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I DMed StormSoulSeeker from the Art Fight Discord server on March 5th, 2024. I found them via the #art-trades channel, where users advertise their open art commissions. We agreed to do an art commission. I finished my piece on the same day, and the last time I heard from them was March 7th 2024. I reached out to them on Discord several times (most recently June 13th 2024), along with Toyhouse and Art Fight. While I cannot know whether they have been on Discord since March 7th, Toyhouse and Art Fight data shows that they've been online since my attempts at communication, with 0 response. Screenshots of original agreement (Discord): At several points between the above reminder messages, I messaged them on Toyhouse and Art Fight. Toyhouse screenshots: With time stamp: Toyhouse stats showing last time logged in as of June 16, 2024: With time stamp: Art Fight Profile Comment: Art Fight stats as of June 16, 2024: As a side note, I reported this to a mod from the Art Fight Discord (where the art trade was initiated): An attempt to contact the artist on ArtFight was made, but despite being active on the site as of June 30th, she has not responded. She also deleted the shout made on her page. She had sorted herself into a team indicating intention to participate in ArtFight for July of 2024
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- stormsoulseeker
- trade
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I should start this by making it very clear this is intended as a caution, not a true beware. Throughout my interactions with Solantic.z, they have been very polite with me, but after roughly five months I have yet to have recieved my completed commission from them. On 02/08/2023, I reached out to the artist in question about a commission (two flat colored headshots). The agreed upon amount to pay was $24 USD, I sent $30 USD, with the extra $6 USD being intended as a 25% tip seeing as I was feeling generous, and hoped it would provide incentive to finish my commission relatively quick. Attached is a receipt of my PayPal statement from the transaction. I censored anything I believed to be personal. I contacted the artist several times after this requesting updates on the commission, and was given a run-around and no progress updates. After about two months, I was given an update with some of the coloring done on my snow leopard. They had base colors down, but had yet to begin with any of the spots or markings. The artist informed me that they had a medical emergency that prevented them from working on my commission (which was understandable, and I wished them a speedy recovery). I have censored the nature of the medical emergency, seeing as medical history is often seen as a very personal thing, and I don't want to reveal anything personal to the public without the artist's permission. Shortly after their medical emergency, I noticed that the artist had advertised opening a new commission slot in a public Discord server we both share (Canadian Furs), which led me to believe my commission was close to being finished. When I asked about it the morning after, the artist let me know my commission was coming along nicely and should be finished within the next couple of days. I'm not an artist myself, but I have a bunch of friends who are, so I know that finances can be quite a concern, and tried to communicate that I was concerned about my commission but that I understood that their mental health (and physical health) had to come first. We had a quick chat about some personal things (which I won't disclose here). They said they'd give me a progress update in an hour or so if they were still awake. There were a couple of quick affirmations that I had not been forgotten and that my commission was being actively worked on, but no further progress reports or proof of progress. It sounded like something may have happened in their personal life again, making them unable to work on my commission. Today (07/11/2023 @ 1:24 PM Mountain Time), I reached out again saying it had been almost five months since the start of my commission. At this point I had begun to grow irritated, seeing as it had been almost five months for a commission they had said should take less than a week. After a discussion with a friend in the Canadian Furs Discord server, one of the moderators informed me that she had commissioned this artist as well, and had yet to receive their commission. A few minutes later the owner of the server put out a ping letting the members know the artist has been failing to deliver on their commissions. Almost immediately after the server owner put out the ping, Solantic.z messaged me asking if I had reported them. While I had idly complained about my commission taking so long, I was not the one that brought it up to the owner, nor did I ask for any action on their part. While I was annoyed, I didn't want to cause trouble, and was mostly content to sit and wait. As of 7/17/2023, I informed the artist I was imposing a hard deadline, and would like my commission finished within roughly two weeks or I would like my money returned. However, the artist does have a note in their username and bio saying their WiFi is currently down, so hopefully that will be resolved before the deadline. If it is not, I'll see what I can work out with them, but seeing as it's been almost six months my patience is beginning to wear thin. In conclusion, while the artist has been polite, after being given the runaround for almost six months with little to no actual progress shown, I feel as though I've more or less wasted $30 USD on two pieces of art that will never be produced. I can't comment on whether or not the artist is genuine in their reasoning for being unable to complete the commission in a timely manner, but either way I find it similar to any other skilled trade. Clear communication about delays adds leeway, but when a couple weeks stretches into roughly six months, I am no longer a happy customer. I think it would be best for anyone attempting to commission Solantic.z to give them a couple months for their life situation to hopefully settle down a little if you're hoping for a timely return for your money.
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- solaine
- solantic.z
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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/877734.html I bought a YCH from this person for $12, which isn't much. I paid them $15 because I thought their "skill" was impressive and that I should tip a bit. They got the piece done in a very good amount of time, but it was brought to my attention that the piece was traced from another artist's art. I was refunded the full amount very quickly, but they deny that they had traced. Other than that, they are a really nice person. It's just a shame to see talent go wasted by copying others. Their Profiles: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/lakeore/ http://lakeadopts.deviantart.com/ http://princedeanmon.tumblr.com/ (NSFW!!) YCH Posting: https://i.gyazo.com/096020fd94b9c73870ac1d51dc24008a.png Finished: https://i.gyazo.com/b67e895559cd8c30b3934a409b078d5b.png Comments: https://i.gyazo.com/80909a81f2aa53a7d27f41ad02b3f0c7.png Original Artist's Piece: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15173282 Overlay: https://i.gyazo.com/5dabdf1918b7e76919a4bbe2b4ce8bf9.png Proof of Payment/Refund: https://i.gyazo.com/6c6e1af37595afd7bfee860f45b1d1ee.png "But I didn't trace!": https://i.gyazo.com/b1577ac2d9aeee1158377eb0a3be0e26.png Just wanted to give a heads up. I have no idea how credible their adopts/other art are, but I wouldn't trust it.
