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Sep. 25th, 2011 at 8:12 PM corriezodori WHO: Alex_Dachshund, AD_ARTS @ FURAFFINITY.NET WHERE: Furrafinity.Net WHAT: Digital art peice. THIS IS MY HALF: AND YOU CAN SEE that it was a trade. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5208869/ WHEN: 7 months ago we agreed on a trade, I completed my half fairly quickly, thinking I'd get their half. PROOF: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/5208869/ My half He told me he had no money to do stuff. (YET HE KEPT BUYING COMMISIONS. This I dont understand) http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/pharokit2/Alex1.png http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/pharokit2/Alex2.png THEN After telling me he was going to finish my half, He opens up more commisions and trades KNOWING he owes people stuff (NOT just me.) http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/pharokit2/Alex3.png NOW THIS is what angered me. http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/pharokit2/Alex4.png he blocked me. This really is unprofessional and I really got cheated on this one. ? EXPLAIN: Basically all stated above. Alex and I agreed on a trade about 7 months ago, I finished my half. A few months pass, and I remind him... then a few more pass, I remind him Again. He gives me the "I cancelled it" thing (as seen on one of my other reports) and tells me I'll finish it. I then see he opens more commisions and trades. His EX actually tried to do his half FOR him, as an offer. I declined, and She threatened me thinking that I was insulting her. She said "I will make it hell for you" You can see this part here: http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/pharokit2/Alex5.png NOW I MUST SAY: ALEX (as far as was explained) did NOT put his Ex up to this. Still, Im unsatisfied because they did not finish their part. And it was agreed HE did his own part. After Alex limits trades to his friends only, he BLOCKS me. Which is completely the last straw. I would avoid this person... I thought they were pretty cool at first, But I got tired of being stood up and dooped. EDIT: HIS JOURNAL. http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s195/pharokit2/FireShotcapture117-IamawareIamonArtists_Beware_--Alex_DachshundsJournal--FurAffinitydotnet-www_furaffinity_net_journal_2757242.png He's Saying he was going to finish it and throw in more things. FLAW: WHY DID HE BLOCK ME? He's also got his watchers pissed and they dont even know whats going on. EDIT: He has finished his half http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6573474/ And apologized for the incident. :3 We have (as far as I know) made up. I dont like having bad relationships with people and I dont like senceless arguing. Current Mood:angry

As a note, in the end I am getting the item she made. However the entire ordeal of two and half / three years of stress regarding this commission really has pushed me to write this, especially since she's looking to expand her client base. I absolutely hate writing negative reviews about people, but I honestly am under the impression if you're operating as a business (taking money for goods/services), you need to also provide good follow-through, reputation, and customer service. WHEN she did reply, I will give that she was always very polite in dealing with me. I had planned on writing this for a very long time, and then debated it when it appeared I may be getting my item. I lucked out in getting my item. I'm not sure why, but I am grateful for that. Artist: Aurasoul http://www.furaffinity.net/user/aurasoul/ (active) http://aurasoul.deviantart.com/ (she got herself banned) My Issues My fiance ordered a plush in Fall of 2008 for a Christmas gift for the sum of $90. Basically we were strung along, yelled at, ignored for months. When concerns of whether or not she had the time to complete or would like to refund us partial (minus the parts already used), we were ignored. Basically every note was ignored for months at a time which lead us to be very concerned about whether or not this was going to be completed or not. The screenshots below also include a few conversations with Ratchet, her boyfriend/husband. Since he had been helpful in getting a refund with another person on AB, it seemed like a good idea to contact him if he was more likely to respond. As a note, Ty and I have no problems being patient. As we told both Aurasoul and Ratchet countless times, but we do request communication every half a year or so. (We rarely got that). Again. We got our item in the long run, but I would strongly encourage people who want to commission this particular artist to never pay full up front -- and be aware that communication issues will be a very big factor. My complaints will be under the cut. This is a very long dated issue Disclaimer Please feel free to commission Aurasoul or have dealings with Ratchet at your own risk. I know I would not deal with the pair again. Communication issues with Aurasoul is one big problem, but the other is Ratchet's attitude in the end as well. I understand that Ratchet may had been put in the middle of this, and realize that it may be stressful him, but this is also a product of Aurasoul's inability to communicate with her commissioners. I was NOT the first to turn to Ratchet in hopes of getting help. I understand his point of view in "not being her keeper (something he said before), however if I did the same thing, I'd expect my boyfriend/husband to give me a sharp poke to get my butt moving if I were slacking on these issues. Also, there may be some notes I've lost in the course of 2-3 years. I tried to be as thorough as possible. I cleaned out my FA box due to the FA hack leak about a year ago and I think I've mistakenly deleted somethings I had intended to keep. I tried to keep every single response from both my side and their's. --------------- NOTE: For the first YEAR of this ordeal, I was not involved. The notes I have are after I got involved when I felt that Ty was getting scammed and was out nearly $100. That right there pissed me off to no small degree. In fall of 2009 is when I got involved in this on behalf of Ty. In summer of 2011 we saw the an upload of the final item completed (and item was given to someone in EF con to deliver to us in the states. ) ----------------------------- In late October / early November of 2008 my fiance commissioned Aurasoul for a Christmas gift for me. He did pay the full amount up front. He was told at the time that the item would be completed by Christmas of 2008. When the time come and gone, Ty had spoke with her in regards to what was going on when January rolled around, he was told that she had school going on and that delayed her -- as well as still gathering materials for the item. Being the patient type, Ty sat on it. He sat on it more, checking in every 3-4 months for a progress report. Rarely did he get an answer. At this point, we had gotten little communication, no item, no progress report and Ty so far was out $90. Ty had faith in Aurasoul. Mine had started to wane when I was reading numerous complaints and witnessing problems ongoing in real time through Artist Beware and other channels, such as the banning of her DA account. Again, any limited time Ty got a response, it was an excuse. No confirmation of anything. No item. No progress. Communication was like pulling teeth. Due to she being in Germany, we assumed that maybe she was not as well versed with English as many of our other German friends.. So we often simplified the conversation so it would be better converted in translators if she happened to use those. ---- It was after the year mark had nearly rolled around in 2009 that I got involved. After seeing nothing other than Ty's money being taken, I decided it was time to get involved. I first and foremost contacted Aurasoul asking for her to reach out to Ty to get in touch with him. We did not try to reverse action Paypal at this time, because we honestly wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt despite negative reviews and give her a chance to complete the item. In the beginning she was very willing to respond. She had even claimed he had photos for us! It quickly declined from there, however. Some Screenshots: So after the one promise of seeing progress reports, she had dropped off the face of the planet again, despite her account being active favoriting and commenting on art / responding to people in general. All the while, I was watching my notes being a mix of being read and unread status in her account. It was clear my notes were being avoided. Again, as we stated in the notes, we did not mind being patient but do require communication and some effort to give us progress. If you say check back in X time, that's what we'll do and not a moment before. However if you blindly ignore us while clearly being active, it paints a very drastic picture. It is what prompted the following screenshot. --------------- Fast forward to the year 2010! It was at this point there were numerous negative posts about Aurasoul being posted up in various more spots and it was getting scary. Some were saying how she would outright destroy the item. A few claimed they got resolution through her boyfriend/husband, Ratchet ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ratchet ). I had high hopes with this option, because at this point we were worried we were getting strung along and the best option would be a refund since we never got progress photos. At first, Ratchet was helpful, and then he turned rude - my guess in frustration with many other people who had commissioned Aurasoul contacting him as well. I do not know this to be the case firmly, but I do know I was not the only one worried about a commission. I