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Originally posted on Jun. 18th, 2013 by draeling Mod note: All images were hosted on the OPs website, but the site seems to have gone down since. Update 2: 30/01/14: It's been 7 months since the refund was agreed. Only $260 so far of the $645 has been refunded, with the last payment being 4 months ago. Iko still does not keep in contact unless a shout and note is left, which receives an apology but no dates of when the next parts will be refunded. Update 1: Since the AB, Iko has agreed to a full refund in weekly increments. Will update when it is complete. WHO: Iko, Sierra Tudor, Kay the Dragon, Pathetic Dragon Studios WHERE: http://furaffinity.net/user/Iko, http://www.furaffinity.net/user/patheticdragon, http://www.furbuy.com/seller/Iko.html?as=a WHAT: A Nightfury Fursuit for $850 on 2010/04/29 WHEN (with proof): $410 Downpayment on 2010/05/05, $86 materials on 2010/12/12. EXPLAIN: In 2010 Iko posted an auction on Furbuy for a Nightfury fursuit, and though she did not have many recent good examples of her work, she was really excited to be spending more time and working on Fursuits, and the concept art posted of what she intended to make was looking really nice. We had a lengthy email discussion to confirm the features, design and looks, and the initial downpayment was sent. I bought two pairs of good shoes & created a DTD, and shipped them all at total extra cost of $145. As much as I really wanted to give her a chance, and I was really patient during those three years, it was a frustrating and prolonged flop of a project, with lost costume parts and need for constant requests for updates. :c Timeline of issues: 2010/05/05: Payment sent. 2010/09/08: Asked for update: Bodysuit sewn, needs zippers/spikes/airbrushing. Said she has been slow because she doesn't know what to do next. We discuss and agree on features and design looks again. Motivation issues mentioned because someone had criticized her work. 2010/10/05: Asked for update: Foam base for indoor paws and tail done. 2010/12/12: Iko emailed over some pics of the head in progress, mentioned another $86 of materials needed to be bought, sent via paypal. LEDs for the head almost done. 2011/04/13: Asked for update: long period of no contact: Iko mentioned work was slow because she was unsure what to do about zippers (Handpaw and head zippers). Iko asked if I was willing to send the second payment, but I declined until the suit was ready to ship, due to some small worries about the lack of updates and progress photos. 2011/08/18: Asked for update: Iko says most of suit done, still waiting to install zippers, make outdoor feet and wings. Sewing machine broken. 2011/11/22: Iko emailed: Says it's nearly finished, but is tweaking it after someone helped model it. Apoligises for how long it has taken due to how complex the suit is. Sewing markings. 2012/04/07: Iko emailed: She had lost the duct tape dummy due to leaving it out when apartment cleaners came. Requested I send a second one, but I declined, though I provided detailed measurements instead. (I was also wary at why it was still needed after the bodysuit was said to have been completed.) Said progress is slow because of complexity and working on four other fursuits at the same time. 2012/07/03: Asked for update: I requested pics to see everything in progress, as I wanted to see exactly how she has been doing. Iko mentions she doesn't have the bodysuit due to a recent move, but will get pics soon. 2012/10/03: Asked for update, multiple emails before getting one: Bodysuit & rest of costume has been in storage in another city due to a recent move. Promises Christmas shipping date. (After how long and dragged out this had become, I started getting more insistent about regular contact, emails, updates and pictures) 2012/10/30: Asked for update: Bodysuit still in storage, until she has free time to go and get it. Zipper problems cited as reason for slowness again. 2012/12/04: Asked for update: Iko said she has lost the bodysuit, cannot be found anywhere. Again requests another DTD so she can begin making a new one. (I really didin't have enough trust in her left after all the previous delays.... to make another DTD and ship it over). I politely declined and she gave a reference sheet explaining all the measurements she would need. Sais she still intended to get it done by Christmas, but that it's probably going to be late. (Emails become unresponsive/sparse, so we start communicating on FA Notes) 2013/02/26: Asked for update: Iko said her water heater exploded, and was afraid of mildew affecting costumes, so didin't want to bring them out for work yet until it was fixed. (I was a little sad and frustrated with the issues so far, so I started requesting fortnightly updates and requested a firm deadline of when the suit will be done) 2013/03/04: Iko came to the conclusion she doesn't have the skill, time or motivation to continue working on the suit, and apoligised profusely about lack of contact and unprofessionalisim. Offers to send me all the materials she has available, including the Head, tail and one set of feetpaws, as well as a $100 refund. She says even though her auction said the downpayment isn't refundable, she'll be nice and offer the token refund anyway. (Due to how few parts there were, and the head not even being complete, it wasn't worth me asking her to ship them over, so I ask her to list the parts on furbuy and refund it all.) 2013/06/13: After direct questions & requests for exact payment dates, Iko mentions she will not be giving a full refund (FA note transcript), as her auction says the downpayment is not refundable, but she is willing to be nice and will cover half. After 2-3 months of notes & eventual direct questions of when and what she intends to refund on FA, it turns out her idea of the refund was $320, given in 5 $64 installments over the next months. I was out $645 at this point, and she is adamant that she is not responsible for the other half of the refund, due to materials and it saying on her auction that downpayment is non refundable. I'm really sad the project ended this way :c I do understand life gets in the way at times, but the final staw in deciding to post this was her refusal to offer a full refund, even in light of how many years it took for Iko to put her hands up and say she doesn't have the skill or motivation to continue the project. I also wouldn't like to see anyone else experience what I did during this project. It is also a painful lesson that researching your seller and seeing how professional they are, in both communication & their existing work is really -really- important. I sadly gave the benefit of the doubt her few fursuit examples were just because she was just starting up... but that is no substitute for seeing real professionalisim & ability in completed & delivered works. I also understand now that $850 is a very low price for full suits like this, including wings, digitigrade, leds and features, which I should have saw as a warning flag too.

