Artist Beware: Homecomin/Naho/Reimu/Caromeow

[lucklessprince.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit hesisitant posting this, as I technically did receive some type of art [although it was not what I wanted], but this artist's rather shady practice has convinced me to do so.

WHO: Homecomin, Naho, Reimu, caromeow

Abandoned FA Account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/homecomin/
Abandoned [Imposter] FA Adoptable Account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kemonomimiadop/ [Impersonated an MLP Adopt Artist from DA to Sell thier Adoptables on FA] X

[Abandoned?] Deviantart: http://homecomin.deviantart.com/
Deviantart: http://umier.deviantart.com/
[Abandoned] Deviantart: http://laystritt.deviantart.com/ [Sold traced MLP Adoptables Here] X X
[Abandoned] Deviantart: http://qtadopt.deviantart.com/

Alt FA Account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/Reimu

New FA Account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/naho/ [Currently Trying to Sell]
IB: https://inkbunny.net/Reimu
Weasyl: https://www.weasyl.com/~homecomin [Currently Trying to Sell]
Elsword Art Shop: Link [Currently Trying to Sell]

WHERE:

• FA Account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/homecomin/

WHAT: Digital Art

• I commissioned a Digital Fullybody $20 two-character drawing from Homecomin.

WHEN: August 26th - Ongoing

PROOF/EXPLAINATION:

• August 26th I inquired about the FullBody Couple commission and paid on the same day. [I Think FA's Timestamps are messed up, as they are not consistent with the Payment date on my Paypal receipt].

She accepts this Commission.

• September 9th Homecomin made a journal stating that the FA note system was "glitching" up and that she "technically sent out everybody their commission piece out weeks ago (most weeks, some a few days ago)" and that everyone who did not receive thier commission should e-mail them [I wasn't able to snap a screen shot of this but, later thier e-mail was edited out and replaced it with "note me".]

I hadn't received anything so I figured this journal applied to me as well and that I should note them.

• September 10th I received a note with a link to my commissioned drawing

However, it was not quite what I was expecting in quality nor portion-wise? [For lack of a better term]..

I commissioned a two character-fullbody that was advertised as everything being detailed with this picture as the example, but the piece I received had the characters cropped to around the knee/thigh with little to no detailing.

Here is the original Commission Sheet that I had luckily saved on my phone since she edited the submission with a different advertisement graphic on her page.. I feel a bit guilty complaining about detailing so I asked for some of my other friends' opinions but they agreed that what I received was more akin to that of the "Chibi Commission" description as opposed to what was advertised for "Fullbody Commissions".

• Septmber 11th I finally decided to note her to state that I was expecting a fullbody commission with details and was a bit unhappy with the quality of the picture I recieved.

She noted me back offering to redraw the commission, to which I happily agreed to:

Although I was fine while waiting for my commission,  I decided to stop by her page out of curiousity as I had not recieved any reply or seen any recent uploads from the artist.
Upon taking a look at her journal from the front page, I noticied that it had recieved a handful of new replies, and I saw that there were several other commissioners who had been having troubles contacting Homecomin.

With no viewable replies to the current users on her journal trying to contact her, I saw that she had replied recently to a few new inquiries about icon commissions, asking users to note her.

• October 23rd A bit nervous now, I decided to note Homecomin for an update

I waited with no reply.

• October 28th I see a submission on the front page with a familiar style. The account is somewhat new, but I feel that the style is an 80% visual match with that of the Artist Homecomin. The user is advertising Chibi Commissions, so feeling a need for confirmation about thier identity I inquire about a commission and ask for the Paypal address to send payment to, using an alternate account.

[I was asked by a Mod to edit out all instances of Homecomin's paypal address and email address due to her being a minor.]

As I had suspected, the Paypal address is a direct match to one of the e-mail addresses belonging to Homecomin.
Having confirmed thier identity on this new account, I decided to leave a shout on thier page using my main account:

The Page Shout was swiftly deleted off the front page and I received a note:

Needless to say, I did not really believe her excuses [especially when I spoke to another user awaiting a commission from her who said they had received  no reply/news on thier commission nor notfication of the move to the new account] but I replied anyway stating that I would like a refund unless she really believes she finish my commission.

I decided to wait a few days before posting up an A_B as a last resort so at least I may warn others of this Artist... But then I saw that she is currently trying to sell over on Weasyl and decided that I should post this up ASAP..

I hope I did everything correctly. Please let me know if I have made any mistakes as this is my first [and I hope only time] I have ever posted an A_B. I highly believe that this Artist is going to continue Art Site/Account hopping, as well as now it seems as though she is trying to hide from being found by asking people to note her for Paypal Address for payment.


