Search the Community

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/829508.html It's really disheartening to have to come forward with this report, but after having patience and trying to negotiate with the artist, I have begun to feel like I had no choice on this matter, especially after many people have instructed me to come forward. I apologize for this post being very long; I wanted to make sure I included all the details I possibly could. Who/Where: Fursuit Maker: Frostcat-Studio / Ritz_Bitz / Ritz_Tweeting When I originally considered looking into getting my first fursuit, I had only heard of this maker through the recommendation of a mutual friend. From looking at their gallery, they seemed to have very nice work and I was given the impression that they could provide me with similar work. What: One Partial Fursuit ($1200) I had originally contacted Ritz for a fursuit in June of 2014 and on June 27th we agreed to a price of $1200 to make my partial, which included a large tail and also a set of wings. Here you can see Ritz had offered to add a magnetic feature to the wings so they could be worn under a shirt with a harness and I was charged and extra $170 for this addition. ->The email can be viewed here <- (Our conversation is very casual as we had been united through a mutual friend) On September 20th 2014, I confirmed my slot and placed my 50% down payment. -> Link for Proof <- (Ritz real name has been blanked) Then, on November 25th 2014 I paid my remaining $600. (The screen shot shows a total of an additional $1200 as I also paid off the remaining $600 on the mutual friend's balance to help them out. That amount is not related to my entry) -> Link for final Payment Proof <- Explain: At first, Ritz kept very good communication when working on my fursuit and seemed interested in making it "just right". She replied to my inquires often and kept reliable contact with me, even sending me work in progress images from time to time. While I would get pictures, I never really was sure what I was looking at in terms of what she had been doing; I was never given any explanation and was issued vague descriptions, which is possibly my fault for not speaking up on but I had never commissioned a suit before and felt I should place my trust in the maker to do their job. The first red flag that came to me was when she would inquire about my second payment and instead of contacting me directly, she would ask the mutual friend to remind me on her behalf. This really struck me as odd given the mutual friend was not working for Ritz and my contact information was established prior. I ended up ignoring my gut on this issue given the mutual friend was close to both of us and since this was a friendly transaction, I considered it to just be another casual aspect of the entire affair. Ritz proposed the completion date (By Further Confusion 2015) and said that having it complete by this time would be no issue, so I planned to attend this convention so I could have a good time fursuiting for the first time. Overall, the anticipation building for this costume was immense as I would be flying in from Florida to attend the convention in California just to have a chance to wear it for the first time. On January 4th (approximately 10 days before the convention), I was shown images of my completed fursuit via Twitter and Skype. The images were not close ups or anything, so from first appearances I was excited. While it wasn't the quality I had expected, I was still excited to have a costume regardless. I should take responsibility for my qualms with the quality as when browsing her gallery I had not noticed the suits that stood out to me were all built on headbases made by other fursuit makers when mine would be built from scratch; That being said my expectations for what I would receive were not completely accurate and it was my fault for not researching further. Regardless, I told her I was happy with it visually and was eager to wear a fursuit for the first time. Overtime, I ended up coming into a disagreement with the mutual friend who had connected Ritz and I for the commission and we began to grow apart. I didn't think it would effect my commission with Ritz in anyway, but later on I would find it was quite the opposite. (This is only important to note as it will become relevant later on.) Originally, the suit was going to be shipped to the mutual friend and delivered to me at the convention however due to (what I can only assume to be) rising tension, the mutual friend opted not to deliver the costume to me. Given I was flying in from across the country, I asked a friend from Southern California to have it shipped to them instead since they would be driving to the convention. The friends who ended up having the fursuit shipped to them did not open the box in any way until they found me at the convention and I opened it myself. January 15th When I made it to the convention, I met up with my friends from Southern California (I was also rooming with them) and they had my fursuit box in the hotel room waiting for me. At first glace, I was already very upset. The box was very poorly packaged and looked very ragged. I would have thought it could have been mangled by the postal service but it seemed the degrading box was actually taped up in areas where it was falling apart and that tape was laid beneath the original packing where the shipping information was. It was very clear that Ritz reused a battered and trashed box to ship my $1200 product and my concern began to grow before I had even seen the costume. Upon opening the box, the first thing that was staring at me was a foot paw that was falling apart. The box had just been opened and the suit was already damaged in quite visible ways. Thankfully, I had a room full of witnesses that helped me gather pictures of the unboxing. Here is a visual collection of the damages that we discovered. -> The footpaws were separating from the shoes (That I had to purchase myself and ship to her) before they were ever worn. -> The bottom Jaw and horns were crooked and the head was barely foamed so it would lose it's shape when not worn. -> The seam in the fur on the direct center of the muzzle was popped despite never having been worn yet. -> The balaclava was not attached with only a few tiny dabs of hot glue and separated from the foam and also has various holes in it. -> In fact, the Balaclava had MANY holes in it. -> The fur on the hand paws was poorly shaved and some of the claws were upside down. -> The shave job was uneven and jagged. -> And in some places, the fur was shaved all the way down to the backing. Now, as you can imagine, I was not very pleased to open the box and discover the suit was in such a mess after never being worn. Some of the mistakes I saw were very common from beginner suit makers however I was given the impression that Ritz was NOT a new maker and had enough experience to warrant the $1200 price tag (which could buy a partial from many makers who would not have made these mistakes). On top of all these issues, I discovered that the set of wings I had ordered for this costume did not feature any magnetic attachments at all. Instead, the wings were sewn directly into a harness made from elastic straps, making it impossible to wear them without having the harness worn on top of my clothes. This was also very upsetting given Ritz had offered to make this feature for me and charged me an additional $170 for it, yet never once mentioned to me during the construction process that they would no longer be doing the magnet idea. I immediately decided to contact Ritz as she was at the convention and perhaps she could do enough quick fixes so I could at least wear my fursuit; I did fly in from across the country just to wear it around afterall. I didn't mind waiting on fixing the other issues, but I at least wanted some help fixing the shoes. I decided to contact our mutual friend to get in touch with Ritz because I had no other way to reach her at the time. We met up and I explained what the problems were and she agreed to get the feet fixed. We went to Ritz's hotel room and she did a quick hot glue job on the paws with me standing there. It was not very thorough but it seemed like it was enough to keep them together for the time being. I also had the chance to ask about the missing magnets and she explained that there were no magnets strong enough to hold the wings in place (which isn't true since you can order some that can hold up to 75lbs!) so she opted to sew them to the harness without informing me to meet the tight deadline. After Ritz "fixed" the feet, I went back to my hotel room and decided to wear my suit as it was to try and enjoy the convention. The next morning, I went to participate in the fursuit parade and that was when the fur on my foot paws began to separate again; this time on both feet. Additionally, the buckram connected to the plastic to make the eyes began to separate and peel from the plastic. This was also when I noticed that the plastic has been hastily cut and there were strands of of debris going into the space where my actual eyes were. After the parade, I found Ritz again to show her what was happening with my brand new suit and she seemed very disinterested in my issues. When I brought attention to the issue with the eye popping out, both Ritz and the mutual friend (whom was with her the entire con) began to give me sass and snark about not being "too rough" with the costume then walked off without making any attempt to help me with the situation. I was pretty appalled at this reaction given I paid so much money for a costume to wear and was basically being told not to wear it if I didn't want it to fall apart. I had been just wearing the suit like any normal person would, I wasn't jabbing the eyes in with my finger or anything for goodness sake. It was at this point the mutual friend decided to get involved and began sending me text messages that said I was being rude and "mean" to Ritz for contacting her about these issues and the issues in question were not her fault. Why was the suit maker's friend getting involved and handling this situation? This had nothing to do with them so why were they acting as a messenger for Ritz? At this point, I was given the very strong impression that Ritz no longer wanted to provide me with any help for the costume, so in order to make it wearable I asked for the help of my friends (I was rooming with) to help me do minor repairs. I was forced to go out and buy a glue gun and ask a friend to cut time from her convention experience to keep the suit intact. During the time we spent fixing it, we also began to see even more issues with the craftsmanship. -> The zipper on the back of the head was glued to the fur instead of sewn and began to separate. -> The horns were discovered to have no foam to anchor them, explaining why they were crooked. I think the majority of my convention time was spent with a friend trying to repair this costume. We were absolutely sure not to modify anything, just attempt to repair the poor craftsmanship. After a certain point, my friend explained to me that we should stop repairing it all together because the state it was in just couldn't be saved at a convention. I attempted to contact Ritz once more via twitter DMs to try and show her the state of the suit before the end of the convention but she unfortunately decided to start ignoring me. I was polite and kind because I wasn't mad as much desperate to fix these issues. It was such a frustrating experience because I just wanted some resolution for this costume that I spent a large sum of money on and the person who sold it to me made me feel like they had zero concern for the situation now that the money was already in their hands. To make things worse, a few hours later Ritz began tweeting about me to try and detract from my issues, implying that I was picking on them because I had a disagreement with the mutual friend. This was just the end to my willingness to work with this fursuit maker anymore and I ended up sitting in tears while friends comforted me. One of my friends began discussing things with Ritz on twitter because it very strongly felt that she would not be dealing with me beyond this point and Ritz began stating that the problems with the costume were not actually there nor her fault and began to explain that the situation had very much been influenced by my falling out with the mutual friend. My friend then decided to take the conversation with her in private and they discussed the situation because Ritz still would not talk directly to me. During the private conversation with my friend, Ritz admitted to rushing my fursuit and stated that she could not afford to refund the costume but would work out a plan after the convention to make things right. She also stated that it was "shitty" or me to not want repairs at this point and called it unreasonable. I may be unreasonable for not wanting repairs, but I don't trust this individual with my money anyone given these problems would not exist if the care needed was put in to begin with not to mention the constant avoidance with my problems. I did not feel this person wanted to fix things correctly. After Ritz had conversation with my friend, it was decided that after the convention she would absolutely talk to me about the problems with the costume and find a resolution. (I can provide screen shots of this entire conversation if necessary, however I opted to leave them out initially as so my friend would not be dragged into the issue. I firmly believe this should have stayed between Ritz and myself and the constant involvement from third parties has really caused more drama than needed.) January 20th (2015) Two days after the convention, Ritz contacts me on Skype and begins trying to work out a situation from the suit. She begins by offering me two options; One is to send the suit back for repairs or I can send the suit to be stripped and turned into a different character that she can sell. She tells me that I can not be refunded 30% of the fursuit cost as the cost of the materials can not be returned. Despite finding that option to be very unfair (given I would be returning the suit to her so she could recoup her losses and the reason for refund was not a cancellation but rather the product was broken and the fault was hers), I agreed and stated that after all that had happened and the personal involvement of her friend causing tension I did not want it refurbished; I just wanted a refund. She also explains to me that she -can not refund me at all- until I return the suit and she resells it, thus leaving my money weighing on the uncertainty of weather or not the suit sells and if it does, would it sell for the $800 she says I am owed? She insists she will not refund money until I send the suit back, however that was understandable and we agreed. She also mentions at the same time that she will send $200 refund in "good faith" (that I have never since seen). I am kind and understanding with her and even apologetic for the situation that unfolded despite being at no fault myself. I wanted to make things right and I felt bad that she had spent the last few days tweeting about never wanting to make suits again. I felt guilty for the distress I put her through so I even said I would think about letting her repair the suit after she pushed that option on me constantly (despite saying I did not want it). She additionally admits to her friend's presence having effected her business with me and even the way she treated me as a customer, which sent even more red flags to me, but she genuinely seemed like she wanted to make things right so I did my best to return it. Her main concern throughout the entire conversation was her name and reputation, which seemed very off-putting given I felt her main concern should have been to fix the situation with my costume. -> Conversation can be found here <- January 30th (2015) About ten days after our conversation, I gave Ritz my final decision. I took note to how stressed she was over the decision and gave her time to come down from the ordeal. I politely explained to her that I did not feel comfortable sending her the suit and waiting for her to resell it before I would receive any money. I stated that I would gladly return the suit after I was refunded and left it at that. -> Link to Conversation <- The Next day, Ritz replies to me stating that she can not refund me for the amount I am owed until I return the suit in parts for her to resell and asks for a week to figure something out. She explains that she will use her tax refund to pay me the money I am owed and I reassure her that I can wait for a refund as long as it needs to be. My main concern is still that I do not want to return the goods until I am compensated for them. This is when her contact slows to a grinding halt. She openly begins to dodge my communication and puts me on the back burner and does not contact me in any way unless I put an effort into contacting her. February 12th I end up contacting her as it has been nearly two weeks since her last contact with me. Again, I am civil and I calmly ask what the game plan is for the situation. On February 14th I get a reply in which she states that her tax refund was small and she would not be able to refund me from that money. She also goes back on her word in stating that she would refund me and takes an aggressive tone, calling our agreed upon solution to be "unfair" and says that my failure to trust her is preventing me from getting my money back. Now, I'm going to throw some personal opinion in here but...how am I being unfair? She agreed to refund me and suddenly is changing her tune and even going as far as to insinuate that this situation is my fault for "not trusting her". The problem is, I already trusted her with $1200 to deliver a product to me in functioning order. She not only failed to do that, but she also insulted me, ignored me and went as far as to try and claim her faulty craftsmanship (which she admitted to) was -my- fault. Yes, I do not trust her with giving me my money back and I will not relinquish the costume until I am given a refund. I am not asking for both the suit and a refund, I am asking to be compensated -before- I give up the costume. The artist's financial issues are not my concern, what is my concern is the money that she had taken from me and will not return. -> This reply can be viewed here <- She has dodged contact with me and has put me in a situation where I am not sure if I am going to have this situation resolved. On February 17th, I contacted her asking for her to talk to me when I was online as I didn't enjoy playing message tag when the subject was so important. I tried once more on the 18th to reach out and beg for conversation on the topic and reaffirmed my stance about her taking back the product to resell. I even went as far as to offer my phone number to try and resolve the issue but she had left me in the dark, all while spending time on twitter and talking to other people on skype. I am fully aware I am being ignored and it's gotten to the point where I am getting ready to file a charge back on paypal if this doesn't get resolved soon. -> Proof of contact attempts <- (screen shots were taken on 2/18/2015) 2/21 - Ritz contacted me in response to my final message in which I explained that I felt that I didn't believe it was fair to charge me for materials when I would be returning the suit for her to recoup that loss and because the issue with the costume was not due to cancellation or error on my end. I admit that I did change my mind in terms of the refund I was willing to accept though the advice of many friends and other artists swayed my mind. I did agree that taking a partial refund for having zero product on an issue that was no fault of my own felt very wrong, but I may be out of line for having brought that up and changing my stance I take responsibility for that. She responded aggressively, again cursing at me and using profanity. I was given a "final option" in which I was told I will wait until she gets her tax refund after I return the broken merchandise she had given me before I will receive any financial compensation. I don't feel that this is ever a way an artist or suit maker should ever talk to or treat a client, but maybe I am bitter and misinterpreted her reply as more rude than it actually was. I politely asked her to calm down because her abrasive reply felt very flustered and asked her to give me a phone call so we can figure things out. She explains that she can't handle phone calls due to anxiety so despite it being a difficult work around for me (my work generally keeps me very busy) I understand her position and tell her I can easily wait for her to finish helping a friend move out. She asks me if I would "actually want to resolve this civilly" which struck me as rude given I don't feel I have been anything but? - > Conversation <- As of now, it is 2/27/15 and we have not resolved the issue at all. I feel like I am constantly being fed excuses, ignored and just treated very poorly in general and as a customer that paid $1200 for a costume that is barely wearable, I feel like this shouldn't be the case? I just feel like I'm stuck in a run around and I can't help but think I'm not doing the wrong thing? This is the first time I've ever commissioned a fursuit so perhaps my inexperience is what keeps this situation from being resolved? I'd be happy to take fault if I knew what I was doing wrong! I'm hoping that in posting this entry, I can warn people about this maker's shady business practices, lack of professionalism and lack of concern for their customers. I'm also hoping this may be the final nudge needed to get Ritz to acknowledge me and resolve the situation before I file for a charge back on Paypal. $1200 is quite a sum of money to be over drafted and I would absolutely prefer not to financially break this artist. I just want resolution, I want her to give me a game plan and show concern for the situation and give me a refund for the broken product she gave me. EDIT: 3/4/2015 On the day this entry had been posted, Ritz returned from attending an Anime convention and contacted me. She has posted the caps herself below, however just to be sure, here is the gist of what was said: -> Conversation <- While yes, she did offer to refund me $800, she also went on to bring up unexpected bills she mentioned on twitter and debts which made me feel extremely guilty in accepting any money from her when her personal life needed the money so much more. As I have said countless times, I am not out to be a bully in any way; I just want a refund for the broken costume I was given. Later in the day while I was at work, Ritz confronts me on skype with this: I wasn't even aware the entry had been posted at that point as I was on patrol at work (I am a police officer) and she begins getting aggressive on me, stating that she thought this was resolved and saying she was insulted. For one thing, this post was made days prior when I had not yet received any contact, secondly I would never consider this issue to be revolved until the money is in my hands and the fursuit was in hers. At this point, she offers me a NDA Contract because she no longer "trusts" me for having made this entry. Ritz is well aware that I have now requested a full $1200 for my refund because as others have mentioned here, I should not take a material cost loss when the issues with the transaction were not my own. The contract is incredibly damaging for me in which is states that I am unable to speak of the event in public or to third parties and states that Ritz may deduct from my refund if she is unable to sell the broken suit she crafted. I have screen capped the contract issued to me (I had to censor our names) and would like AB's input. -> The NDA/Contract I was offered <- (Ritz is the first party where as I am the second) I do not feel comfortable having to sign a contract to have the money I am owed returned to me; I feel like this is a form of blackmail in order to try and silence me if I want the money I am owed back, furthermore the amount offered is not what I am requesting. I want a full refund and that is what I am standing firm on, especially if Ritz is going to refurbish and sell the broken merchandise I was sold. I do not feel fit signing a binding legal agreement that states I am unable to make "any other online postings about the other party" I am additionally saddened by Ritz response here in the community claiming I have falsified any documentation in this entry and went as far as to accuse me of Libel and Slander within the proposed contract. I have not fabricated any of the content within this journal nor would I have had to should I received a functioning product to begin with. I also asked a few friends to review the contract that was presented to me, to which Ritz stated I should never do unless I approach a lawyer. I am in disbelief I was scolded for asking for input before signing a binding legal contract and that made me feel like Ritz knowingly attempted to shaft me. Additionally, while discussing the public image Ritz has gained from this entryI was suddenly confronted with Ritz's fiance (who could not bother to spell my name correctly). I expressed to him that I have no interest in talking to him about the transaction and want Ritz to be present. She returns and demands I resolve this tonight -> Conversation <- At this phase, I am done playing games with Ritz. I am tired of being treated like a bully or a bad guy when I have done all I can to be agreeable and helpful with this situation. My job requires a very taxing amount of my time and I can't be bothered to jump through hoops anymore. I have issues Ritz a final statement and that is where I am leaving it. I will not be accepting any amount under the original $1200 I have paid and if a resolution is not reached within the week, I will be filing a charge back OR if that fails I will be taking legal action. Ritz has proven to me that her reputation takes precedence above her clients and that is why I can not be bothered to be involved in her personal financial matters or give leniency anymore. -> My final statement to her about the matter <- At this point, this issue is not resolved despite Ritz claiming it to be so on social media. Edit 2: Ritz has now hidden her twitter from public view due to her initiating issues with people discussing this entry and claiming she was harassed. I do not support anyone causing her trouble on social media and I have not encouraged any of that behavior. Edit 3: Approximately one hour after I had amended this entry with the NDA they proposed to me, Ritz contacted me again and negotiated a refund. Her reply was as unprofessional as the rest and was of course not without an attempted guilt trip. She assumed my commentary about conventions and ski trips were about money when in reality it was about her lack of contact with me (in the cases where I was told she was too busy to negotiate with me). After accusing me of harassment and reminding me about her tax refund, I was asked to give her my paypal and complied. Despite constantly being told that she could not afford to refund me in full, I was suddenly sent the full amount of $1200. This left me a bit unsettled, however I wasn't going to ask any more when I got what I had requested. I have informed her that I would alter the entry and mark the situation as resolved. I will also be shipping the fursuit back to her this week and will edit the entry one last time to prove I have made good on my end of the bargain. I want to thank the Artist's Beware community for it's insight and help on dealing with this situation. This community is a valuable resource and I am glad to have been able to use it. As far as this entry goes, while it is now resolved I would still consider it a more than valid beware. I think the entry speaks for itself and down to the very end this maker could not handle a professional attitude. I also want to note that this suit will be refurbished and relisted for sale, so buyer beware in the future. I am very disappointed that things between this maker and I had to come to this. I was very polite and willing to work with them to accommodate their own situations if they would help me with mine and that refusal just made it impossible. Ultimately, it was not the desire to right a wrong that got me my refund, it was the desire to salvage their reputation that finally made a nearly two month long ordeal come to a close. If the maker had just shown the same concern for me as a client as they did for their reputation, this post wouldn't have had to be made. EDIT: 3/6/2015: The fursuit has been shipped to Ritz. I can provide a tracking number to the entry if needed and also visual documentation was taken to provide proof the suit was shipped in the most protective way possible, including the individual parts being bagged to prevent weather damage to eliminate any claims proper care was not taken.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/944093.html WHO: Mew / Xionica (fursuit character name) WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/mew | https://www.furaffinity.net/user/xionica/ WHAT: Fursuit partial (being resold) - fursuit shown on their Xionica page. WHEN: Around March / April 2016 is when I first paid on it. July 9th was my last payment. PROOF: Everything is chronologically placed in my dropbox but I'll also post the links chronologically through the explanation as well. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7obu4yppo7mpeoc/AABEqW-37KC12Re0dkVVD1eDa?dl=0 Proof that Mew and Xionica are the same person: https://www.dropbox.com/s/r09u3mcg7kz3df4/proofxionica1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/5qcv6ag4prt7ssy/proofxionica1-2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/od0mn2v4b0gwu4t/proofxionica2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/8w0zjqsaksgoeh6/proofxionica3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/4glw9wo9b0zb8bp/proofxionica4.png?dl=0 She sent me art of the character that wasn't even posted on Xionica's account. She said that's where the fursuit was hosted and that she would sell account, char art, and the FurAffinity profile along with purchase. This proof shows that I made payments on it and that it was to her paypal she specified: https://www.dropbox.com/s/bvs314m94rqpr26/proof1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ya9g567bal6x32x/proof2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/zffc0bfpv3o68x1/proof3.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/n5yz7egwakzzfu2/proof4.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/gbdp8rktycbmpot/proof8.png?dl=0 - This was my final payment. EXPLAIN: I was scammed out of 107$ on a fursuit partial, being sold to me by Mew The story behind this: Originally I agreed to buy this fursuit partial from this person that I considered a friend because I wanted to help them out with bills + the design was VERY well detailed for only 500$ + extra art included. You can see the fursuit in question on her Xionica account. This was back before I had a job, having no means to pay for this fursuit but Mew told me I could do it if I just posted commissions / adopts / etc and eventually it would pile up to equal 500$. Every payment for the commissions was sent directly to Mew through her paypal email. It was to avoid paying a double fee for paypal. She was very adamant about making sure I paid her buyer's fee for her which is against Paypal's TOS but I thought since she was my friend it was okay. Because of this, most of my payments are either small increments of 5-20$ or were sent directly via commissioners to avoid taking so much out of fees. In total, from my actual paypal, I only sent her 9$ from my own account. This is an image showing she was calculating the fees she was receiving from my payments into the total purchase: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p7ubkcyszn826tx/proof7.png?dl=0 - "I'll let you know your total once I see the fees" That's when all the shit started happening in my life. Lots of my adopts and commissions wouldn't sell, highschool graduation, college, then medical stuff and I lost my job 2-3 months after being hired so now I'm disabled. But I always kept her updated to let her know what was happening and that I was just going through a rough patch in my life. https://www.dropbox.com/s/723gvbl09uhnjhg/proof9.png?dl=0 - as we were friends and I was helping her out because she needed money for bills, I thought she would understand. But then she sent me a message on Skype, January 30th of this year - saying it had been a YEAR since I paid.. which was a flat out lie, the last payment was 7 months ago on the proof images of 107$. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7oahsay2cmjxg9v/proof11.png?dl=0 She sent that to my skype probably knowing I was having skype issues because I talked about it often via statuses and I hadn't been online in forever (and MIA due to medical stuff) because I just couldn't sign on. At least 2 months of inactivity via my new skype. Plus she added my new skype from my status that told people my old skype wasn't working. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtwae9im4w4dnx7/proof10.png?dl=0 She didn't bother to message me on FA or Toyhou.se or try to get into contact with me, choosing the most convenient way for her not to get a response. About 4 days after that message, I remembered about the partial and contacted her on Toyhou.se to let her know I was still interested. https://www.dropbox.com/s/1a0wd49julhef9w/proof12.png?dl=0 I asked if she had discord. It was obvious I didn't see her skype message at this time. Instead of telling me THERE about the fact that she wanted to resell the fursuit, she just curtly said "No, I do not." And tried to cut off all communication. https://www.dropbox.com/s/g627j3bphjymkq9/proof13.png?dl=0 She never responded to my second note where I said I would try to get skype working and that I really wanted to discuss the fursuit payment. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qof5t18qf9g42ex/proof14.png?dl=0 She read it but never responded. https://www.dropbox.com/s/0e0ik0yrtzta7ed/readnote2.png?dl=0 So I finally got Skype working today and what do you know? I stumble upon the message. https://www.dropbox.com/s/z2runvyncuqyqw6/proof15.png?dl=0 So I responded asking her to refund my 107$ payment if she was going to resell the fursuit, since I'm not getting my product. NO WHERE in our conversations was a deadline mentioned where I had to pay in full by, no downpayment agreed to.. it was just one friend slowly inching towards their goal to help another friend and to buy a fursuit. And guess what? SHE UNFRIENDS ME ON SKYPE 30 MIN LATER, as you can see by the "messaging disabled" on the bottom of that screencap. Perplexed, I messaged her on FA, telling her that I WILL force refund the payments or sue her over this matter. You can't just take 107$ of my money and run off with it. https://www.dropbox.com/s/qmcmv7y636wl81k/proof16.png?dl=0 I also suggested that if she didn't have the money to pay, she could trade me a character I saw on her Toyhou.se that would be worth the price (plus she was selling it anyways) and I could come to an agreement after that, because it was some form of product. She read that never responded, has been active uploading art so I'm done. https://www.dropbox.com/s/2a8pdbnvrtjiuhd/readnote1.png?dl=0 So after this TL;DR.. Mew is a scammer. She took 107$ of my money that was put down for a fursuit, and she ran off with it. She refuses to respond to me so it's clear I have to take this matter into my own hands with the public. I'm gonna post this in hopes that she'll never be able to scam anyone else out of their money again and so that maybe, just maybe she'll give me back my money or gives me something of equal value.. because I don't think this will settle well with a paypal dispute, even with the proof images from skype because all the money was sent directly from my commission / adopt buyers.

