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  1. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/956264.html WHO: Remix Angel Dragon / Nightwolf Costumes WHERE: Facebook –business page apparently deleted; tags/links to business page are broken, did most business through personal page FurAffinity - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/nightwolfcostumes (business, has been cleared out and no submissions are in gallery) Furry Network https://beta.furrynetwork.com/nightwolf/ Twitter https://twitter.com/remix_dragon WHAT: Full digitigrade fursuit valued at over $1800 USD , fleece hat valued at $25 WHEN: Dec. 2014 (when first payment was sent) to present (suit was paid in full May 2015) Read below the cut EXPLAIN: I first commissioned Remix for a fleece hat of my Dutch Angel Dragon character back in September 2014. In December that same year she opened for fullsuit commissions so once again, after seeing her previous work decided to commission her. It was agreed upon that the fleece hat I had previously ordered would be sent along with the suit once it was done (however, I had never seen any shots of a WIP or even a finished hat). We agreed on a payment plan of 25% each month until the suit was paid off. January 2015 I sent her a payment of $450 USD(via Friends and Family to avoid the conversion fee, I was told -strike one on me) then mailed a DTD, a pair of shoes and a hand tracing. As soon as the next month rolled around I was messaged for the next round of payments, but I had to adult (to put it simply) and told her they may have to wait, in which I was then told if I didn’t pay I’d lose my commission spot but that she also wasn’t going to do that. I was able to pay her toward the end of February when things ironed out. Paid her again April 2015 and asked about a possible completion date of Anthrocon 2015. Was told she would start working in May after the last payment was sent. The last payment was sent in May 2015, and work began. We talked back and forth about furs and measurements. It was revealed that the suit would not be completed for AC ’15 but I told her I was fine waiting. September rolls around and we’re still waiting on fur. No other WIPs, such as foam work, were shown. She also asked to keep our conversations between her business page and myself instead of her personal one, but this transition never happened and we continued talking for another year on her personal page. Communication stopped Nov. 2015. After that I’d heard nothing from her again until April 2016. In the meantime she was posting other suit work and finished costumes, as well as sharing excitement over having a character of hers made by a popular maker. April 26 I am finally shown my first WIP picture: the handpaws. In May 2016 I received another WIP photo of the tail. After that I was told she couldn’t finish the bodysuit because my DTD had somehow fallen apart and was full of holes, thus requiring me to send and make another one. I didn’t hear anything for a couple months while the artist went to Eurofurence, despite seeing her post a redo of her own personal suit as well as more work. I messaged them August 20th to ask for updates and was told they were still settling in from the con and wanted another week. I reconfirmed sending a new DTD and was promised extras because of the wait. September 2016 I am notified that they received the DTD, but still no new WIPs. Finally, in October 2016 they send me an invite link to a telegram chat they had created to keep all their customers informed. This is the last time we spoke over Facebook messenger. After the move to Telegram I no longer received any updates regarding my suit, but the artist continued to show off work on other suits, her own suit being made by a popular maker and mention things going on in her home life. She mentions she will have four more hands in the studio to help her with suit work. November she posts another finished head and mentions she will change my sculpt to match that one- keep in mind I have yet to even see any WIP shots of a head at this point. Halfway through November she posts more suit updates but no mention of mine, just alludes that everything they have been working on will be shipped out. There's talk of having everything shipped in time for Christmas, yet still no mention of my commission. Updates in January are sporadic, she's posting that she's sick and disappears for days at a time or even a week. January 23rd she tells us things have gotten worse since she worked instead of bedrest so she's stopping for a while. February she lets us know more about her health, and because of this she is stopping all work, and no refunds are going to be given to anyone. She calls in another person to speak on her behalf and again states there will be no refunds, and to sympathize with her as it is a very difficult time for her, we have options, take them or leave them. I stated my case to this new person, first in the chat then in PM, explaining that while I understand the severity of the situation I can’t just walk away from that kind of money, especially where no other WIPs had been sent since May so I couldn’t even be sure the suit was that close to being finished. I even offered a partials refund of $1200 to cover the material costs and labor already put in and her “spokesperson” stated no, no refunds at all, and “this is the risk you take when commissioning”. They finally do agree on a $1200 refund, as a payment plan, and that they would ship me the parts finished and the remaining fur that I could then take to another maker. I was told I would get a track and trace (tracking number) when it shipped, and the first refund payment was due to start in April 2017. Towards the end of February I reached out to this person again for an update and was told they'd get back to me. I haven't heard from them since. It is now nearing May 2017, and I haven’t received a tracking number, my package, or even a cent of a refund payment. Inquiries to Remix herself are met with “I don’t have the money to refund you, I am ill,” and when asked about the package I am told her father shipped it and she would get it from him as soon as she could. I never have, and my messages are now going on ignored. The Telegram group for her business is now shut down and any business pages relating to Nightwolf Costumes are now wiped clean. Meanwhile, Remix posts actively on Twitter about her upcoming fursuit from a large maker, which as of this writing has been finished and is being shipped to her. She is also very active in a telegram chat for Dutch Angel Dragons, that I am also part of. I warned her about writing an artist’s beware if I wasn’t given the tracking number, and I have yet to get a response from her other than “I’m ill”, so here we go. I know I have a slim to none chance of ever seeing my full refund back, or even the fur. I know I shouldn’t have sent the money without an invoice, or without ticking Goods and Services. I learned the hard way, and I’m hoping others don’t make the same mistake I did. I'm posting this to not only warn people about what happens when invoices and paper trails aren't made, but to also stay away from this person, even if they get back in the business. PROOF: All aforementioned and linked screenshots. ADDING: At the beginning of May Remix reached out to me and asked for my email and phone number – she was referring me to a third party to get this resolved as soon as possible. As of this writing I have heard nothing from her or this third party. I reached out to her May 14th asking if she’d heard anything from that third party and I have heard nothing since. 5/26/2017-ADDING MORE: A rather lengthy response from the maker: here here here here here here here here here here here here I've also been called out on Twitter by Skypro herself, my name isn't used but it's passive agressive enough that I can figure out it;s about me. Note that not once in this entire beware have I ever said I'm insisting Remix finish building my suit. All I've asked for is my refund and the supplies to take my commission to a different maker. Proof is here. 5/27/2017 Woke up this morning to a messge from Remix, with photo proof she has shipped two boxes to me, and a refund via Paypal of $1,080 ($120 was witheld to pay for shipping). I had tried to be reasonable and suggest a payment plan again to make it easier on her but she refunded the full amount. I'd consider this mostly resolved, once I get the boxes in the mail and find what she sent is as she described (all the work she was able to finish, plus the remainder of the materials) I'd say this could be completely resolved. 6/8/17 I came home from work to find that two boxes had been delivered, but they required a signature to be turned over to me (they had been delivered at 9 am, I didn't get home till 6 and I live alone). I was away all weekend so I was only able to pick them up today. Frankly, I'm disappointed. I was told I would be getting handpaws, a tail, feetpaws, and a half sewn bodysuit, plus my fleece hat and materials to finish the suit. Instead I got no hat, handpaws that barely fit my hands despite the hand tracing I sent her, a pair of foamed feetpaws with only one showing the carving process, a tail that isn't even backed and closed up (basically unwearable), and a barely even sewn bodysuit, many pieces still have pins holding them together. I also received both DTDs back (one was cut up to make the fur patterns) and almost all the fur used to make her (I don't have the brown or the green used in the tail). I'm disappointed, largely because I was led to believe more work had been done than this when I agreed to a partial refund but also because any quotes to try to get this finished are going to be through the roof, there's still so much work to do.
  2. Thanks for the heads up. I was almost about to commission this guy. Pity.
  3. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/900218.html WHO: Peridotkitty http://www.furaffinity.net/user/peridotkitty WHERE: Furaffinity.net and Skype WHAT: 42 page comic with a Cover ( $1500/$3150 paid ) WHEN: June2015- Present(March 2016) PROOF: All payments First payment (Jun 14 2015) Second payment (Jun 28 2015) Third Payment (Aug 13 2015) fourth payment(Sep 29 2015) Incomplete cover work(From Peridotkitty's Trello): [COVER] NSFW Incomplete comic work(From Peridotkitty's Trello) [COMIC WORK][COMIC WORK 2] EXPLAIN: I work on an anthology comic project with my fiance which is set to be published. Both of us work on comics for this as well as hire other artists. Artist hired receive a retainer fee( I pay this) to start them off before moving forward. With hiring artist we also gather funders to be a part of the comic. There were three funders for Peridotkitty's comic (names are hidden at mods' request) Funders were invoiced through my paypal (I work under LLC) and funds were sent to the artist.Payments for hired artist were sent monthly until the full project amount was paid unless the artist failed to produce enough progress in a timely matter at the funders discretion, that progress being a minimum of 2 completed pages per month. Now if certain uncontrollable life situations occured, we are understanding and funders are notified of what's going on to give the artist appropriate time to recoup and catch up. If the required progression does not occur, then a refund is requested. Bi-weekly check ups were also required in order to make sure proper progress had been made and to keep the funders happy. Help to the artist for anything was always offered and provided if needed including editing, storyboarding, and scripting. The Beginning---------------- May 2015-June 2015 Discussion was made with Peridotkitty about the comic and how it would work out through furaffinity and eventually moving to skype.( Sadly,my notes will not appear past 1350 notes but logs are available [1][2])The agreed price was $75 per comic page(total of 42 pages) and a cover for $3150. During this process the idea of funders came about. Three were found and the retainer was sent on June 14th and a second payment on June 28th [SKYPE LOG 1][CASTING JOURNAL]NSFW More discussion was made about the comic and the script completion [SKYPE LOG 2] [SKYPE LOG 3] Sent another payment on Jun 28 [SKYPE LOG 4] July 2015-August 2015 References of the cast were provided in Peridotkitty's shared dropbox folder for the comic during this time. Conversations were friendly but quiet for July as my fiance and I were prepping for Anthrocon. Peridotkitty was contacted a bit about the dropbox progress folder set up for the funders which we shared with them to see the project progression. [SKYPE LOG 5] Anthrocon came and went and there was little communication regarding the comic until August 6 [SKYPE LOG 6] [SKYPE LOG 7] Correspondence during this month became harder and I believe this is due to Peridotkitty's Patreon and her owing a lot more work due to it. I was understanding of this and explained this to the funders.Another monthly payment was sent to her. [SKYPE LOG 8] [SKYPE LOG 9] No major progress was made to her sketches. September 2015-October 2015 At this point we became worried. I started to inquire about whether she needed any assistance with her pages.Attempted contact was made and became more difficult.No progress other than the sketches for the first couple of pages were done and Peridotkitty suggested that her public trello should be linked to the funders to keep their minds at ease. [SKYPE LOG 10][SKYPE LOG 11] [SKYPE LOG 12] [ SKYPE LOG 13] On September 25th, project structure was being changed where the freelancers were to sign a contract. Peridotkitty read the contact and found it to be fair. There was a tiny error in the contract (Wrong comic title) but was edited. (Contract will not be linked unless requested).Terms of the contract required a minimum of 2 completed comic pages monthly, withholding of monthly funds if progress was unacceptable yet gave the artist a chance to catch up in a timely manner before being fired and requested a FULL refund. PeridotKitty was set to fax the form...but she was told to wait until further notice due to the high cost of collecting faxes from kinkos. [SKYPE LOG 14][SKYPE LOG 15][SKYPE LOG 16] There was little to no response from Peridotkitty during October regarding the project and the funders were starting to get more agitated .On October 15th, she sent me a message that she had gotten a job which would take away more of her time [SKYPE LOG 17] November 2015-December2015 During November I hired my assistant Carmel in helping with correspndence with the freelancers. Communication became more sparce and Peridotkitty was spending most of her time doing other commission work and streaming. [SKYPE LOG 18] On November 15th, I dictated a note to Carmel to send to Peridotkitty seeing as contact with her through skype was becoming a major issue. In the note it was discussed the worry of the funders for the lack of progress and that monthly payments would be withheld until proper progress was made.[CARMEL NOTE 1] November 18th, Peridotkitty got back to me about withholding funds. During this discussion she also talked about making turnarounds for the characters. (Please note that this is not part of the project but her own doing). She even mentions that she was still refining the first page of the comic after months. [SKYPE LOG 19] November 20th, Peridotkitty was contacted again about the contract and the possibility of mailing it.Peridotkitty never provided the needed information. Afterwards the skype conversation fell silent. Rook dictated to Tia more notes to her on November 27th and two in December. [SKYPE LOG 20][CARMEL NOTE 2][CARMEL NOTE 3][CARMEL NOTE 4] January 2016-February 2016 Funders were pretty much unhappy with the major lack of progress and were ready to ask for a full refund. Contact was attempted again on January 4th with no response. Another note was dictated for Carmel to send to Peridotkitty stating that this is the ultimatum to keep her job. She was to complete the first 3 pages of the comic by the end of January and the next 3 by the end of February. Peridotkitty got back to me on January 11th and requested color armor references for one of the character as not having that stopped her progress. [CARMEL NOTE 5][SKYPE LOG 20] January was a rough month for us due to personal matters and getting the colors took longer than we expected. They were added to the dropbox folder on [January 28th] and because of this she was given more time to work. She had to finish the first 3 pages by the end of Febrauary.But it must be said that during the month of January, all of her sketches for the first 3 pages were not refined as seen in her progress folder and in her trello. Not even inked. Flats were added to the cover but it still wasn't done. Peridotkitty gave more excuses which we tried explaining to the funders...but their patience was pretty much over. [SKYPE LOG 21][SKYPE LOG 22][TRELLO 1: COVER]NSFW[TRELLO 2: COMIC1][TRELLO 3:COMIC 2] The pressure was on during February and I desperatly tried to get in contact with Peridotkitty. [SKYPE LOG 23] March 2016 In this time frame of 9 months she added flats to the cover and did incomplete sketches for the first 3 pages. Not a single page was completed. We decided to terminate Peridotkitty on March 20th and asked for a refend. During this correspondence Peridotkitty kept making excuses that not all of this was her fault and that blame should also be placed on me . I was patient, I was understanding, and I defended her when talking to the funders and kept them informed of her life situations but the lack of major progress after months was enough.She had the resources to do what she needed to do but didn't. She mocked me for paying in advance, for not having a signed contract and my overall position.The question of a refund was not responded to. What ensued was the following conversation: [Firing note 1] Initial termination note [Firing note 2]Peri's response. She takes little responsibility for not doing the work and adds the blame on me. [Firing note 3] [Firing note 4] [Firing note 5][Firing note 6](Question about refund. Peridotkitty did not address this) [Firing note 7][Firing note 8] [Firing note 9]Peridotkitty's attitude quickly shifted [Firing note 10] [Firing note 11] Her last response in regards to a journal I made which has nothing to do with this transaction. [Firing note 12] My last note to her where I cut off communication. I honestly had to step away. All correspondence has since ceased. On March 21st I filed a claim with paypal. Sadly only $700 of the money could be disputed. The claim was [closed on March 23rd] as Peridotkitty told paypal that ALL work was completed up til March and that I was just being an unsatisfied customer.This was through a phone call and we are requesting an email of what she said to post here. Paypal did not contact us to hear our side when making their decision so I filed an appeal. March 24th, our appeal was also closed and none of the money will be sent back. I am not fully blameless and there are things that should have been handled better. I dont think there's much of a legal standing in regards to the new contract...but that doesn't justify keeping money for work not completed from 3 people.A partial refund would be fine but after her insulting responses towards me I felt that I wouldn't be able to get a decent conversation out of her. Funders were notified of the loss and have been understanding and I am more than thankful for this. This is a huge lesson learned.I accept any critisim on my part to help me in my dealings in the future. [EDIT]------------ March 23, 2015 I forgot to add the final note she sent me in response to Firing Note 12 [Firing note 13] March 25,2016 edit Firing note 3 above has the wrong link. Correct link is below. [Firing note 3] March 26, 2016 update---- Peridotkitty has posted her side of this situation here and on her FA . Apparently her fiance was the one who sent the malicious notes against me (Firing note 9 and onward). Whether I believe it or not is another thing.I have discussed with my fiance the possibility of a repayment plan and she has left a message to her. "Rook was unwilling to deal with you at all... seeing as how an apology about how you or 'your fiancee' acted at the end; I'm sure everyone here can understand why. I wonder why you didn't put those up there so your fans can have context on why he stopped communicating with you all together. But if you are serious, it isn't about paying him back, it's about taking care of the 3 funders. He is willing to let you set up a payment plan of a reasonable monthly amount to the 3 funders. You can contact me for their information. He says you can pay back one their 575 and the other their 600 for a total of 1175. And that he will settle up the remaining balance with the 3rd funder himself writing off that amount as service rendered. It's more than you've done but he's going to make a show of faith as well as responsibility. He would like you to publically keep track of the repayment to those two funders, he also wants them to get the full 600 and 575, so you would be on the hook for the transaction fee amount as well." March 26, 2016 update 2---- Terms have been agreed to and Peridotkitty has been given the funder' pages to get their paypal information.Monthy payments are being scheduled. Although these terms have been agreed upon, I will not mark this post as resolved until both funders are completely refunded. I will be handling the 3rd funder's refund myself.
