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On March 4, 2023, I contacted Etsy Shop PlushiesNextDoor for a custom made plushie of a character of mine. By Pledge, March 4th 2023 They acknowledged and said they were open to commissions and payment. By Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, March 4th 2023 I made the payment with them through Etsy via Klarna. I made the payment the same day, March 4th, 2023. I was initially told it would be within a certain timeframe— 12-16 weeks. By Pledge and Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, March 4th On May 9th they contacted me again to let me know that they’re behind on orders and that it wouldn’t be until September that my plushie would get shipped. I was understanding and asked if they could post their work on their TikTok, PlushiesNextDoor. By Pledge and Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, May 9th, 2023 I reached out again in September to ask what the process has been. They offered me a refund but I said I was still willing to wait. By Pledge and Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, September 6th 2023 I received a message from them again in October 7th notifying me and others that they’re very behind on orders and that their suspected completion date was going to be by the end of the year. They attached a document with all of the orders they were currently working on to show where we were in the queue. IMG_8052.MOV By Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, October 7th, 2023 On October 29th, they contacted me stating that they were shutting down their shop and that they would provide everyone refunds. By Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, October 29th, 2023 I asked if I could wait a little longer, and they told me that they would keep me on their list. by Pledge and Keo/PlushiesNextDoor, October 29th, 2023 Their last reply to me was December 7th, after I reached out to make sure they were doing well. On March 23rd of 2024, I noticed their plushie accounts on Instagram and Etsy were deleted or shut down. IMG_8104.MOV I emailed them twice. Once in April, and the second time in May. Taken by Pledge, April 12th, 2024 and May 10th, 2024. While they’ve seemingly deleted their other accounts, they’ve kept up their Tiktok associated with their plushie making. However, they are not active on it. They changed their username from PlushiesNextDoor to YesItsKeo. Unfortunately I’m aware that due to the amount of time that had passed that I won’t get my money back. Please be careful of this creator.

Before I begin, Deviantarts note system works by reading from bottom to top. So keep that in mind when you try to read the conversation I'v had with this artist. Who: angiefluflu When: November 5th, 2020 What: Plush commission ordered through Deviantart of my sona Worth: 150$ Reason for PSA: Refusing to send finished commission to me thinking it will get lost in the mail + various push back dates on my order, possible ghosting Proof of purchase Somewhere around the 1st to 3rd of November I made a "looking for artist" forum on Deviantart looking to get a lazy plush of my sona, DOOM. They commented on my forum and we took it to DM's shortly after. I bought this plush on my adoptable account on Deviantart and not my main for clarity of the username. They gave me the price of the commission along with the estimated time of being completed at the end of January, which I was fine with, so we went about and did payment. I need to say there here, paypal with held the funds for the payment for 21 days. We weren't sure why, and I had to go looking around through paypals tos and found out they held the funds for 21 30 days for some security reason. Something I've never had an issue with before. Nerveless, they got their payment after the weird with holding. Time went by and January rolled around and I had received nothing, since she said it would be done in January. I didn't think too much of it and went about my life. In February she shot me a message on Deviantart saying she had been having some personal problems and that my new date was mid-March. I didn't go into dept with her about it since plushes take time and I thanked her for the heads up on my order. On April 14th I received a stash link with the preview of my plush, after that I didn't hear back from her till May. On May 4th she stated my plush was finished and I would be receiving photos sometime soon. She sent me photos of my plush the next day as a stash link. Multiple photos of my plush being completed. It's now where I exchange shipping information like address and name. She comments that there's shipping problems due to quarantine, but will ship my commission out the next week after May 14th. Also, around April I had ordered a different plush from a different user and replied to her with 'also got the paypal notification too about shipment.' I had thought that she had shipped my order, but it was not her and my other plush I ordered in April instead. I learned about my mistake about the notification on June 26th and make sure to send her a message. I make a comment about how the Paypal notification wasn't for this order. I guess this would also be considered as a little nudge to see how things were going with shipping since the Paypal notification wasn't this order. I was hoping for her to say that it was shipped out or something like that, but instead I was met with the reply that my plush wasn't being shipped out because shipping was too expensive? And that it was at risk of being lost during shipment? I was upset hearing that if I wanted my plush I would have to get quoted for the expensive shipping option or wait for things to improve. As a reminder, shipping WAS included in our agreement. So I left this reply to sit since I had to wait for better, cheaper, shipping. I don't hear back from her for 2 months. I am infuriated at this point, being