things out. proof that WHF account & DA are linked; http://sta.sh/075w49tjzvp payments; http://sta.sh/02gk8a6tmvrq http://sta.sh/01cjs6gb6d3l EXPLAIN: They first messaged me on-forum asking for two minis which I happily agreed to, they sent refs and payment and I finished the commission three days later. They seemed very satisfied with the commission, and never asked for any changes to be made or showed any dissatisfaction with the work, I thanked them for commissioning me, life went on. They posted in a thread of mine some days later asking to buy an adopt for an off-site friend of theirs, I said that'd be fine, and they promptly sent the payment with a note attached. Things were great until come January 27th I woke up to two chargebacks issued by them under the reason of "unauthorized payment." I immediately messaged them on-forum to ask why they'd issued the chargebacks, to which they simply responded it was their bank and that it'd be resolved within 48hrs. I said alright, and asked to be kept updated. I was going to wait until Friday (exactly two days later) before I messaged them again but decided to give them until Monday, just in case. In those days, nothing changed and I heard no news from them. I messaged them on Feb. 1st asking for an update since nothing had been solved, and the message is still sitting in my unread folder. I found out a little later they'd been banned from the forum, so I moved to their DA to keep in contact and sent the same message to them there, asking for an update to see if they'd heard anything from their bank. The message had been read but wasn't responded to. I sent them another two days later warning them if they proceeded to ignore my messages that I'd have no choice but to assume everything was intentional and make an A_B on them, but that I didn't want to and would much rather try and work things out between each other if they'd just let me know what was going on. The message sat unread for three days before I sent another, but having checked on their account, they'd logged in since it had been sent. I sent them one final message two days ago, hoping that maybe if I was blunt and they saw the "A_B" warning in the first sentence before DA cuts off the text and you have to click on it to read more, they might want to finally talk to me. They didn't, I guess. The message is still unread, but they've logged on since. As of 2/9/2016, the chargeback issue hasn't been resolved and I've heard nothing further from them. edit: The same day I posted this (2/9/2016) later in the day, the chargebacks disappeared. Shortly after I was negative $40 for the chargeback fee, $20 per chargeback. The dispute had ended in their favor. I contacted paypal and let them know what was going on to try and, at the very least, reverse the $40 charge. They did do it once I explained that the person even said that it was their bank/accidental. They encouraged me to send them all the proof I have, but that it could take up to 80 days to be resolved. The good thing is, it sounded hopeful that this time it'll end in my favor. The bad thing is, of course, I have to wait awhile. edit: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kingandy/ - their fa has been located thanks to thekingtheory & exo_formicidae! proof is that the same character is linked to both galleries; http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18394296/ http://klngandy.deviantart.com/art/Andy-Refrerence-575438216

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/891244.html WHO: Kahuna Otter/ Sugarfactory / SugarAussie WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sugarfactory/ https://twitter.com/sugaraussie WHAT: Digital art on a physical item: It was a two sided, two character dakimakura (silk full length pillow) that was to be shipped to me in the UK. WHEN: - Slot was confirmed and paid for on 28th August 2015 - Refund was offered on 2nd December 2015 - Final contact before starting Paypal dispute 10th January 2016. PROOF: I hope it is okay, these are all filtered in my post in links as it will make a lot more sense with the explanation part. EXPLAIN: On 28th August 2015, Sugar Factory posted a journal offering a one time commission slot for a dakimakura of your character for $150. I emailed her my reference and my idea. She replied confirming I had the slot http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.09.16.png Cut forward a couple of emails which included discussion of making it two characters on each side for an extra $20 and I was ready to pay. I sent my payment via Paypal on 28th August as seen here: http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/paypal.png She confirmed she would start straight away http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.09.50.png 
On 30th August, I was sent a sketch of the first page, and then slightly later, a complete line art for the first side as seen here http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/lines 30-08-15.png I confirmed this was good and no changes needed to be done. Communication stopped until 30th September where I emailed her for an update regarding this and another piece of art I had also commissioned (a set of telegram stickers). http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.26.41.png Reference here is also made to a badge i commissioned before which, she never sent to me but instead just posted to her twitter (which I didn’t follow) and a friend of mine linked it to me. At this point I was informed that she would send the high resolution copy of the badge and that all digital work was back on schedule. Communication once again stopped until 2nd December where I raised my concerns that there was no progress on the piece since August and that I was hoping it would be done for Christmas. At this point I was reassured that she would try and get it done, and if not she would issue a full refund for the item; I hadn’t even asked/considered a refund at this point. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.30.30.png On 3rd December, I asked whether a refund would be easier for her than trying to get the art done in time, and was told she was researching options but if it doesn’t work out she would refund me that night. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.32.28.png I queried again on the 4th and was told she was waiting on responses from companies. I decided on the 8th December to message again to see if there were any updates and was informed she had decided to issue a full refund AND complete the art but asked if i was okay waiting a week for the payment. