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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/935156.html WHO: 0cean/Loreisle WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/0cean/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/loreisle/ WHAT: 5 colored digital pictures. WHEN: Aug. 17th PROOF: Proof of payment. Proof of agreement to her terms. EXPLAIN: So originally I bought a sketchbook commission slot from the artist for $100 back in October of 2015. After paying for the sketchbook I had given her a list of my characters I wanted in the book and choosing a book we both like I made sure to keep a somewhat constant communication with her. Eventually the artist went through a huge rough patch that including moving and a few more personal things. This delayed my commission severely, but I was more that understanding. I did check in with her every so often and was kept up to date. (1, 2, 3, and 4.) Eventually I did receive my sketchbook, but since it wasn’t everything promised in the original agreement that artist offered me 5 digital color pictures and I accepted. I gave my first four back in August of this year and later gave the fifth a little while later. Since giving my ideas I’ve kept in contact and check the status once in a while. (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.) For the last few months the artist has been doing multiple ych’s and getting them done in a few weeks. One of which I myself bought and had before any of the five pictures. (12) I try to be patience and not rush artists when I commission them, but it just upsets me to see others get their art a few days later where as I’ve been waiting months. Honestly a beware on this artist is really the last thing I wanted to do. She was one of the first I ever commissioned and has always been pleasant to work with whenever I do. Not even sure if this will even count as a beware. As of now I have one out of the five and have been told the others have been sketched out. (13 and 14) Current Mood: pointless UPDATE 12/2/2016: Artist has uploaded second picture of the list. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21886371/ UPDATE 12/28/2016: Okay so I doubt anyone will see this update. I submitted an update post to the mods and am waiting for approval, but in the meantime I have something new that came after I submitted said update. I finally managed to a reply from 0cean and this is what I get. Firstly I want to say this may just be me, but the whole note came off as entirely rude. I also want add that this reply came after I had to track her down on a DA account she did have listed anywhere. She did even respond to the pm there, but to one I sent a week ago on FA. So after not hearing anything for almost a month I get a rude note. If that isn't bad enough I found she was very active on this new account doing free art stream, adopts, art trades, and personal art. Funny thing is that nowhere on any of her account do it mention lost programs in fact her accounts haven't been active in almost 4 weeks. Clearly if she was active there she could have done some kind of update. I get everyone has a life, but clearly she had the means of updating people. [Misunderstanding] In response to my last edit about the Journal it seems it wasn't about me. She just happened to have posted it about people from an art stream shortly after I asked for and update. Huge mistake on my part there.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/934609.html WHO: Jinxsis (FA) / Jinx_in_boots (Twitter) WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/jinxsis/ (FA) https://twitter.com/Jinx_In_Boots (Twitter) WHAT: - 1 Art Box - 1 Custom Messenger Bag - 1 Custom Bandanna (for someone else) - 3 Halloween Badges (Made / Shipped) - Update to Old Character Reference Sheet WHEN: January 2014 - October 2016 PROOF: 1/5/2014 - http://sta.sh/01lgl1khf2jw 1/17/2016 - http://sta.sh/087h0ghdhov 10/24/2014 - Refund Payment Rejected: http://sta.sh/023sa6euym2x Note asking why it happened: http://sta.sh/01wou4o46eji 10/6/2016 - Asked about Ref redo: http://sta.sh/01hbsaehhbrd 10/7/2016 - Changes needed: http://sta.sh/01iucqs55vl3 http://sta.sh/0ljwlx1eij8 11/21/2016 - Blocked on Twitter http://sta.sh/0251ljbd100y http://sta.sh/0ljwlx1eij8 When asked why it happened from the bf: Pt. 1 - http://sta.sh/01pz49lg1cs8 Pt. 2 - http://sta.sh/017eg7x0eyht EXPLAIN: Jan. 5, 2014 - Initially commissioned them to do a Art Box / Custom Messenger bag for me for $75. Was contacted later that it could not be finished so refund could either be given or trades for the amount owed up to 4 items, no matter what they would be. Jan. 17th, 2014 - Initially commissioned for a custom printed bandanna for an ex-friend of mine. Was told that also could not be completed and refund was set to happen so refund could either be given or trades for the amount owed up to 1 item, no matter what they would be, and included with offer above. Oct. 24, 2014 - Refund was offered, but then was receded and not sent due to them not being able to at the time. Again, the refund was switched to the offers stated above with at least 5 things I would want to get no matter what they are. Oct. 7, 2016 - After the purchase of another character from someone else, I had asked for a small reference sheet change based on a character purchased from someone else. Was told that it would take 2-3 weeks for them to finish. I had also asked about doing two reference sheets: 1 for a reference sheet for a character I am getting a suit of and 1 edit for the reference sheet above at 0ct. 7, 2016. On Nov. 21, I had found out I was blocked on twitter when going to contact about the reference sheet to ask if it was completed as of yet so I could send it to a maker. In wanting to know why I was blocked, I had asked my boyfriend to contact the artist and ask what the reason I was blocked if they needed to get in contact me with a commission. They had said they did not need to tell me and would contact me when the commission was over with. At this point and time, I did not wish to get the commission anymore as not only am I not able to contact them on the main handle I handle my commissions I get from others, but without giving an adequate reason to this block. The time had also been too long, and as a business transaction, as this is treated for only at this point, I only want my refund from this artist. I am in the process of getting the refund back and was told it would be after Thanksgiving. The guess, since I am not able to contact them myself, nor have they contacted me, is Friday November 25th, 2016. **Update** Was told to my bf that I would be refunded within exactly 2 weeks. Keeping aware and if it is not fufilled by the allotted time, it will be taken up with paypal and chargeback will be filed. Proof: Clarity needed for amount to refund: http://sta.sh/025yfc2xbae5 Amount Clarified and Time for Refund Given: http://sta.sh/01htskdo0p90 **Update** Jinxsis had stated to my bf that they would give me the refund by the night of Decemver 9th. They still have not given back the refund, even when she stated she would have been sending the refund this week by the previous claim. By December 12th, the paypal charge claims will be filed on them by the end of the day. I hopefully will get my money back by then.</b> Proof: Asked on clarity of refund / problem to why she didn't send it 12/09/2016 or 12/10/2016: http://sta.sh/0egnyrdcw6n **Update** Jinxsis has not contacted myself or my boyfriend about the refund being sent through paypal since Sunday, so a charge back on the most recent purchase has been filed. Hopefully with this, the refund will happen and this can be resolved. Proof: Paypal Dispute: http://sta.sh/0940tovtds5 **Proof** So, after chargeback was completed and paid for the $10, my bf had asked about the account and if it was able to have the rest of the money sent that Jinxsis had said above (proof of clarity for 12/09/16 - 12/10/2016). However, as it seems, they do not have the money anymore and will be sending the money within a few days (again). So the money will be sent a few days before the holiday. It is confusing at this point and feels as though they are stalling to give back a refund at this point. I still have not had any personal contact with them at all, as said that they would do. So, once more, I have to wait for a refund for hopefully 2-3 more days. Proof: http://sta.sh/02ehgxnsqjgz **UPDATE** Still, there was no communication directly to me about any of this situation and delay of refund dates have happened. As of today, December 27th, 2016, I have received back my refund for all items I had previously commissioned. It is considered resolved. Never again will I commission this person and if you do, please be weary of communication as well as their intake of commissions. I hope no one else has to go through this.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/934245.html WHO: WolfenBro on Furaffinity, who is also BigbyxWolf (Rein Ranulfo) on Twitter. Here are other sites he is on. NOTE: All sites listed below contain NSFW content https://www.furaffinity.net/user/wolfenbro/ https://twitter.com/BigbyxWolf?lang=en http://reinawasawachi.tumblr.com/ https://www.patreon.com/rein WHERE: First contacted him on Furaffinity via note. He also had the commission information up on http://werewolfrein.tumblr.com/Commissions but it has since been taken down. His new one is http://reinawasawachi.tumblr.com/ (nsfw) WHAT: A two character commission with full background. Digital art. Description is in the screen capture of the long thread. WHEN: First contacted him in July, 2015. Sent payment July 10th, 2015 Asked for progress update March, 2015 Asked for refund July, 2016 Was paid back $40 on July 12th, 2016 Was paid back $31 on August 7th, 2016 Last correspondence that he replied to was on September 26th, 2016 Sent another note through Furaffinity on November 6th, 2016 and it does not show that it's been read. PROOF: Here is the main thread. http://imgur.com/Lt0yiVt Paypal transactions: http://imgur.com/r6Phamq Asking for an update: http://imgur.com/zerSvWA Trying to sort out refund: http://imgur.com/eMOm8pB Reminding him that he still owes me: http://imgur.com/4PfOEF7 Another reminder: http://imgur.com/F4kqrJK EXPLAIN: Artist posted an "emergency commissions" journal so I sent him a note asking for one. After money was exchanged I didn't hear from him for a few months, so I sent him a note on FA asking what the progress was. He said he'd get to his commissions over spring break. Mine was never completed. I waited a year and then asked for a refund. He was apologetic and refunded a partial amount of $40, then $31 the next month. He still owes me $27 and is not responding to my notes. I feel I've been extremely patient through all of this. I've had enough. Dealing with someone like this is infuriating.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/933029.html WHO: BigRottieDawg WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bigrottiedawg WHAT: Custom 3D model head - trade WHEN: May 2015 PROOF: Initial contact. Discussing details one, and two. EXPLAIN: I received a note from BigRottieDawg shortly after watching him on FA expressing interest in working with me; I'd been on the lookout for a custom 3D head so jumped at the chance! We eventually decided on a trade and I offered a two-character piece for my half which was agreed to. He was able to show me a few progress shots in a very short amount of time which looked great and put us off to a promising start! My half was completed a couple of days later on May 28th (can be seen here but is NSFW.) Contact dropped off after that a little and the next update I have record of was in October 2015. (His link to the screenshot of the model was sent in a second note.) At this point the model looked almost finished apart from textures. I am generally happy to wait as long as needed providing contact is good but things dropped off again until August 5th 2016 (he sent me an update while I was out of town but it looked great!) He promised to send me a colour preview the next day but nothing was ever sent. I sent him a note on September 18th 2016 asking if we could set a final date for delivery to which he offered October 1st, which I agreed to. We're now in November and I haven't heard anything since that date. Honestly at this point I'm just frustrated; his half of the deal has been mostly finished for the best part of a year from what I can tell but he just isn't delivering. He has opened for commissions since our trade beginning and has delivered most of them, but I think a few customers are still waiting also. 😕 EDIT: Received a note from BigRottieDawg the day after this was posted and received the 3D model via email on November 19th so am now marking this as resolved. 🙂

