Artist Beware: Sirafurball (Chargeback)

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

WHO: Sirafurball
FA: SiraFurBall
Twitter: @SiraFurBall
Deviantart: SiraFurBall

WHERE:

YCH auction piece for $43. Auction (caps) / Finished Piece

WHEN:

The YCH ended on December 12th, 2014, however I didn't alert the winner (SiraFurBall) of winning until December 13th, 2014. I was paid on the 13th ( x ) for the auction and set to work on the piece.

WHAT:

This YCH took a little longer than normal due to the holidays, but the buyer (Sira) seemed happy with the progress of the piece. I finished the piece on January 6th and posted it online.Three days later (January 9th) I received an email from PayPal regarding a 'Potentially Unauthorized Funds' notice, which cancelled a transfer of funds to my bank and also held the amount of the YCH of $43.

I contacted Sira regarding this and she stated she had no idea how this could have happened as she hadn't been on her PayPal for one week and would fix the problem. I warned her if it was a chargeback I would be making an Artist Beware against her. I also warned her not to repost the image I did until the dispute was figured out.

I posted an advice post regarding the issue and discovered that at least four other artists had the same issue with the same buyer.

On the 10th of January, funds seemed to be returned to my account and everything was alright. Fast forward to the 13th of January, and I receive another email from PayPal regarding the same issue, and my funds were once again on hold. I contacted Sira about this on Twitter as it turned out to be where I could get the most immediate attention from her. She seemed to not know about what was going on and said she fixed the issue. I have not heard from her since January 13th regarding the issue. Twitter chat is in Proof.


PROOF:

Proof of Auction: Auction / Finished Image
Proof of Payment / Proof of Dispute: X
Paypal Notification Emails: First (January 9th) / Second (January 13th)
Emails from Sira (from start of transaction):  1 / 2 / 3 /  4
Twitter Chat: X
Images from Twitter Chat:  1 /  2 /  3


EXPLAIN:

It's fairly straight forward why I'm making the Artist Beware. Considering there are at least four artists involved in this and possibly more makes me believe that this is either an issue where the commissioner wanted their art and their money too or parents got wise to their money being used. Sira claims to be 18 (see Twitter Chat in Proof) but there is a chance that she is not being truthful, but I have no proof besides her word one way or the other.

Another thing to note is that Sira is Spanish, so English is not her first language. There is definitely frustration from me in the Twitter chat and emails during conversation and waiting for response from her, but my finances and standing with PayPal I feel are in trouble while this is happening. Art commissions are a means to supplement my current income so this chargeback has caused a domino effect of problems.

As of writing this AB ( 7:22 PM PST, January 14th, 2015) the dispute has not been resolved.

Update: As of today (January 15th, 2015), I have refunded the money that was under the chargeback. I was paid back the full amount by a different Paypal account. I do not want this marked resolved as I don't know how this is going to pan out.

Comments

mod comment

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

Howdy!

The client's name is still visible in the subject line of the Paypal screencap. However, given that it's a common name and a minor edit we've decided to let this through and have you edit it now.

Thanks!

Re: mod comment

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

I will fix it as soon as I get home! Thank you!

Re: mod comment

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

It's fixed. Thanks again!

[deanwincchester.livejournal.com]

The same thing happened to me and I am extremely upset about it. As my commissions are hard to come by as well, $40 is a lot of money for me and this puts me back by a lot. :/

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

That makes you the 6th person including myself that has had an issue with this person.

I'm sorry you got wrapped up in this. The money I received from the commission was also hard thing to lose when I received the chargeback. First of the month is always tight for me, money-wise.

I hope you can get a hold of her and something good can come of it.

[deanwincchester.livejournal.com]

I hope so too. The funny part is, my boyfriend, who she also sent money to [It was a total of $50, she sent me $40 and him $10] received no chargeback, which makes me think this was done purposely.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

Actually I had the same thing happen.
She purchased a $3 chibi from me (I was having a special sale) about the same time as the larger commission. The $3 commission received no flag while the $43 one did.

It seems strange to me that the larger of the two was flagged.

[deanwincchester.livejournal.com]

Another thing to note is that she deletes all of the shouts on her page pertaining to the matter - now, while this is extremely common as people tend to avoid drama, it makes me suspicious that she is trying to hide something from other potential commission artists. I've left three or four "Please note me" shouts and all of them have been deleted, as well as someone else that left a shout like that.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

Oh yes I did see that. She is very quick to get rid of shouts on her page pertaining to this. Every day it seems like a new person is coming out to say she did the same to them.

It is really alarming and sad.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

If they post the image, contact 'Neer (via twitter is what Ive heard is easiest to catch him) or open a TT to have them take down the image, as they dont have the right to it.

Can you resell the sketch.poses to earn some of the lost funds back?

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

I was paid back after refunding the money today, but it was from a different account. I don't want to hold my breath about it being that I had the money in my account until almost a month had passed.

I don't think I want to allow them to repost the image after all this.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

If they paid for the image, even though there was a huge hassle, you cant revoke rights... I mean you COULD, but that's a bad point on your part.