Fursuit Maker and I agreed on a commission for one fursuit head. I paid them 450$ on the date of Feb. 24 2023 via paypal. Maker specifically requested payment using the "friends and family" option, making it impossible to get a refund through paypal... they said it would be done “March-April”, or about 2 months. Payment was made in full. Maker promised to make a head mock-up day of payment, which never happened. Maker promised the following deadlines: DEADLINE 1: Completion March-April 2023, said on Feb 25 2023. (see above) DEADLINE 2: Said they would begin in May 2023 (1 month after the first deadline.), said on Mar. 23 2023. DEADLINE 3: September 2023 (7 months after first deadline), said on Aug. 10th 2023. DEADLINE 4: would be done around Oct-November (9 months after first deadline), said on Oct. 4 2023. DEADLINE 5: Said they would try to finish by the end of the year, December (10 months after the first deadline). Said this on Nov 13 2023. All dates were missed. A 3D base was never designed, nor printed, thus Fur was never cut, etc. Maker saved only 3 reference images of the character despite me sending multiple, which implies they never intended to start work, as the updated photos had key design notes. As stated earlier, The maker made no concept images or 3d base designs, despite agreeing to do so on the date of payment. Maker told me they printed the headbase of my suit on Jan. 12 2024 (11 months after the first deadline..) but never sent an image. Maker tried to resolve the issue by promising to begin work and add paws + tail to my order, but I declined the tail so it wouldn't take as long. Maker never began the paws. I would understand if they had to halt work upon beginning my suit, I would be patient, and I have been; However they made no attempts or plans to work on my suit until Mar. 15 2024 when I had suggested I was being scammed, because I genuinely had no reason to believe I'd ever get my suit. They claimed to have printed out a base for my suit but I never saw it. Maker offered to send a free fursuit base for the wait time; I declined, and just requested my money back. Maker agreed to a refund on April 1 2024, with a deadline refund date of July 1 to pay (their own words.) No money has been received. they have ignored my messages and I suspect I have been blocked by them on Telegram. (My last message came from a complete lapse in judgement due to a build-up of frustration. I should not be so accusatory or speak in such a rude way.) I understand that their work is good quality, but their business practices are absolutely unacceptable. If they cannot even BEGIN my suit after more than a YEAR, they should not be taking new commissions. They have been working on other suits, but have never touched mine. I understand some clients are more important than others and I would not be complaining if I had waited less than a year for only a head. TL;DR Commissioned Navy for a fursuit head. Maker promised and missed 5 deadlines over the span of a year and a few months. Navy told me they printed my base, but I was never shown said base. They offered to add paws to my order for my wait, which I agreed. After a year without any work, I confronted them and requested a refund. Navy promised to refund my 450$ by July 10 2024, and then never responded to me again. ___________________________