  4. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/910500.html Included are links to screenshots of the journals etc in case of deletion. WHO: soaru@dA (old account) / hatchimi@dA (new account/formerly Dollrot) WHERE: http://soaru.deviantart.com/ http://hatchimi.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Digital art - Pixel icons x4 - $40 total (+paypal fees) (92 total icons owed to others on her to do list) WHEN: Soaru had claimed to have been diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in early May 2014. We were all very understanding of her situation and that there would be delays with her commissions. ( https://i.gyazo.com/2d18a1584409cebc7fd6d15f3f87241e.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Carpal-Tunnel-Diagnosis-453965909 ) and then another notice to commissioners: ( https://i.gyazo.com/cda7fca79f835063a19bd737fd96fc10.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Attention-commissioners-454227201 ) I first noted soaru about the icon commissions on July 17th, 2014, then the agreement was made and I sent the payment the same day. (see screenshots in ‘proof’) Soaru had then made a journal on July 26th 2014 to state that she had unlimited pixel slots open for the summer ( https://i.gyazo.com/ff5ccf459452bb685191edc39e486352.png Journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/work-work-work-470968786 ) Unlimited slots never being a promising sign, but I am a patient person, and didn’t think much of it at the time. A few more updates regarding soaru’s recovery and commission progress were posted between August 2014 until August 2015 (I will get into these in my explanation below). The final update on August 25th 2015 was about her recovery and any updates for commissioners, and since then the account has been dead. PROOF: commission note paypal transaction EXPLAIN: As stated above, soaru had been diagnosed with Carpal tunnel syndrome. She posted a journal about it on May 14th, 2014 and continued updates on her situation. When soaru had opened commissions, I sent her a note expressing my interest, and the agreement was made on July 17th. I sent the payment the same day. On July 26th 2014, soaru posted a new journal stating that she had unlimited pixel slots open for the summer, ( https://i.gyazo.com/ff5ccf459452bb685191edc39e486352.png Journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/work-work-work-470968786 ). I didn’t think much of this at the time. On August 20th 2014, Soaru posted a commission update ( https://i.gyazo.com/1b08df12e524cd8658c41b2a8160a8c6.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Commission-update-476955835 ), stating that she was working very hard on completing her commissions right now. She asks for our patience due to work and having to take breaks because of her carpal tunnel. I was in no rush for my commissions and only wished for her recovery, as I really couldn’t imagine how awful it must be to suffer from carpal tunnel as an artist.. She adds “I did not forget about your commission, don’t worry.” The next update was on October 6th 2014. Soaru states that commissions are now closed for a good year or so. She tells us that she is very busy with work, so commission progress is moving very slowly, and apologises for the wait. I can appreciate that she is going through hard times, so a few months isn’t much to wait given her situation. “I will not update you on how your commission if coming along because there are too many of you to note. I assure you I WILL complete the commission as soon as possible. So please be patient with me. You will receive your commission when you get it.” And no, I have no idea as to when you will receive it, and for that I'd like to apologize. I also won't be providing any refunds. You will get what you paid for.” I’m a patient person and I could appreciate that taking unlimited slots as there would be a lot of people on her to do list, but looking back now, not receiving any kind of progress report on how your commission is coming along is a pretty bad sign as well as stating that you have “no idea when a commissioner will receive their commission.” But again I was willing to wait and a few months wasn’t anything to complain about given her life situation. (https://i.gyazo.com/83b4d48b277187c21701d02963b5f5f7.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Commissioners-PLEASE-READ-486724217 ) Between October 2014 and February 2015, there was no real update on soaru’s commission progress or her condition. Apart from posting a journal in December asking if her commissioners would mind if she used her new base for their commissions or not. (I requested to stick to the original base I had ordered as it fit my characters better). ( https://i.gyazo.com/934a152cd6297a6082aef184dc9e00f3.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Question-for-people-who-have-commissioned-me-498366584 ), though you could hardly call this an update. Finally on February 10th, 2015, soaru posts her public to-do list and an apology for the delay with her commissions. (https://i.gyazo.com/67931c13a0edf8575e38623994e9681c.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/TO-DO-LIST-UPDATED-PLEASE-READ-THIS-OMG-512941211 ) On this list there are a total of 96 commissions yet to be completed. At the time, I simply thought she’s stated many times she is working hard to get these done so over the course of months hopefully her list will get shorter and shorter, and she will get through these and can look past this tough time in her life. The next and major life update was posted on July 13th 2015: ( https://i.gyazo.com/8e096687c3b8c8bc92baef371ba68a41.png https://i.gyazo.com/7e8bc4738ff1ea001597797b8e525eec.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Life-Update-ADDED-546016180 [screenshot & link to updates journal linked at the bottom: https://i.gyazo.com/12e87e334c506d2f8477ef92f83e50d7.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/updates-447349674]). Soaru talks about how she realizes how unhappy a lot of her commissioners are with her services, her surgery and the date being under negotiation, and that she has been going through recovery. “I'd like to assure ALL MY COMMISSIONERS that I am not running away with your money. I WOULD LOVE to provide refunds to all of you, I cannot stress that enough. But I simply do not have the funds to do so. I know I've already asked you all to be very patient with me, and some of you have and I'm very grateful for that. I do not expect everyone to be understanding of my situation financially/mentally/physically, but you WILL receive your commission.” Her last update and sign of any activity on her account was on August 25th 2015. ( https://i.gyazo.com/0153602488fb599d70ff0bb7bad6a9fa.png journal link: http://soaru.deviantart.com/journal/Recovery-Update-556158826 ) A promising recovery update stating that soaru’s wounds are healing well, she still experiences some pain but it should disappear soon. She says she should be able to start commissions mid-September. She says she’ll be sure to post a journal update, as well as join.me streams of commission work, and finally that “You will also be provided with WIP's of your pixel so you know I'm actually doing your commission.” I cannot speak for everyone on her list but I have not received any kind of work in progress shots from soaru. Since then, soaru had provided no updates about surgery dates, delays, or any kind of work in progress to assure people that she was indeed trying to work on these commissions as she had been stating for the last year. Many of the comments on her page and in her journals talk about the lack of any kind of update given the situation and the wait for all of her commissioners. Soaru is even ignoring notes and comments from her clients. Many of the comments urged her to think about trying to refund even just a few commissioners to lessen her workload and to just resolve the situation as quickly as possible. Soaru also states that once her recovery is over she will be working her hardest to finish all of her commissions in response to another comment. I tried to note her back in January: ( https://i.gyazo.com/cf393ed24d2d8fe08285099283e79359.png ) to ask about changing characters since it has been so long that I had forgotten who I had even requested, but there has been no response. However, in my sent notes it is marked as read. Around late February, a friend and I (who is also on soaru’s to do list) came across a deviantart account named dollrot, but recently changed to hatchimi. At the time there was no evidence that hatchimi and soaru are the same individual, however we did find her art style to bear very close similarities to soaru’s. For some time we just kept an eye out since there wasn’t much posted to hatchimi’s gallery at the time and it could just be a similar style. Here is a comparison we compiled of all the similarities we found (style wise) : http://orig03.deviantart.net/d537/f/2016/154/f/1/comparisons_by_theangelofmemories-da4ubbh.png Over the course of the last few months we’ve tried to gather as much evidence as we can that links hatchimi and soaru as the same person. A few things we noticed: Her icon style is in the same style as her old one (they’re not made from the same base, but the way the eyes are pixeled have the same technique done on them, plus they almost overlap in terms of head placement over body) She still uses bases extremely frequently and they all have their toes pointing inwards with their hands by their sides with closed fingers. A similar technique with the way she shades her noses, and the highlights in the character’s eyes Handwriting comparison http://orig02.deviantart.net/06b4/f/2016/166/2/f/handwritting_by_royal_jelliefish-da6ck3m.png The first semi-concrete proof comes in the form of a work in progress shot from soaru, and something I noticed when I popped in to one of hatchimi’s picarto streams a few weeks ago. This is Soaru's wip screenshot with her file location atop the SAI window. notice the "C:/users/mew/desktop/file/cootiewootie.psd" Now, look at the location on this screenshot taken from Hatchimi's picarto stream. Same user name and location as to where the file is saved. "C:/users/mew/desktop/file/BASEA.psd" Along with the similarities of their style, noticing that they share the same user name and have the habit to save on the desktop is too much of a coincidence. Now, the evidence we have found that positively links soaru and hatchimi as the same person was something I noticed when hatchimi posted her artvsartist meme. She has since taken it down but you can still view it via google cache here: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://hatchimi.deviantart.com/art/artvsartiste-611370644 screenshot: https://i.gyazo.com/ad467bb0d3af2f1e4794c2464916a57f.jpg A while back soaru had posted a self portrait to her deviantart, and looking at the two images it’s hard to think they’re two different people. Please note the same piercings and gauge in her ear as well as the facial similarity. http://fav.me/d8hcuq8 screenshot: https://i.gyazo.com/090fdf9f9535898df2d0febda19d16d6.png A friend had found soaru’s old paypal/email address through the icon commission transaction. Hatchimi’s current paypal does not contain personal information linking her to soaru, but with some digging with the ‘soaru’ email address, we have discovered it is used for her instagram account that has been up since 2012 and is still active: https://i.gyazo.com/b536e315ee2473202d9842807a0a1561.png When lined up side by side from the image from the artvsartist meme: https://i.gyazo.com/09f0a7f2270ec47712465a1e29420878.png The name that appears in the transaction for the payment to soaru from 2 years ago also matches the name on the instagram account if there is still any doubt that they are the same person. The evidence collected in this case was through a group effort from her dissatisfied customers I have reached out to. **Edit : 17/06/2016 We have posted jorunals on deviantart revealing our findings and to spread the word. my friends (who has been in contact with hatchimi to send her the beware post and to see if the situation could still be privately resolved) : http://royal-jelliefish.deviantart.com/journal/ARTIST-BEWARE-Soaru-Hatchimi-615658826 Hatchimi has also posted a journal with her defenses and some evidence of a conversation between herself and soaru through email, as well as a note she sent inquiring about commissions to soaru. http://hatchimi.deviantart.com/journal/Harassment-soaru-drama-615813488 Someone picked up that there is a tab open in this screenshot for 'msn canada' it isn't by any means concrete but it could confirm her location, and this could be another piece of evidence that links another similarity between them. http://orig06.deviantart.net/ce3f/f/2016/165/e/a/ccb568bad3054274b7fe6f00b4a87a34_by_hatchimi-da6aqen.png anoher edit: a user found a page in the waybackmachine that has her country listed as canada: http://web.archive.org/web/20151024030234/http://dollrot.deviantart.com/ So we can prove that she and soaru share the same location. A big question for me in all of this is that why now of all times would she choose to reveal this screenshot of her noting soaru about asking about commissions? Surely its a strong piece of evidence to support that the two are different people, so why wouldn't she send it to us sooner rather than this much later? http://img10.deviantart.net/289a/i/2016/168/6/a/proof1_by_hatchimi-da6mxv6.png (screenshot in case of deletion: https://i.gyazo.com/f95a0191f17fd6a7aa8e13112f34e47b.png ) At first it looks fairly normal, but someone commenting on the beware journal checked their old notes from before they changed their username, ane the previous username shows up in older notes, not the new on since hatchimi was formerly Dollrot until earlier this year, why does it say "Hatchimi said the following" and not "Dollrot said the following"..? Another commenter then claimed that it is possible to run a test on images which will tell you if the image has been edited, and the screenshot came up as edited in photoshop, so this tells us that the note screenshot is fake. Here are the websites one can use to detect a doctored image: http://fotoforensics.com/ http://imageedited.com/ Hatchimi is still denying that she and soaru are the same person, despite all of these new revelations, I will continue to update as more light is shed.
