Search the Community

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/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/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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/886993.html I agreed to do a trade with FA user Lyshastra back in July. We met on Facebook, and she agreed to trade me for a plush that I had premade. We agreed on a trade for the plush of $10 + 4 bookmarks, and agreed to make the trade at Anthrocon as we were both attending (and I had a table, making it easy to swap). She never showed, and after the con asked me if I would ship the plush. I behaved unprofessionally in that I agreed to ship despite the discomfort I had with shipping her the plush despite not seeing any evidence that she had even worked on my half of the trade. Because of my anxiety issues, I did not express this to her and instead delayed shipping for months, hoping that she would eventually post evidence of the half of the trade I was supposed to receive. I definitely acknowledge that I didn't handle this the way I should have and I feel like I've learned more about speaking up about my discomfort in trade situations like this because of it. Regardless, no evidence showed up, she eventually became frustrated with me and my agreeing to ship but never doing so. She contacted me again in October about it. I felt really bad at this point, and finally shipped the plush to her. At this point, I still had not seen any evidence that she had even picked up a pencil to work on my trade. I asked her about their status, and she claimed to have mailed them to me already but that they were sent back to her... Some time passed after my shipping her half of the trade. She didn't respond to me for a long time (me asking her if she received the plush) until I threatened to post her on here... then she responded within seconds lol. Shortly after she posted pictures of two of the four completed bookmarks on her FA account. Weeks passed again. I told her I wanted evidence that she had shipped the bookmarks. Weeks passed again with nothing. I posted publicly on her Facebook page asking about the bookmarks and she said to message her about it privately to remind her. She never responded. This was on November 30th. I would offer screenshots of the Facebook posts made to her account but she has unfriended me. Her FA page: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/lyshastra/ Link to screenshots of our Facebook convo ( some things were cut out that were just conversational, but I can grab those if anyone needs anything else inbetween these for clarification, I just wanted to keep the post succinct): http://imgur.com/a/Gqf5u ^ I'm Sam Williamson. I've blurred out her name, though she has been posted to here using her IRL name as well. I don't expect anything at this point. She obviously doesn't plan to actually compensate me for the shipping I paid to send the plush to her that we had never agreed on me paying OR my bookmarks, but I really really highly discourage anyone from commissioning or trading her. It was a really bad experience.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/881485.html Who: Inu-Jean Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/inu-jean/ What: Digital art, two characters, finished here http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18266800/ (NSFW) When: Payment sent November 14, 2014 and image was completed on November 16, 2015 Proof: Payment sent and received: http://imgur.com/vZclyFF First Concern raised: http://imgur.com/tK7BMWt Second Concern: http://imgur.com/ULUzpNi WIP ask not responded to: http://imgur.com/sYuQBbv Major Concerns raised: http://imgur.com/nL9iJ6S Artist's Update Journal: http://imgur.com/tGtnutU WIP Promised: http://imgur.com/Jg9bLQc Removed from queue: http://imgur.com/VZx6C0o Art Stream discussed: http://imgur.com/sXO0kdj Very major concerns: http://imgur.com/vlKFaEc Responded to with a WIP: http://imgur.com/Ky09ACZ Explain: I would first like to say that I hold no ill will towards the artist, nor is this made in any way to defame or try to beat down on him. His work is phenomenal, but both I and my friend (who has had several great experiences with commissioning this artist in the past) feel it’s important for people who may want to commission this particular artist in the future to know that there may be issues during the process. Neither of us believe any bad intentions were made on the artist’s part, but things certainly spiraled nearly out of control and became an almost perfect storm of stuff gone wrong in the commissioning process. However, art was finally delivered, and done so to both my and my fellow commissioner’s satisfaction. I have to admit, I do feel a bit uncomfortable posting this, but after learning that my fellow commisioner shared a similar situation to another commssioner during the same time frame, I think it's important that I do so. A friend of mine (Alex in the screenshots) and I contacted Inu-Jean for a 2-character commission in November of 2014. Specifics of the commission were worked out over the course of the following few days. We were a ways down from the images he was working on and knew there would be a decent wait involved, which did not bother us. However, the months went by, not a single update was given regarding progress until a (now deleted) update journal was posted to FA in late April announcing that the artist was taking on another batch of commissions. Concerned, my fellow commissioner messaged the artist regarding this, but he did not respond until being messaged once more several