I contacted Deermoonstudios on Etsy for a fursuit head for $750 (which totalled $804 with taxes). This was paid in full immediately, followed by them stating they had just ordered fur colors needed for the suit after my approval. All on the same day. I waited a little over a month before asking them about progress, to which they said the fur had just arrived and they were waiting on more pieces to arrive in the mail. In Sep I asked for another update, no response, I asked again on the 20th and got told a day later that the head was ready for taping and sorry for the delay. On Nov 2nd 2021 I asked again for a picture, since I never got one. No response, I sent another message on the 14th asking if they saw the previous message, no response. In Dec, I got a little upset and messages them again asking for a picture, still no response. After this I looked for their Twitter, to see if they were busy with life or something. I learned they were pretty active on Twitter and I created an account to message them. Still no response, but they did post a tweet about how they have a hard time responding to messages and complaining that people need to stop guilt tripping them. I'm unsure if this was directed at me, but I took note of it and messaged them on etsy one last time to apologize if I had ever made them uncomfortable, and that I would no longer message them. I've given up and am assuming I'll never get the product I paid for. They had finished one (provable here) fursuit head in the meantime, fairly quickly. As of right now (Jan 6 2022), I still have gotten no response from them. They do not accept refunds on their products. They were polite in messages but have seemingly ghosted me.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/851017.html This is something very difficult for me to do, but it needs to be done. This happened over the span of a couple years, so much is undocumented up until issues arose as I did not think it would be a problem. However, I feel there is more than enough after the fact. After much advice, I’ve decided to come forward and make a post here about this, mostly to warn people. I took my time writing this as I know there is no action I can take at this point and am very busy. WHO: Ritz_Bitz / Frostcat-Studio (and FA) / Ritz_Tweeting WHERE: Online, texts, emails, twitter, and at Further Confusion 2015 WHAT: One full fursuit (~$950) WHEN: Discussions starting in 2012, first purchase of materials March 4th, 2013, payment from a sponsor on November 25th, 2014, agreement of $200 of payment finalized with attendance at Further Confusion where the suit was delivered, and serious troubles starting shortly after. PROOF: Many images linked throughout explanation. EXPLAIN: This originally started as one of my best friends offering to build me a fursuit for a “friend” price. I had worn one of her suits once and got hooked on the fun it was. Over the years the details swapped around and much was discussed in person when I had lived nearby. Nothing was really set in stone for a long time and it was purely talk. March 4th, 2013 I purchased an order of fur and fleece for the project at Ritz’s request and had it shipped to her. I can't remember what happened, but she had to backburner the project. The fur sat around for almost 2 years before the project could finally be worked on, so there is a large time gap. (At some point I had also sent her DTDs of my feet for sockpaws, a pair of thick, long socks for the sockpaws, a tracing of my hand for the gloves, and extra fleece I had from a previous project based around my character.) June 2014 After attending Califur 2014 with my good friend (who I will refer to as Bob for this,) he started talking about how much he had wanted a fursuit after trying one of his friends’ suits on at the convention. He was hoping to purchase a fursuit and get it by Further Confusion that next year, and I referred him to Ritz as she was also doing my fursuit. When he found out my suit was on backburner, he offered to sponsor some of the cost for the project so it could be put into her paid queue so we could suit at Further Confusion together. I spoke to Ritz and she agreed to reserve space for Bob’s suit as well as mine and a guarantee for completion by the convention in January. I was happy to be helping her get some bills paid and to be helping Bob get a quality suit. Ritz had always told me steps she took to ensure her suits were durable and of high quality craftsmanship, so I had much trust in her work. June 27th, 2014 Bob contacted Ritz about a quote for his suit, also mentioning to her his intentions to sponsor a portion of my suit’s cost. Everything seemed pretty cut and dry at this point and Ritz waited for the payment so she could start the process of constructing the suit. Ritz confirmed that she can complete the suit by Further Confusion and states she planned to start work on my suit in August. September 20th, 2014 Bob placed a down payment to secure the slots. November 4th, 2014 I text Ritz asking when she will be needing my DTD. She answers asking it be sent the start of December. November 15th, 2014 Ritz has started constructing the head. She sends me a text asking about the eye color and shows me an early WIP of the foam sculpting, followed by more complete WIPs of the sculpt and what she planned for it. I was surprised she got the snout acceptably shaped in her style off the bat as it’s the most often misinterpreted part of my character. I praised her for this and asked one small request to the brow which she said wasn’t difficult to add, and informs me of things most people worry about in case I start to worry about similar things. November 16th, 2014 I receive an image of the progress she made as well as the change to the brow that I had requested. I was very pleased with the shape and happy it worked out so quickly with only that one minor change needed. November 20th, 2014 Ritz texts me asking that I bug Bob about making the second payment. It was weird that it was my job to ask him, but I overlooked this as this was a friendly transaction I had helped to arrange. We discussed the confusion, making jokingly grumbling about it as was custom of us when we spoke. We continued on to negotiate $200 of the suit payment to be taken out of what she would owe me for room and dealer’s table costs at Further Confusion. November 21st, 2014 Ritz texts me asking about the ears for the suit. It’s a little difficult to communicate, but I was happy with the shape and aware she only had two hands so just curious about the final curvature at the top. I jotted on the notepad what I meant and it was understood and she says it’s not hard. (This was laden with a very inappropriate joke and I have censored it out.) She also reminds me to send my DTD within the next two weeks. November 25th, 2014 Ritz contacts me asking about more details for the head. At the end I tell her she has my trust in recreating the mouth due to color limitations of fleece. November 29th, 2014 Ritz contacts me while at the store purchasing fleece for the mouth. We figure it out and even settle on the wings ahead of time to just be white due to the lack of proper shades available. I inform her I’ll be making my DTD the next day and shipping it out soon. November 30th, 2014 I ask her if she needs me to retape the dummy before sending it and inform her the lines were cut a little weird. (They were slightly wobbly in a few areas, but I had no issue matching it all back up for retaping.) December 1st, 2014 After seeing Ritz tweet pictures of the finished head, I contact her to question if it’s too late to add the fur tuft my character always has. I was a little upset that she didn’t offer a solution, but it was just a fur tuft. I wasn’t going to make a big deal about it. It still looked good, which I made sure to communicate to her. I also inform her I’m sending the DTD the next day. December 8th/ 9th, 2014 I ask if she received the DTD in the mail yet. The next day she responds that she has. December 14th, 2014 Ritz texts me during conversation about how big the tail for another suit is, using my head and DTD as comparison. My DTD appears to be partially stuffed and looks fine. December 16th, 2014 Ritz texts me informing my my DTD split at the seams during the stuffing process. She claims every seam that was cut split apart because I didn’t use long enough strips of tape. I felt bad because I knew it would be annoying to retape. She says it can be repaired (it’s just taping seams back together) and she was working on it. This is very important for an issue later, as she tells me she’s going to stuff and pattern one half and mirror the pattern. December 20th, 2014 Ritz texts me asking if I want the feet separate or attached. We’d discussed it previously, but it was so long before I understood many things were forgotten. January 1st, 2015 After seeing tweets of the completed sockpaws, I text her in private to ask her if it’s too late to add larger claws. Again, this is something we’d discussed many times in person down to the shape and how she planned construction, but I understand forgetting. She’s clearly upset at the mere question of the possibility, so I immediately try to reassure her I’m just curious and not trying to upset her. I was very concerned as a friend that my question may have been upsetting to her, but from a client’s standpoint I knew it was very wrong and I began to worry about voicing my opinion on anything being wrong with this very expensive product. January 12th, 2015 After seeing only one WIP of the wings being completed on her twitter since the sockpaws were complete, I am now texted with the completed suit only a few days before the promised deadline. She first informs me that the magnetic wings wouldn’t work and that she had to sew them into the bodysuit. Not a big deal. However, I instantly noticed the padding on the legs looked… odd and lumpy. I also became worried that the bodysuit fit her as I’m a very small person. From the backview you can also tell the ears were not evenly shaven and have bumps in the structure already. It was days before the convention and I knew bringing up the issues would cause a very tense upset, so I kept quiet and informed her I was happy with the suit and we began talking about the fun we’d have at the convention that weekend. January 15th, 2015 The first day of Further Confusion for us, as soon as we set up in the dealer’s den, we went up to the room eager to suit up and go have fun. Ritz begins to help me put the suit on for the first time and issues already arise. The bodysuit is extremely baggy on me, which was odd considering I’d gained a lot of holiday weight since I had made the DTD. When it came time to put the sockpaws on, I noticed there was a hole in the inner sock, but shrugged it off considering it was difficult to get my feet into the paws. I had provided her with DTDs of my feet, so this was also confusing. We discussed it and since she only patterned the right foot and flipped it, it being my smaller foot caused the sizing issue for my left foot. The worst problem came when I tried to put the gloves on. They couldn’t fit past my second knuckles. She immediately became upset and, again, I took the blame upon myself and said it wasn’t her fault and that I probably traced my hand wrong. She gladly accepted this and it became the new “fact” of what went wrong. When putting the head on, I noticed a part of the zipper was separated from the fur of the head. An easy fix. We quickly discussed the issues. She explained she was extremely busy with personal suit projects she wanted to get done for Denver Comic Con and didn’t have the time to do these repairs and make new gloves. I felt bad and said I could probably handle it with the small amount of sewing experience I have. This seemed to clear things up and we went out suiting. I tried not to pay attention to the flaws and just enjoy the con. January 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 2015 We only suited up once more after that, and I wore the suit as a partial a third time out with her because the padding in the thighs of the suit were unsecured and chafed me to no end when I walked. Nothing stayed in place how it was intended because the suit was so baggy. Meanwhile, tensions rose during the con due to Bob’s suit having issues. Ritz was extremely upset by this so I absolutely couldn’t bring myself to say anything negative about my suit. In fact, I rushed to defend her despite having my own issues with my suit. Sunday night when we were going to suit a final time, tensions blew up, drama happened, and we cancelled our plans and stayed in the room. The con ended and I took my entire suit home with me with plans to try to repair it myself and save Ritz the time. January 21st, 2015 After coming home and getting unpacked, I finally had time to look over the suit and prepare myself for the work I had to do. I realized there was far more than I could handle and I was not experienced enough to fix most of it. A list of the issues in full is provided after my next piece of information. February 14th, 2015 The issues in my fursuit worried me. I wasn’t sure what was normal and what wasn’t. I attended the local furmeet this day and brought the head and paws (having issues easier to see in person) and asked some friends with more experience on the issues as well as asking advice on how to handle this delicate situation between my friend and myself. I briefly wore these to demonstrate some of the issues and interact with two young children. I got the advice I needed and confirmation that the flaws in my suit were not acceptable and not my responsibility to fix as she was paid to produce a suit in working condition that I could wear and enjoy. Many told me how clear it was that she rushed it and took shortcuts, which is no surprise given the circumstances. I needed to approach her on the issue and hope for the best. I couldn’t keep pretending it was okay, and I started preparing myself to for this rather difficult step. The Problems - The excess amount of fabric on the bodysuit is around 10-14 inches on the midsection. This can only mean when she patterned the half of the DTD and flipped it, she overshot the middle point. Even overshooting this by a few inches can cause excess (2-4x the length of the overshoot) and wouldn’t have been an issue had she taken the time to fully retape the DTD. The thighs have an excess as well, though not as bad. - I discovered the zipper on the head was glued on instead of sewn. This is why part of it was already separated when I received it. - The shaving on the head was very choppy. I had actually taken time to hand trim the face to smooth it out, but there was little I could do for the ears. - The ears were glued directly to the balaclava with no foam to anchor them or keep them stable. This causes them to flop around pretty badly. - Instead of being sewn to the rest of the fur of the head, the ears were poorly glued on. There are small open gaps at the side of each ear on both sides, as well as at the front of the ears near the fleece. - There are crinkles in the fleece on the ears where it was glued to the inside material. - The ears are anchored off-center. - The balaclava was spottily glued to the inside of the head and was already pulling off bits of foam. It is glued in such a way that it overlaps a portion of the buckram from the inside, unnecessarily limiting the vision further. - The gloves do not fit past the second knuckle of my hand. They’re also not hemmed at the edges so the fleece was left raw cut. - On top of the sizing issues, the sockpaws had a hole in the inner sock when I received them from being cut sloppily. - The sockpaws weren’t hemmed. In fact, the fleece was glued to the sock at the top. It began to fall apart with the small amount of wear they saw at the con. - The magnets she’d promised me and stated she could not get to work were left in the wings and sealed over with giant globs of glue. You can still see them and the gluey mess is left uncovered to get at the wearer’s back. - The wings were glued together and you can see the wire in some spots by peeking into the open spaces in the glue seams. (Originally we were planning on realistic wings with wiring, feathers, and vinyl. I told her “Just do simple plush wings like Telephone’s since it’s easier” later on. While the wings she made are cute and a creative middle-point, they’re going to fall apart because glue doesn’t last very long.) - The elastic loops on the tail were not sewn very securely for such a large, heavy tail and had begun to fall apart at the convention along with a small hole. February 15th, 2015 I have a short, rather comical discussion with another previous client of Ritz’s who also discloses that many parts of their suit are glued together. I feel this is necessary to disclose to help support my discontent with the quality of my suit prior to the next events as I am accused of "retaliation" later on. March 2nd, 2015 Unfortunately, I’d been very busy with life, so I had not yet been able to approach Ritz before this point. I don’t like to bring drama into this discussion of business, but this severely complicated the smooth resolution of things. We had not been speaking much as Ritz had blamed me for the drama at the convention and I was giving her breathing space. On this day, she reacted negatively to a tweet I had made on Twitter (she brings it up later) and the resulting misunderstanding caused her to remove me on social media. I contacted her concerned about her and trying to resolve the issue, only to be ignored. (I can provide screenshots, but would rather not as this is just drama.) In a panic, I discussed parting out the suit as a last resort as I was certain I would now not be given the repairs I deserved. It did not help when I saw photos proving similar quality work on other suits, leaving me more upset at what had been given to me. After speaking to many people and getting advice on this new situation, I removed the comments out of courtesy (despite never once mentioning her specifically) and went forward with their suggestions to attempt getting a rightful refurbish. March 6th, 2015 At the advice of many, I contacted Ritz with my intentions. I tweeted at her asking for an email to discuss repairs with her, being clear it shouldn’t be my responsibility. She replied with the preferred email. At that point I began to write a thorough email to her. This took me about a week to get finished up. March 13th, 2015 I finally sent my email. I noted not only the issues with her craftsmanship, but also with the customer service she gave me that led to increasing problems in the work that had upset me and led me to be quiet for so long. I leave the option open to negotiate a refurbish or simply work out a refund as it seems like it would be easier with her busy schedule that caused the burden of refurbishing to be placed on me in the first place. March 14th, 2015 I woke up to a rather hostile email back from Ritz. She immediately accused me of retaliation, being unreasonable, and picky. Our correspondence is plain to see and everyone I’ve asked said I was very kind. She accuses me of getting a suit “for free” even though she received a $600 payment from Bob, a $200 traded payment from me, as well as my purchasing $160 of materials. She then blames me for all the problems she possibly can, while ignoring half the issues that she can’t try to blame me for. She blamed the bagginess on my DTD, which she now attacks me for. I spoke to numerous suitmakers and they said 10-14 inches is definitely not due to retaping seams. (Also note the 2 day gap between the lightly stuffed DTD image and her telling me it split apart as vs. her story now.) The fact she still continued and even brought up personal drama with other clients as well as further wild accusations that, even if true, have nothing to do with the quality of my suit, is baffling. I’m not sure if she was trying to guilt trip me or try to scare me out of pressing the issue to resolution, but it was absolutely uncalled for. She even accuses me of being the reason someone was bringing up issues on another suit she worked on. The fact she finished it up with blatantly insulting me was the icing on the cake. I was also a little disturbed that, despite our cessation of contact on social media, she had still been checking my accounts. I immediately wrote her a response, on my phone, to address this unbelievable reply she had sent me. Admittedly blunt, but necessary, and deciding at this point I cannot handle a refurbishing process due to her hostility and request a refund. As she showed aggression about Bob having paid in a portion, I made it clear I could contact him to work things out how she’d like. March 17th, 2015 As I’ve yet to receive a response, I sent Ritz an email to remind her and request she handle the situation civilly. I make note that Bob is aware of the situation and we all just want to resolve this. March 29th, 2015 I had to duck out to handle life for a bit and figured giving her time to cool off was good. Sadly, I saw signal boosts that she was selling her leftover furs. I saw some of the very same fur used on my suit and contacted her immediately. It seemed like the 6 yards she told me to purchase was a lot and it was likely some of it was mine. At this point I was notably frazzled by this ordeal. She surprisingly responded, again accusing me of things I am not guilty of and bringing other clients and drama into dealings about a fursuit she did not make properly. She seems to even agree with the fact that the quality is bad and that I should be fine that I only spent $200 on it. Her logic in thinking because I only paid $200 along with $160 in materials means she doesn’t have to give anything back, despite that she took the $600 from Bob, and that is what he would get back, not me, in a refund. She claims it was wrong to take Bob’s money, yet she seems fine keeping it despite not doing her job properly for it. All she has done is avoided owning up and fixing mistakes she made on an expensive product while hiding behind excuses that drama somehow nullifies her responsibility in business. I made a final response to her as well, and that was where it ended between us. Currently: I have been refused repairs or a refund on a suit that was paid for and delivered in poor quality. It’s very clear Ritz has done a good job to avoid everything wrong with the suit she made for me and justify not fixing the issue and attacking me. She blames me for all that she can and resorts to bringing up drama instead of addressing why half my suit is glued together. I feel she has been trying to take advantage of the fact Bob sponsored part of the suit cost and her sudden grudge against me to avoid dealing with resolving the matter. She took a large sum of money for a product of a certain quality and did not deliver, and I’m honestly upset with how she’s treated me in this ordeal. The suit needs entirely new hands and feet, major tailoring of the bodysuit that includes redoing the legs entirely, redoing the tail's backing and elastic loops, completely redoing the ears and refurring the head with a new balaclava. Most suitmakers have told me it's not "refurbishing" so much as making an entirely new suit with some scraps. I basically don't know what to do aside from hope nobody else runs into the same troubles as I have with this suitmaker, but any advice would be welcome if anything can possibly be done at this point. June 16, 2015 Update I just took the head out of the storage box for the first time since photographing everything months ago. I've been getting advice on how to salvage as much as I can from the head to go towards making a new one, so I was needing to take a closer look at some things. A small clatter and objects falling out confused me, until I realized that the teeth have started to fall out with even this small amount of age and absolutely no use. The teeth are sculpey, I believe, and left unfinished. Some bases of the silver molars were unpainted, the rest of the teeth are just straight sculpey or whatever they are made of, no paint, and are all starting to separate from the beds of hot glue. This just adds to the poor quality product I was given and the work I am left to cover out of my pocket to fix. I honestly don't have anymore words to describe how I feel right now. February 2016 Update This disheartens me to have to even add to so long after the fact of this all happening, but I would like to update this to add a further warning to Ritz's poor business behavior if you happen to get on her bad side as I have with this ordeal. I placed an advertisement up on Furaffinity, in which I used a commission she had gotten from me as it was in my top 10 favorited pieces in my gallery and a great example. My Terms of Service states that I am allowed to use the work I create for people for portfolio and other purposes, and thus I had the legal right to use the image in an advertisement as it's a form of portfolio. I assumed this would not be an issue as I have personally gotten over the drama and moved on past this all quite a while ago, and had assumed she had done the same. She, however, saw this as an opportunity to attack me by approaching the advertisement organizer stating that her character was in my advertisement without her permission, essentially wanting it removed. This was orchestrated with a friend of hers whom also had commission work in my advertisement, also demanding the removal of their commission despite them having both agreed to and being bound by my Terms of Service. This alone was a nuisance, but in having to handle the issue, I saw that she had been publicly trash talking me, clearly stating her intention to try to cause a problem for me for the sake of causing a problem. At this point she obviously holds a grudge against me and I am being bullied for having spoken out about her practices, showing also that she has absolutely no respect to my Terms of Service that was agreed to. I am attempting to resolve the issue with the advertising organizer, but will be forced to avoid exercising my legal rights to display the artwork I created involving her characters in the future all because I want to avoid her malicious acts to attempt revenge for speaking up. August 19, 2016 Update After being urged by friends and seeking advice from the community on if I should add further updates, I'm sadly here again. While I'm relatively wary to share due to more fear of retaliation, I don't believe this will ever stop regardless of anything I do. I am urged to warn people the extent of the poor behavior that I have been subjected to for over a year since posting. Occasionally third parties will inform me of things that have been said and I honestly ignore 90% of things, but I had the displeasure seeing one instance myself. I have been ruthlessly slandered since the posting, and at this point been brought aware of possible threats of either legal action against me or potential harm to my person. (If it escalates any further I will contact law enforcement, but at current there is not enough to hold up considering the distance involved.) I have had absolutely ZERO contact with Ritz since the last email shown in the original posting here. Even during her attack on my advertisement, I did not say a word to her, only spoke to the advertising department at FA. I am going to point out ahead of time, it is EXTREMELY easy to figure out who is being spoken about (me) in all of these instances even if names aren't attached cause a simple google search nets you all the info you need. I already know I'm mentioned frequently by name otherwise anyhow. Onto the point, what I saw for myself... Was on Wednesday, June 22 in a Facebook group for Fursuiters and Fursuit Makers. A notification popped up onto my phone for a sale posting that was receiving many comments. I'm going to be 100% honest I was wildly curious as I'd heard she quit suitmaking (I'm only human), and I saw this exchange brewing that had apparently been what sparked it into popularity. I avoided the desire to jump in and say something cause NOPE I have zero desire to speak to her. I just screencapped away cause I couldn't believe what I was reading and figured it'd be taken down, which it was. Color guide for censoring (cause identifying photos/names): Black = Not involved or moderator names Ritz commented to alert Blue = Ritz Red = Some fursuiter who spoke up Yellow = Ritz's IRL friend https://www.dropbox.com/s/7nixak1x72bdqmb/Group1.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/j3j2m8mw22mswoo/2.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/oeibrn7q6amudni/3.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/b189gvqz44ge3r5/4.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/y3527bkjzuev7qx/5.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/voe431whjd9eul3/6.jpg?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/feofjf0gk1tkdqy/7.jpg?dl=0 I don't even need to make commentary on how messed up this was. You all can think for yourselves. I avoided updating with it at the time despite people telling me to. I didn't want to deal with it. I didn't think it was that bad. Now here's what broke me on trying to ignore things. I was shown these earlier this week. Despite being from May, it opened my eyes to how serious things really were this whole time as I attempted to ignore it all. This is only HALF of a conversation someone had with Ritz's locked twitter, but it's very clear what's going on. I was shown this for obvious reasons. This was shortly before BLFC, which we both happened to be attending (I avoided her at all costs, and was apparently wise to do so.) Censoring: Blue = Ritz's locked twitter handle, Purple = Ritz's friend (Remember to read bottom to top in each for chronological order cause it's twitter.) https://www.dropbox.com/s/v36ao3uyd8d10r4/21.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/accjt9cl35ieovk/22.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/yf7mwvzbbwgyhc1/23.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/n8hq2cioflujxoz/24.png?dl=0 Let me point this out there. Whatever is being said on the other side of this conversation, her friend thinks I should be scared of her. This is NOT okay, and relatively alarming considering things I know about her that are not for me to share publicly. The suggestion of a restraining order despite that I have not had ANY contact with her whatsoever even despite her attempted harassment, is outlandish. Furthermore, the clear discussion of potential legal action because I caused her loss of income due to this beware posting is even more unsettling. This is bonkers. I don't even care about the disgusting and immature names they casually call me when this other stuff is going on. People are right, they need to know what she's doing because this is, and has been, crazy. Exercise caution when doing business with her, because you never know when you'll end up like me.