  5. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/892163.html WHO: Jace Wallace / Wakkawa WHERE: http://jace-wallace.deviantart.com/ & http://wakkawa.tumblr.com/ WHAT: $150 digital painting commission WHEN: November 26th, 2014; sketch received and payment sent December 12th, 2014 PROOF: Initial order: http://i.imgur.com/8VBVvr0.png http://i.imgur.com/szyi0dE.png Proof of payment: http://i.imgur.com/QV4EzFw.png EXPLAIN: Well, it's finally time for the official A_B post. I asked for advice back in June, and since the situation is more or less "resolved", it's time for me to put it all together and post this as a warning to others. I commissioned Jace at the end of November in 2014, the same day he put his commission post up. He's an art idol of mine and I'd wanted art from him for ages, so I jumped on the opportunity. He always seemed very professional to me, so a $150 commission seemed like a good idea at the time. The original commission post said they would be finished by Christmas (2014), and he sent me the sketch WIP on December 12th. http://i.imgur.com/Jy4btWg.png The WIP at this time: http://i.imgur.com/Vs5UUDe.jpg At that time, he said his plan was to send out more WIPs that weekend and have them finished the next week. http://i.imgur.com/TpYsWTe.png After that message claiming that WIPS would be sent out that weekend, I didn't hear from him again. In fact, he seemingly disappeared from the Internet altogether. Not too strange, possibly, considering it was the holidays. However, he had made a firm promise of a deadline, and with the commission being $150, I was a bit more wary than I normally might have been. I let the Christmas deadline come and go, but on January 10th I noted him asking for updates: http://i.imgur.com/keQ7LmU.png As it is still, it went unread and unopened. I continued not to see any activity on DA, Tumblr, or anywhere else. I was getting worried, mostly due to the $150 amount and the fact that I have been burned before. Since I hadn't seen him open my note, I decided to email him in hopes of getting an answer that way, on January 24th 2015: http://i.imgur.com/rvEROmB.png And I never got a response to that either. On January 30th, I sent Jace an email and a note on deviantArt telling him that I would be opening a Paypal claim. http://i.imgur.com/dDiUr7J.png As I say in the message, it was mostly to get the money back in case he was unable to access the computer as I didn't want to let Paypal's claim window come and go. Even with Paypal's claim window having been increased to 180 days, I felt uncomfortable enough to do it at this time given his complete lack of responsiveness. Jace must have seen the claim, for he mysteriously reappeared just a few days after I opened the claim. I received the next WIP on February 2nd, 2015. I cancelled the Paypal claim at this time, despite the fact that he made absolutely no note of it or that he had even seen it. http://i.imgur.com/S3umDjv.png The WIP he sent at this time: http://i.imgur.com/ZTqd2N0.jpg It was quite off putting to me that he made no mention of the claim or the wait much at all. But, then again, I felt a bit bad for filing the claim in the first place -- especially with his reasoning of mental illness. I figured, since he had given me an updated WIP, he would have the piece done pretty quickly. My response to him is here: http://i.imgur.com/kiuiFpu.png which he never responded to either. More radio silence. I sent him a note on May 15th, 2015: http://i.imgur.com/8gJHWmT.png to which I got no response. (I do believe he opened/read this note.) The next time I heard from him was in June of 2015, strangely and conveniently after I sent him a note telling him that I would be contacting my bank about the money (given that Paypal's claim window had then passed for me, by a few days) and posting an Artists Beware post about the situation. http://i.imgur.com/RXa81Ov.png (He was still active on tumblr during this time.) His response, with a slightly updated WIP: http://i.imgur.com/fwz0yd0.png The WIP at this stage: http://i.imgur.com/UHguQJN.jpg This was when I posted asking for advice on A_B. I was mostly just pleased to actually have him RESPONDING to me again, and at this point I assumed that if I went ahead and posted the A_B on him right then, I would NEVER get the piece. So I tried to get him to agree to a deadline. He then agreed to have the piece finished by the end of July, 2015. http://i.imgur.com/aIMFmDP.png http://i.imgur.com/YVLH7OX.png So, another month and it would be done. Obviously, that came and went. Surprisingly, he took the initiative to note me on his own on August 1st, telling me that his tablet had broken. (I had already seen him post about it on his Tumblr, which he was continuing to update regularly with paintings and posts.) Again, pleased that he was CONTACTING me and not ignoring me, I accepted his claim that he would have it done the next week. http://i.imgur.com/1Nk8ri2.png http://i.imgur.com/A3sUxI3.png Aaaand that didn't happen, either. He did not contact me again past that point, AT ALL. (I send him another note on September 3rd, 2015: http://i.imgur.com/BbhcdiY.png ) In fact, the only way I got him to contact me again was rather direct and annoying. On top of updating his Tumblr regularly while ignoring my messages, he had gotten into the habit of streaming quite regularly on his Twitch account. Sometimes games, sometimes painting personal works. I subscribed to the channel, and was receiving emails whenever he started streaming. At first I was just happy to see him working on something, and didn't interact with him. However, when he continued to ignore/"not see" my messages, I decided to bite the bullet and reach out to him during a Twitch stream. On October 25th, 2015, I entered his Twitch stream and inquired after my commission. He had his mic on, so I don't have a record of his responses, but here's the chat: http://i.imgur.com/jOrPowU.jpg Basically, he reassured me and told me a very long story about how he had gotten locked out of his DeviantART account AND the email account associated with it, so he hadn't been able to log in at all. He promised to email me after the stream. He sent me an email that night and he attached another WIP and claimed it was pretty much done, just needed to be cleaned up and tweaked. (Note: this was quite a small screenshot that didn't allow me to see closer details.) http://i.imgur.com/d7KZdbe.png My response: http://i.imgur.com/vW59uJl.png The WIP he sent at this stage: http://i.imgur.com/3kNQwSj.jpg And, again, that was the last I heard from him. I actually let him be for a while after that email, mostly due to how incredibly fed up I was at this point. Plus, he said it was close to being done, so I figured it wouldn't be long. Again, wrong. I emailed him on January 12th (3-4 months later) asking if he had any updates on the piece or on his situation. http://i.imgur.com/Lr2bYa6.png I got no response. He continued to be active on Tumblr, quite regularly posting text posts and art. So, on January 27th, I emailed him. http://i.imgur.com/1uUNoke.png Of course, I do realize asking for a refund at this point may seem out of line to some, but like I say in the email I figured it would be the easiest way to resolve it. I didn't want to wait around forever to get the finished piece and would have been satisfied with the file as-is and a partial refund, even 10% of 25%, ANYTHING so that I could FINALLY take it off my list and forget about the heartache. On January 28th, 2016, he emailed me and claimed the piece he had sent in October was the finished piece, minus the rendering of one hand. He then claimed he would send me the finished file as soon as he smoothed out the hand. As well as a quite P.A. comment about the fact that if this had been for a freelancing company, it would have cost me $2000. http://i.imgur.com/V2OP8si.png Half an hour later, he sent me the .psd of the 'finished piece'. It is almost entirely unchanged from the screenshot from October. And, to my dismay, it's quite rough and not as refined as the sample piece he used for his commission post. There's a part in one of the character's irises that bleeds into the eyelashes, really badly. The ear is a block of unrendered, unfinished painting. The male figure is very rough and untouched compared to the female figure. Overall, the entire thing is quite sketchy, quite unrefined, and quite unfinished -- when compared to his sample. At the very least, it is not what I would hope for after over a year of waiting for a $150 commission that had a much more refined example. Here is the final file he sent me: http://i.imgur.com/91E4qbU.png Note that it's barely changed (if at all) from the WIP from October. Over 3 months for that lack of work done on the piece. Here are some closeups of a few of the problem areas I identified: http://i.imgur.com/ePJmE2v.png http://i.imgur.com/FRBDd1n.png Again, here is the image he used in his commission post: http://i.imgur.com/t0PaIRP.jpg As it is, this situation is "resolved". I'm NOT happy with the piece, but I sincerely doubt he will ever give me any partial refund (the piece is, after all, 'finished' according to him) and I don't care to see how long it would take him to refine the piece more (I'd prefer not to wait another full year, really). And while I feel the end result is not in line with what he was offering, my complaint is about his unprofessionalism rather than the art itself. Art is subjective, and though I may not be happy with the piece, it is "finished" in his eyes. My gripe is his refusal to keep in touch, the constant ignoring of my messages, and the continuously broken deadlines. In the end, this is a beware to all other artists and commissioners out there. Do not commission Jace Wallace. I have no clue if he plans to ever open commissions again, but if he does, it's not worth it. This is hands down the most frustrating experience I have ever had with an artist. It's not even the year+ wait that bothers me -- I've waited that long before, I'll wait that long again. But EVERY time I attempted to contact him, I was ignored, unless I had made a direct claim that I would be pursuing action against him, or I approached him directly IN PUBLIC. (There were a few times when I commented on his submissions on DA or profile on DA, but he has hidden the comments at this point.) He set deadlines, and then he broke them with nary a word. He made excuses, avoided contact, and continued to be active on Tumblr regardless of the owed work. At least with other artists I've had this problem with, they disappeared entirely. With Jace, he was still active on Tumblr almost this entire time, just deliberately ignoring my messages on DA, Tumblr (where he was active, WHILE HE WAS ACTIVE) and via email. In the end, I feel disrespected, insulted, and disappointed - and I don't want anyone else to go through the same situation. EDIT: The final email he sent to me, after I submitted this A_B post and informed him I would be doing so.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1013574.html WHO: ToBeABird/Bird/Pheonix/Otternonsense/PB_Willow/@StrawberryJemma on twitter. Old known aliases include CynicalSergal on FA WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tobeabird where I initially contacted them and bought the commission. WHAT: 2 Sided Digital (Open Species) Bat Dragon Reference $40 WHEN: 5/6/16 May 6th 2016 to present day (ongoing) EXPLAIN: I specifically commissioned bird because they did the reference sheet of a character that I liked and I wanted something done of the same species. I had found the character through youtube, then found out they were purchased by someone, and actually stumbled on their FA page finally finding the artist behind the reference. I messaged them asking them to help me make a character of the same species. I asked for some basics for the character, it would wear a skull on its head, neck fluff like a bat, a long tail like a dragon, and big ears like a bat. They told me they didn't feel comfortable doing that because it would be copying their friend's character. Whatever I understand that though it is quite disappointing when generally most bat characters have all these characteristics. I was just thankful someone was actually going to be able to help make me a character from scratch with no images at all. I gave them some artistic freedom but generally its a bat dragon, it needs to look as such. The agreement (https://imgur.com/byYQg1X ) and the proof of payment. (https://imgur.com/b95ZIn9 ) Bird said in the messages the estimated time for the completion of the reference sheet would be finished in 7-25 days. So it should have been finished between May 13th 2016 and the very end of may, and if I'm being generous, end of June of 2016. Messages took place on May 6th 2016. The dates came and went, and I sat wondering what happened. I don’t feel like dragging their personal life through the mud, or trying to locate every single journal they posted about art delays, needing money or any other kind of inconvenience because there are many. I remained understanding and considerate during this time because it is the human thing to do. I am aware things can be delayed and people have home life and personal issues to deal with and it's fine because at the time the art was only a month late. Sometime in June or July of 2016 they did a stream on picarto and I saw the line art for the character they would be making for me. I saw them open the file of the old bat dragon reference they made for their friend, and they just edited the lines, as in directly opened the line art file for an older commission, and shorted the ears, changed the tail, the nose, the mouth, everything. The character didn’t look like a bat at that point, it just looked like a dog with wings. I do not have a copy of the line art because their queue/trello is no longer available. I didn’t feel like fighting them so I said the lines were fine but I really felt cheated. June came and went, July came and went, August was coming to an end so I decided to message Bird about the commission mostly to get an update if they finished or if I was able to get some things changed (https://imgur.com/A89OtmH ) this was mostly a message to remind them they had a commission due to me. Months go by with no update to their trello (which was available at the time,) I at one point in time they whispered me on picarto in October 2016 saying they hadn’t forgotten about the commission and they’ll work on it soon. Another time they said they would start working on owed reference sheets during a stream, and ended the stream earlier never touching any art. I sadly have no proof of these things because I never saved the messages and it was all on picarto so there's no actual saved evidence. I was never contacted again, nor did I contact them until they messaged me on my twitter in July of 2017 accusing me of sending my friends after them. (For the lazy, I don’t know who this person was, I never sent anyone after Bird, I solve problems on my own.) Bird's first message accusing me to of sending "my friends" after them https://imgur.com/ftj67RR the continuing messages https://imgur.com/ThYfcFM (obligatory "I know you've been waiting a long time," it was over a year at that point). Bird also asking me to find this person (despite me not knowing them) to get them to stop "harassing" him https://imgur.com/C5F0mHD . At this point I had started to scroll through the main feed of my twitter and saw Bird had tweeted these out https://imgur.com/SM68woa and https://imgur.com/Gp15wux . Whether or not they were actually about me I still made the notion to call them out for it since they previously accused me of sending people to harass them. Probably unprofessional on my side, but I also found it unprofessional to come after someone and accuse something they did not do. Also in the proof 4 they mentioned that my commission was 85% finished. https://imgur.com/sPv6Uzj and finally https://imgur.com/6m78KTM . Since the final message I had not received any kind of update about my commission being "85%" finished. I never received the line art and there were no updates to a queue, a trello or message to me. All updates from Bird of any kind seem to be journals about their personal financial issues. Their journals seem like a general place for them to ask for them to ask for money for overdue bills and vet trips or uber money. I had quit following their FA over a year ago because I was tired of seeing them open for emergency commissions and in stream commissions every other day but never actually show up with anything completed. If you just delve into their journals on FA you can see how chaotic and ridiculous it has been as a commissioner trying to get any kind of information from them. They have constantly locked, unlocked and deleted their twitter and since these previous messages from @pb_willow, they made a new one. I had to actually find their twitter from their fursuit business account in order to get ahold of them a year after they said the art would be completed in a week. I contacted them on twitter JULY 13TH 2018 The First Message https://imgur.com/PrvCE6Z My first message to them asking for a refund because I have been waiting over two years for this piece. The Second Message https://imgur.com/xTfAVy0 : Bird mentioning that on their FA journals (I stopped following them over a year ago) that their computer has died and they have debts to a cable company equalling over $500? They also mentioned to not contact them through this twitter and contact their art manager. The third message https://imgur.com/9ELAJAi They’re now saying they owe $900?) They said I need to wait Saturday to find someone to give them the time to use their friends’ laptop to plug their external hard drive into. I don’t know how long their computer has been broke, but why they didn’t get this done this as soon as they could makes me really skeptical of everything they’ve told me. If I delved deeper I feel like I would have been met with a ton of excuses. I told them I want either the art or the money whichever comes first, which sounds really rude, but it has been over two years. I do not trust this person to get me either the art or the refund. Every promise they had made to me has never been achieved. I feel like I have been lied to several times about this commission, and any time I have ever asked about seeing a work in progress I never see it, I am given a bunch of excuses among other things. I said I was going to message them saturday (July 14th 2018) but I gave them some time and messaged their manager (since they told me to) July 16th I messaged their manager https://imgur.com/vaPwZbF and never received a response. (JULY 23RD 2018) https://imgur.com/30j8Ww2 I messaged bird on FA asking for an update because their manager never messaged me back. I get a short message stating they sent me an update via twitter, which i can assure anyone, even if I could provide proof, I NEVER GOT AN UPDATE on twitter. Nothing else was in the FA message. Not even an update. Even if they did message me an update via twitter then they could have provided the update in the same message in FA as well to be professional. Instead I get a short and snappy message replying to me me asking about a commission that is TWO YEARS overdue. Message on July 23rd 2018 https://imgur.com/30j8Ww2 July 24th 2018 https://imgur.com/0Dctzas my patience has gotten very thin. I’ve not been given a real update, thus me lashing out. I’m tired of dealing with this individual. This is completely out of hand, two years waiting on a commission and I’m getting treated like I’m the one inconveniencing them. That Night July 24th 2018 https://imgur.com/6Vy6882 They asked me for my paypal email so they could send me the refund that night, later changed to when they wake up https://imgur.com/zmMAZLI to no one's surprise the refund never came. I gave them 5 days. (July 29th 2019) I messaged them to tell them I never received the refund https://imgur.com/UZixicK gave me some excuse about it being "summer in the south," (it's also summer in my state?) They have also seemed to forgotten that THEY TOLD ME THEY WERE GOING TO REFUND ME that same night several weeks ago because they no longer wanted to deal with me. But in this message they are accusing me of "not wanting to wait for the art." (Again it has been WELL OVER two years, I think we have gone above and beyond wanting to wait for this art.) It is now September 4th 2018, I still have not received the refund, only tons of excuses which is apparently the only thing I seemed to have paid for(?) I've checked their FA there's no indication that they've made an attempt to reach out to people to give them refunds or the art they're owed. I don't know how long it takes them or their friend to build a computer but over a month seems a little ridiculous (I know people work at different paces, but it took me four hours to build my computer and it was my first build.) Remember in previous messages they said they owe 14 people art that are stuck on their hard drive. I'm assuming since I messaged bird they have made zero attempt to try and retrieve these pieces for myself or for people by either a completed computer or by visiting a friend to use their computer. I have not been contacted to be paid back, this all started May of 2016, it is now September of 2018. Will Update As Necessary (September 9/4/2018) Most recent update (September 9/14/2018) Most recent update (September 9/16/2018) Sept 14th https://imgur.com/essiCtS (outgoing message) Sept 14th https://imgur.com/sTXgJvc bird’s message to me. I’m sort of dumbfounded and have zero idea of how to go about replying to this mess. This is where I get tilted and I’m sorry for that, this has been an emotional rollercoaster of all this back and forth nonsense. To recap: they had told me they “finished” the art (whenever that was) and I was never once notified before their computer happened to die. All this is riding on the fact we would not be having issues if they had either given me the art or refunded me when I asked a year ago. Several weeks ago they just told me they bought a computer (messages in the beware, but also here:https://www.furaffinity.net/journals/tobeabird/ in their journal where they also talk about going to IFC) So no money to refund people, but money to buy a new computer and go to conventions? JANUARY 4TH 2019 They sent me a PM in FA asking for my paypal and wanted to search through our notes to find how much they owe me, which I told them straight off the bat (eheh ) because i had a feeling they'd be searching for several months. In any case they finally sent me my refund today. So not exactly three years but close enough. Tired of ads? Upgrade to account with Professional package of service and never see ads again!