UPDATE 11/08/11:
After I left a new Page Shout on her page, she has sent me a new note claiming that she had sent me notes regarding my commission and that FA's note system is glitching up once more.

In this new note she claims that Naho and the other alt FA accounts do not belong to her and that she has "faced situations where people have posed" as her.
Granted that, pushing aside the fact that these accounts have all been confirmed via Paypal Address, I can't seem to fathom why someone would make an account to Impersonate another yet while still keeping the Impersonated Party's Paypal Addresss????

[In short, Why would you impersonate someone just give them payments???]

But I digress. Here is some proof:

Here is a Submission posted on one of the "Imposter" accounts on October 20th, 2014.


Here is the same Image posted to Homecomin's Weasyl on the 29th of October.

I am not sure how an imposter would have an image of yours posted before you did, yourself..?
I know FA's Timestamps can mess up sometimes but in my experience, they usually deviate by a single day, certainly not nine.

EDIT: After exchanging a few more notes, I was partially refunded my Commission payment [which I had suggested as I did technically receive a picture].

Comments

MOD NOTE

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

We did confirm that the Paypal addresses were the same prior to asking them to be removed. When people are minors, we can't allow their information to be posted like this.

[tomoyoavalon.livejournal.com]

The link that reads "with this picture as the example" leads to a 403 Forbidden page. You might want to update this.

It is rather unfortunate she is choosing to ignore the issue and is trying to avoid you and other commissioners. It is a really good way to ruin her reputation. At such a young age that is very disappointing. She needs to learn to be responsible. I hope she will see this beware post and change her way of doing business.

I also can't help but notice that it seems you also added to the amount to cover the paypal fee. I can also see she asked you too cover them. It is against Paypal's TOS, for a seller to ask the buyer to cover those fees. The buyer has to plan to take the hit for the fee.

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/76717253/1408226435.homecomin_mirai.png

It worked for us when we looked at it in the queue... odd.

[lucklessprince.livejournal.com]

I am not sure about whether or not posting a Beware will really affect her behavior, so I am not holding my breath.

I recall that it is against Paypal's TOS to charge a Buyer fees, but I am rather inexperienced with Commissioning other Artists and usually don't mind tipping a little extra to cover those fees anyhow xD

[tomoyoavalon.livejournal.com]

More wishful thinking on my part, than anything else. But you never know! Sorry for your experience with her, what a pain.

[tomoyoavalon.livejournal.com]

The URL I got when I clicked on it was this: http://d.facdn.net/art/homecomin/1408226435.homecomin_mirai.png

Your link works just fine.

MOD NOTE

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

I know. I ported it into my personal dropbox for others to see. I'm not sure why FA's links seem to work sometimes and others not.

MOD NOTE:

Op, can you please move the FA link to your own host and change the link? That way we can make sure everyone can see it.

Re: MOD NOTE

[vauvakolibri.livejournal.com]

Not sure, but the actual image page doesn't show me an image either, even though I see the thumbnail in the gallery:
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/14284663/
I'd figure either something has been done to the pic or FA is totally bugging out.

EDIT: So NOW I can see the page image too, FA bugging seems to be at fault here.

Re: MOD NOTE

[mazz.livejournal.com]

FA doesn't allow direct linking to images, so it will usually show up at unavailable to people unless they've viewed the image via FA previously.

Re: MOD NOTE

[lucklessprince.livejournal.com]

It's been edited to a Direct Link of the picture, hosted via LJ Scrapbook.
Sorry about that! I had no idea FA does that.

[tomoyoavalon.livejournal.com]

Opps I meant to reply to celestinaketzia. Sorry!

[circlemeats.livejournal.com]

She's severely undercharging her work, IMO. If I had to guess, I'd say she's getting overwhelmed because she's undercharging, and she just can't bring herself to completely re-do your commission.

[lucklessprince.livejournal.com]

Undercharging or Overcharging, It is still no excuse for the fact that she had accepted monetary payment for Commissions she did not deliver [Not entirely in my case, as I technically did receive a picture, but I am referring to other commissioners in her journal who have not received any art after paying her], and choose instead to flee/account hop with the funds she received.

She purposefully and consciously made the decision herself to cut off contact with her Commissioners while keeping their funds.
In my case, she offered to re-do the commission [as shown in the note], which I held her to. But I don't believe I will be receiving anything of the sort.

