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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/872485.html WHO: midousuji on Furaffinity or ambedo on Furaffinity WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/midousuji/ or http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ambedo/ WHAT: Digital YCH- Name Shower Time WHEN: October 25, 2014 PROOF: Original Post: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/3wroab4iw6a7e6s/Artistbewareproof1.png?dl=0 (NSFW) My comment: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/yn7qr8rvf7v0zn8/ArtistBewareproof2.png?dl=0 Proof I paid: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/v9ga73fvar5f1qr/proofIpaid.png?dl=0 Attempts at contact: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/6xv1npk1d0higar/my%20attempt%20at%20contact.png?dl=0 Dispute: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/slxn6vn08f6ziug/Disbute.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: Bought a slot for the YCH in October and I have not heard from them since I paid. There has been no updates or answers to my comments. Unfortunately, the journal where I asked about the Skype information is gone. I did not want to have to do this, but after almost a year without any information I felt that I had to do this. I have tried to contact this person, but there has been no response. Feb 20, 2015- Just went through their gallery today and noticed that all the YCHs that were previously posted are no longer there. Jul 27, 2015- I just realized that their account midousuji is now deactivated I originally bought the YCH because I saw that they were completing the previous YCHs and had changed. Obviously, they haven’t. Do not commission this person. I tried to open a dispute, but I was denied. Luckily, it was only $20, but it was $20 I could have kept. All I want is my money back and, unfortunately, I do not see this happening

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/871364.html WHO: Dirtymutt WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/dirtymutt/ WHAT: 2 character digital flat-color WHEN: October 28, 2014 PROOF: see screenshots EXPLAIN: There has been a lack of communication from him with zero updates. He has provided me with zero wips or even the finished commission he says he has finished. He hasn't responded to me since April regarding my commission. In between waiting he disabled his FA user page for sometime in February which sent up a red flag for me. Has has re-enabled his user page but is continuing to ignore any communication on the art he owes me. Screenshots

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/870876.html thesyko / lesyko (FA) - vonwerehog (DA) http://www.furaffinity.net/user/thesyko/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/lesyko/ http://vonwerehog.deviantart.com/ WHERE: FA/DA WHAT: Egg adoptables http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15463996/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15472989/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15515024/ http://lesyko.deviantart.com/…/2-Dollar-Egg-Adoption-506776… WHEN: 8 months ago PROOF: http://sta.sh/21rmjg9525if?edit=1 EXPLAIN: -Do not buy adoptables o commission her, you may be scammed- This user was selling adoptables (on Fur Affinity) a long time ago, I purchased 3 and waited for their art, but never got it. They were reported on the previous site, but I found her on DA and I asked them for a refund, but they just ignored me, I were insisting to contact with them. They were very rude, and said "I was in the hospital, I cannot give you a refund because I don't have a job, etc..." A few moths later, I asked they again, and their response was "You'll have your refund ond july 2nd" A month has passed and still nothing, so I noted them again, because I REALLY NEED the money right now... They ignored and blocked me... This user stills drawing and taking commissions... By the way, there are more upset customers by her

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/869831.html WHO: SnowDarkWolf at Furaffinity. Not sure if he has other accounts on other sites. WHERE: His userpage on Furaffinity: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/snowdarkwolf the pic he commissioned me: (WARNING: NSFW?) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17019931/ WHAT: a digital art commission that has been completed, but then be charged back by this commissioner. (see proof 2) WHEN: commission succefully ended on July 5th, 2015, chargeback case happened on August 27th, 2015 PROOF: (1) proof of completion of commission: http://i1030.photobucket.com/albums/y368/darkgoose666/85c6d9d1-917d-4608-9b5c-2f3d2858dcf2_zpsgzetwl3w.png (2) proof of chargeback case happened: http://s1030.photobucket.com/user/darkgoose666/media/asdee0150901190907_zpskja37jau.png.html EXPLAIN: about 3 months ago, I was commissioned by SnowDarkWolf and drew a pic for him: (WARNING: NSFW?) http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17019931/ The commission was successfully completed and I'd already sent him the full size image. However, at last month, a charge-back from PayPal is issued, saying that the customer wants his money back. I tried to contact SnowDarkWolf by all the methods I could, but there's totally no response. He's email is dead-like and his account on FA is banned. It's quite obvious that he's trying to con me on that commission, he probably thinks that he doesn't need to pay on commissions on a banned account. It really upsets me. I work hard and waste a lot of time for someone, but end up not earning anything, yet losting even more money than doing nothing, just because someone is being selfish. 😧