  9. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/923369.html WHO: TheAquaticRebel (dA) -- Deactivated August 2016 -- New account http://kreayashion.deviantart.com/ Deactivated as well (August 28, 2016) -- (edited) http://loyderwo.deviantart.com/ New new account (Appears to have been abandoned) WHERE: http://www.theaquaticrebel.deviantart.com // http://kreayashion.deviantart.com/ // http://loyderwo.deviantart.com/ WHAT: $150.00 YCH fully detailed commission WHEN: May 27th, 2016 - August 4th, 2016 PROOF: http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurora-Singers-YCH-CLOSED-611035951 (Original piece) http://comments.deviantart.com/1/611035951/4137225015 (Comment inquiring to purchase) http://ninjakato.deviantart.com/art/The-Aurora-Bringers-YCH-Comm-612444595 (Completed piece) EXPLAIN: In May of 2016 I opened a YCH with multiple characters which were $150.00 each 'The Aurora Singers' (YCH CLOSED). One was bought by someone and a short time later the other was bought by TheAquaticRebel. At the time I was doing commissions under post-pay -- Meaning I would be paid after completion. I had done this originally to save myself anxiety by feeling the need to rush to get a piece of artwork done because it had been prepaid. While TheAquaticRebel had offered originally to pay beforehand -- http://sta.sh/0e24dsjhdb6 I declined because I was pretty busy at the time and didn't want to run the risk of taking too long to get work done (I was in the process of packing to go overseas for a few months). Between May 28th and June 1st 2016 I had completed the commission and sent a note to let TheAquaticRebel know it had been completed and I was ready for payment to be made -- http://sta.sh/026ikm0uink5 I figured it had only been a couple days and I hadn't heard anything back from them to warrant a possibility that they wouldn't be able to pay. The other person who had bought the other half had paid promptly within a few hours after I'd sent the finished product. Unfortunately, that's when the situation went downhill and I received this as a reply -- http://sta.sh/085pjoiu0ra I had never heard of this happening but I asked around a bit and prodded Google.com for information of similar situations and ways to fix/repair it, not only to be paid but for TheAquaticRebel's sake as well because I imagined that situation is a pretty scary one to be in. A few people told me that PayPal doesn't shut down your account or delete it unless you ask them to under the pretenses that your account has been hacked/used by someone else without permission. Also, someone else pointed out the "PayPal bill" section which TheAquaticRebel spoke of -- PayPal doesn't send bills... They send business activity and payment histories monthly to show how much you have made/earned and how much you have bought in that month. Still, I gave TheAquaticRebel the benefit of the doubt and figured if anything they had a bank account and would likely offer to pay with that instead should their card take too long to arrive. The day after (June 4th, 2016) I sent a reply to their note inquiring as to when I could expect payment as banks usually only take 4-7 business days to send you a new card (even in the UK) and I was going to be unavailable for a week and a half or so as I would be traveling and thus unable to view my dA notes http://sta.sh/0rqa1qoxwye A week and a half's time seemed ample time enough to get everything sorted, more so when money and possibly identity theft was involved; I'd be chomping at the bit to try and get everything sorted! A day later I got this http://sta.sh/0bl5yxjjcnb as the only reply which seemed to be the tipping point for me to understand this person was yanking my chains. Their reply was so lackluster and 'meh' -- as if to say "I owe you $150/115£ but I can't be bothered" -- which really kind of annoyed me as I kept thinking of how I'd be in that situation. I'd be in slight hysterics because this is finances that were being messed with AND I'd owe someone 115 quid for work they'd already done. However, I digress -- I replied with as at this point I was beginning to realise the outcome was likely going to be dismal and it was looking less and less likely like I was going to be paid. Time warp to a few weeks later in which I hadn't heard any updates or gotten any notes from TheAquaticRebel about what was going on despite asking them to keep me posted. I don't know of any banks that take 2-3 weeks to send a new card and it's pretty easy to set up a new PayPal with a bank card (I use it myself and have had to change cards before). There had been no word from them so I sent them a note to inquire -- http://sta.sh/024dabpy0amk and funnily enough they replied the same day with -- http://sta.sh/07l9sx60i0e I had NEVER heard of PayPal doing this unless the person didn't have the amount in their accounts (PayPal or Bank) and even then, looking up this situation all I could get close to was a glitch that was a one time thing and usually sorted itself out after re-sending an invoice. However, after talking to other people about this -- I was curious for multiple opinions at this point -- they openly admitted that this just seemed like another excuse; a convenient one at that -- Fake a PayPal glitch. Regardless of my unease -- More so at the fact this all seemed phishy to me and I was not sure I wanted that kind of connection to something of that oddness -- I sent them my PayPal.Me link instead for them to send the payment. I got nothing, including no notification from them letting me know they'd even bothered to send a payment. So at this point I wanted some kind of visual proof of this situation happening, a screenshot if anything -- http://sta.sh/0s60gw7erao because I was ridiculously confused by that time. I couldn't find any direct information about this glitch being consistently replicated like TheAquaticRebel was claiming. Again, I got nothing -- no proof nor reply. August 4th, 2016 -- a couple weeks later I once again wanted to try and touch base with TheAquaticRebel on what was going on with the payment as I felt surely by this time they would have figured something out but at this point with the lack of proof that there was something wrong I was being told by several people to flip them onto Artists_Beware because to them they seemed to be nothing but a scammer -- http://sta.sh/01izcvl8v9et I got this reply -- http://sta.sh/018l60fboufu This is where there was the massive red flags -- mostly over the "PayPal won't do anything about it" because I knew damn well PayPal's support team are not that useless. I've had issues with my account before and any time I'd called them, no matter what the issue, they were always willing to help. They would pretty much always have an answer and if they didn't they would advise on ways and things I could manage things. The fact TheAquaticRebel spoke as if PayPal's people were like "Oh, you can't pay merchants for things? HAHA, OH WELL, nothing we can do :lol: Sorry~" The only thing; the ONLY thing I can see happening is them saying "The issue wouldn't on our end but your bank's as there's likely something going on with your account there. We'd advise you to call your bank and discuss it with them. For now what we can do is suspend any payments leaving your account within the last month since the time of the invasion until now to prevent any further unauthorized usage of your account and funds. If you are continuing to have issues using your account even after calling your bank and getting the OK from them that everything is fine, please contact PayPal again and we will investigate further." Which is pretty much what I got in an email reply when I inquired about the situation with PayPal's help team. TheAquaticRebel also made it out as if they were upset which their lack of cooperation really betrayed that -- More so when all they had to do was provide visual proof of what was happening as I even offered to give insight to help them. However, again... I gave them the benefit of the doubt and offered once more to help alleviate the situation -- This time by offering to bill their bank directly so it would be easier as there'd be no faffing about with PayPal as it was obvious there was issues with it -- http://sta.sh/029jxiy70vor I was concise but stern on the matter and I heard nothing back. A few weeks later I sent them http://sta.sh/019bmkyv12n3 and from then on I had heard nothing back AND they have since deactivated their account... So, here I sit -- Literally having to just deal with $150/115£ worth of work done never to be paid. However, if I can do anything I can warn people about this person. I gave them more than enough time and patience when dealing with the situation. I know it seems harsh but again, with the lack of proof and cooperation I feel genuinely put off and therefore I was told to place this publicly as a warning. I wouldn't be nearly as upset about $20 or even $40 worth of work as I could simply redo the piece but $150 is too much to just throw off without a warning. I'm well aware I should have taken prepay when it was offered, but I had my reasons for not doing so at the time -- Not to mention there might have been bigger issues if I had. EDIT-- (Apologies but they made a new account AFTER I had submitted this so there's some things to be added) TheAquaticRebel deleted their new account which was kreayashion after someone who'd seen my warning asked about the YCH. They then moved to the new new account loyderwo in which they noted me asking me to read a journal they'd written addressing the issue. The claimed to have been harassed before and after on Instagram -- which I should mention I never even knew their Instagram nor did I mention any other site they were on as I didn't even know of any others. So, if they were indeed harassed on there it wasn't because of anything I'd said. I had also not made this situation public until a few days ago when I was advised to make a warning in case others had had the same thing happen with her. It was only then that I had someone note me with other accounts she had made elsewhere but I did not mention a single one of them other than her dA. I was unable to see any comments posted on her page, or even if there were any as she'd deleted her account very soon after. I read the journal she'd written and it basically states they cannot pay me due to being hacked and their PayPal again being messed with so at this point I'm just severely at odds on the situation. I'm out $150.00 of work and I feel like I've been played. I know I should have asked for prepay; lesson learned. However, this just feels like she didn't have the payment even when she said she did otherwise she would have been okay to pay through her bank instead.
  10. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/977067.html Who: Mithacal Creatures - Alaska business license 1052001 Twitter: @Mithacal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mithacalcreatures/ Website: https://www.mithacal.com/ FurBuy username: MithacalCreatures FurAffinity:http://www.furaffinity.net/user/Mitha/ Where: Furbid Auction - https://www.furbuy.com/auctions/1092553.html What: Fursuit head commission, won at auction. The auction was won for $575, and the agreed-upon price after enhancements, modifications, and shipping was $905. Custom features were to include custom eye cuts for better vision, whiskers, and a silicone nose. When: The auction was won on February 14, 2017, and lists a completion time of 5 weeks after full payment is received. Full payment was made on February 17, 2017, after some initial communication difficulties. Delivery of the head was delayed repeatedly. On July 12, after a disagreement about what features were included in the increased price, Mitha offered a full refund, then asked for a legal agreement to be signed as a pre-requisite for the refund. On July 13, Mitha refused to honor that offer, and said that only a 50% refund would be available. On July 17, after I had requested several days to decide what to do (which was also over a weekend), Mitha stated that she would be giving me a 50% refund in 14 days whether I wanted it or not. At that point, I filed a credit card dispute, which was resolved in my favor in September. Explanation & Evidence: The commission got off to a rough start when Mitha didn’t get my emails, but that’s on me. Eventually we made contact via Twitter, which is where we would do all of our subsequent communication. I sent Mitha a long explanation, including a web page with references and desired features. Screenshot 1 Mitha agreed to this, saying that she could “do everything I wanted” on my reference page. Screenshot 2 The features added $280 to the price of the head, which made the total with shipping $905. Screenshot 3 Payment was made immediately via credit card on her website, http://www.mithacal.com. Screenshot 4 Some additional discussion about fur kinds and colors followed, since I wanted to try making a body suit for the head and wanted to coordinate on the fur we were using. At the end of the discussion, I mentioned her move, something that she had been talking about on Twitter. No mention was made of it impacting the deadline. Screenshot 5 One month later, I check in. No progress, and we talk about fur choices, but don’t exit the conversation with an unambiguous decision. Screenshot 6 Another month goes by with no communication. It’s now April 23rd, with no WIPs. I check in again. Apparently Mitha thought that she was still waiting on fur choices, and after getting the go-ahead to use whatever she wanted, says that she’ll finish up the mask and will have updates in a week. Screenshot 7 At the time, she also asks me what color eyes I want. LED eyes weren’t part of my request list, but I had thought they were just something standard she did. Her last message says she needs to wait for them, but had said just before that she’d report progress in a week. Screenshot 7_1 Another month goes by, and it’s now May 30th. I have not yet heard anything from Mitha without me prompting her. She says she’s still waiting on the eyes from DVC. Screenshot 8 Amazingly, the eyes come in the same day! Or so she says. She also now says it will be another few weeks before there’s any progress to see. Screenshot 9 Screenshot 10 June 13th, and I finally get a communication from her asking me to choose eye backgrounds, and to say that the head is still a couple of weeks away from completion. Screenshot 11 June 21st , and I message her again for a status update, and to let her know that I was going to be out of town from July 1 – 10. She indicates that she’ll have the head shipped so that it arrives around July 10th. Screenshot 12 Screenshot 13 July 11th, and I haven’t heard anything from her, so I ping her again. Apparently there’s been a delay due to her wedding and honeymoon, which she didn’t mention anything about. I congratulate her, and ask for some WIPs, especially of the tear duct modifications. This is where things start to go very wrong. Screenshot 14 Mitha claims she never agreed to the modifications. I ask where she said that, because the last message I got from her about it, before I paid, was that it wouldn’t be a problem. She says she sent something saying she wasn’t capable of that kind of modification, and offers a refund if that’s a problem. I ask again to just point me where she said that, and after 24 hours of no response, I’m pretty fed up with the whole deal and agree to the refund. Screenshot 15 Mitha goes off, but agrees to the full refund. Fine, I just want to be done with this; I’ve seen scant evidence that my commission was even being worked on (nothing other than the eye backgrounds), and we’re now 5 months into what was promised in 5 weeks. Screenshot 16 And now things get really weird. Mitha wants me to sign some kind of contract – I was guessing a non-disparagement agreement – as part of the refund. But, instead of sending me something to sign and review, she sends me a contract that she signed, between herself and her dog breeder, over some dispute that they had. Real names redacted below, but they weren't in what she sent me: Screenshot 17 One, sending me this unredacted was probably a violation of her agreement with her breeder. Two, it’s really odd to send somebody a legal agreement that isn’t actually ready to be signed, and is in fact between her and another party, with all of those details. Because I've had some experience with contracts and NDAs, I’m going to get a lawyer to look at any contract I’m being asked to sign. I’m not trying to be aggressive here, and in most business environments when you say you need a lawyer to look at a legal document, that’s a sign of being sane and prudent, not that you're making a legal threat. Screenshot 18 The whole thing has taken a turn for the strange, and I’m asking her for options. I feel she’s had a really poor record of communicating with me, so I’m trying to be proactive about communication and expectations. Asking for a mailing address for legal communications is pretty standard business practice, and signing a non-disparagement clause is a lot different than a regular commercial transaction. As a registered business in the state of Alaska, she has to have a publicly-available mailing address, and it can be found very easily online at the Alaska Chamber of Commerce website (https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/cbp/main), so I'm not sure why it would be a problem. Screenshot 19 And then Mitha changes her mind, says she won’t be giving me a full refund, that only a 50% refund is on the table, and accuses me of threatening legal action, apparently because I uttered the word ‘lawyer’, after she asked me to sign a legally-binding document. Screenshot 20 I want to take some time to think about this, because none of my options here are good: I can lose $450, or I can maybe get a head that doesn’t have the features that I wanted, from a maker that I no longer trust. Since this is already months late, I didn’t think a few extra days would be an issue, especially over a weekend. July 14 was a Friday, July 17 is a Monday. Mitha feels differently, and by Monday evening is saying that she will give me a 50% refund whether I like it or not. Screenshot 21 I’m still not clear on what’s going on – do I still have to sign a document of some kind, even for the 50% refund? I’m not sure, and I don’t want to make a decision until we can hash this out. Mitha doesn’t want to wait though, and just after midnight on Monday she decides she’s going to keep half the money and not send me anything, no matter what I want. After 5 months of me waiting for her, she’s definitely not going to wait for me. Screenshot 22 To me, and to the lawyer that I had review all of this, this is a breach of contract on her part. What she’s saying here, as evidenced by all the previous tweets, is mostly false. She offered the refund first, I just took her up on it. She asked me to sign a legal document, I just wanted to do it safely by having a lawyer look at the contract. At this point, I’m pretty upset. Screenshot 23 Screenshot 24 After her message on July 18th, and blocking me on Twitter, I filed a dispute with the credit card company to get my money back. I’d received nothing, no WIPs beyond the eye backdrop photos, no proof of work done, and no product, and was only going to get half of a refund after waiting 5 months for something that Mitha agreed to do but later decided she couldn't, or wouldn't. Finally, on July 30th, Mitha unblocked me long enough to tell me that she was going to sue me in small claims court. To date, Mitha hasn’t served me with anything for a lawsuit, and the credit card company finalized the chargeback in September, so I have 100% of my money back. As things go, this could have been worse, but I think Mitha is somebody to avoid doing business with.