weeks later... Radio silence continues until June. A WIP is requested and the artist states he will try to get something done by the coming Monday, but no progress is made and no further updates given. I asked if WIP progress was made on Tuesday, but was not replied to. Radio silence continues until August when I write a fairly lengthy message to the artist, and he does post a proper update journal to FA. After this point, a public queue is posted, and visible work does begin on those above us in the queue, and everything appears to be on track and going well. However, during this time, the artist took on another batch of commissions, opened for a YCH, and began working heavily on Patreon reward art. A WIP is promised, and not delivered. Another almost 2 weeks goes by, we’re removed from the queue, and other work begins on art from the new queue. Concerns are expressed. Patreon art, the YCH, and later accepted commissions are worked on and posted. A brief art stream occurs where progress finally begins, albeit only for a brief amount of time due to unruly, very crude, comments from unruly members of the stream audience that did not stop for some time despite prompting from the artist, myself, and other members of the stream audience. This causes the artist to become frustrated and stop working. This last part is completely understandable given the circumstances, but did serve as a roadblock for further progress. Several more weeks pass with yet more art from Patreon or commission work from later batches is completed and posted, and the artist opens for yet another batch of commissions. Growing frustrated, my friend and I decided it’s best to express our concerns to the artist once more. Difficult working hours on the artist’s part are discussed, and are certainly understandable (2 am to 10 am. Yikes!), but the lengthy amount of time passed and lack of communication during the past year had made the situation less understandable. A WIP is posted in response. Work continues throughout the week, but after the expression of major concerns and a very brief discussion of difficulties, responses are curt, if present at all. Requests for minor changes are not acknowledged verbally, but are put in place in following WIPs. Finally, the finished artwork is delivered.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/879939.html WHO: DaisyDuke on Weasyl, Gypsies on FA WHERE: https://www.weasyl.com/~daisydook http://www.furaffinity.net/user/gypsies/ WHAT: Art trade WHEN: March of 2014. This was back when I still went under the name "IndigoTheFennec." PROOF: http://i.imgur.com/zuN8ALG.png - Beginning of initial conversation. The next several messages were just planning out what was to be done, what I would draw, etc. Dialog began 7 March 2014 https://www.weasyl.com/submission/609528/trade-daisydook - My finished part of the art trade. Finished and posted 18 May. http://i.imgur.com/QxSn7DX.png - I messaged her on 1 July asking her if she'd done her part. Dialog 1-2 July. This is the last she has responded to me. http://i.imgur.com/8GPZisd.png - Message sent on 14 July of this year. Well over a year later, I still had not gotten a response, no art, nothing. I did my best to be understanding, but I got no response whatsoever despite being very polite. http://i.imgur.com/nPiSMNs.png - Shout I left on her page, today on 9 November. I would not be surprised if she deletes it. EXPLAIN: I approached DaisyDook well over a year ago for an art trade. She accepted, and while I did my part and delivered, she didn't. Despite promising that her half would "be up shortly," she never delivered and dropped contact mid-2014. She still remains active on FA, drawing, even doing trades, YCHs, and gifts for others. Look, I get it. Life gets ahead of people, and it's not like this was a commission she skipped out on. However, skipping town with the art I put my effort into and giving nothing in return, while offering no explanation, burns me up inside. I want answers, and I want this to be put to rest.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/879578.html WHO: Chuuchichu http://chuuchichu.deviantart.com/ https://www.pinterest.com/chuuchichu/ http://chuuland.tumblr.com/ http://chuuland.weebly.com/ http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/shadomu/28269981/ http://www.gaiaonline.com/profiles/bunnybutler/30781909/ Where: http://chuuchichu.deviantart.com/ What: May 2014 - Custom character design When: May 2014 Proof: http://imgur.com/a/PbFzw (Contains all the ones listed in this post along with a few extras) Explain: In May 2014, Chuuchichu held an auction where she would design for the winner a custom character from her Nemu species. I won this auction at $220 ($227 overall with fees) on my side account, Celebibonbon (http://chuuchichu.deviantart.com/art/NEMU-Custom-Auction-CLOSED-451902408). My main is Vespisia. Details were exchanged via notes (http://imgur.com/oSNfXGm) (http://imgur.com/e8lgNzr) and payment was made (http://imgur.com/s7QG3ky). We gave each other our Skypes for easier access (http://imgur.com/VvBAogE), and work was begun (http://imgur.com/diHadyl) (http://imgur.com/zpj7ZFN) (http://imgur.com/6QA0QfA). Progress was pretty good; I attended a livestream (I believe it was a Join.Me in the first week of June 2014 or so) and watched get work done on my character and it was nearing completion in just that one session, just needed a few more touches and shading done and some cleaning up to become fully completed. Chuuchichu sent me another note a bit later, inquiring about possibly scheduling a new livestream time to finish up the