Full-body plantigrade fursuit commission commissioned on May 30th 2022 which until today (June 21st 2024) has not been delivered. First contact was on Reddit as a comment to my post where I was looking to gather information on how expensive a fursuit of my fursona would be, see reddit post below /u/Kiromu_uwu responded with prices: I've decided to contact them via DMs on reddit. Previous work was shown on Discord. (Note: Their TikTok account has been suspended for reasons unknown) We discussed further details, then agreed to sign a simple contract. It entails a 50% down payment. First payment occurred on May 30th 2022, second payment on October 4th 2022. Fursuit updates were regular, on average once every month, enough to keep me satisfied. Progress was well communicated through Discord, even setbacks. This was kept up until early 2024, where communication ceased, right after personal issues were mentioned and at the same time affirmed that they have recovered from said issues on April 7th. March 10th is the last time I got any proper fursuit progress updates. April 7th was the last time they sent any message. I kept requesting updates, having grown anxious from their mention of medical issues, attempting contact via E-Mail even. Unfortunately, I have not received any response for several months now, even though I saw their status on Discord being online playing video games. Unfortunately, due to PayPal not accepting disputes/ claims for transactions older than 180 days, and my bank not considering chargebacks for transactions older than 13 months, I am unable to recover my funds. I left a final message on Discord, no longer believing any resolution can be reached.

10/30/23: I initially purchased a custom fursuit collar from RegallyWild, in-person, in the dealer's den of Furpocalypse 2023. I was out of fursuit while looking at the collars in the den. The vendor overheard me say to my partner that, while I really liked one of the collars, I didn't think it would fit on me when I was in suit. They suggested I purchase it, take it back to my room, try it on, and return it if the fit was not correct. I did this and found, as suspected, the collar did not fit, so I returned to the vendor's table. When I arrived for my refund, the vendor suggested that, rather than refund me, they'd prefer to custom make me a new collar - same pattern and materials - and ship it to me after the convention was over, with the shipping being at their expense. I thought this was very generous and agreed. I provided my name, address, and contact details, which they wrote down in front of me, and I handed them back the too-small collar while they kept my money via credit card transaction. 11/11/23: About two weeks later, I had not heard from them, so I decided to reach out via email. They responded almost immediately, verifying my recollection of events, and letting me know they'd been sick and promising the order would "be heading out next week." Since a specific timeline had been provided, I was looking for follow-up in the next week. That didn't happen. 12/02/23: Three weeks later, I reached out again. I was concerned because I knew I'd be out of the country for a few weeks and may have had to arrange for someone to receive my mail if a package was going to be delivered. This email received no response at all. 12/18/23: Two weeks later, despite being out of the country and in a vastly different time zone, I tried reaching out again. This time, they replied the next day, saying that spikes for the collar were out of stock - odd, since they were supposedly ready to send it one month prior. Strangely, they also offered to send "the rest of the order" before the collar. The collar was the only thing I had purchased, so this was confusing. Since there were no other items to be sent, I told them I was fine to wait for the collar to be completed, because I saw no other option. Also confusing was that one of the emails referenced providing a phone number, but there was no phone number in the message at all. This would be the last time the RegallyWild ever spoke to me. 01/26/2024: Around five weeks later, I was back in the states and had not heard anything. I reached out again, and additionally requested the phone number they had previously offered to provide. This email received no response. 02/01/2024: Due to the complete lack of contact, I followed up more quickly, one week later, requesting a status update. This email also received no response. 02/06/2024: Five business days later, I reached out again. As it had now been nearly two months since they had responded to anything, I felt my only course of action was to request a refund or initiate a chargeback. I know chargebacks can be hard on small businesses, so I felt I owed them a chance to correct the issue before contacting my credit card issuer. This email was not responded to. Unfortunately, I was unable to initiate a chargeback because I had provided them with too much leeway. My issuer would not dispute the charge because it was older than 90 days and neither would Square, RegallyWild's payment processor. 02/15/2024: About two weeks later, I noticed they had posted new work on Twitter. In desperation, I looked to try that avenue to contact them, but they had their DMs closed. I tried replying to the post, which went unanswered. At this point, I presumed maybe something had happened to them or they had gone out of business. 05/24/2024: Nearly six months after their last contact, I noticed RegallyWild running banner ads on FurAffinity. I followed the ads to their website and learned they were still taking orders. This prompted me to reach out again one last time. This, of course, also went unanswered. 10/24/2024: It has now been just shy of one year - fifty-one weeks - since RegallyWild took my money and gave me a year-long headache. Recently, I've had another burned customer of theirs reach out to me via Twitter DM asking if I'd had any luck getting in touch with RegallyWild. Their experience was, unfortunately, much the same as mine. I've since learned RegallyWild will be vending at Furpocalypse - my local, home con - again this year. So, I feel it's important to get a warning out about possible issues with this maker in advance, in the hopes that no more customers will have the same issues that I have.

