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I contacted Kino on 9th September 2020, after seeing that they said they were opening commission slots on Twitter. I emailed asking if any slots were open and if so, what I was interested in getting (NSFW, fully body, fully shaded commission from you of my OC, with background). They said they were, that they could do that and it would cost $160.00 I agree with the price and send across several refs. Kino gave me the PayPal to send the money to and I sent across the $160.00. Payment was sent on the 10th of September. I emailed Kino on 23rd November 2020, asking how the commission was coming along, as I had not initially asked for a rough timeline. They responded on the 27th November 2020, apologising for delay, saying I can expect it in ‘a few weeks’ and that I’ll be sent a sketch ‘ASAP’. I told them no worries and thanks for letting me know. They did not contact me at until I emailed again on 6th February 2021, asking for another update. They responded on the 14th, apologising for the lack of communication and cited multiple personal reasons as to why there had been no update / why my commission had not yet been done. They said that I could either get a refund or continue waiting-- I said I understood, life comes first and it’s all good, and that I was happy to continue waiting for my commission. Yet again, there was no communication until I initiated it, emailing them again on 12th June 2021, asking for another update. They responded the same day, sating they were working on commissions that day and that I should have something soon. I said great, looking forward to seeing the sketch. After more months of radio silence, I email again on 29th September 2021 asking for another update and for a concrete answer or estimate as to when I can expect the commission. Kino responded the same day, asking if I had not received the email they had sent out (I did not-- I double checked my inbox, deleted and junk folders for said email), which stated they didn’t have the energy to work on art for other people and that refunds will be going out bi-monthly and that they will have a concrete timeframe of when to expect the refund after they receive their first pay check from their new job. I said no worries and good luck with the new job. Again, I email Kino as they have once again, not contacted me, on 8th December 2021, again asking for an update. They respond the same day, stating that they get paid on the 15th December and that I can expect a partial or full refund then. It is currently Wednesday the 15th December 2021 at the time of me writing this. I have not yet received an email from Kino or PayPal. My issue is not that I couldn’t get a commission from them or that the refund has not come through yet; at this point it is the lack of communication on their end and misleading updates. Being told to expect a sketch in a few weeks and then told, several months later, that “I'm actually working on them today”.

I apologize ahead of time if this is a very mixed up set of screenshots. I did have to message a lot of different managers to get information. In 2020 I asked in-stream for a design commission of two closed species. They replied yes and I quickly paid. I wasn't very hard up for the designs to be finished quickly. From this old Discord account, this was the last time we spoke about the commission. Much later I found a journal about OCCVLTIST's art manager handling commissions on Trello, so I sent some details. It seemed right to me. (Although when I DM'd about this, I wasn't on the Trello.) I didn't get refunded at all, I started to get pretty worried as very often they posted about trading characters, in-streams, YCHs, etc. I understand that it's very hard to get out of that loop but the lack of transparency is concerning. More recently, a different manager was contacted for help. She helped a bit but she did go quiet after some time. Shortly after these, I noticed this manager wasn't helping OCCVLTIST. So I tried to message two other managers that seemed to be helping at later. After realizing that refunds aren't being sent out I know I probably have to come to terms with never getting a refund. I am fine with that of course, but I caution anyone reading this about this artist. I love their work, but this frustration is not really worth the trouble. I am sorry if I sound mean, but I am very saddened and angry. Also attached is an image of my refund in the queue.

Original agreement - They deleted their account so you can only see my replies, but it was for a NSFW colored sketch for $70 EVERYTHING/ANYTHING NSFW is censored! (This all happened in 2021) Me asking them how much a colored sketch would be & adding a sketch to explain what I wanted. Agreement was $70 & my messages confirm payment was sent. They sent a few sketches super fast & I ask to add one to the commission. Conversation ended Feb 11th. I message them again March 15th . March 24th they told me they had covid so i tell them to recover, as it hadn't been that long anyways. April 21st I message them again, no response. April 28th I tell them i would rather they just send me the sketches they have & take the loss. Still no response. Paypal statement showing $70USD was sent to chernobee Feb 10th, 2021 After them not replying to me on Twitter on May 1st 2021 I messaged them on Toyhouse, where they did respond so the conversation moved here. (This all happened in 2021) May 1st I message them telling them I would appreciate a reply within a week & state that I feel an A_B post would be necessary for the lack of communication. They reply 12th May they were super nice & understanding of my frustration w/ the lack of communication. They ask to speak on Discord but also offer to send the sketches. May 19th I apologize to them as I felt I just hadn't given them enough time & was being too aggressive. Give them my Discord. June 24th I send them a message asking for their Discord since they hadn't tried to contact me on there. June 26th they send me their Discord. 9th Aug I give them a completion date of Aug 20th or to refund me. 10th Aug they tell me their discord & the conversation moves there. They then message me Nov 23rd asking for options to get in contact as I hadn't replied on discord.) So I feel like I have to explain why I apologized in this message & it's bc I usually expect anything w/out a set date to take about 3-5months w/ an update every month or so. Idk , at the time it felt like I just hadn't given them enough time. Last message was because I hadn't replied on Discord (life got busy). Also thought they would be able to finish the art since they had the necessary info/refs. their discord info. #6688 I message them Aug 11th asking how they would like to move forward w/ the commission. They did not reply so Aug 31st I ask for a refund. They reply the same day saying they would be happy to refund me, & that once I opened the dispute they would approve it. But also offer the completion of art & say that that's what they would prefer. Say they can complete it in 2-4days. There is also a side convo about the frustrations of having to be the one to find/contact them & they express that they've had other commissioners complain too & that examples images they sent were for other commissioners that were "understanding/patient." I reply Sep 8th bc I wanted to update my characters reference sheet. Oct 28th I ask for an update. Oct 30th they send me images that show work has/is being done. (life got busy, this is when they sent me the message on Toyhouse) Nov 25th I reply saying I love the update. They reply saying they send me a message on Toyhouse. Say they'll finish ASAP. Nov 28th I thank them for the update. Dec 17th I ask if they can add some character markings. They reply the same day saying yes. They also ask me how I've been doing personally. Dec 21st I share that my life has been busy bc of work. Everything past this point happens in 2022. March 25th I ask for an update, no response. May 29th I ask for an update, even a personal one. No response. June 17th I ask if a partial refund would work as & could just color/finish the update they sent before. No response. I know there are points in this commission where I try to resolve it w/ accepting the money loss, or them offering a refund (but me still having to dispute it to get it?), but they offered to finish the art & hinted that it was the option that worked better for them & I still wanted the art & wanted to do what worked better for them too! Comment on their Toyhouse on Jun 8th, Message them on deviantart jun 17th. Message & comment on their new furaffinity page Jul 2nd/3rd. [Mod Note: Message has been seen and not replied to as of July 10th.] And as of July 3rd, they have made a new Discord (#9660) that they did not make me aware of. I have sent a friend request & am waiting.

