Commissioner Beware: Chapu

[crocdragon89.livejournal.com]

WHO: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/chapu/


WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/

WHAT: Client commissioned me on December 13, 2012 for a digital sketch. He paid, the work was done and given to him. 3 months later he files a charge-back against me.

WHEN: December 13, 2012

PROOF: The transaction: http://i.imgur.com/m9OfjGB.png

The payment: http://i.imgur.com/hobag7Z.png

The artwork: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9870020/

His thanks: http://i.imgur.com/rgtjkM2.png

The charge back: http://i.imgur.com/msSkk6D.png and http://i.imgur.com/2S2UnkW.png

Faking his death: http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4463424/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4469909/ The proof with inside said journal: http://oi45.tinypic.com/2hcnmhg.jpg

Secondary account which is suspended like his first: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/allothernamesweretaken

EXPLAIN: Client came to me on December 1st, asking if I was open for commissions. I said I was and would give him a spot for a digital sketch. He was fine with this, however, he said he would not be able to get back to me until reference of his character was done by another artist. I told him that was fine, and I could wait. He thanked me, and went on his way. December 13th, he returned, ready for me to do his commission. I gladly accepted and he gave me the description and references needed to start his commission. Afterword, he sent me the payment. After a few other commissions I had done, I finally got to his, completed it, and sent it off to him. He responded, complimenting me and thanking me, and went on his way. He later posted the image in his gallery, which was perfectly alright as I allow every single one of my clients to post their commissions, unless told otherwise.

3 months later, he filed a charge-back against me for unknown reasons. As I have described in this entry of mine: http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/664815.html he had apparently done this to many other artists as well. He eventually faked his own death because he was being harassed about it, and made another account pretending to be someone else.

And that should be be about it. It's unfortunate that it had to come to this, as he was pretty pleasant to work with.

Currently, I have not gotten anything from Paypal yet.

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Did paypal give you your money back, or are they still investigating? Just curious, you didn't mention it.

[crocdragon89.livejournal.com]

No, they haven't yet unfortunately, but I'm still patiently waiting. I also added this in my journal.

[dragontripmon.livejournal.com]

Actually there more about that incident here. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/4469909/

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

Whoever this was handled it better then me.

Using Mass Effect terms, I think I would have, you know, taken the renegade option >.>;

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

I'd be really concerned about something like that, is there anything to prevent him from draining from the account more then what was paid?

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

bleh, scratch that as I found out more about it on furaffinity. It's trouble that people can do that charge back stuff, sounds like exploiting Paypal's services to me.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

That's some delayed case of buyer's remorse, holy crap @_@ And to put your friends through the ringer to fake your own death just to try to avoid being hassled about the chargebacks... this guy needs to look at his life, look at his choices.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

this, the fact that people would fake their own death over furry commissions is just, something.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

This all could've been avoided if only he'd had a sassy gay friend? (ba dum tsh! Bad reference, time to probably go to bed...)

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's... a new way to handle things.

I was trying to think of something else to say about this but wow, I've got nothing.

[tealmoonxiv.livejournal.com]

I knew it was him.

I'm sorry that happened to you. :/

[thaily.livejournal.com]

So he commissioned people, then stole all his money back via Paypal and faked his death when people called him on it; what a trashy thing to do.

But thanks for letting us know who it is, so we can block him en masse.

[lackoflollies.livejournal.com]

He's already perma'd from FA, and will have to resurface under a new name.

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

Apparently, this guy was in quite some debt and was desperate for cash, so he issued all these charge-backs to make up for it. When people justifiably harassed him over it, he cracked under pressure and faked his death to absolve himself.

All in all, I think this is a good lesson on how commissions are a luxury, not a necessity.

Edit: Sorry, had to fix a glaring spelling error.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

I don't think there's such a thing as "justifiable harassment."

If an ARTIST is trying to get in touch with a commissioner due to an issue like this, I wouldn't call it harassment - though the commissioner might. From what it sounds like, he was getting seriously harassed by a lot of uninvolved parties, which is totally unwarranted in all circumstances.