told I would have to pay more on shipping to get my plush or simply wait till things got better. But there were no updates from her and I decided to send a rant to her about this whole ordeal. Even asking to be quoted for the shipping, which she never gave me a quote after this exchange. I am also going through the same situation with another artist, so I decided to comment about that as well. After my rant and receiving a message back from her in August 26th, I became more enraged. She's too afraid of my plush being lost in the mail, and at that point I would be fine with paying for insurance and tracking if she gave me that option, but instead she doesn't ask if I want tracking or insurance on the package and simply refused to send out my finished order. Not only that, but she now comments that shipping is now higher than before. I gave up and had to walk away from our conversation because I was becoming too upset to deal with this issue. I never heard back from her after this exchange, and I was left to hopelessly wait until I got my order. During the months of waiting, I decided to take up on researching the postal service in her country. I will not state what country it is, but I will say that the postal service she has been talking about isn't having issues. In fact, it's still shipping internationally to my country. So with the new information I got from researching her postal service I decided to send her a message, this time saying that I would like insurance and tracking to be added to the package. BUT, I won't send payment for it until I see the recite of the shipment as I don't just want to send her more money and not hear back from her. A lot of this is blurred because it's information about their countries postal service. This is also the last message I have sent to her, she never opened it or replied to this message. So I am still left in the dark. At the beginning of this thread I said possible ghosting, this is because on all of her socials she hasn't been active since around October. So the only way I can communicate with her is through Deviantart, but I have yet to receive any messages back since my last message on November 12th, 2021.

Who: lrkcreations / NekkoMeneko When: November 25th, 2020 What: Plush commission ordered through Instagram of my character Baphomet Worth: 155$ Reason for Beware: Has gone a full year without giving me any wips, notifications, and keeps pushing back the turn around 'estimate' time of my order Proof of Purchase November 25th, 2020 I ordered a plushie on November 25th, 2020. This plush is a kuttari, something I have been interested in for a long time. I was excited to grab a slot for one of these as it's one of my favorite plush styles. We went through and discussed price, INCLUDING an estimated time frame. Which was late February. Everything got paid, except shipping, since that was in her tos. I also already knew she has a 1/3 deposit price, but was not aware that she considered the total price of my order as the full deposit. There was no confirmation that the $155 was going to be the deposit until after the transaction. February 6th, 2021 Throughout the time from November to February I received nothing. No hellos, check ins, notifications, nothing. During the time I had redrawn Baphs reference, changing only the art and not the design. So the design staid the same, there were no design changes. I decided to send a message back and notify them that there was a new, cleaner, reference sheet they could use since the old one was kinda ugly. It took them 10 days to respond to me, and after which I sent them the new reference. They messaged back 2 days later with a simple thank you. April 30th, 2021 I was kinda ancy and wanted to know a new time frame of when my order was going to be done. It was then she stated estimates were not set in stone. This was a shocker because all the plushies I have ordered from different artists all had due dates on when I would be receiving work in progress shots, and physical goods always have a turnaround time set. I thought I was going to get my plush in February since that was the original 'estimated' time. She also mentioned a list/queue, something that isn't public so I had no idea where I was in her queue, or if she even has a queue. I begrudgingly had to reply with a calm, great to hear, knowing I had to wait even longer for my order. September 25th, 2021 & Current I reached out again as a little nudge. To see if I could get things rolling, or even a wip. It takes them a good chunk of time to respond. Saying they have been late on their work, 'trying' to get caught up. There's nothing more I can say and just leave it at that. I decide to pop in a few weeks ago to see if I can get a glimpse of their 'queue', something that's apparently not public information for their clients. As of November 12th, 2021, I have received no reply. Radio silence. I decided to send a charge back dispute notice telling her she had until the 25th until I decided to take action and tell her about how this transaction was highly unprofessional. I have still yet to even hear back from her since November 12th / 21st. I do not plan to chase her around to her other accounts just to get a hold of her, she has shown me how unprofessional she is and it is not my responsibility to chase her around. They stopped being active on their instagram so I wanted to check and see if they were active on any of their other social medias they listed in their linktree on their profile. I began my little search their other social medias to see if they have been active anywhere else. I found they have been streaming on Twitch, as well as going under a new rebrand named, NekkoMeneko. Being incredibly active on Twitch, Twitter, and their Tictoc posting almost daily. As of now, I am waiting for the 25th to come around before I take action with Paypals buyer protection and file a dispute against her.