had very limited conversations with Ratchet. Color us shocked. Here was progress and Aurasoul didn't bother to even notify us. Not one bit. We were happy to see the progress shots, don't get us wrong. We had waited a very long time for this. Again this really speaks for her customer service / organization. She didn't notify us that we had WIPs to view. She didn't respond to our notes in a timely fashion. However, we were happy. This what we wanted. By this time we were really happy. Here was news that it was finished and ready to be shipped. We promptly supplied the shipping information and then waited. And waited some more. And contacted our friend who had not gotten the item and waited some more. Friend contacted me to see if anything was heard. We waited more. Eventually we just waited to hear back from Aurasoul. We hadn't. We saw she was being active so it prompted us to write more notes. Many of which went unanswered. I hate doing it, but I DID leave a shout on her page to get in touch with me (it was promptly deleted). We supplied mailing information (for the second or third time) on January 21st, 2011. I had waited in sending it again because I wanted to make sure my friend would still be willing to be a middle man in this situation. We waited some more! By this time I was concerned. Seeing how Ratchet had been helpful in the past in prompting Aura to respond, since it had been so many months, I decided to give him a shot again. I was taken aback by how just down right rude he was. Unfortunately in my clutter of notes I do not see my original first note to him regarding asking for progress on behalf of Aurasoul. I only have his reply after this one. So we're back to waiting again. No direct communication with AuraSoul through this whole ordeal. Frankly it angered me a good bit to have him snap when I see both of them active, commissioning art, and neglecting their own commissioners. This is hindsight I suppose. I was a little confused to see that Ratchet was saying the item wasn't completed at this time, but it was hinted/ready to be shipped by earlier comments/notes from Aurasoul. Somewhere down the road I thought to contact her again. After all, 3-4 months in between notes isn't too short of a time I'd hope. Especially since the last WIP was over half a year ago. Correction. About half a year ago when she said she was SHIPPING it. After that last one, I decided to wait a bit again. Like before, it was waiting and my friend waiting and nothing coming of it. Once again I started noticing her being very active on FA, but not taking the time to read/respond to anything. The next screenshot had information pertaining again to my contact's address. I've blurred it out for privacy's sake but the meat of what was said is there. Despite me having sent the address numerous times before, I was requested again to send it. Again no final photos of a finished product, but just the idea of getting it and getting this ordeal over was a blessing. The last few conversations were of me confirming with my contact about it not arriving, and bringing it to Aurasoul's attention. She said it was still there and had not had time to ship it. At this point we had not seen any photos of the final product. I was not contacted directly, and would have missed the uploads (as I had when she originally uploaded WIPs) if I weren't watching her on FA. Holy cow there it was completed.. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6346025 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6346032 Creatively since EF Con was right around the corner, to save on shipping fiascos (as one unfortunate person in Artist Beware had dealt with) I asked if she was going and could drop it off to my contact directly. While Aurasoul wasn't going, she had a friend who was. It was agreed (and this can be seen on conversations/replies in the actual finished product) that it'd be dropped to my contact. TL;DR Version I finally am getting my product and it looks good from what I can see in the photos. My contact is bringing it to me when we meet up at a US con. While Aurasoul has been very polite in her responses to me, her responses in general are like pulling teeth. She is not timely or professional in this manner. I do not recommend anyone paying full price for anything up front. Ordeal has taken place over the course of Fall of 2008 to Summer of 2011 to get sorted. I'm probably missing things. I tried to keep this as short, but as thorough, as possible. (Yes I could have written more believe it or not!)

Sep. 8th, 2011 at 8:06 PM thaily I hate writing these things, but I hate people using artists are doormats even more and even though this guy is local to me, he has internet so no-one's safe. It all started with a retweeted message that someone was looking for an artist in the area to design a mascot for a site and create 12 illustrations of said mascot for said site. The tweet came from the guy's intern but she's not the problem here so I won't mention her by name; I want to keep her out of this entirely, I've accidentally interned for people with how do I put this politely diminished moral judgment. I don't blame her, I only hope she doesn't pick up on his sordid (and I use the following word in the most liberal sense) business practices. But I digress, the company in question is called Tenno Media, Peter Bierhuizen is the person this post is about. He appears to be the owner and sole employee, save for the aforementioned unfortunate intern who has since left. The site the designs would be used for is fitness-ferdie.nl Because this happened locally, i.e. in the Netherlands, I will provide translations of our correspondence as well as screenshots for any Dutch speaking person to verify that the translations are accurate. I invited the tweeting intern to look at my site and mail me if she liked my work. First e-mail. "Sending you an e-mail following your tweet. I design websites as a side job and my boss has asked me to design a character. Simply: a frog in an orange shirt with FF on it. A reference to Fitness Ferdi, a web shop where people can buy fitness appliances and goods. Of Ferdi, the frog, he thinks he'll need 12 drawings (illustrations) that will be used in various ways (websites, flyers). I don't know what kind of budget is available. This would kind of depend on the amount of time the designs will take to make. Vaguely said, but if you think you can create Ferdi I would like to receive a message. Kind regards, X" First reply, I explain my process, how many hours I will need and how much I charge; minimum wage is about €9,20 for my age bracket. This will be relevant later. "Hello X, I can definitely design a fitness frog. My hourly wages are €10,- ex. taxes First I will make a few sketches to your specifications, about 6 sketches will take 2 hours, so you can decide what kind of design you'd like or if you'd like to see more sketches. As soon as you pick a design I will customize it until you're satisfied, how that long will take depends on you (plural). From a sketch to a coloured vector (which can be resized to any size) takes about 4 hours x 12. With the cost are also commercial rights, I only retain the right to include the illustrations in my portfolio. - Kind regards, E. Palli (my real name, I use my real and artist name interchangeably)" Second e-mail, with this sketch attached. I sized it down. I told them I can do 6 sketches in 2 hours, they ask for 10 in 3, I comply. "Hello X, Hey E. I've discussed it with my boss and we'd like to get about 10 sketches (3 hours of work) of different kinds of frogs. One illustration we can picture is a frog in a circle, met a happy smile. He's wearing a sleeveless shirt which reads "FF" across his chest in white letters. The plan was that I was going to do the sketches myself, but I think this will cost me too much time, which is why I went looking for an illustrator. I've included the first sketches, so you know what direction we want to take. Once we've received the 10 sketches, we'll see how it goes. We'll have to think of the poses we want. Kind regards, X" I send them these sketches a week later to help them nail down the design they want. "Without shirt, it will be added later. Small: [link] Large: [link] Did you have an address I can bill? Kind regards, Thaily" Get an e-mail a week later, but there's been no mention of a deadline or anything, so I'm not too bothered. "Hey Thaily, I only work Tuesdays at Tenno Media at the moment (the company you drew for). My boss is going to look at the sketches one of these days and as soon as I hear back about it I'll contact you again. You can send your bill to Tenno Media. [blanked address] I really like your sketches, nice style! Greetings, X" Listen to me smalltalk, yap yap. "Hey X, Thank you, I hope your noss (typo) likes them too :P - Kind regards, Thaily" While I asked for a billing address, I hadn't billed them for the first batch of sketches yet. Keep in mind; 10 sketches, 3 hours of work, €10,- an hour = €30,- so far. "Hey Thaily, We had a little meeting and we'd like to see another ten sketches. Some comments: The head can be fairly human, like the middle frog (touching his upper arm). The body can be broader and more muscular. This will be another 3 hours of work. Furthermore we'd like to see sketches of Ferdie: 1 holding weights. 