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Early July of 2025 I commissioned an artist I found on a furry social media site Ferzu.com. (The name on the site was Skitty. Unfortunately since that date they have deleted their Ferzu account so I do not have the original contact messages, but they continue to operate on Furaffinity and Deviantart.) The first set of screenshots show the connection to their first discord account used as our primary contact method: ashh#3693. The average turnaround time for their art pieces is stated to be a few days. (Also, apologies for the white space in screenshots, working Windows 11 has been a bit of a challenge, I'm not as technically savvy as I used to be.) After seeing their style, I reached out vai Ferzu DMs, and the conversation moved to Discord for payment and updates. The entirety of our conversation will be posted below. I should've seen a Paypal payment under 'Friends and Family' as a red flag, but I was naive. With a $35 payment for a ref sheet in their style, I was excited and eager to see a long-awaited character in a style I thought would fit. So, after confirming payment information, I sent the money. After a month with no update, I began to reach out as politely as possible. I understand that artists are people with lives and I was in no rush for the commission, but this is when a pattern of ghosting began to emerge. I did my best to limit my expectations and give space. They would reassure me time and again that they would be working on my commission. At this point in our communications, they had deleted their Ferzu page, and after the past month in silence, I started to worry more. After doing some searching, I was able to find a FurAffinity account linked to the discord account they had gone silent through. Seeing that their Furaffinity was active, I reached out. I was a bit afraid of an immediate ghost, so I asked at first to see if they were taking commissions. Once I received a reply, they sent me a new discord account to message. After adding them, there was three days of silence as they did not respond, so I sent the first (and unfortunately up to this point today, the only) message. If anything, I want this to be a cautionary tale not just for people looking to commission this person, but for anyone looking for any commission that you should not send payment as Friends and Family. I got lucky that this was only a $35 loss, but it could've been much more. Get a timeline on commissions, and hold them to account. Again, I understand that life happens, but open and honest communication is necessary for any kind of relationship to work, whether personal, business, or other. Thank you for your time and I wish you a good day.