Before I begin, let me reinstate that I wish no ill will or harm towards DaskerLizard or their business. I am simply posting my experience about my time with Dasker so that others my avoid the negative experience that I have had. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I contacted Dasker/BlueFoxFursuits the morning of June 16th, 2016 via email asking if it was okay for me to order being 17 (turning 18 within the next few weeks) and what their payment plans looked like. I was responded to 4 days later with both my questions answered. Given the okay to order, I then submitted a application via their google docs quote form. I was responded to almost immediately with the approximate due date and how much my suit (which was/will be a partial) would cost. I responded back within a few minutes saying I would like to go ahead and reserve my spot within their queue. After a few hiccups, (me paying in the wrong currency), I finally had paid off my deposit and had a reserved slot for May 2017. I paid £190 ( $287.16 ). A few emails from me about what furs they will use for my suit were exchanged so I could order a bodysuit to match with no problems. I have since received my bodysuit from another maker. The real problems started when it finally reached the due date for my commission. I was struggling for with money due to unforeseen car problems, so I emailed them on the 15th of May, 2017 and asked for an update on when I would be up so I could prepare on when I needed to pay/how much to put aside. They replied telling me they had to "do a lot of shifting around in my queue due to confuzzled suits overrunning" and how they had injured their back moving fur supply boxes and that they will be "starting up the queue again towards the end of june when I'm back from confuzzled, and also back from visiting family for a late birthday meetup". I was both upset and relieved on how I would have time to save up further and put aside my money problems, but also a little sad considering they had taken more con crunch commissions and put them ahead of other preexisting commissions. The next time I contacted Dasker was 5 months (October 9th, 2017) past the given completion date of end of June 2017. I simply stated how I had not received an email from the regarding my commission and how the queue was looking/when I would be up. I was then informed unknowingly that I had been once more pushed back to February of 2018. At this point I was rather upset, so I did not reply. I emailed them ONCE MORE on July 21st, 2018 (another 5 months after the due date they had given me had past), asking what the wait time is looking like since my slot had been missed once more. They responded a week later on July 28th, 2018 saying they had moved and had eurofurence deadlines to focus on. Again, putting convention crunch commissions ahead of regular commissions. I was told that I would have my commission and "all older orders out by jan-feb next year". Again, moved another year back. I did not reply. After waiting so long, I then took it upon myself to contact Dasker one more time on January 8th, 2019. They replied saying that it "should be february". Seeing as it was the beginning of the month, I was VERY excited to finally get around to getting my suit. That is until as of late. On February 17th, I contacted Dasker after finding out that they had once more opened for more commissions. This has had me extremely worried that my commission from 2016 would be pushed back once more to make room for other, newer orders. I asked them if there was a problem with my character and asked that if they did not like the character given, that they would tell me and refund me my deposit instead of pushing me back over and over. They then confessed to me that I am not the only person who has been waiting since 2016 for their suit and that I should have my suit by March. I was upset by this information considering how I am 1) not the only one going through such an experience and 2) my slot had once again been pushed back. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ To reiterate, I am a very patient person. I from the above evidence, it is obvious I have only emailed one to two times a year asking for updates, often waiting months after the date I was told to contact them. To put it into perspective, I ordered when I was 17 years of age, I am now not too far off from turning 21. I have given Dasker the benefit of the doubt one too many times, and I can say that I am very unhappy and disappointed with my experience so far. I only paid the deposit needed to reserve my spot, but I have had the rest of the money needed within my Paypal for up to 2 years now. They do not email/contact commissioners when they come upon hard times, leaving one to basically chase them to get a vague answer on when your commission will be started. Dasker seems like a nice person, they not once seemed rude and often replied in a very professional manner. However, it seems their queue is VERY disorganized and unprofessional. At the moment of writing this, I still do not know what spot I am in their queue and do not recommend working with DaskerLizard/BlueFoxFursuits. I will update further when/if I receive what I have paid for or if anything else unfolds. If you see any inconsistencies within my writing, please let me know and I will fix them!