My communication with Skellri began on the 17th of August 2021. I commissioned her for three headshots. I sent them my paypal address and then tipped them, as I thought that 30$ for a single headshot at her skill level was too low. Some days went past and I realised that I hadn't asked for an estimate on when the commissions would be done, so I approached the artist. However, I did not hear from her at the time they had stated, and then had to approach them twice before they replied. I got a new date for an estimate delivery on the commissions. I did not hear from them on the 9th of October, and waited until December to contact them again. They answered over a month later in January 2022. The next day, they did post wips of the three headshots I had requested. I've not received a message from them since. I approached them again in March, then months later now, in September, eventually telling them that I would have to take some action due to the lack of communication and delivered goods. She has been promoting her commissions as recently as yesterday (19th of Sep 2022) on their Twitter profile, proving that she is active on Twitter. Obviously it's far too late for me to get the money refunded through Paypal, and so it stands to this day that I've not received anything but mere WIPs for the 60$ + 20$ tip. I hope that by doing this other people will not go through the same. update - 10/24/2022

This beware is about Calima, aka. Storm Shy Arts. I initiated the commission transaction in October 2020 (see attachments; all edited for names, email addresses, or any personal/private information) for a 2-character commission. Details were worked out and payment was sent via Paypal. 2 months later in December 2020 I sent a message to the artist on Fur Affinity asking for an update, but did not receive a reply. I sent another message in January 2021 for an update and again received no reply. I again sent a message on FA in March asking for an update with a notification that I would be filing a complaint on Artists Beware, and received no reply. [Note: I was also sending a copy of the January and March messages to the email associated with the Paypal payment, but that turned out to be an address the artist only ever used for Paypal, not correspondence.] In May 2021 I started the action of filing a complaint on Artists Beware. The moderator was able to find me a valid email address for the artist, so the complaint was put on hold as I reestablished contact. The artist did quickly reply to my email (see attachments), and we got the ball rolling to continue with the commission. Over the next several days and weeks we exchanged several emails that cleared up some details and some WIP updates were sent to me. The last WIP I received was 5-30-21. On 6-13-21 the artist said she was going to "play with the background a bit more" and said it would be ready by July 10th. On 7-23-21 I wrote again asking for an update. The artist replied on 7-31-21 that her laptop had died, and as the replacement was soon to arrive she would have my piece finished very quickly. On 9-29-221 I wrote again asking for an update. The artist replied the same day with the excuse that there were technical problems and they were moving, but she would "aim to finish the five details of this background this week". I never received anything. On 12-30-21 I wrote again asking for an update. The artist replied the same day with health reasons as the excuse for no progress, and promised to send an updated version soon. I wrote back and said I was willing to work around complications and that I just wanted to know the commission hadn't been abandoned. Since then I have never received any update or any other contact from the artist. Calima finally returned to Fur Affinity a few days ago after being away for so long, but when I tried to reply to a journal I found I'd been blocked. That's when I knew it was time to post something here.

I came across SpiritOfStars's YCH through someone else I Watch on DA and have commissioned before, I had a bit of extra money and it looked like a nice style so I commented on the YCH letting them know I'd be sending a note. I sent the note that day, 20th of August 2021, and things progressed quickly after that. Note: All communication was via deviantart Notes, and the reading order is from bottom to top. I was also added to her queue on the original post. Things started off well; I received and paid the invoice on the 23rd/24th of August 2021 and at the same time I received a lined WIP. A few months later, in December, I was organising my folders of commissioned art and realised I only had this WIP, I had it in my head that this was already finished so I went looking through my notes for the link, and upon finding none I sent a note asking after it. Spirit replied pretty quickly with an update on the progress. I apologised for my mistake and was happy with this update. A bit over a month later on the 30th of January 2022, I decided to check in again. Once again I got a fast response, though this time I was advised that she had injured her finger, which had/would cause delays. While I wish she had reached out about this herself rather than me having to ask, I wasn't too bothered and was happy to wait as so far she was really responsive whenever I reached out (something I mentioned to her). I requested a pic of the updated WIP though, as I had just discovered this site and thought it best to make sure I wasn't being fobbed off. A couple days later I hadn't heard back yet so I sent another message just in case she had forgotten. A few days later I got a response with the new WIP. I was really happy to get this response and this WIP, little did I know this was to be the last message I ever received from her. I sent my response thanking her for the update, but to this day it remains unread. In March I sent a message checking in, but it was not responded to, though it shows as Read. I followed up again in April, this note was Read as well, asking if she preferred a different contact method, since I figured maybe she just wasn't logging in to dA much anymore (I had not noticed that the Notes were Read until prepping for this Beware). I didn't send another Note until this month (September 2022), but in the mean time I continued to see artists I follow posting Patreon rewards for SpiritOfStars, meaning she was clearly active online in some capacity, which made me feel ignored and was very frustrating. (I am not including screenshots because these artist's do not deserve their names associated with a Beware in any way). My next Note I decided to send a more harsh message conveying my frustration and requesting a response. This of course remains Unread. With no communication and it being over a year since the original commission, I sent one last message an hour ago (1/10/2022) letting them know I was making this Beware, and then set to work on it. I'm really sad that I had to do this, as again since it wasn't THAT expensive (even if I do always get fucked by the conversion rate to USD) I don't mind waiting if someone is having trouble, but all I ask is for is to be TOLD about delays and have my messages responded to. Quick note: The early parts are my fault as I forgot about the comm for a little while and so did not follow up for some time, and thus missed the PayPal chargeback window. That said I probably wouldn't have used it or threatened it as I don't want to cause that kind of harm to the artist. I even held off on this beware for a long time because I really wanted to resolve things, as this artist is clearly a Patreon of a lot of artists I know and I didn't want to make things awkward with them. That said, enough is enough.

Greetings! I'm here to inform you about this client and the ordeal that I had to endure since the last week. Honestly, it all started pretty good actually. The 4th of April I got contacted by this person saying that he had the idea of commissioning me a couple of OC's of its own (since he kept saying that he was a writer and that he wrote stories, fan fictions and so on) and I was like "Sure, tell me the details!". And everything went pretty smooth, he always payed me what I asked for and never complained. However, the big problems started to happened the 8th of July, Friday of last week. After waking up, I find three emails from PayPal, in which all of them says that the buyer has opened a claim against me because of unauthorized transactions made. Honestly speaking, I was baffled. Like, why in the first place? Also who was the one responsible for all of this? After tracking down who could've possibly be, I ended up finding the curlprit. Then I decided to confront him, ask him why he did such a thing, but to no avail. What he kept saying over and over like a broken record, was like "I didn't do it. My bank did it" or instead "PayPal did it, it wasn't my fault". Now, I might not be an expert on how PayPal works and neither how the Banks do, but I'm pretty sure that neither of the two without an explicit request from the one who sent the money, does everything automatically. PayPal definitely doesn't do it, and the Bank the least they can do is calling you if they see high transactions, but in here we were talking about 50/100€ at best. Every month. Then, afterwards, he contacted me saying the following After this, he blocked me. If the truth is on his side, then he wouldn't have blocked me, right? So honestly, I really don't get it. Afterwards I tried to reach him even on DeviantArt, since there I was still not blocked from him because I actually talked with the PayPal customer service myself. In the end they told me what I already knew: and that it was him who did everything on his end. And so far, he kept lying to my face. The sad part is that I'm not the only one who got this "little problem" with him. Many other artists had the same ordeal with him. I'll share afterwards the claims that he did (choosing even the wrong dates because he surely did everything so fast, in a blink of an eye, that he didn't even sat through everything and thought if the amount and date were exactly those - apologies in advance if you see another language) (For context, "Denaro ricevuto" translated is "Money Received") And the fact that the dates doesn't even match to begin with (aside from the first one, which the only wrong thing is the amount that he declared. He gave me 50€, but instead he wanted 56€ back, for some reason) (again, all three of them shows the "Money Received" word, translated from Italian) I'll also share some snippets of our conversation where, after I completed the render, I uploaded it and sent it to him. And he of course, received it. See it for yourself, all three of the claims. First one Second: (this one here was mostly a variation of the third one that I'll share in a bit) Third one: Proof of being blocked To this day, so far the problem hasn't been solved (and also currently, the claims got processed and now I'm wait for PayPal to actually talk with the bank of the client. Sadly, it will take approximatively 75 days to get an answer) and when it will, I'm afraid that this person will try again in getting his money back. I made assumptions as to why he did this, but really, I can't even believe it. Like I said, also another artist right now is undergoing the same treatment as I'm experiencing. Thank you for your attention.