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/866132.html WHO: Ann Allen on Facebook, unsure of any aliases outside of Facebook WHERE: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100009386021687 WHAT: 2 Small (about 1 inch) feral chibis (both rats), laminated & shipped. WHEN: On June 11th, I was tagged into a posting in a Furry-Centered Art Group on Facebook by some personal friends who are moderators there. The reason is irrelevant (and I also cannot remember it), but I decided to commission the OP (Ann Allen) as they were showing off about 10 or so completed chibi pieces they had done for a group of people they were staying with at a con. PROOF & EXPLANATION: All correspondence is/was through Facebook PM, and follows as such, censored parts are her e-mail and my work address-- First Contact (June 11th): http://i.imgur.com/CSvIpsp.png I give her my commission details in PM after arranging for a commission in the original post in the Facebook Group, we chat a bit about our jobs (mostly omitted from screens as it's not pertinent) and I leave her alone to it. I ask later if she has an FA, she ignores me. The conversation picks back up nearly a month later JULY 6th where she asks me AGAIN what styles I want: http://i.imgur.com/vuOnC9v.png I reiterate that I'd like just the regular, simple chibis: http://i.imgur.com/w4GFurp.png The next day (July 7th) she asks me if I'm picking up at AC, when I never mentioned anything about going to AC prior to this nor on Facebook: http://i.imgur.com/rROL5Wn.png I inform her that I haven't been to AC since 2012 since I generally don't have the kind of funds it takes, and I again give her my address to have them shipped: http://i.imgur.com/t0PI0IN.png As you can see, the conversation ends there. I ask her again on the 21st of July and again a week later on the 28th of July for updates. I get silence. At this point it's been over a month I've been waiting for two tiny, very simple chibis that I've been asked for details on more than once despite her being active on her Facebook and posting other commissions/personal art. She had been very talkative at initial contact and then for some days after until I started asking for updates, then I started getting silence. Finally, on the 28th of July I asked for another update and postured a Beware. She sends me a photo of an empty iPhone Box: http://i.imgur.com/43VVXvk.png She claims then that her phone was broken despite never having made mention of this anywhere: http://i.imgur.com/L815Pkf.png I am sympathetic, she AGAIN asks me what I ordered. I tell her, re-send our refs. On August 13th (now it's been a little over two months) I ask her for an update: http://i.imgur.com/RJq5qnF.png Then again today (August 19th) I message her, and despite seeing her posting on her personal Facebook and being active on messenger, she continues to ignore me. I believe I am now out of the range of chargeback, and for $7 I'm not exactly going to kick and scream, but I REALLY did want my art, I genuinely like her work but I'm not the kind of person that likes to be strung along. I browsed her Facebook Wall a bit earlier and saw other people posting, asking for updates and replies to messages so it seems she's doing this to almost all her clientele while posting commissions she got for herself, etc.

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

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/865680.html WHO: Boxjelly1 (goes by real name also but for sake of having this posted, omitting) WHERE: http://boxjelly1.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Two full color, 2 character pieces with background. WHEN: March/April 2015 PROOF: Artist did not do correct characters, agreed to refund me, and ceased communications/has not yet refunded me. EXPLAIN: This is my first really bad experience commissioning someone, and first AB post, and most of the details will be here. I have worked with this artist in the past and their works are absolutely amazing. In the prior works I've gotten from them, they met or exceeded what I was looking to get. However, for whatever reason this time, the artist drew not what I wanted, decided to complete the piece after they had specifically asked if I wanted to see a sketch before they colored, and admits they didn't draw what I wanted, but due to their time and effort spent, were still entitled to something. This post is more about principal than a refund because I've nearly exhausted every avenue to get my money back, and I will not silently stand by while someone does this. In March 2015, artist had they were open for commissions on their page. I sent them a PM through DA's notes a while prior, and they messaged me saying they were open. I respond back stating I wanted my character Patches and Steele (from Balto) in some rather cute, mushy gushy poses. I've worked with the artist prior over the years and she has drawn the characters before. Artist states she has 2 commissions ahead of me and will let me know once she's ready to take on mine. In April, artist lets me know she's ready to start. Details are given, artist agrees, and artist asks if I want to see work in progress before she colors. I state I want to see work before she colors, and specify image formats preferred (as this artist has done prior for me), and she agrees. Between last message sent and this one (about a month and a half), artist has many delays for whatever reason. I had sent messages asking what her status was since I had already paid her, and finally on May 29 2015 she's ready to start. ------This is where things go downhill------- I still haven't received any updates so message the artist on June 3rd, and artist replies on June 4th with links to sketches and that she'll start coloring them right away even though this is not what was agreed on. Upon seeing sketches, I see that she has drawn my character Patches with Scar, and I tell her this. (I do like Scar and this artist has drawn them in the past, but I was not looking for that with these commissions). She states I didn't specify Steele, and asks to keep with what's she's done so she doesn't have to redraw. I state that I don't want that and want them how I described. Artist replies back that she completed coloring 1 of the pieces, is sorry that she did the incorrect character and admit to doing so, and offers a partial refund stating that even though it was her fault, she still is entitled to funds for her work done. (This completely blew my mind) It is worth noting that the piece she completed is so obviously hastily completed that I laughed at how horrible it was. Artist used a picture off the Internet for the background, and the coloring is rushed and absolutely horrid. Compared to her other works she's completed of the same type, it's clear that she spent no time at all trying to complete this. With the above in mind, I message the artist back, stating my absolute disappointment with their work, and ask them what would have happened had I not stopped them from completing both pieces, again, only supposed to have been done once sketches were approved? Seller states they will give me a refund, and this is the last time I ever hear from them. I ask 2 times where my refund is, artist reads DA notes, ignores/never responds. I send an ultimatum to artist; it is read and ignored (see above to see that note was read on DA). Dispute is opened with Paypal and ultimately denied due to being "digital goods" which aren't covered prior to 7/1/2015. It's worth noting when their new TOS went into effect on 7/1/2015, they would have been covered. They note I can attempt to get funds outside of Paypal, such as filing a police report. In the Paypal dispute comments, the seller is adamant they are still entitled to funds, and mention commission TOS that do not exist on their page (at least to where I can find them). TOS were also never mentioned in our communications. So with that being said, I've walked away from this feeling like I've been stolen from, and lied to. The artist has done nothing to communicate back to me or refund me, yet ultimately insists that because she did work (even though by her own account was wrong), she deserves to keep my money. And the sad thing of the matter is she's an amazing artist and this was probably some sort of fluke, but being a repeat customer of hers, I feel like I'm somehow been made the bad guy in her mind. Am I crazy? Did I do something wrong here? 😕