Apr. 3rd, 2011 at 9:32 PM synchra WHO: Aliases: SophieCabra, Waji "Company": SurfCatCostumes WHERE: http://surfcatcostumes.com/ WHAT: Costume of my character Tokkebi Kesaki done in the same style as Luskwood (with permission from Luskwood. SophieCabra used to work for Luskwood so she had confirmed she could achieve this quality. It was promised to be the same quality.) Art: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/1745-1/tokkebikesakicharactersheet.jpg Product: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7306-1/IMG_5509.jpg (in depth pictures and descriptions of everything below) Screenshots of initial e-mails confirming these facts: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10055-1/Screenshot-AB-1.png (Note: She mentions a non-refundable deposit of $495 but never mentions what it is for. In talking with other makers this is always accepted as a cancellation fee, I never canceled the product while it was in process. The promised product with the promised quality and features was just never delivered so I asked for a refund because it was offered to me.) http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10057-1/Screenshot-AB-2.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10059-1/Screenshot-AB-3.png (I never received guidelines or a real contract or a ToS so all agreements were made through e-mail in this fashion.) WHEN: Initial Costume invoice was sent 6/18/09. First Payment of $520 was sent out via paypal Jun. 7, 2009 Second Payment of $545 was sent out via paypal Sep 1, 2009 Final Payment of $600 was sent out via paypal Sep. 2, 2009 Product promised to be done and received by: Halloween 2009, if artist could not get it done in time then sometime in January 2010. Total of all payments as well as price of costume: $1665 Costume received: Feb 6, 2010 Promised refund: Feb 6, 2010 (Promised refund by: August 1st, 2010) Costume confirmed to have been received: Mar 18, 2010 Partial refund of $1,081, $1050 after fees was sent to me via paypal Apr 18, 2010 Current payment owed: $584 Asked for rest of payment initially: 4/19/10 (never got a response) Gave artist a time line to pay me back again on: Feb 15, 2011 (end of march) Artist failed to pay me back by: 03/31/11 (never got a response) Demand Letter to be sent: 4/4/11 Court date if Demand Letter is not responded to: TBA PROOF: Here is a review of the costume I wrote which includes all proof needed of the quality of the product received including pictures, videos and e-mails sent and received throughout the process. http://community.livejournal.com/fursuitreviews/31415.html (I figure it's better to just post that part here as a link because it's just as good as copy-pasting and putting it behind a cut, please tell me if you'd rather have me go about this another way.) Here are some e-mails in which the refund is mentioned: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10077-1/Screenshot-AB-refundmention-4.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10075-1/Screenshot-AB-refundmention-5.png (promising refund for suit.) I can provide screenshots of anything asked for if needed. Here are the paypal transactions: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10061-1/Screenshot-AB-5-1stPayment.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10063-1/Screenshot-AB-5-2ndPayment.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10065-1/Screenshot-AB-5-3rdPayment.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10067-1/Screenshot-AB-5-refund.png Note: She mentions that it's $1050 even after fees and isn't including the initial 30% even though I never canceled on her and she had promised me a full refund. However $1665 - $1050 = $615 which was not even the down payment. The down payment was $495 so even if there is some reason that I am not owed the original 30% (which I still have yet to clear up since she has never responded to me about this) she still owes me $120 by her own standards. With fee money included $1665 - $1081 = $584. Which is what I am currently asking for. However if her statement that I do not owe the 30% is true then: $584 - $495 = $89 So, she would still owe me $89. http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10055-1/Screenshot-AB-1.png I was told to cover paypal fees (which is apparently against Paypal's TOS https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/terms-outside ) so I sent her $520 with the first payment to make it even/easier to track how much I still owed. I also paid for her to ship it to me. The receipt she scanned for me: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/10072-1/Receipt-AB-6-shipping.png (I blurred out most of my address, the address of another person she mailed something to, and her card info.) And I paid a lot more than that to ship it back to her with tracking and confirmation which was something she failed to do herself. EXPLAIN: Once again, here is a review of the costume I wrote which includes all proof needed of the quality of the product received including pictures, video and e-mails sent and received throughout the process as of March 23rd. http://community.livejournal.com/fursuitreviews/31415.html Also copy pasted here: ----REVIEW START---- I have given this maker an entire year to come clean and fix the problems with this transaction and they haven't, so unfortunately, this is not a positive review. As a DISCLAIMER, this person may have changed their ways since my commission and I have never seen the produce work of this low quality before or after my commission was made. Name of Artist: Surf Cat Costumes/SophieCabra Website: http://surfcatcostumes.com/ Character/species commissioned (link to photo/concept art): Tokkebi Kesaki, a ghost Korean Jindo dog. Here is the concept art: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/1745-1/tokkebikesakicharactersheet.jpg I also included some snapshots of my SL avatar of her (my by my friend, Luper): http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/6484-2/Snapshot_003.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/6472-2/Snapshot_001.png http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/6480-2/Snapshot_002.png (I have more, but you get the idea.) Links to picture(s) of your commissioned item: Currently I have absolutely nothing, and I am down -$584, but this is what I got in the mail last year in February: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7306-1/IMG_5509.jpg Because there is a lot to be said about every other picture I have of it, I'll put them in the appropriate places throughout the review after all the other information has been said. Is the item old or new (if old, how long have you had it/when was it made?) This was made sometime at the end of 2009 but I did not receive it until February 2010. (again this will all be explained below.) --Grade each below aspect on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best)-- Visual Aspect (does it match the concept art? Is it consistent with other items the maker has produced? Is it visually pleasing overall?): 1 Okay first, let me say, this wasn't my first fursuit commission, this was my 5th or 6th fursuit commission so I had had a lot of experience with this at this point. The product did not match the concept art to the degree I had hoped for (to me it doesn't match at all other than colors really), it's not consistent with the other items this