This commission was initiated via Toyhouse, as such, some screenshots may need to be read from bottom to top with the way the PM system works with this site. In mid-September 2021, I reached out to DaziKidoT to create a reference sheet for a Final Fantasy XIV character of mine. After discussing the additions required for my piece, I provided their form and they took payment after presenting base sketches for the character's pose. After agreeing to one of the poses, they sent me an invoice and it was paid the same day. I received my first drafts of potential design concepts 10 days later, I selected the concept I preferred the most and confirmed that I was fine with giving them artistic liberties when it came down to the overall color scheme/design work of the clothing. This is the sketch draft I approved to move forward. I did not hear from them until October, where they informed of personal matters that cropped up. This was not a bother at all, up to this point DaziKidoT had been very commutative with me, and it's only been a month since we initiated the process. After this, I did not hear from them until November, another personal matter happened, but they delivered colored concepts for the design up to this point. I selected which elements I wished to move forward with, and later that day I received a WIP with the final draft of the design elements I wanted to keep. All work that has been shown has been of the front-facing portion of the reference, I had not received a WIP of the back-view, nor the unclothed reference which was to show my character's body scars, etc. A few days later, I received bad news regarding the commission overall. Everything was lost due to hardware issues. Admittedly, this was gutting to hear, because of how well things had gone up to this point. However, DaziKidoT was still being transparent and communicative with me that I genuinely was willing to wait things out for them to complete the work. At this point, I had no reason to believe we would run into communication issues, so I declined the offer of the partial refund. I did not hear from them until January. There was no additional progress to show, but I inquired on January 11th if it was possible to make modifications to the original concept, as things needed to restart from square one regardless. We did come to an agreement for the design updates for when they were able to resume working. Another month passed and I had heard nothing from them. I was starting to get mildly concerned about their ability to remain in contact, especially as I was nearing my window for a claim via Paypal. Toyhouse experienced site-wide outage some time before I reached out to them in February, and wanted to have another way to contact them in the event the site went down. We agreed to swap discord handles. However, I did not hear from them after we mutually added each other, I reached out to them in April to see if there were any updates, and I was informed of another personal matter, and due to limitations with accessing the site, I was willing to try and help them with at least getting the word out regarding the delay as I was not the only individual waiting for work from Dazi. This is what I posted in their thread, I have since revised my message as I have not had contact with the artist since April. On April 10th, I received a WIP of the anatomical revisions I was requesting. We agreed to little details and April 11th was the last time I ever heard from Dazi. I reached out to them in May to check in, but I received no response. At this point, I am far beyond my window with claims via Paypal, and I have no options left for recourse. I provided them an ultimatum, and later delivered the same message to them on Toyhouse in August, it has gone unread. Only this time being firmer in stating that I do not wish to continue if they do end up returning. A follow-up was sent in October to be transparent about my side of things, there has still been no response. As of September 2022, I have reached a full year of waiting for this piece, and I have not heard from them in nearly six months. In hindsight, I should have taken the partial refund offer when I initially received it.

First interaction was when Lundukeo claimed an YCH slot on Furaffinity. DMs proceeded as follows: (The message order in each screenshot goes from bottom and up) YCH premade sketch after edited to fit their character: New sketch after making the edits they wanted: After Lundukeo approved of the second sketch, they stopped answering. I got worried as others were waiting for me to work on this YCH. Invoice had been sent but was left unpaid. I realized I wasn't going to get paid in a reasonable time so I re-opened their slot: About a month later I got a reply from Lundukeo: I made it clear that they were banned from working with me in the future, but decided not to block them. Afterwards I forgot about this situation and moved on, not planning on making a beware over this. Fast forward to June 23rd 2022, I opened for a batch of commissions: This is one of the forms that got sent in: I accepted the commission as I loved their character. This is the reference they sent: I was unable to contact them through their Twitter, as DMs was off, so I was suspicious if the Twitter user was the rightful owner, and contacted the character owner on Furaffinity: Looking back I realize how much of a red flag this message is. The twitter profile was at the time and still is completely empty, with DMs off. Yet they proclaim to use it for "artists artwork, announcements, game stuff and a way to DM". I ignored the red flag and decided to work with them as the Furaffinity profile seemed legit and they had worked with other artists in the past. I told them I would get back to them when their slot came up, and in the meantime they wrote me this: The "mate of theirs" was the person with the blue deer who ghosted me in 2021. I accepted the commission anyway as I was under the understanding that ToughKumquats, a different person, would pay. On August 17th I sent them a wip of their commission. ToughKumquats was happy with the sketch but said they were unable to pay right away. On September 8th, almost 3 weeks after the last message, invoice was still not paid. I asked them if there were issues with paying, a message which was left unread. At this point I put two and two together and believed Lundukeo and ToughKumquats was the same person. First of all because ToughKumquats wanted me to draw a character from a person who had been banned. Secondly because their profile had been made around the exact time they ghosted me in October of last year. Third because this pattern of being ghosted after getting a free sketch was similar to Lundukeo. And lastly because someone else on Furaffinity referred to both character owners as their boyfriend. (I will not name them as they have nothing to do with the situation.) Being 99% sure I had been lied to, I sent this message to both ToughKumquats and Lundukeo: 30 minutes later, Lundukeo replied and my suspicion was proven correct Admitting to lying and refusing to to pay for the work done for a second time. At this point I believe a beware is warranted. Lundukeo admitted to ban evading by pretending to be someone else, and falling into the same pattern like last time. Honestly whether or not they planned to scam me doesn't matter, they purposefully lied to me to get around a ban and get me to work for them again.

Started on the 21st of July 2021 when I claimed an YCH from the artist. Delay for the completion was two months at max, with the artist promising a sketch in-between One month after, no sketch was provided and I sent the artist a message on FA that remained unread Waited more months until contacting the artist through their e-mail adress ; Received an answer clarifying supposed health problems and a Discord handle. Artist was added but never accepted friend request, then did not answer to another mail sent a month later, then deactivated their FurAffinity account.