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/932724.html The incident occurred earlier in the year, but the artist is again taking commissions without finishing her current list. (Some of the people on the list have been waiting for over a year.) I am putting a record up here just in case. WHO: Sharkfu on DA Fraud on FA Vicious on Weasyl dydoe on Tumblr Former usernames include: bohemianjc (Twitter/Twitch/?), Atroci (DA), Debauches (Facebook), Plushiez, JamieBroLol WHERE: http://sharkfu.deviantart.com https://www.furaffinity.net/user/fraud WHAT: Several digital art commissions. There were at least two that were spaced several years apart. (screencaps below) WHEN: Our interactions began in early 2013. She was in a financial crisis and her bank had charged her an overdraft fee. I helped her out by giving her a small loan and when she still could not make ends meet, I commissioned her for a drawing. We fell in and out of contact until summer of 2015, when she was once again in a financial crisis. I commissioned her yet again. In the summer of 2016, I began noting her about the commission, whether she intended to finish it or issue a refund. I got one response saying that she would be willing to refund me, but nothing afterwards. She then posted her journal offering to sell a gryphon design, which is when the screencaps begin. PROOF: Our conversation: http://sta.sh/222ie5e1znd0?edit=1 Backup link: http://imgur.com/a/UC2WV EXPLAIN: I approached offering a trade: clear all of her debt (and then some) in exchange for the gryphon. I included PayPal screenshots in case she had forgotten about the art. She refused the trade, then attempted to get out of refunding the full amount. (The latter might have been a simple misunderstanding on their part.) She then claimed that she had not received any payment from me. After having PayPal send copies of the receipt to her and providing additional screenshots of receipts, she acknowledged that I had paid her, but insisted that I had sent the money as a gift or loan instead of payment. She also seems to be under the impression that after PayPal buyer protection runs out, she is under no obligation to complete owed work. In addition, she posted several journals asking commissioners to remind her of owed work. Though I did indeed comment on two of them, she deleted the journals and declared that not commenting on the journals meant that I voided all of her obligations. In the end, I provided a screenshot where I did indeed commission her and I finally got my refund. Though I was lucky enough to receive a refund (and indeed, several others have), there are others who are still waiting. The artist always seems to be in some sort of financial crisis and takes emergency commissions which she does not always complete. EDITED 11/14/16 with more alternate usernames.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/930964.html WHO: Buttbear/Yuristorm http://yuristorm.deviantart.com/ https://twitter.com/Blazefire_Saber http://toyhou.se/yuristorm http://yuristorm.tumblr.com/ WHERE: http://yuristorm.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Purchase of an character by Yuristorm, with the addition of edits to the design. (The artist allowed the customer to pay extra for edits to be done) WHEN: November 25, 2013 PROOF: http://imgur.com/a/Jvg6Y Contains everything related to this, but I will be linking to some of them in the explanation post. EXPLAIN: Yuristorm (at the time of purchase, known as Buttbear) hosted a journal selling and trading a variety of character designs. I took interest in a centaur and bird gijinka and discussed payment with the artist, along with asking if edits could be done to the centaur to better suit my tastes. (http://imgur.com/vvdd6bP) Payment was sent and the edits were agreed to, with Yuristorm promising to start on the centaur soon. [Read More] In Summary: -In November 2013, I discussed with Yuristorm the purchase of a centaur with additional edits to its design. -Communication was sparse in 2014 due to my respecting Yuristorm's health problems and letting the ball slip on my end concerning dutiful communication with the artist. In the time since then, I have become a more experienced commissioner and hope to do my best in being an excellent customer. -Communication picked up in 2015, with me often having to bump a note every few months to get a reply from Yuristorm, often around the time when the artist grew active on DA again. -Deadlines were broken what felt like many times: + August 2015 - Claimed that the art would be finished by summer's end, and thus the next few months. + November 2015 - Technically speaking this was not a true "claim," the artist only said it would be done soon, but since it took all the way to September 2016 for it to be done, I feel it is perhaps worth mentioning. + May 2016 - I attempted to set a rough deadline of one month beginning May 14th. It was not kept. + June 2016 - Again, claiming to get the art done "soon," while posting a good deal of other art, concerning some commissions and gifts, on Twitter. + July 2016 - Claimed at the end of July to be done within the next few days. + August 2016 - Claimed at the end of August to be done within the weekend. -Artist claimed multiple times to be done soon and would put up deadlines that would get pushed back. -Communication was inconsistent and poor. I will readily admit in 2014 I could have performed better but in 2015 and 2016 I did my best to keep in constant communication with what felt like poor response from the artist's end. -While I appreciate that the extras promised after this long span of time turned out to be a "beefed" up design and two reference busts, turning a beautiful design even more gorgeous, I am unhappy with the lack of communication on what the extras would be. This is a small matter overall of course, however with the additional troubles experienced when communicating with this artist, it adds up, and hence why I felt it may need to be pointed out as further evidence. -I understand the artist suffers from hand and health issues and I feel I have been patient concerning the matter, to the excess of nearly three years. However, they have been rather active with art and frequently post monthly art dumps onto DA. It is true that the art drawn is often sketchy and rough, but when there is such a large, monthly quantity of it while wondering where one's art is and seemingly having to tweet every time to get some sort of update...it does not shed positive light on the artist. I would like to stress that Yuristorm as a person appears to be sweet and nice. In the notes and tweets, the artist is friendly. However, the business side is lacking. There was a long length of time spent waiting for the design, along with what appeared to be poor work ethic (the broken deadlines and claims as an example) and communication. As such, while the matter is finally resolved at last, I am posting this beware to inform people of the artist's behavior with work and timeliness. Essentially, the issue is with the customer service and length of time spent on the matter. Thank you for your time, everyone.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/930792.html WHERE: http://furaffinity.net/user/linkaton-furaito WHAT: Tiered adopt auction with additional pieces at $50 + $100 WHEN: August 24, 2013 to present. PROOF: http://imgur.com/a/9fTx6 All proof contained in here. Will link to each in explanation as well. EXPLAIN: On August 24, 2013 Linka posted an auction for their kiso'jokai. https://www.furaffinity.net/view/11441799/ [nsfw - sheaths] I'd been wanting one for a bit, and decided to auto-buy the one I was most interested in to ensure I got it and the additional tiered pieces. That transaction is here: http://imgur.com/KMkXYJG I knew they had a queue and were busy, so I was content to wait a reasonable length of time for the art. The original piece was sent a few days late, but they'd been distracted and I was spacy about responding right off myself. I clarified that the AB price would include the tiered pieces. You can see that note here: http://imgur.com/P1bGRtM They had a lot happen IRL, including a death, so I didn't contact them for quite some time - it was January of 2015 before I sent them a note, and that was due to them wanting notes sent regarding owed pieces. I was a couple months late sending it due to some RL troubles of my own - moving and health - but figured better late than never. I still wanted these pieces, after all. That note is here: http://imgur.com/eE2d4Tc I never received a response. Now, here I dropped the ball a bit. They were going through a lot of things IRL and I didn't want to add onto that, so I didn't bother them again. I also moved accounts to deviouslyfiendish as I was trying to figure out a name that suited me more. When an A_B was posted on them, I commented on it with my own issues and shortly thereafter received this note and one of the pieces - you can see our discussion here: http://imgur.com/bkeTMyv and the piece in question here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/17474761/ I was quite pleased with the piece and was hoping that the other piece would follow soon after. When I didn't see it for a while, I'd intended to note them, but they were going through a breakup and relocating partway across the country so I decided to wait til they were mostly settled from that. I contacted them in May of this year, which you can see here: http://imgur.com/sDjXcCA They actually forgot they owed me a second piece and I had to remind them. That left me less than impressed since it'd been well over 2 years at that point. I was also rather unhappy with the 'I'll let you know when I get to it' response, but figured a response was better than nothing and hopefully I'd get it soon. Right around the 3 year mark, I got extremely ill and have been diagnosed with some nasty auto-immune things that are lifelong, as well as some concerning high blood pressure readings that aren't going down. Due to this, I was told to eliminate as much stress in my life as possible. These old owed pieces are extremely stressful to me so I spoke with my fiance about managing them from now on, and let Linka know in this note: http://imgur.com/bQsKYpR I also let them know how soon I wanted my piece be completed since it has been a ridiculous amount of time. This is the note chain back and forth between them: http://imgur.com/yRlYLm7 starting a little over a week after my note in August. This is the sketch pose referenced in the note: http://imgur.com/D5WZFFF We'd heard nothing further so she sent another note: http://imgur.com/LDh7gB5 And then this one following up again when she didn't get a response: http://imgur.com/JnUZ345 We have not gotten a response as of that, and it's now Halloween, which was the absolute last day I wanted to get this piece done by. It's been over three years. I just want the art. I enjoy their style but I feel this has gone on more than long enough and is getting into ludicrous territory now for the length of time I've waited. Edit: As of 11/3/16 I have gotten the piece. My partner had sent another note that went read but unanswered so we weren't sure what was going on, but the piece can be seen here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/21625181/ I now consider this resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/929598.html WHO: Worms & Bones WHERE: Homepage: http://www.wormsandbones.com/ Deviantart: http://wormsandbones.deviantart.com/ WHAT: $600 CAD for a one-of-a-kind art doll based on a werewolf character of mine. WHEN: So arrangements for this commission first started back around late September, 2014, but confirmation happened in November 2015. Details were exchanged from February-March 2015. I paid in two installments. The first installment was March 10, 2015. References were provided on March 21. The second installment was paid on April 8, 2015. Provided below are screen shots of all the email exchanges