I hate the fact I'm so kind...

[bluewolfzanza.livejournal.com]

Well got conned out of a commissioned picture I did back in Oct. '08 by a furry known as Snowfox (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/snowfox19/).

I had kept in contact with him since completing the picture and was told originally that they were having problems with their pay-pal account. Was a bit skeptical of this but decided that I could wait a few more weeks for their payment on the piece. During the wait was informed from a few sources that this person has been known to either skimp on payments or just not pay all together. Tried to keep my mind open and go and ask them to see if this was indeed true to get both sides of the story. He completely denied the matters claiming them as untrue. It wasn't until about the third week of December when I was told that their account was "supposedly" working properly and that I would receive my payment plus interest for all the trouble on that Friday. This never happened so I assumed that something must have came up again. By this point I was pretty much fed up with this waiting time and figuring that they weren't going to pay me.

Decided to venture around and ask some artists that had been commissioned by him at the time. Found one who got the pay-pal excuse as well and was supposed to be payed via money order.

Just decided to chalk this up as a loss after no further progress with this commission matter.

I just want folks to be on the lookout if they are commissioned by this person and not get scammed out of their hard work.

Comments

[sepp.livejournal.com]

from what I understand, you completed the picture before he even paid you? if so, I would advise against doing so in the future, with any commissioner. If a commissioner wants to see progress before they pay you, I think a good compromise would maybe be to only finish as much as a refined sketch before you get paid, or perhaps even require a partial deposit (30-50%) before you begin your work altogether. I think that completing an entire drawing or painting before you get any payment is, no offense, just asking to be taken advantage of :/

I'm really sorry that happened though... and thanks for the warning on this guy.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Seconded. This is common practice.

Sadly, you learned the hard way, OP.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Thirded, although I vote that you keep putting pressure on him and get all wrinkles steam rolled since it seems that he CAN pay.

[bluewolfzanza.livejournal.com]

Yeah I completed the picture. I had showed him the concept, got the an early confirmation of when he was going to pay me and posted it on that day then that was the beginning to this very long wait. Meh should have stuck to payment at the very beginning like I did with my first 3 commissioners and just passed up on this piece instead. *shrugs*

[bluewolfzanza.livejournal.com]

Crud typos *facepalms* nix the the- "an early"

[katze-neko-mew.livejournal.com]

Did you make sure your paypal address was spelled correctly? Last week a couple of my transfers didn't go through because I had spelled the email addresses wrongly, so maybe you should bring that up with them in the best case scenario type thing. Ask them what the transfer looks like, and if they come back with a 'pending/cancel' option [or something close] then there was a spelling error, and they transferred it to an non existent account.

I hope that's the issue, because no artist should be skimped out of they're payment.

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

I've heard some things about him lately. Personally, I've done some work for him and only had minimal problems. He's always paid me, but recently, a payment he made to me got reversed back to him, presumably because his bank thought his payment bounced for some reason or...something. [It was explained to me by a friend of mine, but I get confused when talking about stuff like that. It sounded legit.]

He says he's going to resend the payment, but I've been contacted by another artist who said the same happened to her and he has yet to pay her, though he told her he was going to. We will see how it pans out!
I think you'll be able to get your money if you keep after him about it. He seems like a good-hearted guy, if a little irresponsible at times.

And definitely always get paid before you start work and give the payment time to clear.

[snowfox19.livejournal.com]

yours bounced back cause of bank taking money out on me before it cleared taking care of it in neext day or so

[armaina.livejournal.com]

Sounds to me like your paypal 'problems' are more like financial problems. :|

[snowfox19.livejournal.com]

actually

the problem was the money was in the bank and then the bank took the money out for monthly fee's and the next morning i went in and put the money in the bank to cover it but pp had already taken it back out. And bank returned it, normally pp has in the past done a second attempt to take the money out but this time it didn't even try.

[armaina.livejournal.com]

Once again, financial problem. If you actually had a decent buffer of funds in your bank account then you wouldn't have these problems, because the money would -be- in the account for paypal to take out.

Maybe you should stop spending so much money on frivolous things.

[snowfox19.livejournal.com]

and i have been attempting you to repay you but when you block me everywhere its hard and i don't keep address for payment in ever contact list and already told you to that i got a new paypal address.

[bluewolfzanza.livejournal.com]

Only place I blocked you from is FA so it either A: You're not trying hard enough or B: Another excuse.

[snowfox19.livejournal.com]

Go with A) Since until you posted here I didn't even know you had LJ :) but this is going to get sorted.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Take payment up front for commissions, or part before and part after the picture is completed. That way, any payment difficulties that might have cropped up later (incorrect Paypal name, bank account troubles, etc) will be smoothed out, and in the rare case, a scam won't be as effective.

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

I got my payment. Just like that.

But if what he's saying is true, that you've blocked him and he's been trying to pay you, it's not exactly...his...fault?

[bluewolfzanza.livejournal.com]

I only blocked him from FA. No where else so it kind of his fault cause I've given every bit of info elsewhere.

[borealbobcat.livejournal.com]

I used to do commissions for him, and he always told me he had problems with PayPal, but I did get paid one way or another, even if it was a little late.

[rmoorcat.livejournal.com]

I did not begin my comissions, but I did get material I cant return now. still waiting, and had 2 paypal episodes. I had asked for a money order after the first time...

[sheelathelombax.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip. I myself am more of a PUF kind of gal. I'll do a sketch first sometimes but mostly it's always pay up front.