Hi there, I am making this post about BrokenVocaloid since I have been waiting on two commissions: one from October of 2020, and the other from February 16th, 2021. To be honest, I would be extremely surprised to ever see a finished piece or even a refund at this point, but I figured I may as well give a warning to other people. There are also a few other problems with commissions that will be shown throughout the screenshots I will be providing, but I am only missing two commissions/refunds as of today. These first two screenshots show the first (and oldest) commission that I am still waiting on, with proof of payment included. Also included is Broken requesting a $100 credit from me, nearly two months later, which I feel is at least somewhat odd and unprofessional. This next screenshot shows how difficult it can be to communicate with this artist due to a total lack of response, which is all too common with her. A month later, Broken asks for me to commission her again, even though I was still lacking the first commission that I talked about earlier. Fortunately for me, she dropped the price to $25 and I only purchased one. Unfortunately for me, I still never received the commission in question. I also included proof of payment below the discussion we had over it. The stream that would show off this commission was supposedly moved to a later date, but it never happened at all. Two months later and she DMs me with a request for me to commission her again. At that point I was very reluctant to commission her again, especially with two unfinished pieces, so I declined. To me, her response seemed very guilt-trippy and manipulative as she tried to put the responsibility for her eviction on me, a customer of her art. I understand opening commissions for emergencies, but directly contacting a previous commissioner and asking for money under the threat of eviction does not seem even remotely fair or professional. And, of course, you can see that I asked on the status of the commission over two months later to no response whatsoever. Broken, of course, ignored my request for a status update altogether and invited me to her new server. I put in a refund request to the server after the commissions were not finished when she promised, and that request has been sitting in the refund channel ever since I put it in. The oldest refund request in the channel is from another commissioner posted on the 28th of July, 2021, with no indication of ever being fulfilled. As you can see, I am far from the only person to have trouble getting commissions and/or refunds from her.

Before the incident, I often repost my commission advertisement on various of art servers. Roughly a simple ad with low-ish prices ($15-20) compared to others advertising up to $30-40+, along with this fact, I was a first time commissioner with 0 experience apart from art trades and collaborations. On August 12, I received a friend request from Alastra (Client) at around midnight and they messaged me that they’d like to commission me. I was ecstatic seeing this during then, but I didn’t accept their friend request and reply until the next morning. August 13, From here the process was going well, we were communicating, their reply’s were fast, they did as I asked (filling out my google form for character info, “reading” my carrd) until I got to confirming the payment process, they asked if they could “pay with a $40 Amazon gift card” none of my terms of service said I excepted any gift card except for Apple, I didn’t have any red flags yet and so I thought perhaps they couldn’t pay through these other payment options I replied saying “I’m not sure, Codashop doesn’t allow any payments except through paypal, venmo, etc” They didn’t reply to me until I added “but I do accept Apple gift cards as payment instead” They replied fast ((At this point my mistake started here bc based on other accounts of them they blocked/ ghosted the artist after telling them they need to pay through these options. Gift cards were their way of swindling through)) I got to work quickly and sent them the first two halfbody sketches of their commission, They asked for a few changes, I complied i asked if things were alright with the sketches, they complied the first red flag I blindly encountered was asking for my 50% payment after the sketch (total for the commission was 30 so they had to pay $15) they avoided this by convincing me that they’d pay at the end when there’s a watermark on the drawing, this is so to make sure that they do like the commission and they would pay extra for the work. They were successful in convincing me, I saw on a few other commissioners for reference that they do a similar format to this as well and so I thought it’d be ok to try it out. August 16 - 17 a line-art and flat color was sent August 20 the coloring process started nothing fishy happened here, only reassurance that my work was going well. The process continued from me sending my w.i.p. for review and revision. By August 21, I was officially done with the commission I sent them a drawing with my watermark (top to bottom of the image for extra measures) and sent it to them. Strangely they didn’t reply, as fast as they normally would, despite their profile (little dot on the corner) saying that they were actively on. I didn’t think much of it but consider the fact that they’re a person with a life so I shouldn’t bother them. August 22, by now I got worried they weren’t replying and by now it was around 5. I remembered that we were mutuals on a few servers so I searched through those only to realize that they left them. I checked their bio to see if they really did and I saw the words “no servers in common” and on discord if you don’t share a similar server with the other (unless you friend them) you can’t message the person anymore. It took me a while to realize that they scammed me after they ghosted me and blocked me when receiving the watermarked drawing of mine. As of August 28, the time I made this beware, they are still using my drawing as their pfp. I do advice to keep an eye out on this person as their main focus of commissions are hazbin hotel. Their discord name are names of characters from the show so its difficult to find any true social medias from them unless they share any of my drawings around. If you do ever see a repost of the following commission images please report them. ((Extra: this story probably infuriated a lot of you bc I was so blinded to so many red flags that the client replied with. If anything it was also my fault too for falling for a scam and as of writing this, it urks me to read over how naive I was through the process. No I’m not asking for pity, I’m asking for people doing first time commissions to stand your ground and go with the process that you want to do as it may save you from being scammed like me))

I am going to start at the beginning. I had a lengthy discussions with Esferao about pricing for a animation commission, which includes storyboard, primary animation and finishing touches, of which we agreed upon dividing up into 3 rounds of payment given my financial state for a full commission of the entire animation project. Commission arrangements For the storyboard, we settled on further dividing that up into 7 monthly payments for additional ease of budget management and if necessary, postponed the work if i couldn’t pay one month. I personally made sure to pay the agreed monthly amount on time when possible and Esferao finished each months work in a timely manner, but we agreed on postponing payment during November and December because of Christmas. Proof of payment for storyboard artwork: June 2020: July 2020: August 2020: September 2020: October 2020 (This is when the issue with communication blackout and no storyboard frame artwork delivered within the usual timeframe began) : January 2021: February 2021: The delays of receiving the artwork i paid for began in October 2020 when i paid for that month. From then on, Esferao suddenly didn’t finish the work in the same rate as before and left all of their means of contact inactive, despite my multiple attempts at getting a update. Attempts at getting updates, with minor responses leading nowhere: However, since then, Esferao has once again went without providing any updates and appears to have cut off all of their online activity on all sites they are present. Even despite my attempts to get a response once more from has proven difficult given the current status of their online activity and i am genuinely getting tired of them disappearing like that. At this point, i had settled upon giving Esferao a deadline until May 31st 2022 to finish the work if they come back online and if not, try to get a full refund for the last payment i provided, regardless of how far they are with finishing the final piece of storyboard work and possibly cut ties with them working on the animation project with me. That is unless they return and finish the work i paid for. However, due to Esferao temporarily returning to their FA account between April 20th and April 24th 2022, only to seemingly disable their account on their own accord, followed by their Twitter account being set to private some time between April 27th and 28th. As such, i decided to revise and tighten the deadline offered to April 30th, as it was clear Esferao deliberately were ignoring my attempts at getting any update. Proof of Esferao´s Furaffinity disabled and Twitter set to private: And as of May 1st, since Esferao did not respond in the revised timeframe i offered, i have informed them of the complete termination of the commission, as well as made it clear i would take this issue to Artist Beware and demanded a refund for the 4 months ( which i discovered by reviewing Paypal transactions and dates of received storyboard artwork, concluding i am owed 4 months of what i paid for instead of 3 months ), i never got the remaining fully paid storyboard artwork for, regardless of whatever progress there has been made on the remaining storyboard. In the end, i feel like its not very likely i will be able to get the money refunded for the part of the storyboard commission that were left unfinished, so i can pretty much only warn others about Esferaosamael.