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- lakeadopts
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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/872392.html WHO: Apocalypse ReFurred, Thysyrael WHERE: Facebook Apocalypse ReFurred page and via messages WHAT: A pair of resin/ polymorph pastic clawed hand paws and feet paws with promise of quick turn around by April 4th. WHEN: March 18th 2015. – Commission placed. March 22nd – Fur I supplied arrived at maker’s address. March 24th – Commission paid for in full. April 3rd – Photo of hand paws WIP received, April 4th – Original deadline. April 16th – Photo received of feet paws in ductape wrap, ready for furring. ( Several different life problems occurred for the artist, such as pet passing, theft etc. throughout the months. I can try to give specific dates for these if required) 6th September – After no updates, I ask again for one or for a partial refund and what’s been made to be sent to me so I can complete myself or resell. 7th September – Refunded and items sent to me 11th September – Items recieved PROOF: ( Me in purple, her in green) Facebook messages part 1 Facebook messages part 2 Paypal receipt Message mentioning the polymorph plastic I missed Items themselves; Overall paw shape ( My ref for character, notice the paws are more lizard or simian shaped) Animal hair 1, 2, 3 Unglued edges Hand paws Claws They look like Fimo to me EXPLAIN: Back in March, I was preparing for a convention on April 4th when I found that my fursuit feet and paws where in very rough condition from general use. I asked about on the UK Furry Facebook groups for a maker or someone seller paws and a maker came forward. I looked at their stuff and while they weren’t high end makers, their paws looked fine and they offered to complete it within the admittedly tight deadline. I already had some fur left over from when I tried to make the fursuit and we agreed for a lower price ( £80) if I sent this fur over. A day before the deadline ( April 4th ) I received a phone photo of the hand paws. They looked a little rough, but I assumed it was just the camera quality. I later received a photo of ductape covered feet paws. They looks a little odd and I asked if the tape was pulling the toes apart, giving them a wider look. She assured me they were fine so I continued with the commission a little apprehensive. Then a myriad of personal and family problems for the maker reared up, from a pet passing away, to a parent being very ill and then robbery. There were also problems with the dye not adhering to the resin claws that I’d asked for. She said she would contact the maker and complain. Every so often, I’d ask for updates and get told that there was a problem and she couldn’t send photos. After the April 4th deadline, I’d hoped that the paws would be ready for Confuzzled in May. No such luck, I ended up going suitless which was kinda sad. 7 months later, I was promised an update within 2 weeks. No update came and I was fed up. I asked for a partial refund ( as some of the commission was complete) and for what was made to be sent to me. She agreed and the £5 refund along with the unattached claws and paws where sent to me. The paws arrived quickly but in very poor condition, which I’ll detail in sections; Feet Paws – They are way too wide and off model, looking more like duck feet. There is glue blobs, holes between the fur and the sole, but the worse thing is the smell. They stink badly of dog so much that it’s as if the animal has sat on the foam or fur. I reported this to the maker ( as some of my family suffer from allergies), she explained that the fur and foam was kept away from the animals and the only way they’d smell is if she’d passed it on from petting the animals. However, there is white and brown animal fur on the paws as well as general fluff. This hair cannot be from when I supplied the fur as we have no pets. Hand Paws – very roughly made, though they are incomplete, they too are smelly. They also fit ill. Claws– These are not polymorph plastic, but instead hand sculpted Fimo clay and have finger prints and dirt in the clay. I googled the plastic, which appears to be a shiney, usually white product similar to glue gun glue. In the end, I am very disappointed. I don’t think I can even sell these items without thorough repair and cleaning. She seems to be a young maker and as such, isn’t very professional yet. Edit: Update 2/10/2015 I contacted the maker a couple of days ago about the animal fur with pictures. I asked her again if the animal had been in contact with the paws and she said the fur ( which is clearly animal with colouring and tapering... plus, y know, the stink!) was faux fur from another suit she was making.
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- apocalypse refurred
- thysyrael
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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/867465.html WHO: Kimba90 WHERE: https://inkbunny.net/kimba90 WHAT: Two character digital NSFW commission of anthro 'My Little Pony' characters. WHEN: Initially contacted on Aug 16th. Trouble showed up Aug 29th. PROOF: link to all the screenshots, which I will be putting into context below the cut EXPLAIN: Kimba90 contacted me on August 16th to ask about a commission. I pointed him at my simple price list. He asked about me drawing "loli" characters, but I let him know I wasn't into drawing underaged characters in sexual situations. He asked about drawing MLP, I said that was okay. I am not too good at 'feral' animals but could do them anthro-ized or like ginjinka. We got the details sorted. I let him know that I would do a rough sketch to get the poses down before asking for payment. I don't add any character details in the sketch until I've been paid. screenshot I showed him the first sketch (NSFW). He asked for some changes. screenshot I obliged and sent a revised sketch (NSFW). He asked for one more tweak, plus a second insert panel shot. I did so (NSFW). screenshot I sent the final revision on the 26th. Three days passed so I sent him a reminder on the 29th that I still needed his PP address so I could send him that invoice. He PMs back with his address... but also informs me that he doesn't have any money in his PP account. I figure he was trying to scam me into free artwork, but I asked if I should just put the drawing on hold until he does have the money... and when I should expect it. screenshot It's been two days and he hasn't PMed back. I think he is just going to ignore me and I figured I might as well post this beware. Even if he does get back to me, I don't appreciate that he would try to get a commission and not have the funds to back it up, so I won't be continuing on this commission. I saved a copy of the first version of the sketch, so I will probably sell it as a YCH on FA to recoup. (commission request specifics blurred and screenshots larger as requested)
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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.
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- echoen
- archive:2015
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Hello, first of all, I want to say this is not a beware of not getting the art. I did infact get what I wanted, this is more for the passive aggressive edits and changes to the final uploaded picture after it had already been approved. Original Agreement: I contacted Xlyuz on Discord for a picture of my bee boy laying in bed in a sexual pose, as shown below, and supplied the reference (notice the lack of stinger) Proof of Payment: After everything was squared away and payment was sent and received, I was told there were others ahead of me, and the wait began. Xlyuz sent me this WIP, with a stinger. I didn't mention no stinger, but figured it wasn't in the ref, so it wouldn't be added. I asked for the correction, and he proceeded to tell me that in his opinion, my bee would look better with a stinger, but agreed to remove it. I also added another ref of my bee from behind. Honestly, I should have taken this as a red flag that he wasn't going to follow the ref. He shot me another WIP with the stinger removed, and with the color and shading and background added, to which I approved of, and gave my socials for when he uploads. Soon after, the finished product was sent to me, which I downloaded and attached here. So after this, I thought everything was done, and was prepared for when it uploaded, only for him to re add the stinger, change the dialogue, change eye color and remove the cum, all in what I can only view as passive agressive edits for me not agreeing to the added stinger, to the point that it is no longer my character, but is labeled as my commission. I have reached out, only to go ignored. I thought that maybe he may have uploaded the wrong one, but then he would have had to have went with that first WIP and took it to completion alongside the corrected one. At this point, I just want him to post the right one; the one accurate to my character.
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I have to warn about Aspenbear on Furaffinity. I ordered a Commission at him at May 29th via telegram. at like middle of june he announced refund people since his queue was too long. After a while i was wondering about the state of my commission if i get a commission or a refund. After i asked him the Question at the 15th of june he opened the commissions again on the 16th. After he said he is gonna refund. So i waited for his answer. He reopened Commissions again Still no answer or scetch around this point. I sent him a Note via Furaffinity which was read but not answered. At the 3. July i started the resolution via paypal. he had enough time to react and answer me. At the same day as i started the case, he answered me the question from the 15th of June. at the 7th of July i escalated the case to paypal since he didn't answer on Telegram or via paypal So i sent him a message on paypal again. At the 11th july he made a journal aboout to update his Trello and about a few YCHs he is gonna finish. Still no scetch up to this point. At the 13th of July i got an answer on telegram to my paypal-resolution.. Since i was not the only one which didn't get any Commission done i decided to Force-payback through Paypal. i got a last Message at the 17th. Seven days later he reopened his Scetches again. His last Commission he submitted was a an old YCH. Evidence for payment and payback: On his trello i have still an entry for the refund. I got my 60$ back with the forced paypal-resolution.