person has made, and it came out looking pretty bad overall. Why? I was promised something I did not receive. This commission was originally going to be made by Luskwood and when they stopped taking commissions and I saw Sophie, who used to work for Luskwood had parted off and started her own company I approached her asking if she could do that quality of work for me. I had seen the work she did at Luskwood and it looked good and I had seen the suits she had made on her own at that point and I thought they looked pretty nice! She promised me this quality, she promised me leg padding, eyes that light up, glowing fur, and that she would match my concept art... you know what? here is that part of the original e-mail, no better way of putting it: First E-mail: Ooh. Awesome character. I can totally play around with some glow in the dark effects. I could hopefully even find some transparent glow airbrush paints I could highlight the fur with. The problem would be finding one that went on completely transparent. But I would love to play around with that and experiment beforehand and to see if I could get it to work for your fur. ? Anyhoo, before Luskwood disbanded, I worked with Arito, so I can do the same leg/foot padding system and whatnot. I think for the whole thing (supplies, labor, shipping) I'm going to say $1650." I was excited to hear that she liked the character because usually that means the maker will make a better product when they like the character as well! I was also excited that she promised me all of these things and that she was going to do the glow in the dark stuff as well! Sounded like a dream right? The price was the highest I had ever had at the time but I was willing to pay that much for the promised quality. (All my previous commissions at this time were a lot cheaper, were much higher quality when received and were from big names like B3/Joecifur, JillCostumes, Midori, and Rose Quoll.) Here is my initial response: "Awe, thank you so much. ? I wouldn't really need the fur to glow, but actually it does on the SL avatar my friend made for me: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/2228-1/Snapshot_483.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/2232-1/Snapshot_480.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/2222-1/Snapshot_485.jpg Hahaha, so that would be really freaking awesome if you could figure it out. I know that paint from that kotaku link is really good for stuff like that, but I can't remember what it's called. I know Beetlecat used it once on some claws. I can do the 30% paypal deposit. Man, thanks for responding so fast, I asked for quotes from a couple other people and it's been months and no one has responded! Then you finished that Roo head recently and I was like OH DUH everything you made with Arito and the stuff you've made alone seemed to be the best work that came out of Luskwood/in the style I want! I was all emo there for a week about loosing my quote. I got a good price on it, but I don't mind paying more if I am still going to get the same quality. (It wasn't THAT far off from yours. :P) I wouldn't "need" the suit until FC 2010 so anywhere you want to put me in is fine, I am patient. XD Just tell me where to send the money and I'll snag my space! ? Thank you so much!" Well pretty much none of these promised things came out right. The bodysuit didn't fit at all (we made a duct tape dummy), most of the claws on the feet had fallen off, I couldn't see out of the head and it flopped around, it didn't look right, the "glow in the dark" fur was yellow, uneven, and atrocious. There was absolutely no body padding, the eyes didn't glow (there is more on this though, I'll explain this in the service section), there were no teeth, there was black eyebrows on it (character does not have eyebrows), the mouth and nose were uneven, the ears were uneven. There was pretty much flaws with every part of the suit. More on this in the workmanship section with pictures. Service Aspect (Deadlines. Communication. Little extras.):0 I have actually been afraid to post this part because it DID start off wonderful and she was a pleasure to talk to for months of this transaction! Everything seemed to be going great but then several major flaws we're made towards the end. She is also a well known person in the furry fandom and has a lot of friends so saying anything negative about her seemed "awful".. but these are facts, and this is what happened to me. This is long, so I am going to put it under a cut. Most of this was typed last year in April as well. Communication/Deadlines/Shipping: The suit was originally supposed to be done for Halloween or in October. I asked to have WIP photos because I am very particular with how my characters are represented and I never got any WIP pictures, then suddenly I got finished pictures of the suit the week of Halloween but it just didn't look right in the picture and the eyes looked awful to me. It looked wall-eyed and she had worn the bodysuit. I had sent her a duct tape dummy so that the suit would fit me and I was aware Sophie is bigger than me, so it made me kind of irked to see that she had worn the suit because she said it was hard to get into and I was hoping she hadn't stretched it or something like that. Here are those photos: http://www.surfcatcostumes.com/v/costumes/kesaki/ I didn't really like the head shapes and some other nit picky things from the photos but the eyes were the main turn off so I asked her to change the eyes because I was thinking maybe the other stuff looked better in person. I remembered from experiences in the past that some fursuits look like shit in photos, but in person they look really nice. I'd rather have a nice suit, than have it by Halloween! She took 2 months to change the eyes and they still didn't look right. She sent me this picture on December 3rd: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7856-1/eyes1.jpg I asked to see them with the lights on in them since it was the point of them and she sent me this: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7858-1/eyes2.jpg Which looked just as wall-eyed as the last pictures. Also.. why not ever show me the whole head at once? ? She told me she'd change them again, maybe the light effect was just not working out right and she'd replace them with glow in the dark painted blue eyes. She also promised me the suit had body padding and that the whole thing "lit up like a light bulb" before I got it. She finally replaced the eyes again by December 31st and sent me blurry cell phone pictures of it after I requested to see photos instead of her just sending it to me. http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/6943-1/s1.