  11. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/907161.html WHO: Kanel WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/kanel WHAT: Digital image. 2 character, Fullbody, Painted and simple background. Later 'upgraded' for the wait. $40 initially + $20 simple background added later = $60 WHEN: February 7th, 2012 initial payment and commissioning. Restarted commission around May 2013. Restarted again in December 2015. PROOF: Agreement of commission Payment for initial commission Journal showing all commissions initially Second payment for background added on later First WIP image in July 2012 Restarted WIP in 2013 Asking to restart again in March 2015 Second restart WIP image (December 2015) February request for update March request for update April request for update and notice of intent to go to AB EXPLAIN: Just for my own sanity of how long it’s been, I organized the events of what happened in each year since this whole commission got started. It might be unusual but it also seems unusual for a commission to take this long. Because it’s been so long, some of the pictures, skype logs, and other things have been lost but I’ve done my best to try and get everything relevant. ------------- An explanation before I begin, I’ve had three different computers. One is where all the screenshots I have on here is the oldest and I don’t actually use anymore because of various issues with it after 2012. Second one, where all of my logs were died last summer. Hard drive gave out around June 2015 and no way to recover anything on it. Third is this computer I’m using now which I received in in September 2015 has virtually nothing on here. So I have a dead spot in skype chats between late 2012 till late 2015. Kanel and I used to be good friends at one point. I found him on FA early one before he really got noticed and achieved popufur status. We played video games together several times and talked together quite a bit over the years. I commissioned him 2 separate times before all this with no problems. Over time though we started talking less and less until we drifted apart as we have now. 2012 Kanel opened commissions and I managed to nab a spot. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3163112/ We shortly afterwards we discussed and agreed upon an idea which cost 35 dollars. I’m not sure why at the time but I paid 40 dollars instead and sent it to him. https://www.dropbox.com/s/gct6e4aw31t4ytb/DS 1a.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qvtcergu1fc0oja/Pay 1.png?dl=0 He then posted a journal with a commission list, later in the day, with my commission and two previous completed ones I had with him along with several others in the batch I’m in. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/3163656/ Later Kanel expressed concerns about the subject matter as something he wasn’t very interested in doing (which now that I look back even I now I was wondering what I was thinking) so we changed the commission to a fight scene between our characters that could both enjoy. Suggested I cover the cost for a background to make it look better but Kanel didn’t want me to pay because he felt a bit sorry for such a long wait. I thought it was only right that I pay the cost, at the time being 20 dollars, and sent it out. First half of combined screenshots Second half of combined screenshots For those who can't read those two for any reason, here are the individual screenshots. Quite a lot of them though. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17 Part 18 Payment of background: https://www.dropbox.com/s/in1mzrt5y5qz163/Pay 2.png?dl=0 About a month later Kanel would stream work on the picture. He would get his character colored and shaded while my character was mostly done except for some shading. There were some ‘sketchy’ background ideas drawn in but none of them he liked though and were cut out from the progress he stopped at. https://www.dropbox.com/s/kxch66sk24f3t4s/SK 29.png?dl=0 Shortly afterwards he asked for my opinion about opening up some commissions again. My commission and the majority of the others that he had accepted back in February were not done yet. He needed some income at the time to support himself and his family. My opinion then, and still now, is to be open and keep everyone updated one what’s going on with you and why you need to take more commissions. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Later opened commissions journal 2013 I’m not quite sure when exactly Kanel worked on the picture again but he had started over actually and gave me a screenshot of the new picture. I was very surprised at the time but glad that he had worked on it and was farther along than the last picture. Unfortunately the skype logs during this time are lost but I still have the screenshot from then and is dated to have been created on May 17th, 2013. https://www.dropbox.com/s/q76ajxu0is3amks/b59215f815916d704c309f3a465827f7.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/zidj2xmwewblrew/b3942fd923921.png?dl=0 Because of the update and the image looked farther along, I was satisfied with him making progress and left him alone for the rest of the year. Like I said at the beginning, I have a lot of patience and didn’t want to stress him out. 2014 No notes were found for this year and any skype logs I had died with my last computer. No data available for this year. 2015 Every year after this point I would ask for an update on the commission in late February as sort of the anniversary of when I commissioned him. Once again he asked if I would agree to change the subject of the commission again, something league related. I thought this might be just the last motivation he needed to finish the commission so I approved the subject change. If he wasn’t liking the old subject then hopefully this new one would motivate him to finish it. At the time, were we both starting to get into league of legends so it seemed like a good idea. Originally it was something along the lines of us working together to fight Baron Nashor, my character as Rugged Garen (DEMACIA). All screenshots mashed together: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1qjjqu535do32v2/FA screenshot 1.jpg?dl=0 Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 It was getting a bit annoying at this point that Kanel didn’t have any significant update for me and wanted to start it over again. He was accepting more commissions and opening his patreon pages with his personal projects and commission rewards (Reward tier where you get the equivalent of a commission). I knew the adopts that he did every few month were to cover his rent and a bit more for food but still hurt that he was doing new stuff rather than old commissions. Eventually in October and November, I finally started pressuring him a bit more about the commission. https://www.dropbox.com/s/vli216e7tsbqy39/DF 1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/jjcmejo0quww2pl/DF 2.png?dl=0 December, shortly after I asked if he made any progress, he started streaming my commission with the league related subject. He did two separate days of it but I missed most of the second day sadly since I passed out mid-stream. Last I saw was of our characters and him working on a very detailed background with us both having killed Teemo. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18520987/ 2016 I was still pretty satisfied with him having worked on it back in December but was surprised he handed worked on it again to finish the image. When I asked for an update in late February, he let me know that he still planned to finish it and wanted to give me a refund as well. I replied letting him know it was 60 dollars and that he would send me the cash the following weekend but nothing came. https://www.dropbox.com/s/oyi0z4ol8bl83dr/DF 3a.png?dl=0 End of March, I asked for an update again but he had none. Also he wanted me to refrain from asking for updates on the image part of the commission as well after he had sent me my money back. The image would be considered a giftart apology for waiting or interest for such a long wait. Still didn’t receive a refund. https://www.dropbox.com/s/h7n8t3nf54c08ke/DF 5.png?dl=0 End of April, I asked for an update again but he still had none. At that time I mentioned my intention to eventually go to Artist Beware with the issue which he was understandably irritated about. I would be too if someone was going to make a post on here about me. Still with no progress on my commission and no refund, it does not appear to be coming to an end anytime soon. https://www.dropbox.com/s/fm3m0iiw4n3w9xy/DF 4.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/e9p230lwlr7e7rl/DF 6.png?dl=0 I don’t think there is any true malicious intent on his part at all but more leaning towards negligence. Probably he wanted to get the commissions done that were newer and of people where were bugging him more to get them done. This month so far he has made work on his patreon rewards but seems behind on those as well. I don’t really know what his situation is as far as his commissions and patreon rewards but I do wish he would talk about it and be a bit more open. It really sucks that it’s come to this but I don’t quite feel like my commission is going to get finished without this and it would probably be a few more months before I get my refund too. Posting this here probably burns what bit of friendship we still had but seems like this is my only option. It has been over 4 years since I commissioned him. Each time he gets past half way done before scrapping it and starting over because his style changed, to do more for the picture as an apology for taking so long, or because he lost his motivation to finish the image before this one. His art has improved but his work ethics hasn’t quite kept up with the demand he has gotten for his art. I know I’m not the only person he owes art to. There are others that have commissions from him in the year 2013 (Some done others not). Plus he has been having a bundle of (NSFW) patreon commission rewards pile up every month. Occasionally he will take a simple sketch commission or do in (NSFW)stream commission he announces on twitter. He also has his own patreon for his personal comic art that he used to do but hasn't touched for a while. (I could probably fill out a long list of different times he has taken commissions over the years but that would be very long a bit more work that needed. If requested though, I can add them later.) I’m probably not his first priority to do at the moment and that’s fine. Unfortunately my patience has essentially ran out now and a more aggressive approach is needed. This will be held here as unresolved until his promise is fulfilled back in February. Refund of $60 and the commission image. I think that's fair since that's what was offered. Update: Kanel finally sent the refund. That was fast.
  12. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/963890.html WHO: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sindaj/ , https://twitter.com/iSindaj WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sindaj/ WHAT: YCH Comic Page (Digital) WHEN: Feb. 10th - Saw the YCH on the front page of FA and took interest, noted Sindaj asking if it was still available and claimed the slot. Paid. http://sta.sh/01pv3h47c79b / http://sta.sh/01d7v8zlhtjz / http://sta.sh/02cprx8gkvm7 / http://sta.sh/0197p3vfzvd1 A few months go by, Sindaj streams off and on and does sketches in stream / misc. Art, but does not touch the YCHs like promised. May 8th - I send a note asking Sindaj for an ETA and am told that he will be working on them the following week. It does not happen. http://sta.sh/01zblhz57zv0 Sindaj has various life and health issues that prevent him from working on owed work, but he continues to upload personal (?) work to his gallery and other commissions. July 3/4 - I send another note, feeling a bit uncomfortable with how long it has taken for a YCH to be completed, asking for a refund. Sindaj replies saying that it will take a while to refund me, as he needs to resell the slot. I consent to the reselling of the slot and give him a deadline of August. Sindaj does not reply, nor does he make a public effort to resell the slot. http://sta.sh/026e72yxzrfo / http://sta.sh/054d7nj1f1p July 12th - I have opened a dispute Sindaj, giving a hard refund deadline of August 1st and expressing that if I do not hear back from him by then, I will be escalating my dispute to a claim. I do not want the YCH at this point, I want my money back. I do not feel comfortable working with Sindaj, and while I understand that life happens, I feel that he has been all too flippant about handling his relationship with his commissioners. I feel it is my right to cancel this commission, as no work has been done, and I feel I am allowed a full refund. http://sta.sh/01tzz6d7mm8c July 16th - Sindaj posts a journal talking about paypal claims specifically, leading me to believe I am not the only person on his queue who is uncomfortable working with him any longer. Note: I still have not escalated my dispute against Sindaj, per my message to him in the Paypal message center, and I still have not received a response from him. http://sta.sh/0u6on8fmmky July 18th - Sindaj emails my PayPal email directly instead of responding to the still-open dispute, using a guilt trip and claiming I did not attempt to speak with him prior to opening my dispute (which he repeatedly refers to as a claim). He infers I am being unreasonable, and states that he is not interested in reselling the slot. He promises a refund, but his message is unclear as to when I will be receiving it. I have yet to respond to his email because I honestly do not know how to respond to him yet, but after calling PayPal and informing them that I have gotten in contact with Sindaj outside of the dispute system, I have chosen to 1: keep the dispute open lest I lose PayPal's protection, and 2: post this to Artists-Beware as I’m honestly fed up with Sindaj and this situation entirely. http://sta.sh/0v89k6gxp8w http://sta.sh/0n8i34xxmva EXPLAIN / PROOF: In February I logged in and saw a comic page YCH on the front page of FA with an autobuy of $50. I was interested in the style and thought Sindaj’s artwork seemed neat, so I noted him and purchased the slot. I noticed he had a few outstanding commissions, but he seemed to be going through them and streaming regularly at the time, so I didn’t really think much of it at the time. Sindaj streamed off and on after I paid, saying he’d be posting updates when he’d be streaming, so I would check in every so often to see what he was working on, but he mostly worked on sketches in stream / personal art and didn’t touch the YCHs or other previously owed work*, so I usually didn’t stay long. *To my knowledge - as I did not stay longer than an hour or two, it could have changed, but this was what I witnessed in my time in his streams. Sindaj would often express that he was having personal trouble with his health and living situation that interfered with his work, but as I’m disabled and occasionally need to put a small pause on my own work, I didn’t think much of it until a few months had passed with nothing to show in terms of progress on the YCH I had paid for. I hadn’t seen work done on any of the other comic pages Sindaj had put up for sale, either, so I sent him a note in May asking for an ETA / status update. He replied and said that he would be working on the comic pages the next week. I thanked him for the update and waited, but he did not work on the comic page YCHs at all. As Sindaj’s living situation and health issues seemed to escalate, he put a pause on his commission work and streaming, but still would occasionally post some personal work and adoptables (?) to his FurAffinity, offering to stream them for potential buyers. After a while, I realized I was coming up to the point where I would lose PayPal’s protection, so in July I sent Sindaj a note. I no longer wished to commission him, I felt that - despite the circumstances - the timeframe for a YCH had gone on long enough and at this point I just wanted my money back in full. Sindaj replied saying that he would have to resell the slot, and I consented, saying that he had until August to resell the slot and refund me. He never replied, nor had he made an effort to resell the slot or refund my money, but he’s posted a journal update saying he might be well enough to work on commissions and then he’ll stop doing them for a while (???). He’s repeatedly posted journals and such saying he’ll be streaming owed work, but has not actually streamed. As of July 12th I’ve issued a hard deadline - telling Sindaj to please refund my money in full, I do not want the YCH slot anymore, and that if he does not refund me by August 1st, I will escalate my dispute with PayPal to a claim. I really did not want it to come to this, as I do think Sindaj is a good artist, but I do not feel comfortable with how he handles his professional work. Sindaj repeatedly hides behind being ill when confronted about not getting work done, but I am a disabled artist. I understand what it is to be chronically ill. Sometimes you cannot get work done immediately, yes, sometimes life gets in the way, yes, but regardless you owe it to your clients to be professional and have policies in place for when you cannot do the work you were paid to do. I personally have a time frame for myself wherein I refuse to string commissioners along - if I cannot do the work that I was paid to do, I do not get to keep that money. It sucks, it has only happened once while I’ve taken commissions, but it’s necessary to protect the interests of your commissioner and keep the trust of the community you’ve chosen to work with. I think Sindaj is a lovely artist and I do genuinely hope his situation improves, but I cannot say I would feel comfortable going back to work with him again and that I just want this to be over. UPDATE 7/21/2017: I woke up to an email from PayPal stating that Sindaj has escalated the dispute to a claim, despite my deadline. I have no idea if he thinks that escalating the dispute himself will remove him from any obligations, but I have plenty of evidence for PayPal if they need it and will be calling them, as I'm pretty irked about this altogether. http://sta.sh/0s6m2xf3den , http://sta.sh/04i7uhi3h48 , http://sta.sh/0j2m9k27pxk , http://sta.sh/022loddrly6t UPDATE 7/21/2017 | B: After getting a hold of PayPal, the associate I spoke with informed me that Sindaj called and escalated to a claim in order to refund me (??? - these are PayPal's words on what Sindaj told them when escalating) and processed the refund. I have my refund, I've not heard anything from Sindaj, but I am still uncomfortable with how they have chosen to communicate with me and am not going to watch them or interact with them anymore and would advise against doing any business with them. http://sta.sh/02c3qwy7ljdx
  13. Changed Resolved to Yes Just as a heads up, as the artist clearly uses Nitro, changing their discord tag may continue to be a possibility. What I advise you keep track of is the account ID by turning on "Developer Mode" under your Advanced Settings, and you can keep track of the actual account ID for this user versus the various tag and number changes. Every Discord account has a unique ID that is bound to it and cannot be modified unlike the tag system. After activating developer mode, when you right click a name or a message, it will give you the option to 'copy ID' and it will put a long string of numbers in your clipboard. This will be the un-modifiable ID that links to this user (or a message in your history) This can be kept for your records in the event that this individual genuinely jumps to a new account.
  14. Changed Resolved to Yes To outside parties reviewing this submission: We strongly urge you to read our Submission Guidelines thoroughly in order to become familiar with how our platform operates. Our platform is an archive of transactions between clients and artists and does not delete any records unless it is under extenuating circumstances. While we are a heavily moderated platform: This will be the first and only warning to outside observers to keep things civil in regards to this submission.
  15. MOD NOTE: This has been downgraded to a caution during archiving, as the situation was resolved. Originally posted on May. 31st, 2013 by marmalade0997 WHO: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/bambiboo3/ WHAT: a tail in exchange for ~$60 of blind bag MLP figurines and some fur to use for the tail WHEN: August 2012 ongoing EXPLAIN: In August 2012, bambiboo3 posted a journal wanting to trade MLP merchandise for fursuit parts. I had a lot of blindbag ponies, so I decided to take her up (journal asking for trades) After I had gone over all the ponies I had available, we worked out how much the ponies were worth, how much her tails were worth, what I wanted my tail to look like (black and white with some spotty brown fur I would provide), and she said that the trade would be good I got her address, and the next day after verifying her address I shipped the ponies and fur off, with her telling me she'd let me know when everything arrived I didn't hear anything from her for a week, so I double checked she got everything safely with no response (I had done 2-3 day shipping) A few days after that note, I got a response asking what my tail looked like specifically, and I responded Towards the end of September she posted a journal saying that she was packing stuff up and moving, so I figured it would take her a bit to finish and ship my tail In the beginning of December, I shot her a note asking about my tail since I hadn't heard anything from her in a while A week later, I got a note saying it was finished and just needed to be stuffed, and that she would have it out in the next week so I gave her my address (the first time she said she would ship it) I still hadn't received it by the beginning of January, so I sent her a note seeing if she had shipped it A week later I still hadn't heard anything, so I sent her my address again in case something had happened, and got a reply back that she didn't get the first note asking about it, but would ship the tail out that week (the second time she said she would ship it) About two weeks after that note towards the end of January, I sent her another one seeing if she had sent it. She said she would send it out Monday or Tuesday (the third time she said she would ship it) and included a picture of the finished tail (far right) Towards the middle of February I saw she posted a journal saying she had shipped more things (didn't manage to snag a screen cap of it), and asked again if my tail had been shipped, two weeks later I got a reply saying she had sent it out but it got returned, and I sent her my address a third time with her saying she's send it again with tracking this time (the fourth time she said she would ship it) End of March, I still hadn't received anything, so I sent her another note seeing if it got shipped A week later with no response and getting irritated with the lack of communication and saying she had shipped things when she didn't, I sent her yet another note A week later in the beginning of April I sent her another note, irritated with my notes being read but not responded to, and still not having my half of the trade, this time getting a response saying she didn't see my last note, but had shipped it off that day (the fifth time she said she would ship it) When I asked for a tracking number, she said she didn't have one but would find me the receipt ID as proof A week later with no tail and no receipt ID as proof, I sent her another note A few days after that note, I got a reply saying that she wasn't able to get a tracking number because of how it was shipped (shipped through the USPS), and that it would take 2-4 weeks to get to me because of her being in Hawaii Going off of her latest ship date of April 3, it has been more than 8 weeks, plenty of time for it to get to me. I left a shout on her FA page asking what was going on, but she is currently on hiatus. The shout did help me get in contact with another customer of hers though who is having similar issues I don't know what to do about this any more. She has said she's shipped off my half of the trade five times with no proof or anything being received. I see she has a few bewares up here already about her issues with shipping, and this just seems to follow the pattern. Edit: Feel free to mark this as resolved, I received the tail today.
