Customer Beware - Bioblaze

[aemidaniels.livejournal.com]

WHO: Bioblaze

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

WHAT: The user had won the primary sought after spot in a large multi character auction that has STILL not been paid for. (All screencaps will go in the explain section for timeline consistency)

WHEN: Feb 5th, 2014 to March 29th 2016

PROOF: All screencaps will be in the explain section for timeline consistency.

EXPLAIN: Back in early 2014, I decided to expand my capabilities and do a mind numbingly heavy project auction consisting of 10 characters in a butcher shop scene to please my vore community.

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/12671477/ (mature rated due to FA's rediculous maturity laws though there is no actual mature content in the picture)

A great deal of haggling occurred over the coveted position of the butcher himself, with the price VERY swiftly rising from 15$ to a whopping 75$ over very little time.
There was a minor scuffle between Bioblaze and another bidder, as he accused them of just trying to drive up the price with no intention to pay. I smoothed the fight over, explaining that the other bidder was a long time commissioner of mine and that they always paid up. Argument now over, the two had some friendly competition for the spot which Bioblaze eventually took.



He insisted on paying for it partway through my actually drawing it, which I normally frown upon because I dont want to leave someone screwed over if my laptop dies or something, but I gave up my contact information anyways and even offered him a preview of how it was coming along. Afterall, he had the most unique character in the set and I wanted to make sure I got it right. It took him a while to reply to anything but I assumed he was busy with work so I let it slide.



Right after I gave him my contact information for payment, he went missing. Totally. Nobody could get hold of him, none of his notes were being answered, he just dropped off the face of the planet. He resurfaced a year later claiming to have been hit by a bus, saying he was in the hospital this whole time but now he was loose and wanted to pay up any debts. Little fishy but ok, shit happens, right?
(the journals he had talked about the accident in have all been deleted and i did not get screenshots at the time because I wasnt overly suspicious yet.)
I answered the journal, thinking I could finally get the 75$, which at this point was starting to become a needed thing as I was slowly falling into financial issues with my credit card.
Lo and behold, he goes missing again.

Resurfaces several months and a good many notes later with this gem:



By now I am suspicious AND annoyed, but still. Relapses happen and I am nothing if not forgiving. So I give him another chance to.....

apparently go missing.

Another almost full year passes before he shows activity on his account again. All his journals had been deleted and replaced with a call out for people willing to work on some sort of programming project with him and paid commissions he bought started popping up in his submissions. So I mail him one more time thinking ok THIS TIME he should be good, right? Play it cool, keep it casual and lighthearted, and maybe he won't know that I have been stewing in frustration and debt for two years?



Ok! looking good! he seems willing to play along and he CLEARLY has recovered and is looking to throw money around. Should be a piece of cake for him to get me off his back.



Apparently its easier to brush me off as being impatient and petty over a measly 75$ that's been owed to me for 2 years.
At this point I am too pissed to answer him back. It has been two months now and I haven't heard anything from him. No payments, no "hey i got paid but something came up so i will be another month", no anything. I don't want to contact him again since I have a feeling he will throw off some excuse and brush me aside AGAIN, or worse he will go missing for some reason or another again. I am so done with this guy. That commission would have pulled me out of debt enough to be able to pay off the rest myself with my part time job but instead I had to get my parents assistance years later when I realized he wasn't coming back.

Apparently I am the only person on FA who he is refusing to pay. I have contacted other commissioners and they all say he paid up immediately. I don't know what I did to offend him so much but anyone else who is doing art for him may want to get paid up front before he walks in front of a bus again.

Comments

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

Get paid up front! He's clearly not intending to pay you and he couldn't even be bothered to come up with a good sob story, so that's all on him. But please please make it a policy that payment comes up front. If you are concerned about your laptop failing and that you might have to refund, then you can keep the funds in your paypal or in a savings account until work is complete.

[tylociraptor.livejournal.com]

Always, ALWAYS do payment up front. I understand you're concerned about things happening that prevents a commissioner getting their final product, but you can always refund them. As this situation proves, there's not a whole lot you can do when you've done the work (or part of it), and the commissioner is refusing to pay you.

[thejackaolf.livejournal.com]

I've done a lot of work for bio, nearly all of his early commissions where mine, I created the character, and just, wow, I'd never think he'd do this, and its very disappointing to see.

[aemidaniels.livejournal.com]

yeah ive talked to a few people that worked for him in the past and he has been nothing but good to them! i dunno if its just the size of the bill or what but i am so tired of chasing him around and watching him vanish :(

[thejackaolf.livejournal.com]

Honestly I would hope not, but at the same time I couldn't say, he was always rather...lax in nature but that doesn't excuse doing this.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

I would suggest adding to your TOS a time limit on receiving payment or loss of contact and what will happen if that's exceeded. I.e if payment isn't received within 1 month or the client has ceased to communicate for 3 months then consider the commission cancelled and re-auction/ sell the pose.
It'll help avoid being strung along indefinitely by a non-payer, particularly in a situation where it's a multi character ych and other buyers are waiting on the finished product.

[mistresswolf.livejournal.com]

I'm echoing the others that have said payment up front. That is what I always do for YCHs. The sketch portion is already done, which is when I get regular commissioners to pay up as well... if the regular commissioners flake, then I usually can sell their sketch as a YCH.

[hunty belmnt (from livejournal.com)]

Echoing the others, admantly,STRICTLY immediate payment upfront should be added to your TOS. I'm sorry you had to deal with this :/

[aemidaniels.livejournal.com]

I would likely make exceptions for my regulars, as they are trusted and I know they will always pay up, but I think I may need to start doing this.

[torch-tiger.livejournal.com]

Could you maybe re-auction that spot to someone else?
I mean I would hope you didn't already send him the finished art, and it isn't in any of the other winning bidders galleries.

Course you may not get as much for it this time, but it might give you a bit of closure.

[aemidaniels.livejournal.com]

the auction was finished and posted 2 years ago. Everyone has access to the finished art as soon as I post it since I dont usually send out finished products via e-mail. Never made much sense to me to email people the exact same file that they have access to through their FA pages lol

He is already on my blacklist though. I dont think I will be working with him again after this.

[torch-tiger.livejournal.com]

I figured that, but you never know.
Some artists do art at a certain size and then make a smaller size for posting.

Hopefully you'll get lucky and get your money