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/785154.html WHO: Sugarfactory/Sugarypuppy/StarfruitStudios WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/starfruitstudios http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sugarfactory https://twitter.com/sugarypuppy WHAT: Premade fursuit partial of DJ the Corgi Shep. WHEN: I first inquired about the partial July 6th of 2013 and made the payment on the same day. It has been about a year and a month now and have not received any type of payment. PROOF: Screencap of payment: http://i.imgur.com/Tw9lU9E.png Screencap of first note of interest: http://i.imgur.com/9TCae4o.png Measurements given and payment confirmed: http://i.imgur.com/Jt0r85z.png EXPLAIN: July 6th of 2013 I inquired Sugar about one of the premade fursuit partials she was offering. This was actually the "first"of the few fursuits she was going. I paid in full the $175 she was asking for. Initial contact and communication went well, telling me as to when she would start working on DJ just 4 days later: http://i.imgur.com/FgVeaMs.png That was the last time I got a personal note from her on her fursuiting account, but progress shots of DJ were submitted until August 17th . (submissions are still on her page) http://i.imgur.com/Qe0QO4z.png http://i.imgur.com/i6INqzH.png http://i.imgur.com/uLDY3oI.png http://i.imgur.com/sdeJkfw.png http://i.imgur.com/lcZ2mP7.png http://i.imgur.com/sr2WU5F.png This is also the day where she posts a journal promising new updates soon, none were made on my suit and the last submissions on her account were made a day later of a few other projects she was working on. September 15th 2013 she is hosting a garage sale with tons of fursuit materials, some including the furs for my suit and a few other suits she had been selling at the time. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11539093/ October 14th of 2013 she makes a journal explaining she was working on another fursuit that was due that month. No pictures were actually posted and that was the last update on her fursuiting account. http://i.imgur.com/H3CDzVv.png Sugar has a history of deleting shouts and journals frequently, but around December - February she posted a journal updating her commission status and that she was offering refunds to all who wanted them. During this time I commented, asking her when I should expect to see my fursuit. She told me that she was no longer doing any of them, and instead offering full refunds for the work as it was taking too much of her time. I was perfectly fine with that and at first I was patient, as I was aware of the depth of the debt she had put herself in. http://i.imgur.com/zPnt8WB.png At one point I had even gotten a letter in the mail and a free chibi from Sugar due to the kindness and patience I had shown regarding my refund. March 2014 she is offering traditional badge commissions for $25 dollars, at this point I'm still playing nice and being patient and as a fan of her art I didn't want to pass this opportunity up. As expected there is an issue in getting the commission and I have to bug and prod her to have it sent out in the mail, I also ask yet again as to where my fursuit refund was and she says her bank account was compromised. http://i.imgur.com/uCRTKlL.png http://i.imgur.com/JPIT9uf.png July 1st she asks for a commissioner roll call, I once again send her a note about the details for my refund. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5897408/ http://i.imgur.com/dfdnW2M.png July 22nd I inquire again about the refund (you can see I'm getting impatient) and I get the same vague responses. http://i.imgur.com/0rdYckw.png And this is where we are now. I know it has only been about a week and a half since she has last updated me on this, but I find it odd especially since she had just recently sold her expensive ($2700) fursuit that she still cannot come up with the $175 that I have been waiting for. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5962138/ Not to mention I am the one who has to constantly bug her about a refund instead of keeping her paying customers updated. I feel like I have given Sugar ample time to come up with the refund and given the circumstances, personal or not, this is just inexcusable. While she has been nothing but kind to me in regarding this issue I have heard less than nice things from other people. All in all the experience started out tolerable and now I just want this resolved as soon as possible, and it seems the only way anyone has ever gotten a refund from her was to get this out in the open. tl;dr Am still owed a $175 refund from a year ago. Have received nothing but constant excuses as to why I haven't seen any of the money. Was understanding until I began to realize/see that the "nice guy" front she was using with me was just a charade, as seen as to how she treated another one of her customers. I will let her know about this a_b but I feel that it is necessary to keep this posted as it seems many others are still waiting for their refunds. Payment has been refunded so this can be marked as resolved!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/856045.html WHO: Rubbertex Raccoon, Rubbertex Cooper WHERE: FurAffinity. He has a website as well but it doesn't seem to be operational. WHAT: Partial Fursuit. When I last heard from him back in January neither of us could find the initial Skype conversation hashing out specific details, but we both remember the price was $750 and that sending smaller payments was already, as such I had sent about $100 every couple of weeks when I was paid. There was also a $41 comic but that was resolved in April after waiting several years on that as well. Most of that follows the same story as the fursuit. WHEN: The original conversation I remember was held in October before Midwest Furfest 2012. The first payment/deposit was sent on October 31st, with the rest of the payments following when I could afford to make a payment, which was originally agreed upon that several smaller payments would be alright. I first started to become uneasy when I was told that he would have the fursuit done by Further Confusion '14 (roughly a year and change after he first agreed to take it) and getting a hold of him to ask if the fursuit would be done in time was becoming an issue. Due to flying to California, if I could take the fursuit home as a carry on bag rather than shipping it, I would have preferred that to save us both the shipping costs. PROOF: As mentioned before, neither of us can seem to find the chat log from when we first agreed to it. I've got logs from before October and after October, but none during that month and I'm not entirely sure why. I've got screenshots of afterwards, but this is the closest I've got to an agreement on the suit http://i.gyazo.com/9e0299d70cd46ceb647ac6d2c5230953.png For the comic: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/x69zsz5l26we5tw/9360d0db4dc965cb5386435c8d72d13e.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: Rubbertex and I were chatting on Skype, and the conversation has drifted towards me being dissatisfied with my current suit. He mentioned that he built suits himself, and showed me some examples. If I recall correctly, he then offered to make me a partial for "the friend discount" of $750 which I agreed and we started talking about payment and specifics. The original date that I was told was that he would have it done by MWFF, which I thought that, while impressive, wouldn't happen, but he assured me he could have it done by then. By November 1st he apparently already had the head and feet foamed, and he already had black and white fur and just needed to order the brown. He said he would have it by the 16th but ended up getting sick for a few weeks and by the time MWFF rolled around I didn't have the suit. I wasn't too bothered since I had only paid him the deposit at that time, and didn't expect it to be done so soon anyways. Fast forward about a year, I hadn't been saying much and sending him payments when my income could afford the breathing room, which was about $100 every month or so. Due to not hearing anything about it being finished or near finished since the note linked above, I admittedly wasn't in too much of a hurry to get it paid off. I had been monitoring his journals and he had a Google Drive spreadsheet with progress on all his commissions set up. It hadn't been updated in a while, but it was listed as being "Currently going through final sewing up. Need approval on toony or follow me eyes for the suit head." for a while, so I got into contact with him, I believe through AIM, and told him about the eyes since I hadn't heard anything from him about it. For a while, I had been contacting him through Twitter DMs whenever I had sent a payment, then as it got closer to being paid off I started sending him emails to give him more details about things like shipping address and dates. The "last" payment was on November 13, 2013, just before Midwest Furfest again, but I had no plans of going so I didn't ask for any other updates. When I had concrete plans made for going to Further Confusion 2014, I started emailing him asking about if it would be completed on time. On December 5th I was told he would have it done in time. About a month of not hearing any sort of updates aside from occasional journals filled with bad news and I was trying to find out if it would be complete or not cause the day that I left for FC was fast approaching. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/k6c0renm70ka7ht/ac729cc3a9da620c09e416d6e9a21621.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/66dcxtw4kind73n/9f6fa591d23922573a47d7eb10364c49.png?dl=0 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/3kwc46xnlm3uhng/e7c6365bf7c5c34b1e14cfdea865c097.png?dl=0 At FC when I ran into him, he had told me that the suit wasn't able to be finished because he ran out of black/white fur. I found that excuse highly unlikely, but I was there to have fun with friends so I just bit my tongue and let it go. Keep in mind that up to this point, I have still not seen a single photo of anything regarding my suit, so I was going off of the faith that the Google Doc that hadn't been updated in months was still current, along with him having several cases of getting sick, a car accident, his bank account being compromised a couple of times, and general stress and anxiety making him unable to work. I had tried to remain patient and understanding about all of this, but my sympathy was running low when it seemed to be one excuse after another about general lack of communication or why work wasn't being done. After the con I had sent several emails, and only got a response to two in the next 4 months. For a period of time, he had his FA page disabled, which had me more than a little worried, so I continued to try and contact him via email. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/5ul8xkiwxsc0fdv/fefcbd7984badc5348ea4abc9a0bc441.png It turned out that he had the FA note system on the wrong tab or something? I find that hard to believe since it would still notify you of new notes until they were read, but again, I bit my tongue and didn't raise a fuss. Another 6 months pass, no response to several emails/notes/FA Shouts/Comments/etc any form of contact I could think of that was more than commenting on a random journal which didn't seem to have much luck most of the time anyway. He posted another life update journal and I thought there was a general tone of him taking on new commissions, so I spoke up and said something, cause at this point I still hadn't received any recent updates and was also still waiting on the comic commission which he had posted several times before that it was completed and just needed to be emailed out. That prompted this conversation. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/ub40cqmdhwut6m6/08f62da4d8990a3205ad3403683e9cea.png?dl=0 I had been in contact with him for the last year and a half, and he claimed he was trying to use an entirely different email than the one I had been using the entire time prior to this conversation. Again, I found that extremely hard to believe, but bit my tongue. He also told me again, that he would have them done by FC 2015 which was about 2 months away. A couple weeks later, he started to take stream commissions, while he still had his entire backlog from May of 2012 to work through that from what I had gathered from contacting a couple of other people in that same backlog, they were in the same boat. A couple of people commented on the streaming journals asking about their work that was in the backlog, but he ignored the comments and deleted the journals. A couple weeks after that comment, I decided that I was done waiting and to give him a final chance. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/a2x2j48n3umupjs/13e9f9f9e0d3c9f372e107bea70c5257.png?dl=0 I had sent several emails to him asking for updates in the time between that one and FC asking for some sort of update. Around early December/January he started to use Twitter again after being on hiatus from there for a while. The couple weeks prior to FC he mentioned working on a "puppy" and a "beagle" and one of my friends who was in a stream of his told me that he saw Rubbertex working on my suit. When I tried to reply to his tweets asking if the suit in question was mine, I never got a reply, nor to the email asking if he even saw those tweets. FC comes around, and I still haven't heard anything. I ran into him several times due to us having several of the same social circles, but he was actively avoiding me, and since I didn't want to make a scene I didn't confront him about it. I sent him a few Twitter messages, since I saw him actively posting on there and responding to people, so I figured that would get a response, but they went ignored. After I got home, I waited a few days for a response to any of the messages I had sent him. Afterwards I decided to give him one last final chance, and sent this email. https://dl.dropbox.com/s/rw2l8xf8sx836a7/Email.png?dl=0 Shortly after sending it, I went to Paypal Support to ask how I would go about getting a refund on something I had paid for that was well beyond their usual Buyer Protection date. I was informed that if I wanted a refund for this all, assuming that he wouldn't cooperate, that I would need to go through the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) which is a branch of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). I informed Rubbertex of what I was told to do via Twitter DMs, and that finally prompted the response from the email. I haven't heard a response from in to any emails I've sent since that last one 4 months ago. The only contact I've gotten out of him was when I went into one of his streams and he showed me the comic that he was finally working on, and posted in April '15. Other than that, I haven't heard a word from him about any sort of progress on my suit, but he's still active on FA. I know that stress, anxiety, and depression can all suck big time, but it has been two and a half years since he agreed to do a partial fursuit, and it took me threatening legal action to even get photos from him that he had something started on it. I'm not entirely thrilled that I'll only get a %50 refund considering that his main excuse for it not being done on time has been that he's ran out of materials, so I don't really buy that he's spent all $300 of that on materials for my suit. At the same time, I'm doubting that the suit will be completed in the foreseeable future. UPDATE: Sent an email on July 4th saying I was done waiting. Recieved a response on the following Monday that he would refund, but he's also got other refunds to do first. Also in posting a link to this, word reached other people in his queue, and from the ones who responded, they all said they're in pretty much the same boat. Waiting several years, months of no contact, excuse after excuse, etc. A few are heavily contemplating legal action. UPDATE 2: Still waiting on a refund, I was told on September 3rd that I was next in his refund queue, and upon sending an email a month later about the refund, because I had been going on the assumption that I was only getting half, was told that I would be getting a full refund. There were other things mentioned, but that starts to get off topic of the refund.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/781113.html WHO: Starrik, StarrikKyrubui, WonderFursStudios WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/wonderfursstudios/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/starrik Also there was trouble at FWA2014 during our convention. Also at Anthrocon 2014 regarding seams popping and various other things falling off / breaking. Namely pawpads, and the tail zipper being reversed. WHAT: 1400$ for Full digitigrade fursuit, including movable jaw, and 3d follow me toony eyes. WHEN: Starrik showed me Turbowolf's head as an example and the Resin head as well for examples. I also at this time requested fullbody suit examples to which she stated she had no pictures taken but built Turbo's https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/1375132686.awesomepawsome_1374768980.fuchsia_turbohead.jpg and https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/1367806068.awesomepawsome_jcheadwithhandpaws.jpg I liked the style of both heads enough to approve her and give her my details and confirm with her. Initial payment was March 3rd Conversations discussing what I wanted took place shortly after through twitter DMs Suit work didn't begin til later that month. Signs of trouble began to show almost immediately when she refused to provide updates for unknown reasons and stated that I approved of the handpaws claws, pawpads. Along with the fact the paws did not fit properly between my thumb and pointer digit. She later hired several other people and formed a business named "Wonderfursstudios" with herself and several friends. Final payment was sent on June 10th in the amount of 350 as I was told I owed. A rough time line of the situation from initial conversation, to 1st payment (or agreement of trade) to signs of trouble. PROOF: All of her business transactions were done through her boyfriends PayPal account. Sekioh. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-08 at 04.45.14).png Statement of how much I owed http://puu.sh/a2Gpb/b4c8f2933e.png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-11 at 07.33.33).png final payment There was also a sewing machine I had to buy for her which was part of the payment valued at 50$ EXPLAIN: Trouble started about half way when I was given an estimation by her that I would have "at least" a partial in time for FWA. Though while we were at FWA she claimed several people had contacted her claiming I was going to "dispute payment" and "chargeback scam" her. One of which being a good friend by the name of Sovy Kurosei upon asking him had he contacted her he stated he did not know her let alone that she was making my suit at the time. When I had also requested her for proof of the notes / DMs containing all of that she magically lost them and claimed FA glitched and deleted them all. After I saw the handpaws in person with the Silicone installed in them I was very displeased and with how things were going so far I just wanted to be done with it all honestly. The center pawpad on the handpaws were rough and looked realistic and not toony as I had requested. Not to mention the handpaw also did not fit on my thumb and index properly. Out of the 1400$ and having to also buy her a sewing machine and her running out of money for parts, eg; the silicone for handpaws, or resin for jawset. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-08 at 05.39.39).png Below was her quote of how much a foam based head from her would cost. Along with the none shaving of handpaws. I figured I could get someone else to shave it. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-08 at 03.44.09).png Later on I found out that was a good choice after they used a regular hair trimmer, and not a dog grooming trimmer. Likely with the default blade...which broke part way through shaving my head and caused nasty deep cuts on the suit. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brfkc_8IIAAMphS (1).jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brfxb66IQAAozLx.jpg She has been trying to help me fix the suit but the main reason I am doing this is because I have learned now she is in no way the fursuit maker that made the Turbowolf head. Let alone able to produce quality of what she plagiarized as her work to coax me to buy from her. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Screenshot_2014-07-08-21-20-37.png There is a large stress point on the left side of my suit despite her having made a DTD with me and the assistance of Sekioh. The left footpaw does not fit my left foot properly and is loose. Both footpaws the right inner claw was popping out because she had only glued one side. Not to mention the footpaws are completely different sizes..and shapes https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp8gDZIAAA2j7N.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp8hHAIUAAUxht.jpg She used BLACK SEWING STRING for WHITE FELT TEETH.. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140708_170426.jpg She did not properly hatch the silicone for the handpaws and they were popping off at Anthrocon at the lightest touches. Not to mention the fur where they were going to be installed at was not cut but actually melted by the hot glue. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp_mNaIIAA4TyI.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140707_184638.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp9vPGIgAENHRc.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp_iv8IQAAJH34.jpg Not to mention when I told her I was unhappy with the handpaws this was her response. She puts her own likes above mine and feels the need to state she LIKES them herself as if to influence my opinion. I saw the handpaws only with the fur, never with the pawpads or claws. http://puu.sh/a35Da/41efd4de77.png The eyes had exposed glue everywhere, and one spot was not even glued properly and the material used for the eye around it was not a hard material but a foam like one. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/BrqHQ9qIcAAzNOe.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp7UQSIQAEeJQM.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp_poSIQAAOlLn.jpg There was exposed foam in several places on the head along with seams. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140708_165624.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp7kk2IcAAZ-k1.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp7UQSIQAEeJQM.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/Brp71MRIQAAz8WM.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/BrqDF1lIAAAh2Sl.jpg - sewing not tied off properly Pictures of an overall view of the head. Bare in mind I did have it touch up trimmed at Anthrocon, and reglued by another fursuit maker. You can see though the head is clearly off centered by a lot and not to mention my markings as well. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140708_170426.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140708_170420.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140708_170414.jpg https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/BrqEX0DIIAAejjL.jpg When I asked her to give me the fur scraps / left over fur from my downpayment I received this. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-08 at 10.56.39).png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-08 at 10.56.55).png https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/ss (2014-07-08 at 10.55.19).png I believe she can properly repair the footpaws, and handpaws, or make new ones that are improved. I do not desire a refund for these but rather a proper repair along with these the bodysuit. I do not wish risk having her make another head. So with that I expect a refund in the valuation of the head as she quoted above of a price between "$500 to $600" as it is not possible above examples is the quality of her work. Thus I believe I was wronged by this maker in full about the quality of fursuit heads outcome. Which was a complete scam/forgery on her part to try and claim someone elses work as her own and according to FuchsiaPossum http://puu.sh/a35Wl/37c257838d.png Starrik was only her PR for the most https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/twitterfuchsia.png a statement from the maker stating she NEVER even helped on that head. According to Fuchsia all she assisted with was the stress test. At this point she has zero intention of refunding me but insisting she can repair all of this damage, and has actually requested me if I desired new claws for my fursuit handpaws I would have to pay for them myself. Even if they are a $10 set from DVC and the current set is a set I never approved nor was happy with to begin with. 7/23/2014 UPDATE: We have met an agreement in which the following will take place The fursuit head will be fully refunded - $400 (though was quoted $500-$600 for a head alone without a suit) of which no money has been received yet. Handpaws are to be remade Footpaws are to be remade Bodysuit is to be FULLY repaired to quality standard. Otherwise it will be FULLY refunded. 7/30/2014 Additional pictures/evidence of bodysuit: A lot of handsewing had to be done in the tail to fix the markings by Starrik at Anthrocon. Updates of 12 holes repaired total, and in the tail itself as well. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140719_182436.jpg - Left side stress point, I am unable to raise my arm higher than this. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140719_182443.jpg - Right side lift can go a bit higher https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140719_182536.jpg - Assymetry of markings https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140719_182718.jpg - Suit wants to slip off the left side of my shoulder. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140719_182629.jpg - Example 2 of the shoulder slipping off left side. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140719_182708.jpg - Current tail attachment arrangement. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140709_130111.jpg - The temporary belt attachment fix at AnthroCon https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140731_015756.jpg - Non-sewn area https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140731_015843.jpg - Hole in the center of fur https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140731_015911.jpg - Inside shot of clumped machine sewn fur https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/Starrik/20140731_015930.jpg - Outside shot of clumped machine sewn fur 9/6/2014 UPDATE: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/ss%2B(2014-09-06%2Bat%2B10.10.50).png - Email of agreement, request of when she will pay. Along with statement of handpaws / footpaws would be done "by the first" which is another example of them setting personal deadlines and missing them. 9/21/2014 STATUS UPDATE: 400$ Refund: not yet received New handpaws / footpaws: not yet received 10/20/2014 STATUS UPDATE: As of 11:38PM I have received partial refund of 200$ leaving 200$ to be paid at this time. Handpaws and Footpaws are yet to be received but Starrik has made good gesture on her part with partial repayment thus far. As of this point I am signaling she is showing good gestures towards positively resolving this issue. 11/5/2014 STATUS UPDATE Another 200$ has been repaid. With that the 400$ owed has been repaid but this still leaves the handpaws and footpaws. 8/9/2015 STATUS: Bodysuit has been given to Starrik for repairs. She's also working on newer footpaws and handpaws. 8/23/2015 ADDITIONAL INFO: While randomly searching my name on twitter I found old logs and found out when Starrik sent me reference of FuchsiaPossums work as her own. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/19358828/screencapture-www-furaffinity-net-msg-pms-12-45381554-1440381697274.png http://puu.sh/jMhwM/9e5c550862.png and an archive of those tweets https://archive.is/xrXSj

