HornedFreak

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

WHO: HornedFreak

WHERE: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/hornedfreak/

WHAT: Digital Art, $30 commission

WHEN: Initial transaction was on March 22, 2016. I haven't seen any progress on my commission, or my name added onto HornedFreak's trello for two months. Only after I poked her about it did she add my name to the que.

PROOF:

http://imgur.com/oKmnQ9D - Original Journal Advertisement

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/13012988/ - Ref Link 1
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/16875996/ - Ref Link 2 (NSFW)
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/17174232/ - Ref Link 3 (NSFW)

Aforementioned ref links were directly linked in the journal.

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/12777499/ - Ref Link 4 (NSFW)

Said link above was linked in the transaction note.

http://imgur.com/biFXnh1 - Note conversation involving money transaction.

http://imgur.com/3i73reI - Me asking for an update on my commission in May.

http://imgur.com/z1hN9Wg - My second attempt in trying to contact the artist

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vyqjdqpz91rxm82/User_control_panel_--_Fur_Affinity_%5Bdot%5D_net_-_2016-06-26_14.49.05.png?dl=0

http://imgur.com/0vRsX2h - Journal of her new commission advertising a few days after I spoke to her asking for an update.

http://imgur.com/QAsbwJR - Trello que updated a few days after I spoke to her asking for an update.

http://imgur.com/oD4YmSu - My note on June 24th asking for a refund.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hlyfujzgbwfwmvo/User_control_panel_--_Fur_Affinity_%5Bdot%5D_net_-_2016-06-26_15.24.33.png?dl=0 - Proof that she had read my note in my note outbox.

http://imgur.com/EJ7e46e - Finished commission posted two days after I asked for a refund. (NSFW)
https://www.furaffinity.net/view/20389722/ - NSFW


EXPLAIN:

She opened commissions on March 22nd, 2016, and she took mine. I asked her what I wanted, and let her do her thing. I haven't received an update on my commission in a while, and my name wasn't in her trello que, so on May 12, I sent her a note. My note was read, and I didn't receive a response. So I tried again a week later.

I received a response on May 19 that my commission is in progress, and my name got added on her trello que. I was content for the time being, so I gave her space. A few days later on May 23rd, she opens up a new batch of commissions, which left me a little confused because at the very least, my commission in the batch I was in wasn't finished.

I waited another month to receive my art, and I was getting a bit flustered by the lack of communication, and I don't know when she'd get to my commission since the progress seemed a bit slow with no update at all. I didn't see any art.

So on June 24, I send her another note asking for a refund, since I saw no artwork of any kind sent to me. The note was read, and I received no response. However, two days later (today), I saw that she posted my commission; didn't notify me about it either. x_x.

At this point I'm really miffed because I wanted my money back from the lack of communication, I didn't want the art anymore. So from my standpoint, it felt like she hurried to do my commission, and posted it to prevent me from getting a refund that I had already asked for two days prior, and she was aware that I had asked for it as the note was marked read in my outbox.


Edit:

http://imgur.com/Ku2tgKu - Conversation about the refund.
As of 6/27/2016, she has refunded my money. So I consider this matter resolved.

Comments

mod comment

[jamesalesto.livejournal.com]

Howdy! I believe Dani already spoke to you about censoring the caps of the notes. Feel free to change those out!

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

Yep I'll do that as soon as I get home

[sirmeo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that behavior is highly suspect; even if your artwork WAS finished when you sent your refund request, the right way of handling this would've been "Sorry I've been bad at communicating, your artwork has actually been finished and I just haven't had the time to get back at you. I think we should try and negotiate a compromise of some sort!" or something like that, and NOT ignoring you for a few days and stealth-uploading the suddenly finished art. This behavior makes her look sort of dishonest, even if you are willing to believe the artwork was finished all along and not rushed to avoid "having to" refund someone :/

I'm also waiting a commission from her... I commissioned her Feb 1st and I've seen zero evidence my commission has ever been worked on, and this kind of behavior is making me a bit nervous. I'm currently 50/50 whether I want the art or a refund, and I was willing to wait 6 months myself before starting to ask for my art or a refund. The idea that she would rather rush my art out than negotiate a refund with me makes me extremely uncomfortable and I honestly don't know what to think now.