  16. I met Finley at AnthroCon while they were running a booth in the Dealer's Den. There were suiters attending the con in suits that Finley had made, and the tails they had on display were of good quality. We talked for a while about pricing a fullsuit, how long delivery dates were, how deep the queue was. At that point, I decided to commission a Full Digitigrade suit from them for $1600. Communication was great until December, at which basically all communication ceased. The only reason that Finley responded here was because I had 2 emails: I am open to marking this Beware as "resolved" if and when the refund has been processed on PayPal. New information as of 7/1/2019. I was promised a refund (partial in June, the rest in July). Finley has not been in contact since those promises were made. I've attached the email conversation below, and you can see comments for more info. At this point I'm forced to raise this to Beware status from it's current Caution status.
  17. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/968610.html WHO: Eltalite/Elty/Demu/Rhey WHERE: FurAffinity (x3) - https://www.furaffinity.net/user/elty https://www.furaffinity.net/user/demu/ https://www.furaffinity.net/user/rhey/ Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~demu DeviantART (x3) - https://eltalite.deviantart.com/ https://inkydemu.deviantart.com/ https://demu.deviantart.com/ DeviantART Group - https://whitevale.deviantart.com/ Tumblr - http://eltalite.tumblr.com/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/eltalite Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/eltalite (There may be others I am unaware of. I apologize for this.) WHAT: An Original Species Adopt Found here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/18744417/ was sold to me for $250 and has since been reclaimed. I was not given a refund for it, and the individuals that are aids to the seller as well as the seller in question all refuse to even speak to me. WHEN: I bought the design on January 10th 2016. A dispute between me and the artist occurred sometime in October 2016 that got me blocked by them everywhere, including emails after an email exchange with the artist. The adopt was "reclaimed" on August 24th 2017 and after a brief attempt at an email exchange I was dismissed, and ignored. (Please note that I live in the UK which will cause time zone differences between me and the artist as they don't live in the UK) EXPLAIN & PROOF: On January 10th 2016 me and the artist entered an exchange via notes that displays my interest in buying the adopt in question. The artist accepted and I sent them the payment without delay within the space of an hour. (Notes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzhBESqCaxDiUDFVS3EydDlvSGs/view?usp=sharing, PayPal: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiQUJHNFdFWi0yVjA) On October 2nd 2016 Demu posted a journal concerning the his original species Ferrin, stating that female Ferrin no-longer had breasts as they lay eggs instead of producing live young, negating the need for the females to produce milk. I posted some comments on this journal and Demu took offence with them and blocked me, on every platform they knew or could discover I was on. Now when I purchased the adopt they make it a requirement that we adhere to an agreement called the Ferrin Adopt Agreement. this agreement is updated regularly and I can not provide the version that I initially agreed to or the version of it that was enforced at the time I was blocked. The current version is here: http://whitevalestudio.com/athenaeum/doku.php?id=documentation:adopt_agreement . The reason this is relevant is because it was last updated on November 2016, after October 2nd 2016 when this incident be tween us took place. The oldest version I can find is here: https://sta.sh/0kw73r0l6sq which was updated October 2015 Now after being blocked initially I felt terrible and disgusted with myself to the point it had a negative consequence on my mental condition, so I panicked somewhat and emailed them to apologize (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzhBESqCaxDiaGR3RUxRT0FqVGs/view?usp=sharing) . This didn't go down well. But being in the panicked mood that I was and the overly emotional state that comes with my depression, I kept talking (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzhBESqCaxDiMnFveHFWY3pkem8/view?usp=sharing) because that's how I am. It's how I've been forged and is a sad factor of how I work no matter what. This I can explain, for those that wish to know. That also did not go down well (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzhBESqCaxDiU1NQaXl1T2FTSEU/view?usp=sharing, https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzhBESqCaxDicVlVVTNGVmt2QkE/view?usp=sharing), they blocked my email and I could not reach them (not sure how you "block" an email) so anything I sent to them after a certain point would not be seen by Demu, or anyone else with access to the email. The reason this is important is because in the version of the Adopt Agreement I was bound to it stated that if I wanted to sell an adopt I needed to inform Demu of it first, with me being blocked, I could not do so in any way shape or form. So this for me potentially dissolved our agreement as that can happen when one makes it impossible for one party makes it impossible for the other party to fulfil their part of said agreement. So by blocking me everywhere, Demu essentially nullified the Adopt Agreement between us meaning it did not apply to me any longer or the Ferrin I adopted. But the opposite could also be true as the full legal depth of it is rather tricky as it's essentially impossible to copyright a species based on a design and words alone, because of how copyright law works. So for me I was left in a sort of limbo, and wasn't exactly sure how to progress. So I settled on a compromise. I would bind myself to the majority of the Agreement as it was written on the date of me being blocked from contacting them via email, I would check Demu's account once a month to see if I'd been unblocked to establish that the Adopt Agreement would then be reestablished between us as the original issue was resolved, and in 1 year (October 2nd 2017) if I was not unblocked, I would check the new Agreement and decide if I wished to follow it, if not I would ask a friend to contact Demu and notify them of this and state I wish to sell the design to not cause a conflict of interest. i tried to illustate this ion the ferrin I adopted with the Artists Comment box that comes with everythign one uploads to FA and such sites (This screen shots were sent to me by Demu's staff as their evidence against me https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzhBESqCaxDiUFhKQVg0M1RmN3hHNVZUcEhnNllseHJzWkpN/view?usp=sharing)That was the plan anyway. But on August 24th 2017, a member of staff working for Demu contacted me and stated that they were reclaiming the mentioned adopt (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDibkJNRW14SlpMUnM). One reason for this is because of the above linked part of my Artists Comment box, where I say I will not follow it after the point of being blocked, and the others were because I keep a public list of the people that have blocked me (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8003830/, Print Screen provided by Demu's aid in case it gets deleted: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDicGlMbkJwelhFdnpqUmJUSUpjdFlYWXNWcHQ4) on an Announcement Board style Journal, this is to ensure anyone that follows me is aware that those artists shouldn't be recommend ed to me since I'm blocked, I can't communicate with them. trying to would defeat the purpose of suggesting them, the other is because I have a journal entry entirely dedicated as an apology towards Demu (http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/7838301/, Print Screen provided by Demu's aid in case it gets deleted: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiX0JCdi1WMzdEdUZFcl8tMGRZTUtURmM3LVV3). These are notices and a public apology which is in of itself an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. The apology itself was posted in September 2016 and in my previous emails to Demu I informed them about them, and yet are only now bringing it up as an apparent issue. So I responded, again panicking as that's just in my nature and as such it's not going to be very...elegant (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiWGNvMUlCaEI0SU0). After that my mind started to swirl with the idea I'd been robbed blind and so I looked up about how PayPal deals with the issue. too late as it has a 180 general limit after the original exchange. This lead me to worry, but then a friend calmed me down and said that it might be best to file a dispute anyway so you have a filed objection but make it so Demu gets a chance to respond. So I did, but the options of what was "wrong" didn't fit the description of what was actually wrong so, i just picked one at random, and filed my complaint with some of my argument included as well as my suggestions on ways to resolve this (Link 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiNzJobktUOWh6cHc, Link 2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiTUNlNlF0aTRQYkU). This didn't go down well as I then received another email, that not only dismissed everything I've said but also made many accusations towards me as an individual (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiYjl0LXpmOHFTcVE). So to this I responded, with my friend keeping me calm throughout the exchange so that I could put things more elegantly as shown here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiNnJFSloxM3ItQzA. This email has been ignored and will likely continue to be ignored. Throughout the exchange since being blocked Demu and their associate has made personal attacks against me as an individual, which for me adds insult to the injury of being left $250 worse off. So for me they have established themselves as a scam artist. I once had further evidence that would support this claim entirely, but I have lost it since my laptop broke and my bookmarks did not import entirely when I used a temporary one. Anything else would be conjecture at this point and I'd rather we all deal with facts. I as an individual know my faults in this and can learn and grow from it, I can explain some of the issues Demu and his aid have with me but again that would be conjecture. If Artist Beware staff permit I will elaborate in response to any comments that inquire about it. UPDATE 1: The artist RamTheDragon has offered to do their own version of the design for me so I'm not using Elty's art anylonger. For free. The finished image of said piece can be found here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiVXJZMy1xd04zTUU) and here (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24790880/). They have expressed a willingness to be named, for their kind gesture. Also in my upload of the image here (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/24790880/) which i have also Print Screen here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiMWpJZ3Zla0JJTVE). I have also sent an email, shown here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiY3FpbDdaVmR5Rkk), to Elty/Demu, to express my intent on keeping the character. UPDATE 2: The artist (Elty) of said Character has contancted me via email here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiWlN2dm9mMHp5SzA) and here (https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzhBESqCaxDiSkZ6YUtfTnVuT0U). The artist has commented below. Any future conversations between the artisst and I share in private will either be expalined or shared here, to help anyone that see's this Beware in future be as aware of what has transpired as transparent as possible. UPDATE 3: The artist Elty, has been entire appologetic about what has happened. It seems that a friend they trusted to help them manage their emails abused their position of power. This is presumed to be because of issues in their personal life which has nothign to do with either I or Elty. Their original act of reclaiming the character was not a power they were granted by Elty and as such the official statement by Elty the Whitevale team is that it never should have been taken and that the act was more or less a type of theft on their part, caused by a singular member of the team (who has now lost their position). So the issue is resolved.
  18. 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.
  19. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/995528.html This imgur album may be easier to follow, but I will copy the relevant information in the proper template as well. https://imgur.com/a/vqw5xcR WHO: The artist is named Fr0stbit3 on Furaffinity. WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/fr0stbit3/ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26222681/ https://www.furaffinity.net/view/27231252/ WHAT: Digital art, solo character NSFW commission, offered by the artist in pre-posed slots. WHEN: Initial contact was February 3rd, 2018 when the commission was accepted. Payment details were provided on February 4th, and payment was also sent on February 4th. On March 19th, email communication began inquiring about the commission, and then a month's deadline for a refund was communicated and accepted. On April 20th, I opened a PayPal dispute to reinitiate contact. The refund was refused, and the dispute was elevated to a claim. On April 24th, the claim was resolved in the Buyer's (mine) favor. On May 1st, the Seller/Artist, Fr0stbit3, reopened the claim to appeal to PayPal. On May 4th, the appeal was denied by PayPal. Fr0stbit3 proceeded to post an unauthorized image of my character, using the title and description to insult and defame me. I decided to create an Artists Beware entry. EXPLAIN: This began when I asked for a pre-posed commission slot Fr0stbit3 was opening in February. The idea was a line of dragon characters in pre-made poses would be completed individually for the buyers and then posted in a group pic at the conclusion. https://imgur.com/m6Yru9V This is my initial comment on the submission page inquiring for a slot. Page is still available as of 5/4/2018. I inquired after a slot for the "Dragon Wall", pre-posed pictures for dragon characters to be lined up in a group picture. [NSFW link] https://www.furaffinity.net/view/26222681/ https://imgur.com/cm67HUZ Here is the note after the comment. I provided references and my paypal information, he replied with the price and his PayPal information. https://imgur.com/Qst1p6l As you can see by the date I paid the same day (with tip!). The payment has since been refunded after I filed a dispute, which the following screenshots will show. https://imgur.com/8Kje8Iz About a month and a half later, I checked Fr0stbit3's Furaffinity page to see if he'd made any progress on the Dragon Wall. When I tried to navigate to the page from my note inbox, I got the error "user has voluntarily disabled access to their userpage", which was a big red flag for me. He has since reactivated his page. Worried that an artist had taken my money and run, I tried using his paypal address to email him, and to my relief he responded the next day. He assured me he would be providing a refund as soon as he could, but couldn't due to issues in his personal life. https://imgur.com/LHNOaEr I expressed my sympathy and asked for a deadline for a refund, and he said it could be up to a month, but he'd try to get it to me earlier. After this, I had no contact with him for a month. https://imgur.com/fF6AtiY This image is read from bottom to top. After a month of no contact and no refund, I reinitiated contact via Paypal by opening a dispute. Paypal's first step of the dispute process is simply the Buyer (me) contacting the Seller (Fr0stbit3). I explained what had already happened and informed him I had opened a dispute for this reason. He responded with "I told you to be patient with me" while simultaneously denying he had received any previous email from me. After that I realized that he was not going to be willingly provide any refund to me, was providing no revised deadlines, so I escalated the dispute to a Claim in order to have the transaction refunded. https://imgur.com/qkgo9uV He proceeded to send me several messages on FA, urging me to check my email. I did, and saw nothing, until I thought to check the email address I use as my Paypal. He also seemed to be confusing me for someone else named "Matt". https://imgur.com/YKjhrvO I checked my alternate email and found this from him, finding out that he'd gone back on his promise of a refund and went ahead and completed the image. I found this surprising, as he'd never even mentioned the possibility of him actually completing the commission, he'd only spoken about refunds. I also found it surprising that rather than actually send me the completed image to complete the commission, he'd chosen to hold it hostage instead. https://imgur.com/yBjpVIW For organization and clarity's sake, I forwarded the email he sent to my own email address, that I'd used to initially contact him, forwarded it again to him and then reopened our email thread, so that he could easily see my prior messages and stop having me confused for whoever Matt is. https://imgur.com/gK4yCmt I used slightly sterner language in response to his decision to hold the image hostage rather than fulfill his end of the transaction. I made it clear that he had communicated to me that the image was not going to be completed, and that I had been waiting for a refund. At this point, I had no interest in the completed image, as this commission had proved to be an extremely frustrating experience. However, I was very much looking forward for this experience to be over, so I made it clear that if he wanted the dispute to be resolved, he could just send me the image and I'd call it even. He responded as you can see above, with a pixelated/censored version, insisted that he could not trust me, and that he would only send me the file after I dropped the dispute, reiterating it with two emails in a row, making sure to mention in both that I could not be trusted. I was honestly surprised to see that he had done the image, but he still had not sent it to me, only a blurred version, so his part of the transaction was still incomplete. https://imgur.com/WnHAltB I did my best to clarify my position and made it clear that the Paypal claim existed because he had failed to provide what I had paid for, and that if he fulfilled the transaction, the claim would be dropped. But he doubled down, refusing to provide the image, and also claiming he never provided refunds. https://imgur.com/qqWOPKn Despite my better judgement, I tried to make the situation crystal clear about how the ball was in his court, and that he could either let PayPal settle the dispute or provide the full image to satisfy the claim. I did not have much hope for the results, and I was tired of arguing, and made it clear that it was my final communication. https://imgur.com/GTO96pO He then proceeded to be far more public, filling my shoutbox with messages. I provided a shout back asking him not to contact me unless it was with the image or a refund, via Paypal or email. I then blocked his Furaffinity account. https://imgur.com/KwZcvIF PayPal resolved the dispute in my favor, and they forced the refund. I was content to drop this particularly frustrating experience and move on, but I then received another email from Fr0stbit3 informing me that he would be appealing the claim and providing screenshots to PayPal, and also threatened to write a Buyer Beware against me. I was not overly concerned, as the screenshots demonstrate several times that he refused to provide the image he was paid for. https://imgur.com/7AfpLsB A few days passed and the PayPal dispute was closed, again, in my favor. Fr0stbit3 responded by posting the image to his FA scrap gallery, which includes a depiction of my character and my character's name, with the title "Scumbag Wall", claiming I had cheated him. I reported him on FA for harassment. At this point, the situation has concluded. I have received my refund and am happy to leave it at that, though I hope the submission he posted is taken down after my ticket is reviewed on FA. I hope this Artist Beware entry will help provide context for this transaction and help warn other commissioners from attempting to do business with this individual. PROOF: All screencaptures are in the following Imgur album, as shown above: https://imgur.com/a/vqw5xcR Update: At this time the submission he was using to defame me has been taken down and his FA has been suspended, along with another user who was posting death threats to my shout page. Their suspensions lasted about two days.