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/777201.html WHO: PurpleSlushie WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/purpleslushie/ WHAT: Fursuit head WHEN: November 10, 2013 until Now [June 20, 2014] Summary: Months of waiting for a fursuit head, still haven't received it yet.. PROOF: http://i.imgur.com/GBw8ufe.png http://i.imgur.com/IUBN7WI.png http://i.imgur.com/WPtqnqe.png http://i.imgur.com/ah594wY.png http://i.imgur.com/nsh0lhB.png http://i.imgur.com/aVMUvNI.png http://i.imgur.com/Ms7r05N.png http://i.imgur.com/gmgVIte.png http://i.imgur.com/QkQG7kf.png http://i.imgur.com/CNGSB8g.png http://i.imgur.com/TleWOlL.png http://i.imgur.com/KH5wiJM.png http://i.imgur.com/mq5iUqS.png http://i.imgur.com/WierFes.png http://i.imgur.com/Aj1R302.png http://i.imgur.com/PgJcrqr.png EXPLAIN: November 10, 2013: I've asked PurpleSlushie if she was opened for commissions and I wanted her to finish my head base. She asked to see photos of the headbase. [http://i.imgur.com/GBw8ufe.png] She said she can modify the muzzle for $300 [http://i.imgur.com/IUBN7WI.png] and accepted the commission request. I was definitely interested and pursued on doing business with her. She wanted full payment upfront before she does any work [http://i.imgur.com/WPtqnqe.png]. November 17, 2013: A week went by and I had enough money to send her the $300 for the commission. She also wanted another $20 for an extra attachment for my fursuit head, which I was fine with. [http://i.imgur.com/ah594wY.png] PayPal transaction here: http://i.imgur.com/nsh0lhB.png December 17, 2013: I haven't head from PurpleSlushie in a month, so I wanted to know if there was any updates, so I've sent her a note asking when I be able to send me my head so she can modify it. She said I can send it any time before the end of December. [http://i.imgur.com/aVMUvNI.png] January 28, 2014: I've already sent out the head and still haven't heard from her if she's gotten the head or not, so I've sent her another note, asking if she's received it. She said she got it on that day and she asked if it was OK for her to modify the lower jaw. [http://i.imgur.com/Ms7r05N.png] January 30, 2014: I've asked for her PayPal address again so I can send her the extra $20 for the head accessory attachment. She said she is going to try her best to make it because she hasn't done anything like that before. She also said the fursuit head would be done by the end of that month, or by mid-March. [http://i.imgur.com/gmgVIte.png] February 25, 2014: Another month goes by without any updates, so I've noted her again. She said she's done modifying it and it's ready to be furred. She also requested my e-mail so she can send pictures. March 22, 2014: Haven't heard from her in a month again, but I've received a note from her cousin, saying she will be furring the face and ears, and do detail work around the eyes. [http://i.imgur.com/CNGSB8g.png] After receiving that note, I felt so relieved seeing an update on my fursuit head. She said she'd send me more photos later on in the week. [http://i.imgur.com/TleWOlL.png] April 17, 2014: Her cousin sends me a note again, updating me. She asked what kind of nose I wanted. [http://i.imgur.com/KH5wiJM.png] May 26, 2014: I've sent her another note asking for an update, she replies, promising to send me more photos and having it finished by the weekend. [http://i.imgur.com/mq5iUqS.png] Excited with the good news, I asked if she will be able to ship it ASAP and provide a tracking number for it, she says there will be a tracking number but she was unsure if she can ship it ASAP because of unreliable transportation. [http://i.imgur.com/WierFes.png] June 4, 2014: Still not receiving any more pictures, I've left her a shout on her page and she responded, saying that the head is ready to be shipped. She also waiting to get a new camera so she can send me more pictures in a couple days. [http://i.imgur.com/Aj1R302.png] June 9-16, 2014: I've sent her an e-mail, because she asked if it was my e-mail so she can send me the pictures of my fursuit head. After waiting for months and months for pictures, I've already become impatient.. [http://i.imgur.com/PgJcrqr.png] As of now, June 20, I still haven't received any more word from her. It feels like every time I contact her, she promises to send me pictures, which she doesn't. It also feels like she is avoiding me. I feel like I've lost $320 and I cannot dispute with PayPal to get a full refund back.

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/870015.html EDIT: solved, I received a full refund. WHO: RaikaDeLaNoche / RawrCreations / AlmaAurora on FA, WHAT: A fursuit mask I didn't receive. WHEN: Contacted her and paid on march. Still waiting on a full refund. PROOF + EXPLAIN: [Note: The RawrCreations fursuit studio is handled by two people; Raika and someone else, but because this was entirely handled by Raika, I've decided not to include the other person.] RawrCreations opened for new projects in march, so I messaged them asking for a quote. [Proof] We agreed to the transaction, I sent $250 and I was supposed to send the rest of the payment next month. Their website (listed on the RawrCreations profile page) is now down, but when it was online, it showed some fursuit examples and a ToS that specified that, if paying in increments, they would send an invoice next month, and it was expected for the buyer to pay when it was due (April, in my case). [Proof] It's after I sent the first payment that communication completely stopped. April passed and I didn't get any updates or the invoice. I tried to be patient so I waited until May to contact them again, but my message was ignored. I messaged them again through on June asking for a reply, again, no answer. [Proof] On July 23 I was now tired of waiting and sent Raika a message on FA, asking for a refund. The message was read, but I got no reply, and her favourites kept being updated, showing that she was indeed ignoring me. (I also sent a message to the other fursuit studio maker, the messages are still unread.) She finally replied to me on July 30, the reason cited for the lack of updates was personal reasons/not wanting to talk, but assured me I'd get photo updates in about a week. I was excited about getting the item again and understood that life sometime gets in the way, so I told her it was completely okay and to take her time, only thing I asked for was updates. [Proof for both messages] Yet August was passing again without not even once being contacted by Raika, so I left a shout on her profile asking for a refund, completely fed up with waiting. [Proof] I was silently 'refunded' a week later. The thing is, because Raika sent this as Payment instead of Gift or Refund, I only received $236 from the $250 I originally paid her. I understand not all countries can send as Gift (mine can't), and it was past the wait period to send as Refund, but I would have expected her to cover the fees so I would have received a full refund. [Proof] I left a shout on her profile asking for the full amount on September 1st, which is still being ignored, even though her account shows activity. There are also other people on her shouts asking for refunds and updates, so I know I'm not the only one. [Proof] So, in short, I paid for a fursuit head, was ignored for six months (and still am), then not refunded in fully, even though I didn't receive anything.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/796376.html WHO: SUGARFACTORY WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sugarfactory WHAT: A box with fursuit accesoires, which was included in our deal about buying a second-hand partial. WHEN: I started contact around April 2013. It's now been 17 months since I didn't get the box she promised she will send. PROOF: Where to start 😉 These are screenshots from skype. She said she would include the extra if I would fo with the buyout deal ($1100) http://i.imgur.com/QtCV0nw.png . 8th May 2013, promising more stuff: http://i.imgur.com/XUg5km9.png & http://i.imgur.com/UtPbn1i.png 19th May 2013: My box arrived but not everything was included (the extra's). Checking with her http://i.imgur.com/xIsrPXo.png 25 June 2013: Promising her a box in return: http://i.imgur.com/uSDOOl7.png 27 June 2013: She wanted to include in the box a set of extra handpaws since the ones I got in the buyout deal weren't in good condition. http://i.imgur.com/rJqIAot.png 11 November 2013: http://i.imgur.com/H4zkB2V.png Telling her to skip the handpaws if must because I really would love my stuff at some point. 13 January 2014: She keeps stating she will send the box and is working on it... http://i.imgur.com/qlbJykT.png 15 March 2014: I've send her my box, with worth over 120$ of stuff. http://i.imgur.com/vpXY2ev.png Also she promises me a tracking even without sending anything. 21 March 2014: She lost the tracking it seems.. http://i.imgur.com/RQF0RGV.png 25 March 2014: Yes she lost it http://i.imgur.com/rMwlRp6.png And I never received the package since. but wait a minute? the fursuitaccesoires weren't included? 9 May 2014: http://i.imgur.com/9ThsE7g.png An excuse for not sending the box. 21 May 2014: http://i.imgur.com/N0XGVzF.png Saying to stop putting anything in the box extra and just send it to me. May 2014: Ignoring me http://i.imgur.com/T7cBgaL.png 5 June 2014: I wrote a message to her that I was despressed with not getting anything http://i.imgur.com/Ohuuz54.png . also http://i61.tinypic.com/1zdma9u.png saying that I would love to pay to get it here 24 July 2014: She's sending a box soon, because she's selling another suit, asking her if she will send mine too.. http://i.imgur.com/aF9XYi5.png 29 August 2014: Her fursuit she sold, has arrived at the new owner. Mine again... not send. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14401597/ Today (27 September): https://twitter.com/sugarypuppy/status/515870207848374272 First time I ever EVER see a picture of stuff that would been send my way. But where's the bandana's? Jail-Plushie? Only recognizable thing is the tail. I can give you a lot more screenshots if you like. EXPLAIN: Sugarfactory sold her fursuitpartial "Jail" from OneEyedDoe in April 2013. She said if I would get the buyoutdeal instead of bidding, I would get extra's. As you can see in the links, she later promised more and more stuff. I was so exciting and I thought we were really friends. THANK GOD I've received the most important part: the partial. The fursuit is with me and I'm suiting with it over 1,5 years now, I'm really thankful for that. It surprised me that she didn't send everything that was in our deal in that first fursuit box (19th may). Also later suddently, in a second box that never arrived, she said that the fursuitstuff weren't included (25th of March.) One thing that made the package take long was that she commissioned extra handpaws because mine were a bit old now, at Autumnfallings. But they took so long that I said to her to get her money back, leave them out of our deal, and just send me the box. I also though that sending a box back, would help our friendship. I did send a box with Dutch treats and candy and toys, but never got a box from her back. Lost? Never been send? I'm not sure. The problem since the beginning was: - She said she will send it <..insert day here..> - She said it failed <..insert excuse here..>. Really, she gave every excuse possible. No money, sick, floodings, postal office closed, adress lost, busy, ow and when she had no money I offered to pay the shipping, but she refused. I even have PROOF that she send out other boxes and stuff as well.. but why not MINE? (The second fursuit she sells 29 August) The only thing I said over the last YEAR was "Please when will the box be send?" and than the above steps took place. She stated later that, this box she owes me are all GIFTS and she can take the time she needs Update (29-9-2014): Sugarfactory promised to send out the box this Monday. The content is discussed. I will update when I received a working Track&Trace. Update (6-10-2014) Package send 1 oct. Tracking works and it's on its way to Europe About the critique in the comments below: Yes, I used some inmature language and was angry. I read the termes about keeping it polite on this forum but I didn't always keep that in mind and I'm sorry for this.

Undelivered Commission I do realize I have been waiting for 6 and a half years for this suit. I have been trying to be understanding and patient with Clementine about this commission. However, after this long of a time period, her lack of communication, her every changing replies, and numerous excuses I have decided to move forward with this post. Below is a timeline of the communication between myself and Clementine and also her boyfriend the CFO. Back in November 2013 Clementine was having a black Friday (artistic freedom with limits) sale and I decided to buy it. (I believe the original post was on furbuy, but not 100% sure) The commission was for a full suit for $1280, with a deposit of $576 I sent the deposit to her with a money order within a few days (because if i pay with PayPal I need to add 5% according to her TOS....which is a violation of PayPal, however that's not what I'm concerned about) I was under the impression from her ad on furbuy that I would pay the rest once it was completed, so I waited. April 22 2014, I receive an email asking about the rest of the payment, and I replied that I thought I was supposed to pay when it was done and before it shipped. September 13 2014 (yes 5 months later) I receive another email telling me she does not work on anything until the payment is in full. This is when the excuses start, her first reason is work is super slow until they sell their house. We go back and forth for a little bit about paying and I send her money orders in early October for the balance ($704) All during October 2014 she sketches up some designs and sends them over to me and we decide on one Mid October she tells me she hasn't received the money orders and I end up having to call and get them stopped and reversed which took quite a while. During November 2014 I had a huge expense (over $5500) and told her I had to hold off paying the rest until it got sorted out. We went back and forth on emails for a little bit and that's the time she started getting disrespectful to me saying how she has bills that are way past due. She ends up getting angry with me and tells me she may cancel my commission and it is on hold "indefinitely" she also tells me that she has used my whole deposit to buy materials. I ask for a refund at this point, and she tells me that there is no refunds and the deposit is non refundable ( I also would like to point out she has not asked me to sign any contract at this point) She ends up blocking me on facebook in December, so I am no longer able to message her. She instead has her boyfriend (the CFO of her company) emails me and says he will conduct business with me from this point forward. December 24th The CFO tells me that I need to make the remaining checks payable to him personally, and I refuse. I told him that my business is not with him it is with Clementine and i will make the checks payable to either her or make them out to fruitsuit creations. He then tells me I can make them payable to Clementine. December 29th 2014 I sign a contract for the remaining balance Since the contract was signed I mailed the payments as follows Jan 15th 2015 mailed $200 ($100 plus $100 credit) - it was received on Jan 21st -- see below for paid in full email Feb 23rd 2015 mailed $100 - it was received on Feb 28th -- see below for paid in full email March I had a few extra bills and had to use the $100 credit from Jan -- see below for paid in full email April 14th 2015 mailed $200 - received on April 19th -- see below for paid in full email May 1st 2015 mailed $204 (the balance) - received on May 8th 2015 (paid in full) and was told I was moved to the "working queue" Clementine sends a newsletter out 4 months later with her working queue and I am not on it, on the list is 2 heads, one partial, 3 on hold (with the commission names). She tells me there was some confusion and she will update it. She does not. October 14 2016 (yes a year later) She tells me she is finishing up 2 heads and I'm a few spots down the line. Jan 13 2017 she tells me there are six in front of me, 2 of which are just heads **April 2017 more excuses that she has several breakdowns a week and it's hard to concentrate and work on commissions. April of 2017 is when something odd happens.....there is another person commissioning her for a rush suit, I'm not sure if I can mention names, so I won't but there is another artist beware about Clementine from this person. The odd thing is that they paid for this nearly 2 years after mine was paid off, but she was sending WIP pics to this person and I have yet to even be told my true place in line. April 2017 she tells me my place is "one less then last time I told you" **July 2017 more excuses of bad side effects from medication, mobile and cognitive Impairment, horribly depressed , separation anxiety, hysterical crying spells 3-5 times a day [Verified by staff. Lots of medical information.] July 8th 2017 she tells me "i believe there are 3 or 4 in front of you" **September 2017 more excuses of her injuring her shoulder September 2017 She gets mad at me for asking where I am in line saying that I've been waiting for a long time, she tells me that there are people waiting longer, and I signed a contract that has no completion dates. Dec 11th 2018 (another year later) she tells me "trying to get this done so I can move on" **January 2019 more excuses of her cat being sick, and not having a place to live with her workshop May 29th 2019 after 100 excuses from her I am told "Thank you so much for your incredible patience! I do wholeheartedly promise that I will make your wait worth it!" **August 2019 more excuses of her Mom being sick (not posting conversation due to her privacy on her mothers health issues) Dec 15th 2019 after more excuses I am told "I really can't thank you enough for your patience.. and I promise I will go above and beyond to make it up to you, and everyone else I've let down.." May 16th 2020 After asking about my place in line yet again, I am told "i believe you are 6th in line."....I then send her screenshots from 3 years prior of her telling me that there are 3 or 4 in front of me. she tells me she must be looking at the wrong copy and will get back to me. _________________________________________________________________ I feel that I have been beyond patient with her, I can be sympathetic to what people are going through, or if they have things happen in their life that they need to just stop for a little bit (which she did have a few which I did not include in here due to the privacy of her family) However, with whatever you are going though mentally or physically and still traveling to many conventions and fursuiting while injured instead of working on your obligations, or even keeping me informed about anything that is going on in 6 and a half years, doesn't seem like a good way to conduct business. Waiting 6.5 YEARS from ordering or 5 years from it being paid in full with her story ever changing about where I am in her line, and excuse after excuse, (which I found another post with the same issues) has gotten me to this point of frustration where I feel I need to let others know. Especially since she has taken other commissions AFTER mine and has worked on them before mine. Clementine has shown me that she doesn't seem interested in working on my suit by not letting me know anything about it, and the things she has told me she contradicts herself many times. For example, about what she has bought for my suit (she tells me she didn't buy anything, then she tells me she has the fur from a previous project, then she tells me she used all my deposit for supplies) another example is my place in line. I'm not quite sure if there is any bookkeeping in where she works on things, but she doesn't seem organized at all about what she is working on. There should be an exact answer to that question, I am not sure why I can't get a straight answer from her on that. She has not posted any updates on her working queue or anything of that sort in a few years, so I am not even sure she has one. I had asked a few times early on for a refund which was refused, I even had said if she is unable to work on it at all that's fine, I can just get a refund and either do it myself or get it elsewhere, I have asked for a transfer to another person and that was refused, she seems to be banking on the contract saying is does not have any completion dates, however that doesn't give anyone the right to take money and not deliver a product ever, and I think 6 and a half years is way beyond the time limit to wait for something like this. I feel that I have been very lenient with her and tried to compromise but her excuse after excuse has led me to make this post. Along with her lack of communication in her work order. In the 6.5 years there has been a ton of emails and messages so I couldn't put them all so forgive me for such a long post. Please think twice before commissioning anyone, and feel free to reach out to those who have commissioned a person in the past to ask about their experiences. I was willing in the past to work with her in the past on this problem asking her what she needs from me in order to get her working on projects, (I even sent her a link to an industrial sewing machine for a good price because she was complaining about her needing a new one), but her lack of communication and concern about this commission has led me to believe that she does not intend to provide me with a product. I am however still willing to accept a refund and turn this post to resolved, if she is willing to refund my payments.