I know it's upsetting that they dragged you along, but in the end if it ends up being completely paid for, revoking the rights they paid for is wrong.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

That is true, it was said out of frustration. I've simply blocked the individual and hope this doesn't come up as an issue again.

What they choose to do with the art, post it or not is up to them.

[namelessimp.livejournal.com]

Technically commissioners don't get ANY rights when they buy art from an artist. What they are paying for in commissioned artwork (which does not count as work for hire) they are paying for a copy of the image (or the original). Where the artwork is displayed is in the hand's of the artist still. It's something most FA artists are lax about; myself included, but commissioners don't have the rights to post images where the artist does not want them to be.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

Im well aware of this, but if the artists TOS states they can repost the image, then taking away those rights is extremely sketchy, and would likely get you posted to AB.

[muzz.livejournal.com]

She said she was going to pay me back but appears to be ignoring me now. Figured as much.

[deanwincchester.livejournal.com]

Me as well. She is clearly active on FA which is what makes me angry :/

[muzz.livejournal.com]

Its pissing me off because although I've refunded her now, PayPal is still telling me I have unresolved problems with her payments. I've sent her multiple messages and its getting completely ignored. Really don't need this stress.

[deanwincchester.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Like I stated on the otherpost, $40 is a lot of money for me and not having it is upsetting.

EDIT: Deleted comment is a typo.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

She seems to no longer be deleting shouts on her page.
I have a feeling she jumped ship.

I really hope we can find an alternate account or you guys can at least get the money you are owed.

[muzz.livejournal.com]

I ended up contacting a friend of hers about it and he said he was pretty shocked. Apparently he spoke to her shortly after and she's going to make a journal on FA later about the whole thing. It'll be interesting to see what she has to say... Aside from that I know she's still on FA because she's watched three new artists since two days ago, she was active today on DeviantArt as well. So she is still around, just avoiding all contact.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

That's incredibly frustrating.

Her account is still fairly new (started June of last year) so part of me was wary that when this happened that she would jump ship and take another name.

However, I am looking forward to hear her version, despite the fact she seems to have given everyone different recounts of the events. I just want this to work out and not have to worry that a month from now we will be back from the same place.

[deanwincchester.livejournal.com]

She's asked me three times for my PayPal, which I've given her, and still nothing. I'm sick of waiting, this is getting ridiculous.

[latiro.livejournal.com]

This is the second beware I've seen of this person. Guess I'll be blocking her to avoid having similar chargeback issues.

[ekholokhation.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, there's currently a link at the top of her page to a paypal address for donations.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

That link has been there before this happened. So I don't think this is up there just because of this situation.

[ekholokhation.livejournal.com]

Ah, my bad. I wasn't sure.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall it was mentioned in the other beware for her that the donation link was essentially put there to help her raise money for a DIFFERENT commission... and not actually for her family at all.

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

They have deactivated their FA page as of early morning 17/01/15. Seems like dodging responsibility. I'm sorry for all the artists affected by this.

I hope they will be recognisable when they inevitably show up under a new name so they can be re-blacklisted.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

I just checked and none of their pages are deactivated?

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

Wow....okay. Loading cached= deactivated. With a refresh now it's back to active like you say.

Is it even possible to reactivate an account? Or did I hit a blip? I even tried the link from this post and the earlier one to double check.

Anyways, you are right. It's been a few hours since I posted and back available, so please disregard my post up above.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Apparently on FA you can activate and deactivate almost at will, since with a deactivated account you can still access the gallery and journals of the user in question if you know how to get to them right.

Which is completely unlike DA where if you deactivate; tough cookies.

[alriandi (from livejournal.com)]

You can reactivate a dA account but you got to reactivate it within 30 days and it will take 48 hours to reactivate (people have abused this to hide after causing drama). You can search the username and have a better chance of finding deviations and journals but you cant get around a deactivation like you can on FA.

[citrinelle.livejournal.com]

Thought I'd make an account to comment here.

I was affected by these chargebacks as well. The first one was quickly resolved by Sira a few days ago, but they apparently lost control of their paypal account when I (and everyone else, apparently) was hit with the second chargeback. Thankfully, they made a new paypal account and re-sent the funds I was forced to refund ($105). I'm honestly worried it'll just happen again with this new paypal of theirs, but for now I can only hope it's all over and done with. I wouldn't jump to say they're purposely doing this to scam people, but definitely be wary when doing business with them.

[gaturguts.livejournal.com]

I can't help but laugh at the 'TrustedCommissioners' badge on their FA page.
Thank you for the beware. I'll be avoiding them.

[ansitru.livejournal.com]

Well this is certainly not something I would want to deal with.. D:
Best of luck to you, OP and thank you for the beware! Though I am sorry this happened to you and a couple of other artists.

[muzz.livejournal.com]

Just updating with my dealings with Sira to say I've been paid back. Hopefully that'll be the end of it and everyone else gets their money back too.