2 spinning on a bike. 3 running on a treadmill 4 flexing his muscles 5 holding a sign 6 pointing left or right 7 in a round logo, like in my sample sketch. Because of my internship I stop working at Tenno Media after next week. You can mail the sketches to my boss at [email protected] en/or [email protected]. The contact will be via Peter. He is my boss. Ferdie will be the mascot of FitnessFerdie.nl. The web shop for it is being perfected and is temporarily placed at this url: [obsolete link]. Maybe the site's lay-out will help you with your sketches. Have a nice and greetings, X" I take a little over a week to respond this time because I suddenly got slammed with unexpected work; friend told me at the last minute he had gotten me an art panel at a convention, so I suddenly had 3 days to prepare for an art show. Augh. "Hey Thaily, How's the frog coming? :) Greetings, X" I managed my art show, then did the second batch of sketches and sent them to both the intern and Peter, the intern's boss whom was now my contact. I explain, for a second time (first being in my first e-mail to them) that they need to settle on a design before I can start on the final illustrations. I've even made it easier for them by putting all the sketches on the same sheet and lettering and numbering the heads and bodies so they can just tell me which body and head they like best so we can combine them and move things along. "Hey X and Peter, Sorry for the delay, I was told at the very last moment that there was an art panel reserved for me at an art show. Here's the second batch of 10 sketches; I added numbers and letters so you can easily indicate which combination of heads&bodies you like, as soon as we decide on a design I can start on the sketches for the illustrations. Small: [link] Large: [link] - Kind regards, Thaily" At this point I decide I'd like to get paid before we go any further, so I send Peter the bill for 20 sketches; 6 hours of work is €60,-, plus taxes the total came to €70,80. Again I remind people this is essentially minimum wage, this will be hilariously relevant in a moment. "Dear Mr Bierhuizen, Here is my bill for the 20 sketches. - Kind regards, Thaily [I attached the 2 specified bills as PDFs, they are from Gear-IT.nl which is my husband's company, because it was easier at the time]" Here's where it took a sudden and sharp turn downhill; the intern gone I was left to deal with Peter who (perhaps after being faced with a bill and the realization that yes, I expect to be paid for my time) suddenly felt all my work was unsatisfactory and unusable. He says he's looking for a specific type of frog, but despite being prompted to tell me which design comes closest to what he wants, he decides he wants to back out of the deal without paying me for the work he has already commissioned and has already been provided. "Dear Thaily, I have looked at the sketches and I'm missing that which X asked for. X gave a whole list with situations and positions that we wanted to see sketches. However I don't see any of these positions. So I can't do anything with your sketches. To be honest I couldn't do anything with the first batch of sketches because I asked for (at least X) what I wanted. So I'm not very happy because you're sending me 2 bills for things I can essentially do nothing with. I'm looking for a particular type frog (see the list of X further down in the mail (was the same list translated further up)) depicted in a number of fitness related poses but I have received none of this. So I'm going to stop because I'm not sure this collaboration is going to be successful. I hope to have informed you sufficiently. Kind regards, P. Bierhuizen Tenno Media]" Assuming the best, that he is merely confused, I explain for a third time that he has to pick a design before I can do the illustrations from the list. I don't wanna do 12 sketches only to have him change his mind about the design before I can finalize. Plus it would cost more, I'm trying to save him money. "Dear Mr Bierhuizen, The sketches are to determine the design of the character, once the design is to your liking (the customer picks a design they like or a combination of designs they like) I will finish the sketches; the 12 sketches of the character on a bicycle/with weights etc. so all the illustrations will be to your liking and consistent. I have only billed you for the 20 sketches at the price we agreed upon beforehand. - Kind regards, Thaily" TL:DR, Peter still fails to understand simple things. 2 notes about that. 1. I was completely bewildered by his failure to understand this simple procedure. First you decide what the mascot looks like before I draw the mascot doing various things. It's not rocket science. And I know it's not me because I've designed numerous characters for various people, if anything people are excited when given choices and the chance to customize the character to suit their personal tastes. I've never had problems with anyone in this matter. 2. He says that if he makes me do the sketches he'll have a spent a fortune before he has anything that looks anything like something he can use; in addition to the procedure I gave him my time estimates and hourly rates beforehand. This only became a problem the moment he actually had to pay for completed work. Allow me to iterate; a fortune. Literally, he uses those words; "Een vermogen". Minimum wage. Aw yeah, I be ballin' with my €10 an hour! "It clearly describes what X wanted to see. I'm sorry but I think your work method is kind of too vague. If I let you make the sketches I'll lose a fortune before I see anything that looks anything like what I want. I don't think that can be the plan. If you included what I wanted to see a la, but this isn't the intention." As a side note I should indicate that he dropped all civilized pretense, as well as his ability to capitalize, punctuate and spell (I'm fixing this in the translation for legibility's sake), giving the impression he can't be bothered with it anymore. I know how he feels, so I give him an ultimatum, pay or lose any claim to the work. "We can do 2 things: - You pay me and you can use the sketches and designs, if anything to give to another designer to finalize the work. - You don't pay and I will sell the designs to a third part to compensate for my financial damages and you cannot use the sketches; so you can't pass them on to another designer without infringing on my copyright." He takes a few days to respond. "go ahead and sell them. i can't use them and will never use them" So, he had all my info ahead of time, knew what he was getting into and is not backing out of payment for work he commissioned and has already been completed; breach of contract. I inform him I will be letting my colleagues (hi guys!) know about him since you know.. Whether or not I manage to mitigate my financial damage, he's still breaking his contract and likely to do it to the next person as well. "Okay, I'll my colleagues know that you break your contracts. Good luck (with your future endeavors)!" This, perhaps predictably, leads to further deterioration in his ability to communicate like a professional. "My god, you are such a vengeful type. I'll tell your colleagues that you (read Gear IT) simply don't deliver what is asked for and that YOU are really (and easily provable) not delivering on your obligations. THAT my dear is actually the real problem. I ask A but get B. Think about that and stop (zeiken, crude Dutch for taking a piss; bitching, moaning, whining, carrying on etc.) pissing on about it, toddler" I iterate, Gear IT is my husband's IT company, we just sent the bill under that name because it was more convenient at the time; I didn't have a PDF and was too busy to make one, but the bill was specified and obviously from me, this is was not in dispute (just that he had to pay it). I correct him since well, Hiryu doesn't do illustration and design, he does hosting (sites, Minecraft servers etc.), security, domain registration and so forth. So if he wants to complain about the right person (i.e. probably lie his pants off) he should complain about Spirit Link Studio. "- Not Gear IT, Spirit Link Studio. - Be sure to present all your "evidence", k? :D" Further breakdown in communication and him not understanding simple things. "So why do you send bills with Gear IT on it. I added it just in case you forgot. Fucking (fokkin = Dutch white trash way of saying "fucking") vague as far as I'm concerned. Read your mails there's enough evidence that you don't deliver on your promises. I've had enough of this stupid pissing on. I'm going to stop replying." I explain simple things with small words. "Because it was easier at the time. Good luck (with your future endeavors)! :D" True to his word, he has yet to reply. But it's only been a day or two and sometimes he takes a week to respond, so there might be more swindling man-child rage to update with later. So uh, in short; don't work for this guy. He only likes your designs until the first bill shows up, then things quickly deteriorate into ignorance, lies and cussing. In a related note, if anyone wants to buy a frog adoptable, I have some available here ? Edit: Thanks for the input guys! Yeah there might have been a miscommunication, the "customer" was vague and told me to draw another 10 sketches "kinda like X". Had he gone "Oh that's not what I meant, I meant Y." the miscommunication could have been dealt with in a civil and mature manner. It wouldn't have been a problem. Unfortunately he immediately broke the contract by pulling out without paying, not to mention the condescending attitude and crass language. I managed to stay civil even after he said he wasn't going to pay for my time, so I don't understand his outbursts at all. In years of doing commissions, he is only the second unhappy customer I've ever had, and it's due to his own lack of patience, understanding and basic manners. I'll probably stay away from similar contracts for the time being, because they cost more time and aggravation than they're worth (especially when you're not being paid) and if I do take a design contract, I'll make them pay part up front like with normal commissions. Lesson learned, I'm moving on to my paying customers ?

