BEWARE: Pirate Cashoo

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

WHO: Pirate Cashoo

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/pirate-cashoo
pirate-cashoo.deviantart.com
pirate-cashoo.tumblr.com
zombiebooty.tumblr.com (NSFW)

WHAT: 2 pictures. One high-res of a single character, one sketch of two characters that she later offered to upgrade to a colored sketch in apology for the wait - but I haven't seen anything on either.

WHEN: High res was October 2011



EXPLAIN: I will concede right off the bat that this situation is partly my own fault. I have a busy job, and don't tend to 'check in' with artists all that often. I paid in full up front for both of these images but went a long time without contacting her, because the 'honor system' has worked out fine for me in the past. I bought a second picture from her when the other one was a year overdue, which was stupid of me - but I honestly lost track of just how long it had really been. So it's partly on me that it has reached this point. I took way too blase an attitude to buying art online, but I've learned from this.

I had bought pictures from Cashoo successfully a couple of times in the past, and arranged to buy one of her high-res commissions when she opened them up in a journal. The price for it was $140. This was October 2011. I paid for it in full upfront.

This is where I let things go for quite a while. I bought a couple of bust images from her, and both were completed in a decent timeframe - so I wasn't too worried about the high-res at that point.

10/14/2012: I checked in with her about and she said it was nearly done. At this point, the problem she was having was something to do with a car; I'm a little fuzzy on details now. I figured the high-res was forthcoming and bought a two-character sketch from her for 90 bucks to help her out (I know. Dumb of me.)

11/12/2012: She replied to me saying she had started a sketch but lost it in some kind of computer disaster. Promised to give a sketch in 'the next few days', and said she would do it tonight except she had to pay $200 in bills tomorrow? What that has to do with sketching now, I don't even know. I kept my response positive because I was still hoping to get my picture. Journals about various personal problems holding her progress were posted in this timeframe.

12/4/2013: No sketch. She had posted one of those long whiny journals, but I wanted a specific update about my picture and sent an FA note. It was read, but not responded to.

Late December 2012: After my note on FA went ignored, I saw her post a Tumblr update about doing a stream. I unfortunately don't have screenshots of this, but I stepped into the stream and talked to her. She apologized repeatedly for still not having a sketch and said my picture was next in the queue after the one she was currently working on (which was Svarta-Perlan's, another AB entry). She offered to upgrade the sketch I bought in October 2012 to a colored sketch as an apology for the wait. Yeah, okay, fine.

January-February 2013: I sent a couple of Tumblr asks requesting updates, because that seemed to be the site she was using most regularly. Tumblr doesn't record those...but they weren't responded to, anyway.

March 12 2013: Sent another FA note asking for an update. Still unread a week later, though she has been replying to comments on DA.

As of today - I still have yet to see even a rough sketch on either image. Her story on DA comments is now that's she's facing eviction. Who knows. I honestly just hope I'll get either the commissions or a full refund at some point.

Evidence:
http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu161/BeckytheFox/ScreenShot2013-03-19at101808PM_zps19e70f98.png
http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu161/BeckytheFox/ScreenShot2013-03-19at102443PM_zps785ab745.png
http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu161/BeckytheFox/ScreenShot2013-03-19at101314PM_zpsc7d6342d.png

EDIT 4/1/2013
I caught up with Cashoo on Livestream. She sent me an invite to the Asana program and showed me a WIP of my high-res commission (refined sketch with lighting shaded in). So there has been progress.

Comments

[norsepaw.livejournal.com]

Someone just stop her before she digs out from china and out of this world.

[scribdoodles.livejournal.com]

Out of just general curiosity, you would think she'd change her name at this point if she's going to keep running? I googled her user name and I found her on Bad Dragon as the image above. I'm not an expert scammer or anything, but it's hard to hide from your furious commissioners when you don't exactly make it hard for them to find you.

This is just saddening because she is such a fantastic artist. I really hope everyone finds closure with this artist and I hope other people don't fall into this trap :(

[anastasia-gg.livejournal.com]

Whatever you do don't blame yourself dear for hiring this artist.

We rely on these artists to work with us and to be honest....
I'm so sorry you are in this mess with everyone else. I was apparently a VERY lucky one to get my piece. I am grateful for that but very sad and sorry for the others I know whom I am friends with who are suffering through this.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

I understand you want your money, and that you want to warn others off of buying from Cashoo, but taking screencaps posted to A_B and posting them onto her FA and the like is not cool.