I understand she's going through a lot in her personal life? But she has a long queue, is bad at keeping her commission queue up to date, and keeps taking more and more commissions while people have waited for 5+ months for their artwork to be completed, and even if I end up getting my art/refund, I would probably not be commissioning her again, at least not until she's been "on track" with her commissions for a significant amount of time and shows me she can be professional.

So I definitely feel you and think this is something people need to be aware of when thinking of commissioning her.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't wait 6 months to ask for a refund, or even just an update, as that would hit Paypal's chargeback deadline. You should always ask *before* the deadline, just in case you do end up having to file a chargeback.

[sirmeo.livejournal.com]

That's... a good point. I think I still haven't got used to PayPal's 180 day policy and am still going with the 45 day thing...

But the artist is now boasting about posting 3-5 sketch pieces a day (according to her newest journal on FA) so I'm gonna wait a few weeks more and see if she can actually deliver u_u after that I probably have to start poking for updates before the protection runs out.

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

oh man ive been watching them and wanting to commission them for quite some time but stuff like this just doesnt make me comfortable at all. ignoring notes and then finishing art after seeing that someone wanted a refund is really not okay. The adding on more work while still owing a lot and taking a while to update the queue makes me nervous enough as it is.

thanks for taking your time to post this!

[bearprince.livejournal.com]

Looking at her queue, she has 50+ pieces waiting just in sketch commissions alone. I got anxiety spikes just LOOKING at that long of a list...and looking at her profile, it seems like you might not be the only one looking for contact about their commission.

Really hoping some sort of resolution comes out of this.

[zogrosh.livejournal.com]

A number of friends who've commissioned her have reported similar issues. Some have been waiting much longer as well.

I think she bites waaaay more than she can chew.

She's a talented artist, and honestly a really sweet person, but I wish she wouldn't overwhelm herself like this because it's going to hurt her chances of future commissions when she's called out for poor communication and such.

It's really too bad. I like her and her art, but she's shooting herself in the foot.

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

Yeah, her art is great! No doubt about that, her business practices though leaves much to be desired unfortunately. . .

[kupoming.livejournal.com]

I already shared my opinion on the previous entry, but now that everything has been confirmed, yeah, I'm never going to commission this artist. Horrible business practice and honestly, I lost a lot of respect for her. I can only hope she learns from this and tries to get her act together.

Sorry again that you had to deal with this :/ it must be incredibly frustrating.

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

It really is, especially since I've commissioned her before and didn't have much issue until now. I know she can do better than this. =\

[latiro.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I've been following this artist and commissioned her one time for one of those flat-colored sketch commissions without any problem whatsoever.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/17603014/

Her art is absolutely amazing, but it's a shame that she keeps piling up more and more commissions on her plate. I hope she reads this entry and consider about slowing down on taking new commissions while completing super-overdue commissions that she owes for a long time.

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

Well she just refunded me the money that I asked for, so I'll consider this resolved. I really hope she's able to solve her personal dilemma and get her business back on a more organized track.

[jamesalesto.livejournal.com]

I'll mark this as resolved for you!

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[signy.livejournal.com]

Did she ever have a convorsation with you or did she merely refund?

[kayla-na.livejournal.com]

I spoke to her in notes, I'll post a screencap tomorrow

[bourbon. (from livejournal.com)]

I commissioned her during the same batch, while I don't mind waiting long periods of time for art (I'm a really slow artist, myself), this has me a little worried because I don't want the picture I ordered to end up being pornographic (I stated multiple times to make him clothed).

Seeing that they drew yours nude when that wasn't what you ordered, this does have me hoping they don't do the same with mine. ;m;

[bourbon. (from livejournal.com)]

I also wanted to add, she definitely piles on too much work. She takes on new slots about every two weeks and it's usually between 10-20 slots while not matching it with output.

She should seriously think about increasing her prices so she can offset how many comms she takes.

[kupoming.livejournal.com]

Agreeing with this. For the sketch commissions shes offering especially, I feel they are easily worth $45-$65 at least.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

I was thinking the same thing. She made a journal to talk about the rough spot she's in, and while I don't doubt life threw her some curve balls, I feel like she's only made her problems worse by undercharging. I don't see much reason for her to undercharge either, not when there's such a high demand for her art.