custom. Unfortunately, I dropped the ball during this part of the exchange, as I took several months to reply, during which time Chuuchichu sent me two notes that were follow-ups inquiring where I was (http://imgur.com/gtze9js) (http://imgur.com/UxXfd76). This part was certainly my fault. I would eventually reply to her in November 2014 (http://imgur.com/35EZWM6), and as can be seen in the screenshot (http://imgur.com/cQ9r61J), the note was read, but never replied to. Months would pass with no response, she had been fairly active before the advent of the custom auction, and afterwards, would be decently active, but I would realize in 2015 she stopped becoming active on DA and her many other sites around spring 2015 it seems. In any case, on Deviantart, I sent her a note in June 2015, asking for an update (http://imgur.com/sQmBgwN). It was not read. I sent her another note on August 2015, that note was also unread (http://imgur.com/BDn6G1N). I recently sent her a note in October (http://imgur.com/4AWfNmr), and that was also unread(http://imgur.com/qSixMt3). I also left a comment on her profile in July 2015 (http://imgur.com/hTogVwO), asking for an update, which was also not replied to. At one point, an old friend of hers contacted me, asking if I might know where Chuuchichu was, because as mentioned previously, she had gone inactive. I replied I did not know, and she expressed sympathies concerning the pending custom, agreeing that it was not a fair deal to me. I also sent Chuuchichu a message on Skype in June 2015 (http://imgur.com/qTdjtfV), which was never replied to. Other attempts included sending an email directly in July 2015 (http://imgur.com/PxRBqwR), and even asking one of her old friends (http://imgur.com/1kvBMOE) and a group she belonged to if they knew where she might have went, but no one had any idea. I began to think perhaps she had a medical emergency or something highly serious and time-consuming at the very least. But last night (11/5/15), I found her Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/chuuchichu/), and it turned out she was active. It seems to be her indeed, and she pinned things just a day or two ago. At this point in time, I am looking into filing a chargeback as multiple attempts to contact her on various platforms have all consistently failed, and she is clearly active. To summarize, 1. $227 commission for a custom character paid and started in May 2014. 2. Last discussion and update was June 2014 2.A. Part of this was definitely my fault as between June and November, she sent a few more notes, but I did not reply due to stressors from 'real life.' 3. Note sent from me to her in November 2014, was read and not replied to. 4. More notes sent in 2015 (three total), they are unread as of the moment, along with an email, a skype message, a profile comment on DA, and inquiring friends and groups if they knew where she is. 5. Found her on 11/5/15 clearly being active on Pinterest. 6. Looking into filing a chargeback now since multiple attempts at contact have failed. [Edit 10/11/15: I did not send the payment via gifts, I sent it through services, but yes, I did pay the fee for her. v_v Sorry for the confusion of my wording! Also, I've contacted Paypal and my bank on the 6th of this month or so, and both said it was too late now to file chargebacks. Instead, they advised me to take this to the police and the BBB, so here's hoping. I will be calling Paypal back though to let them know about how she had originally asked to send the payment + fees via the gift option.] Thank you for your time, everyone. EDIT/Adding more: On March 3 of 2016, Chuuchichu logged onto Skype and I was able to reach out and talk to her. She apologized and quickly issued me a full refund and was very respectful and mature in her handling of the situation and knowledge of receiving a beware. I consider the situation resolved now and believe Chuuchichu acted admirably and sincerely in her resolution.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/873487.html WHO: Tortle/ Jay/ Gatorbite WHERE: http://tortle.tumblr.com/ https://www.furaffinity.net/user/gatorbite/ https://www.weasyl.com/~tortle WHAT: Multiple commissions, including an art doll and a customized adoptable WHEN: Art doll was purchased in May of 2013. PROOF: Proof of payment for the art doll and adopt: https://41.media.tumblr.com/5d2465c81301f52d9dee05dc058c5587/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o7_r1_1280.png https://41.media.tumblr.com/e903d972329aa3a623cf7929c0b31176/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o9_r1_1280.png There were other commissions that were not completed, but I don't remember exactly what they were or how much they cost. EXPLAIN: In May 2013, I commissioned Tortle for an art doll. Over the next 2 years I commissioned him for many more things, as well as buying adoptables he put up for sale. While I recieved most of these, the doll and a handful of other commissioned pieces were not completed. In late 2014, Tortle became inactive on Tumblr and FA for several months, all the way up to May of this year. During this time, he would not respond to messages sent by myself or my partner. I have learned since that he did not respond to multiple other commissioners, either. In May of this year, I checked his Tumblr after waiting for a couple months– only to discover that he had been active again for weeks– dispite the fact that he STILL hadn’t replied to the multiple messages my partner and I had sent him. I sent Tortle a message asking for him to get in contact with me reguarding my commissions, which did not get any