  20. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/937930.html Subject: Artist Beware - Squidribs Current Mood: sleepy Picture Keyword: pic#125110774 Picture Keyword: pic#125110774 Text: WHO: Iprie/Squidribs Where: http://iprie.deviantart.com/ https://twitter.com/squid_ribs/with_replies http://www.furaffinity.net/user/squidribs/ http://toyhou.se/SquidRibs What: Late Nov 2013/Early Dec 2013 - Waist-Up and Chibi Commissions Proof: http://imgur.com/Z5E0zhL http://imgur.com/bc5viHX Explain: In November 2013, Iprie hosted an adopt auction with tiers for extra art if the bids went high enough. I won the bid at $42 and paid an extra amount to get the second tier, thus ensuring I got both waist-up and chibi artworks. Payment was sent (http://imgur.com/EjveVMH ) and I gave information on the characters I wished to be drawn. Months passed by and in April 2014, I decided to get in contact with Iprie again to check on the status of my commissions. http://imgur.com/8A2CH1a They apologized for the delay and some more months passed by before I contacted them once more. http://imgur.com/B93R1ZY There was no reply so I bumped again a month after. http://imgur.com/BFUIv5A They had remained fairly active in this time span with personal artwork and favorites, along with buying commissions. As 2015 came by, I was growing very concerned with the lack of communication and response from Iprie. I noticed that others were concerned as well. Growing further worried from this finding, I eventually confronted Iprie, now known as Squidribs, in March 2015 via Twitter and email. The artist responded and apologized. http://imgur.com/vnv5jYd They promised to refund me and finish the art. The refund was received, and wips were sent along. Unfortunately, there was no further contact from either of us. As possibly noticed from my previous bewares, I went silent in the past during this time period due to dealing with improving my health situation. That is my fault. The artist however, did not contact me again, and also did not respond to my note that I sent in January 2016. http://imgur.com/F3tsTQL There was no reply, so I had sort of given up, when to my surprise, I found Squidribs actively posting on Toyhouse in May 2016. I reached out to them, and they again apologized for the lack of communication and art, explaining they had a downward spiral in their health and promised to try and finish the artwork this time. http://imgur.com/yX3I6Gp Toyhouse was agreed to be the place where we would contact one another, so I bumped up the note and asked for updates in June with no reply. Due to that, I bumped again in early July and received an apology for the delay in receiving artwork. http://imgur.com/cliUWku http://imgur.com/c4yrdiN Three months passed by and I got in contact with Squidribs again to check on the art and engage in some unrelated chitchat. http://imgur.com/03Y8GHI The note was read, but there was no reply. I sent another bump afterward, and that one was unread and not replied to as well. http://imgur.com/HtudeHu During this time, the artist was very active on Twitter, and remains so. I have tried to reach out to them on the platform as well during August and September. http://imgur.com/K1zQyJa http://imgur.com/AvRVqsc At one point, I was tweeting to Squidribs while they were actively tweeting on Twitter, and yet they did not reply to me. Squidribs was also quite active on Toyhouse during this time period, inquiring after people's adopts and showing up in threads. http://imgur.com/LttWJAB http://imgur.com/GmHP8Rt http://imgur.com/VDtFvpA Squidribs was also designing various characters and seemingly considering doing gift art for some people. http://imgur.com/7mrx7zL The artist did not get in contact with me however, and at this point, realizing that they did not intend to finish their work, I posted an informative PSA to the community. It was to make aware of this particular artist's services concerning owed work. Afterward, I tried to note them again and received a response. http://imgur.com/tXcf82H They apologized once more for leaving owed work uncompleted and promised to keep in touch. As can be seen in the link, this went well for a couple weeks, with me checking in every nine or so days and receiving a small wip of the chibi. At one point, I was even noted by the artist to inform me they were suffering from the flu. This initiative was promising. Unfortunately, it has been several weeks now, and while they have been active on Twitter and log into Toyhouse, they have not been in contact with me. I have sent them a note about a week or so ago, and it remains unread still. As such, I feel this warrants a beware, as it appears that Squidribs does not intend to complete owed work and will continue avoiding and running away from their responsibilities. To Summarize: -Commissioned artist for waist-up and chibi in Nov/Dec 2013 -Communication was highly sparse, and entirely initiated by me except in one case, with artist often apologizing for lack of updates through long stretches of time -Confronted via email and gained brief contact, but lost it again, which was both our fault -Regained contact on Toyhouse but eventually lost communication again due to what appeared to be avoidance from the artist -Wrote a PSA for the community to inform people and confronted the artist again, receiving yet another apologetic reply -After the promising contact, I am seemingly being avoided again, which has led me to realize that Squidribs will not be completing the artwork and is providing empty promises. Thank you for your time, everyone.
  21. original: https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/651231.html pepechupuppy WHO: StrawberryPawz, Chronic Vil Megedagik, Corgifox http://www.strawberrypawz.com http://www.strawberrypawz.deviantart.com WHERE: He asked a friend on the skype if he could draw a commission him. WHAT: Ink Bedtime Bear holding Tails plush toy. 20$. WHEN: On September 8th 2012. Paid on September 8th 2012. PROOF: http://tmp.krypton.cz/PePek/beware/paypal.jpg Copy of Paypal receipt to [email protected]. This e-mail was on his webpage in the past. http://tmp.krypton.cz/PePek/beware/commissions_list.jpg Current list of Artist commissions, my friend's commision is on the list like paid for 4 months. http://tmp.krypton.cz/PePek/beware/log1.png Part of the IM log where was spoken about price and payments method. http://tmp.krypton.cz/PePek/beware/log2.png Part of the IM log where StrawberryPawz said that commision has been canceled. EXPLAIN: A friend who doesn't know English well ordered commission from StrawberryPawz and paid it more than 4 months ago. StrawberryPawz offered him this comission on skype. StrawberryPawz had always excuses about health issues or hacked accounts in last months when he was asked about commission. Friend asked about his commssion last on January 14th 2013 but he received this reply: "it was canceled because you keep pestering me i told you my health comes first don't even try getting a refund, I closed my paypal long ago". I don't believe that he has ever drawn something. Pay attention to this "artist" and don't order any commission from him.
  22. Feb. 15th, 2012 at 9:57 AM salty_dog Im not really happy about having to go as far as posting here, but im not really sure what to do anymore with this situation. :c WHO: Sasha_tanaka and Terraformer, WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sashatanaka/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/terraformer/ WHAT: Sold an original piece of artwork via auction on FA in November 2011. Buyer paid via Paypal and was friendly. Artwork was shipped and confirmed delivered. January 2012, charge-back issued saying payment was not authorized and payment for the artwork was taken back as well as a case opened on Paypal. Buyer says they did not initiate charge-back. Submitted evidence to Paypal of valid transaction and proof of delivery. Weeks later got another email from Paypal saying charge-back went through. Called paypal via buyer's request and Paypal said that they are working with the credit card company to show that it was a valid transaction but will take 75-80 days before the credit card company will get back to Paypal. I gave the buyer two options with two weeks to do one of them, either send the original artwork back or pay me the money owed. Buyer says they don't have money to pay me the money they owe but they are getting a tax refund check and that they'll have the money on the 28th of February which is 6 days outside the two week time frame I gave. WHEN: November 1st, 2011 - Artwork bought and paid for. November 8th, 2011 - Artwork Shipped. November 12th, 2011 - Artwork delivered and confirmed via delivery confirmation/tracking. January 24, 2012 - Email received from Paypal about buyer issuing chargeback and that transaction was not authorized. $55 taken out of my Paypal account. Febuary 8th, 2012 - Chargeback authorized by Buyer's Paypal and Credit Card company + $20 fee for this on top of the $55 that was charged back. Paypal talking with buyer's Credit Card company but will take 75-80 days for any word from buyer's credit card company. Gave the buyer two options and two weeks to do one; either send the artwork back to me or pay me the money owed ($55). Febuary 14th, 2012 - Buyer says they won't have money until 28th of Febuary which is 6 days after the two week deadline. PROOF: Last year (2011) at the end of October I did an auction on FurAffinity for the original artwork I did in traditional mediums (seen here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4716757/) of a Cheshire Cat. The winning bidder was Terraformer (the boyfriend) and Sasha_tanaka (the girlfriend). I mainly spoke with the boyfriend via note but he was talking to me about the original artwork for his girlfriend and she was the one who would be sending me the money via paypal. This was back on November 1st of 2011. Here's a screenshot: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v130/salty_dog/CheshireCatBought.jpg The final amount for the original was $50 + $5 for shipping, making a total of $55 to be sent to me via paypal. Great. All was good, got the payment and confirmed the shipping address. Here's a screenshot of this: After that I created a label via paypal with Delivery confirmation service; screenshot: Proof of delivery: Come January 24, 2012, I got this alarming email to which I responded promptly with the above screenshots, info and tracking information (showing the artwork had been delivered). Screenshot of the email: Here's my correspondence with the buyer and his girlfriend after I got that email: I waited for paypal to update after I gave them evidence of everything. Its been a few weeks but then I got an email today (Feb 8, 2012) with this: and this in my paypal (with an additional $20 fee tacked on to the $55.): I noted Sasha_tanaka again about this. I called the Paypal number she gave me and Paypal said they have submitted all evidence of a valid transaction to her credit card company and that basically it will take 75-80 days before the Credit Card company will get back to them. While I was on the phone the representative was able to reverse the $20 fee but im still out the $55. I told her she has two options and initially one week (agreed to max of two weeks) to do one of them or posting everything up on Artists_Beware: I got this note (Feb 14, 2012) saying she can't pay until after the deadline I gave her. Since she told me that she will not be able to pay and seems unwilling to send the artwork back by the deadline I gave her, I am now forced to take action - make a posting here to A_B. At this point she has the original artwork for free and Im out $55 and the artwork. Im not really sure what to do at this point. I've been trying to give Sasha the benefit of the doubt but im getting to my wits end. I would just like to get the artwork back or the money im owed for the original artwork. EDIT 2/16/2012 I received this note today: EDIT [2] 2/16/2012 She sent me an echeck via paypal a few minutes ago: along with this note: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v130/salty_dog/Beware/9.jpg EDIT [3] 2/17/2012 A journal that Terraformer posted about the situation: and I received this note from Sasha; I never received the email she's referring to. I have posted everything I received and sent. I felt this was also relevant: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v130/salty_dog/Beware/Journal3.jpg EDIT [4] 2/17/2012 Sasha just posted this journal: Ill let you know when the echeck clears and then this can finally be marked as resolved. EDIT [5] 2/17/2012 Here is the log from the resolution center showing that I provided tracking information for the dispute: The echeck cleared today - Febuary 23rd, 2012 This can be marked as resolved. EDIT [8] 3/7/2012 I got an email saying that the credit card company had reached their decision (which thankfully didn't take 75-80 days) and sided with the buyer, so the chargeback did infact go completely through. I just want to put this here to show that I am not getting paid twice or anything. If I had gotten paid twice (if the credit card company had sided with me) then I would have of course refunded the second $55.