we've had. What's important to note here is that I've had to email them sometimes two or three times in order to get a response, though to their credit they did always eventually respond. I sent the emails a week, sometimes two weeks, apart (in between months of waiting) as I was trying not to be worrisome. But conversely, I was becoming worried about the lack of communication. The first email I sent asking for an update was on June 3, 2015 with a followup on the 10th. I sent another inquiry on August 15, followed by another follow up on the 29th. I received a reply the following day. This pattern continues for some time, with me checking in every two to three or four months. I was unclear as to how long a commission was actually going to take as no where in their TOS does it state that they can take a year or longer to complete and at no point in the email exchange did they offer an ETA. I eventually became too anxious at their lack of communication and finally sent an email stating as such on December 7th basically expressing this anxiety and the concern over how long it was taking as I had received my previous customs from them in 2-5 months. I assumed that a commission to take maybe 8-9 in between customs and whatever else, especially since Worms & Bones have previously provided great customer care and a superior product. As requested, they did provide me with a rundown on events that was happening/had happened over the past few months to explain why it was taking so long. Up to this point I had only received one WIP (on Sept 1). I received a second Dec. 7, which was included in the response email I got after my inquiry about the length of time it was taking. Needless to say, communication hasn't really improved. It's still taking a week or more for them to respond to my emails. I've received only 3 WIPs emails. I last requested on update on Sept. 13 as well as a possible ETA. Their response was pretty much the same as their last update - still waiting on their caster and were going fur shopping since they didn't have the right kind. It is now Oct. 11 and I haven't heard anything else. Although I just recently noticed they have put up a warning in the Contact section of their website that they maybe slow to respond. So at least they tell you that now. PROOF: November 30-December 1, 2014 - First discussion of taking on the commission. Feb. 27, 2015 - Worms & Bones confirms that they can take on the commission. March 21 - More Details Exchanged. This screenshot also shows me confirming that I paid the invoice. March 10 - First installment paid. March 21 - Details Finalized. April 8 - They sent me the 2nd Invoice. April 8 - Final installment paid. June 3 and June 12- First inquiry emails sent. This screenshot shows their response on the 12. Aug 15, 29, 30 - Second inquiry email sent. This screenshot shows the exchange for that month. Sept. 1 - First WIP. They emailed ME this time. I was sure things were going to be moving forward finally but two months later... November 23 - 3rd Inquiry. Dec. 7th - 3rd Inquiry follow up. This shows the exchange between the two of us during that time. I should point out that their responses are professional and friendly, and they do acknowledge that their commissions take a long time to complete (like, over-a-year-long, I suppose) - information I really wish I had known beforehand. They also provided a 2nd WIP. Dec. 7th - My response to that last email (Couldn't fit all of it on the same screenshot.) Feb 10, 17 2016 - 4th inquiry sent about a detail on the WIPs. So far, so good with their response here. I was pleased that they just responded even if they didn't have a WIP to show me. April 23rd, May 5 - 5th inquiry. This screenshot shows the exchange from that time period. Also 3rd and last visual WIP. July 17, 20 - 6th inquiry and their response. Sept. 13, 19 2016 - Asked for another update and a possible ETA, but no mention of it in their response. I have yet to hear anything about more about the furs and today is Oct. 11. EXPLAIN: I really hesitated to post this beware because Worms & Bones have never been rude to me and do eventually reply to my emails, but their basic customer service could use some improvement. This Beware is mostly in regards to that. So, perhaps it was the fact that I received their customs pretty quickly, and that the previous transactions had been pretty straight forward and the exchange pretty quick. And perhaps that I had mentioned in at least two earlier emails that I would "wait forever" (though I seriously didn't think I'd be waiting for over a year for it). And maybe it feels like I've been waiting longer than I have because details were first set in 2014. I tend to wait a week or more before sending followup emails because I'm aware that people have lives and they apparently make customs for a living. Which brings me to the other part of my complaint; in between all these emails, with very little WIPs to show on my $600 commission, they've produced many more customs for other customers as well as literal armfuls of customs for sale at conventions and at least three personal projects. All of which you can see on their tumblr. Let me just say here that I am NOT upset that they've got personal projects but it's just that on top of all the other work they've done for other customers - even potential customers that haven't even paid them money yet - and I haven't even seen what my werewolf's feet look like with the dew claws attached and it's been over a year. I also don't think I should feel awful every time I send off an email asking them for an update. I feel like I'm harassing them every time I do. Furthermore, there is no mention on their website at how long commissions can take. The only thing it is mentioned is that they seldom accept commissions but no reason as to why. Which I guess isn't important, usually, but if it's a super long wait time, then I think it should be mentioned. So whether or not I receive my doll any time soon, I still think people should be aware of how long it will take to receive their product. At least they do now have a notice in their Contact Me section of their website stating that they are slow to respond to emails. They did not have this notice when I first commissioned them and I'm not sure when it appeared. I also want to point out that, and I'm sure it's easy to see in the screen shots, that they have been nothing but polite when we have communicated and I genuinely believe that they aren't doing this on purpose. I suppose this Beware is more a warning about the lack of information these artists provide regarding the process of their services, at least in regards to commissions. So if you get a custom from them, you probably don't have to worry about this happening to you, but beware if you ever manage to score a commission. Considering it's been almost a month since they went fur shopping, I'm really starting to doubt I'm going to get what I paid for. UPDATE: Worms and Bones has finished the commission, and although I have not received it physically yet, given their previous track record of successfully shipping out items, I have no doubts I will get it eventually. I deem this resolved! UPDATE: I have Autumn firmly in hand. As usual the quality is wonderful and it's very satisfying to finally have it here. As mentioned above, Worms & Bones are overall pretty good to work with. It's mostly just their communication skills that could use some improvement. And be prepared for a long wait - especially if you're commissioning them!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/928784.html WHO: Sugar and Spice Costumes / SugarNSpiceCostumes / Kittencheshire WHERE: http://www.sugarnspicecostumes.com/ , http://sugarnspicecostumes.tumblr.com , http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sugarnspicecostumes/ WHAT: Artistic Liberty Fursuit, won in auction on FurBuy in late 2013. Proof of Purchase: [Payment Pic 1, 2] WHEN/EXPLAIN: The original due date was around April 2014. I had been a bit late in getting a DTD to them, so I was not pushy at first. They also had some convention orders to address, so it wasn’t until a full year after the initial purchase that I reached out via email. [Email 1] After this came the drought of absolutely no contact. I started looking at their various webpages for other emails and began CC’ing those in with the hopes that that one of them would restart some contact. [Email 2] As one can see, my efforts were not successful. I received advice from a few people to post here or to try reaching out to the makers through Twitter. I attempted the latter and managed to get in contact. [Twitter Post 1] My hopes at this point were rather high, so I went and asked for communication details and an update as to where things were. [Twitter Post 2] However, I found more of the same: no contact for nearly another two months with no end in sight on a commission I paid in full nearly three years ago. I feel as though I have been kind and cordial in my attempted interactions. I feel as though I’ve been a decent customer, but I don’t feel as though I’ve been treated as one. And I have no idea what to do at this point. UPDATE: 2017/09/07 Back in February, I went through my usual endeavor to gain contact. This time, I decided to be far more direct in my statements and chose FA as my route. Well, it's now September, and the message was never even opened! [The Message] Over the summer, I noticed more people getting vocal about this issue, leaving little shouts on their page along the lines of, "Hey, I've been waiting since XXXX" <-- Insert year here. Woo, I'm not alone! Again, I took the opportunity, having waited without an answer to my message from February. Their response is what you see linked below. They closed their FA, claiming abuse. Now, I looked at their Trello and saw that the suit was still in the queue, and it was slated for an August completion. I decided to wait. August is over, so here's what I have to say. [The Response] SnS, I'm not the abuser. I'm the victim. At this point, you've essentially stolen from me. I have literally no power here. FurBuy can't do anything. We're well past PayPal's period of influence, so all I have left is to complain--and complain loud enough until maybe you listen, or until somebody listens who might be able to help me. I paid you promptly in 2013. I sent you everything you asked for, and after four damn years, it is my right as a customer to pursue this problem! I am the one who has been abused here. You have abused my trust, my patience, and my health. UPDATE 2: 2018/11/1 In January of 2018, I did manage to get in contact with SugarNSpice through an email that actually works. I've put my email chain in here again to prove a few points. First, my message had an emotional element. This has been a stressful thing for me other the years, could we please bring it home. I've had so many questions that have just gone unanswered. Second, the response just seems flat. No sincerity at all here. It's been five freakin' years. And there is another promise to have the queue cleared out by June. [2018 Email] The next image shows that once again this time frame has slid. It also shows that I am still being dragged through the queue. I just don't understand how many iterations of action-->excuse-->timeshift can be taken before there are real consequences. [2018 Queue] See you all in another year when I update again.