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https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/1001723.html Who: Codeine Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/codeine/ When: January 2018 — Present What: In January of 2018, on the recommendation of several friends, I joined one of Codeine's streams in an effort to get one of her commissions. Day one of the stream, I paid $75 to her for a full color commission and was told she would start it in that stream. However, the stream went late and she asked to work on it the day after. I agreed and tuned in for that stream and the same situation repeated again. So, in an effort to make things easier on her, I approached her and told her I would be okay with her working on it out of stream since I assumed there was a large number that wanted to watch her work on their commissions. About a month went by and I popped into another stream to ask about it and was told she had a draft done but couldn't stop her stream to show me. I said it was okay. Another two months went by after this and I had popped into streams and was ignored when I messaged her. Fast forward to the end of May, I went into a stream and told her I would like to see my commission, she said she hadn't even started it but would gladly stream it just for me on the following Saturday. I reluctantly agreed and Saturday came around with no stream. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of my stream correspondences. It was then I promptly opened a PayPal claim and sent her an email asking for her discord so that I could have an ability to directly speak with her. Proof of our conversation in Discord will be below. But to sum it up, I approached her and told her that I'd rather have the art than have the PayPal claim give me my money back and I worked out with her a 7 piece sketch page that would be equivalent in cost but at a lower amount of work for Codeine. After 8 days out of the 10 that would have resulted in an instant decision, I approached her and she said she had not worked on it and tried to convince me to drop the claim before giving up and saying to let it go and I will have my money back on the date of expiration. I'm VERY disappointed with the outcome of this and I feel her professionalism was horrible and unfitting of someone who wants to be a member of the community. Proof: https://imgur.com/a/3o20yfK I have censored out any NSFW images and conversation but the correspondence is there.

At the beginning of 2018 I took Codeine up on a deal. She was to do me a couple's sketch page with flat colour for a grand total of $200. As of now, it is still ongoing and I have two basic sketches (not-coloured) which was shown to me at the end of April 2018. (I'll come back to this later.) Proof of Purchases From the initial purchasing of the commission to the first sketch update, I always had difficulty communicating with her, whether it was due to no replies on Discord or her emails. This is a long running trend that is still happening today. She has said multiple times that she has personal issues going on, some to do with mental health and some to do with money. I have tried my best to be cordial and to respect the time she may take as I can understand is can be difficult. But even after a year there really has been no progress on my end all the while she still accepts more and more commissions without ever really seeing them be uploaded. (Of course, these people may have very well gotten their work done, but Codeine told me something herself which makes me doubt that.) Large and Unmoving Backlog She told me once that she had a backlog of near 100 people but only works on those that continue to pester her (like myself). Obviously at the time of hearing it, I thought it was a little peculiar and borderline scam-like but I tried to stay positive and said at least it lets her focus down on 'urgent' ones and such. I'm fully aware I could considered mean or inconsiderate to go back on my word of not outing her, but at this stage I feel like I want to get the word out. With all the hubbub of Jailbird working up a backlog and constantly taking more made me think of it, and if I can stop people from falling into this pit like me, then good. From the horse's mouth the artist has a fairly dodgy work ethic / professionalism since it seems a lot of people's money has sunk into the void. Potential Attempts at using my wallet more I would take this one with a grain of salt, but it also showcases the long periods of time I would often have to wait for any kind of communication. She once drew to my attention an adopt for a character going and she started out by saying how much they liked drawing my character, and if I were to buy this adopt for her, I'd get a steady flow of art with them together. To her credit she said it was quite a selfish ask and didn't seem bothered by me declining. However it was followed by a particularly long period of time without any word from her after having finally just been in regular contact with her. Her initial proposition on Jan 17th. A period of time without contact from the 17th of Jan to the 20th of Feb. (Now, I personally feel this was because she failed to get the character out of me BUT I am happy to be proven wrong and to state that as more my opinion than anything else.) This further shows poor communication on her end, creating a frustrating time on my end. Combinations As time went on, I foolishly continued buying smaller things from her which also were never completed HOWEVER she did offer to combine them into the price of the sketch page. With everything said and done, she dropped a few patreon rewards and sketch slots I purchased completely in order to put more detail into the page. This included a piece of work that she left as flat colours instead of finishing, saying that would go into the page as well. We ended up basically having her owe me the same full sketch page but fully coloured, fully shaded instead of just flats like we originally settled upon. (Which I was happy to accept, of course.) Recent Endeavours and Attempting Refunds Lately I've been asking her for refunds on the page. Since its been so long since I've had an update, and trying to get into contact with her was a trial within itself, I started talking more about simply putting it to rest and getting me my money back. There are many things I'm still due from her but have stated I'm perfectly happy to just focus on the very original $200 and forget about the extras added on and the little sketches I bought on the side. Just the other day she responded and tried to say that the amount of work she's already done is worth $260. Even though she had this to say about the original. This was the picture in question that I asked for price on. This image, flat coloured would be worth $200 in her own words, that we settled upon and I paid. Compare that with what she had managed to do for me in one evening that she is saying is worth $260. We since moved to Twitter to speak, since I generally found better success getting her there, and I could see whether she read my messages or not. She said it was worth $260 because she has apparently done more work on it since (That I have not seen so I haven't been able to even approve it.) though I can't help but imagine she will quickly draw something up or colour a part of it to show me when she next gets back into contact with me. (Which to be honest, if she does then fine. I won't want money back for work that has been done, that's the whole point.) But as it stands, that's all I have to show for my money. Conclusion and where I am now 4 days ago Codeine explained to me she was away from home for personal reasons and assured me she'd be away for 3 days max and would be home to talk with me further about all of this. Obviously, she has not but has read a post I sent to her earlier today. (Still past the 3 day limit she set.) I have essentially been left on read at this point in time. The blue tick means someone has seen your post. Grey is the opposite. These were from today. 8 hours ago and 52 minutes ago respectively. I ultimately didn't want to make this as I hoped we could come to an agreement and I could let it all go. But after constant delays to periods of time she comes up with herself, I promised to myself I would write this up and be done with it if she failed to meet the next deadline. (Yesterday.) Even if my own issue never gets resolved I hope this might at least make a few more people aware that it might be best to steer clear from this one until her backlog seems to be more under control.