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- aspenbear
- commission
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In April 2022 I met Kittbites at a party at my college. She said she was open to doing my commission after she took care of some things. I commissioned her because she said she would be able to finish my suit in time for Megaplex 2022, in early August. I took a little while to think about it, and then confirmed that I wanted to buy from her on May 15th. Three days later the invoice was paid. The total price was a fursuit head for $800, handpaws for $200 and a tail for $200. (I should first mention that this post is going to be very long. Kitt strung me along for almost an entire year while holding onto over a thousand dollars, and after finding out she has an extensive history of scamming, I just managed to get under half of that back, as well as a barely finished product, under the threat of legal action.) At first things were fine. But within a couple of weeks Kitt's responses began to become more and more sparse. This would set the precedent for the rest of our interactions, and it only got worse from there. It should be noted that Kitt was up front about some personal issues that she was going through at the time, which I have tried as best I can to leave out of this post. The problem is that over time it became clear she was using these problems as an excuse to not work on my commission. I know this because I was later able to find other examples of her work that were completed around this time. I will do my best to leave these issues out of this post regardless. I was a little upset that she left for two whole weeks at this point, but she eventually got back to me with correspondence. The suit was progressing along pretty well at this point, and Kitt was still responding in a semi-timely manner. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the fur was lost by Fedex. I'm fully aware this isn't Kitt's fault, and I'm including this to give her the benefit of the doubt that she could have gotten my suit finished by August. (Also I hate Fedex) Eventually August rolled around. It became clear Kitt probably wouldn't have the entire suit finished in time. I remained hopeful. On August 1st Kitt gave me this update. "I have most of the fur sewn." This implies that she barely did any work on the suit from this point onwards. Shortly after this Kitt had some stuff happen in her personal life, and wasn't able to finish ANY of the suit on time. A few days later, Kitt completely dissapeared. August 8th was the last I'd heard from her, and I didn't hear from her again until September 12th. Due to the rules of this website I am not allowed to disclose where she went, but suffice it to say that she left the internet for the time. She gave me no warning that this could or might happen, and when she came back she gave a half-hearted apology. At this point I was beginning to get suspicious of her, but I had no recourse in the event that she take my money and run, so I was forced to smile and feign forgiveness. Unfortunately she immediately left again for another two weeks. The upper texts of the first image here are from September 15th. Then another week. Kitt then showed some more progress with the suit, including a fully furred head, but she got sick immediately after. However, she promised she would be able to have the suit delivered by November. I won't provide the screenshot of this mainly because it almost exclusively consists of cities and events Kitt and I are local to. However, I can show that she ghosted me again throughout the month of November: Kitt then promised she would have the suit done by Christmas. After leaving for another 2 weeks, some more "stuff" happened. At this point I was fully convinced that she was making things up, and was about ready to confront her about her making me wait almost seven months at this point. It was 4 days before Christmas and she sent me a picture of the "finished" head. I honestly really didn't like it but at this point I just wanted to get it over with so I said it looked fine. I had a separate friend who edited fursuits and I was planning on just having them finish any changes I didn't like. Kitt then decided to cancel half the order, deciding to refund me less than the original $200 I paid for both the handpaws and tail. Christmas came and went without any kind of correspondence, and I finally put my foot down. On January 7th I brought up the prospect of legal action. Kitt did not address this in any way. Through some investigation I also discovered that she had a commission manager this entire time that she neglected to tell me about. I messaged them and they immediately got her to send the unfinished fursuit head. This was about the best outcome I could have hoped for and at this point I wanted this all to be over with so I didn't contest it. This was also the last straw, and I gave her a final deadline of March 15th, 2023 to BOTH send me the suit and give me a refund of 500 dollars that I could use to pay my other friend, who would finish the suit. Kitt's manager responded much quickly, and was able to almost immediately get Kitt to send me what she had finished. The package arrived a few days later. Here was Kitt's finished product: This all but confirmed my suspicions that Kitt had barely even been working on my fursuit since August-November, and only found time to work on it with repeated pestering. Even at the time that I told her to stop and send me an unfinished version instead, she had over a month to continue from being "almost done." In any case, I now had her legal name and number on the shipping box, and was fully intending to report her in for what technically constituted as a felony. Kitt stopped texting me for almost an entire month before the deadline, but on March 13th, she finally got me my refund. I genuinely wasn't expecting her to. In conclusion, Kitt almost stole $1,200 from me, led me on for almost an entire year by taking advantage of my sympathy, and in the end somehow did the bare minimum in delivering an UNFINISHED product. It took the threat of police action to get her to do anything. Please for the love of god do not commission her. She has a history of this and I only happened to be lucky enough to be local to her and able to contact local authorities. In addition, she has dropped her commission manager and there is now no way of contacting her in a way that will get a reliable response back. Good night.
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I pledged to Lewdtime from April to June of 2022 on Fanbox. I was subscribed to their $45 tier for those three which guaranteed a colored sketch commission. Here are the receipts for those three months. After pledging to the tier, I had Dm’ed them on discord about the details for the first sketch. A month went by and I asked for an update. soon after I realized that I had continued staying pledged for a couple more months. It wasn’t intentional but I didn’t mind because I figured the commission would come pretty quickly since I had already gotten the sketch for the first commission. I asked if it was alright to send the ideas for the other two commissions which at first got no reply until a few days later when I checked again. I omitted the post on June 12th as it was simply my post about the details of the commission. But this was not replied to by Lewdtime after I posted the details. This last screenshot is the several months of update requests in which I attempted to make contact with them. I also tried contacting them on Twitter since they are mostly active on there. I also received no replies. At this point I had asked for a refund on Twitter and discord which had received no replies. Today I was able to get in contact with them, but I believe it was only due to the fact that I told them that if I received no reply that I would make a post on Twitter warning users to not commission them. They quickly replied and I was able to receive a full refund. Of course I am still posting this here because I have already seen one other post on this site with the same situation as mine. I do not have the messages from today anymore as I blocked them on every site after confirming the refund, but it was simply them requesting my PayPal address to refund the money to and then confirming that I received it. So please beware of this artist especially if you try the fanbox tier pledges since you cannot force a refund as easily as your typical direct PayPal transaction.