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/928484.html Who: iceman1984 Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/iceman1984/ https://www.patreon.com/trn http://o-trn.tumblr.com/ What: Digital art with an animated version for $60. He says it’ll be done in 2-3 months after payment is sent, but I have yet to see the pic done. When: Spot claimed on May 15, 2016; payment sent on June 14 Proof: Please note that the artist is Japanese, which means that English isn’t his first language. My comment in the commission journal, in which I claimed a spot (in case it gets deleted), as well as asking him to give me time to get money in on June (to which he agree) His PM to me (I've censored out his PayPal address; read from down) My payment confirmation to him (read from down) PayPal reciept My PM to him asking about progress since payment, as well as his reply (read from down) My PM to him asking for the sketch stage (no response, despite being read) My comment on his new commission opening journal on Sep. 23, suggesting that he needs to stop taking on more new commissions (in case it gets deleted) My PM to him asking for a refund (again, no reply) Explain: May 15: Iceman opened up for commissions, and so I claimed a spot and told him what I wanted. I also told that I’ll be getting money in on June, and he agree with me. June 14: I told him that money finally arrived and I paid him $60 for the pic + an animated version. August 23: A few months past, and I sent him a PM asking for progress on my art, as well as mentioning that my name wasn’t on his current queue (despite being on the queue on his journal from May 15). He responded the next day, saying that he apologized and the his queue doesn’t have all paid commissioners’ names on it. So I gave him the benefit of a doubt and more time. I’ve also noticed that, for the past few months since I claimed a commission spot from him, he made at least several new journals opening for new commission batches to make a quick buck, and many new commission spots got taken like hotcakes by other people. That raised a red flag for me as taking new commissions while still having tons of other commissions on your plate is never really a good idea. September 21: I approached him, asking for the sketch stage of my commission. It was read, but never replied to, despite him posting art in his gallery. September 23: To no one’s surprise, Iceman has made a new journal offering commissions. So I commented on it, politely advising him that he should consider slowing down on taking new commissions and start finishing several owed commission on his plate first before taking on more. Surprisingly, he accepted my advice. September 26: 3 days afterwards, I've decided that I don't need the art anymore as I haven't seen any WIP for months. So I PMed him again that I would like a full refund at this point. I haven't heard from him, despite him reading my message (and he hasn't even issued a refund yet, as of now). If he doesn't answer, let alone refund, me for days, I'll have no choice but to file a PayPal dispute. Honestly, I don't see why he's now ignoring my PMs asking for commission progress and refunds. I wasn't being mean to him or anything; I just wanna know what my commission status is coming along. I'll update as soon as I finally get a response from him. - In conclusion, I wouldn’t recommend commissioning Iceman unless he gets his act together and actually finish all the current commissions that he owes to dozens of people, including me. He’s making a bad move by piling up far more commissions than he can handle at this point. But on the plus side, at least he accepted my honest advice about not taking on anymore commissions due to his huge backlog. Update September 27: He finally replied back and said he just started the work so he couldn't do the refund. WIP (NSFW) I approve the sketch and told him to keep at the pic. So here's hoping! Update September 28: I meant to do this, but I've messaged him again, explaining that it's unfair on his part to deny refunds and that he could've at least do a partial refund after doing the sketch. I do hope he takes my advice to heart when he responds. Final update September 30: He finally got the commission completed. And the results are just as I ordered. I'll consider this issue resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/927928.html EDIT: Added title! WHO: https://twitter.com/gorehund / http://www.furaffinity.net/user/gorehund WHERE: Commission started over Twitter initially, then contact migrated to Telegram. WHAT: A traditional badge to be finished by AC, two stickers, then a digital icon as compensation for trouble WHEN: Started May 20, 2016, ended September 22, 2016 PROOF: I will link proof throughout the explanation, but here is the entire imgur album: http://imgur.com/a/PiTG5 EXPLAIN: On May 20, 2016, gorehund opened on Twitter for badge commissions for AC pickup or mail. I really enjoyed their art style and wanted to commission them, so I responded to their tweet. They told me I got the slot and asked me to DM my ref and provided their PayPal email. I sent them my ref and desired expression. I also told them that I was interested in AC pickup and they responded that they would have it ready for me. Proof of payment I left the artist alone for a while. On June 19, they posted a photo of badge sketches on Twitter. I was thrilled to see that they had been working on it! Fast forward to Anthrocon (June 30-July 3). They posted on Twitter that they would be in the Artist's Alley Saturday and Sunday, so I stopped in on Sat, July 2. I asked about picking up my badge and they told me that they didn't have it done yet but they did show me their sketchbook with the badge sketches. They hadn't progressed any further than the previous photo but they said they could finish and ship it to me after the con. On August 3, I sent them a Twitter DM asking about my badge because I had heard nothing since AC. I got no response for several days, so I tweeted them publicly on Aug 8, letting them know I had sent them a message. They responded to me after that tweet with their Telegram username which is where the rest of our communication took place. I sent them a message on Telegram and they responded quickly. They said they planned to finish it and have it shipped the following week. I sent another message on the following Tuesday, asking if my badge was still on track to be finished. They answered with "Yep!" and I left it at that. True to their word, the badge was finished on Aug. 19 and posted to Twitter. I was so excited to see the finished product and messaged them on telegram, expressing my happiness with the badge and asking when it would be shipped. They said they would get it out on Monday, Aug. 22. I asked if I may buy some of their high-yeena design stickers and have them sent with my badge. They asked me if I could buy the stickers through their Storenvy for inventory purposes and I didn't have a problem with that. I purchased the stickers through Storenvy on Aug. 19 and added a note to ship them with my badge. On Aug 25, I got an automated email from Storenvy, stating that my stickers had been shipped. On Aug 27, I messaged gorehund because I hadn't heard a word about my badge even though the stickers were shipped. I made sure to mention that I put a note in my sticker order to ship them with my badge. They said they didn't see the note but said they'd ship my badge the following Monday (Aug 29). I asked if I could get tracking because at this point they had told me twice already that they would ship my badge and they hadnt, but they were able to ship my stickers promptly. They said that they could get tracking for the badge. On Aug 30, I received the stickers in the mail and asked gorehund if they had gotten the chance to ship my badge like they said they would on monday. They answered and told me that they were out running errands right then, and would be shipping it. I received the badge on September 8 and let them know. Out of curiosity, I looked at the postmark on the envelope and it states that the badge was shipped on Sept 6. So I was outright lied to by gorehund regarding shipping. I also noticed that there was no tracking number. I started to notice a few imperfections on the badge and the longer I looked, the more things I saw: Food crumb under lamination Stray crumbs and lint laminated to the back Piece of lint in the "A" and an orange stain on the white cheek A curly hair laminated to the back I messaged gorehund and brought this up to them. The orange stain wasn't in the photo of the unlaminated badge, so something happened between finishing the badge and the lamination that resulted in all of the imperfections. I asked if it would be possible to peel the lamination off and somehow clean the badge but they told me that they tried it with an old badge laying around and that the lamination sticks to the paper. They expressed remorse and offered to make another badge for me, but I declined that offer because it seemed unfair. I asked if I may be compensated with something small like a digital icon because I figured it wouldn't take much time. They said an icon would be fine and they could possibly finish it that night, if not the next day. They reached out to me 2 days later on Sept 10, saying that they contracted a cold but said they would try to finish it that night. I hadn't heard anything from them so 6 days later, I sent a message asking for an update around noon. They read my message but did not respond, so about 6 hours later, I poked them again, asking for any sort of response. They told me they would have it done the following night (Sept 17). I didn't hear anything from them, so I asked for another update on Sept 18. They said they were working on it right then. Later that week (Sept 22), I asked for yet another update at about 6AM. I wasn't expecting a fast response to that since it was so early, but they did not respond to me until about 10:30 at night. They sent a sketch with no words, no apology for the wait, no explanation whatsoever. I thanked them, and they responded with the finished icon about half an hour later. Again, no apology or explanation or anything. Considering how polite they had been with me before, I was surprised to have an icon figuratively thrown at me wordlessly. This transaction is complete and I have received everything I've paid for but after being lied to, told my badge would be shipped multiple times, and being told that the icon would be finished on multiple occasions but wasn't, I cannot recommend this artist to anybody. Their art style is wonderful but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired and I do not want anybody else to have to deal with this kind of service.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/927372.html WHO: Moneychan/Flamedragonkitten WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/moneychan (Main account- Disabled) EDIT: Re-enabled for now. http://www.furaffinity.net/user/flamedragonkitten/ ('Owed Artwork account' Barely used and contact was mainly through main account) WHAT: 1,000$ 6 page, ych comic. WHEN: Started on 03/11/2015 and is still ongoing. PROOF: Posted down below. EXPLAIN: March 11th-16th, 2015 I saw Moneychan was doing a really nice 'Strip gamer YCH', the quality of the piece was a ladder auction and she has wrote what the tiers were in another journal. (Which has since been deleted) The highest tier was full coloured and set at an auto-buy of 1,000$. She stated in the description if the bidding went over 500 she would take payment plans. I won with a bid of 600$ (I'm not 100% sure but I believe the tier was flat coloured sketch) and she responded telling me to note her with refs and such. I sent her a note with character references and my Paypal and discussed a payment plan with her. She told me she would send me two invoices and I could pay half now and send the other half within the 2 month limit. I sent her my first half (300$) and she confirmed receiving it. Original ych with bids and description: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15964028/ (nsfw) Following notes: https://gyazo.com/0792305ae5e0028aed2a63eafb7f348f https://gyazo.com/577d39a02c062e7a86f0a1880e495b24 April 2nd, 2015 After discussing it with my partner at the time I decided I really wanted to get the highest tier of quality so I noted her asking if she would be okay with sending me another invoice so I could have the highest quality. After some confusion with the invoices she sent another invoice and I paid it. (400$) Following notes: https://gyazo.com/e4c2358a938de11e2cdf7a9711e7cf95 https://gyazo.com/6778bbcf0ff9515a78955be79dc0657d https://gyazo.com/67500cb11b2d4f4f512b563a45026dec https://gyazo.com/61b3dbb654c5c4a2f596dc8e994c360d April 30th, 2015 I paid the last invoice (300$) and she replied telling me she would start on it soon along with her other comic. Note: https://gyazo.com/22d3426cf14b5dbce30e59d32e402d96 March 28th-30th, 2015 I sent her a note to her 'owed artwork' account because I thought she would want to speak on that one asking when she would be working on my commission. It went unread despite being active and she was also active on her main account so I thought I would note her there as well. She replied telling me that she would start on it when she got a chance and that there we're two comics