The money I paid wasn't that great in value I suppose, but I did work hard at my job for it. Truthfully, I'm more upset at the fact that I was lead on/lied to [along with others] than the actual money that I lost.

The fact that she lied to multiple people [including myself] and ran off elsewhere with their money while continuing to accept more Commissions on other sites is what led me to post this Beware. This was honestly a last resort thing for me, as I hate any type of drama whatsoever, but I felt that this was certainly needed as it will at least make others a little aware of her Scamming.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

I have seen the icons in their commission sheet offered by an artist I watch, but I cannot remember the username. So they have another account somewhere, or they copied them.

[lucklessprince.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much for letting me know, I highly appreciate it.
I poked through your +Watchlist but was not able to find any account Matches other than that of her Main "Homecomin".

It does not surprise me that she has more alternate accounts, and I am definitely sure that she will be creating more in the future.

If I find anymore [Especially accounts where she is trying to sell more Commissions] I will add them to the list [that is already quite large in size].

Disapointed

[himesqueakers.livejournal.com]

Honestly if she did this, http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12765910/ I'm VERY disappointed in what she had done for me and my older brother. Looking at that and what she did for me upsets me. But, I feel kinda like my brother got ripped off. We had to point out several mistakes she had made, there's still things wrong with it. Over all not what we pictured. At all.

Also my question is how can we be sure she's underage fifteenth? I think that's the age she said she was. I mean people pretend to be other age all the time online. Still very disappointing someone with so much talent, hiding. :/

Re: Disapointed

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about her age too. It says on the payment screenshot that her Paypal account is verified, which happens when you link a bank account to your Paypal. I wouldn't think a 15 year old would have a bank account? But maybe she linked her parents' bank account to a student Paypal account she has. Or she's just using her parents' Paypal. Hmmm...

Re: Disapointed

[lunar-orchids.livejournal.com]

I had a bank account at an early age and a checking account as well. My parents did it to teach me responsibility so minors may have them.

Re: Disapointed

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

I do know that minors may have them, but I don't think it's very common for minors who aren't of working age. But who knows. Though I do think if this minor-aged artist does have a bank account to teach responsibility, then it's definitely not working. :T

[lamentobento.livejournal.com]

Her anatomy and art seems really inconsistent overall... If she had a history of tracing (ie. those traced MLP adopts), then it wouldn't surprise me that she frankensteins her work by going on a pixiv art spree. Does she even hand out WIPs? Judging by her account hopping it just makes her more suspicious, even though it points more towards dodging unhappy clients due to her bad business practice.

I have no doubts that she's 15 to be honest. It sounds like a typical thing an inexperienced commission artist would do. Undercharging, getting overwhelmed with the complexity of the art, then winging it and praying the client will like it regardless...

(Also, FA's note inbox is kind of really glitchy on mobile devices. My partner had issues communicating with a genuine client who was using his phone. He just didn't get her note at all. But I highly doubt this happens to every single note...)

[himesqueakers.livejournal.com]

I never got a wip :I she just gave me the finished project, which had many mistakes (and still does) also waaay disproportionate (very skinny, big heads)

(frozen) MOD COMMENT

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

This isn't appropriate for A_B, and it will be screened.

[lucklessprince.livejournal.com]

It seems somebody posted something on [Is that 4chan? I'm not sure] another website regarding HomeComin and people are believing that is me?

I don't have a 4chan account [as I believe that website is full of drama and immature people] ._.

That's not me.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

It sucks someone is doing that. Pretty easy to tell you don't use 4chan at all though, as 4chan doesn't do accounts, heh.

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

If you read the first post of that thread it was actually a helpful thing for your cause- it was started trying to find proof if this artist you had difficulty with was a tracer or not.
Not sure why people changed the subject to saying nasty things about you (must be something in the past); anyways, I don't think you need to worry about bringing it into this A_B or anything, since it wasn't really about you as a client or this deal in particular. Just about the artist.

(it was on Lulz BTW, for those aware of that site, there were no links back to FA or A_B at least the last time I saw it)

[jane vakarian (from livejournal.com)]

Ah, makes sense. I thought I would've seen it on the chans.
All in all though, with reimu, i thought i saw them on DA a few years back and they said they were 15 then. Unless I'm mistaking it for someone with a really similar artstyle and name.

[totschrei.livejournal.com]

Seems they disabled their accounts.
I doubt they really were being impersonated but... yeah ... shady and disappointing.

[himesqueakers.livejournal.com]

Hmm :I A new user just popped up, the art is kinda similar is the one on her homecoming account. I can't say it's her but I'll be keeping my eye on the account.