I apologize in advance for this mess of screenshots and censoring, but I have been having trouble getting in touch with this artist again after he went silent on me for over a year for a commission I paid quite a good amount for. These next images are of us coming to an agreement of what we want, not including the excessive details I went into for the idea as I don't find it all too necessary here. After contacting on that New Year's Eve, he had finally sent a WIP sketch (attached below) and sent another on February. Then, after February 15 of 2021, he went silent with only the second and last WIP he sent me. Ever since then, I had tried messaging and emailing him but to no avail. I still have yet to hear back from him and I have even seen others also have the same issue from him, where he stopped replying completely, yet he also takes some other commissions on the side. Also, something to note is that I have my phone set to Spanish, but I will help include context in the words here. Buzón - Inbox Enviado - Sent Para: - To: Pagada - Paid All months should be similar to the English names besides Enero, which is January Date formats are all MM/DD/YYYY except for the times it's DD/Month/YYYY in some emails and screenshots where the month is clearly in the middle. In addition, I have shared my own IRL name plenty of times, so I had no need to censor mine, only my PayPal email which is a deadname and the artist's last name (and address/phone too, of course).

So around last year September 1st 2021, I commissioned JayNator1 on picarto, I got my first commission seeing they were more then happy to at the time I commissioned another! That was almost a year ago, since then i tried contacting them, they always gave a new story, which I do understand things don't always go the way we want! But going radio silent and deleting comments was not a good sign. Spite that I gave them room to deal with their life issues. I get it some people need a break, but this has been almost a year of "hey sorry I'm sick" I want to believe they didn't intend to scam me, but this is not reasonable . So now i see them on twitter, and they saw my message two days ago with no reply. I'm assuming the worse. As why I was commenting on their page? They didn't respond for months to the note.

May 27, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/769814.html Who: Porter Corgi aka Little~Bit Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/thecorgi/ What: a tradition bust badge When: I commissioned the badge in 2012, was supposed to be done right away (within the week) as it was advertised as an "emergency commission" (couldn't get screen caps of the journal she posted as she deletes them often) then I got excuse after excuse, "I'm so busy" "computer/tablet broken" "I work all day, then train horses and give lessons all day. I'm trying to get your badge to you", I was then sent this link to this unpleasant digital badge, the quality was bad, it looked messy, pixel-y, rushed and not her art style at all, I reminded her I asked for traditional, she apologized and said she'd fix it no problem. The excuses continued. I then had to leave FA for a while because my account was hacked, I looked for her often, and tried to contact her multiple times, for a while she was gone doing stuff in armed forces, and then she was "done with FA forever" as seen on her old account http://www.furaffinity.net/user/little~bit/ I finally joined FA again this year 2014, over 2 years later. Since I joined I've been contacting her, 3 months ago I noted her about the long overdue badge, with the warning I was thinking about posting on artists beware, she apologized a lot and said she'd get it to me asap. It's been 3 months since she's said this. Proof: I don't have screenshots from my old account but these are the conversations we've had since I re joined http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/162C47C0-FCA0-4362-B493-F4B4BCA0D1CD_zps489xrvjh.png.html?sort=3&o=4 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/469ED320-CB6D-4224-B845-63869D0D2E50_zps7nxziwvl.png.html?sort=3&o=1 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/D6095F5B-86A1-4E31-B0C9-3DB138AC42A0_zpsn3jcovau.png.html?sort=3&o=2 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/F35A5704-3FDB-4B3E-97E4-76B24698748C_zpsu6llokgr.png.html?sort=3&o=3 http://s1352.photobucket.com/user/mlpblah_/media/F4C79565-D2A9-4C69-9AD9-B76550D2B744_zpspqvonhli.png.html?sort=3&o=0 Explain: I've been trying to get this badge from her for over 2 years now, I'm so upset because I used to look up to her, I loved her art so much now I just want my badge so I never have to talk to her again. Apparently I'm rude for asking for my overdue art because she's doing charitable things. But I paid her to do this, you need to take your job as an artist seriously. Since I've been complaining she's posted this journal http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5708600/ (sounds like I'm not the only one she's ripped off" saying "I have so much way overdue art I'm never doing commissions again unless I really want to" I hope she doesn't because I don't want someone else going through what I did from someone I used to think was so cool, and used to look up to. I'm very upset about this and I wish she'd see that. I don't think I'm ever going to get this badge, I'm going to talk to her about getting my money back. She's rarely on FA and always takes a few days to respond to me. I can't get screenshots of our notes in 2012 as my account was hacked and the password was changed.

May 22, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/768650.html WHO: Sickboy, Pales, horrorprince.deviantart.com, http://whorrorprince.tumblr.com/ WHERE: deviantart.com, virtualpetlist.com, and furry-paws.com WHAT: All digital art. The absolute best I can do for screenshot proof is provide the forum post where I discovered him on virtualpetlist.com (see: http://www.virtualpetlist.com/threads/sim-artist-looking-for-work-again.15631/) and on another forum that is now defunct. I recognized him because he went by his alternative name Pales on the defunct forum and I addressed him as Pales which prompted him to message me. I do have those messages but they're text based since they were backed up from the forum software. I never thought I'd have to use them as evidence. Eventually we switched to IM and screenshots will reflect that. WHEN: I’m copy and pasting what I wrote on another forum as I’ve tried to reword this several times and it’s just too hard for me emotionally. So I hope this suffices. Sorry if it’s too long.. I paid in advance for items in June with a deadline of July. Sickboy didn't meet the deadlines, however, he did give excuses which I was empathetic of. We extended deadlines several times. I often had to ask him for progress. Here is a conversation we exchanged over IM where I asked him about my items and how he addressed my questions. Although that conversation is dated October, I did ask him two to three times before October, once in July and a separate time in September. The week of September is the time he delivered 7 items and said he would complete the rest that week. I trusted he would, and again paid in advance that week for more items. He has not completed any items since September or that payment. I again asked him in January to which I received similar responses to the first conversation. Nearly a week later, I discovered that Sickboy had been anonymously mentioning my commission to others, complaining about how I had asked him about my commission, which urged me to cease working with Sickboy altogether. Sickboy explained recently that his tablet broke, that he was depressed over the passing of a friend's cat, etc. I am understanding, but I had been waiting for my commission for almost more than six months before these events transpired. Sickboy has told me an item takes him twenty to thirty minutes to complete. We originally agreed that he would complete the art, but circumstances changed, I requested that I be refunded, to which he agreed. This correspondence was through DeviantART. He told me he would refund me sometime in the future and when he had the money he'd message me through VPL. I was okay with this. I asked him how he was, just a general "how are you" and he blocked me from DeviantART. There is absolutely no reason why I was blocked, which leads me to believe I won't be receiving my money back, nor will I be hearing from Sickboy again. PROOF: Agreement: the first one: http://i.imgur.com/wm4eA49.png (6/27) & the second: http://i.imgur.com/Do0MtgY.png (9/8) Proof of payment: http://i.imgur.com/iFHOzfs.png & http://i.imgur.com/6NMJOaI.png Proof of him agreeing to finish the overdue art on 9/8: http://i.imgur.com/4k3hUdo.png (he did not finish them that night) Evidence of him cursing at me: http://pastebin.com/qpc2EEv4 Due to him accusing me of editing this pastebin, I am posting a screenshot of how it appears in my logs: http://i.imgur.com/7NK29Jv.png - I am sorry that it's formatted in a block of text. My logs apparently bugged out and I don't want to edit it to prove the point that they weren't touched. EXPLAIN: I’ve done everything I could to ask for my money back. Despite his promises to do so (as seen in his responses on my forum thread) he is now lying to others saying he doesn’t owe me any money http://comments.deviantart.com/1/449033043/3447744659 I’ve tried everything. I don’t know what else to do. I was scammed out of a lot of money. So much money that I’m not comfortable even saying it. That is why I’ve blacked it out. It’s embarrassing. Another thing I’d like to advise to potential buyers is that this person has a Terms of Service that isn’t very airtight and very contradictory. This has led me to the realization that the art he did do I will need to replace. So on top of the money I was scammed out of, I will also need to replace all the art he actually did to. I came to this realization based on his terms: http://sickboyart.co.nf/tos.php I did not have these terms laid out in front of me when I was commissioning the seller. I don’t feel comfortable that I’m required to credit him to use the art he did for me because it may lead to others commissioning him and rendering a similar experience. http://i.imgur.com/sRPGvEc.png To me, his terms are also very confusing and legally unfriendly. All efforts to sign over his work to me have went ignored. Edit: Please read: The problem with the Artist's TOS is NOT solely the credit but instead the legal loopholes and problems that may be faced with the rights of the work and refund policy. I was advised to get the work replaced because of the confusing terms. I do not have a problem with crediting artists so long my order is completed. The reason why the TOS is being mentioned is so that people are aware of all his terms before ordering. I was not I have personally made the decision to get the art he did do replaced because I disagree with these terms. Again I provide them here so potential consumers are aware. These terms didn't exist when I made my order.