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A commission turned abusive. I was originally approached unsolicited via note on FA by this user (when they were not suspended) offering to make artwork for my characters that they 'adored' (see the FA note screenshot attached below). After some back and forth I agreed to commisison them. The linework they did got back to me very quickly within 3 days of originally being approached. However on September 8th they said they'd begin coloring and I did not hear back from them until I reached out again on October 11th. I did recieve my finished work from them, but my correspondence with them felt overall abusive. However they were very keen to get a second commission from me for another character of mine. I wasn't sure that I really wanted to get a second full detailed picture and instead asked if they did sketches for helping me concept a new design. They said they didn't and I decided then that I wasn't going to get a second commission. This is when the abusive behavior was very apparent. Below is my full correspondence on discord with this user.
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In April of 2022 I commissioned artist Kittygrave on Twitter for a simple flatcolored bust sketch of my OC to help support them when they said they needed money. I paid the money and waited about a month, what I figured was more than enough time to get the commissions done since it was nothing seriously huge, they responded saying they would have it done at some point in June. I let some time go by, and nothing ever came of it. So I reached back out in November for any updates or a refund if they were too busy or no longer wanted to do it, again another promise to have it done, but this time within a week! At this point I'm a bit too antsy and 10 days had gone by, so I requested a refund and they promised it by the end of the week. At this point I become a bit more firm on my requests and set them to this strict time frame since they had promised it yet again. They responded and said they'd have it within 24 hrs, as of January 4th I have yet to receive any kind of refund or a response even though I had asked for updates. During this now 9 month wait, and past my given deadline, they had done personal art, opened commissions (They deleted the comm advertising post, but evidence of it will be posted), and adoptable batches. They HAD a trello but had taken it down to update it and I have been unable to find it since. I don't even know if I was ever put on it to begin with as it was inaccessible to me before my commission. Normally things like this I would even be fine with, but they just did little communication and never updated me if they needed to extend a deadline, which I would have been totally cool with! Down below are proofs of their activity post deadline: 1/25 MOD NOTICE: The artist has since made amends with OP and provided a refund, and the matter is now considered resolved.
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This started on discord where I ask if I can get a 2 piece commission from 1 of there post in a artist community discord. (their original post on discord has been deleted) * I post my 2 Character REFs in-between theses * Paypal transactions: Screencap taken on 7/28/2022 of my commission on their Trello: -Kev0855: Paid / Sketch in progress I ask for there Trello to keep up to date with there progress without bugging them too much. (I tend to bug people/Artist with questions a lot) We talk about some IRL things between these 2 caps of our DMS* This was my 1 and only draft of the commission that I've got so far and this is about 3-4 months into this commission 4/28/21-7/28/21 I'm very patient with people and I knew they had commissions ahead of me from there Trello but I don't hear from them till 7/28/22 ( 1 year later ) during this year gap, I went through IRL issues so I wasn't always online. So I didn't reach out during this time till I got settled down and was able to check-in on things. Never got any updates or messages from them either during this gap year. At this point I started to ask around to friends and other artist in the community about this delay and lack of communication from this artist without saying who they were just incase they were going Real IRL Issues. Most people said I should say something to the discord Higher-ups(Admins/Mods) about this ongoing issues. On 7/28/22 I try to press on what's happening and why it was taking so long. I try to give them a out by offering to just drop the whole 2 piece commission and just doing a refund so that its 1 less commission to have to deal with. I figured that they might have taken on more commissions then what they could handle at this point and I was trying to lessen there load. They reverse the choice back to me and letting me know of a IRL issues. I figured that with the IRL issues and that it didn't seem to be that much of issue doing my 2 piece commission that i would ask how long would they think they need to finish. They said that they hope to have ALL the YCHs done in 2 weeks time starting from that next Sunday (7/31/22) 2 weeks later being Sunday (8/14/22). This is being the 1st IRL issues delay. I wait 2 weeks and poke them again to see what's happening. On 8/14/22, They let me know that they plan on finishing all their YCHs by the end of August and that my commission was next in queue. They offer a apologue on the delay and a choice between a refund or again offering a extra small piece added to the commission. I didn't want to put more work on there plate and I just wanted to have the art finished and 1 more thing of there plate. This is being the 2nd IRL issues delay. For a month I gave a little *poke* here and there to see how things are going and to see if they have any updates on what's happening since there Trello hasn't been update since July 8th 2022. On 9/4/22 they update me after me asking that 1st piece needs the shading done and starting colors on the 2nd piece. They reminded me that I got 2 commissions, At the time I was taken back by that statement but I ignore it cause I just wanted by 2 Piece commission that I've been waiting for over a year now done. On 9/26/22 they let me know about another IRL Issue that delayed them from reaching out to me about what's happening and from any progress on any commissions. They claim to have called out of work to go home and finish my Commission that night. They Again Apologies for the delay/issues. My DM on 10/22/22 was made to let them know that I knew that they went to TwitchCon cause they had it as their Discord Status before and during TwitchCon. This last cap is the last of the DMs at this time 12/19/22 8am. There are 4 months worth of DMs in 1 screencap and more IRL issues.
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Back in November 2021 (on the 14th specifically), I saw that netcrow had opened for emergency commissions and messaged them to inquire about a 3-panel page since I love their art and was excited to get an opportunity to commission them. Here is the exact tweet of theirs advertising their commissions: It was stated that turnaround times would be "very slow" and I understood that they were dealing with health issues, so I was aware of this ahead of time. However I did not expect to be where I'm at currently, going on 9 months since I commissioned them without having received any proof of my comm being started, with every deadline they have provided being missed and very poor (or lack thereof) communication. I'm not writing this out of malice but to make other clients aware and to hopefully motivate netcrow to work out a better sort of routine or workflow for managing their commissions. Shortly after I messaged them on the 14th, I received a reply stating that my commission had been accepted and we then went over further details: Initially, I was told that that I could expect the first WIP "that week." That week passed without me receiving anything, but it was no big deal to me since I understood everything they were dealing with, and I was content to wait longer. I did not hear from them again until February 10 of this year, when I reached out to give them an updated ref for my OC after being reminded of my comm from seeing them open for another batch of commissions: I received an apology for the wait and was given a new time for when I could expect the first WIP. I absolutely do/still did understand what they were dealing with so again, I was content to wait further but was admittedly excited about being able to lookout for a WIP again. The week after this came and went however, and again, I did not hear anything from them nor did I end up actually receiving one. Several more months passed, and I still did not hear anything from them. I was starting to get concerned at this point so I reached out again on June 18th to inquire about the status of my commission and ask to know where I was at in their queue: What really alarmed me is how netcrow stated that they have "no particular queue," but again, I tried to be optimistic and as understanding as possible. At this time I received another apology and was told that they would try to get my commission that month and "maybe even finish it." To their credit I have seen them posting some finished commissions, but almost every one has been captioned as being "very overdue" or "extremely old" such as the ones below: Between the time of June 19 - August 7 I did not hear from them anytime; it was radio silence again. More recently, I informed some friends and other artists about the situation to ask for advice, which has lead to me now writing this beware and reaching out to them again. On the morning of August 8th, I messaged netcrow again expressing my concerns and requesting that they provide a firm deadline for providing a sketch: At the time of me submitting this beware, I have not heard back yet. Like I've stated, I truly do not mean this out of any sort of malice but simply out of concern and frustration. I wish the absolute best for netcrow with navigating their health issues, but this is not a good way to manage commissions and I'm figuring that other clients of theirs may be in the same or similar positions. I'm a very patient person and do my best to be as polite and understanding as possible, but the lack of communication and lack of a proper queue here have me greatly concerned and anxious as I am out of $320 with not even a sketch to show for it 9 months later. I still do love their art and would love to receive my commission, but the long periods of silence and overall experience have me a bit down :[ I don't wish to come across as a spiteful or mean individual whatsoever.