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7239-1/s2.JPG I was tired of dealing with it and I wanted the suit by FC so I asked her to send me the suit because maybe they looked better in person, who knows. She told me she sent it and I waited. On January 11th I realized the suit really should have been there at that point so I asked her if she had tracking info. She evaded the question and said the post office said it would be there by Wednesday. I waited. I e-mailed her on the 14th saying it still wasn't here. She said she'd call the post office on the 15th if it still wasn't there. I told her on the 15th it still wasn't there. She never responded so I waited some more. On the 20th I e-mailed her asking if she had ever contacted the post office. She said: "I called them, got the run around, was told to email them with the receipt number. There's not record of damage, insufficient postage costs, etc. They gave me some BS about being slow after the holidays and this past federal holiday weekend, blah blah blah. I'm calling them again. They filed it as missing as transit, so from what I hear that puts a fire in their asses if it's just sitting around in some office somewhere. It really should be there today. God, I hope. If it is lost, I'd say we allow until the end of Feb to come back and after that I can either remake the costume or begin issuing you a full refund. I am terribly sorry and infuriated this is happening. Let me know if I can do anything else." I said thanks for calling and everything she had done and continued to wait for it.. Throughout all these e-mails I had asked her multiple times if she gotten insurance and tracking info on it and she kept evading my question. On the 25th I still did not have the suit so I sent her this: "Yeah I think it's gone. ? I hope you got a large amount of money claimed for insurance on that. ? I'd feel bad getting a full refund now if you didn't, but I think now I need the money more than a suit. I lost my job on the 15th. X.x GUhhhhh stupid mail!!!! I swear this character is bad luck. The badge that ****** made of her got lost too! >.<" I censored out that artist's name just in case! Yes, a badge of this character got lost as well. We both had been completely friendly with each other up to this point and there had been no problems with each other. I already didn't completely like the suit she had made just from the pictures in the first place so getting her to remake it again seemed pointless (I would've rather just had the money at this point and commissioned the suit from another maker at a later date, especially because I had also just lost my job, and on top of that someone had stolen my identity so I couldn't get my unemployment money either.) She responded: "Went to the post office today with my delivery confirmation and receipt and in person they told me that as far as their records say, it's been delivered. o.o What the post man says he believes this means is that either one of your housemates (if any) accepted the package and never told you, or got a package notice (due to you not being home or it being too big to deliver) in the mail and forgot to give it to you, or the package notice may have gotten lost. Their advice was to have you check with anyone in your house, as well as head to your local post office ASAP. If it's been been sitting in the local USPS for a while, then that's why it's just been lost in transit without response. After a few weeks they will sent it back to me, which the post man told me can take quite a while. If you can check any roommates as well as your local post office as soon as you can, that would be the next best course of action. Please let me know!" I sent back this: "Hi ----, I don't have any housemates and nothing has ever gotten lost in the mail here at all in the past. ? I have received numerous LARGE boxes in the past, too. I just live with my boyfriend and we would've seen it if it got here. I will check the post office tomorrow I guess... ? We haven't gotten any notices. You sent it to *****ADDRESSS****** Right? I'll let you know ASAP what I hear from my post office." I wanted to double check my address because people spell it wrong all the time. Sophie responded: "Yeah, I didn't know if you had any, so I was just passing along info. Anyhoo, try the post office and see. That is the address I sent it to, so hopefully the post office was just being stupid and it's sitting with them." This is when I went to the post office on the 29th of January and e-mailed her this: "The post office says they didn't receive anything at all for me. I had them look all over in the back. Are you sure it was confirmed received?? Was it at a different post office? If you got insurance on the package, you should have a tracking number (according to the person at my post office.) I have a feeling it's lost or... at a different post office? My post office definitely doesn't have it. x.x I don't know why it would be confirmed received if it wasn't in ******." I spent a lot of time down there and they had nothing... This is also where I found out that she DID NOT get insurance or tracking on the suit. On the 30th I was upset so I sent her an e-mail explaining to her why I'd rather have the money than another suit because it seemed to me that it was definitely lost. I spilled my guts, I was stupid, I TOLD HER EVERYTHING that had happened to me up to that point because I was stressing out and so that she wouldn't think I was BSing about wanting the full refund that she had promised instead of another suit. I also asked her if she had actually sent it because it was just too weird that the post office had absolutely no record of it and that I was upset with her for not getting insurance and tracking. I was nice about everything I said in the e-mail. I asked to see the receipt so that if there was any tracking at all I could find it from the receipt. I got back an angry e-mail from her... in which she refused to refund me, but she scanned the receipt. She accused me of receiving the package and not telling her. We both basically got unreasonably mad at each other about the stupid USPS losing the package of the suit I was promised was of good quality. These e-mails are really long and tl;dr so I will leave them out and just put these summaries here. x.x I told her that I would wait 2 months for it to show up, but if it didn't I would still expect a refund to be an option if I didn't want her to remake the suit. On the 31st she e-mailed me back and said she could do the refund.. I'll just copy paste that e-mail, I can't summarize it well. "I firstly want to apologize for accusing you of lying. I was on the defense for being accused as well of something I would never do to a customer. I believe we are both just running a bit of a temper due to a regretful situation that is out of our hands. We both don't know each other personally, so it's easy to assume. It's stressful, but I think we both got any suspicions under the bridge and we can work to fix it. I do think you misunderstood me about the refund. Perhaps I worded it poorly, but I meant that I could not offer you a full refund right this minute. Firstly I really believe that we should wait the two months, and I am grateful you agree. But also I meant that I could not offer the full refund all at once. It would have to be paid back in installments, much like how I accept payment for costumes. As for it showing up in the hopeful case it will, I said in my previous email that I would be glad to change the design a bit so you could sell it without selling your character. I have no problem with offering you that at all. I encourage you, should it come to that, to allow me to do so, since I know my own work more than anyone else would. If it's truly just the head that's the problem, I can remake the head if the costume resurfaces. I still believe that I followed the concept to the best of my ability. But I also understand that the way we all see and interpret art can vary. I don't know if this would be a solution for you, but one thing I've done with previous