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/865113.html 8th October Update: I was chatting with some others about Rach today and decided to check her Trello and noticed my Card was moved to a section called Cancelled/Refunding as shown in this screenshot: http://imgur.com/ZHB4psq so having been almost 2 months since I last messaged her I decided I would ask her why and relayed this message: http://imgur.com/vPP8VLV hopefully she will get back. WHO: RachVerity WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rachverity/ https://www.weasyl.com/~rachelleverity | https://inkbunny.net/rachykins http://rach-verity-sketchbook.tumblr.com/ | https://www.patreon.com/rachVerity?ty=h Commission List: https://trello.com/b/kDddOtiK/commissions-list WHAT: 3 x Flat Colour Commissions as detailed in this picture http://imgur.com/IruU17G WHEN: Paid on 22nd December 2014 PROOF: http://imgur.com/BANmRVV she even posts the details on her Trello she makes later on http://imgur.com/jIGqXOg which is clogged full of so many commissions. EXPLAIN: Being new to commissioning I wasn't sure if 2 months was a long time for some simple art so I sent a message on February 13th asking whats up: http://imgur.com/sjepU63, she replied with http://imgur.com/r0WdkpY. Okay, she's the artist, who am I to judge I don't draw so I don't know how long it could take. On April 28th I finally get notified via a shout on my page http://imgur.com/R27RiPh about one piece being done. I'm excited and happy to have some progress done however it was neither done as I requested or to my characters reference. (NSFW Content) Posted Image: http://imgur.com/NReJ8UA, my girls Ref: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/11793824/ I'm grateful for getting back to me and I send her a message that same day: http://imgur.com/zm0pgUW to which she replies http://imgur.com/w0WfLnh so its nice to see she is taking responsibility for the mistakes and is happy to fix it. June 4th, I noted her: http://imgur.com/4rlMcLX, her reply: http://imgur.com/ezuYlR2 July 18th, I noted again: http://imgur.com/gOEG5hC, her reply: http://imgur.com/1oW7VXi Honestly I don't know what she meant by the last note but now I'm just sick of it. I'm sick of waiting, I'm sick of the excuses and I hate the fact that I have been forced to come here and make a post just to try and get something resolved. If you're not going to do my art Rach then refund my $60, I refuse to accept and use that art drawn as it was neither done to how I asked or to my characters reference. I'm sorry to have to bring this to A_B but I was left with no choice at this point as I feel like you have taken my money and ran. Thank you.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/864661.html WHO: Wyldfire/Wyldfire7/Fr0stbit3 WHERE: http://furaffinity.net/user/wyldfire http://furaffinity.net/user/fr0stbit3 http://weasyl.com/~wyldfire7 WHAT: Traditional 2 character NSFW sketch commission http://i.imgur.com/JCcdnQ0.png (details blurred out for NSFW reasons) There was more notes before this, but they just include me at first wanting a comic, but then not being able to pay, so we decided on a sketch image. WHEN: As you can tell from the timestamps on the notes, the commission was discussed, agreed on, and paid on August 1st, 2014 A rough time line of the situation from initial conversation, to 1st payment (or agreement of trade) to signs of trouble. http://i.imgur.com/tISUOYg.png I've blocked out the end of the email as the first part proves that Wyldfire is Fr0stbit3 PROOF: Discussion of commission: http://i.imgur.com/JCcdnQ0.png Payment: http://i.imgur.com/tISUOYg.png Note that the sketch is too hard, artist wanting to change it, and me asking for a refund instead: http://i.imgur.com/Y1gShFI.png More screenshots regarding the situation can be found in the explain area below. Explain: On August 1st, 2014, I contacted (on Weasyl) Wyldfire7. At first, I wanted a comic commission, but it was changed to a 2 character NSFW sketch commission involving a dragon of mine and one of his. It was paid for that very night. As I waited, I feel deathly ill and was unable to access the internet (nor was I physically able to) as I spent the next 8 months in the hospital. When I was finally able to get online again, I was expecting to see the sketch commission, as it'd been close to a year. Instead, I find a note that had been sent on the 24th of August, 2015, saying that the sketch was too hard, and if I wanted the commission still, I'd have to request a different pose. I was a little disappointed, but at this point in time I'd fallen away from the fandom and my characters, and was more interested in a refund. A refund was agreed on, and I'd sent my paypal information, the amount, and started to wait. About a month later, I poked him about my refund and received this. http://i.imgur.com/uUA9bh8.png I understood where he was coming from, so I resumed my waiting. Though I didn't log on for a while after I sent my last note, as I had a lot going on in my life and just assumed that he'd get to it soon, so I tried to give him space and not badger him about the refund. So when I logged back on about a month later to poke about my refund, and I received a note that contained a personal means of getting me my refund. I shall not repeat what was said here, but I will say that I was rather grossed out by it. A little while passed, and I decided to check my paypal to see if I'd gotten my refund. I, of course, didn't, but on my payment summary, I noticed something strange. The paypal email address that I'd originally sent it to (which was related to his Wyldfire/Wyld name) had been changed to Fr0stbit3works http://i.imgur.com/tISUOYg.png I was confused, as his name was still the same, it was just different. Soon after that, I visited the journal of one of my favorite dragon artist's on Furaffiinty, as I noticed that were opening for commissions and I wanted to see if I could afford one. Well, in the comments, I saw this http://i.imgur.com/2ACVkkX.png They have the same name as what the paypal address had been changed to. So I visited the userpage and saw that they're skype address was the exact same as the paypal address http://i.imgur.com/rfoF11b.png Please note that the Tier 1 commissin slot started at $60 and went up, so it's clear that he has enough to refund me. So I go back onto Weasyl, sent (and received) this http://i.imgur.com/eREiIAo.png I'll admit I was a little frantic as red flags were going up quickly, but I tried to control my emotions regardless. I was frustrated when I read the reply, about how I needed to be 'patient', so I just didn't reply as I'm sure I'd let my emotions get the best of me. About another month passed, and I visited his userpage again, and saw that he'd going to the movies to view Ant-Man, and would only have $15 left until he got paid again http://i.imgur.com/evnKMEA.png Him saying that he had 'nothing he needed to buy' is really frustrating to hear, given that I've been waiting for a while now for my refund. So I finally decided to shoot him a note (7/18/15) asking for a time estimate for my refund. What I got back... http://i.imgur.com/g0ryPTl.png He's claiming that I have him confused for someone else, even when I have all this evidence that he is indeed who I can prove he is. http://i.imgur.com/QUqHeB8.png I confronted him with a screencap of the paypal summary, and this is what he said. I was angered by this, so I didn't reply, as I know, again, my emotions would've gotten the better of me. (as a note, I've moved from Weasyl to FA, given that the note system is easier for me to keep track of) Mere minutes later, I get this note on my Weasyl http://i.imgur.com/NglAIdX.png After everything I've seen, I have the feeling that I'm just getting the run around at his point. As of 8/4/15, I have yet to receive a refund. I don't know what to do at this point. I paid with my paypal balance, so I can't contact a bank at all, and I'm well past the 45/180 days to file a chargeback. And I'm sure that posting this will cause me not to get my refund at all, but the least I can do is try to warn others about him before they get taken advantage of too. Please be very VERY wary of commissioning this artist.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/864318.html WHO: Cinnamonkitt/Cinnamon (deviantart/weasyl) but moved to Buckthorn (furaffinity/weasyl) WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/buckthorn and http://cinnamonkitt.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Digital art (5 pieces) WHEN: April 2013 PROOF: Deviantart: -Comishing: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qkbtuwchsu739v1/2.png?dl=0 -journal where im listed for the comish: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1puztjkkwj386y/Ev1.png?dl=0 -grabbing another slot: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p8fml8e9ezcn3uc/DaNewslot.png?dl=0 -asking whats the hold up: https://www.dropbox.com/s/datots20dsalah3/3.png?dl=0 -notes with no reply: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zy7f36mzdll8u1k/Note2.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/71997ed7dab6b52/Note1.png?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/l57t5757e1kw3vc/Note4.png?dl=0 Weasyl: -comments separated by a year annoyed since no reply and avoiding: https://www.dropbox.com/s/sv2qh0qpc3pfw16/WeE2.png?dl=0 -buckthorn character linking old account to new one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p0ljdxjgj4fd7ic/WeE1.png?dl=0 (also had artwork of the character but was removed before I took the screencap) -Artist who is in the same predicament informing I should try noting again (and I should get a response): https://www.dropbox.com/s/lhgieaqf5jv6g2j/WeE3.png?dl=0 Furaffinity: -Sent notes with no reply but read: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9m44a6z9zibwpok/FaE1.png?dl=0 -Blocked: https://www.dropbox.com/s/q09f0p1tvcrvzf7/FaE2.png?dl=0 EXPLAIN: It started in April 2013, This artist posted a journal stating that if you but one you get one free. Knowing this artists talent I decided to take the offer and also commented a friend about it. To which he decided to comish her as well. Alls well and the artist notified me that she will do them as soon as she can. I don’t usually bother artist but I decided to take another slot (since I’ve previously comished her and I trusted this artist) and she said she’d get it underway, unfortunately she said she had complications based on her equipment and family situation, something that I can understand. However things started to take a dive after she stated that she would get them done in a weekend, ASAP as she stated. However I saw no progress, any attempts made to communicate and figure out anything were met with nothing, she picked up on ‘em and read the notes I sent over Deviantart. However I found it odd that she was doing artwork months after she stated shed do my own. So she had moved to Weasyl, again I noted her there asking what’s going on. No reply, however it would seem another person had fallen for her, the same deal, she did a trade however. This will play a part later on as we talked. But in the meantime she didn’t reply. Only read. Then some months later she stated she would return after health complications to deviantart. Again I understood this but was a bit unsure since she was uploading artwork in other sites. Moving on, I kept on asking (usually waited a month or so, since I don’t like bothering an artist) but saw they were only read. Never replied. She had made a new character named Buckthorn, I didn’t pay much attention to this until years later I stumbled upon her on FA, same character, same style. Never let me know she changed accounts or anything of the sort. So I sent her a note, again no reply but she did read it. A month after I sent her another note and commented on her shoutpage. No response, I sent the person whom had the same situation and she told me she did respond to her and that it was the same artist and they were checking up on how to fix the dilemma, upon getting this information I decided to try it again. To my surprise she had put me on her blocklist. I guess she got tired of me messaging her asking for my end of the deal. It’s a shame really since I trusted her and I would have continuously done so over these past 2 years. Im currently trying to contact this artist, she posted a journal stating if any art is owed to note her. Can’t do that while blocked so I used another account. I also tried adding her skype, I do get “bucky” referencing her new character instead of the old one tho the account is from the old character. managed to talk to her manager since she doesn’t want to deal with this herself and am currently awaiting a refund because ive been told they aren’t doing well financially and will be taken care of soon. Deadline is suppose dot be on September, I appreciate I got someone to talk to about this but all in all im still somewhat concerned wether this will go through or not. Edit 10/17/2015: Nothing came through, still avoiding me, at this point i cant do anything. Seriously dissapointing.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/864053.html WHO: Linka/Linkaton-furaito WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/linkaton-furaito/ WHAT: Partial refund (Difference of basic template and subscription price, $35) WHEN: Template subscription paid for on January 4th, request for refund and reminder notes in May and July PROOF: Proof of payment: http://i.imgur.com/VsKQbIN.png First note requesting refund and response: http://i.imgur.com/gZR2wct.png Reminder and response: http://i.imgur.com/XhH4Vdu.png EXPLAIN: I bought Linkaton's lineart template subscription on early January. It was promised that there would be monthly updates with at least 7 new items in each update. (Details seen here: http://i.imgur.com/Y30fkhM.png) There were a couple of journals regarding the template being delayed for personal issues and I was sympathetic. After a while, however, it got to a point that I felt I had paid for something I was not receiving and may not, as they had suggested in journals they may have bitten off more than they could chew with their queue being the size it was. After several months with no updates, I asked for a partial refund. They apologized, said I would have my refund, but that it may take some time to get back to me. (May 15th/16th) I waited for a bit, noticed they had been posting several notices for commissions, a MYO adoptable event, various streams, etc. I noted them again only to receive yet another noncommittal response. I'm unsure of how else to proceed, as I've been told by others that they're also awaiting things from this person (some back from 2013) and I'd really just like to get this taken care of. EDIT: I received my refund. This can be marked as resolved.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/863094.html WHO: FA; Frindle WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/frindle/ WHAT: Hypnosis Icon WHEN: Commissioned March 19, 2015 PROOF: http://i.imgur.com/B8n55eT.png EXPLAIN: Commissioned Frindle on March 19th of 2015 for one Hyno Icon when they posted a journal saying they were taking some. Eagerly I placed an order which was through Google Docs. After 2 months of waiting I sent them a message after they made a journal that if anyone had any questions to send them a message. I sent them a message because I was not sure where my commission was and that it did not show up on their Trello. I received a message back not too long after asking if I had ordered through Google Docs and that they were on a separate spreadsheet. Seeing as I had, I left it at that and figured that it would get done sometime soon. http://i.imgur.com/nCdQsQT.png - Inquiring about Icon Two months later, I noticed their queue was getting larger and figured mine wouldn’t be done so I messaged them asking for a refund as it was getting towards the end of the dispute period. http://i.imgur.com/ThqLkCS.png - Original Message Frindle apologized for the wait and I noted them my paypal for the refund. I did not receive the refund due to the artists typo of my paypal the first time and when they fixed the issue 2 days later, they only sent me a partial refund. I immediately messaged Frindle on FA, explaining that I had ordered during the time when they were $21 and not $15. Once again Frindle apologized and said they sent the remainder of the refund to my paypal. It has now been 4 days since then and I have not received the remainder of my money. I did send them another message prior asking if they had sent it (they did look at the message but did not respond to me) and I sent another and I am waiting a reply once again. http://i.imgur.com/shnMko8.png - Telling about the mix up with the Refund http://i.imgur.com/ZIiQeop.png - Current Outbox Message asking about the remainder I’m losing my patience with this commission and it’s putting me a little on edge that it’s getting close to the end of the dispute period. Although it is only $6, it’s still $6 I would be out of with only 4 months of waiting, no icon, and a partial refund only to show it. http://i.imgur.com/0bBwglu.png?1 - Proof of Partial Refund UPDATE: July 27th Received a reply back from Frindle saying they will refund me the remainder of my money (however it is $6 and not $5) when they get the funds to do so. I have no idea when this will be and the paypal dispute period is nearing the end (or it could be over, not sure but I know it’s 180 days is the limit). http://i.imgur.com/5ggWW0a.png - Reply from Frindle