Back in 2021 I bought two colored sketches from Miiyori, totalling 85$ Things went a bit wonky from the start, but me being distracted by real life aided in me realizing she didn't get back to me on my payment going through for a while. Got no response there and Miiyori sort of dipped from everywhere for some time. Eventually there was a blip on her twitch. So I used her publically available discord handle to reach out to her. So I did. That's how I at least got half of what I had paid for. Turned out right away was another very rough estimate. By then I had waived my ability to chargeback via paypal due to waiting too long. I'd practically all but given up on ever hearing anything from her again until she just dropped new journals on FA two months ago. Another DM later (discord was no longer responsive) I got this. Well, it's been two additional months now and on the advice of a friend I'm just dropping this here.

May 21, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/768071.html WHO: Raikhan / deli-cat WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6003987/ http://raikhan.sofurry.com/ https://inkbunny.net/Raikhan http://deli-cat.tumblr.com/ WHEN: July 2012 - April 2014 PROOF AND EXPLAIN: Throughout the passed two years, I asked for updates and got either completely ignored for months at a time or received multiple "excuses" such as files got corrupted, or my mother has cancer. I stated multiple times that if the artist was unable to perform the duties to draw my commission I would be happy to just find someone else to do it and just get a refund. https://www.dropbox.com/s/7oxd1cfcocf53v8/excuse1.PNG https://www.dropbox.com/s/achlq8wuhsbqjod/excuse2.PNG https://www.dropbox.com/s/rov32ghc3rmvtn0/excuse3.PNG https://www.dropbox.com/s/62szgoanvjtfrp7/excuse4.PNG 7/1/2012 I query about price of the commission of 2 characters split payments agreement for progression on the commission for every payment https://www.dropbox.com/s/22gqwr147t04i2z/progression%20per%20payment.PNG 7/3/2012 Added additional character and renegotioated price. I organized the commission information in one large note with all the details needed for the art. https://www.dropbox.com/s/n228mpjp6ll4bs9/Commission%20Details.PNG 7/5/2012 Sent $50 payment https://www.dropbox.com/s/onn6hp93kqf3tfa/paypal%20transactions.PNG (this screenshot shows both my payments to her and the refund from her.) 8/9/2012 I am told that the sketch and color blocking is completed and asked if i want to see a WIP which I reply yes https://www.dropbox.com/s/ws91t9u4amgbf8u/sketch%20done.PNG 9/27/2012 I finally receive the WIP I was told was complete on 8/9/2012 I also sent another $50 payment https://www.dropbox.com/s/onn6hp93kqf3tfa/paypal%20transactions.PNG (same link as above, has all the transaction with the artist) https://www.dropbox.com/s/ucua4nluxjy9oa7/sketch.PNG https://www.dropbox.com/s/6lwj317ju5udo8u/sketch.jpg 5/11/2013 "color scheme" update https://www.dropbox.com/s/xy8aaexfi1p8z5v/matsi%20wip.jpg 5/11/2013 Last Contact until April 2nd 2014 when I posted into her shoutbox(she deleted these so I don't have screenshots of them) Here are 3 of the notes I sent to here one every few months asking for updates (since it took nearly 3 months just to get the sketches and because the poor communication I really wanted updated WiP before I sent the final payment because at this point I was already feeling like it was not going to ever be completed and I didn't want to lose even more money on it...) https://www.dropbox.com/s/zoj0h6sglel8gnh/ignored%20note1.PNG https://www.dropbox.com/s/93td92s9i13gpec/ignored%20note2.PNG https://www.dropbox.com/s/yq3jwg5b41en0vs/ignored%20note2%20still%20unread.PNG (you can see in this one that she STILL hasn't even read this note...) https://www.dropbox.com/s/pacvqiexnpcfr8m/ignored%20note3.PNG 4/2/2014 I get a response; stating that I never paid the full amount(I hadn't sent the 3/3 payment because I had no contact and received no updated WIP of the art, which should have been fully colored but not yet shaded... Also that I "never told her that the character had 3 heads and 4 arms" Artist stated she would be sending me a refund sometime within the next month minus time spent on the art, which she claimed was 2 hours(which certainly isnt 2/3 of the ~10 hrs I was charged total for the commission, going by the artists commission prices. Screenshot of her 4 shouts on my page: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lf2hsw8wv90tfhh/FA%20shouts.PNG The refund conversation went as follows... sadly I do not have screenshots of what I posted onto her page because she deleted them every time she replied: Her saying "You never paid the full amount and didn't mention that your char has 3 heads and 4 arms 😕 But I am done here, give me your paypal, I'll send you a refund." Me saying something about how I DID in fact say the character had 3 heads and 4 arms, and you can see that in the screenshots above where she even says something about how she wants to make sure the arms are positioned well.... and I also mentioned that I didn't make the final payment because she was ignoring me and not sending me a WiP where the picture was progressed enough to receive the 3rd payment. Her Saying The last WIP I provided was the main char almost done, atmosphere in, starting on bg. So much for WIP's not happening... Me asking When I will get the refund her saying "Mid of April minus the hours spent on it." Me asking hour many hours that was Her saying "2" 4/23/2014 I receive a "refund" from the artist of 50.56EUR, which is neither the currency the artist lists for what she charges for commission nor what I paid in, the transaction was also sent as a "payment for goods/services". this costed me several dollars in Paypal fees for being "a purchase" AND to convert the currency into USD, so instead of receiving a $70 refund from the $100 I paid, I wind up with $65. (I feel like this was very inappropriate, and that if you accept and list your prices in USD, the refunds should be in USD as well! And to send it in such a way that it charges me fees as if she was buying something from me instead of refunding my payments is nonsense.) https://www.dropbox.com/s/zrpdmno6yrrq5yt/currency.PNG I am happy that I at least got some of my money back, for over a year I thought I would just have no art and no refund...but I feel entitled to the remaining amount refunded and I feel scammed. I am posting this, not expecting to get anything more for me, but to warn others so that they do not have to experience the same thing I did from this artist!

