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artists_bewareWHO: Toshiko-paws on Deviantart
WHERE: http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/
WHAT: Three Custom Plush
WHEN: Paid may 9th
PROOF: http://comments.deviantart.com/1/446701609/3435207962 proof of payment for first two plush http://comments.deviantart.com/1/446701609/3477552854 proof of payment for third plush
EXPLAIN: I saw this journal http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/journal/PLUSHIE-IRON-ARTIST-CLOSED-446701609 and I thought it was an amazing deal! The person's plush are very cute. Looking back I should have realized that 100 plush in 5 months was just a ridiculous goal. Even when done in batches of 40 or so. That was my own fault and I should have paid more attention to what was going on. Here is their to do list; http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/journal/The-list-457347681 which is actually missing a lot of other owed works as you could see by browsing their journals.
Not only are the plush late (they originally said it would take 6 months to complete them all, but sadly that was removed so I don't have any proof of that.) but I have gotten zero progress reports on my plush. Yes they have posted a large amount of wip images in their gallery, but as far as I can tell none are for me except perhaps this one http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/art/Plushie-wips-475235074 from back in august.
I did not have any experience with their horrific attitude until here; http://comments.deviantart.com/1/460139356/3611129259 where I addressed my concerns with her taking upon more commissions. I had honestly never contacted them directly about my commissions before besides when I had paid. I never asked anything of them at any point or anything of the sort. I never spoke to them privately, either. I will however admit that I could have been more polite, but I definitely did not expect such a reaction.
I am also debating with myself if I should even contact them for a progress update because I don't really want to get such a reaction. They also not do refunds as seen here; http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/journal/Plushie-terms-of-service-451088417
Edit: strangely enough after months of no contact I finally got an update only a few days after posting this http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/art/ALL-THE-PLUSHIE-WIPS-505855532 however it only shows one of the three plush having been worked on. Besides that this is still, i hope, a very valid beware.
Edit2: http://comments.deviantart.com/1/460139356/3714548908 seems like someone from here decided to comment on DA which I believe was against the rules? If not then I apologize, but either way please keep your questions and concerns here and do not take it offsite.
Edit3: http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/art/Tiny-One-508183868 finished one of them though its missing the back of the mane as shown here http://tea-cats.deviantart.com/art/Tiny-One-Ref-404380865 ill remove this part when/if it is fixed!
Edit 4: Quite some time later there were a few hiccups (a mane for a charater was promised, but they ended up being unable to do that. parts of the plush arent sewn very well having smal holes between the seams, etc.) with some missed deadlines and such, but i got them in the mail today. I'll consider this resolved, but still a very valid beware. I feel that they have a lot to work on and while they are a good person that doesnt excuse their bad business. I really sincerely hope they learn and improve.
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MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-11 11:15 pm (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-11 11:29 pm (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 01:49 am (UTC)Isn't that against the rules?
Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 01:52 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 02:13 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 03:10 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 04:53 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 04:07 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 04:09 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 04:55 am (UTC)Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-13 01:45 am (UTC)It was meant along the lines of "leeching off of the LiveJournal furry communities" but I should have gotten my thesaurus out. Sorry about that!
Re: MOD COMMENT
Date: 2015-01-12 11:40 am (UTC)She knows exactly what she's doing, and engaging with her is futile. Please just either ignore her or block her and move on.
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Date: 2015-01-11 11:57 pm (UTC)I see there is a wip and so there is a glimmer of hope but my goodness the attitude and friends chiming in does not make good business.
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Date: 2015-01-12 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 01:03 am (UTC)It looks like she posted a journal taking on more commissions today, too.
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Date: 2015-01-12 01:18 am (UTC)ahh yeah offering free plush is definitely really sweet, its just not the best timing.
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Date: 2015-01-12 02:06 am (UTC)That said, that's a full time job, never slacking off, keeping super on top of it and doing a lot of 16 hour days kind of thing. Convention season leaves me utterly exhausted, and it sure doesn't look like this person is keeping up that kind of pace here.
The no refunds policy, though... that is not just a cruddy policy, it's basically illegal.
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Date: 2015-01-12 02:17 am (UTC)Yeah I wasn't honestly sure about it since it's no refunds only if they already started? but then again i guess that can be easily abused by someone doing the bare minimum and just never finishing it.
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Date: 2015-01-12 02:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 02:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 04:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-13 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 05:45 pm (UTC)I don't think it's fair to just put "no refunds" AFTER taking all those commissions and then making everyone apply to it. She only started one, so she should be able to refund you for the other two. Since her ToS say "8. I DO NOT DO REFUNDS ONCE THE PLUSHIES HAVE BEEN STARTED, PERIOD."