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/862933.html Beware - BaeBunny WHO: BaeBunny WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/baebunny/ + https://twitter.com/baebunnyart WHAT: A traditional chibi couple set WHEN: Midwest Furfest 2014. PROOF: Commission was made in person at MFF, paid in cash. Screenshots of phone conversations are here [NSFW warning, ref sheets] including one final request for contact on 7/23/15 which has so far been ignored. EXPLAIN: My boyfriend [QuinTheOtter] and I commissioned Baebunny Friday at MFF 2014 for a traditional chibi set. Quin paid in cash. We found Bae Saturday, he said he wasn't done, we said that's fine. Quin and I agreed that if he needed to mail them after the con that's fine. Fast forward to now, we have no art for our money 8 months later and I am posting here to raise awareness of his degraded business practices. Judging by his FA page I am not alone.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/862572.html WHO: Pastel_Paws *old account*, Ribbons.and.Fangs *active account*, MuttStar_Studios (commission account), Creepyinpink, and Sushi.dog WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/pastelpaws http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ribbons.and.fangs/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/muttstarstudios http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sushi.dog/ http://www.furaffinity.net/user/creepyinpink WHAT: 2 Colored Headshots WHEN May 12 2014 PROOF: I don't have the original journal but I do have the proof of payment and the follow up journal screenshot and replied emails and notes where she is aware of the artwork. Payment: http://sta.sh/01pov5hop4fn Follow up journal: http://sta.sh/01zwahv18u46 Original replied notes *she deletes my side of the conversation*: http://sta.sh/02djyrpuk0hp http://sta.sh/02bebdaqjqjj Explain: Okay so Ribbons/Pastel/Sushi/Munstar last year posted a journal stating that she was doing I think 5 colored headshots. And since my friend's birthday was coming up I decided to order two of them and plus they were cheap and I was crunched for money. I had a good previous experience with her when I bought an adoptable from her and she was very nice and quick and responsive to my notes and questions. Plus I like her artwork and didn't see why not to buy something. So I send her the money and we discussed in notes what I wanted. This was also around the time of FA's longer downtime so I got her email address just in case and she was okay with this. I'm a patient person so I don't mind waiting plus she said she was busy in the follow up journal and I didn't want to bother her. In August of the same year I sent her a note asking for an update about the commission. And she said that she thought that she finished them and just forgot to post them and apologized. Which I said fine because she said she was done with them at least. Proof of conversation: http://sta.sh/01kv3ah4knsx She never posted the pictures. By then my friend's came and past and in October I sent her an email (I think FA was down that's why it was an email and not a note) and I ask her the same thing. She said the same thing and thought she posted it and asked if I could describe what I ordered. I tell her I checked both her pages and neither had the headshots and she apologizes and even says she'll upgrade my headshots to chibis or if I would like a refund. I choose the chibis and that I'll have a WIP soon. She never did that. I ask again in November the same thing and she apologizes again and says things have been hectic and that I'll see the pictures by Monday. Harley isn't her real name its the name of her character. Proof of conversation: http://sta.sh/01wfpymeo0n7 http://sta.sh/0t0k53zcrkf http://sta.sh/0pr8mdhhikd All of that never happened. And that was the last time she ever replied back to any of my notes and emails. She'll open them almost within minutes after I send them but she never responded back to them. And I wait awhile to send her notes and emails (except for maybe two of them) so I don't bombard her or make it seem as though I'm harassing her. All my questions about updates are months apart but she just doesn't respond back. On May 25th 2015 she finally responds back to a shout I posted on her page saying that she hasn't gotten an notes and hasn't checked her email despite the fact that FA has shown that she has opened the notes. But she states that I will get a refund. Proof of shout: http://sta.sh/02b4jao3qi9m Proof of all the notes I sent her: http://sta.sh/01kv3ah4knsx It is now July of 2015 and she still hasn't refunded me, responded back to my notes/shouts/emails, or even made the pictures. I've tried contacting her one last time asking if she's getting my notes and that I was thinking of doing an artist beware. Once again she opened it and never responded back. Proof: http://sta.sh/0bh3bxgttef I even forwarded the email of the actual paypal statement saying that I paid her: http://sta.sh/07aronw8dud I see her post commissions that she gets from other people so she's active and she responds back to other people's shouts on her page ones that are newer than mine. So I do believe she's ignoring me. And I know this isn't a lot of money. But I hate being cheated you know? I gave this person no real reason to ignore me when they responded back to me in a kind and quick manner earlier. Plus I paid her and she kept saying she'll do this or its done. If it's done than why can't she just deliver what she said is done so we can both put this behind us? She's a good artist and whatnot but I don't want people to go through this with her.