As a note, in the end I am getting the item she made. However the entire ordeal of two and half / three years of stress regarding this commission really has pushed me to write this, especially since she's looking to expand her client base. I absolutely hate writing negative reviews about people, but I honestly am under the impression if you're operating as a business (taking money for goods/services), you need to also provide good follow-through, reputation, and customer service. WHEN she did reply, I will give that she was always very polite in dealing with me. I had planned on writing this for a very long time, and then debated it when it appeared I may be getting my item. I lucked out in getting my item. I'm not sure why, but I am grateful for that. Artist: Aurasoul http://www.furaffinity.net/user/aurasoul/ (active) http://aurasoul.deviantart.com/ (she got herself banned) My Issues My fiance ordered a plush in Fall of 2008 for a Christmas gift for the sum of $90. Basically we were strung along, yelled at, ignored for months. When concerns of whether or not she had the time to complete or would like to refund us partial (minus the parts already used), we were ignored. Basically every note was ignored for months at a time which lead us to be very concerned about whether or not this was going to be completed or not. The screenshots below also include a few conversations with Ratchet, her boyfriend/husband. Since he had been helpful in getting a refund with another person on AB, it seemed like a good idea to contact him if he was more likely to respond. As a note, Ty and I have no problems being patient. As we told both Aurasoul and Ratchet countless times, but we do request communication every half a year or so. (We rarely got that). Again. We got our item in the long run, but I would strongly encourage people who want to commission this particular artist to never pay full up front -- and be aware that communication issues will be a very big factor. My complaints will be under the cut. This is a very long dated issue Disclaimer Please feel free to commission Aurasoul or have dealings with Ratchet at your own risk. I know I would not deal with the pair again. Communication issues with Aurasoul is one big problem, but the other is Ratchet's attitude in the end as well. I understand that Ratchet may had been put in the middle of this, and realize that it may be stressful him, but this is also a product of Aurasoul's inability to communicate with her commissioners. I was NOT the first to turn to Ratchet in hopes of getting help. I understand his point of view in "not being her keeper (something he said before), however if I did the same thing, I'd expect my boyfriend/husband to give me a sharp poke to get my butt moving if I were slacking on these issues. Also, there may be some notes I've lost in the course of 2-3 years. I tried to be as thorough as possible. I cleaned out my FA box due to the FA hack leak about a year ago and I think I've mistakenly deleted somethings I had intended to keep. I tried to keep every single response from both my side and their's. --------------- NOTE: For the first YEAR of this ordeal, I was not involved. The notes I have are after I got involved when I felt that Ty was getting scammed and was out nearly $100. That right there pissed me off to no small degree. In fall of 2009 is when I got involved in this on behalf of Ty. In summer of 2011 we saw the an upload of the final item completed (and item was given to someone in EF con to deliver to us in the states. ) ----------------------------- In late October / early November of 2008 my fiance commissioned Aurasoul for a Christmas gift for me. He did pay the full amount up front. He was told at the time that the item would be completed by Christmas of 2008. When the time come and gone, Ty had spoke with her in regards to what was going on when January rolled around, he was told that she had school going on and that delayed her -- as well as still gathering materials for the item. Being the patient type, Ty sat on it. He sat on it more, checking in every 3-4 months for a progress report. Rarely did he get an answer. At this point, we had gotten little communication, no item, no progress report and Ty so far was out $90. Ty had faith in Aurasoul. Mine had started to wane when I was reading numerous complaints and witnessing problems ongoing in real time through Artist Beware and other channels, such as the banning of her DA account. Again, any limited time Ty got a response, it was an excuse. No confirmation of anything. No item. No progress. Communication was like pulling teeth. Due to she being in Germany, we assumed that maybe she was not as well versed with English as many of our other German friends.. So we often simplified the conversation so it would be better converted in translators if she happened to use those. ---- It was after the year mark had nearly rolled around in 2009 that I got involved. After seeing nothing other than Ty's money being taken, I decided it was time to get involved. I first and foremost contacted Aurasoul asking for her to reach out to Ty to get in touch with him. We did not try to reverse action Paypal at this time, because we honestly wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt despite negative reviews and give her a chance to complete the item. In the beginning she was very willing to respond. She had even claimed he had photos for us! It quickly declined from there, however. Some Screenshots: So after the one promise of seeing progress reports, she had dropped off the face of the planet again, despite her account being active favoriting and commenting on art / responding to people in general. All the while, I was watching my notes being a mix of being read and unread