reply. However, my partner sent Tortle these two asks on Tumblr: https://40.media.tumblr.com/22b485b4e20c76afd639f130133d8013/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o3_1280.png https://41.media.tumblr.com/617c1f179e4b603be035eabdee3b1a5e/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o2_1280.png Tortle's response: https://40.media.tumblr.com/902f1208dc49364191ab6c9618a13937/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o1_1280.png This was the last and only message we’ve recieved from him since. He never got back to us to work anything out. We sent him multiple other messages, as well as messaging his partner in an effort to get into any kind of contact with him, all of which recieved no response. About a month ago, I was browsing the front page of FA when I saw an adoptable posted to a new account: gatorbite, which makes no reference to and does not link to his Tortle accounts. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt and hoped that he was making money to pay people back, and that he would get to people eventually. After a month or so of him posting adopts and commissions almost constantly, however, it became clear that this was not the case. Frustrated with Tortle’s unresponsiveness, I decided to note him asking what he planned to do about what he owed me and when – only to find out that he had blocked me on his gatorbite account, despite the fact that I had not watched him, favourited his art or interacted at all with him on that account previously. https://36.media.tumblr.com/e7a1f7e01b4d1df90dd7c11dd2d47db0/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o5_r1_1280.png https://40.media.tumblr.com/0ca6959ffcba7392358b4bd9f567e883/tumblr_nvjm8fRnfo1u6i3n1o4_r1_1280.png This gives me the impression that Tortle created his Gatorbite account to avoid the people he previously owed art and money. At this point, there doesn't seem to be anything I can do except post a beware. Tortle is not trustworthy and I strongly advise against commissioning him. Edit: Fixed a date that I thought I had already fixed, sorry

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/871926.html Below is the account of my experiences with Miikywhiskers/Aoifhe/Catslaps/412009074/Chisey/Nhyau/LiIIian/qewtie/Kiri-ty/Cattits. Here are the following Usernames I know of she has/may use as of now: http://nhyau.deviantart.com/ http://miikywhiskers.deviantart.com/ http://liiiian.deviantart.com/ http://412009074.deviantart.com/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/qewti/ http://kiri-ty.tumblr.com/ http://thunderpoon.deviantart.com/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/cuffedkitty/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/aoifhe/ On the date of February 4th 2015, I payed Chisey/Miikywhiskers, 80$ Some of which went to a character being payed off, a sketch, and the remaining 30$ went to a design commission. On the date of April 28th 2015 I asked if I could have my design drawn as such - http://nhyau.deviantart.com/art/kiri-ref-wip-529636970 (You can still see my comments in the bottom if she hasn't gone as far as to hide them - if so I provide a screen shot below. http://orig10.deviantart.net/8948/f/2015/237/f/4/ca35e316d6f4e6ef3baaf46f010e38bf_by_avomeir-d975xm1.png for another 15$ she said it would normally be twenty, so I met in the middle and sent 18$, later sending another 2$ to make 20$. Proof of all payments - http://orig00.deviantart.net/cf47/f/2015/245/4/0/90aa95d1099f1246b4a6dc1f9284c381_by_avomeir_d979q2_by_avomeir-d986cwd.png http://orig11.deviantart.net/8855/f/2015/245/3/4/0dff8c50761d75bc7abc529040e8ed3d_by_avomeir_d979q7_by_avomeir-d986cwi.png http://orig11.deviantart.net/d84b/f/2015/245/1/a/9562d25ae5902a2922d8cd4a19be3f7b_by_avomeir-d986eh1.png I waited paitently for four months, trying to understand whatever she may be going through I then asked about the satus of my commission, wondering if she had forgotten. Proof- http://orig02.deviantart.net/1c76/f/2015/238/c/0/eaaa5c04b3fa02c3eaa7203bc97aef62_by_avomeir-d979qq5.png She said she would try to get to it that day. That did not happen, and she spent the next two months taking on more ych's and doing various personal projects. I waited two more months. During which she said she wasn't going to do design commissions anymore and we could either change it for a substitute or a refund. I payed for a design. I didn't want anything else, I also didn't want a refund because she had already spent my money and there was no telling how long it would take for her to return it to me.(The journal this conversation took place on has since been removed, else I'd provide proper screenshots.) After a small dispute, and discussion she agreed to do my design. I received my design finally on August 12th 2015. http://orig02.deviantart.net/e4b9/f/2015/238/a/8/c8fd4a3fd61f0c37983d62961e32cfe6_by_avomeir-d979qqj.png This design is lovely, however not what I asked for. This design is on the waitress base, not the lines I requested and paid for. Seeing this I asked if I myself, or her could fix it. She had previously proclaimed to be profoundly busy throughout the past few months, so I assumed with what she had been saying, I would do so. She responded with "yeah sure doll :3" Sure to which?? Her or me doing it? Confused I followed up asking if I was going to do it. I waited 10 days, no response. So I used the lines above and placed the design on it. She went off on me, for drawing on something I paid for anyway. She wasn't going to create whole new lines for me, she was going to edit the current ones I picked out as a reference. So why it was