Beware: Starfinder/Kannos

[utunu.livejournal.com]

WHO: Kannos, Starfinder, Astray, etc.

WHERE: https://www.weasyl.com/~kannos, https://inkbunny.net/Kannos, although this commission was not initiated in either of those places.

WHAT: An extensive traditional painting with full background of a tribal wolf character in a forest/jungle by a waterfall.

WHEN: July of 2005.  That is not a typo.  2005.  A brief timeline follows.

• Commission initiated in 2005.  Had found Starfinder's work online, really liked it, decided I'd commission her.  This was my first real commission attempt in the fandom, back when I was apparently a bit too trusting.  Agreed on large traditional piece, full background, agreed upon price of $900.


• Initial payment of $450 paid on July 15, 2005.


• Soon thereafter, Starfinder expressed concern that she had a car insurance expense.  Since, at that point, the commission had been going well, along with her stating that it would be done very soon (in a matter of a week or two), I decided to be kind and help out, giving her the remaining amount due of $450 in the assumption I would not have long to wait.  And I guess that was my mistake; now that she had her money, she had no reason to ever finish the piece.


• Image of the paypal (thanks to Starfinder, actually - she sent this to me because, in the AB post from May regarding the petition to get her back on FA I had finally come out and mentioned my commission experience with her, and she didn't care for me saying 'almost $1000' therein).  http://imgur.com/IuxYuPN


• Communication continued, for a while... I would ping her regularly on IM and email, she would respond with the 'really soon', or comment about the reasons she hadn't had chance yet.  It became harder and harder to get in touch with her over time, and eventually she stopped responding altogether.  I continued to ping, as the years went by, every 6 months or so.


• Now the AB post in May of 2013 came about (http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/679851.html).  Finally I decided to say something.  I hadn't posted before, because of the (foolish) hope that maybe she'd come round and my associated fear that if I posted something she'd take offense and I'd lose that 1% chance of ever getting my piece.  Please feel free to read that AB post and see my (much abridged) story there.  Any proof required of the existence and acknowledgement of this particular commission is contained within Starfinder's own responses there.


• Starfinder says she will make good on it.  Of course, it's not going to be what I originally wanted - she doesn't want to do traditional any more.  But at this point, I figured anything would be better than nothing.


• And then the Starfinder Past-Due Shout-Out (http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/679971.html).  Further acknowledgement, and she actually started doing preliminary sketches.  Perhaps something would finally come of this!


• And.... no.  I immediately offered feedback on said sketches, was communicating via email with her, and then... silence.  It seems to coincide with the failure of the petition to get her back on FA.  I have sent emails asking for just a response, but have gotten nothing.  The last email I received from her was Oct 5, 2013.  I have sent successive ones since, but nothing.

EXPLAIN: Most of it's up there in 'WHEN'.  All I can say is, this has caused me a LOT of grief and heartache over the years.  I would have been happier throwing that money in a fire, because then at least it was over and done with, rather than being strung along for so many years, coupled with the feeling of being scammed.  I have been completely polite and courteous throughout the ENTIRE situation, and bent over backwards to accommodate all her crises and excuses.  I'm thoroughly fed up.  This was my first commission attempt, and soured me on the whole thing for several years afterwards.  For those who know me and my character, I get a lot of art done these days, and usually from really awesome artists.  And I'm happy that I finally was able to make the attempt at commissioning again.  Thank you to ALL those other artists who made the commissioning process a wonderful one; you've made me a happier Utunu, and I made it so I did not completely lose my faith in the process. :)
Please feel free, in the comments, if any of you would like me to speak further on any aspects of this rather sordid tale. :) I'd be happy to answer.  Right now, what I really want?  I want a refund.  I wanted traditional, she doesn't want to do that.  And you know what?  Anything I did get, after almost 9 years, would feel tainted anyhow.  I had better sign off here, before I start ranting too much. :)
And mods, please let me know if you need anything further for this AB post.  I haven't done this before, so hopefully this is sufficient.

Comments

[bio-pelt.livejournal.com]

It's very surprising to see that she still has active accounts on other popular art websites. There's no doubt in my mind that these same situations are happened there too, which is really just a shame because it seemed like she wanted to get everything on track.

But actions speak louder than words.

Hopefully you guys can really take her to court over this. It's not a game.

[silverwolf877.livejournal.com]

I would still suggest posting an a_b about her, a lot of people just let it go and lose out on a refund or art, but I'm sure if enough people keep on her case about completing her backlog, she will eventually get it done. $70 is a lot of money - a week's worth of groceries for some people.

Im not trying to push you or anything, if you want to drop it because you're sick of waiting around, I understand that too. I wonder how many people she actually still owes? I'm sure a lot have dropped off the radar and forgotten about it.

[rabbitswift.livejournal.com]

I mostly just lurk in this community, but I wanted to say I'm sorry this person has strung you along for so many years. You've had the patience of Job with them, and it's a shame they can't just come through with their obligation. If there's any chance of you getting a refund from them, I sincerely hope you do.

[magicporpoise.livejournal.com]

Please, dont let her get away with something like this, fight for it.

[sapphistscot.livejournal.com]

It won't happen. Since it happened before she went to Inkbunny, the staff won't do anything, Greenreaper confirmed this in previous posts about her. She'd have to start scamming Inkbunny members before they'd do anything.