status in her account. It was clear my notes were being avoided. Again, as we stated in the notes, we did not mind being patient but do require communication and some effort to give us progress. If you say check back in X time, that's what we'll do and not a moment before. However if you blindly ignore us while clearly being active, it paints a very drastic picture. It is what prompted the following screenshot. --------------- Fast forward to the year 2010! It was at this point there were numerous negative posts about Aurasoul being posted up in various more spots and it was getting scary. Some were saying how she would outright destroy the item. A few claimed they got resolution through her boyfriend/husband, Ratchet ( http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ratchet ). I had high hopes with this option, because at this point we were worried we were getting strung along and the best option would be a refund since we never got progress photos. At first, Ratchet was helpful, and then he turned rude - my guess in frustration with many other people who had commissioned Aurasoul contacting him as well. I do not know this to be the case firmly, but I do know I was not the only one worried about a commission. I had very limited conversations with Ratchet. Color us shocked. Here was progress and Aurasoul didn't bother to even notify us. Not one bit. We were happy to see the progress shots, don't get us wrong. We had waited a very long time for this. Again this really speaks for her customer service / organization. She didn't notify us that we had WIPs to view. She didn't respond to our notes in a timely fashion. However, we were happy. This what we wanted. By this time we were really happy. Here was news that it was finished and ready to be shipped. We promptly supplied the shipping information and then waited. And waited some more. And contacted our friend who had not gotten the item and waited some more. Friend contacted me to see if anything was heard. We waited more. Eventually we just waited to hear back from Aurasoul. We hadn't. We saw she was being active so it prompted us to write more notes. Many of which went unanswered. I hate doing it, but I DID leave a shout on her page to get in touch with me (it was promptly deleted). We supplied mailing information (for the second or third time) on January 21st, 2011. I had waited in sending it again because I wanted to make sure my friend would still be willing to be a middle man in this situation. We waited some more! By this time I was concerned. Seeing how Ratchet had been helpful in the past in prompting Aura to respond, since it had been so many months, I decided to give him a shot again. I was taken aback by how just down right rude he was. Unfortunately in my clutter of notes I do not see my original first note to him regarding asking for progress on behalf of Aurasoul. I only have his reply after this one. So we're back to waiting again. No direct communication with AuraSoul through this whole ordeal. Frankly it angered me a good bit to have him snap when I see both of them active, commissioning art, and neglecting their own commissioners. This is hindsight I suppose. I was a little confused to see that Ratchet was saying the item wasn't completed at this time, but it was hinted/ready to be shipped by earlier comments/notes from Aurasoul. Somewhere down the road I thought to contact her again. After all, 3-4 months in between notes isn't too short of a time I'd hope. Especially since the last WIP was over half a year ago. Correction. About half a year ago when she said she was SHIPPING it. After that last one, I decided to wait a bit again. Like before, it was waiting and my friend waiting and nothing coming of it. Once again I started noticing her being very active on FA, but not taking the time to read/respond to anything. The next screenshot had information pertaining again to my contact's address. I've blurred it out for privacy's sake but the meat of what was said is there. Despite me having sent the address numerous times before, I was requested again to send it. Again no final photos of a finished product, but just the idea of getting it and getting this ordeal over was a blessing. The last few conversations were of me confirming with my contact about it not arriving, and bringing it to Aurasoul's attention. She said it was still there and had not had time to ship it. At this point we had not seen any photos of the final product. I was not contacted directly, and would have missed the uploads (as I had when she originally uploaded WIPs) if I weren't watching her on FA. Holy cow there it was completed.. http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6346025 http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6346032 Creatively since EF Con was right around the corner, to save on shipping fiascos (as one unfortunate person in Artist Beware had dealt with) I asked if she was going and could drop it off to my contact directly. While Aurasoul wasn't going, she had a friend who was. It was agreed (and this can be seen on conversations/replies in the actual finished product) that it'd be dropped to my contact. TL;DR Version I finally am getting my product and it looks good from what I can see in the photos. My contact is bringing it to me when we meet up at a US con. While Aurasoul has been very polite in her responses to me, her responses in general are like pulling teeth. She is not timely or professional in this manner. I do not recommend anyone paying full price for anything up front. Ordeal has taken place over the course of Fall of 2008 to Summer of 2011 to get sorted. I'm probably missing things. I tried to keep this as short, but as thorough, as possible. (Yes I could have written more believe it or not!)