Aug. 16th, 2011 at 2:27 PM undertow26 I'm not sure if I want to call this a beware. I feel bad putting her here because the transaction started out really awesome, but it declined from there. WHO: Neemeister neemeister.deviantart.com WHERE: Deviantart WHAT: $85 two character commission. WHEN: Beginning of May/June 2010 until now. PROOF: The exchange. She asked me about some details about the story and my characters, so my replies are omitted for personal reasons. [Censored by mod for lack of censoring. Paypal screencap is valid] EXPLAIN: I paid for a commission in June 2010 of two of my characters. In the beginning, the transaction went smoothly, but she required payment upfront. This was fine with me, I've done it before with good results. Since she was going through a tough situation I made the mistake of sending the full 85 USD to her account instead of half/half, which she said would be alright. Everything was fine, I was really excited about this commission. Almost three months go by and I don't get any progress. I understand that she had other commissions before mine so I wasn't really worried at this point. I sent her a message inquiring the status. Since she wasn't on dA very often. the exchange spanned from Aug 30th to Oct 1st. I omitted some unnecessary stuff, hope that's ok. The changes requested was for one of the characters who I redesigned. She went silent for a while, and closed her commissions in December. I was going to ask her about the commission again, but saw her reply to someone else's inquiry on her commission journal saying she intended to get to them. Reassured, I forgot about the commission. Until April/May of this year. I was a bit frustrated at this point. She stopped uploading to her dA gallery. It wasn't the time that got to me, it was the lack of communication. I sent a reply on her dA journal. And it was hidden. By now I'm getting bad vibes. I can understand hiding the comment but she didn't even reply. Irritated, I sent a note to another of her customers. I took out her screen name for privacy reasons. But it looks like I'm not the only one who hasn't received art from this artist. [Removed by mods for proxy] Doing a search on her screen name, I found some accounts on different websites, one that was last visited in July of this year. So I don't think she's out of internet. I sent her another note asking for the status of the commission and it sits unread in my inbox. I'm rather upset that I had to come here in the first place because this started off so promising. I don't want to assume the worst, but it appears that she's been recently active on other sites which isn't a good sign. I'm thinking of issuing a chargeback since I paid with a credit card, but I think too much time has allotted since the initial transaction. I will happily mark this as resolved if she gets in contact with me again, but right now it seems unlikely that I'll ever get the art. =/

Edit: Got a DA account, sent her a note and gave her two page shouts... she ignored me. I can see she's responded to other people, and to one of them she said she wishes the trolls would shut up. >_< THIS IS A CONTINUATION OF: http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/390145.html#cutid1 WHO: Eclypse of FA / Leathurkatt on DA WHERE: http://leathurkatt.deviantart.com/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/eclypse/ WHAT: A Celtic pawprint badge costing $15 and paid for with cash and in person. I had the understanding that it was traditional, but I don't have proof of that. WHEN: I paid for it in November of 2009. The last I heard from her until this summer was in September of 2010, saying she would finish the badge and also try to send me at least $10. Then, on June 23rd, 2011, she sent me the... "finished product" in an FA note. EXPLAIN: This started out as a situation involving an artist who was ridiculously flaky and bad at communication and never showed me any proof that she'd worked on my art. You can read about this part in the previous A_B entry about her. I had pretty much given up on her. Then she sent me the finished product in June 2011. It looked NOTHING like what I'd asked for. I wanted a paw with the colors magenta, purple, and blue and some Celtic hearts worked into the design. I also asked for a name and paid for a solid-color background. But I was just so sick of dealing with her that I didn't bother responding at all. A few weeks later, I looked at the image again and got suspicious. It appeared to be a recolor of another badge in her gallery, and the file name of mine had "cougar" in it. I looked at her commission queue and saw that another person had commissioned her for a cougar paw. I contacted this person, and it turns out the artist sent both of us the exact same image, which had been drawn for the other person's trade a year and a half ago. The image in Eclypse's gallery is a recolor of the paw she drew for the trade, not the other way around. I should have realized right away she was a liar. When she sent me the completed image, she claimed that she finished the artwork, then lost it, and thought she'd have to start over again. The file she "lost" had been created in January of 2010. Well, in September of 2010, she claimed that she had the lines done and just needed to finish it. The person who traded with Eclypse has been in contact with Eclypse on DA. I don't have the details of their conversation, but I know Eclypse has been extremely immature and rude. Eclypse claimed that she sent me the wrong image, then said what she did was completely acceptable, then blocked the person. I will let said person know about this A_B post, in case she wants to add anything to it. I myself have not been in touch with Eclypse. I sent her a note on FA saying, "Over a year and a half since I commissioned you, and still all I get is the same exact image you made for someone else. Wow." She has not read it. If she doesn't respond here, I'll have to resort to getting a DA account, because she is obviously active there. I have no interest in her art after this mess and plan to demand a refund. I don't want to get a DA account just to chase after her but that seems to be my option. PROOF: In this gallery I have screenshots of the paw she sent me, the traced paw from her gallery, key parts of our conversation, her price list, and her queue. http://pics.livejournal.com/paula_mino/gallery/00008qs8 I hope this is an okay way to share the images.

Jul. 31st, 2011 at 9:00 PM nightfell WHO: Baroo/Doctori-Lightning WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/doctori-lightning/ http://myfur.net/profile/Baroo PROOF: http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r279/nightfell/Art Micellaneous/Baroo_ABpost.jpg?t=1312159399 http://i146.photobucket.com/albums/r279/nightfell/Art Micellaneous/BarooFA_ABpost.jpg?t=1312159437 EXPLAIN: After putting down non-refundable deposit on a fursuit head commission, Baroo can't decide if he wants to proceed with the order or not. He has cancelled and un-cancelled with me multiple times during this entire transaction and finally sent me a note saying I was " not being slightest bit understanding about this. If you are going to make me wait almost a year for a fursuit head then at least lower the final price or purchase materials to show you are serious about providing your client with the most satisfying service as soon as you are able to." I'm honestly baffled and very disappointed that this had to happen. I've done hundreds of art commissions and over 10 suit commissions never had anyone lash out so negatively. The MyFur message and FA note screen caps pretty much explain the entire situation, but it gets a little messy/hard to read since there are a lot of one-liners. May12- I was first contacted by Baroo on MyFur for a fursuit head commission. I provide a quote after being given a reference sheet May 26- I receive a 20% deposit of $90 via PayPal and confirm that he has been scheduled for October 2011 completion in time for Halloween. July11-Baroo contacts me that he might have another head commission opportunity for a cheaper price and asks if the deposit is refundable. I tell him unfortunately not but to let me know of his final decision before the end of the week so I can reschedule my Fall 2011 work queue if needed. July 13- Baroo officially backs out of the commission and asks for a refund, despite the fact I had already informed him that the deposit was non-refundable. However I told him I was willing to work out an art/fursuit part exchange that totaled $90. He expresses interest and asks for a list of prices which I give him a link for. I take him off the work queue and schedule in another commissioner who wanted fursuit parts from me. July 14- Baroo changes his mind and decides to get the head commission but wants to pay “ just pay very VERY slowly”. I tell him no problem, I can reschedule him for January 2012 which works well for his budget and since I only deliver completed suits when they have been paid in full. July 14- Same day, Baroo sends me a My Fur message asking how much I charged for handpaws and for illustration art combos. I’m rather confused at this point since he cancelled with me, wanted the commission again, and now wants to go through with the trade/exchange? I roll with it and tell him to choose what he wants and I’ll give him confirm the price. July 25- Baroo sends me a FA note saying he wants the fursuit head commission. I tell him fine, but I have to rescind the exception I made regarding the art/fursuit for deposit trade if he decides to cancel with me again. July 27- Baroo contacts me regarding a conbadge commission. This is somewhat not relevant to the A_B post, since the transaction took place with no problem and the art was delivered. July 30- Baroo asks if the commission can be done earlier if he pays me more money. I remind him that Oct is already taken and if his financial situation hasn’t changed, I didn’t suggest changing the Jan 2012 deadline. July 31- I get this note. I recap the situation and inform him to reconsider what his note means and request for him to be patient. He sends me this response and an hour later he says he sends another note saying he still wants the fursuit head. In my reply, I tell him that I did not want to do business with him and will be refunding his $90 deposit and posting on A_B. Fellow artists, please be careful when dealing with this individual.