  23. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/917946.html WHO: Thatdangcat / Toradoshi WHERE: They have heaps of places to contact them, these are all the ones they have listed on their Furaffinity. All contact we had was via emails or FA notes. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thatdangcat https://www.furaffinity.net/user/toradoshi/ https://beta.furrynetwork.com/toradoshi/ http://thatdangcat.deviantart.com/ https://inkbunny.net/Toradoshi https://www.weasyl.com/~toradoshi https://toradoshi.sofurry.com/ https://e621.net/post/index?tags=toradoshi https://twitter.com/thatdangcat https://www.facebook.com/ThatDangCat https://payhip.com/thatdangcat WHAT: Premade partial on Furbuy to be made into a digitigrade fullsuit. Purchased by myself and my partner as a joint commission with him doing the majority of the contact for ease of commission. WHEN: Premade was bought around 4/4/15 and stopped responding after 7/25/15 Premade partial was bought from Furbuy around the 4/4/15th, the furbuy page has long gone so not sure on exact date. 3/6/15 - Picture of the suit from the makers account, same image used on FB auction - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16108694/ / http://sta.sh/024rc3ccl2xt 4/17/15 -7/25/15 - A list of all the payments sent - http://sta.sh/0s05lkb1rkh 4/8/15 - 4/11/15 - Details worked out with payment plan and details for suit http://sta.sh/011ulmr8x6gw Some progress was made towards making it into a fullsuit 5/15/15 - Hands and claws were started https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16558995/ / http://sta.sh/01hr2nqi3a14 6/12/15 - Padding was made https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16815559/ / http://sta.sh/01w4ocx52yro A full list of the emails + content http://sta.sh/2d1uiynbyjz?edit=1 7/25/15 - Where emails start going unresponded to http://sta.sh/09t98px9sjc Repeated unread notes on both their FA accounts http://sta.sh/013qhfpa8g9v 2/4/16 - 6/5/16 More unresponded emails http://sta.sh/01qcb3sj803y / http://sta.sh/0n78pdoevi 7/27/16 - After repeated ignored/unpened notes and emails I sent them a note from my FA account asking about a commission enquiry on the 7/27/16 which was replied to on the same day. I sent them a note saying they obviously weren't having any issues getting notes and to either update us, or refund us. http://sta.sh/0ukeca1eaq1 That note was read, and I have yet to recieve a reply but they have been uploading art to their Toradoshi account since then. http://sta.sh/010e0yogvhvy Obviously this has gone on way too long and we should have followed it up over a year ago. The suit was intended for my partner and myself to be able to wear. He was the one organizing and doing the transaction itself along with the details for it so the artist wasn't communicating with both of us, but the commission was for the two of us. Most of the details were run by me to agree with as well, but all emails and payments were sent by him. Unfortunately he's pretty new to the commissioning game and while I'd have bailed out and followed this up a year ago, he kept going in the hopes this would actually get completed. In putting together this AB I saw (He actually probably told me at the time but I forgot) that this suit had a timeframe of 2-4 months 😕 We're in the process of trying to contact paypal and his bank to do a chargeback on Toradoshi in an attempt to get our money back. I'm not holding out hope on a refund seeing my last note has gone unresponded to and going by their Trello https://trello.com/b/pQoLLQU4/tdc-commissions they have other people waiting on refunds (See Blue/white wolf head card) and no suit work done since November 2015, but with two new suits added this year. EXPLAIN: Bought a premade partial from Thatdangcat/Toradoshi on 4/4/15 and they stopped updating us after the 7/25/15. At first chalked it up to emails not getting through, so I bugged my partner to send them a note on their FA to their fursuiting account (Thatdangcat) and their main account (Toradoshi) which was being updated almost daily. Repeated unread notes and unreplied to emails I sent them a note from my own account, which they promptly responded to then stopped replying to once I asked about our suit. ADDED: Since writing this the artist has contacted us again http://sta.sh/0b7tpy16bg4 At the moment still deciding how best to proceed. *edited to fix spelling and unfilled dates* Update: so Toradoshi has been replying since all this, and we've decided to continue with the commission but with a 3 month deadline with weekly updates. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly now! [Editor's note: Update from 2/2017] https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/917946.html WHO: Thatdangcat / Toradoshi WHERE: They have heaps of places to contact them, these are all the ones they have listed on their Furaffinity. All contact we had was via emails or FA notes. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/thatdangcat https://www.furaffinity.net/user/toradoshi/ https://beta.furrynetwork.com/toradoshi/ http://thatdangcat.deviantart.com/ https://inkbunny.net/Toradoshi https://www.weasyl.com/~toradoshi https://toradoshi.sofurry.com/ https://e621.net/post/index?tags=toradoshi https://twitter.com/thatdangcat https://www.facebook.com/ThatDangCat https://payhip.com/thatdangcat WHAT: Premade partial on Furbuy to be made into a digitigrade fullsuit. Purchased by myself and my partner as a joint commission with him doing the majority of the contact for ease of commission. WHEN: Premade was bought around 4/4/15 and stopped responding after 7/25/15 Premade partial was bought from Furbuy around the 4/4/15th, the furbuy page has long gone so not sure on exact date. 3/6/15 - Picture of the suit from the makers account, same image used on FB auction - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16108694/ / http://sta.sh/024rc3ccl2xt 4/17/15 -7/25/15 - A list of all the payments sent - http://sta.sh/0s05lkb1rkh 4/8/15 - 4/11/15 - Details worked out with payment plan and details for suit http://sta.sh/011ulmr8x6gw Some progress was made towards making it into a fullsuit 5/15/15 - Hands and claws were started https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16558995/ / http://sta.sh/01hr2nqi3a14 6/12/15 - Padding was made https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16815559/ / http://sta.sh/01w4ocx52yro A full list of the emails + content http://sta.sh/2d1uiynbyjz?edit=1 7/25/15 - Where emails start going unresponded to http://sta.sh/09t98px9sjc Repeated unread notes on both their FA accounts http://sta.sh/013qhfpa8g9v 2/4/16 - 6/5/16 More unresponded emails http://sta.sh/01qcb3sj803y / http://sta.sh/0n78pdoevi 7/27/16 - After repeated ignored/unpened notes and emails I sent them a note from my FA account asking about a commission enquiry on the 7/27/16 which was replied to on the same day. I sent them a note saying they obviously weren't having any issues getting notes and to either update us, or refund us. http://sta.sh/0ukeca1eaq1 That note was read, and I have yet to recieve a reply but they have been uploading art to their Toradoshi account since then. http://sta.sh/010e0yogvhvy Obviously this has gone on way too long and we should have followed it up over a year ago. The suit was intended for my partner and myself to be able to wear. He was the one organizing and doing the transaction itself along with the details for it so the artist wasn't communicating with both of us, but the commission was for the two of us. Most of the details were run by me to agree with as well, but all emails and payments were sent by him. Unfortunately he's pretty new to the commissioning game and while I'd have bailed out and followed this up a year ago, he kept going in the hopes this would actually get completed. In putting together this AB I saw (He actually probably told me at the time but I forgot) that this suit had a timeframe of 2-4 months 😕 We're in the process of trying to contact paypal and his bank to do a chargeback on Toradoshi in an attempt to get our money back. I'm not holding out hope on a refund seeing my last note has gone unresponded to and going by their Trello https://trello.com/b/pQoLLQU4/tdc-commissions they have other people waiting on refunds (See Blue/white wolf head card) and no suit work done since November 2015, but with two new suits added this year. EXPLAIN: Bought a premade partial from Thatdangcat/Toradoshi on 4/4/15 and they stopped updating us after the 7/25/15. At first chalked it up to emails not getting through, so I bugged my partner to send them a note on their FA to their fursuiting account (Thatdangcat) and their main account (Toradoshi) which was being updated almost daily. Repeated unread notes and unreplied to emails I sent them a note from my own account, which they promptly responded to then stopped replying to once I asked about our suit. ADDED: Since writing this the artist has contacted us again http://sta.sh/0b7tpy16bg4 At the moment still deciding how best to proceed. *edited to fix spelling and unfilled dates* Update: so Toradoshi has been replying since all this, and we've decided to continue with the commission but with a 3 month deadline with weekly updates. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly now!
  24. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/884272.html WHO: RenX (http://renxart.tumblr.com/ (NSFW)) aka Rnzzz (http://rnzzz.tumblr.com/ (NSFW) , http://rnzzz.deviantart.com/ (NSFW)) WHERE: http://www.hentai-foundry.com/user/RenX/profile (NSFW) WHAT: 2 Commissions. Traditional art. WHEN: Initial conversation and payment for both commissions during the beginning of April 2015. PROOF: The artist's mother tongue was Spanish so I contacted them in that for all our e-mail conversations. Here's (1) Me telling them when I can send the payment. And (2) Me the next day telling him I sent it. EXPLAIN: I started commissioning RenX in February last year. For the first couple of commissions he (and it is a he despite the profile) got things done on time and we had no problems. Starting from November 2014 I paid them for one drawing and it took them two months to get it done. In February this year I paid them for another commission again and, like last time, it took them nearly two months to finish the drawing. Still, I didn't think much of it in either case since I've dealt with multiple artists and I know sometimes they run into personal issues where they don't have time. The actual problems began in April this year. I asked RenX if he had time to do two commissions for me and he said yes, so I sent him the details for both and said I'd be paying him in a week. Within a few days he answered with a very rough sketch of one of the commissions and remained quick to answer until I sent the payment of $240 a week later. After the payment his answers completely stopped and he started ignoring my e-mails. I never got the sketch for the second commission either, which according to him he had already done. After over three weeks without an answer (I had sent him three e-mails in the meantime) RenX answers back in mid-May saying that he was busy and he'd have them done soon. Two more weeks pass with no answer and I finally send them one asking if I can get a refund. He answers back a few days later saying it's not possible because they no longer have money in their Paypal account, but that they'll do my commissions in June. [Proof] [Proof] June comes and goes with RenX not contacting me and only answering to the second e-mail I send at the end of the month, says he's too busy and hasn't had time to do anything. I answer them and for the rest of June and July I receive absolutely nothing. I didn't even waste any time sending them another e-mail until August since I knew it would be pointless. [Proof] In August I decide to check this site and see RenX still doing commissions like normal and advertising his services despite the fact that he has done nothing I paid him to. I finally decide to send him another e-mail mentioning this and they answer the same day saying, for the millionth time, that they have been too busy to do anything. I answer and once again they completely vanish until I send another e-mail at the end of August, which he answered at the beginning of September, telling the same old tale and saying that if he didn't do the commissions within a month he'd give me my money back. [Proof] I ask him when he can do the first commission and naturally, they do nothing and start ignoring my e-mails again. Around September I also checked his profile and noticed some people also wondering where their commissions were. I contacted one of them who told me they managed to get a refund through Paypal's Dispute system, unfortunately that wouldn't work for me since I had let too much time pass already. I was also in touch with another person who never got their commission completed either. In October, rather than e-mailing RenX I decide to post in his Hentai Foundry profile and he answers by e-mail the same day saying he had problems with his e-mails and that I should send him the commission details again. I ask for a refund again and he refuses. I send him the details for the drawings again to see if he'll get them done this time. On the same day I also notice he erased the comment I left on his profile alongside the others of two or three different people asking where their commissions were. Surprisingly, I actually get a sketch three days later and for a moment I think I'll get them done already. However, that's short lived and RenX vanishes completely again for the rest of the month. He sure spends a lot of time in his profile advertising discounts (and even in the Hentai Foundry forums (NSFW)) and mentioning he's open for more commissions, though! [Proof] Finally, in mid-November, after a month with no answer, I decide to post in RenX's profile again. My message is quickly erased and he blocks me from commenting [Proof] (NSFW). He e-mails me moments after repeating the same speech where they have been too busy. At this point I tell them again to give me a refund despite knowing nothing will happen and to no one's surprise he hasn't answered ever since. I don't know what's going on with them, but after 8 months there's no excuse for their behaviour. I posted this on the Hentai Foundry forums (NSFW) and I hope more people see it here and don't waste their time and money commissioning this person. He's all about reputation and stopping people from exposing him, the moment the latter happens he's quick to appear, delete any messages, block people and vanish again. Update, January 10th, 2016: I mentioned this some days ago in the comments but I reckon I should post it here instead - I contacted Paypal last week and they told me an investigation wouldn't be possible since it had been too long since the transaction. However, they did say they might begin one if they receive more complaints related to RenX. As of today, RenX still hasn't contacted me ever since the e-mail he sent in mid-November (11th of November, to be precise) that I mention in my entry. They're still taking and posting commissions, however.
  25. https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1016815.html (UPDATED 01 December 2018) WHO: FarisBatwan (FBsuits) - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/farisbatwan & https://twitter.com/fbsuits WHERE: Initial contact via gmail, conversation/discussion also via Twitter DM's & Discord. WHAT: Digitigrade Fullsuit - Head, Hands, Tail, Bodysuit, Outdoor Footpaws and Indoor Sockpaws WHEN: Initial contact on August 22nd, 2017. Paid in full on Septeber 02, 2017. Initial suspicion that things were not progressing as planned began in June 2018, especially moving into July 2018. EXPLAIN: I commissioned Faris after seeing her gallery on FA and seeing a couple suiters at Megaplex 2017 wearing her suits. Initial contact was good, and she was pretty responsive to messages. I was assured that Megaplex 2018 was more than enough time to complete this order, and told that paying in full sooner would assure me an even higher place in the queue. (1) After I paid communication began to go south. There were days, even weeks in between responses in gmail. Faris claimed several times that messages were not arriving from me, or that she had sent something I had not received. I thought this odd, but we agreed to move off-site for communication to Twitter DMs, and shortly thereafter to Discord. Communication problems continued throughout the beginning of 2018, although I always (eventually) received a response after prodding her several times. I was given a "100% guaranteed" completion of the suit by July of 2018. After this passed she told me she been handling her Anthrocon rush, but I would definitely have a fullsuit in time for Megaplex. On June 04 I was promised WIPs "this week" which never materialized until July 22nd, after a LOT of prodding, multiple failed promises of delivery on various dates and times, and eventually having to get pretty harsh with her and threatening chargebacks/legal action. As this date drew nearer with no updates - despite me asking several times - things definitely started to seem amiss. The bodysuit turned into a maybe, but the partial was "100% guaranteed." I did receive photos of a completed head, hands, and tail, and a tracking number only hours before she had to get it shipped out. I paid a premium for Priority Express shipping, but had no updates on tracking past "Pre-Shipment" until I left for the convention on August 02, 2018. (2 - collage of missed deadlines) After I got back from the con I dove into this with Faris, trying to figure out what happened. After an excessive amount of prodding I finally got a screenshot proving she had actually purchased a label - for a Priority package only, that wasn't destined to arrive at my location until August 02. I called her out on it and she had an extremely implausible excuse - I decided it was best to move on from that since I was still out over $2000 at this point with nothing to show for it, the shipping costs only being a fraction of it. (4, 5) During August and September I brought up numerous complaints from other customers to her. They were always "lying" or "not telling the whole story," or "out to ruin her," but she was never at fault for any of it, according to her. On the 31st things came to a head and I had a discussion with her about the poor communication, repeated failures to deliver WIPs as promised, and other issues. I gave her a 30-day ultimatum - if I had nothing in hand by September 30th, I would be moving on to expecting a refund - voluntary or otherwise. I made it very clear then, and at several other points throughout September, that chargebacks and small claims court were absolutely on the table. In the meantime I attempted to treat the unshipped package as a USPS issue, although I'd never heard of the USPS losing a Priority package without so much as an acceptance scan - it seemed extremely implausible. I did almost all of the legwork to initiate claims/seaches with the USPS, including talking to my local office on September 4th. My postmaster wanted to talk to Faris. Faris told me on September 6th that she had called in and given him all the info he requested. I called back on the 7th to verify as I was at a point where I was no longer able to take Faris' word for granted. My postmaster remembered specific details of my conversation with him on the 4th, but had no memory of talking to anybody about the case on the 6th, just a day before. After confronting Faris about this I was basically just given the same story: she had really called. My postmaster said they get at most 5-6 calls a day and that he definitely would have remembered a call about that. (3) I had no choice but to just move on from this point. Dealing with the original package and the constant delays and excuses over the bodysuit was taking a lot of energy from me. On the 22nd of September she was still claiming "100% guarantee" of delivery by month's end. I was also told on this day that the only thing remaining was to sew the front and back together, and sew in the padding. On the 25th she told me she may have to work out Friday shipping with her. I let her know I was not happy about this but as long as I had a tracking number that showed movement before the 30th (an acceptance scan or more) I would consider that acceptable. On the 30th was my last message from her - she contacted me to let me know the back had to be sewn together, and then the front and back had to be sewn together. Somehow in the span of eight days /backwards/ progress had been made, according to her. I was told proof would be sent later that day and that she would be willing to work with me on a refund. I told her that a refund would be best. I contacted her again Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and Tuesday morning to let her know I was expecting her to work with me on setting up a refund, and that Tuesday afternoon was her last chance to get in touch with me. While I normally would allow more time than this for a response, her past track record with communication and near countless other clients waiting on suits, partials, and premades from her, I decided it was best to move on to legal options. At the current time I have a claim in progress with PayPal for a payment made for shipping & indoor sockpaws, and a chargeback with Discover for 50% of the commission price (she has a chance to attempt to refute both of these, currently). The other 50% was unfortunately paid via my PayPal balance which I have no easy recourse to outside of small claims court. Currently I have started that process and am awaiting small claims papers to be mailed to me. I will update this posting as more happens. I just felt it prudent to warn people that Faris is not a trustworthy person to work with. I don't believe she does anything maliciously - she's not trying to run a scam, but she is disorganized and doesn't have the integrity to tell her clients the truth when she gets behind or misses a deadline. For the most part she was polite and pleasant to talk to - but ultimately, I paid a four-digit sum of money for a product that never arrived, with suspiciously similar circumstances to multiple other clients of hers. I would feel remiss if I did not do my part to warn others in the community to avoid making the mistake I did. ~ 06 October 2018: I submitted a claim to the USPS earlier in September regarding the supposedly lost package. An initial payout was approved of $60.15. I thought that an odd number, so I appealed (Faris insisted she had purchased insurance for it, but never procured it when asked). Today I got a letter back with the results of the appeal — it was again denied, and as requested, they explained the $60.15 payout. No additional insurance was purchased to cover the value of the item at time of mailing. The baked-in insurance is $50 plus the amount of postage — meaning she spent $10.15 on the label for this, after I had sent her $107.30 for Priority Express. (6, 7) Faris made no mention of this when I confronted her with this evidence (I already knew she had spent less to do Priority vs Priority Express, via evidence she sent me, I just didn't know the actual amount). She is still insisting she purchased insurance, however, she says she doesn't have a receipt or any other evidence to prove it. She did say she was going to start making regular repayments later this month. At the current time she still owes me $839.85, pending the PayPal chargeback cases resolving in my favor. I am not holding her responsible for the $60.15 the USPS paid me. ~ 18 October 2018: Since posting this I've gotten in contact with multiple other people dealing with undelivered fursuits from Faris, conflicting stories and accounts, etc. I have evidence that Faris submitted, as approval images, the exact same fursuit parts for both hands and feet for both me and another client — and in the case of the hands, she even sent us both the EXACT same image, down to the pixel. See images 8 & 9. PROOF: https://imgur.com/a/uu8eRgf (1) https://imgur.com/BKYiNx9 (2) https://imgur.com/dqEMLK9 (3) https://imgur.com/xp2wZSl (4) https://imgur.com/TwD8QyU (5) https://imgur.com/6ToDOrQ (6) https://imgur.com/j1W8bPy (7) https://imgur.com/8CHFShz (8) https://imgur.com/1yzI5vc (9) https://imgur.com/RAxem7q ~ 01 November 2018: Faris has sent a small repayment toward the total amount she owes me. She says she is planning to make monthly payments until the debt is paid off. 01 December 2018: Next refund payment has been made.
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