ahead of me as well. Following notes: https://gyazo.com/a044a80060fdf66dc14276156c2d356f https://gyazo.com/62ed06459bdb46e7c138a4778a2dbf06 I don't have the dates for this as not only is her account disabled but I think the journals were deleted anyways but not too long after our conversations she had posted a journal saying that due to not being able to pay for her internet bill she wouldn't have it for a few months and wouldn't be on until fall. October 5th, 2015 I didn't see her active online again until around October but in September my partner at the time and I had a 'falling out' and we're no longer together and I didn't want to have my character in a comic with his anymore. I noted her asking if she could change the male character to my pet's sona and explained the situation to her. She replied telling me that she was sorry about what had happened and told me she was already into the flat colouring stage (I hadn't received any WIPs or news that she was even working on it) and that to change the character would take longer. I told her that I didn't mind waiting and that I would really like for her to change the character. She replied telling me that she appreciated my patience and would do it. Following notes: https://gyazo.com/86a5f2513886b5957b641539e8b799ff https://gyazo.com/8b57800096120c51c91a825c6ff7bdf5 January 26th, 2016 I didn't hear from her at all but saw that she had been taking commissions, posting owed artwork (a comic included) and doing personal artwork over the last few months so I decided to note her on her 'owed artwork' account as she was most active on that one, asking if she had had any updates and that I was in no rush since she had to redraw the male character but just wanted to check in. She responded saying that 'the comic commissions are the last things on her to-do list' and that she had 5 comics in total to complete. Last time I had spoke to she had told me she had only two ahead of mine and as I said above she had already posted a comic since then so I asked her about that. She responded saying 'it is two, yours and another commissioner' and that the others we're from another strip auction and that she was including her own personal comic as one. Following notes: https://gyazo.com/64a476f33e402e70788d9de528a261c3 https://gyazo.com/1e6119253cd562296907b39bde33f21c March 30th-31st, 2016 She sent me a note saying that she was working on my comic and was asking about if I had any png's for my (now) mates fursona's tattoo's. I replied to her telling her that I didn't and in a second note asked if she had any WIPs (I assumed she would have since I would think tattoo's would be in the colouring phase) and after sending that one my mate had mentioned that it would be okay for her to just trace over his tattoos so I sent her a third one telling her that as well. She told me that she was nervous about sending out WIPs but she would try to clean them up a bit and send them out as 'she's made me wait so long.' I responded to her telling her I was looking forward to seeing them. Following notes: https://gyazo.com/fd42978fac50e923e2a5bb3ed7980aab https://gyazo.com/24b9a91e43d4b8087ae96e0f6cedcb6e https://gyazo.com/d7377360c7c9758f78b7d5159fa9e1d5 https://gyazo.com/3087c8b0622c0676b0118b4e1d08093b https://gyazo.com/72c6a1ea0f8043bd4cb57a4f9560e851 April 17th, 2016 I had disabled my page for a few days due to drama and while it was disabled she had posted a journal saying she would be sending out WIPs to commissioners. When I enabled it I sent her a message checking in to see if she tried noting me. She responded saying that it was fine and that she just wanted to note me to tell me she would be clean sketching and line-arting the comic tomorrow. I told her that if she had any WIPs she wanted to send I would love to see them but if not it would be fine. She replied 'kk' and never sent me anything. Following notes: https://gyazo.com/6693ce191fd42b4e0279b2fc287cd37a https://gyazo.com/6ed6a6dee6a4e070fd355d36ab64fd58 July 17th, 2016 I hadn't heard from her in three months and was starting to get worried. I noted her telling her I needed some sort of physical update as it had been over a year since I commissioned it and three months since I last heard from her. She responded saying that she was sorry and didn't really have any physical proof besides sketches that she had 'barely started on'and that she was finishing all the pinup commissions she had taken and finishing someone else's commission who was ahead of me. Her priority now was mine and Lil-Maj's comic but she was lacking motivation and that they had been just sitting on Sai 'waiting to be done' and asked me if I still wanted to see the sketches. I told her that I would even if they we're just sketches. She replied with a Dropbox link leading to the first two comic pages very roughly sketched and the second one wasn't even done being sketched out. I was honestly shocking as I was expecting her to at least had all of the pages sketched out as she had not only told me that she was all the way up to colour before I changed the second character but told me she was up to lining even after the character change. I bit my tongue and tried to ignore the fact that she had been lying to me and just told her about how I had a new reference sheet that was in the works that was clearer than my previous one and sent it to her in case she needed it to help with sketching. We talked back and forth about my fursona's markings a bit before this conversation had ended. Following notes: https://gyazo.com/11e66ad2ceec40ff12675bdac13a91d8 https://gyazo.com/4fc089157fab581f735066a2cdba839e Sketches she sent me: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fxxlgs4zgltt3ab/AAC1WO-fMkCUVgR_u9KBB5cda?dl=0 (Nsfw? They don't show any genitals but there are breast outlines and such) September 19th, 2016 I was updating my commissions list when I decided to go to her profile to ask for an update and to my horror her page had been disabled. I had to dig through my notes to find her other account's name which is still enabled. She hasn't uploaded anything on it since April and last favourited something a month ago. I sent her a note telling her that I was upset that she had disabled her account and that I had to dig to find her other one as she hadn't left any contact information otherwise and told her about all the red flags she was setting off. I told her that I either wanted my commission done by October 31st (my birthday) or a refund as this is getting ridiculous. Note: https://gyazo.com/41e4e36c0eb71490448b667e7305cdf6 It's now September, 21st and the note has been read but unanswered. I'm honestly very upset about this as this is a large sum of money that I may not get back. I have no idea what to do. Edit: I publicly tweeted them as they do not have dm's enabled. "I am once again trying to get into contact with you over the 1,000$ commission I am owed. Please message me on my fa asap." I also messaged them on DA saying... "I saw that you read my note and haven't responded and have been active on here as well as twitter so I will message you again here. Please respond with how to plan to correct this as I've been more than fair about it." Here's hoping. Edit 2: She responded to me on twitter saying that 'she hadn't been on fa since she disabled it back in June' and that she would Dm me. She dm'd me saying she was sorry about how long she was taking but she was busy with her fulltime job and was trying to finish commissions as quick as possible. I stood my ground and told her that Fa showed she read my message and that I know she is working but I will have to still set a deadline. She understood but asked me to delete my public tweet to avoid drama. I gave her my deadline and deleted the tweet and told her I would be capping it. Tweet: https://gyazo.com/156138889e14a71f73f52b8e4ba052d5 Messages: https://gyazo.com/33c2175eae24792b48d48259712f3094 I now realize I probably shouldn't have told her about the capping but I was quite aggravated that she claimed she hadn't been on fa when my note had been read. I guess I will have another update by the deadline to whether or not this is resolved. Edit 3. I caught her streaming on the 20th and she did personal work for a good while, I came back in a few hours later and saw she was working on the second panel of the comic but she had replaced the hand drawn panel of the video game with a screenshot from a video game. I told her that it rubbed me the wrong way seeing as I paid for every single one of those panels and she replied saying that 'she was only trying to make the comic get done faster but she would redraw it. I later saw her screenshotting a panel from another video game. (Not sure if she was doing it for the comic or something else) She did most of the page but left out my characters wings, horns and piercings so I noted her about it on fa. She told me she was going to do those last. Her using the game shot for the panel: https://gyazo.com/071c1ac06d04897bd94dfa04600b7dbd Her screenshotting a different game: https://gyazo.com/7f940db691e291196d5a0c11bcb1f51e Note: https://gyazo.com/cffbefa443fb8755f42007363fe9d286 It's now the 1st of November and as you can guess, she hasn't done it. I saw that she was streaming last night right before I was going to bed but it was my birthday so I was too tired to drag myself back to my computer to see if she was doing it and just assumed that if she was finishing it I would have woken up to a note from her or something. I'm honestly aggravated to hell and back so I noted her as nicely as I could possibly managed and went to go leave her another tweet to find out -surprise surprise- She blocked me on Twitter and has now set her Tweet to private. My mate -aggravated as well- has since tweeted at her and will not be removing these tweets. Note: https://gyazo.com/6359520d46bf1800b6efb8df6739cc6b Mate's tweets: https://gyazo.com/16954559715fc8c9b84c8b778cfb8529 Final edit: I woke up to a response from her and recieved the finished comic. The lineart looks rushed and the detail isn't the same as the example she gave for the Autobuy option but I'm lucky to have received the piece at all at this point. She also threw in a free coloured sketch Response: https://gyazo.com/572da8cd4d2ac06f991780536b56523e Comic: (Nsfw) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21601732/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21601741/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21601753/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21601762/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21601786/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/21601808/ Example of what the quality should have been: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15498244/ (Nsfw) But anyways I'd like to say this is resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/926645.html WHERE: BLFC 2016 WHAT: $100 'Full Color' Piece WHEN: May 13, 2016 PROOF: http://imgur.com/a/V9Ed8 EXPLAIN: I commissioned Onnanoko, in person, at BLFC in May of 2016. Since then she has not reached out at all. I have emailed four times with no reply. The payment was made using my debit card, in person, not PayPal. The reason for the two purchases is because, at first, she did not charge me for the right type of commission ($80). We then ran another $20 transaction to meet the proper $100 amount.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/926291.html Update Nov-16-2016: rach failed to pay the invoice. When this was pointed out the answer was not acceptable (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByLJuia-w3WYZk9icnZtX0k2bnc). Basically "I've got plenty of people asking, you'll get your turn." And somehow I'm now the bad person (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByLJuia-w3WYdDlkcFdLcHFoV3M) WHO: rachVerity WHERE: (NSFW) http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rachverity/ WHAT: $200 (Split $125 me/$75 Fischer) Art bundle to assist rach when her PC died. Bundle included a reference sheet and three pieces of digital art. WHEN: May 15th, 2014 PROOF: Paypal payment: http://imgur.com/rPhp9wV EXPLAIN: When rach had a computer issue she sold art bundles for $200 each to get out of the hole. Fischer and I went in to help her out and enjoy some art together. We knew this was low priority art (that had been agreed to) but it was art that was going to be done eventually. After a year (which made it too late for us to get paypal refunds) we'd asked about it and was told it was going to be done (http://imgur.com/7AscovM). We gave her the benefit of the doubt and went with it. Somewhere around here Fischer and I did another shared commission and covered my bit so I assumed the whole $200 debt. Eventually I got fed up and asked for a refund and that was agreed to with a payment plan. That seemed reasonable (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByLJuia-w3WYYlZ5VjJsd2xVQW8). Unfortunately the payments never came. At this point I check in monthly so as not to be rude or a pest but it hasn't helped.(https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByLJuia-w3WYNFVTYnBtb3Jjenc) I've finally sent rach an invoice for the full amount but have not received anything payment wise, just words. At this point I have no idea what to do. $200 is a lot of money to just lose. This is, more or less, my last effort. (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByLJuia-w3WYTDFvVl85TGxyN2M)

