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Jan. 11th, 2012 at 3:10 PM wolfy_chan WHO: AutumnHoney on DA (previously known as Xx-Manda-Panda-xX on DA) WHERE:(new)http://autumnhoney.deviantart.com/ (old)http://xx-manda-panda-xx.deviantart.com/ WHAT: Custom costume hat to be made specifically by October, 2010 (for convention purposes) WHEN: July 5th, 2010 - Inquired about a custom hat commission, she seemed delighted about the project. Back and forth responses about the design and pricing for a few days. I asked that this project be finished before early October 2010 since I wanted to wear it to a convention, she agrees says it will be around 40USD so I send her references. July 7th, 2010 - She replies with the price of 60USD for the custom changes which was A OK with me. July 10th, 2010 - Sent the required amount via paypal. Payment was received with no problems. July 11th, 2010 - Set up a Skype movie conversation with her so she could show me the fabrics she bought for the project. They looked awesome and I gave her the OK to start. August 22nd, 2010 - Sent a polite PM asking how everything is going. No response. September 16th, 2010 - Sent her another PM asking if everything is okay. No response. October 10th-31st - I leave multiple messages on her dash, spaced out a few weeks in between to ask how everything is and to finally ask for a refund. No response to any of them and every message was 'hidden by owner'. November 27th 2010 - Way past due date with no responses to DA PMs, I email her politely asking for a refund, saying I will leave a negative review on her DA dash to warn further customers if she doesn't respond. No response. February 1st, 2011 - I have not tried to contact her since the last email, leaving another post on her dash. No response, 'hidden by owner'. February 22nd, 2011 - She closes her DA account. I leave another message, no response and hides it, reiterates closing the account in May, 2011. January 9th, 2012 - Somehow I remember about all of this and make an effort to see if this person is still on DA somewhere and I end up finding her. I contact her once more asking for a refund and stating I will post negative reviews on her business webpages if she does not refund me. She FINALLY responds saying that I have been 'harassing' her and will refund me but 'don't deserve it'. She has the gall to also say that she has 'tried to contact me' multiple times when I have not seen any sort of initiative to do so. PROOF: Response to the inquiry about a commission via DA PM on July 5th; Paypal payment sent July 10th, 2010; Name change on their paypal clarifies it's them on DA. The paypal notice used to be under their old name. (detail on that in explanation) EXPLAIN: Ugh, okay. Let me be the first to say that I am normally a very patient person when it comes to commissioning things. I myself am an artist and I take commission work regularly, so I know all about commission woes and the such-- but it pisses me off to no end when you get no response for months and YEARS at this point only to find out they moved to a new account then try to say they contacted you multiple times when I have gotten NOTHING of the sort for years. As the timeline states above, I commissioned Manda-Panda on July 5th 2010 to do a custom hat for me and they seemed thrilled to pieces to do it. Price was set, I paypaled them promptly and everything seemed to be going fine. We even set up a skype conversation and she showed me on a webcam all of the materials she bought to make it and they all looked awesome. We agreed it would be done by October so I could wear it to a convention where I was going to sell my artwork in costume. Time goes by and I don't hear anything about updates or progress, so I send another friendly poke. PMs were sent as followed; (this pm was longer than one line, posting it here) October rolls around and I hear nothing back. When your sent PMs are read by the recipent, they turn light green as they did in the screenshot, so I know she read them. I poke her on her DeviantArt Dash to check her pms to respond to me, of which messages she hides or has hidden since then. None of them were nasty posts, just enough information to warn others that I was not given the commission work she promised me and that she had yet to refund me. As I myself am someone who does commission work, I am thoroughly bonded and branded with the business etiquette of it. Every post that was hidden and wasn't responded to was as polite as they could be, asking for a refund and a response and nothing more. In November I send her an email asking for a refund and a small warning that I will leave negative feedback yet again if she doesn't respond to me; I will admit I did sound a bit brash when I threatened to expose her name and misconduct on journals of my websites, but for the life of me she would not respond to anything! She even CLOSES her DA account and apparently wipes off the face of the earth. Finally I say to myself, 'you know what? sixty bucks isn't worth the hassle, I'll forget about it'. ...That is until I found out she had made a new account completely, under the name of AutumnHoney. I know that that is her new account because my paypal statement shows this new name in my history. Loe and behold, same icon, same merchandise on the DA page, and the kicker is that they are taking commissions! I'm passed peeved at this point and do send a harsh PM at this point (not within reason) that states I will in fact post everything to my webpages and make an article on A_B if she does not refund me. Here is what follows; Her reply: My response: I am just... Beyond baffled. Where is said replies? None to my email, none to my DA PMs, I am just -floored- they even responded like that. I said I would not post of this ordeal anywhere until we are finally resolved but I am just blown away by everything that has gone on and this is too ridiculous to keep in the dark. I know I look really bad posting this anyways and using a threat like that. I will admit that I was in the wrong for lashing out myself, but I was beyond furious and will take any slack that comes from that... But was I really in the wrong anywhere? waiting to post weeks and months and years after asking where my refund/product is? This is just a concerned warning for anyone that wants to deal with this person in the future. I can't see how this is all a 'huge mistake' because I have no proof in my inboxes for the past 2 years that they have tried to contact me before this. I'll update on this case if it progresses any further. UPDATE 1: Artist has yet again chose to read my message and has failed to reply with 'proof' that they have actually responded or did work on this project. I'll give it a few more days. UPDATE 2: They have finally paid me back. They did not reply or say anything, I just had money in my inbox today. It makes me think their spat was entirely made up and they never did anything. Just glad it's over. UPDATE 3: I heard back from the artist today saying that they have sent me messages and what's been going on. I feel very bad about their unfortunate things in their life and if I were to have heard about them in messages, I would have been patient and left it alone. Unfortunately I honestly don't know if the messages were actually sent or not and am waiting for a response. If this was a big miss-hap, count the entire thing as 'Resolved' and do not discredit their business over this. I just don't understand how I could not get 'so many PMs' since I get dozens and dozens from other users just fine.