[blaze-ignitus.livejournal.com]

Not gonna lie, that attitude in the refund note conversation is really not impressive.

"Good lord. I didn't choose to do it immediately. I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain myself like that, excuse me for sounding rude."

Sorry, but that is not okay. If it's where the commission had been completed "for a while" then give the commissioner an update saying as such, but also stating that you'd like to post it as part of a batch and ask the commissioner if that's okay. Barring that, when it's done, send the finished piece to the commissioner by something like, say, an email or something so they're not kept waiting with no update/communication.

When you have established a history of not communicating or updating, and suddenly the piece appears after you've been asked for a refund, it's going to look really sketchy. It is a reasonable and natural thought to have.

[jamesalesto.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. It takes but a second to respond to Kala-na's note. At least now I know to never commission this artist.

[latiro.livejournal.com]

Same here. Probably won't commission her anymore unless her attitude and commission business improve.

Not to mention that I found it in poor taste for HornedFreak to suddenly just complete the OP's art upon receiving a PM politely asking for a refund. She could've at least notify the OP with the finished pic via PM or email, like what Blaze pointed out.

Edit: felt like having a fitting icon to my comment there.

[sirmeo.livejournal.com]

I hope she realizes that even if she wasn't being dishonest about having the (almost or fully) completed artwork ready when Kayla-Na asked for the refund, she really _does_ look shady when she ignored the note and "suddenly" had the finished artwork ready. If her public trello was clearer about what pieces have been worked on (I'm not sure if I'm stupid and missing something, but I honestly can't tell how many of those sketch commissions are finished or nearly finished? She says in the note that she has many that are sitting finished or nearly finished but I just can't tell just from looking at her trello), or if she'd sent regular updates, or even an update about how the artwork is moving along, or delays if the artwork is not moving along, it would be so much better. But the tone of the note isn't leaving me too hopeful :/

At least this story had a happy ending? OP got the refund and hopefully this inspires the artist to work more on their communication and keeping her public commission queue up to date.

[hunty belmnt (from livejournal.com)]

Good artists with shitty work ethic always upsets me in the commission business and makes the actually good ones look bad.

[latiro.livejournal.com]

Pretty much this.

[kontonakuma.livejournal.com]

If it was already done, why didn't she just send it to you in a private message instead of ignoring you and putting it out after you requested a refund? I'm sensing a lot of dishonesty. And that reply to you clarifying you didn't want the art anymore was rude af. Beware well warranted.

[allcometoruin.livejournal.com]

I used to be friends with her, and it wasn't uncommon for her to talk to me/her friend group about her long commission queue + how she was just putting it off/how she didn't want to do it. x: English is her second language, which is probably why she comes off as rude, but it's still not a good attitude towards a commissioner. Yikes. I'm glad you got your money back, though!

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Whoa, I'm glad you included the refund conversation. The way she replied to you is absolutely unacceptable. "I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain myself like that"? What??

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

"Good lord. I didn't choose to do it immediately. I'm pretty sure I don't need to explain myself like that"

Uhh, yeah, you do, artist. Beware well warranted, that is a really inappropriate attitude

[talentedfool.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a poor way to treat your customers! I hope she starts making an effort to communicate better with her customers.

Even if you wanted to upload commissions in large batches to your gallery, I don't really understand why that precludes you from communicating with your customer to a) send it to them privately or at least b) tell them you'll be uploading it in a batch of others and they'll c) send you a message to let you know when it's up, instead of just taking it on faith you'll see it without notification. Even if the art was done, the way you were treated was so disrespectful. There's just something so... dismissive about just deciding that uploading the art and not even bothering to reach out to the customer to let them know it's done/it's uploaded is good enough.

[laughsatthunder.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, that attitude when you asked for the refund was a bit uncalled for.

It makes me sad because I've never heard of this artist; I went onto their FA page, looked at their newest journals and there's people asking about commissions and communication issues. :[

[danlion.livejournal.com]

I've always gotten a weird vibe from this person, so I'm not too surprised by this... I like their art though so this is sad. :/