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Date: 2015-01-12 06:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:47 pm (UTC)Also, I've never made plushies, but for the sheer workload, I feel like maybe she's bitten off more than she can chew (especially with that defensive reply she gave you). It's one thing to create 100 plushies for a convention, where you may only be making 10 different designs, and another thing to be making 100 unique, custom character plushies and trying to stay within a 6 month deadline. The fact that she's waiting for her tax return suggests that she has a separate job that automatically withholds taxes (a "9 to 5" as opposed to being strictly self-employed), which may cut into the amount of time she can produce plushies.
Again, this is all simple theorizing - I don't know the artist or what her situation is, but the fact that you (and others) have been waiting so long for the item you've paid for isn't a good sign. There's no shame in saying "listen guys, I've taken on more than I thought I could complete in the time period I quoted. Would you mind if I took X amount longer?" Keeping your clients updated is the most important thing.
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Date: 2015-01-12 11:26 pm (UTC)Don't get me wrong, she's very sweet and does refund the amount, it's just the way she handles commissioner's money that kind of bugs me.. With the last Work in progress shown it seems she's making a lot of progress of the huge list she has. I just hope everyone gets their refund/plush(ies) very soon.
And to the last part I believe she did post something like that before, but still takes on more commissions knowing that she has to finish a list and knowing it's wrong.
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Date: 2015-01-13 12:32 pm (UTC)But he/she also does commissions on the side. I know this is what I do, and I claim my commissions as a hobby tax (and pay it all at the end of the year). But normally what winds up happening is I actually owe a little bit of money rather than getting a refund because of the hobby tax.
I mean it all depends if is she actually making a profit on his/her commissions or not but yeah!
I mean I don't know anything about it, but I also want to add in, be prepared if she actually doesn't get a refund because of having to include his/her commission in as a hobby tax.
I would probably request more of a hard deadline than just "when I get my tax refund" since that's very vague and may or may not happen.
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Date: 2015-01-13 06:14 pm (UTC)Since she said she will get a tax refund I'm assuming she makes enough with her job to get a return. I just hope everyone gets their stuff soon.
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Date: 2015-01-12 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 07:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 11:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-13 12:24 pm (UTC)If the no refunds policy wasn't there when you order your commission (even tho that policy isn't really legal, but people have mention that already), you in no way need to adhere to that. It wasn't apart of your agreement and the original artist can't just go back and say, "I have a new rule!" unless a new contract is made. If you can't come to an agreement then the artist will have to refund you anyway.
I don't believe TOS are allowed to be retroactive like that (unless something is stated in the original agreement about that? But I don't think so... it depends. Most the time not so much). The artist and the client need to draft a new contract if one of the two parties wants something changed.
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Date: 2015-01-12 08:18 pm (UTC)I didn't see anyone post about it in the comments, but http://artists-beware.livejournal.com/tag/artist-sagomekitsune124%2Fphereandsagome is the same person.
Their FA is Sagome and here's a cross post in their galleries: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15051180/ and http://toshiko-paws.deviantart.com/art/Sam-plush-495229664 . I just thought it should be brought to people's attention just in case people see them on FA.
That being said, I hope this gets resolved soon!
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Date: 2015-01-12 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-12 09:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-01-13 12:15 pm (UTC)I am baffled that someone was told that they need to wait for the original artist's tax refund to get a refund. It just seems like poor money management and bad business to spend money you haven't earned (as many people have commented before).
I am also a little shocked that she/he just gave you a picture of many plushies in a bag and went, "your's are in here." It is really strange to me. And if that's the response I got when I asked to see progress... man I don't know. It just makes me feel like the original artist doesn't care enough about my commission to even show me a WIP of my current character (instead of some vague images were no one can tell ANYTHING).
I agree that the original artist was quite rude when you inquired about their commission work load. You have a right to be concerned, and the original artist should try to keep an air of professionalism.
It just leaves a really bad taste in my mouth about the whole situation. A lot of red flags to me. Sorry you had to deal with this OP. Beware well warranted.
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Date: 2015-01-27 05:31 pm (UTC)Also; if by some miracle she actually finishes your plush the results vary WILDLY depending on how popular you are or if she personally likes your character's design.
Exhibit A: http://fav.me/d836rds A well-put together faithful representation of a sushi cat (a species she likes)
Exhibit B: http://fav.me/d836t7j An extremely shoddy plush FULL of cut corners of somebody's OC. The customer even tipped extra to ensure it was well-done.
Artist's beware, indeed.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-16 08:49 pm (UTC)