xtm45 (xtm45) wrote in artists_beware, @ 2018-11-25 20:50 DevilAnney - Ignoring Messages, Unfinished Character Design\Sheet, Refusal to Refund Was told to post this if I didn't get refunded. So here we go again. WHO: DevilAnney on FurAffinity. WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/devilanney/ WHAT: Character design and reference sheet WHEN: First started on September 30th, 2018 and has been ongoing. EXPLAIN: On September 30th, I had been browsing FA. I stumbled upon Anney's FA page where she had a character for sale, a green sabertooth tiger. After browsing, I saw she had been open for custom characters and I was interested in one as I wanted a saber of my own as well. She had given me her Discord to talk business. The character design itself was $10 and then, a couple minutes on, I asked about if I could have it made into a full reference sheet. She agreed and said the price would be $15 instead of $10. I agreed and was told I'd get two poses, a headshot, and a closeup of the characters paws. The character was going to be a saber, as well. We had agreed on the piece taking two days to complete. However, I don't have this exact proof since she deleted the post we discussed that on off of FurAffinity. However, later on in the messages it's pretty much implied as such by our conversation. I paid the $15 and the wait began. ( Read more... ) Two days later, I received a sketch of the character. She wasn't... really a saber but I loved her regardless. After I gave her the okay to continue, I didn't hear from her for another two days. At this point, she's already past her deadline she told me but a couple days wouldn't kill me. I didn't honestly expect it that quick, but still. On October 3rd, I messaged her and asked if there was any update. She told me she had been busy with other commissions and that she'd work on lining and then coloring the piece the next day. Fine by me. Two weeks went by without hearing a single thing from her. I messaged her again and asked asked about an update and she said that she had been busy with school and work now. I was then told I'd get an update when she got home from one of the two and I took that as an okay. I had a feeling things were getting sketchy at this point. I never got that update. Another week went by and I asked her what was up. I voiced how I was getting frustrated being told I'd get updates and progress but I never got any. All I got were empty promises. I then told her that I was starting to get to the point of asking for a refund. When I did, she REALLY started ignoring me. For two days, I got no response back. On the 21st of October, I messaged her again and asked if she was really going to start ignoring me. She then apologized and said she was going to go home and work on the picture. FINALLY I got an update. She sent a picture of the colored character and asked if it was fine. Just wanting my character and art done, I agreed and said that the colors were fine. From that point on, I've gotten NOTHING from her. On November 11th, I asked for an update. I got nothing. So on the 13th, I grew tired of it. I told her I wanted a refund as what she was doing was VERY unfair to me. I had given her plenty of time and chances and got nothing but empty promises and lies in return. On the same day, I filed a PayPal dispute to get my money back. She has not replied to any of the posts on PayPal. She has had time to post links to t-shirt designs she's selling which was posted four days ago, along with many other adopts. She's constantly online on Discord, as well, so I KNOW she's seeing my DM's. I also happened to go on her page and saw someone else asked her to reply to her Notes. UPDATE 11/25/2018: I started a PayPal dispute on November 11, 2018 and she never responded to it. Instead, she has vanished into thin air. She is no longer using Discord or she unfriended me. Not sure which. She has also deactived her FurAffinity and any other sites she used for art. Because she did not respond, I won the case and was given back my money. PROOF: PayPal Payment. Had to censor a ton because she used her real name on her PayPal and also had to censor my Credit Card info -> https://gyazo.com/22d34db7901cb9be377fd62fdc0d768f All the Discord conversations we've had about the business. Her PayPal had to be censored because it had her first and last name in it. I can uncensor if I need to. -> https://imgur.com/a/c7tyudx E-Mail from PayPal saying she didn't respond at all and they issued me a refund of my money -> https://gyazo.com/3b0ca840894e98374e62a0266c326861

October 25 2018, 17:48 Artist Beware: Baasil I shall begin this with a little warning. I was uninformed about the actual stipulations of Paypal; I have always thought it was only 60 days, and not 120 days for buyer protection. With that said I was a bit assertive to this commissioned person. I thought my time was running out and dry, but this could have easily been resolved with some reassurance by this commissioned person. WHO: Baasil [http://www.furaffinity.net/user/baasil/] SpicyBaasil [https://picarto.tv/SpicyBaasil] WHERE: Stream: SpicyBaasil [https://picarto.tv/SpicyBaasil] WHAT: This was meant to be a quick icon and a full color commission that stretched at most a 2 or 3 week period as stated by the artist. WHEN: August 31, 2018 - October 21, 2018 EXPLAIN: The situation all started on August 31st 2018… I commissioned this artist in the early hours of 6am, but their stream ran short and they had been up all night for that day. They said they would complete my commission the following day. I am always forgiving and being an artist myself was totally fine with waiting until tomorrow. Tomorrow came, and nothing had been done. I did not expect the requested art of a full color commission the following day, but I did expect some progress on this icon we had discussed in stream before. Shortly after there was a Hurricane that struck their area, no damage other than power outages on Sept 9th … I went along with what they said to me in that journal, that they will be working offline for their owed art due to those who had worked with them prior to the storm. Being patient I waited until days passed. Sept 24th came I asked for n update since their queue listing isn’t quite listed anywhere I can find. My sketch was promised the week of Sept 24th September 24th was a Monday and the 29th would be the end of this week After these following messages my patience became stale and I had to be a bit more blunt as I have seen little to no action by this artist to do their duties. I was giving the benefit of the doubt to them and letting them tackle on a new icon since it’s been rough times. Again another false promise “tomorrow” my patience is already running thin by now. As I do not want this artist do to any more work than is required I wanted to make it clear that this is replacing what we had previously discussed. Now comes the true fallout and where I feel insulted by this artist. [for some reason it has “RE” even tho this is initial messages] This is the point where I thought I am running out of buyers protection and being a bit more blunt with this artist. Tomorrow promises yet again still being forgiving to this artist as I know how times can be tough. Confirming and thanking on the new family member, at this point it has been a total of 46 days from initial commissioning. The icon was meant to be done the DAY after I commissioned them, and the art was to be done in 14/21 days from commission date. Things turn sour~ It was at this point that I thought my buyers protection was running out and thought 60 days was the final cut off for my protection. This could have been so easily retorted by the artist letting me know I had 180 days but they decided to go a different route. Their claim is that they have had my work done, but I do not believe them. I have no means of guaranteeing or not that they had my work done. I also felt sympathy for them because I do commission work too but of a different kind. This was the most insulting thing of our interaction. As a client it is not my duty to keep notes on what you as a professional artist are owing me. This is a blurry pic just where we had a verbal agreement of work we had done. It’s