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/860264.html [Editor's note: Ellis Cain now goes by Ellis Umbra and the FB link has been adjusted accordingly.] WHO: Ellis Cain/Octoplanet WHERE: Furry Craigslist on Facebook. Post url in question: https://www.facebook.com/groups/701968973213985/permalink/838965656180982/?comment_tracking={"tn"%3A"O"} Archive: https://archive.is/fDZXY WHAT: Pair of premade foam base wings for $100 + $25 shipping. WHEN: For sale post went up on FC on the 8th of May, payment made on the same day. PROOF: Proof album, will be pulling links from here: http://imgur.com/a/sNKx2 EXPLAIN: A video of a pair of premade wings that were being sold was uploaded to FC on the 8th of may and as I am slowly piecing together a fursuit, I enquired. They were perfect for what I wanted so purchased them on the spot. After some friendly back and forth I was given their paypal (which is actually another users, I am told they are business partners) and their furaffinity so I could look at their other work as I was interested in seeing if they would finish the wings (although I chose to leave it as a foam base.) My first red flag was when they sent me this while I was out at dinner http://i.imgur.com/SJvoOhZ.png and I politely informed them of Paypal's ToS and resent the payment (still as goods and services). After a couple of inquiries with no response, on the 15th I was told they would be mailed the next day http://i.imgur.com/b50pxQ5.png And then on the second I inquired again http://i.imgur.com/DlVPTEw.png On the 9th I finally got another response http://i.imgur.com/VZ6i6Vd.png Then no contact at all http://i.imgur.com/mnBo6VH.png I filed a Paypal dispute on the 22nd http://i.imgur.com/sCDlk3E.png (Sill has not been responded to) Eventually I had to go through the admin of the Furry Craigslist group in order to get a response (On Saturday 4th) http://i.imgur.com/KIbdJrG.png <-response Ellis gave the admin. It's now the 12th (as of writing) and I still have not gotten either my wings or a refund. I honestly really wanted those wings but I've been left feeling scammed instead. I am very glad I went with the rules and didn't send as a gift! Update Monday 20th: Paypal sided in my favour last night after no response from Ellis, no contact from them via Facebook either. Update Tuesday 28th: The user Ellis claimed was their business partner got in contact with me today. However, apparently they have no idea they were ever partners in the first place and are barely on speaking terms. I have permission to show you the logs with them and the logs of their conversation with Ellis. http://i.imgur.com/4jVe9P6.png http://imgur.com/a/k0pmz