such a big deal I'm not entirely sure. She is very point blank with her commissions, she doesn't go out of her way to make them better than what someone paid for. Conversation: http://orig04.deviantart.net/b760/f/2015/238/2/d/bf84322875a61109ed0856c3cebe39ea_by_avomeir-d979t2s.png At this time I had paid 50$ for another art piece by her upon which the design dispute happened she said she would refund me. The design dispute took place on August 22nd 2015. Proof of other commission- http://orig02.deviantart.net/b93a/f/2015/245/6/a/b3b878ffd8cffa02c56786f0da3d34e9_by_avomeir-d986g1t.png I noted her setting up a deadline for this refund on August 25, 2015. I gave her a month from when she said she would refund (which was the 22nd) me before I would attempt to charge back the money. However, unfortunately after looking into it, I can only charge back through my bank within 30 days of the transaction, and paypal will not dispute digital goods. Therefore my only means to have my money returned is her giving it back, seeing as she has not responded or been very compliant I do not foresee a refund at all. It is now the 23rd and I still have not received a refund. Proof of refund statement: http://orig07.deviantart.net/b8e8/f/2015/266/c/1/__by_avomeir-d9anskm.png Deadline: http://orig10.deviantart.net/4108/f/2015/246/b/3/f50bcfba820216e9e7907ebe6382edbd_by_avomeir-d98a356.png Proof she saw my message and knew about my deadline: http://orig00.deviantart.net/604e/f/2015/266/0/1/image_by_avomeir-d9amo2o.jpg I say "Atleast my, 50$" Because I sent this message - http://orig08.deviantart.net/133b/f/2015/238/9/d/4970feddd17d3be2579b44a9897bc5f0_by_avomeir-d97a6px.png Asking if I could also be returned my 20$ for not having my design drawn properly, however this was not required seeing as I had received atleast some of my good purchased. I wasn't going to demand for a refund of that 20$ Overall, it has been difficult to work with her. She does not cooperate with her customers, and will take entirely too long on your commission, coming up with plenty of excuses as to why it's not done. Please take this is a warning to all of those thinking of purchasing from her. Until she gets her act together and stops procrastinating and not having money to refund if needed, do not purchase anything from her. It is in Your best interest.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/865907.html I'm going to go ahead and post this beware because Echoen has given every indication that he refuses to resolve the issue. Post contains suggestive nudity, but nothing too explicit. WHO: Echoen http://www.furaffinity.net/user/echoen https://echoen.sofurry.com/ https://inkbunny.net/Echoen https://www.weasyl.com/~echoen https://www.patreon.com/Echoen WHERE: My specific issue is with his Patreon. WHAT: Digital commission which he used for commercial purposes without my knowing, much less my approval, despite the fact he agreed to my TOS when he commissioned me. My TOS has always stated that I reserve all rights to my work, conform the law for freelance creatives as opposed to, for example, work for hire. It should be mentioned that this was a €5,- commission and it cannot be reasonably assumed that the cost also covers any rights in addition to the custom artwork, much less commercial rights, nor was there any indication that the work would be used commercially when he commissioned it. WHEN: August 2014 until Juli 2015, which is when I confronted him. EXPLAIN: September 2012 I had a sale on "Itty Bitty Commissions" which is what I call a small, digital, flat-colour, 1 character commission (example). They were so-called "wing-it" commissions, where I would receive payment and a character description and draw it and the customer would receive the finished drawing. Echoen contacted me and told me he needed a badge for a convention. It was rather last minute, but turn around was fast (a few hours to a day usually) and I moved him to the head of the queue to make sure he had it in time, just to be nice. I also gave him several options (1, 2, 3, 4), all at no extra cost. Again, I was just trying to be nice and a good artist and give good customer service. And Echoen seemed really happy with the work, which he uploaded a week later.) I thought that was going to be that; customer was happy, I was happy, end of story. Right? Juli 2015 I find out he's using it as a header for his Patreon, which is receiving almost $300 a month. Now I have a Patreon, and I know I thought carefully about which image to put up as a header to hopefully draw folks in and support me financially. This is definitely commercial use, as it's effectively advertisement, and Pixsy (a site that helps you local potential abuse of your work, they work with legal partners) agrees with me, filing it under commercial matches. I contacted Echoen, telling him I'd license him the image if he wanted to continue the image for his Patreon. He responded by taking it down and.. Nothing. No "oops, sorry!" or anything. That said, he'd still used the image commercially for 11 months, even though he had agreed not to. I told him I still needed to be compensated for that use, and sent him an invoice for a $110, which is entirely fair considering how much he's getting every month. After this is pretty much devolves into him stomping his feet, making up nonsense reasons as to why he shouldn't have to pay and suggesting he received "legal counsel" which agreed with this point of view. The screenshots. Him. Me. Him. Me. I asked him to have his lawyer (typically, legal advisors are lawyers.) contact me instead and then he went