the best I could do I am sorry. Their vod was low resolution. They got the idea of me being under the YCH through my personal Furaffinity Page. As I thought my time was running out I had to pressure them. Things got hostile. They got really mad at me, granted I was being very direct and blunt. I was just tired of hearing the three or four confirmations of getting my art done “this week” // “tomorrow” that I was basically done with this whole situation and wanted my money back. This is where things turned sour and I lost trust in this person. The fact that they are threatening defaming my name even tho my only fault was being assertive made me wary of their intentions. “Rest of refund, you’re even making money on it because I can’t be bothered to figure out fees. If you still action, I will be pursuing theft by deception charges and reporting to FA. :D” After issuing a 30 USD charge when I specifically told them the amount. After this moment I just refunded both their initial 10 usd and their 30 dollars sent. The saga ends there. This was the worst interaction I’ve ever had with an artist in my time on Furafinity. Could have simply been reassured by some condolences to me. Letting me know I had extra time vs when i assert myself threatening defamation. I am not sure what circles they run with, but hopefully I am blocked by anyone who sides with their antics. PROOF: Inline linking as conversation goes on, but will include all here in order of all my messages on FA. https://i.imgur.com/B3xOVqw.jpg

I've been in contact with her since making this post and I believe we'll be working things out just fine! I'm going to put the entry behind a LJ cut but other than that will not be editing it or deleting it in any way for the sake of the community rules and what not, thank you! WHO: LadyAvali WHERE: LadyAvali and Altana on DeviantArt, Avali on tumblr WHAT: $20 Digital Sketch Commissions WHEN: April 20th - commissions open and paid for. Last communication on May 19th. PROOF: Various screenshots of the dates mentioned below in case of deletion: Journal #1 - Journal #2 - Journal #3 - Journal #4 - My last communication with her - Note about her moving accounts EXPLAIN: Back on April 20th, she posted a DevArt Journal saying she was doing some very lovely sketch commissions for $20 USD. She had 15 slots, so at $20 a pop, that's a hefy $300 all in advance - I believe the slots were cleared out in less than 24 hours. Now, I have never paid for a commission 100% in advance - sometimes I'll pay after a sketch phase or when the piece is half done - but this was my first time paying in advance. I normally wouldn't have, but she has done this style of commission before and it seemed to go very well, so I thought it would be okay. On April 23rd, she posted on DevArt that she was going out of town for the weekend and would be "having a livestream on Monday" to get these knocked out. On May 3rd, she posted on DevArt that the bad weather was keeping her from working on commissions. I understand tornados, bad weather, etc - I live in Tornado Alley myself - but considering that was 10 days after she posted about just being gone for the weekend... On May 18th, she once again posted that the 'last few commissions' were going out. By this point, I had sent her a polite message asking if she had any updates about how long the sketches would take. The day after she made that journal, on May 19th, she sent me a note on DA asking for my reference info again (even though it was in that first post, like all other references). I sent it back to her that same day and I have heard nothing from her since. I have sent her one other polite message since then just asking for an update. Today, I stopped by DeviantArt again just to see if she had responded, and although she has not posted anything on her account, the user GoblinCrusher94 has gone around posting that she's "got a new account and this one is dead" on her comments. The new account is the one I linked to above, Altana (which actually seems like it's an old account she left, then returned to - or at least is planning to return to. It's very confusing). And of course on top of this, she is updating her art tumblr rather constantly. I'm not sure how many out of those 15 people haven't received their art, but I know for SURE at least one other hasn't, user nosebleeds, because he is a dear friend of mine and we've both been complaining about this a bit together, heh. I have no problem waiting a bit for commissions, I really don't - as long as the line of communication is kept open. When an artist stops responding all together to messages, changes DevArt accounts, doesn't update about it on her Journal and I KNOW I'm not the only one that got screwed... well. I think it's at least time to step up and say something. It doesn't help that it was a pre-paid commission, so like I said - if none of the 15 people have received their sketches, that's $300 she's basically pocketed while we all wait for our art not even knowing what Deviant Art account she's on these days. (sorry if this is a little tl;dr! I try to be as thorough as possible when I do something like this!)

May. 26th, 2011 at 1:08 AM yujoben Who: Tigsie (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/tigsie) Where: Furry Weekend Atlanta 2011 - Artist Alley What: I commissioned a traditional-colored badge and a Pokemon-themed water-color ACEO card. Paid IN FULL with cash, and given a hand-written receipt (ACEO card was done on separate receipt, and beside the matter at hand). When: Furry Weekend Atlanta 2011 (March 19th, 2011) - May 25th, 2011 After commissioning this artist back in March, I waited a bit and was actually prepared to wait for a good solid few months since I thought her art seemed decent enough, and well worth the wait. The problems with her actually started when she posted a list of commissions that she was either working on, or had finished, and she needed the home address' of the people that commissioned them so she could send them out. She put my Pokemon ACEO card on that list. Meaning, that even though she had the address previously, she seemed to have forgotten the ACEO belonged to me, along with the badge of my character. I did what she asked in her public journal, and sent her a private note telling her my home address and reminding her it went along with the badge I ordered. ...No reply... A few weeks went by, she posted a couple more journals, and the ACEO remained on the list (now remember, the problem is actually with the badge, but these details are just to prove her bad communication). I sent her another message, and just left it at that, hoping that she'd get it eventually. Also, she normally posts what she has done for each commission so far, and mine was marked as "inked" for the longest time. Once again, I had no problem with her taking her time on it, since I wanted it to be good. My friends had gone to Elliot's (May 20th - 22nd), which I knew Tigsie would be there because she had mentioned it in her latest journal, but didn't think to ask them to check up on anything for myself. I got a call during the 22nd after the con was over from one of my friends that he had seen Tigsie, and my badge was done, and she was using it as a display piece. Now, I'm sort of sceptical here... What artist doesn't let her customer know she's finished the product and doesn't tell them she's using it as a display/example piece? Either way, I brushed it off. A couple days later (May 25th) she posts her new batch of badges onto her FA account, and mine was included as the third one from the left on the top row. Immediately, I noticed it looked off. She had completely forgotten several important (simple) details that I ALWAYS include on my character (green-tipped mohawk and thick distinctive beard), and I've never had to correct other artists on because they couldn't be blamed on "different styles" (also, it looked nothing like a bear, and more like a weasel or canine). Seeing as she STILL hasn't replied to any of the previous messages I sent her, I posted a comment publicly on the actual submission that she ruined the design, to which she FINALLY replied to me, telling me to note her privately on how she did it wrong. I noted