May 20th, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/767746.html WHO: HulaHula11 WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/hulahula11/ WHAT: Digital full colored image with background - $100 WHEN: Payment was sent April 29th, but the majority of the issues were from last night to today, May 19/20th PROOF: Payment Proof: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/2848/2848_original.jpg Emails (I just posted all for total information! Issue starts in last two links) http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/4336/4336_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/4543/4543_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/4846/4846_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/4897/4897_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/5149/5149_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/5583/5583_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/5739/5739_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/5915/5915_900.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/6193/6193_900.jpg Their rant journal: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/5773489/ If deleted, screencaps: http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/3227/3227_original.jpg http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/3387/3387_original.jpg Before finished commission (NSFW): http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/3595/3595_900.png After image (NSFW) : http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/kayliimae/54117801/3920/3920_900.png EXPLAIN: As how most of my commissions start, I sent them a form requesting they read my TOS along with asking for general information for the commission. After that I sent them a sketch, and they asked for revisions. So I sent another. They were still unhappy with it, so I sent them some thumbnails with 3 new poses at no extra charge thinking they didn't like the original pose. One of these poses was approved so I did a touch up. They were happy with both the sketch and inks, so I finished the image and that's when the trouble started. I sent them the finished files and they sent back 3 emails stating that the eyes were not colored (they were, but with a spotlight effect that made the eyes brighter, I didn't fight that) and that the nose should be black, not pink, even though in 2 of the 3 refs they sent, the character had a pink nose. They never specified they preferred black to pink so I went with the color shown in the majority of the refs. As this detail wasn't specified beforehand, I asked for a fee, because my TOS states that if the coloring is wrong and it's not my mistake, I ask for an edit fee. It was a small change but it's part of my TOS. Personally I should add, I asked for a fee at this point because I had already done multiple revisions of this sketch as the commissioner wasn't happy with it, I didn't think it was unfair to ask for a little extra for more of my time. TOS: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NvMkcR6HH9rpAa-nGTAX9WM_6M5IcmaX2-ttm-PrpJA/edit They replied back snappily in the last email and before I could respond to them, they posted a journal on FA calling me a "thief" and a "cunt". I am putting this on Artists Beware because I felt like I went out of my way to appease this commissioner with extra work for free but they did not specify preferred refs and got snappy when I used the color that was used in 2 of the 3 refs. And then they got angry and publicly insulted me when I asked for a fee as per my TOS that they should have read at the beginning of the commission process. I saw this and decided I didn't want any money from them, so I did the edits, sent the revised files, and told them to no longer commission me for future work. This beware is about their issues with communication and their treatment towards me.

May 20, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/767609.html Original Entry: http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/667674.html Who: Ravinghachi/Neotoxin Wolf/Skittles/hellishballoffur/Rainbow Paw Creations Website: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/hellishballoffur/ Where: Saboten Convention 2012 What: Trade-RavingHachi was to supply two conbadges as payment for a premade fursuit tail. When: September 2012 Proof: Screenshots will be Provided below Details: Skittles and I agreed to a trade at Saboten2012: my $60 tail for two conbadges by her. After being given specific instructions, she did one of the badges,and while it was cute, it wasn't what I had asked for and she had agreed to do. When I mentioned to her that it wasn't quite was I was hoping for, she flipped out. She blocked me, deleted my comments, and told people 'it was settled and she had paid me'. This wasn't true: she still had the tail, and I wasn't compensated. Recently I again contacted her again about a refund on FA (screenshot). As before, she deleted my comments on her page (screenshot), but this time sent me an email. After a lengthy conversation where I was called a 'bully' multiple times for insisting she pay me fore the item she took, I was issued a refund. I feel I was terse, but my intent was not to 'bully' her. (It brings to mind calling the police bullies when they arrest you for shoplifting.) Although this is resolved, I'm posting the conversations. I'm not doing this out of malice, I'm sharing them so artists can make informed decisions before they conduct business with her. https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/mottenfest/8089253/10582/10582_original.jpg

May 20, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/767370.html WHO: Kit_tric WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kittric/ WHAT: Digital art, specifically character designs. WHEN: This week. PROOF: Better off putting it below. EXPLAIN: I put up a bunch of character designs I only used once to try and make a little extra cash. Kit_tric leaves a message that, as far as I can see, can be read as nothing other than a request to buy one of the designs: https://i.imgur.com/0q84nDu.png I PM him with my Paypal address, and not until over 24 hours later do I get this: https://i.imgur.com/lMiBRIm.png Which kind of seems like being flaky to me, but I guess I just wanted this here unless you get any 'offers' from this person on adoptables. I don't know them and haven't spoken to them before this, so it's not as if it's a friendly leg pull.

May 18, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/766898.html WHO: FurryFapChap/CheeryLuna WHERE: http://furryfapchap.deviantart.com/ WHAT: A 6-page NSFW comic. WHEN: First contact April 9th, Commission canceled May 18th. PROOF: PP transactions showing original date of invoice, More detailed view of the request, showing date when I sent a reminder. EXPLAIN: Read from the bottom to the top in each image. http://i.imgur.com/iVAJzOS.png http://i.imgur.com/BUp2DpF.png http://i.imgur.com/D6BQPGE.png http://i.imgur.com/afllhGj.png http://i.imgur.com/qk6u8EW.png Shows the dates of his notes to me. I was contacted to make a short comic. I agreed to it and gave pricing. I figured I would be able to get a little bit more money if I could sell the slots for the two "random girl" characters since their identities didn't matter to FCC. I gave FCC a discount to do this and would sell of the slots for pretty cheap, but I would still be making an extra $40 so it would work out for everyone. Since I didn't know how long it would take to sell the slots, I said that he didn't have to pay until that happened. It took about 12 days to sell them both, but I did and those people paid right away. I sent an invoice on the 19th to FCC. I let him know, sent the roughed pages and several days later sent a reminder through PayPal. I've learned my lesson in the past about doing comic work before being paid, so I wasn't going to continue work until he paid. A few days later the request had still not been paid, so I sent a DA note reminding him. I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that if for whatever reason he didn't get the request to send it to me directly. To which he responded that that is what he had already done (for some reason ignoring the request sent to his email address?) and got a receipt (which I wasn't shown). At this point, I am sure I was being strung along, but gave it a couple of days anyway. Three days later and still nothing. Since it is all on his end at the moment, I said it was up to him to contact PayPal and see what happened. If he paid with his card, then where did the money get sent? PayPal should know about this kind of error. He said he'd call them and straighten it out, but it has since been 12 days and I am tired of waiting. Not to mention that the other two people sent their payments in on the 18th and 19th of April and I don't want them to wait forever. I don't like having projects hanging over my head. I decided to send FCC a note canceling his slot and also canceled the unpaid invoice.