silent. Artists beware, Echoen has no respect for you or your rights at all. He'd comment on my work the entire time he had my art up on his Patreon (with my name effectively cropped out of the art!) and we chatted on FA; he had every opportunity to ask me about the work or mention the fact he was using it on his Patreon and never did. He's pleasant to your face, but when confronted with the consequences of his own voluntarily actions he becomes patronizing and will attempt to intimidate you into relenting. To this day he still hasn't even apologized a single time for abusing my work. He takes no responsibility for his own actions at all but instead goes to extreme lengths to avoid it. I ignored some warnings about him and this exact kind of behavior in 2012 after I finished the Itty Bitty Commission, and now I wish I'd heeded them, refunded his 5 bucks and had the work removed. Please don't make the same mistake I made, avoid him. Useful link: List of common but invalid excuses to copyright infringement as written by an attorney.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/855169.html WHO: mixideer, mixipony, miss-mixi, mixisweets WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/mixideer WHAT: Art trade: wing-it piece of my character for a custom furset of their character made on IMVU WHEN: initial conversation: March 29th, Finished my half April 13th PROOF: Album of images, some contain NSFW: http://imgur.com/a/TiJmI individual images will be linked in the story below EXPLAIN: Mixi approached me at the end of March asking about a custom furset made on IMVU. I proposed a trade over my normal currency of IMVU credits since I had already been watching her and liked her art. She said she could totally do that and requested I add her on skype. (http://i.imgur.com/UXN2FCS.png) On skype we confirmed an art trade (http://i.imgur.com/CfSy82F.png) I told her which character I would like drawn and gave her the first WIP (http://i.imgur.com/csLWyQb.png) I always give many WIPs as I work because I want to make sure everything is perfect. I had a slight delay in working because I had another commission that was paid in full, whereas I had not gotten the art for this one. I message her letting her know why I had been delayed and gave her more WIPs (http://i.imgur.com/uloGY9j.png) She says it's amazing and I gift it to her account (http://i.imgur.com/rKcoN5Q.png) Proof that I sent the skin over (http://i.imgur.com/8MB4HEZ.png) I can provide proof for each individual piece of the set but I am not sure that's necessary. Note: the price is high because I change the price from 0 personal profit to a high number after gifting it. This helps me keep track of what I have delivered and prevents anyone from accidentally buying it when I unhide it in the shop to be visible as an example of my work. Ten days after I have given her the furset I notice that I am not on her to-do list and message her on skype asking if I will be added to it. She says she is sorry for not having me there and adds me to it. May comes and goes and on June 11th I message her asking if she has worked on the art she owes me. She apologizes and said she is behind on work (http://i.imgur.com/TcXTXgc.png) Since me asking for an update she has posted a few gift art pieces and even did a freebie stream. She has also been posting a lot of YCHs. She has also posted journals for more commissions. I am a little anxious and message her again on the 23rd, expressing that it has been two months and would like an estimate on when the piece will at least be started (http://i.imgur.com/SKMQWfO.png) She was online when I messaged her but I did not get a response. I went to bed and woke up and still did not have a response. The morning after I messaged asking for information on our trade she was streaming. In the stream it was clear that she was on skype. As she checked messages when streaming (http://i.imgur.com/AHlRFWx.png) I decided to follow up my message since I knew she was online and on skype (http://i.imgur.com/ti9Dh1n.png) I understand not wanting to talk business during a stream and waited patiently for the stream to be over, figuring she would message me once people were no longer watching. The stream finished with her saying she was going to bed and I did not get any message back from her. Not even a simple "hey, I am sorry, I will have to message you tomorrow since it's late" After my messages had still not been responded to she makes a journal claiming to be on holiday and to have been gone over the weekend (http://i.imgur.com/hJA79Fs.png). This does not explain why my art has not been finished as I messaged her before the weekend she claims to have been gone during and she has been working on art both before and after this journal was posted. Her to-do list says "(I REPEAT, I DO NOT DRAW THESE IN ORDER, I DRAW THEM IN ORDER TO HOW I'M FEELING) Up to a few weeks wait or a few days of ordering, finished at least within the month." but it has been over two months since I completed my half and even longer since the trade was decided on. I am upset because I just wanted something, anything, drawn of my character. It was a wing-it piece so she could have easily used one of the YCH poses for it. She said she was behind on work but was actively taking and completing commissions and YCHs. I had to request to be added to her to-do list and now I have been actually ignored. Uploading products to IMVU is not free. I had to pay to submit those products and then pay to gift them to her. I have spent actual currency on this. This is not something I can get back. The only thing I can do is edit