customers is to sketch their character in my own style and render it out as such. It has been a very successful exercise in the past and I think it might work for you. Basically I would email you a bunch of sketches and you can pick and choose what you'd like. Anyways, I believe patience is our biggest ally right now and all we can do is hope it shows up. I am still going to be hawking around on the USPS phonelines until I've gotten an answer. Despite not having on-site tracking, USPS does track all packages in their own system, all I have to do is find someone on the phone that is willing to let me know what their systems are saying. I do not know why they would have told me it's delivered if it was not, but I know that I can find out somehow. It's a government agency and it is a bureaucratic mess to navigate. I will get answers, however, and I will pass them along to you as soon as I have some. Hope you are well and at ease at least a little bit," I explained to her all the things I would want changed if she wanted to remake the suit head (this was before I knew of the actual quality I would receive in the mail.) I thought only the head was a problem at this point, so it all seemed reasonable. Lots of time passed. On February 6th the suit miraculously shows up. The suit was the most terribly crafted suit I have ever had in my own possession. NONE of those things I was promised were on it. The whole suit was crammed into a huge box with no packing material at all as well... I told her my honest opinion on everything including pictures like I have posted here. Her response: "All right, send it back to me. Once I get it in hand I'll start issuing a refund in installments to be completed by Aug 1st. I will sell the costume off myself." On top of this I was told she was writing snarky posts about me on her LJ this whole time! I did not see them myself but people told had me about them. ? I never had any "buyer's remorse" for the suit I EXPECTED to get, the product I received was just NOT WHAT I BOUGHT AT ALL. There was no body padding, the eyes didn't glow, it didn't match my art, it was not Luskwood quality..etc.etc.etc. I'd be perfectly happy if I had gotten what I had commissioned. Anyways, you can see why I was not pleased with the amount of money I paid. Manda did not cost anywhere near that much and is MUCH MUCH higher quality..and she fits me, I also never sent Joe a duct tape dummy either, he just did it right with nothing but measurements and she still fit me. Licorice and Cricket were even cheaper and are just as high of a quality as Manda. Pierah was cheap as hell and much better quality, my "secret" suit is obviously higher quality and extremely cheap, same goes for Sync and none of them cost anywhere near this much. I was expecting the quality I had gotten in the past from other makers but with everything promised. I sent it back to her as soon as I could after getting back and asked her to tell me when she got it. I paid an extra $65 total to ship it and to get tracking and insurance on it (I will never get that back, but I knew that!) I just wanted to send it back to her right. It got back in a timely manor. I expected installments of payment like I was promised because she had said she didn't have the money so I agreed to have it by August 1st. I sent this to her on March 2nd because she hadn't told me she got it yet: "Hi, ----! I am just checking in, did you receive the suit yet? I sent it with insurance and tracking on the 18th, but the USPS website is giving me errors when I put the tracking number in. (Can anything with them ever work right?) Anyways, if you didn't get it yet, I am going to go down to the post office and figure out if they messed up their system or something. Thanks!" She never responded to it. So I sent this on March 18th. "Hey, just checking again since I never got a response back before. I just want to make sure everything gets there. Thanks," She responded: "Hey, I got your box. No worries." I never got any payment installments as promised but I randomly got most of it back on April 18th. This suit or.. lack there of.. THIS EXPERIENCE cost me: $584 + the money I spent to send it back to her.. and whatever I paid to send her a duct tape dummy which I doubt she used. I e-mailed her about this remaining money and she never responded. I e-mailed her again last month giving her an ultimatum, she sends the money back but the end of March or I go to court. I am hoping I won't have to go to court, but what's done is done. TL;DR: She didn't meet the deadline, the eyes never looked right, she promised me she could do something she obviously couldn't (make glowing eyes like my art), it got lost in the mail, she didn't put tracking on it, I asked for a refund when I got a bad product, she refused, she finally paid me back most of it, she still owes me money a year later and has about a week to pay me back before I go to small claims court. Workmanship Aspect (Is the sewing neat? Are things that should be sewn glued or vise versa? Does it fit? Has anything fallen off yet that shouldn’t have):1 Now to explain everything individually... First off, not fitting. I sent her a duct tape dummy so you'd think it fit? I don't know how she made it on it but it seemed to fit her pretty well: http://surfcatcostumes.com/v/costumes/kesaki/IMG_0915.JPG.html Here it is on me: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7306-1/IMG_5509.jpg (ignore my hair popping out.) http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7280-1/IMG_5522.jpg (There was no leg padding.) Here it is with a pair of pants on top to show just how baggy it was on me: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7898-2/IMG_5594.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7882-2/IMG_5592.JPG It had some strange crotch bunching thing going on in the front: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7296-1/IMG_5514.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7290-1/IMG_5517.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7890-2/IMG_5596.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7886-2/IMG_5595.JPG The fur was full of weird stuff that had collected in it: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7870-2/IMG_5591.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7926-2/IMG_5576.JPG (oh look foam!) And loose threads all over on the inside, this is the hole the tail was supposed to go through: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7878-2/IMG_5588.JPG With the belt as tight as possible, this is how the tail help up: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7288-1/IMG_5520.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7286-1/IMG_5519.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7282-1/IMG_5521.jpg Oh yeah.. and for some reason you could see my divesuit through the fur? It must've had thin backing or something I remember it being scratchy, I don't know where it was from though. The glow in the dark paint glowed, not blue, nor white, and it was splattered on unevenly and looked gross glowing, I have a video of this but I am unsure of where to upload it.. (I don't want it on youtube.) Okay so second, not looking right. Why didn't I do something about this before? Well It looked "okay" in the pictures on her. I was "eh" about the eyebrows and some facial shape things but it's white and white never photographs well so I figured I wanted to see it with my own eyes before forming a solid opinion on asking for anymore changes (also, I had already had her replace the eyes 2 times when she showed me the pictures of it all together and it took her and extra 2 or 3 months to change the eyes.) So here are those things, first off the feet: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7308-1/IMG_5510.