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Hello everyone, I would like to comment on the incident that I had a few days ago with a client. not more than 4 weeks ago a user in discord (and inkbunny, himself) asked me for a commission for a cartoon fight (characters hitting each other in a cloud of smoke) with some tv characters and 2 of my ocs, one sfw and nsfw. he sent me a reference from another artist (censored too however my commission list was full at the time, I did tell him it was full but I could put him on a pending waiting list. so the user accepted. then the days passed into weeks, honestly I am very sorry to make my clients wait, and it is my fault that things can be forgotten on me, so I quickly asked for my sincere apologies, the user was somewhat angry and I understand it perfectly even that I feel sad, my art is slow... The user was very kind so it motivated me to draw on a better way. IMPORTANT NOTE: I do not usually ask the money first because I like that the clients are satisfied with the sketch and then I receive the payment. so there is no image of the payment. I sent the first sketch, the user did not like it but I did not hate it either. naturally the user tells me what changes he wants, but not minor changes if not a total change. I personally understand that there are clients who ask for perfection, so in that aspect it does not make me unhappy. but a total change I really did not feel that I could do it, I felt a little nervous since I promised to send several sketches in a single day, and it usually takes 3 hours per sketch and more than this size. how I still thought that he felt angry, I preferred to give up and say that I could not do it and I would not complain at all because he is in all his right, but while the conversation was flowing the client told me things like "I thought you knew what that I wanted "(I want to clarify that English is not my main language so I usually have to make mistakes and misunderstand things) I understand this. another thing he told me "You're hurting your chances" then I felt that the sutuiacion was feeling "heavy" bad so I decided to explain to him why I feel that I cannot make a big change and why it takes me a long time, with the hope NOT that he would accept the sketch, if not that he understood and did not get angry with me. I don't think the user understood at all, maybe it's because of my English or I don't know. until he told me that he could pay me 200 USD which was not very sensible because I felt like a very poor girl. it was like an insult to my person. after that he decided to cancel everything and not talk to me again. What I would have liked is maybe to receive an apology or at least a small payment for the sketch, even though I understand that he is not obliged, i dont will lair i trying ask him a payment, he told me no, then i decided stoped. What can I say is that I be careful with some clients
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Hi my name is LadyOlg. I come to you with the help and advice of Salisha following a dispute with the artist Kellion. It's already been several months since I started to collaborate with him following a Devianart contest he created and I won. Only in the last two months the situation has changed quickly, Kellion tried to hijack my drawings and resell them at auction. The last order I made for him was paid 170€, a YCH with 8 characters at 20€ each plus 10€ for the landscape. It was obviously agreed that the figures would be resold so that he could pay back the commission but he never told me that he would make money on them. Two artists including Salisha came to warn me of this, the resale is done on Furafinity, not being known yet on it I think Kellion imagined that I had no account and could make the sale behind my back. So I posted a public comment under the sale to point out an error on his part, without insults or even getting angry because I still believed I could trust him and that there must be a mistake. Obviously he masked the comment but he was also quite angry because some artists had noticed it and wanted to be reimbursed or even threw it out of their community. I often asked Kellion to be clear with me, as his requests were sometimes changing and confusing but I put this down to the fact that neither he nor I speak English. As he was offering me his help since I was a beginner as an artist, I often asked him if my prices were correct, being really cheap at the beginning he advised me once to increase them, which I did but being a beginner I didn't dare to increase them much and asked him however if it was correct, on those he didn't warn me about my prices put only gave an example of a price sheet I could make, not in relation to the budget but in relation to my own rates depending on the type of art. Kellion turned my naivety against me, using this very argument to tell me that these were the prices I had chosen and that it was normal for him to sell them at a higher price because he said that he didn't think he would be able to sell everything concerning the YCH... Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) It wasn't the first time Kellion tries to foul me, you will see it on the captures, but it was more subtle ( for me ) and he managed to manipulate me well enought to be me doing the apologizes and feeling like I've made a mistake or don't understand... I'm sorry for my bad English on the captures, I hope you will understand me well. I've to capture all our conversation sins the beguening so I'll probably send you another email with the rest of the capture ! In the last capture, you can find the first argument on the 33 and the last start to the 87. Here you got the link of the sell he had post on FA : https://www.furaffinity.net/view/45866391/ Thank you a lot for your attention
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I contacted Mawbyte on Twitter after seeing an ad on their Twitter for page dolls. The page dolls were $30. I messaged them with my reference sheet asking if I could get one and they sent me a message saying they would take me but needed to add a $20 complexity fee. I found this a bit strange since my character is pretty simple but agreed anyways. Here is a picture of the reference sheet: (Image is much larger but keeps getting shrunk on here) The initial conversation for the transaction: An invoice was sent for $50. I added a $10 tip for the artist and was given the link to the Trello where I could track my commission. I was told I could contact them if I wanted any changes to be made or if I wanted anything added or removed. Invoice: Conversation about the invoice, what to do if I wanted edits and the trello information given: Me asking for clarification on what the complexity fee was for: I heard nothing from them again until 12/14/2021. Upon opening my commission I realized that even though it is a very clear reference sheet my character was missing half of their markings. Additionally the quality of the lines did not match anything of their other work and the work appeared extremely rushed. I contacted them back and asked if the markings could be added. Being charged a complexity fee those markings should have been added. Quality of chibis advertised: Message sent with my file: The file: I did not hear back from them. I contacted them again on the 15th and still heard nothing. Then I contacted them again on the 17th and finally heard back late in the evening. I was told they had deleted the file and that there was nothing they could do about it. I asked them about getting a refund for the complexity fee since my character’s markings were not actually completed. I was told they don’t do refunds and that they simplify the markings for the smaller page dolls anyways so they were sorry but they didn’t know what to do. Proof of asking for changes: There were several chibis done that were a lot more complicated than my character. I had never been told about potentially simplifying the character and that does not mean leaving entire markings out. I mentioned writing a beware and then was told I didn’t communicate well enough about what was important for my character. The reference sheet I sent is very thorough and answered any potential questions the artist might have had. They also could have messaged me at any point to ask me the questions but they did not. Excuses given for why it couldn't be changed: They finally painted the markings onto the image and said they were blacklisting me. I was asking simply for what I paid for. The rest of the interaction: The final changes I received: There are still several details incorrect on the character. The line quality is horrific especially in the feet and tail. The line making up the claw on the foot is not even closed. The line for the right ear can be seen through the horn. There are several areas such as the arms that are not colored all the way. The elbow being laughed into has a bit of fur colored in as the scales on his arms. I was charged an extra fee for complexity and then when I asked to have things corrected got blamed for the mistakes and then blacklisted. I want to make people aware of the bad conduct, communication and final product of this artist.