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/924736.html WHO: CavitySam, aka IsabellaPrice WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/isabellaprice/ ( old account), http://www.furaffinity.net/user/cavitysam, http://www.instagram.com/cavitysam WHAT: Two head sketches of my original characters; uncolored. WHEN: May 8th was when the commission order was placed; about August 3rd was when things hit the fan. PROOF Initial Commission Post: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/19914747/ FA Note #1: http://imgur.com/VZJG6XB PayPal Payment Proof: http://imgur.com/kn7zIv8 Instagram Post opening for "emergency commissions" on August 3rd: http://imgur.com/7K8kQK4 My reminder of mine + Artist saying they deleted all past notes: http://imgur.com/ICiBnUX Resend of the FA Note on August 3rd: http://imgur.com/uaPDUu7 Instagram DM from September 3rd: http://imgur.com/cjujD9c + http://imgur.com/fbYJvLX EXPLAIN: Back in May of this year, I decided to commission CavitySam/IsabellaPrice. I liked their art for a while, and I had a few extra coins when she opened up commissions at that time. I told her that I didn't mind waiting past the window she had promised they would be done. Several weeks had passed, and about in mid-July, I began to wonder where my sketches were, so I decided to follow Sam on Instagram to see if maybe she posted them there first, before posting on FA. In early August, she posted on IG about how she was taking on more commissions (before the ones she had taken in May were even done and posted), and I took that opportunity to remind her about mine. She apologized, and said she had cleared all her messages and asked me to resend them. I resent the note on FA (since I have trouble with mobile and you can't do IG DMs on the desktop website) and waited for a response. A month later and no reply or acknowledgement, I sent her a DM on September 3rd, asking if she was still capable of finishing the commission, and if not, then maybe a refund could be worked out. She told me they were finished and some needed color (I did not ask for color on mine) and that she would send me mine "in a little bit". It's been over 24 hours since that DM, and there is still no pictures in my e-mail box, on IG or FA. Please bear in mind I don't consider myself a confrontational person. I hate having to do this, especially since Sam does seem like a very nice person (frankly, I think she takes on way more than she can handle, which isn't uncommon to see) and I know she's been having financial trouble, so me asking for a refund at this time makes me feel uneasy. Still, I do feel like she should be held accountable for not delivering within a reasonable timeframe, hence why I am coming forward with this here. If you do decide to commission CavitySam for art... please be aware that you probably will not see it within any time frame that might be promised. UPDATE #1: I spoke with Sam today on Instagram, and she said she'd be sending the sketches along today (they apparently hadn't been scanned in yet. Okay then). I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and consider the matter closed, but if I don't see/hear anything in the next 72 hours, I'll update this accordingly. None the less, my warning about things not being done within the promised time (or even in a grace period) still stands. UPDATE #2: I've received the commissions from Sam. Now I can safely say it's fully resolved!

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/923369.html WHO: TheAquaticRebel (dA) -- Deactivated August 2016 -- New account http://kreayashion.deviantart.com/ Deactivated as well (August 28, 2016) -- (edited) http://loyderwo.deviantart.com/ New new account (Appears to have been abandoned) WHERE: http://www.theaquaticrebel.deviantart.com // http://kreayashion.deviantart.com/ // http://loyderwo.deviantart.com/ WHAT: $150.00 YCH fully detailed commission WHEN: May 27th, 2016 - August 4th, 2016 PROOF: http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurora-Singers-YCH-CLOSED-611035951 (Original piece) http://comments.deviantart.com/1/611035951/4137225015 (Comment inquiring to purchase) http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurora-Bringers-YCH-Comm-612444595 (Completed piece) EXPLAIN: In May of 2016 I opened a YCH with multiple characters which were $150.00 each 'The Aurora Singers' (YCH CLOSED). One was bought by someone and a short time later the other was bought by TheAquaticRebel. At the time I was doing commissions under post-pay -- Meaning I would be paid after completion. I had done this originally to save myself anxiety by feeling the need to rush to get a piece of artwork done because it had been prepaid. While TheAquaticRebel had offered originally to pay beforehand -- http://sta.sh/0e24dsjhdb6 I declined because I was pretty busy at the time and didn't want to run the risk of taking too long to get work done (I was in the process of packing to go overseas for a few months). Between May 28th and June 1st 2016 I had completed the commission and sent a note to let TheAquaticRebel know it had been completed and I was ready for payment to be made -- http://sta.sh/026ikm0uink5 I figured it had only been a couple days and I hadn't heard anything back from them to warrant a possibility that they wouldn't be able to pay. The other person who had bought the other half had paid promptly within a few hours after I'd sent the finished product. Unfortunately, that's when the situation went downhill and I received this as a reply -- http://sta.sh/085pjoiu0ra I had never heard of this happening but I asked around a bit and prodded Google.com for information of similar situations and ways to fix/repair it, not only to be paid but for TheAquaticRebel's sake as well because I imagined that situation is a pretty scary one to be in. A few people told me that PayPal doesn't shut down your account or delete it unless you ask them to under the pretenses that your account has been hacked/used by someone else without permission. Also, someone else pointed out the "PayPal bill" section which TheAquaticRebel spoke of -- PayPal doesn't send bills... They send business activity and payment histories monthly to show how much you have made/earned and how much you have bought in that month. Still, I gave TheAquaticRebel the benefit of the doubt and figured if anything they had a bank account and would likely offer to pay with that instead should their card take too long to arrive. The day after (June 4th, 2016) I sent a reply to their note inquiring as to when I could expect payment as banks usually only take 4-7 business days to send you a new card (even in the UK) and I was going to be unavailable for a week and a half or so as I would be traveling and thus unable to view my dA notes http://sta.sh/0rqa1qoxwye A week and a half's time seemed ample time enough to get everything sorted, more so when money and possibly identity theft was involved; I'd be chomping at the bit to try and get everything sorted! A day later I got this http://sta.sh/0bl5yxjjcnb as the only reply which seemed to be the tipping point for me to understand this person was yanking my chains. Their reply was so lackluster and 'meh' -- as if to say "I owe you $150/115£ but I can't be bothered" -- which really kind of annoyed me as I kept thinking of how I'd be in that situation. I'd be in slight hysterics because this is finances that were being messed with AND I'd owe someone 115 quid for work they'd already done. However, I digress -- I replied with as at this point I was beginning to realise the outcome was likely going to be dismal and it was looking less and less likely like I was going to be paid. Time warp to a few weeks later in which I hadn't heard any updates or gotten any notes from TheAquaticRebel about what was going on despite asking them to keep me posted. I don't know of any banks that take 2-3 weeks to send a new card and it's pretty easy to set up a new PayPal with a bank card (I use it myself and have had to change cards before). There had been no word from them so I sent them a note to inquire -- http://sta.sh/024dabpy0amk and funnily enough they replied the same day with -- http://sta.sh/07l9sx60i0e I had NEVER heard of PayPal doing this unless the person didn't have the amount in their accounts (PayPal or Bank) and even then, looking up this situation all I could get close to was a glitch that was a one time thing and usually sorted itself out after re-sending an invoice. However, after talking to other people about this -- I was curious for multiple opinions at this point -- they openly admitted that this just seemed like another excuse; a convenient one at that -- Fake a PayPal glitch. Regardless of my unease -- More so at the fact this all seemed phishy to me and I was not sure I wanted that kind of connection to something of that oddness -- I sent them my PayPal.Me link instead for them to send the payment. I got nothing, including no notification from them letting me know they'd even bothered to send a payment. So at this point I wanted some kind of visual proof of this situation happening, a screenshot if anything -- http://sta.sh/0s60gw7erao because I was ridiculously confused by that time. I couldn't find any direct information about this glitch being consistently replicated like TheAquaticRebel was claiming. Again, I got nothing -- no proof nor reply. August 4th, 2016 -- a couple weeks later I once again wanted to try and touch base with TheAquaticRebel on what was going on with the payment as I felt surely by this time they would have figured something out but at this point with the lack of proof that there was something wrong I was being told by several people to flip them onto Artists_Beware because to them they seemed to be nothing but a scammer -- http://sta.sh/01izcvl8v9et I got this reply -- http://sta.sh/018l60fboufu This is where there was the massive red flags -- mostly over the "PayPal won't do anything about it" because I knew damn well PayPal's support team are not that useless. I've had issues with my account before and any time I'd called them, no matter what the issue, they were always willing to help. They would pretty much always have an answer and if they didn't they would advise on ways and things I could manage things. The fact TheAquaticRebel spoke as if PayPal's people were like "Oh, you can't pay merchants for things? HAHA, OH WELL, nothing we can do :lol: Sorry~" The only thing; the ONLY thing I can see happening is them saying "The issue wouldn't on our end but your bank's as there's likely something going on with your account there. We'd advise you to call your bank and discuss it with them. For now what we can do is suspend any payments leaving your account within the last month since the time of the invasion until now to prevent any further unauthorized usage of your account and funds. If you are continuing to have issues using your account even after calling your bank and getting the OK from them that everything is fine, please contact PayPal again and we will investigate further." Which is pretty much what I got in an email reply when I inquired about the situation with PayPal's help team. TheAquaticRebel also made it out as if they were upset which their lack of cooperation really betrayed that -- More so when all they had to do was provide visual proof of what was happening as