If you want to warn others off of Cashoo, just continue to point them to her tag here on A_B. Thank you.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

She A) swears up and down she will get her queue cleared off. There have been inklings of her saying she IS working on all of these images, but slowly (ridiculously so). So pride would likely keep Cashoo from doing a dash.

And B) her work is rather... recognizable, she'd be outed quickly enough if she was to move to a different name.

C) She has star power enough on her Cashoo name, so just like with Starfinder/Astray, even with the growing negative rep to her name, folks who have that ideal that 'it won't be me she cheats' will still go after her work.

[scribdoodles.livejournal.com]

That's very true with your points. It's just at this rate with her dishonesty and going to other sites to advertise that she's open for commissions, I'm just waiting for her to disappear completely as Cashoo. I always also curious if it's even worth the trouble of contacting the admins on FA about this issue? They did it before recently with that one user who ordered a ton of charge backs.

I do agree with point C, many people fall into this mentality when it comes to commissioning artists. I know I'm not a saint but I always make sure to keep my commissioners updated and not do personal art at all for myself until their commission is done.

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

I think her art style is so recognizable, and she's already known as "Cashoo" across so many different communities, that she'd have a hard time creating a new identity online.

[radiocatastrophe (from livejournal.com)]

x_x This is how I ended up in this situation... I gave her a benefit of a doubt that she has indeed changed but I was terribly wrong...

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

Admin Bazeel has been contacted about this and we're in the process of seeing what can be done!

[aerospiritual.livejournal.com]

Whomever Kishinn is on dA, I am really not a fan of their attempted whiteknighting, holy crap.

[radiocatastrophe (from livejournal.com)]

I've replied to their latest post, but I've seen their name littered throughout Cashoo's comments too.

[kasune.livejournal.com]

Wow this is... actually infuriating. If I were one of her commissioners that she owed and found this, I'd be livid. That is SUCH bad business practice.

[kasune.livejournal.com]

This, JFC. They clearly don't know what they're talking about.

[dragontripmon.livejournal.com]

Is that account a sockpuppet by any chance?

[aerospiritual.livejournal.com]

I have a hunch that it just might be.
I do hope that I'm wrong; it's an incredibly skeezy thing to do.

[germanchoclates.livejournal.com]

"Up until Thursday night this week I've been bed-riddenly sick -- nothing lame like the cold or flu mind you, this is physically crippling -- while a friend has been briefly checking my incoming messages daily on their phone for me so I have an idea of what's been going on."

I'm stuck between whether it's this mystery friend whom she probably has been making up, or if it's really her. Either way it's just a giant mess and only making things worse. I mean...9+ pages already? Sheesh.

[tealmoonxiv.livejournal.com]

Someone please make her stop. T_T

[hrafnsauga.livejournal.com]

http://www.livestream.com/zombiebooty

I left the link to this screen shot on her livestream chat yesterday, as she's permanently logged in there... and you can see her replies to it there, claiming it's fake. I for one don't believe her, but... what do you guys think?

[aerospiritual.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm not sure. If it IS her mystery "friend" then she should probably tell them to stop making things worse- if it's her, then... How is aggrivating her customers even further going to make this magically go away?

[totschrei.livejournal.com]

It seems she has been active on twitter just 3 hours ago from my post now.
Perhaps she can be reached there?

Not sure who Svarta-Perlan is on A_B

[sresla.livejournal.com]

I checked the other posts and didn't see anyone by that name posting about piratecashoo, but I was in PC's livestream tonight (4/19) when she mentioned that she is *still* working on Svarta-Perlan's commission. Going by your posted timeline, she has had four months to finish their commission and... well, she hasn't.

Also, someone in the channel was telling her that they would send the second half of their payment for a commission if piratecashoo would finish it "tonight" and piratecashoo said she would at least be working on theirs that same evening (the 19th). I'm very disturbed by this exchange as I know many people have already paid her in full for work and have yet to see anything for it - some of them dating back to last year, my own included.

Re: Not sure who Svarta-Perlan is on A_B

[hrafnsauga.livejournal.com]

hey, I'm svarta-perlan. :) my post is the one with 170+ comments.

cashoo has been active in her livestream, and she has promised me wip's today. I'll be updating my own post accordingly, when/if she does.

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

FA Admin Bazeel has banned Pirate-Cashoo on FA.

He attempted to contact her and work out an amicable solution, but she did not do what she was asked, and did not respond after a series of communication. She was given more than enough time (over a month actually!) to comply with what she was asked to do, and refused to do so.

She is welcome back on FA after she has had significant progress in finishing artwork, NOT taken on a bunch more to make up for it, and has a public queue.

I'm posting this on her related unresolved posts in case word isn't out about her ban and it's contingency.