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7304-1/IMG_5512.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7302-1/IMG_5511.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7298-1/IMG_5513.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7270-1/IMG_5531.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7958-2/IMG_5571.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7966-2/IMG_5569.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7994-2/IMG_5568.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8006-2/IMG_5554.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8014-2/IMG_5553.JPG (mysterious shoe) http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8010-2/IMG_5555.JPG (strange holes in the bottom?) http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8018-2/IMG_5551.JPG (scale, next to a DS Lite, they were huge, I couldn't barely fit through the door wearing them actually.) A lot of the claws had fallen off in the mail, they were painted blue and left unfinished so there was fur, foam and dirt/dust stuck all over them, they were also shaped very elephant like, and not dog like at all. There claws that were left attached were loose and the ones that weren't, I found loose in the box but there was one I never found.. which means it fell off before the suit was sent? I know my concept art has chunky legs but she still has a foot in it and this is definitely not how I imagined, I was thinking more like this suit made by Luskwood (quality I was promised and paid for once again): http://luskwood.org/costume/gallery/canines/nataliecevichelimahusky/1 http://luskwood.org/costume/gallery/canines/keovi/2 http://luskwood.org/gallery/costumes/canines/keovi/keovi3.jpg I already mentioned the claws issues so here are some more pictures of that and the hand paws: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7950-2/IMG_5573.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7962-2/IMG_5572.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7970-2/IMG_5570.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8038-2/IMG_5556.JPG The Nose: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7284-1/IMG_5523.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7274-1/IMG_5525.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7998-2/IMG_5565.JPG (loose hot glue on the felt) http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7978-2/IMG_5564.JPG It was very flat and had an outline around it which is something I personally just don't really like the look of on most suits. Does not look like the art. The Eyes: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7278-1/IMG_5526.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7990-2/IMG_5567.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8002-2/IMG_5566.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8030-2/IMG_5560.JPG Slapped on, falling off at parts, covered in scratches and at this point I had thought they were just glow in the dark (not EL wire anymore like originally promised because the first couple attempts at this had come out looking very wrong), but they weren't even glow in the dark and I could actually look through them because of how the head fit on my head. I had to look through the mouth. The Mouth being un-even and the lack of teeth: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7974-2/IMG_5563.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7986-2/IMG_5562.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7982-2/IMG_5561.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8026-2/IMG_5559.JPG http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7276-1/IMG_5524.jpg http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/7268-1/IMG_5527.jpg The Tail back: http://www.synchrastudios.com/gallery/d/8042-2/IMG_5557.JPG This was just messy, and strange for what it was supposed to be. I feel like I am leaving things out. I don't know, anyone who was at my house when this thing was received knows this was just NOT a top quality suit, it was somehow worse in person. (A lot of friends were over when this came in the mail, my excitement quickly died when I opened the box.) Describe your Experience. Pros, Cons, Comments: Well I pretty much described it all already. This was an extremely negative experience for me. I have waited almost an entire year for this thing to be resolved and she has made no attempt to refund me the remaining money, next month it'd be a year, and I am tired of waiting in silence. By law, because I have absolutely NO PRODUCT, and I DID NOT cancel on her while she was in process, she owes me ALL of my money. On top of this, I have not seen her resell the suit.. so I assume it's still at her house or.. possibly in the trash? I don't know. I have put off posting anything "publicly" about this because I didn't want to start a bunch of e-drama and because I was hoping keeping it out of the light would help to keep a nice neutral relationship between me and Sophie so that we could solve things in a calm and fair fashion but now that she isn't responding to me at all, it's public. Final Grade (out of 5): 0 EDIT: Figured out how to upload videos to youtube so that they can only be seen when linked or something! So, I hope these work. These were filmed last year in February right after getting the suit. This is the "glow". Impossible to photograph, hard to video tape, but this is as good as it gets to convey the issues with it. Show media This one speaks for itself. ----REVIEW END---- An update on what has happened since then: I have received no response whatsoever from her and am in the process of settling this legally now. She has failed to respond to me in any way through all the conventional methods I have tried. Yesterday I noticed she had been active on Furaffinity so I attempted to contact her through the website (which I had never tried before) and received the response that I had been blocked. The fact that she has blocked me on a website where I have never once been rude to her or attempted to contact her before on leads me to believe that she is refusing to cooperate with me instead of just neglecting to check her e-mail addresses. I had a "demand letter" written up which is being sent on Monday. (I waited until Monday because April 1st is well.. April 1st and I wanted this to be taken seriously.) I have been researching and talking to people for the last month or two about small claims suits and finding out everything I need to do. I have asked her to explain her side of the story with no response. If there is something I missed, or am doing wrong, I want to hear it because I will admit my faults if there is some valid reason or something I missed. With nothing work off of on her end, I can only go with what I know and have on my own end. I saved every e-mail and record of transaction with her and have all the evidence I need for court however. Once again, I was never given ToS so I cannot share that with you either, I can just go on what I know.