I even offered to give insight to help them. However, again... I gave them the benefit of the doubt and offered once more to help alleviate the situation -- This time by offering to bill their bank directly so it would be easier as there'd be no faffing about with PayPal as it was obvious there was issues with it -- http://sta.sh/029jxiy70vor I was concise but stern on the matter and I heard nothing back. A few weeks later I sent them http://sta.sh/019bmkyv12n3 and from then on I had heard nothing back AND they have since deactivated their account... So, here I sit -- Literally having to just deal with $150/115£ worth of work done never to be paid. However, if I can do anything I can warn people about this person. I gave them more than enough time and patience when dealing with the situation. I know it seems harsh but again, with the lack of proof and cooperation I feel genuinely put off and therefore I was told to place this publicly as a warning. I wouldn't be nearly as upset about $20 or even $40 worth of work as I could simply redo the piece but $150 is too much to just throw off without a warning. I'm well aware I should have taken prepay when it was offered, but I had my reasons for not doing so at the time -- Not to mention there might have been bigger issues if I had. EDIT-- (Apologies but they made a new account AFTER I had submitted this so there's some things to be added) TheAquaticRebel deleted their new account which was kreayashion after someone who'd seen my warning asked about the YCH. They then moved to the new new account loyderwo in which they noted me asking me to read a journal they'd written addressing the issue. The claimed to have been harassed before and after on Instagram -- which I should mention I never even knew their Instagram nor did I mention any other site they were on as I didn't even know of any others. So, if they were indeed harassed on there it wasn't because of anything I'd said. I had also not made this situation public until a few days ago when I was advised to make a warning in case others had had the same thing happen with her. It was only then that I had someone note me with other accounts she had made elsewhere but I did not mention a single one of them other than her dA. I was unable to see any comments posted on her page, or even if there were any as she'd deleted her account very soon after. I read the journal she'd written and it basically states they cannot pay me due to being hacked and their PayPal again being messed with so at this point I'm just severely at odds on the situation. I'm out $150.00 of work and I feel like I've been played. I know I should have asked for prepay; lesson learned. However, this just feels like she didn't have the payment even when she said she did otherwise she would have been okay to pay through her bank instead.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/922543.html WHO: Xarkbeast(FA), Arkadult(YCH), and Redixxbeastdesigns (DA). WHERE: Formally FA and DA. YCH.commishes.com http://ych.commishes.com/user/arkadult/ http://redixxbeastdesigns.deviantart.com/journal/All-commission-1-100-point-commission-sale-613194468 WHAT: $30 Digital two character feral mating art. WHEN: Jan. 17, 2016 PROOF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8clf86xw1glqnzw/Screenshot (47).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxi9o4y73gqm2og/Screenshot (52).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/92njq0y44miuhyj/Screenshot (48).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/35w91h9v69b94ay/Screenshot (42).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/r4h0tqqkytdwmzu/Screenshot (43).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/6pfkr4s3rvklyw9/Screenshot (49).png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: Not sure if this well be allowed, but I think people deserve to be warn about this artist. So wanted to do a beware on this artist before, but before I could he deactivated all account he had so I though it was pointless until I ran into him again yesterday under a new name. Anyway it started when said artist uploaded multiple ych's one which I bought for $30. Things seems normal at first. Noted him on FA a month later about my commission. Turns out he never started because he didn't know their genders. Was a bit annoyed for two reasons. One being that he waited a month to ask and may have waited longer had I not messaged him and the second because their genders looked to be clear in the references and I told him the first time he asked. Never the less told him and wait yet another month and asked about a trello or something like that. Never got an answer to my commission question. Later tried messaging him again to find his FA deactivated. Immediately went to pay palpay to file a claim. Few days later get an email asking if I want a refund or the art. I chose the refund and was asked it I could wait until Tuesday. Later gives me some bullshit about Paypal locking him out of the transaction and that he will send the money from a new account after I drop the claim. If anyone knows paypal like me you know that once a claim is closes it can't be reopened and it he did send the money he could then do a charge back claiming it wasn't him. That was a HUGE red flag and I stop talking to him all together and let paypal take it from there. In the end got my money back. Fast forward a bit to yesterday when I'm on ych.commishes.com a site for sell ych's. I bid on a auction but a few minutes before it ended I found it below to said artist. The was no way to back out or contact him so I waited for an email. In it he thank me for bidding an ask that I send the payment through family and friends. Again if you know paypal you know that's a terrible way to pay for art. I ended up telling him I wanted to back out before it had ended because I knew who he was and had a terrible experience with him in the past. As of now it looks like that account has be abandon as well. Edit: Seems his FA account has been reactivated sometime after I made this beware. http://www.furaffinity.net/user/xarkbeast [Editor's Note: Update from 8/3/2017] https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/965855.html Update to this beware: http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/922543.html Where: https://www.weasyl.com/~sinistertrexx http://sinistertrexx.deviantart.com/ https://www.instagram.com/sinister_jorexx/ So I recently came aware that Xarkbeast as resurfaced under a few new names and accounts. A friend who asked not to be name came across her character on Weasyl. He just happened to link it in a group discord where I say it and instantly recognized that her character and art style. But just to be sure I looked around a bit and saw that the boyfriend of he last account redixxbeastdesigns had reactivated his DA and linked her her new one. Proof: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ck8r4d9bmftm2ca/Screenshot (44).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/pz26vyhli4c76tu/Screenshot (43).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vg0ka1v81gikws/Screenshot (45).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/n4aw9e74f6kkaq7/Screenshot (47).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/a2cohwifstwtaqw/Screenshot (48).png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/msgdh327p6h1pm2/Screenshot (49).png?dl=0

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/922014.html WHERE: http://chirart.tumblr.com WHAT: digital sketch commission WHEN: Paid August 31, 2015 (in one of the emails I mention September, but I was mistaken; it was August). Was first told that commission would be finished January 2016. Most recent contact August 10, 2016; still have not received commission. PROOF: EXPLAIN: I commissioned a digital sketch on August 31, 2015. As one can see in the Terms of Service, the waiting period can be up to 4 months. I want to say it was around November that the artist also suffered an injury that kept her from being able to create art, and I didn't want to give the impression that I was in a hurry to get the piece while she was recovering. In December 2015 I contacted her to check on how the commission progress was coming along. I was told it would be done either by the end of that month or early in January 2016. By April I still saw no sign of the commission, so I asked if there was an ETA in sight, as one can see in one of the screenshots. The artist told me that she should be working on my commission "soon", since she would be working solely on commissions that month. I sent an email in June that never got a response, and again in July. After not getting a response I sent her an ask on Tumblr on August 10, 2016. It turns out that my emails ended up in her spam box, and she apologized profusely for this. She then told me she would get the commission done that day and send it to me that night, which is the only instance I've ever seen a definite time to expect a finished product. It is now the 14th of August, very close to a year after I first paid, and I have yet to see any sign of the commission. I feel it is also worth pointing out that the artist never initiated any conversations with me. I initiated every conversation, and I feel I have been largely left in the dark throughout this process. I sent a stern (still polite) email saying that I would like to have seen an explanation as to why the commission couldn't be finished in the given time. I don't mind waiting for a commission, but I expect better communication on the artist's part. I've also told the artist that I don't want to ask for a refund just yet, because I still have a small amount of faith that I will see the commission that I've been so eager to receive. I plan on updating this post once I receive a response. UPDATE: As of August 14, 2016 I *HAVE* received my commission, to my great relief. That being said, if you are patient you will get your commission eventually, but the communication quality leaves something to be desired. To reiterate, I don't mind having to wait for a commission and I understand that life happens, but I as a client I expect to be given a heads-up if my commission is going to take longer than expected.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/922190.html WHO: Jaykuma / DatPisces WHERE: NSFW http://www.jaykuma.deviantart.com/ NSFW https://www.furaffinity.net/user/datpisces/ WHAT: An art trade WHEN: 4 months ago we started talking, 3 months ago scheduled it to be 2 months ago, told today it was cancelled after doing part of mine and being ignored for two months PROOF: Agreement on the trade: http://i.imgur.com/y1FuipO.png and NSFW http://i.imgur.com/P8Eso5Q.png My completed work of the trade (about half of my part asked for) NSFW http://i.imgur.com/tgBSaNM.png Their cancellation http://i.imgur.com/OhY7X6U.png EXPLAIN: Jaykuma on deviantart/DatPisces on Furaffinity had agreed to an art trade with me 4 months ago. http://i.imgur.com/y1FuipO.png They said we'd need to schedule it to be a month later. http://i.imgur.com/WZiQB2i.png Fast forward a month and they say they're starting their half tomorrow at 2am Est. http://i.imgur.com/0iD45y2.png So we work out the specifics and I start working on my half of the trade. NSFW http://i.imgur.com/P8Eso5Q.png After a few days I contact them again with what I had finished (NSFW http://i.imgur.com/tgBSaNM.png) at which point they let me know that they haven't started but they'll be done with the first part by the end of the week (because they started playing Overwatch http://i.imgur.com/K85BRA9.png). I figure alright, I'll be patient. I wait 3-4 weeks and hear nothing back from them so I send a note saying it's been a while and asking if they're still active. They read it but don't reply. A couple of weeks later I send another note asking if they forgot to reply or is something up. They don't bother opening the message. After another month of them ignoring me I decide to message their DA account asking if they could get back to me on FA. They reply saying sorry but they need to cancel the trade because "I've been busy with patreon stuff". http://i.imgur.com/OhY7X6U.png Normally I don't care if a trade gets cancelled, stuff happens. However the "starting soon!" followed by being ignored for two months then cancelled after I already did the first half of my part so that they could play videogames is incredibly rude, especially since this was scheduled a month in advance followed by two additional months. EDIT 1: As comments here suggested I let Jaykuma/DatPisces know that they can pay me for the part I've done and asked if they'd do so. They decided to not answer the question and called my persistence in being compensated "annoying" and fed me a BS sob story. http://i.imgur.com/bGg3w3t.png In the 1-2 months before our scheduled start of the trade right up to the day they said they'd start there was zero mention of time problems. The only time this was mentioned as a problem is the moment he owed me art and it's an outright lie as right as we started the trade he spent over 100 hours playing Overwatch during that month alone. I sent another message asking again if they'd compensate me and it is currently being ignored. I know he's seen the message too which is immensely frustrating. At this point I'm done dealing with them and all I can really do is hope others read this before being treated like I have.