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/861209.html WHO: FA: Frindle: , Twitter: @FrindlesArt WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/frindle/ WHAT: Hypnosis Icon WHEN: Commissioned back in March 2015 PROOF: Click Here EXPLAIN: Commissioned Frindle back in March of this year for one hypnosis icon when they opened for them via a journal they posted. After about 2 weeks of waiting I sent a note asking about the status. The message was never responded to. After that I waited quite a while (3 months). I saw that Frindle had a large commission queue so I was patient, but I did not see my name on their queue so I sent them another message asking about it. Proof of message and response I was satisfied with the response so I waited again. This time for another month. I checked a few times on their queue and saw that my name was never put there like Frindle said they would do. So I messaged them again. Convo Part 1 Convo Part 2 In convo part 1 you can see Frindle asking me again if I ordered via Google Docs. They've asked me this question before. In convo 2 Frindle says they will reimburse me fully and have my icon done by the end of that week. (Which never happened) I sent Frindle a message 2 days ago asking if they were going to ever reimburse me, and they responded by telling me that they "couldn't afford to reimburse me" Proof Its way too late to file a Paypal dispute on this matter so there's really nothing I can do. So I'm now screwed out of $21 and an icon. Do NOT ever commission Frindle! A refund was issued - 7/23/15 @ 6:28 pm Proof of refund