original: https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/650169.html WHO: Fenrir's Child/Mordrude's Monsters WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fenrirschild/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/mordrudesmonsters http://fenrirschild.deviantart.com/ http://www.mordrudesmonsters.com/ WHAT: Full fursuit commission WHEN: First payment May 20, 2011, paid in full July 31, 2011. Fursuit head stolen early December 2012, refund received January 23, 2013. PROOF: Paypal payments: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/Paypalscreen-1.jpg (Fen's real name blurred, all non-relevant transactions crossed out) Initial Contact: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/InitialContact.png Fen's old TOS: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/FensTOS.png FA notes, kindly provided by Synwolf, showing proof of Fen's accusations that I stole the head: http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/fenrisnotes1.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/547/fenrisnotes2.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/259/fenrisnotes3.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/829/fenrisnotes4.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/580/fenrisnotes5.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/255/fenrisnotes6.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/812/fenrisnotes7.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/6/fenrisnotes8.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/163/fenrisnotes9.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/90/fenrisnotes10.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/822/fenrisnotes11.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/839/fenrisnotes12.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/705/fenrisnotes13.jpg/ http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/836/fenrisnotes14.jpg/ EXPLAIN: I commissioned Fenrir's Child/Mordrude's Monsters for a full fursuit in 2011, with the original soft completion date of Rainfurrest 2011. We knew it was an ambitious target, so it wasn't disappointing when it wasn't done yet. Shortly after Rainfurrest 2011, there was some personal drama between myself and my ex best friend, which Fenrir's Child had inadvertently became involved with in other ways. Unknown to me at the time, this caused her to lose motivation to work on my fursuit. Several deadlines were set and missed. The first deadline after the drama was for January 2012, where I would pick up the fursuit for the When Furballs Strike 8 bowling meet in Kenmore, WA. When my wife and I went, the fursuit was not yet completed. The head was finished on the outside, but unwearable due to incomplete interior work. Because of the delays, Fen had offered free upgrades to make up for the extended wait. I gladly accepted. Unfortunately, upgrades aren't any good unless you actually get the fursuit. The next date was set for another When Furballs Strike meet in late May 2012. Again, the fursuit was not complete, with several months going by with absolutely no work done. The next completion date was set for Halloween 2012. Needless to say, it wasn't finished either. In November Fen had opened up for more commissions, and one of my closest friends had posted on her journal asking about my fursuit: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/Journalcomment.png Shortly after, Fen had finally come forward with why she had not been working on my fursuit this whole time, and offered a partial refund, which I politely declined because of financial troubles on her end: http://pastebin.com/k2PACa6X We decided to push for December completion. In early December, it was discovered that my head was missing, believed stolen. We discussed various options, including her remaking a head if I don't dock her in reviews or I pay $300, I get the remainder of the suit plus a partial refund, or, least desireable, a full refund. However, she backed out of any agreements and said she will be refunding me, without any say in the matter, in 45 days from the date of the police report for the claimed theft. Here is the full chatlog from that conversation: http://pastebin.com/q1UbWVix On the day the refund was due, she paid at 10 PM, without answering my emails or IMs asking what's going on, since it was getting late in the day and I still hadn't received my refund. Thankfully I did eventually find the refund in my paypal account, and our transaction is closed. Throughout this entire ordeal, I have been as patient as humanly possible, when all my friends were saying I should be making a fuss and have posted her on A_B a long time ago. Before the head was stolen, even Fen agrees I've been extremely patient: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/FensaysImpatient.png This entire commission has been nothing but constant waiting and repeated disappointment. There were many times I had felt absolutely trapped. I wanted to speak up and say she was taking too long, but if I did, I feared she would rush and push out a sub-par product, or give up and refund me without even trying to finish it. When she backed out of our agreement to let me have the rest of the fursuit minus the head, the gloves came off. While Fen's quality of work is extremely good, she simply lacks professionalism, basic business ethics, and the ability to complete large projects on time, allowing personal drama to interfere with her commissions. For small items such as tails, she would be a great builder to consider, but for anything more, I say Buyer Beware. Edit: Updated the proof to include initial email and Fen's old TOS. Also fixed a typo that had been driving me nuts. Edit 2: Added the FA notes between Synwolf and Fen, kindly provided by Synwolf.

I am currently waiting on a fursuit that was first discussed at MFF 2017 and commissioned February 2018. I paid off the suit in installments with the last payment being sent on August 2018. The suit is of my Thylacine character. I was told that the head would have to be sculpted, molded, and cast as it was a custom character with no bases for the head of the Thylacine. This was fine with me because at first I didn’t mind waiting. As stated in below it was discussed at MFF 2017 that work would be started once it was half paid off around the beginning of Summer 2018. Now I do understand I definitely wasn’t first on the list which again is fine. Fast forward to early 2020 pre-pandemic. It was discussed the suit would started after FWA 2020 and be done in time for Megaplex 2020. Drakonicknight stated they lost a year due to carpal tunnel at the beginning of 2018 (unsure if they met 2019) and lasted until the end of 2019. I understood that, I know carpal tunnel isn’t fun to deal with. This was in February 2020. In July I messaged them again asking for updates. Now with Covid a thing, all cons, including Megaplex, were canceled. So I figured that the suit would not be done in time for when Megplex was supposed to happen (August 2020) Now in-between all of this in 2019 DrakonicKnight did work on pre-made partials. While to me this is fine but I feel that your actual paying customers should come first. I understand emergency situations come up and you need money, it happens to the best of us. January 2021. I messaged DrakonicKnight again asking for updates and to discuss a new deadline for the suit to be done. As seen in the caps below I asked about it, twice, both of which seem to have been ignored as the conversation jumps from February 9th 2021 to May 6th 2021 with no new completion date discussed. I tried contacting on twitter saying that I didn’t hear from them on Telegram and asked for an update. In April I was informed that they were scheduling a day for helpers to come out and help get things done. August 2021 I message again saying I tried contacting on twitter and didn’t get a response so went to Telegram at that time only the head needed to be sculpted/completed and that was the last point of contact. I am not looking for a refund on the suit. I would love for it to be completed while receiving the same quality that all past clients have received. However if it does come to it, I will ask for a refund, I don't want it to come to that since I would feel a bit uncomfortable seeing what was once to be my character on someone else. Pictured (I hope I can fit them all if not I’ll post the more important ones)are the conversations I’ve had with them. I also ordered a shirt from them (which is seen discussed in the pictures as well) but that also HAS NOT been delivered.

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/942680.html WHO: Victoria10717 known as "FurFancyCostumes" on Furaffinity WHERE: Links to their Furaffinity accounts http://www.furaffinity.net/user/victoria10717/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/furfancycostumes WHAT: Fursuit handpaws, feetpaws, bodysuit with tail attached (fursuit items) WHEN: First agreed upon commission on the 16th of March 2016, it was also agreed upon that said items would be delivered to me by June 17th 2016, this is still ongoing however and they have not started the commission as I am writing this 16 February 2017, I finally worked up the courage to ask for a refund 2 months ago PROOF: Proof can be found here: http://imgur.com/a/RAgOm Proof is in the form of screenshots of conversations I have had with the maker EXPLAIN: This all started after I purchased a fursuit head off the fursuit auction site "furbuy" from someone who bought it from the maker. I decided I wanted to upgrade it to a partial so I reached out to the maker as I needed it done for a specific date which I wouldn't be able to finish the parts by due to life circumstances, this was my only reason for commissioning the maker at the time so I'd have the partial to wear to an upcoming convention. The maker agreed and assured me it would be there in time for the convention http://imgur.com/rCI396A so I went through with the commission and paid. http://imgur.com/HZDcMjl I know artists don't like being bombarded with questions from commissioners so I gave them space and just assumed that they would work on it. Time passed and I hadn't seen any progress at all so I contacted them and they told me it was fine and will be done. I contacted them again 2 weeks before the date they assured me they'd have it completed by (as shipping from the USA to Australia takes 2 weeks) and by this point I knew they wouldn't have it done in time, which I was upset about but I let it slide. Time continued to pass and I was getting more stressed and worried about the commission, I was constantly given sob stories for why the commission wasn't worked on (moving house, relatives dying etc.), which I gave her more time because of, however I was noticing too that she was working on commissions that were paid off after mine. It became difficult to get into contact with the maker as they began ignoring my messages, I tried switching over to email on numerous occasions which were ignored completely, whereas with notes I would receive occasional replies. Late September to early October I messaged her asking what was going on and she told me that she was working and making great progress and I started seeing a lot of work from her that she was doing on others commissions suits and I became confident that soon she'd do my commission as she was posting progress as well with her assuring me my suit would be worked on soon http://imgur.com/rrnAKmd so I decided to add a bodysuit to the commission as they also assured me it wouldn't slow my commission but be done with it. Time continued to pass and more and more I noticed other commissions being done over mine and when I tried contacting the maker I was ignored. Eventually I decided I was putting too much time into this and it was making me too stressed so I wanted to put an end to it and as they had breached the agreement many times I believed I was entitled to a full refund and all they responded with was to follow their "trello" http://imgur.com/oT70pkB to try and get me to no longer ask for a refund. On other occasions I had told them they hadn't made a slot for me on trello which they ignored so even looking at that list, I had no idea where I was on it or if my commission was even being considered in her queue Then the maker proceeded to provide excuses and reasons as to why they couldn't or hadn't worked on the commission http://imgur.com/AZ7StD9 then claiming that I hadn't paid it off before others she had placed ahead of me, this continued for a little longer with conversation difficult as they continued to ignore my messages http://imgur.com/OhKbuo8 Finally I was able to get them to agree to send a refund and at this point I was so over it I didn't care about the 35% anymore, so I waited. I hadn't heard anything in over a month later after them claiming they'd send the refund that never came. So I proceeded with the Paypal claim, in order to actually receive a refund. I called PayPal customer service and explained the situation to someone there who told me that I was entitled to a full refund as they hadn't made a proper effort to work on the commission, regardless of what their TOS stated they had broken the agreement. That's when they finally replied however I still am yet to receive a refund from them as they claim they "don't have the money to refund".