her, as I was asked, and told what she had gotten wrong (but now that I think about it, I also failed to mention other details she missed- including how she drew headphones on him even though at the con I asked her to not include the headphones in one of the three ref pics I sent her). I get a reply back, straight up telling me she will refund the money, without even giving me another option to go by. I honestly just wanted it corrected (even though I know it's a bit difficult, being a traditional piece and not digital), and when I mentioned it she told me she'd be leaving the country soon and wouldn't be able to get to it. Not wanting to go through the same merry-go-round of insecurity, I told her to just issue me a refund as she promised (and even mentioned for her to take the fees since I paid in full with cash at the convention, and not originally through paypal). Her answer to the last message was that she would "trace" the original image to do it over before she left on vacation (meaning she'd rush through it and hope I'd be happy with it), and I simply told her to forget it and just to handle my refund as she offered previously. Totally ignoring my request to not stick me with the paypal fees, she had done it anyway, leaving me missing $1.37. I know it doesn't seem like much, but it's only fair that she take the fees herself since it was HER mistake and I'm not getting anything out of it (she had warned me that if I got the refund I would not receive the badge). When I noted her back, telling her to replace the money missing and pay the additional fee so I'd have the exact $30 paid for the badge, she plain refused me and told me she was making me pay shipping for the ACEO card I commissioned. She NEVER mentioned any additional shipping fees, and even told me when I asked her at the convention that they were covered in the base price. She ended it by telling me that the conversation would go no further, she would ship out my ACEO in the morning, and that she was still keeping my badge to use for examples (though I asked her in a previous note to NOT do that or to at least remove the name since I do not want myself associated with her any further). I have never encountered such unprofessional behavior from an artist, and I hope any who reads this will take caution. SCREENSHOTS: pics.livejournal.com/yujoben/pic/0000h21h NOTES AND COMMENTS pics.livejournal.com/yujoben/pic/0000fb4f RECEIPT References Given: www.furaffinity.net/view/4872393/ www.furaffinity.net/view/5089389/ Finished Badge: pics.livejournal.com/yujoben/pic/0000gchy EDIT: I understand that my messages seemed bitchy. They certainly were not meant that way until she made me pay the fees on paypal for her mistake. I can understand her deducting money for the work done if I cancelled for my own reasons, but it was HER fault, she didn't follow the references and ignored all tips I gave her when I commissioned her originally. Also, because a lot of people seem to be missing this tidbit of info, I paid IN CASH, full $30, so if she was offering me a full refund, there is no reason to stick me with fees. Please remember the problem here that I'm trying to point out is not centered on her inability to follow references, but her horrible customer service because of bad communication and forcing me to lose money (no matter how big or small the amount) when I am not getting anything from it (for those that say I have the scan of the badge- it is tiny, and I don't want it to begin with). It was her idea first to refund me, not mine, and when I told her I wanted it fixed she offered me two other options which did not appeal. Options are meant to be CHOSEN, so don't hate me because I picked one in the end. The first option was for me to wait another few months while she went on vacation, and I really was afraid of dealing with this whole situation again. It is very nerve-wracking to just be completely snubbed by a person you have paid money to for a service. The other option was a tracing (whether it looked professional or not), and she planned on doing a rush job in a couple of days before leaving on yet another vacation, and I don't want something rushed and uncared for. So, I took the refund in the end. Any of you who are tight on money as it is and splurged on ONE thing for yourself at a convention would expect it done right. I was forward with her, and treated her the way I want my commissioners to treat me. I hate it when someone says anything along the lines of "Um...well...it's really neat... There's just a couple details off...but it's fine. I like it!" If done enough, I become upset with them and just tell them to inform me straight-up what I need to fix, because I WILL do my best to correct it. To sum this up, I didn't think of her as a lesser person, an underling, or an art slave. I think being blunt with people is a high form of respect. Anything less, I feel I am doing the person wrong. EDIT (2/09/2012): Tigsie has surprisingly refunded the amount, and I am pretty surprised that she remembered after all of this. With all of this past us, I do wish to apologize to everyone and especially her. I was a grade-a dick, but I had my reasons. Also, at the time I was pretty new to LJ and was replying to a lot of folks that weren't even talking to me.

May. 23rd, 2011 at 10:32 PM undertow26 I probably should have come here much sooner, but I held on to the hope that this person would come through for me. However, after his excuses, I'm fed up and reporting him here. I discourage anyone from commissioning him, he's been nothing but evasive. June of last year, I commissioned Coferosa on DeviantArt for a fifteen dollar sketch of a character design. I have a few links to the transaction here including proof that the payment was transferred to him. Against my better judgment, I used the points system to commission him so I'm not able to file a paypal claim. Proof the transaction was made img855.imageshack.us/img855/2139/blackened.png I edited out my main dA name. The transaction was arranged on my commission account but I paid on my main account. First few notes exchanged, he accepts the commission: img11.imageshack.us/img11/5695/theif2.png img705.imageshack.us/img705/7246/thief3.png Some time goes by. I set a deadline in the job offer post of two weeks. As of right now I don't have the link to the posting anymore. But he overshot the deadline. I politely ask the status of the commission img860.imageshack.us/img860/7734/notez.png But my note is ignored. Feeling somewhat insulted, I send him another note img713.imageshack.us/img713/7401/reply0.png I finally get a reply. He says he finished the commission. imageshack.us/photo/my-images/405/thief1.png/ After that, he goes completely silent. I admit, I should have pushed him more. Eventually it completely slipped my mind. But I decided to go through my inbox sometime in Febuary to clean out some old notes and found his. Remembering that he didn't send me a WIP or a complete picture, I note him again. By now, several months have gone by. img831.imageshack.us/img831/2341/reply1h.png I receive a reply, getting the character's name wrong and I don't buy his excuse. Art has been submitted, infrequently though he has posted new stuff. His most recent deviation was submitted May 2 of this year. img836.imageshack.us/img836/2540/reply2.png That's the last I've heard from him. I've warned him several times and now I make good on my promise. As of now I've given up any hope of him refunding the points to me or sending me the art. I have filed a report with dA's help desk but I highly doubt that they'll do anything about it. This is more of a warning to others that may have been interested in his art. It may be a case of him not having his priorities straight, but communication is awful and he'll only respond if you nudge him. Not once has he noted me to say that his computer failed, etc. Edit: As expected, I recieved a response from the staff basically saying I'm on my own here:http://oi54.tinypic.com/wa0ygk.jpg I'll try contacting the artist again with a stern note and a link to this beware. But lesson has been learned, that will be the last time I commission an artist with points unless they've proven to be a very reliable artist.