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/858039.html Hi! This is my first time posting here, so sorry if anything's confusing! I also didn't really want to post this because it felt a bit meager--but this has been eating away at me for the past few months. ;-; WHO: MamaGizzy http://mamagizzy.deviantart.com/ WHERE: http://mamagizzy.deviantart.com/ WHAT: PNG to an Adoptable WHEN: February 17th 2015 - Current Day PROOF: http://i.imgur.com/gJC4CFY.png http://i.imgur.com/p4a9uGx.png http://i.imgur.com/g3q9tJ1.png EXPLAIN: So I have experience when it comes to buying (and selling) adoptables. Usually after the purchase; it's always good to give the buyer the PNG for their purchase. But, sadly, this was not the case. I paid $10 for the adoptable and when I was told I would get the PNG late, I didn't think too much of it. I thought it'd be like a "you'll get it within a week because I am busy" sort of thing but to my dismay this did not happen. I waited three months before I contacted MamaGizzy again. http://i.imgur.com/6eyLqel.png 18 days later she replies, saying she didn't realize I didn't get my adopt. I got a little eager that I would finally get the PNG and I sent her a link to the adoptable page... Only to be ignored again. I had also anxious sent that "Hello" message in case she forgot again but I was still greeted with silence. And, as the screencaps suggest, she has read each of the last two notes but has not replied. I got to admit I'm pretty bummed over this. 😞 EDIT: I was able to receive the PNG. So this issue was resolved! ❤️