the products I have sent her with textures that are solid black with "Payment not recieved" in white across it. This will make the products useless to her but will still not get me my money back Update 1 - July 1st: Mixi has messaged me after seeing this beware (http://i.imgur.com/nwP355B.png) And I have responded (http://i.imgur.com/W2FEqzS.png) I also told her an amount and my paypal but the screencap cuts out and I figured it would be best to leave out since I would have to censor the information regardless. Update 2 - July 5th: I have not heard from Mixi after giving her the information she asked for in order to give me payment for the set. So I sent her a message asking for a response, (http://i.imgur.com/R1seooI.png) she has been online and has posted a new journal on FA in which she has removed me from her To-Do list, but still has not responded to me. Update 3 - July 8th: Still waiting on a response from Mixi despite her being active on FA, I message her again (http://i.imgur.com/Ja7rxvz.png) I am starting to question if she will ever get back to me. Update 4 - July 13th: I do not message people this often when waiting on art, but now this has become me waiting on payment for an already delivered good and I have not gotten a response from her in nearly two weeks while she has still been posting on FA. I send her another message (http://i.imgur.com/UQf8p4t.png) Update 5 - July 14th: After having been contacted by a concerned 3rd party, Mixi has sent me my payment. (http://i.imgur.com/ev3GZ4y.png) She has not actually said anything to me at all since the message she sent to me on the 1st. I have received my payment and so this can be tagged as resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/854962.html WHO: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vov (NSFW Content) Unsure if there are anymore.. WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vov (NSFW Content) WHAT: Digital Pin-Up WHEN: 2/18/15 Initial contact was made. The entire transaction seemed shady… PROOF: Details and Transaction Notes: 2/18 http://i60.tinypic.com/2lmvxxh.jpg Paypal Receipt: http://i60.tinypic.com/5fhnjl.jpg Follow-Up Strange Question: 2/19 http://i58.tinypic.com/2r5evj4.jpg Update? 3/25 http://gyazo.com/a6b0248bce418ed5ddd388a8cc2c372d My Follow-Up 4/9 - http://gyazo.com/1d9f15879e59b0cbec604a1e7f30eb13 Was in hopes of having it completed for my birthday. – No response received from artist. 4/18 Questioning if it is too late to cancel since I had not heard back: http://i.gyazo.com/ac6e89d1b852c0587499d2dc4a3e9156.png EXPLAIN: The whole entire transaction had seemed shady from the start, however a few people I know on FA had commissioned this artist as well, so I jumped on board myself. The notes explain the reason for my discomfort with the artist. I very rarely follow-up with trusted artists, and even when I do it’s 60-90 days out.. I always feel like I am a bother asking for an update. In any event – I hadn’t heard any responses back from this artist at all, only one person had their commission completed out of the batch of 4. Recently, today, the initial thread was deleted and the artist posted another commission opening. http://i57.tinypic.com/whjm1e.png (NSFW) This same submission was reposted multiple times. I aimed to question if the prior batch would be completed and found that I was blocked. (PROOF) http://i57.tinypic.com/2uynau1.png To date I have received no sketch, update, response, or anything from the artist.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/851367.html UPDATE: Contact was made, work was finished to my satisfaction. Issue is now resolved. I stand with the other posting regarding this artist, as communication was non existent. My take away is that I will research more and keep on communication, as I think now that 3 months between contact points are a bit long. Who: FA user Nuka_foxy3 Where: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/nukafoxy3/ What: Full color portrait of a character from a description. When, Proof and explanation all laid out below Pinged the artist on March 17th. Asked if she would be open to a description only commission. I was doing this in a batch with 3 others. 1 2 Commission idea was accepted, payment was sent. paypal record.JPG A journal was posted about 3 months later, she stated that she did not keep up with notes, and if her commissioners had not heard from her to contact her reminding her about the commission. I posted in the thread, she stated that she hadn't forgotten about it. (cannot post anything from this, journal was deleted.) Sent a note on August 29th 2014 asking for an update. Got a fairly sharp response. 3 Sent the next note January 19th, 2015. Was assured that I would have something in a week. That was 4 months ago. No additional updates have been given. 4 This was my final note. She tells me that I need to re send her the details, as she has deleted the note. She had planned to have my things done in a week in January, and then decided to delete the note with the description between then and now. 5.JPG I am writing this because it has been well over a year since the commission was agreed upon and paid for. I don't expect my money back or delivered product at this time. I followed instructions, I allowed the responsibility that should have been hers to be placed on me. She has broken 2 promise dates, and made me contact her to figure out if she still knew that she owed me work. In the year that has passed, 80+ commissions have shown up on her account, and she has opened up for commissions and YCH's and trades and badges and everything else.