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

Aaaand she has set up a patreon site :S

https://www.weasyl.com/journal/42812/supporting-art

[utunu.livejournal.com]

Nice to know Greenreaper and Inkbunny are so honorable. :(

[metallik-hasse.livejournal.com]

I'm in agreement with you here, Skulldog. I'm a big fan of real media, so I would be a bit fumed if an artist decided that they were going to switch mediums on me after I paid. I'd be especially mad if I a partial refund wasn't an option to boot. :/

[metallik-hasse.livejournal.com]

If she's still taking commissioners now after stealing your money, I wonder how many other people she's scammed since going to IB?
So many people avoid posting here, that I wouldn't be surprised if it were several and we just don't know about them. :/

[metallik-hasse.livejournal.com]

I've had to look into small claims court previously, and less money involved in my situation. I would seriously consider pressing charges. With the sheer amount of proof, and the amount of clients she's scammed, I should think the case is pretty cut and dry. She really has no reasonable excuse to keep your money.
Many lawyers even offer free consultations, and I really think it would be worth looking into.
Sorry you had the misfortune of having done business with this person, and I hope things work out for you. :C

[tock-fast.livejournal.com]

Wow... that is horrible. I feel guilty if I leave a commission for more than a week without an update, no matter the queue size, or the size of the piece. How she can leave something for almost ten years, and run off with the money... yikes; her moral compass seems a bit broken.

She seems to be keeping busy on other sites, so hopefully she'll use some of that energy, and return it to things more pressing, like refunding what she owes to you.

So sorry to hear something like this happened to you. I've seen your character around, and the artists who work on your pieces always seem to be in good spirits.

Best of luck!

[jesidres.livejournal.com]

Now THAT seriously worries me. With so many legitimate artists relying on Patreon to keep up their artwork, once she starts scamming over there... ugh.

I hope someone brings her long track record of scamming up to them... I'd hope they'd have little interest to be associated with such a problematic history.

[tylociraptor.livejournal.com]

Yep- I did. I dunno if anyone else emailed them, but I sent them a link to this entry as well as her tag here on artists_beware. It's disgusting to me that someone would even think of abusing such an AWESOME site, when they've already scammed thousands of dollars out of people. :/

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Yes, even a half day a week would add up! It's an extra kick in the teeth for her to get your hopes up last year when it seemed she wanted to do the work at last.
The problem is, if she's had too many billz to pay to do your artwork in 9 years, I can't see you getting a refund. There's no way she can cough up that amount even if she was willing to pay you back. It's such a disappointing and frustrating situation!

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

Well, based on how Patreon works, as long as the payment is set to "per image" then she won't make that money until an image is posted. These aren't commissions, she's just paid each time she posts a new image.

I'm not sure how they could scam on that site using this system. It'd be different if she were using the "per month" setting for the donations, since she could feasibly make $X per month while not posting much of anything.

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

It's been nearly 10 years, it's very likely that they've waited too long to be able to file charges against her.

[jesidres.livejournal.com]

Knowing Starfinder, I can hazard several guesses, such as posting old work as 'new', counting subpar artwork, and using commission work (which she's already been paid for) to inflate her numbers. Honestly, it seems like it would be a lot easier to abuse the 'per image' policy for quick money, rather than the monthly system, since it gives people a month to get suspicious.

[skulldog.livejournal.com]

Check some of the 'rewards' for paying more, she's offering a raffle for a free commission, as well as percentage discounts on commissions. While I doubt the per image thing can be cheated, she CAN get away with telling people to pay more for things that may or may not be given, or given in a way that might not be as explained in the Patreon page.

[tylociraptor.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I consider it a scam just based on how much art/money she is already owing. She shouldn't even be taking on new commissions, at this point!

[ctk-hullo.livejournal.com]

If she's doing good with the pay-on-completion model, I'd like to see someone commission her, get their image, and tell her, "Since I know you have outstanding debts I've taken the liberty of sending payment directly to those you owe." Which would be it's own kind of shady, but, damn, this artist is unbelievable.

[utunu.livejournal.com]

To all of you who have expressed sympathies and condolences over the ridiculousness of this whole scenario, thanks very much. :) I do appreciate the support! I'm still waiting to hear back from her on email - after she emailed Friday night because of the post I made on her Past Due thread, I emailed back Saturday morning, but no response yet. Will keep things updated. I do hope she actually comes on here and says what she plans on doing reparation-wise, but it's unlikely.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

wait...she has time to do a free commission even though she claims she's too busy doing current art to pay the bills so can't work on paid commissions owed from years back?

[silverwolf877.livejournal.com]

Apparently she has time to do an entire portfolio according to this Patreon thing. I'm all for allowing artists free time to work on their own projects - but she can't even show she's been working on the backlog these past few months. I'm no artist but if I were in her situation, I'd be using every spare moment of my free time to get this backlog sorted.

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

that sounds a lot like John Campbell's rant o_O???

[skulldog.livejournal.com]

Heck, if she FINISHED her backlog and used it for her Patreon posting..he's being getting NEW money to finish her already paid backlog! I'm just...speechless she can say 'I have no free time for my already paid backlog' on that last LJ post while also saying 'please give me money, I'll give you discounts and commission raffles!' on her Patreon.

I'm pretty sad, I was one of the people that was super thrilled and supportive about her eagerness to change on that last LJ,so much I had started to plan a commission with her, but this post has killed any and all interest ever again..bleh.