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/856511.html WHO: Eindraa, Iingo http://endraa.tumblr.com/ https://twitter.com/whitekens http://whitekens.weebly.com/ Where: http://iingo.deviantart.com/ What: Dec 2013 - Two Chibi Commissions May 2014 - Fullbody Commission When: December 2013 for the chibis and May 2014 for the fullbody. Proof: http://imgur.com/a/QsVKY Contains all the pertinent image files, but will be linking to singular ones in the post. Explain (This is a very long post, I apologize for that! There's a summary at the bottom): In November 2013, Iingo (then known as Eindraa) opened chibi commissions (http://i.imgur.com/9ts6BsT.png) to help with college tuition (http://i.imgur.com/JpKaptF.png). I purchased two chibi slots. (http://i.imgur.com/uvY0fMX.png) As can be seen, I also considered asking her to do some gijinkas of anthros (http://i.imgur.com/VER6i9n.png), but I decided not to do so in the end, and payment was discussed and sent. (http://i.imgur.com/72fN4vL.png) Months passed, Iingo was active on DA with large giveaways, interactive journals, features, and running groups. She also submitted art on a decently frequent enough basis, at least one piece a month, if not more. http://i.imgur.com/kuJMTCr.png http://i.imgur.com/wPGwSqP.png http://i.imgur.com/4DoWlTC.png http://i.imgur.com/LG4kuk7.png http://i.imgur.com/hN4BiCh.png http://i.imgur.com/xgmobjq.png In February of 2014 or so, she sent me a note asking for a new reference image of one of my characters for the chibi, as the dropbox link no longer worked. Nearly three months passed by before I replied, going by what I can find in my notes, and I am definitely to blame for the lengthiness in that situation. I replied in May 2014 with an updated link, and also asked for a fullbody commission, (http://i.imgur.com/Pgi170z.png) as I noticed she had opened some slots for them up(http://i.imgur.com/6aSuak5.png). She replied about two weeks later and I paid quickly after. (http://i.imgur.com/sLfKjk9.png) This would be the last contact for half a year. My name was never put down in the fullbody list. She continued being active during this period of time with more journals and artworks. http://i.imgur.com/hRm7jIc.png http://i.imgur.com/eVRJ9Bg.png http://i.imgur.com/ReLnE5I.png http://i.imgur.com/Z4LKTiY.png http://i.imgur.com/EdMxKi7.png (A commission was posted around a month later.) http://i.imgur.com/1L0sSsp.png http://i.imgur.com/qprg5bZ.png (Again, no contact made to me, and the only one from this list she finished a commission in decent time was Choubidubinette's, of which she owed two chibis to the customer it appears and would finish the last one months later) http://i.imgur.com/QPAUIuH.png (Was not done with commissions.) [Read More] To summarize: -I purchased 2 chibi commissions in December 2013 and a fullbody in May 2014. -She has never contacted me on her own (as in, not having a deadline enforced, angry customer, etc, of her own volition), except once in February 2014 to request I send her an updated character reference which I took nearly three months to reply to and apologize. -She has been fairly active this entire timespan with both art and journals and DA activity, only beginning to slow down somewhat in the beginning of 2015. -Took down her to-do list twice, and current one is incomplete. -Did not answer most of my notes asking for updates until I tried to enforce a deadline in February 2015. -She broke her deadlines twice. Claimed she would finish by the end of February or March. She did not, and when I contacted her again at the end of March, she promised two would be done in a week, something that proved to be inaccurate. -Does not listen to my concerns. Asked twice to be notified before working on the fullbody, that did not happen. I listed examples of the styles I wanted, no response was given and the finished chibis are in a wholly different style. -This does not truly pertain to me, but I have reason to believe she is ignoring others as well. Also, in late 2014, she said she would be nearly done with Tirekins' commission, but it would take her many months before she was actually done. The same occurred for Choubidoubinette's commissions and many others. Thank you for your time everyone. Updated 8/2/15: The situation has progressed some more since then. (http://i.imgur.com/xrpfLrX.png)(http://i.imgur.com/OQVvUPR.png) I ended up not replying to this note, it was clear we were in a disagreement over the situation and would not be able to reach a middle ground. I point out that it was actually three months and not four, and that she continued her lack of communication and updates throughout that process and the month-long reply was as earlier mentioned in this post, due to stress experienced from discussing the matter with her. In any case, this was my reply two weeks later, where I asked why she broke a deadline yet again: (http://i.imgur.com/1KK6les.png) Iingo replied: (http://i.imgur.com/lb217Wa.png) I sent a note back essentially thanking her for the reply. She finished the fullbody commission the next day! (http://i.imgur.com/ZF6umLQ.png) (http://i.imgur.com/QT4MjBT.png) I replied that I liked the one with the background: (http://i.imgur.com/xOetHO0.png) A few minutes later, Iingo posted the fullbody commission to her gallery: (http://i.imgur.com/pM60k4o.png) / http://iingo.deviantart.com/art/Full-Body-Commission-for-Vespisia-545980631 Again, this is the commission sample when I purchased a fullbody commission from her: (http://i.imgur.com/H7atwRi.png) I know styles change, especially with how long this situation has taken, but the two look different in not just style, but quality. To make sure I was not biased, I showed the pieces to others for comparison, and they agreed and noted that it looked like they were made by two different artists and I should ask for a partial refund. Which I did, I finally replied to her last night, having been silent from the hurt of receiving what to me, seemed like a subpar commission after she noted me the piece, which was unprofessional of me to do so. Here is the note I sent her last night at last: (http://i.imgur.com/VJi4utd.png) I thanked her for the piece and asked for a partial refund. Iingo would reply a few hours later with three notes: (http://i.imgur.com/SJedypc.png) (http://i.imgur.com/4qhW1h3.png) (http://i.imgur.com/6UVoOCW.png) I do not intend to reply to her notes. Again, no agreement can be made between us so there is no point. I am updating this beware to let everyone know what has progressed in the situation and I suppose it is resolved, somewhat. Because I got my commissions at last and partial refunds. However, my intention was really to warn people of her work ethic and behavior and in that regard, it is not resolved. Again, thank you for your time everyone.

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

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

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

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

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