Apr. 1st, 2011 at 10:50 PM stalgondo Please be forewarned, this was a commission for adult material. Some links on this post refer to NSFW material. Who: TwistedCreations on Hentai-foundry. Where: NSFW link - his hentai-foundry account: http://www.hentai-foundry.com/profile-TwistedCreations.php Communication was mainly over MSN messenger, but I sent several emails attempting to contact him. What: Digital Artwork of a Female Orc with two versions of the same image, paid in two transactions of $100 each ($200 total). When: January 14th 2011 - I first contacted him to commission the artwork. The price and details were agreed upon. January 28th 2011 - First rough sketch was received and I paid the first installment. February 7th 2011 - Second rough sketch was received and I paid the second installment. The last contact I received was on Febuary 7th 2011. I never received the final versions of the artwork. Proof: NSFW text - Chat log of all conversations: http://doujinhunter.totalh.com/twistedchat.txt NSFW - Last image received: http://i.imgur.com/fvJFo.jpg Email 1: http://i.imgur.com/VrZVA.png Email 2: http://i.imgur.com/KU7KW.png Email 3: http://i.imgur.com/V0rjn.png Email 4: http://i.imgur.com/NlnjF.png Paypal Transfer 1: http://i.imgur.com/YDcWn.png Paypal Transfer 2: http://i.imgur.com/EiKkS.png Evading me on MSN: http://i.imgur.com/uBtAk.png Explain: Things went well initially, and the final draft was sent to me on Feb. 7th. I confirmed the final changes and sent the final payment. I have received no contact since, and I have made several attempts to contact him. I have sent him numerous emails asking for any reply or notice that I am not being ignored. He did not appear to be on MSN, but using an alternate MSN account, I determined that he has blocked my main MSN account. Contacting him via the alternate MSN account caused him to block that one as well. I attempted to retract payment via paypal, but they would not allow me to dispute a payment that was categorized as "other". I have submitted a transaction dispute to econsumer.gov in hopes of getting those payments retracted. I would prefer to have the final work, but that seems unlikely at this point. I was referred here by the hentai-foundry forums, and I will also be posting this to hentai-foundry to warn others. Thanks for reading, Stalgondo

ORIGINAL POSTING DATE: March 8th, 2011 WHAT: A furry hoodie of my character, Foxfairy. We set the price at $80 and I paid a deposit to hold my spot, then another payment to secure funding for all the materials. The first payment was put down in September, the second in November, and I agreed to pay the final $30 + shipping on completion. WHEN: From September to November, everything was fine and he was a pleasure to work with, answered everything quickly and was great in helping me pick the fleece color. And I even got a WIP of the foam base for the head! Since then I have heard almost nothing.I sent one note in late December, and got a reply that he was working on it. I asked for updates last month, which is when I started to get concerned. I sent a note on Feb 11, and got a reply on the same day, that he was almost finished and would send me pictures soon. i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Springmoon/Feb11PromisedPictures.png I sent another note five days later, reminding him that I wanted pictures; it's been sitting unread for a while now. (there message in the note is really short, just saying I would appreciate some WIPs) i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Springmoon/UnreadNote.png I tried to get ahold of him via email and got a response the next day, i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Springmoon/Gmailconvo.png but no pictures, and nothing for the last 11 days. PROOF: Paypal stubs: i20.photobucket.com/albums/b230/Springmoon/paypalhistory.png EXPLAIN: I've been really patient with this artist. He seems really nice, and I put down my deposits. I though everything was going well but I'm starting to get extremely frustrated. I have been promised pictures for almost a month, and I haven't got any tangible proof that anything has been completed besides the foam head base, and that was done in October. What makes me really, really upset now is that I've found out through some internet stalking that he been really active on twitter and tumblr this whole time, almost every day: serifbalehawk.tumblr.com/ AND twitter.com/#!/MS_Manuscript This makes me feel like I'm being almost completely ignored. If he was having issues on FA, I gave them my email to contact me. If he was having problems with his internet connection and couldn't get anything to me, that would be fine too (as long as I knew). But he obviously has internet. If he is using his phone to access the internet, that's no excuse for no photo updates. Any phone that can access twitter and tumblr can access email fine, and take pictures too. My crap phone from 2008 can send an email with a picture. I know life is complicated, but answering an email and taking a photo (even a crappy WIP one!) isn't hard. It takes literally five minutes, tops. I thought this person was of excellent character and he may well be, but at the very least this should stand that he's not particularly good at updates. RESPONSE FROM ARTIST: msmanuscript Mar. 9th, 2011 12:20 am (local) Hey Fox Fairy. I do want to apologize, I know I've been incredibly bad with communication. And it is entirely my fault. My days have been filled with trying to get ready for my first real-world job. The evenings have been trying to chill out and calm my nerves so I'm ready to KEEP this job. It's made me horribly forgetful. I also tend not to check my emails, which is a very bad habit I need to break. Since it's dark, I'll be taking pictures tomorrow when there's light. I'm afraid my "room" has rather poor light, in the way that all images come out almost black. I have offered my IM, and if you want it the offer for it still stands. I'm going to ask a few people to remind me until I do it to take pictures. If you wish my IM, you can speak to me there to remind me to send you images. You shouldn't HAVE to remind me. I'll admit that no problem. This IS all on my shoulders. Here's what I'll do. Once the jacket is done (Hood sewn onto the jacket itself, at the moment they are two separate pieces for pictures,) I'll ship it out, free. Don't worry about the third payment. I was considering reducing it because of how long you've waited, but with how my behavior has been lately, I'll just knock it out entirely. I have been a poor seller/builder. I will continue to work on NOT leaving my customers in the dark. I am sorry for the delay. If you wish my IM, please let me know and I'll PM it to you, as I'd rather not have it posted here.

ORIGINAL POSTING DATE: March 28th, 2011 Ok, I'm posting this as a warning so no one else has to go through the hell I did with this artist. She goes by Jailbird on FA. Back in December, I commissioned a 2 character adult piece from her, since she's my girl's favorite artist. I didn't expect it by Christmas, but I had assumed it would make a nice Valentine's Day gift. It took me a while to get ahold of her to confirm the commission, which looking back, should have been a red flag. She asked for the payment in full up front, so I sent off a large sum of money to her for this piece. I then noted her, asking approximately how long it would take, just because I was excited and curious. After about a week and a half, I get a reply from her, stating that it would be done sometime in February. I thank her for replying, and go about my business. Valentine's day comes and goes, and I hear nothing. I let it go, since she said it would be done in that month, but when it gets to be February 26th, I start to wonder. She's been taking and completing iron artist pieces all month, and I haven't heard a word, so I just note her, considering she had said she would send me an approval sketch. She didn't respond, and it took me posting publicly on her page to even get her to read the note. She finally responded, apologizing for the wait and told me she would start my piece that night, and I would have a sketch by the next day. I thank her, still being extremely polite and kind at this point, and go back to my business to wait for this piece. The next day comes and goes, and I get nothing. I note her AGAIN, asking for an update. I tell her I don't mind if it has to take longer than expected, but to please just let me know. If something comes up, I understand, but I would just like to be informed. She tells me my sketch is complete and she just needs to scan it. A week later, and I haven't seen anything. I note her again, asking to see the sketch. She responds fairly quickly and I receive the sketch of my piece. She claims she had a lot of fixing to do with it online, but I approve it, because the sketch looks good. She notes me a few days later, asking what sort of background I want. I tell her whatever looks good for the picture, because I was giving her artistic freedom to begin with. So another week or so goes by, and I hear nothing. She posts a journal, opening for more commissions, so I comment on it asking about my piece. This was the beginning of last week. She tells me my picture will be done Thursday. As expected, Thursday comes and goes, and I hear nothing. So I note her again, just wondering what happened. She sends me my piece on Sunday, telling me she couldn't do a background on it, and would refund me the extra for a background. So hopefully that happens. But it wasn't the lack of background that bothered me. It was the obvious rush job on the coloring of the piece. Not only is there strange shading and lighting, that makes the whole picture look a bit warped, and the light seems out of place, but she completely forgot all facial markings on both characters. I'm not one to nitpick markings, but when you forget my characters patch on her eye, or my girlfriend's distinctive orange star on her face and her raccoon mask, along with her ear tips? That's something I'll nitpick. So this is where it stands currently. Here's some screenshots of the notes and comments I sent and received: Notes inquiring about my piece after it had been due: i53.tinypic.com/10i8n5w.png i56.tinypic.com/13z8k1k.png Notes about my sketch: i53.tinypic.com/bj9uee.png i51.tinypic.com/sfyyx3.png Her telling me my piece would be done last Thursday: i56.tinypic.com/ixtjir.png EDIT: Here's the "finished" piece (NSFW): i54.tinypic.com/o0xev9.png Her FA: www.furaffinity.net/user/jailbird/ EDIT: Ok, so I've spoken to her again, and she has fixed the shading and stuff and made the piece look a lot nicer and a lot less rushed. I'm really happy with it now.