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.35.24.png I replied saying I was okay waiting but that i would feel awful if she were to do the art as well. On 20th December as I hadn’t received the payment I sent another email to her http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.37.02.png At this point I was getting fed up of excuses and no progress and a lot of correspondence occurred that day about how I was in breach of her TOS and that she only agreed to refund me because I was a friend of a friend (despite her offering the refund to start with). I stated i would like a date with which the refund will be paid and was told that she would pay me in smaller amounts until the full amount is paid, I was okay with this suggestion. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.40.45.png I received no small payments, but on 26th December I received an email saying she was near the full amount. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.41.52.png On the 30th I emailed to ask if there was any updates and could she send what she had so far even if it wasn’t the full amount. I was informed she was at the hospital but would when she got home http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.42.31.png On 4th January, still nothing from her, I was told she was dealing with a quick emergency and would pay the following night. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.43.41.png On 7th January I queried what happened with this, and was told she was waiting for a payment. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.44.42.png 
 Today I emailed again, explaining it was getting ridiculous and indicating i was close to getting Paypal to sort this out for me as i felt I was getting nowhere dealing with her directly. http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Screen Shot 2016-01-10 at 21.46.11.png A lot of emails went back and forth tonight which i have bundled into a screen dump you can see here http://yksi.org.uk/sugarfactoryAB/Untitled 2.png I was faced with blackmailing that because of me her partner can’t eat, and that I will be hurting her as a business and putting her in debt etc. I have no idea what she is going to do, or what choice she has made as per the last two screenshots. I have raised a Paypal dispute now, and I have escalated the claim though I have no idea if this will be successful or not. Edit: I have been successful with the disput with Paypal Thank you for all your kind comments though

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/887117.html EDIT;; Art has been finished,and can be viewed here. (finished Jan18th 2016) Things have been resolved! http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18823351/ (NSFW WARNING)!!! WHO: Aphrodisiac, WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/aphrodisiac/ WHAT: 2 Character colored sketch WHEN: I sent payment on July 24th, 2015 (http://i.imgur.com/FhAIP6N.png) PROOF: July 23rd: Proof of accepting my commission,agreeing on price http://i.imgur.com/uDSsbTR.png July24th: Proof of payment received - http://i.imgur.com/FhAIP6N.png Proof of posting adopts, YCH, etc: http://i.imgur.com/Oi3uCES.jpg (adopt), http://i.imgur.com/TQNSD1u.jpg (Xmas ych) EXPLAIN: I contacted Aphrodisiac for a colored sketch commission of my girlfriend and I back in july, of a colored sketched. I had commissioned them twice before this, and the turn around time was super quick. Took no longer than a week on both, so I wasn't worried about a turn around time. Payment was sent July 24th. I heard nothing from them until I messaged them a few times asking for updates, in all cases there was none. I felt a little uneasy, as their postings slowed down, and the only submissions they were posting were YCHs, adopts, and another commission journal (September 25th, taking four $50 references, while having 7 colored sketches still not done, http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7065590/). This was the first of may warning signs, I sadly chose to ignore. From september on they posted constant drama journals, and a lot of personal journals. I asked for a refund, which they do not take, so I was denied. Long story short, it's been 5 months, with 0 progress besides this WIP sketch i was sent on December 3rd (http://imgur.com/YsyhFc7) They posted a journal (Today, dec 28th) offering journals here (http://i.imgur.com/eFhZoye.png), where I didn't really understand what they ment as it basically sounded like they were saying that they would partially refund you if they had started your commissions, and then sell whatever they started as a ych for more profit. Another user commented as well calling them out on this, then they hid all the comments but these (http://i.imgur.com/ggygjrw.png) where they say it is okay to basically steal $10 from people who request refunds. Shortly after deleting the journals. After my comment they sent this (http://i.imgur.com/NccJ8uf.png (BOTTOM BIT FIRST, my reply is on top),where they replied very passive aggressively, and unprofessionally. (http://i.imgur.com/i5fhQSz.png) Long story short, I would recommend against commissioning this artist, as they have been very bitter, and unprofessional.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/885613.html WHO: Ninjakato http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/ ScarlingRagdoll666 http://www.furaffinity.net/user/scarlingragdoll666/ WHERE: They're mostly active on dA than FA WHAT: A long overdue trade with them that took place on FA. Communications eventually took place on dA through notes WHEN: A trade was agreed upon April 9th 2011. My half was finished relatively quickly, but their half is still unfinished. More info under cute PROOF: First initial trade contact was made on April 9th, 2011 https://www.dropbox.com/s/pluqssxagsbbnyu/proof%201.jpg?dl=0 (my FA here is Charu) My half of the trade was completed May 4th, 2011 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5691889 Communications on FA were made. Unfortunately my notes on FA have been cleared out since then. They mostly contained information about what I'd like Ninjakato to draw for their half. Eventually I started to note her on dA as it appeared she was becoming less active on FA. Note pointing out I finished my half https://www.dropbox.com/s/wb27h1reywz2gyl/Proof%202.jpg?dl=0 There was a point she posted a journal asking her watchers if she had missed anything owed. However, I cannot find the journal anymore, but I did note her on dA https://www.dropbox.com/s/40volnp6m2yy3l0/proof 3.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/wu3kgjknydfs3cd/proof 4.