May 11, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/766518.html WHO: Chocho WHERE: Furaffinity WHAT: Full body / Full color / Background piece ($100) paid for & charged back. WHEN: May 3rd to Present * EDIT: May 17th PROOF: http://puu.sh/8IzSP.png http://puu.sh/8IzUj.png http://puu.sh/8IA56.png http://puu.sh/8IAcl.png EXPLAIN: I was contacted by Chocho on May 2nd using my Google Docs form to request a commission. I responded on May 3rd with a request to invoice. They said they currently didn't have access to a desktop, so I sent them my e-mail to send the information to. It is worth noting that the last name of the client and the last name on the account were the same, so I accepted the payment without worrying too much. ***I understand now that this should have been a red flag and I will now enforce/refund any money given to me outside of invoices, no exceptions.*** I had been a bit later than anticipating to respond to them with a sketched piece on May 9th. The next day, they issued me a chargeback and I did not realize until this morning (May 11th). My Terms of Service outlines that I only issue half-refunds after the sketch is completed, unless the client contacts me with more information. Instead, they simply charged the money back and I was out $112 (as I xfer my funds to Canadian Dollars.) So I spent $12 CAD to give someone a sketch! I refunded the transaction in full, noted my policies in the refund details, and sent them on their way. I know paypal has iffy policies on art-transactions and do not have the patience to argue with them about $50. I was going to wait a period of time before I sent this beware to get a response, but due to the nature of the transaction, I figured I should submit this as soon as possible. My best guess is that the client may have dishonestly used a family paypal or credit card to issue the funds and the family member issued a chargeback after not recognizing the charge. I do not anticipate being refunded $50, nor do I expect to be contacted again, so this is a general beware that I do not expect to be 'resolved'. I have updated my Terms of Service and my own personal policies to reflect that I am an invoice-only artist to avoid any future issues such as these. I know this is ultimately my own fault. Thank you for reading. --------- Edit May 17th 2014: Here is my e-mail correspondence with Chocho to try and resolve the issue: http://puu.sh/8Pttt.png The latest note being sent to me May 12th. These journals went up on their page in the past few days (language): http://puu.sh/8PtmI http://puu.sh/8PtmX The short version is that they bank card was stolen and money was spent on it. I'm not sure why they linked their college courses as a reason for not having money (if it was stolen).

May 14, 2014 https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/766364.html I have this marked as adult because some of the stuff on her commission spreadsheet is for adult commissions. WHO: Skink/Paint. She no longer goes by Paint, but her other two bewares are under that name. I think this beware should be added under that name for her, as well as Skink since it is what she now goes by. WHERE: I commissioned her over FA on Paint, but she is active here- https://www.weasyl.com/~skink WHAT: I commissioned her January 19th 2013 for $110 worth of pay what you want commissions, to be divided into two images. A few months later, I commissioned her again for $30 colored sketch. (exact date not known because I paid for it over some sort of funding website and can't seem to find it on my paypal although I remember paying and I am down on her commission spreadsheet for this commission. See the spreadsheet later). WHEN: I made the first payment to her on January 19th 2013. She was fine in keeping contact with me whenever I sent her a note. The last reply I've heard from her in note form was on January 21st 2014. After that date she has not replied to any of my messages regarding the commissions. I wouldn't be so concerned, however she opened commissions March 29th and did finish a handful of these new commissions, posting them to Weasyl while I continued to receive no reply to my messages. PROOF: The initial commission agreement for the $110 commission took place over stream so I don't have a screenshot of my asking and her saying yes, however here is a screenshot of my paypal payment of $110 to her as well as screenshots of my name and commissions on her queue. As stated before, the colored sketch was commissioned over a funding website that I cannot remember, but that commission is on her queue as well. The payment- http://oi62.tinypic.com/ixfkus.jpg The queue- http://oi57.tinypic.com/15z5a46.jpg my commissions are near the top and bottom. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ak6G1XPK44mudFNHWW83ODhYTmNsVkpNLWN5aE5RTmc#gid=0 this is the actual link to the google docs of the commission spreadsheet. EXPLAIN: I like Skink's style, enjoy how she draws my characters, so in the past I commissioned her as much as I possibly could. Until this incident she has been quick to deliver the artwork, so I didn't hesitate to pay her the $110 for these particular commissions, assuming that I'd get the work done pretty quickly, as it had been done before. It took her a little longer than usual, but it didn't bother me. She kept her watchers updated with journals about rough going-ons at her job, things that would normally delay commissions. Understandable. I sent her the occasional message for updates, but mostly just kept up with her journals, which stated what was going on with her life. It wasn't really until in January, the ~1 year anniversary of my paying her the initial $110, that I began messaging her more frequently about the commissions. The first note I sent was amiable, just asking what's up, and she replied with reasons why there had been further delay. The reasons were a little personal so I'm not posting the screenshots, but this series of notes wasn't an issue for me because she did reply and let me know that she would be telling me when my commissions were up for being worked on. I'm happy. My next note was a little over a week later. http://oi57.tinypic.com/dfeici.jpg It proposes a deadline and asks if she can get back to me if that date doesn't work for her. I receive no reply. She opens up for new commissions March 29th https://www.weasyl.com/journal/45742/daily-color-sketch-commissions-plush-and-charms Her old queue shows no signs of being worked on. April 1st I send another note. http://oi58.tinypic.com/2z68t4y.jpg Just reminding her. Still no reply. The same day I send her a note about a commissioner she was having trouble with that I had had troubles with in the past as well, and she answers it promptly. Granted I didn't send it to her for any reason than to talk to her about that commissioner, but I still am surprised that she answers the note right away. This is very frustrating for me to hear /nothing/ back from an artist about the commissions I paid for, who I can see is still being active at this point, from her Weasyl and Tumblr. On Tumblr I send her a message asking her to check her Weasyl notes. I send another note April 7th which is basically a repeat of my April 1st note. Finally, I sent this note April 30th http://oi62.tinypic.com/b4jjgk.jpg I guess in my Tumblr message or some other means I asked for simply a refund, because that's what I say. I don't have a record of that first message asking for a refund though. Honestly by the point of April 30th though even if I hadn't asked for one before, I wanted a refund. Since then I have attempted to contact her over AIM to no avail. When I try to send her a message over AIM it tells me that she doesn't receive offline messages and when I do manage to get a message to go through(?) (it appears as if she's invisible, but I don't get the 'no offline messages' message) there is still no reply. I want my money back, but I am getting no replies at all from her. If nothing else I can write up this artist beware to add to the others on the site which seem to be about this same situation. I wasn't worried about her giving reasons to delay the commissions because everyone runs into bad situations where they can't do commissions as fast as they'd like... but the fact that she opened up commissions for a brief time in March with the promise of using them as warm ups for her main queue, finished some of the commissions without even an update on the main queue, coupled with the other artist bewares compelled me to finally write this up. Skink is talented, but if this is repeat behavior from her then beware this artist.