I am writing today to talk about a fursuit commission I got from Unluckydinobear, who goes by ABearFromSpace now, back in January 2018. Since the transaction is so many years old, I do not have the paypal payment sent screenshots, however, I can show the Telegram chat messages to show that I indeed paid $800 for the commission, and he still has not completed the work, but he's been avoiding making the suit and compiling excuses to this day. I was looking to get a fursuit commission, so I asked any friends to see if they knew any good makers or ideas to find one. A friend of mine, recently got a partial piece done from ABearFromSpace, so he told me his contact and I messaged him to see if he had any openings. I ended up messaging him, and by luck, he said he had room for one more in the queue. I felt extremely lucky, and knowing fursuits take time to create, I would have expected at most this taking a year or two, as long as I was getting updates I was fine with this. After sending character refs and other information, he gave me a quote of about $750. I was a little surprised since my friend got his suit from him for $400, but since he was one of his first commissions I understood the raise of price. With an additional $50 for taxes and shipping, I ended up paying $800 for the partial fursuit. Here I sent a partial payment for the fursuit, and ABearFromSpace tried to make conversation with me the next day which looks like he wanted to get me to pay the rest as soon as possible. After 10 days, he asked me again for the rest of the payment. While I was able to pay the rest of the suit by the end of the month, it was understandable here how he just wanted to make sure the rest of the payment was going through soon. He also offered to make a chat for his commissioners, to my knowledge I don't think he ever did, or at least he never included me. At the beginning of February, I was able to rest the payment, a total of $800. After 2 months and discussions of character information, I was updated with a photo of some base heads Bear would be working on, and I was going to give him measurements to follow up with. Another 2 months went by, and I popped in to see if there were any updates. He was in the process of moving and going to a con, so I told him it was understandable and thanks for updating me. This was about half a year since I paid for my suit and thought maybe I wouldn't have to wait TOO much longer. Some time passed, and we barely talked in August about fursuit adjustments for my character, then in October I asked to see if there was anymore updates, and asked if my suit could be done before Further Confusion (FurCon) 2019 which was held on January 17, 2019. Here he said he thinks he was able to get it done, I held hope but part of me was ready to accept if I couldn't get it by then. November rolls out and I talked with Bear to make sure that the suit would be done before FC, seems like he was confident in getting it done. At the end of December, he drew up another WIP, and we discussed some suit adjustments. Bear told me that he'll do his best to get my suit done by then, and if it's not all done he'd send what was completed. It seemed too good to be true since the con was less than a month away, but I was prepared to see what he'd have done. Come January, he didn't have any part of the suit ready, and apologized saying he had the flu. Him getting it all done asap and rushed seemed to good to be true, so it was understandable he wasn't done, and I told him no rush hoping I'd get some progress soon at least. Bear said after he plans to finish no later than February and will have WIP pictures soon. At the beginning of February, he sent me a very early build, but it was an exciting WIP nonetheless. It seemed like this was the start of great progress, even though it has been over a year since I first commissioned him, but this would be the only WIP photo I'd ever see. While he promised to get my suit done at the end of February, nothing happened. I asked again in March if there was any progress, where he said he was depressed and going through something. Then in April I messaged him if he had any idea of when it would be complete, which he gave me a May-June window. In May he was completely silent, and in June he said he was busy and would have my suit done before the upcoming FurCon 2020 (which would start on January 16, 2020). Here again he said what progress he made and what he had to do, and that he should definitely get the suit done before FC 2020. Come October, I wanted to see if there were any updates, since FC was slowly coming around the corner. He asked when I'd like my suit done before again, then never messaged me until the beginning of next year. Instead of giving me a personal explanation for not getting the suit done again, he just drops this link and quickly scurries out which was the beginning point of me realizing that I wasn't the only one who was waiting for a commission to be done from him. This was the start of me losing my empathy and patience with this guy as things progressively got worse over the next two years. After a bit over a week he responds seeming reluctant to get the suit done "soon". In March I sent him for character tweaks, which was late on my part admittedly, but afterwards in April-June he was completely silent. At the end of July I asked him for another update which resulted in nothing again, and afterwards he did not respond until the beginning of 2021. He finally responds at the beginning of January of 2021, after not messaging me since July 2020. He talks about how he's depressed again, and how he lost his Grandpa. As someone who has lost their grandparents as well, I've been in his position of being in a rut and losing motivation to get things done, however, given his list of excuses given out so many times, I can only feel so much empathy/sympathy from him and let him take LONGER and LONGER to get my suit done. At this point I told him if I could just get a refund if he had too much on his plate at the moment. He said he was willing to do my suit still and how it's "a cutie" which doesn't sound very professional at this point since he's been avoiding me and not getting work done. I told him if he could get it done by June then I'd be okay with it, otherwise I wanted to talk with him about getting a refund. No updates pass by as usual and in March he gives me more excuses and "plans" to get it done in the Summer. Here I tell him I'll be okay with it if the suit can be done by the end of the year. I start to show frustration with Bear as well and tell him I'd like a refund if he doesn't get the work done before the promised time. He ends up ghosting/not communicating with me as usual, so I tell him I'll contest PayPal if he doesn't get my work done. I've seen most people immediately try and contest payments and try to get their money back, but I wanted to talk with him about it instead of doing that. September rolls out and still nothing to show. Here he gives more lists of reasons why he hasn't started and promises to get WIPs soon. I start to get more frustrated with him for his lack of effort and care communicating back with me. I leave two messages to him about how he still hasn't gotten my work done, then he read the messages and never responded, leaving me to tell him again I would contest PayPal. He says at the end to give him this month to try and make progress, if nothing happens he'll start the refunding process. I tell him about how he needs to get his responsibilities in order. I sympathize with him with all the things he's been through but I try and tell him it's no excuse to leave me in the dust when I try and support him ordering a fursuit paying with my hard-earned money. We talk about how if nothing is done for November, then I'd want a refund. He never got the suit done, and says he will work on getting the refund process started by the end of this year or beginning of next. No updates still, we are now in the year 2022, over FOUR years since I first commissioned and sent the payment over to Bear. No updates for another two months until I continually ask him, if I don't message him he'll legit forget about me and continue ignoring getting the fursuit done. I plea with him here, asking if he'll actually get it done, because I've waited so long for basically nothing. Only a few quick sketches and an early base from a few years ago. I just wanted my refund at this point, I didn't even want a fursuit anymore. I felt like enough was enough. He wasn't responding to me, treating me respectfully, or getting any work done. I had come across the Artist's Beware site a few months ago and even noticed someone posted about Bear here (under his old username Unluckydinobear). I figured if he won't give me my money back for a fursuit he promised to get done several times over the past couple of years, this was my best bet to post. My friend, who originally got his suit from Bear, told me it was only partially completed and how Bear still needed to make adjustments, and also left him in the dust. I wrote all of this here today not to "callout" or want any threats toward Bear, but I hope that if people end up showing interest in commissioning this man, please be aware of what you are getting yourself into. It has been 4+ years since I first commissioned Bear for a fursuit, and I still have gotten nothing. As of June 11, 2022, he still has not messaged me back, and looking at his Twitter account it seems like he's too distracted with other affairs to even care

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1005929.html WHO: https://twitter.com/Kays_Creations WHERE: Twitter WHAT: A premade husky fursuit tail WHEN: 02/03/18 EXPLAIN: I saw Kay tweeted about a few premade tails that were for sale. The husky tail matched a fursuit head I have currently and I expressed my interest in it. She was very quick to respond to me and I sent my payment, during that time I also won originally a fursuit tail but requested to switch it to paws since I was buying a tail from her. She was ok with the change and I sent my reference sheet for the character, I wasn't in a hurry for it so I agreed with shipping both items together assuming they would both be done by BLFC (which is in May). So I left it at that until April, I saw she was tweeting about bringing finished commissions to BLFC and I asked her if it'll be possible to have her bring the items to the con. Kay stated she would try to bring it with her, I didn't bring it up again until April 30th. She never responded to my messages since then, I messaged her after BLFC requesting her to mail out the tail on Jun 15th. Kay was tweeting about how she was in a car accident after the con and was in the process of moving, so I waited the 26th to ask her about a refund. I did get impatient about it and filed a dispute, but I've waited two months since her last response to my messages. I gave her until the 11th of July before escalating the dispute to Paypal. Right now the last message I sent her was requesting a refund since I know that disputes will ding your account and as someone who also takes commissions. I know how important it is to be able to access Paypal. I know she's activate on her main account and is ignoring my requests for a refund. I've been very patient giving her time to respond since I knew she was busy with moving, but I feel like I'm being ignored. I want to give her the benefit of the doubt but I feel she is very unprofessional. [Editor's note: Resolved in comments] galaxy_deer Jul. 22nd, 2018 07:45 am (UTC) If any mod can, I won the dispute and will receive my money back!

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/974050.html WHO: Customer- Levi (Telegram: @Leviathan95 ) EDIT: Telegram username keeps changing every so often. WHERE: Telegram WHAT: Digital Ref(refunded $20) WHEN: Between Sept 7th-October 19th EXPLAIN: I had Levi commission for a fursuit ref on september 7th. He was 7th in line when he commissioned me with a lineart project in 1st and 5 small projects inbetween. Sadly I got sick with an infection the entire month of September and could not work on his reference sheet. In October I had stopped working on a big lineart piece that was first in line to focus on his ref for the entire week of October 16th-19th. I had completed the linework of the ref and was going to color it on the 20th since I had a family emergency on the 19th but he tells me he is getting another artist to make his ref because I'm not working fast enough and I was working on other stuff that isn't his. (Unfinished ref: https://imgur.com/hHKooX4 ) 1. He was 7th in line on September 7th 2. As any normal artist working on smaller projects like icons, badges, etc is a way to take a break from big projects like lineart and refs so you can feel refreshed to come back to the big project. 3. Someone paid for a deadline for 1 week and I finished it in a day It was stated in my Telegram art channel that he was in and was able to read other messages like for example how I had halted work when I was sick. (Proof of alerts what was posted on Art Channel: https://imgur.com/tSxpnee ) 4. He was 2nd in line and I stopped working on the 1st commissioners lineart for him. 5. In the beginning of our conversations he had stated numerous times that he was in no rush for his ref to be completed. (Moments where he said it was no rush: https://imgur.com/tqgLmQD ) So he decides to lie to the fursuit maker that he was getting said fursuit from saying I pushed him to 12th in line when that wasn't even true, The maker informed me of his concerns and I had approached him with his problems. My ToS states I only give partial refunds but I had no choice but to give him a full refund. Due to fearing he would spread rumors that I didn't give him a refund at all. (my ToS: https://goo.gl/forms/New1kFb0HQwYtOzS2) PROOF: Here is the entire conversation https://imgur.com/a/tjpFK UPDATE: I had got in contact with the artist who had made his new reference sheet and they can confirm about his behavior that made them worried that Levi would attempt to get a refund if they did not work fast enough. https://imgur.com/meBYbmu

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/949564.html WHO: purqleguy WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/purqleguy WHAT: Fursuit head, one time payment. WHEN: April of 2016 was when I bought the head, the deadline was supposed to be July 2016. At the time of writing this (3/24/17) it has been almost a full year past the deadline, and he will not respond to my emails asking about the tracking number of the package he told me he shipped (he said he shipped it a month ago.) PROOF: Emails: http://imgur.com/a/txDnh Paypal transaction: http://imgur.com/x5G4jo5 I don't remember why I sent it in two parts, but it was sent on the same day as you can see. EXPLAIN: Long story so I put it under the cut In early 2016 I had plans to go to Youmacon with a friend that year. So I was on the hunt for a fursuit head commission that I could wear to the con. A big problem I was running into was that at the time I was 17 and a lot of people didn't accept fursuit commissions from minors. I was turning 18 next month, and was hoping I could use that to hold a spot with someone. I found a commission ad for purqleguy on furaffinity, that he was selling cheap heads as an emergency money maker. I like helping people out, they were cheap and I liked his work, so I bought one. (Initial emails: http://imgur.com/onQQ1kU http://imgur.com/v2yLQUO (a big chunk of the convo has been cut out here, since it was mostly just talk of what material I wanted the horns to be made out of and isn't relevent to my case.) The initial agreement was I wanted it completed by early July. He told me that was doable, and he thought he could have it done even earlier than that. (Email: http://imgur.com/8Ca1JUy ) I got one update ten days after the payment (April 30th) showing me the completed face of the foam base. ( http://imgur.com/0LsBJAh ) After that the only updates I got were from me emailing him to ask. ( Email, note the date, continuing to talk about this in the next paragraph: http://imgur.com/vXC831l ) At the very begining of July, I sent him an email, hoping to confirm that he would have it finished by my deadline. He did not send me photos, but he told me he hadn't begun furring it. Keep in mind, I had not heard from him in a month, and seeing as he sent no photos and said he was sewing the fur pieces, I am to assume he had not made any progress on my head since I last contacted him. He promised to send photos the following day, he did not. His excuse was he went on a mountain trip, (for over a month?) and that's why he wasn't able to contact me. I didn't get on him about this but he should have told me he was going to be away and would not be able to update me. I told him as long as I got it by October then I would be fine with not meeting my July deadline. A few weeks later, I contacted him again, asking if he could send some images of the fur pieces he supposedly cut so I knew he wasn't lying. (Emails: http://imgur.com/jrmTg8d ) He did not reply until early the next month (August) with update pictures. Once again, he told me that a huge thing came up he couldn't work on my suit. He did not tell me that this was happening, this is the second time he had to pause on my suit because of life events without telling me. At this time I told him I was extending the deadline, as I had cancelled my Youmacon trip. (Email: http://imgur.com/8w63Gwg ) For a little bit after that, he did start updating me regularly, and then suddenly stopped without warning. Again. (Emails he sent me, I didn't screenshot the emails themself since it wasn't really much relevent to my case. Just some progress photos and comments on them. These are mostly to prove the dates and that he sent them. http://imgur.com/Z0k4iNL ) He stopped sending me emails until late December, I asked him for an update because the last he checked with me he told me he was almost done. (Email: http://imgur.com/nRJNrrI ) He told me he was going to put in the piercings and then he'd ship it off to me. I did not get any correspondance until February. I sent another email asking for an update, and his exact respond was "[your head] has been packed up for a while now!". He had my head packed up, I'm estimating for at least a month, and he did not ship it off to me. He told me he shipped it February 23rd. (This is the last email he has sent to me, so there won't be any more embedded in this post: http://imgur.com/fvTwOBD ) It has been a full month since he told me he shipped it (I am writing this on March 24th), and I have not recieved the head. He did not give me a tracking number, he did not give me an official confirmation he shipped it. On the 22nd he told me he was going to ship it out the following day, he did not confirm he shipped it but I was hoping he did. I don't know where to fit this into my story here, but it should also be mentioned some updates he didn't even send to me. I had to dig up his instagram account and looked at some photos he had posted to there (ones he didn't send me). I have sent 2 emails at this point asking for a tracking number, in the 2nd I said if he didn't give me a tracking number I was demanding a full refund. I was willing to give this maker a little bit of leeway since he told me he was a minor (didn't give me an exact age, I was guessing 16-17), but this is unacceptable. Do not buy from this artist until maybe he learns his lesson and gives some better customer service. Until then I'm hoping to get that refund I'm demanding and am going to a more high-profile maker with some good reviews. UPDATE; After having to hunt down this guy's tumblr to send him a message asking what was up I FINALLY recieved the head. And the condition is terrible. Here's a photo of the head, it looks fine from the outside but the construction is horrendous. http://imgur.com/Y1NGstB From the outside, notice; no piercings. My character has a nosering and two ear piercings. I even TOLD the maker how he could make the piercings, and he said he couldn't find green paint and I said he could cover it in fleece if he had to. I was very lenient with that because I know green spray paint exists online, but at this point I was tired of fighting with him so I was letting him do whatever he wanted. He didn't even do that, he just put no piercings in at all. From the construction; god where do I even start? I'm guessing he used matrice's head making method, but he did not ventilate the head AT ALL. The mouth is open and that's about it. The foam piece between the head base and the muzzle wasn't cut out, as from my understanding is standard for foam heads, and I had to cut it out myself. He was expecting me to get all my ventilation from the eyes and slightly open mouth, in an all black foam head. The horns don't look anything like I wanted them too, I gave him a link to an etsy store (I believe it was DVC) who had resin ram horns that looked how I wanted but he said he didn't want to use them. There isn't even ridge lines (I'm not sure what the lines on ram horns are called, sorry) on the horns. It's super easy to embrodier something like that on, he didn't even bother. The pink hair piece is tiny, and isn't even pinned down in anyway. If I move too much it flips up. My character I asked some artistic liberties to be taken since my actual fursona has his hair covering his eyes, but I need to see so I asked to make it a little smaller.but not THAT small! The jaw looked like it was about to rip off when I got it, and I had to put some more hot glue in it as I was paranoid it would fall off. And the neck mane has foam under it to make it stand up, which isn't that bad in itself, except he didn't cover the bottom with fabric or more fur, the foam is on display whenever I move my head. I will admit the eyes could've been a little bit tricky to work with, since I asked for slit pupil goat eyes, but the vision isn't very good. The pupils aren't even placed where they would be over my actual eyes, and they're pretty thin. I waited almost a year for a horribly made head. I am not happy. I basically wasted 300$, since I don't want to talk to this guy anymore to get a refund. I'm going to a more reputable maker to get a new head since I'm in the market for a bodysuit anyway.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/810690.html WHO: VeilShadepaw WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/veilshadepaw/ WHAT: Fursuit commission payment. WHEN: "June 2014" to now (December 2014) PROOF: Oldest conversation I can find of the suit being discussed, final price is decided: http://www.ezimba.com/work/141212C/ezimba16923696789300.png Cut out message: http://www.ezimba.com/work/141212C/ezimba16923657614100.png One payment to me. He also paid $50 but I can't seem to find it: http://www.ezimba.com/work/141212C/ezimba16923692605000.png Asking in September: http://www.ezimba.com/work/141212C/ezimba16923698707400.png Asking this week, reinforcing how serious I am now: http://www.ezimba.com/work/141212C/ezimba16923633740500.png EXPLAIN: I had made him a fursuit finished in October 2013 and he wanted a new one. We discussed this new one at a few furmeets and on my other Facebook account (can no longer access so no proof) before the screen shots in June. At the time he sent me $100, I was halfway done with his head. Suddenly, he lost his job, but still wanted the suit. I was dumb enough to send it to him regardless because he wanted it in time for AnthroCon, as he had emphasized, and thought it would potentially put me at risk for a bad review. I was dead wrong. So he went to the convention anyways, another one (or two?) in the following months, not to mention trips out-of-state... He got a job at the beginning of this month (December) and had been talking about paying for stuff back in September, where my other screenshot is. I finally had enough and PMed him about it only to find out that he needs to pay off "outstanding bills", which apparently doesn't include this fursuit. -- Now, I know VERY well that I should not have given him this suit. It's now a bold statement in my TOS. But now he owes me money and I don't know if I'm going to be receiving payment for this or not because he's proven to not really care now that it's in his hands. So, beware. As a seller or as a buyer (he does commissions).