- 13 comments
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- mawbyte
- mango bones studios
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The client I would like to report is known as Piscurio/Pisquared. They are a former client and patron who saw fit to terminate their commission halfway through, as well as all communications while I was away for college, etc. The reason I am posting this beware is because now, after over a year, they have returned and are trying to use threats and blackmail to receive a refund when it is explicitly stated in my Terms of Service that I do not give refunds once the work has begun. Unless no work had been done yet/the commission is still waiting in 'queue', or I am unable to continue due to being hospitalized for longer than a period of 1 week, the refunds will not be given. Two separate clients have received refunds from me in the past following this policy. Once who was still in queue and needed to back out, as well as one in 2019 where I could not work as I had been fully hospitalized. Prior to this issue, the user received artwork from me in the form of patreon rewards. They claimed their tier’s ability to have a custom sketch done of their character, which was completed 09/17/20. They were very happy with the result and voiced no issues and we had a fairly strong relationship at the time. Prior to commissioning me fully, the user attempted to ‘haggle’ with my prices. I did not see this as a red flag initially and ignored it at the time in favor of giving them the benefit of the doubt and explaining to them why my prices were the way they were, etc. They then disappeared for some months, only to come back and go through with commissioning me at a lower price. The Issue The commission inquiry was made on the 09/04/20 with payment given on the 10/30/20. No set deadline was discussed with the client and they were aware that I am a college student with health issues and therefore take time working, shown by their references and thus awareness of this later on. Regardless of however long the commission would take to complete, it was clear I would honor it. Please review Image 0. As time went on, they began to grow impatient despite knowing that they were listed under ‘queued’ and would be until the commissions I was currently working on at the time were finished. Complaints were made and I moved them to ‘In Progress’ on November 8th, 2020 to put them at ease. An unwatermarked WIP image with the linework nearly completed was then sent to the client around November 27th, wherein small errors in the design were pointed out. These errors were made due to the client’s reference being largely unclear, but it was promised that the mistakes would be fixed and were fixed at a later date. The WIP was posted again on my discord server, where they were a member. The unwatermarked sketch, however, was deleted from direct messages when I realized the client was posting it online into their own gallery without permission. The issue was later resolved over a stream on Picarto, where I whispered them privately. The user was an active viewer of my streams at the time and would often visit to watch for several hours on end, the content of which included their own commission on many occasions. On December 11th, I marked on Trello that the sketching phase had been completed, as I had fully moved on to lineart by then. I was struggling a lot medically around this time, hence the delay in Trello being updated compared to discord. Despite having expedited their commission (moving it ahead of two others), starting and completing roughly half the work, the client asked for a full refund on January 31st of 2021. In response, I explained to them their options, reminded them of my terms, and once again informed them that refunds were not guaranteed at this stage. The commission was already past the sketch phase at this point, despite the client’s words, as can be seen in the earlier image of their character. While it was not complete at the time, it was well underway and at roughly 98%. I attempted to put their concerns at ease by informing them of other customers who had and were waiting just as long for their commissions, all of which were roughly the same level of complexity and cost as this client’s. It was also explained that I would, regardless of how long it took, complete the commission. Given that this was at the height of the pandemic, and evacuation orders were being given to neighboring colleges in response, I was often unable to respond to long periods of time. However, clients remained informed of this and whenever an update was available on my condition, their commissions, and the like. In the case of this client, I offered to DM them directly when my next stream would start so that they would be informed and could watch their commissions being worked on. The client refused and stated that they had alerts on. The third WIP image was sent to them shortly after. Some weeks later, they left my server, blocked me via discord, and discontinued communication with me. I attempted to reach them and sent a friend request via discord to try and reestablish communication, but they never accepted it. Confused, I continued to work on the commission to near completion. With the sketching phase marked as complete, I did not mark off the next stage (lining) until much later. The reason for this being I was still trying to reestablish contact with my client and had questions that prevented me from finishing this step fully. Despite this, I continued on with the background while I waited. *The dates in this image as of Dec 11th will be further explained below. However, my time working was not without issues. I was forced to not work due to my laptop dying in March. Following this, my college issued an evacuation order in response to a breakout of COVID-19 on campus. Regardless, I continued to inform my clients and sever members of these problems via discord announcements and so on. Unfortunately, the border of my country closed for several months mere hours before I could return home and I was forced to return to the US. They did not open until May 27th, which was around the same time I was allowed to arrive home being on the first flight back. From there, I updated my website, my Trello, and continued working. On June 1st, I resolved that I had waited long enough for my client to reappear and went ahead with marking off both Lining and Color as I had now completed those two steps. This was done tentatively with steps taken to allow corrections should they return. On August 28th, 2021, Pisqcurio sent me a message and demanded I terminate their commission for lack of communication – despite them having blocked me – and alluded that I should give them a refund while fully aware that I would not be due to the commission having been almost completed at the time of termination. Due to rising medical issues and having just returned to college, I was not active on FA and for that I take full responsibility. On January 11th, 2022, the client reapproached me with threats of defamation and claimed I manipulated and gaslighted them when I did not. Their message was accompanied by another over discord that also included more threats, insults, and the promise to continue to harass me. Again, they asked for a refund despite knowing my terms of service and all the work that had been done. They also claimed to have sent an email to me regarding the issue, but I, to this day, have never received an email from them. As can be seen by the above image, I am still, to this day, blocked by them and unable to communicate via discord. We share a server, as can be seen by the image following it, which shows that it is a block and not just us not being in the same community. Upon checking FA, I saw that I was no longer blocked and responded with a message to explain my side of the story while also trying to reason with them. The response I received showed their refusal to cooperate or come to an understanding. I responded with a reminder of what happened, once again, and finally blocked them. I am not proud of this message, but I am including it as well. Edit 01.19.22 Another important thing to note is that the client claims to have emailed me on January 11th, 2022. I checked both my emails and found this; Absolutely nothing. Hence, either they sent their email to the wrong person or fabricated it. I do not have any emails dated on the 11th of January, 2022 from this client and have never received one since from 09/04/2020 to 01/19/2022. What I do have are a total of four twitter notifications and a Buzzly activation email. I checked my gmail as a courtesy, but only the one on outlook is provided or associated with the public and used as my work email.