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ya85gjdo9qaamg3/proof 5.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ckrzqijrjo2k7ky/proof 6.jpg?dl=0 After this communication had stopped until 2014 came around. I had stopped asking as Ninjakato seemed pretty busy in real life and I didn't want to be a bother. https://www.dropbox.com/s/f6cslbr0dkabp4m/proof 7.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/a3ax54y49okn5zq/proof 8.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/h5ynncfmdjut8iw/proof 9.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/9onvgxjz5fqg6h6/proof 10.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/at93e8bo9flkknj/proof 11.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/k30co67uueaqqo9/proof 12.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/roal3atboh43vj4/proof 13.jpg?dl=0 August 20, 2014 she had made a journal calling out to the person she owed a trade to (which was me). My ref links did not work so I had noted with fixed links. http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/journal/One-art-trade-477049101#comments https://www.dropbox.com/s/5nrarciibugpru9/proof 14.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/m8i4mljt8dawynv/proof 16.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/mauwqzmx0qii5vo/proof 17.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/woqc5v73w388obn/proof 18.jpg?dl=0 More time passed and I saw no sign of my half of the trade. I gave her another nudge about it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/b7uyt58myn7lyzi/proof 19.jpg?dl=0 I gave one more nudge just recently. The note had been opened but went unresponded. https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ge7uwcew3o6r5y/proof 20.jpg?dl=0 EXPLAIN: In the start of this NinjaKato was opening up for trades on FA. I was one of the ones picked to trade with her. Excited I began to work on my trade and posted to FA in a timely manner. Eagerly, but patiently, I waited for for mine to be finished. I knew very well NinjaKato was really busy with her real life and commissions, so I was in no rush to have it completed. As time passed and weeks turned to months. Months turned into years. We've had some communication throughout the time span, yet I was still mindful not to rush her. She was still posting art on dA of finished commissions and personal art. 2011 had turned to 2014 and I admit I should of poked her more often between those few years. But I was nervous to do so as she was posting frequent journals about difficulties in her life. As a artist I know very well commissions always take priority over trades, thus I didn't pressure her. Eventually I did poke her and communications had picked up once again. I had hope she'd finish it after I did remind her about it. A time of silence started again. NinjaKato was still posting personal art, newly finished YCHs and sometimes trades from others. I had given her one final poke on Nov 11th, 2015 and the note had been read. No response back. She continued to upload new art of personal sketches, redraws, YCHs, and adoptables. At this point I am not expecting to see my half and have accepted it. Primarily posting this beware to give a heads up that this artist may not always finish pieces they promise to do. EDIT: NinjaKato finished their half. This AB can be marked as resolved

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/885328.html This is my first time doing an Artist Beware, so please be patient with me here! WHO: Meteorprince, found on FurAffinity (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/meteorprince/), DeviantArt (http://meteorprince.deviantart.com/), and Tumblr (http://meteorprincedraws.tumblr.com/). Please note content on the profiles linked is NSFW. WHERE: FurAffinity WHAT: A YCH (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17692152/) promised to be done within two weeks, and then a refund for said YCH. WHEN: The YCH was bid on late September and paid October 2nd. I was told I would be getting a refund when they responded to my emails November 18th, and it was supposed to be given to me on December 16th. PROOF: (As per community standards, all real life names and email addresses have been scrubbed from the following screenshots) Conversation on FA: https://www.dropbox.com/s/0msgqqa6lbg76it/Firstconvo.png?dl=0 First refund request: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pyidqug8x5ewj2x/refundrequest1.png?dl=0 Email conversations: https://www.dropbox.com/s/utrmjqkd51u2nap/email1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/r0r257zo31a0zcl/email2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/tpgpe88nuav0hg5/email3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/29r6yjmwdbcba3n/email4.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: On October 2nd I paid $50 for a YCH (linked above under "What") from Meteorprince. It was advertised as being done within two weeks of payment, no excuses. At first I didn't hear anything about them starting until it was almost due when they told me they were getting on it since it was on a time limit, then they said they were working on it on the day it was due (conversation linked above). I didn't hear from them again until they posted a journal (no personal response or offer of refunds, journal is on the FA profile linked above) citing family issues after it was already due and saying they would be back. I waited some more, and on the 9th of November sent them a message stating I would just like a refund (linked above), with no response. On the 18th of November I finally got tired of waiting and emailed them directly stating again I would like a refund. They responded and apologized, promised me a refund plus an extra $15 if I would wait until they had to the money. On the 28th of the same month they told me they were being interviewed for a job, and then on the 10th of December they stated they were hired and would pay me immediately the following Wednesday. Wednesday came and went and they didn't respond to any of my messages. I sent them a final message saying if I didn't hear from them I would be filing a charge back and filling out an Artist Beware, and here we are. I have had no response from them, and no attempt was ever made to follow through on either the art or the refund. I am of the opinion that they do not intend to give the refund, and would like to warn others to be careful when dealing with them as a result. EDIT: Meteorprince has followed through with the refund, so I am filing this as resolved in a satisfactory manner at this point.