Back in January 2022, I contacted scaretactik via email to inquire about a commission. I originally came across their art via twitter and at the time and still since then, their display name has always read as their commissions being open; they have taken more comms & emergency comms since. I did read in the artist's carrd beforehand that they can be slow with completing comms, but I admittedly still didn't expect to be waiting over a year later– this and the lack of communication and other surrounding details has me unsure of whether the art will be completed, hence why I am submitting this beware. Here's the initial email from January of 2022 and a receipt for the PayPal payment: Before sending the payment, I instead DM'd scaretactik on twitter since they stated it as being preferable, and that's where we would continue to communicate up until October of 2022: After January 2022, the next time I heard from scaretactik was when I reached out 6 months later in July to ask if an update was available. Scaretactik got back to me and brought up being agreeable to a deadline, so I asked if a month following this would be alright but that I would also just be happy to receive a WIP rather than the full finished piece. I did not receive an answer to my response/I did not hear back from scaretactik further at this time: The next time I spoke with scaretactik was when I reached out a second time in September of 2022, another 2 months later. I was told that I could expect to receive a WIP shortly and that they were appreciative of my patience; I did understand that they had some things going on so I was still content to wait at this point: However, I did not receive a WIP/any further messages from scaretactik at this time until I reached out again in October. These are the last DMs we exchanged before moving over to discord: Scaretactik soon after messaged me via discord with a WIP on the 18th. It was very barebones, but I was happy to finally receive something and stated being okay with the idea they were going for: The next time I heard from scaretactik was on November 4th then the 7th when I received another update, though the sketch/idea had been changed. I liked how it was looking so I didn't mind the alteration and also gave it my okay: After this, I received another update on November 10th, but the sketch for my piece had once again been changed. I didn't mind the revision so I gave it my okay as well: This is where the periods of silence started up again. I reached out a month later on December 11th to inquire about any possible updates and to ask if scaretactik had a trello or queue tracker. I did receive another picture of my piece, but there didn't seem to be any progress made and again, it had been revised without my knowledge. This time, I was unhappy with the direction of the unexpected revision, so I wasn't entirely sure how to respond & initially forgot to and didn't get back to scaretactik until the 14th when I voiced my concern: This is the last time (December 14th of 2022) I have heard from scaretactik. I've reached out again on February 19 of this year and more recently on March 15th, but neither of my messages have been replied to. I don't know at this point if I will receive my comm or if the quality will be what I paid for/if more unexpected changes will be made since it's now going on 5 more months of silence, so I'm submitting this beware: I don't mind waiting as long as needed but do feel forgotten about and am just disappointed with how communications & updates have been handled. I would be glad to still receive my comm but dislike pushing for updates and am already exhausted with this situation; I'm open to hearing from scaretactik and working something out, I harbor no ill will towards them.

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

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/832525.html 3/5/2015: Added a link to the chatlog into "PROOF" WHO: kaheiyattsu WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kaheiyattsu , https://inkbunny.net/kaheiyattsu WHAT: Four sketched images WHEN: Janurary 16, 2014 PROOF: Now I don't really have proof over the agreement of the images since the conversation was over at my desktop before I had to lose it, which means that chatlog along with it was also lost over in Skype, but I do have proof of him making claim of cancelling my commission out of a rather dense reason, and the transaction I made over paypal. Conversation: https://db.tt/clJa1npq and the Transaction: https://db.tt/1n1JGS6l I'm not going to be taking a picture of the whole conversation, I can't find myself doing that since it would be extremely time-consuming but I can however link the whole chatlog here: https://db.tt/F5ufbtjV EXPLAIN: The incident occured over Skype with our chat, he knew well enough he owes me the images until he started talking about a specific species he hates out of no clear reason, and after a while after figuring I'd like to change my Skype icon since the one I had was getting old, he suddenly threw a fit at me, telling me to change it because of how much someone's icon just bothers him when he could just ignore it. Nonetheless, it all ended up with him saying he was no longer going to make my images, with no mention of a refund either. I will not stand for this nonsense, so it's either he gives me back my money, or he finishes my image, I can't even contact him since he's blocked and removed me from all the contacts I had him in, I even tried to email him but there's no response at all, so I'm taking it that he's just gonna get away with this being the con-artist he is.