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/921066.html WHO: Meora_Hedva WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/meorahedva WHAT: $223 Traditional Painting to be mailed out WHEN: Originally contacted and paid for in July 2014 PROOF: First response at contact for info, price, and where to send money: http://imgur.com/DeCHHZ7 http://imgur.com/NkVa72e http://imgur.com/tGQc7Z4 EXPLAIN: Sorry that I don’t have all the screenshots of the conversations listed. It was a mixture of notes, shouts, and emails, and some I absentmindedly deleted as I didn’t know this would go on for so long. I tried to put together the important bits though! The original contact with the artist went great! I had waited for a while so I could save money before contacting her, and saw she remained active while doing so, and figured why not splurge a little on some fantastic art. As the links show up above, we came to an agreement on a large coffee painting, framed, to be mailed out to me for $223. I gave her the character I wanted in the painting, but left majority of the idea and details up to her. She told me to expect a 4-6 month wait, so I left her be. I sent an update request in April 2015, was told pretty quickly it was still being worked on as the paints need time to dry - great! I’m happy for the update and knowing she was working on it. Attempted Contact again in May 2015(unfortunately I lost the email where she did respond) but she said she had been busy and hasn’t been able to work on it, but would soon! I attempted contact with her through a couple notes and then shouts in November/December 2015, and she finally responded to me in January 2016 to let me know she had finished my commission: http://imgur.com/fIPfcU6 I emailed her with the new email and she sent me the painting files in March 2016, and a promise to mail it out once she found a frame: http://imgur.com/6ct0z7Z Waited and poked late in March 2016 through email and shout (I know shouts seem excessive, but it was how I got her attention last time), and received an email back that she still did not mail out the painting, then said she had to wait until April for a frame to arrive, which she didn’t say at all beforehand. http://imgur.com/DW5TXXz I had waited a little longer, emailed her three times between April-July 2016 for an update and, due to silence on her part, I had to resort to giving her a deadline to respond back to me before bringing it to A_B's attention. http://imgur.com/ZVb2Vkb Additional Pokes: http://imgur.com/wDi2jTp http://imgur.com/cQh1x05 All she has to do is mail me the painting, which has been paid for. I have even offered twice to pay her more for the shipping fees since they have risen since 2014. I should also point out that every time I try to initial contact for her update, she seemed to have disappeared online everywhere for months. I usually try to not commission people who have a habit of disappearing for long periods of time, but before I commissioned her she updated constantly, and we even had a mutual interest in each other’s work, so I wasn’t prepared for the lack of communication. It’s a shame overall. I still love her art, but a painting that was supposed to be done and mailed within 6 months has turned to 2 years of botchy communication, and right now about 4-5 months of silence on her end. I do not know what else to do to get her attention, so unfortunately I’m trying Artists Beware.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/920515.html WHO: IsabellaPrice/ CavitySam WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/isabellaprice/ ( old account), http://www.furaffinity.net/user/cavitysam WHAT: Commission for a pair of avian fursuit feet. Foamed and fleeced. WHEN: Commissioned mid November 2014, to be completed for May 2015. First photos of WIP feet posted April 2015. Nothing since then. PROOF: Commission Started Paypal Transaction Screencap of WIP Feet Submission FB Chat log, various dates EXPLAIN: Back in November 2014, I commissioned IsabellaPrice for some fursuit feet for Confuzzled the next year ( May '15). I'd gotten a headbase made from her before and was happy with the product. I'd also gotten art work commissions here and there. The feet were to be foam and fleece construction( Here's my concept sketch if needed). Everything was agreed on and I paid a deposit of $100 18th November 2014 through paypal. I didn't really get any real updates between then and April 2015 when she posted a wip of them unfleeced, just foam. I liked the shape, though I wanted the claws a little shorter but that was easily fixed. ( I can share the note with this info but didn't think it was really relevant). I was a little worried how close it was getting to Confuzzled, especially with 2 weeks-ish for shipping to UK. May came and went, I didn't get the feet. I was in the con's Den and so had my own work to worry about, commissions to sort. I didn't have time to prod her for updates. My bad. Annoyingly, I can't find any notes around then. I must have forgetten about the feet as I wasn't getting updates and with the con gone, I didn't have a urgent need for them. FA's note system doesn't help in finding communication either... Recently August 2015, I bought a new partial and needed avian feet for it, but in a different colour. I remembered about the commission, and I asked if the feet had been furred ( they hadn't) and if they could be altered to a dark brown. This was agreed on but she was away from home until December 2015. November 2015 I'd had enough of waiting and just wanted the raw, unfleeced feet sent to me (Looks like her mum was to do this as she was away). She approved cancelling of the commission and said she'd be home on the 27th. I wasn't even really interested in getting a monetary refund, I just wanted the feet with less hassle. No communication until 25th Feb 2016 when I had to ask. Since then, communication has pretty much been me calling " Hello?" with no reply. Between the start of this commission, other headbases, premade partials had been made including FNAF ones which were made and sent out ( I assume) As well as drawn artwork.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/919173.html WHO: DogBarf/TommyFoof WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dogbarf/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tommyfoof/ WHAT: I posted an auction for a premade ferret fursuit head on furbuy. DogBarf won the auction on 3/3/15. He commissioned a tail and footpaws from me to go with the character and be sent to him with the head. The total was $510. $360 (head) + $70 (tail) + $80 (feet) and so far he has only paid $320 plus shipping. He still owes $190. WHEN: The auction was won on 3/3/15, the additional parts were commissioned on 4/19, and I sent it out on 6/25. PROOF: Entire email correspondence: http://imgur.com/a/h1hc7 Paypal screenshots: http://imgur.com/a/mfulp EXPLAIN: Things were going well and I was having a good time making parts to go with the premade ferret I had sold on furbuy. DogBarf paid off a good portion of it and wanted it in time for a convention. I had finished the parts, so I foolishly sent the suit to him before it had been paid off. Communication since then has been spotty. I haven't seen another dollar since I sent it to him. He has attended a couple conventions in the meantime, wearing the suit he still owes money on. Looking back on the emails there were warning signs, but I was new to commission work and very naive. I love the character he created for the suit, and I still think it is a pretty cute suit even though I have improved in the time since I made it. I would love to get this resolved since DogBarf seemed like an overall good person while I was working on their commission. UPDATE: He is in contact with me again and plans on paying what he owes. I will update again with caps once I get the payment(s).

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/918354.html WHO: Qunpowder (prior to name change) / Pawplush (current name) WHERE: http://pawplush.deviantart.com/ WHAT: 80 sheet 160 page sketchbook auction worth $70 WHEN: November 1st, 2014 - First contact/payment made October 19th, 2015 - asked for an update but got no response, had few updates on the sketch book. Never received any images of the sketchbook at all prior to being destroyed (end of November start of December) and refund was agreed to December 2015. Received 1 refund portion of $5 with PayPal taking PROOF: http://sta.sh/01slws50hjn6 (Original Auction) http://sta.sh/02dzq2asvl8q (Details of Auction) http://sta.sh/06cbxkbx0x8 (Proof of Winning) http://sta.sh/0c2j8ut7xd0 (PayPal Stub) http://sta.sh/09cd1xl7zs4 (1st Note asking for an update a year after work was started) http://sta.sh/0fvt5wuvu4i (2nd Note since the 1st one was read but not responded to) http://sta.sh/02b0lunzbckv (2nd Note part 2) http://sta.sh/02373ybmpk18 (3rd Note read but not responded to) http://sta.sh/023qi0165m11 (Final Note) http://sta.sh/0pznyk0r2fh (Reply to final note) http://sta.sh/0ef1pmkwdos (Redo reply to final note) http://sta.sh/02flbqteg50s (2nd reply to final note) http://sta.sh/02eipp8frfba (3rd reply to final note talking about refunds) http://sta.sh/0i7akqq1yw9 (1st refund, note sent as goods and services) EXPLAIN: November 1st, 2014 was the time I sent payment for winning the auction of the sketchbook. I had sent a note later that day with links to the characters I had wanted drawn in the sketchbook. I had anticipated it would take a while since they would be drawing on 160 pages during a school year, so I never expected to have it soon. Of course I was also anticipating moving so I was hoping it would be after I moved that I would receive the sketchbook. As referenced in my 2nd note to them that I got an update in April 2015 on the sketchbook and it was nearing completion at that time. Though in December it was ruined by water damage and coffee. I had never received any photos of the sketchbook, I was bummed to say the least that it was damaged but my main concern was that I never got any updates through the entire time aside from the April note. It was then, in the December note, that a refund was agreed upon though no set date for refund was able to be told. I sent the 3rd Note May 19th but never got a reply to that though it said it was read sometime before I sent the 4th and final note. Upon sending the 4th note I got a note in response that was a little passive aggressive from my point of view but I could be completely wrong. They had sent me another note after that one apologizing for how they responded to me and we came to an agreement to do installment payments, which about a month later they asked if I had been getting the payments that were sending through PayPal.Me which I didn't for some reason or another. They then sent me the first payment of $5 which, after PayPal tax because it was sent as a good and service, came out to $4.55 (I'm not sure if I should count it as a full $5 payment or as $4.55 since PayPal took a chunk out of it...). So far it has been going well, I will be sure to update this when I get more payments until it is fully resolved. Edit: On August 7th, I received $10 from PawPlush (through friends and family) Edit2: On August 8th, I received $20 from PawPlush (through friends and family) Edit3: On August 25th, I received the rest of my refund from PawPlush! This thread can be tagged as resolved by Mods.