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I had a customer order 4 YCHs off of me on the same base and used discord to discuss it with me and the options. They sent me through the forms and I did a little clarification and then went ahead and sent WIPS of the product before colouring, got the all clear and completed them. I then sent through one which didn't look right and asked if they found a flat version of the pattern on google as this one was textured. I agreed to fix anything they would want as their form was very descriptive. They then proceeded to say this art wasn't as good as the other I have done even though its to the same par. They then decided to just cancel the whole commission even though it was completed and just wanted colour changes. I informed them that I don't do refunds to people who already have their YCHs done, especially when I have sent them the files, to which they explained the YCH doesn't even have shading which I never offered on that base as not all my bases have shading included. Then after all this they decided to threaten me if I didn't refund them and called it trash and junk.
- 3 comments
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- baby fennekin6674
- caution
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On Oct. 5, I saw the artist's post on twitter advertising that their commissions were open: I reached out to them over Twitter DMs to inquire and to work out the whole commission. You can see that I asked for the sketch with rough colour. Cross referencing with their website, it states that it would look in quality and size as this. Therefore I was expecting a full body piece. The artist sent the invoice that I paid for promptly. You can see in the twitter DMs above but I will reattach again to explain: I reached out a few months later to ask about the status of the commission. I had understood that it would take a while to complete and was in no rush but wanted some form of an update. I stated as well that I did not mind if it took longer to do, I simply wanted information on the commission and its status to know if the artist still intended on working on it at all. The artist finally sent an update. Here, the image sent is a knee-up. At this point, I understand that it should have been on me to confirm if it would have been full body but I (foolishly) assumed that it would be just like the examples on their website. A day after this update was sent, I received the image through email. While I did receive the image in the end, the quality of the piece was much worse than the ones advertised and was not a full body. This is what I received: This is a better view of the images that were advertised on the artist's website under "SKETCH", also at $35 with +$5 for the rough colour. There is clearly a huge style, cleanliness, and detail discrepancy between the commission I received and the ones advertised. Overall, I was incredibly disappointed with the end result and how both the quality and the type of commission did not match what was advertised and what I had paid for. I understood that the artist may have had to take longer on the piece (stated on their rules/ToS) but I wanted to reach out to get an update. I felt that I had waited a decent amount of time to warrant the messages (artist also states on their website that status updates are allowed to be asked for, just not daily) and I had complied and did not ask daily. I waited 2 months before contacting after the initial payment and then another week before sending the next message.
- 13 comments
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- oscilloceans
- caution
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I paid 40% upfront for a commission May 18th of 2021. The commission was originally agreed upon to be completed before MFF in November. Maker ran into some issues with creating so we pushed the date back to December. December comes along, still no head and very little progress. SCC informs me they are unable to work within my time frame and offers a partial refund + to send what they did have back to me. This sounded like a best case scenario so I accepted the offer. Here we are, 2 months later, in January, and still no base. I did receive the partial refund. However, now SCC is reaching back out to demand more money than we originally agreed upon for the head claiming they miscalculated costs. This is not at the fault of the customer. They took on a commission you could not handle. Could not maintain a professional timeframe. Could not keep up their end of the refund agreement. And now want more money from me. I have been friendly, understanding, and respectful this entire time. The time frame to submit a paypal dispute is LONG gone so I am just out $100 and the City Mutt Fursuits base I paid for covered in the quote. Please see screenshots for confirmation of everything here, I have captured every word. Do not do business here! This maker will string you along. TLDR: Maker took on commission they couldn't handle, did not hold up their end of the partial refund agreement, and returns to my DMs to request more money after stringing me along for 8 months.
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- spacecatcreations
- space cat creations
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I became a patron on Patreon of D lo and shortly after asked (via patreon's messaging system) if they were accepting commissions. They replied that they were. I gave them a few details about the piece I wanted and they estimated $50 USD (which seemed extremely low to me) and did not ask for anything up front. We agreed to finalize the details via email. Note that although their gmail name is present, I have removed the header of the email chain which contained their email address to protect their privacy, as well as my own real name. on 1/25/22 I received this email: With the attached sketch image. I recognized it as being heavily based on a piece by ItchyEars from HentaiFoundry: And when I double checked I realized it had actually been traced. The email notably does not mention the original artist, though it does say, "Again since it’ll be 50 USD (via PayPal), I will use some references to help out--" It goes on to say "oh I’ll add a simple background if you’d like to? Maybe a darker scene like a graveyard or something else?" which I feel is Dlo168 suggesting that the graveyard background is their idea (it is not, it is present in the original piece that was traced). I obviously felt misled in that what I had asked for was an original piece, not a traced piece, and the original artist had not agreed to have their art used like this. I did end up emailing ItchyEars to ask their advice and they agreed that it was in poor taste. Dlo168 did not ask for any money up-front, and agreed to cancel the commission when asked. They were apologetic about misrepresenting the nature of the piece and agreed that they should have been upfront about its source. the following is the full email chain after they sent me the sketch:
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I commissioned Fen for a Vtuber bust model with Live2D rigging and 4 "emotions." I was originally quoted for $350, but I tipped enough to make it $500 because they'd just raised their prices after my initial sketch and I was impressed. After I paid the $100 deposit, it took more than the one week promised to get a sketch back, but progress was coming along in a relatively timely manner. Fen was initially good at getting back to me on Discord with WIPs and letting me know they were working on my model. The turnaround from sketch to full-color was surprisingly quick, but I was extremely happy with how everything was looking. My commission was essentially ready for Live2D rigging by the end of May, so I figured the whole thing could be ready at some point later that summer. Unfortunately, that quick pace did not carry over to the rest of the commission. After that May 31st WIP, I didn't get a single update for nearly 5 months. I knew they took commissions on other types of art and streaming assets, so I didn't mind at first. Eventually though, things just didn't seem right. I'd check their Trello regularly to see if gears were turning in the commission queue, and while there'd be new sketched here and there, the Finished Rigs list went stagnant through this whole time. The next update I got from Fen was at the end of October. I was afraid to ask for updates through Discord because their status was always Do Not Disturb, but I decided it had been more than long enough and I sucked it up. About a week and a half after I sent my message, I got WIPs back of the expressions I asked for. I actually hadn't noticed that the expression designs hadn't been done yet, but I was still pleased to get an update and know that my commission was still on the table. After that, it was back to radio silence for a month. By then, it had been 6 months since I paid off my invoice and I was still in "Ready to Rig" status. Especially being a Twitch streamer trying to plan overlays et al to fit with the model, I was growing even more impatient. I consulted a few friends on the matter and decided to ask for an estimated completion date. I was told December 15th at the latest. That didn't happen. In the meantime, it was apparent that Fen was doing Live2D work, just on other "quick completion" commissions that seemed to pop up out of nowhere. What added insult to injury was that they were promoting these simpler rigs with very little wait while I was still actively waiting for what I paid off in June. Then, when December 15th rolled around, they tweeted out that they were finishing a rig in just 24 hours. The next day, they were showing off a brand new rig for their partner. I lost my patience and asked to just take their PSD/CSP file so I could get someone else to rig it. No response. What happened after was a sticky situation. On December 21st, Fen's cat suddenly got sick and they had to take him to the emergency vet. The bill was steep and they said they couldn't afford it, so they needed donations and emergency commissions to cover the necessary treatments. Between this and the holidays, I knew I was in no position to ask for a refund, full or partial, even if I was still out $500 with nothing to show on my end. I again offered to just take my file as it was and go, eating my extra cost, but still no reply. Around New Year's, while all this was going on, Fen suddenly announced on Twitter that they'd finished two standard rigs that had been in the queue behind me. If it wasn't already, the writing was on the wall that I was being ghosted, so I gave them an ultimatum. As much as I didn't want to be the villain, if I couldn't get at least a basic reply, I threatened to file a chargeback. Within hours that same day, I finally got the CSP file with a lengthy apology. I thanked them and that was the last contact we've had with each other. I've since been in contact with a different artist who does Live2D rigging and I commissioned them to finish the model. They've been able to work the the Clip Studio file just fine. While I'm still happy with the design Fen was able to make for me, but between the uneven progress, lack of communication, confusing management of the commission queue, broken promises, and uncertainty that I'd get what I paid for, I certainly won't be working with them again and I can't recommend them to another streamer in good faith.