[dragontripmon.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I foresee there will be more cases like this in the future considering how this is turning out currently.

[dazen-cobalt.livejournal.com]

I got hit with a chargeback from him as well but he was working with me to get it solved(couldn't fight it because while it wasn't adult it was mature) So I was in the negative a bit with a frozen account until some friends helped me out. I then heard about his death and felt horrible for the chargeback issue.

A while later found out that he faked his death. I emailed em and he replied back that he still wanted to pay me back however I said that I didn't want to take the risk of my account being charged again and let it go

Even though people were rightfully upset they had no right to harass him to the point where he thought faking his death was better. The sad part is that a lot of people doing the harassing had nothing to do with the charge back issues.

[negawolfie.livejournal.com]

Honestly I thought his debt was cleared by ~CypheR~ from what I was told and read. I didn't Chapu still owed more people.

[purpule.livejournal.com]

considering he got himself so in debt from buying luxury items he couldn't pay for, which is clearly a problem, I think someone else giving him MORE money could have easily led to him buying more things he didn't need rather than actually paying people back.

This is, of course, entirely assumption.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

The timeline is odd - usually I thought paypal only had a 45 day window for disputes, but this is 3 months later? My understanding is this means he probably actually filed a credit card chargeback, and paypal's the middleman here.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, anytime its a chargeback filed outside of the 45-day window, the person generally files with their credit card or bank account for it. And from what I have observed, CCs and banks are more likely to take the money no matter what the Artist or Paypal says/does to prove the transaction was legitimate.

[frisket17.livejournal.com]

Looks like you aren't the only one.

Another person is claiming they've had chargebacks ( a ton) and are commenting on the user page http://www.furaffinity.net/user/chapu/


Sorry this happened to you guys :/

[wuvvumsoc.livejournal.com]

Reading that person's journals just tore me apart because things are so tight for them, that they even had to choose between car insurance payment, or food.

[kwolf13.livejournal.com]

And what's sad is, his friend paid $600 to a lot of artists to pay off the money he owed. And he turns around and does that. How sad...

[tyrano-tiggs.livejournal.com]

This is frighteningly similar to an incident we recently had over in the lolita community; girl spent over >$5000 buying things from different sellers in various sales communities, got all her items (these are dresses valued between $400-$500) and then filed chargebacks left, right and centre. One girl was left out of pocket $2000. Buyers story changed multiple times to card theft, brother used the card and then a dead grandma was involved somehow.

Long story short a lot of people are still out of pocket and many people only got their money when the police were involved. PayPal themselves started paying the money back and dealt with the Credit Card Company.

If you desperately want the money back, I'd recommend filing a police report on him and include the info about faking his death (screencap screencap screencap) then provide PayPal with the report - if you're willing to go to the police, it should show how serious you are about this and back up your case. That goes to all the artists who were charge backed.

[sleetfury.livejournal.com]

I thought the same thing! It was a wonder more people didn't contact the police in the first place.

[werewolfofwater.livejournal.com]

I'm baffled by the amount of people actually feeling sorry for this person, saying he was under a lot of stress. But WHY was he under so much stress? Because he was scamming people, issuing chargebacks, and not wanting to be called out on it.

That's not just a "mistake" that's a series of deliberately malicious decisions.

And apparently he's still issuing chargebacks even after all these people "forgave" him.

I'm sorry but there's a time to forgive and a time to avoid being gullible...if he was really, really sorry, he'd stop doing chargebacks and start giving the money back to the artists.

[tealmoonxiv.livejournal.com]

I agree.

As far as his Weasyl account is concerned.

[isredel (from livejournal.com)]

I'm a longtime friend of one of the head admins of Weasyl. I actually talked to him about this particular character.

I made sure to send an e-mail to Weasyl's support as prompted by him so that they have his name on record as being that he's notorious for back-charging should he try it over Weasyl.

Mod Note

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Tagging this as resolved, OP was paid back! Yay!