Back in July 2017 I applied for Dubmutt’s fursuit opening for a slot on their January-May 2018 queue. I wanted a fursuit head of my character Loki, he was to have magnetic eyelids, septum, and plugs. Everything seemed to be going well, I received an email accepting my commission and we moved forward from there. My suit was to be $920 with a $276 down payment. July 14th, 2017 I received the invoice and July 24th I made the down payment of $276. On December 26th 2017 I finished paying the invoice, and was told swatches would be sent out soon and I’d get an update when work was started. I reach out on February 2018 to see when swatches would be sent out as I was originally told beginning of December. I also wanted to see where I was at on the queue. Dubmutt told me swatches would be sent a month or so before starting and that I was scheduled for beginning of March. March 7th Dub reaches out to let me know they may need to cancel a few commissions while they focus on their health and that I will be updated. April 19th I reach out to dub out of curiosity of if my project was to be cancelled or completed. I was told mine was still scheduled. A few months go by so I message Dub on August 15th, 2018 to see if there’s been any updates. I am told they are finishing up two other suits and they were hoping to get to mine soon. January 8th, 2019 I reach out again to see if there was any progress. January 12th Dub replies to say they are finishing 3 suits and mine will be next, and to contact them through twitter from now on. August 31st I message Dub on twitter since it’s been quite a while, I ask if there are any updates or even an estimate on when my suit would even be started. September 9th Dub posts a PSA to twitter stating that they will be leaving the fandom, but owed commissions will be done. I haven’t heard from Dub since January 2019. At this point in time, I have received no word about my suit even being started. Update: 09/20/19

Jun. 12th, 2012 at 4:37 AM pyeklet WHO: Akemi/Flarveon/Poppy Pandacoon WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/flarveon/ WHAT: I asked her to make a tail for me and paid $30 in cash, this commission was taken in person so I have no digital proof of the transaction. WHEN: In around March last year I asked Akemi to make me a tail at a local coffee meet and paid her in cash. I told her the details and showed references from my FA page. I asked if it could be done by FurDU, a convention on the Gold Coast in Australia, which was at the end of April. She agreed that she could have it done by that time. I didn't ask her about it for some time even after the deadline passed, nor did I have any contact from her about it, I'm quite a patient person. I was the first to initiate contact again via PM in May of last year at which time she stated she had received the wrong fur and offered me a refund, which I accepted. She said it would be in my account the following Wednesday but then sent a PM almost a week later saying that she couldn't pay. I said that it was fine and I understood. There was no further contact on this matter until November last year when I again asked about my refund, this time over FA notes. She said she couldn't pay me because she had to put it towards bond and only gets paid fortnightly but would pay me the next time she was paid. I said I would contact her in a week but I didn't feel comfortable, I was following her journals at the time about her moving and I felt that if I contacted her again I would just get another run around. Finally in March this year I told her not to worry about the refund, I had seen her journals about needing surgery so I thought it might help her out and I didn't feel like flogging a dead horse any longer. PROOF: EXPLAIN: I did resolve this issue I suppose, by giving up (never got a note back after that final one btw although it was read). It was annoying that she owed me money but was taking commissions, selling suits, working and BUYING commissions (and a new Artslave suit recently?) but didn't have $30 to pay me.

I decided to write this review of my experience with Furfancy costumes, after my paypal case has finally closed. I feel it's important to share my experience so other people might not end up in my situation, and I hope that Furfancy will learn from their mistakes and improve on their customer service and communication skills in the future. A little background information that goes before the situation that in the end led to a Paypal chargeback of 373$. I have previously commissioned Furfancy for 2 of her big cat expanding foam bases. These two bases were commissioned 10/10 2017 and 14/1 2018. Both bases were in perfect condition upon arrival and I was very happy with the quality and looks of these bases. However, I did have some communication issues with Furfancy during this time (lack of updates, slow to no responses) and it took about 1 month before the bases were shipped out. I have described this more in detail in the overview timeline I’m posting after this section. At the time I didn’t think too much about it but it did worry me a bit, but since I in the end did get my product and I was happy about it I wanted to commission them again when they offered more bases for sale through Twitter summer 2018, and this is where things went terribly wrong. Furfancy foam base issue timeline 10/10 2017 - Ordering 1 foam base 23/10 2017 - Asking for updates (no response) 2/11 2017 - Asking for updates (no response) 3/11 2017 - Gets answer from Furfancy 10/11 2017 - Contacts to confirm shipping 11/11 2017 - Shipping confirmed 23/11 2017 - Base arrives 14/1 2018 - Ordering second foam base 1/2 2018 - Asking if the base has been shipped 3/2 2018 - Get a picture of the base in a box 5/2 2018 - Base gets shipped 13/2 2018 - Base arrives 19/7 2018 - Ordering 2 foam bases 31/7 2018 - Contacting to ask if they have received payment. It gets confirmed its recieved. 6/9 2018 - Asking for update and ordering an extra additional base. Also pay more shipping for all 3 bases to be shipped together 19/11 2019 - Asking for update (no response) 20/11 2018 - Asking for update again (no response) 29/11 2018 - Asking for refund (no response) 3/12 2018 - Asking for refund again. Tries to work out a private payment plan with first payment in January. 5/1 2019 - Contact seller asking for status of refund (no response) 6/1 2019 - Contacting again because no response (still no response) 8/1 2019 - Doing a PayPal dispute and first here do I get an reaction 11/1 2019 - Pushes for a PayPal claim due to no response on the dispute 21/1 2019 - Paypal closes the case, ruling in my favour due to Furancy failing to respond or provide additional proof regarding the transaction. Now, I am terrible sorry this had to go this way, but I am very unhappy with how this business transaction has been treated. I have attached the entire conversation which took place on Telegram as proof of my statements. Sadly I have friends who had similar experience as me, although they either didn't get their items all together or they arrived damaged. While it's not my place to speak their case, their experiences combined and my own I felt I had to speak up about this issue. The only reason I pushed the Paypal case was because my 180 days buyer protection was running out. It was around 170 days past when I made the dispute and with failing communication or any sign of a refund I decided to go through with it while I still had a chance to get my money back. Furfancy has a super adorable style, I love their suits and I admire the craftsmanship. But as a professional I had expected more and better communication and customer service. I felt I was often left in the dark and felt forced to ask for any updates (both product wise and shipping wise) and that should be communicated better from Furfancy. This is not an attack on their person (I don’t know them) but it's a critique of their lacking professionalism as a business. Pictures of the conversation below. Please note the dates.

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.