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- superninfendo
- fenergizer
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Ultimately, what happened in this were severe breakdowns in communication and significantly longer gaps than expected and communicated. Particularly after the February update, I became even more uncomfortable and triggered (have since figured out why and added it to my mental model). And now, I recognize that the February update is what further had thoughts creeping in of the numerous horror stories of artists vanishing and absconding with money (after the ghosting earlier on) or rushing items below their standard of quality for the sake of completion, along with people not willing to speak up due to having anxiety over conflict or not having the spoons. This saga has taken more time, energy, and spoons than hundreds of other commissions combined. It's been an extreme outlier for my ND brain and bad for my health, though also in combination with various other factors IRL. This took so long to report, because I'll typically trust artists to do their thing and stay out of the way. Being able to commission artists is incredibly special to me, as I'd been following a few for a decade or more before being able to fathom commissioning; it also helps me to express things, as I have processing issues. I have a couple remaining around this time-frame with no concerns, as those have all been well-communicated. This one ended up severely festering in concerns due to the history of no replies, so it felt like there was little point in attempting more communication later on, despite being severely anxious. I mostly relied on Trello after February, as I'd not seen discord/twitter updates. I ended up leaving the discord as well due to a regular server cull after not seeing updates - still at around 50 severs between two accounts, so I don't read them all. This would've resulted in no longer being able to DM me (have DMs blocked by default but had opened on Mossling's server), though it's not something I'd thought of at the time; we also have previously established contacts on FA and twitter with email recorded via Google Forms/invoice. After seeing the Trello card progress with no WIPs for fix confirmation sent or indication of awaiting feedback, that further set things off deeper into the spiral with an even further loss in trust. Come January when I checked the card, it vanished from queue with no contact, resulting in the next FA note. While writing the beware, I found it in archives incomplete not awaiting feedback vs at least being marked on hold. That's what set things and confirmed all fears in my mind at the time and complete loss of trust. Regardless, accusations like that won't lead anywhere good, but deep in a spiral that I didn't recognize early enough to be able to pull out of, the logical brain wasn't there like a locomotive engineer not being on a train going max speed; it wasn't going to slow down, which led to absurdity. I think that this has gotten far too rambly, unfortunately, so I'll just move to the screenshots. === This just shows initial contact via FA and moving to Google forms. Early on in commissioning, I'd intentionally wanted to help out low follower count people (super awesome to have watched some grow from 100 to over 10K) but have now mostly stuck to those I'm familiar with vs seeking out new artists. The next four are just the Google form, where email is the preferred method of contact but went unused, and invoice. I should've just corrected this early on, as emails can't be edited. Also worth noting on the invoice is that PayPal doesn't allow for transaction fees to be charged; I found out about that later on, so I'll typically tip to counter it. From there, it moved to discord, where I'd previously sent mentoring opportunities. Maybe that's why it went there. Initial contact and a WIP that was deleted??, along with feedback. At this point, I was new and hadn't thought about saving WIPs, which also made it seem like no progress was made in the later image. (This was just my thought at the time; I don't know.) Shows where I wasn't comfortable with how things were progressing and the start of the text walls x.x : A WIP was sent after followups, not sure why it took as long as it did. At this point, I hadn't seen pings or updates in the server or on twitter and ultimately decided to leave in I'm told March during a cull. With this interaction, I'd also stopped following picarto. Note that I didn't communicate leaving the server or picarto; I was already in a bad space after this. This one just shows the Np!, as I ran out of space but wanted to show the full window for continuity. This was taken on January 12th. Note that this Np! message will have been edited later on... After this, there was nothing communicated. As noted before, I'd left Mossling's server, not thinking much of settings, which ended up resulting in needing to use email (original request), FA note, or twitter DM. I'll link the trello card to explain how things fell from there. I checked the trello once a week and saw it remain with only the two flags labels shown below, never awaiting feedback. I did stop checking at some point, as it seemed like an exercise in futility. In August, I'd checked again and noticed that lines and colors were done with no feedback or WIPs. This plunged things deeper into the spiral and set off a panic (not saying this makes logical sense, but it's what happened). The numbers thing is patterning after the text wall mentioning numbers. Here, the second paragraph was meant to be offering for Wyr to be pulled and background reused elsewhere (e.g. YCH), if the background were refunded, but this makes no actual sense to me reading it now. Going back to the trello card linked above, I checked again in January and noticed that the card was entirely missing without communication. I blew up at this point. Just proof of email copy, but same text as above: Search showing all emails containing mossling (and no email communication), including the email above: Both of FA notes remained unread as I was putting together the beware. It's at this point that I recalled that leaving the server and that it'd most likely mean not being able to DM, though we also had a shared server I could be pinged on, so I toggled settings and sent a final DM. After sending this, FA notes both showed read and a reply was received: This note refers to being blocked on multiple platforms, when discord was retoggling the server privacy setting. I don't know what other platforms are being referred to here that I supposedly blocked on. FA, email, and twitter have all been untouched. Still furious, I was unsympathetic with a shitty reply vs if it'd had been prior to the card being archived with no communication. "IRL's shit, will be back" would've been enough prior to the card vanishing with reasoning behind why it was archived, because at the point of archive, the note hadn't even been read. And then this is the final note: Going back to discord DM today, I see that it's been edited. And that's everything, I think.
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Commissioned me to make a simple logo withholding that it was going to be used for a clothing brand when my art is not for commercial use. Art has not been completed and refund has been issued. [Mod Note: OP Found out via group message that the client intended to use the work for commercial use. Unrelated parties are censored.] [Client was refunded and blocked.]
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- styxzidonya
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