Advice on Being Ignored by a Fursuit Maker

[mercurrix.livejournal.com]

Hi all, I would like some advice on some issues I'm having with a fursuit maker.

I commissioned him in October for a partial. I did my research and he had good reviews, nothing negative, and the suits looked great. I made a down payment immediately and he said the suit would be complete in "February/march." Also made a second payment late December.

( details on the situation )

With all of this in mind, I am very anxious about this whole thing. I am NOT okay with being ignored for over a month, and I'm having trouble believing at this point that he's even started work on the suit at all - if he had then why would it be so difficult to send pictures, and why would he be ignoring me? If he doesn't reply by Thursday, I am considering opening a paypal dispute - I'm afraid this will be the only way to get his attention.

I am hesitant to do this and act too quickly, but I am also concerned about acting too slowly. I'm very familiar with buying and selling general products online, and typically would not tolerate this kind of behavior going on for more than a month, but this is also my first time commissioning someone for a suit. With a custom item this expensive, I want to give the fursuit maker a proper chance, but I'm also worried about receiving something poor quality based on the other commissioner I spoke to if I open a paypal claim and he rushes the order.

Any advice from experienced commissioners (or whoever!) would be helpful. What would you do in my situation? Should I file a dispute if he doesn't respond, or wait it out longer? What's the "appropriate" amount of time to wait before filing a dispute?
This has been a rough year so far and I'm having such bad anxiety over this, I just want to make sure I do the right thing.

Thank you :(

Adoptable Discussion Post

[dergish.livejournal.com]

Howdy everyone!

We’ve started to see an increase in the number of questions and bewares involving adoptables so it’s time for a discussion post. We’d love to hear your thoughts on adoptable transactions. Some things we’d love to hear about:

-Reselling, Trading, and Gifting. What do you allow as a seller? What do you avoid as a buyer? Does the type of art being resold (one adopt, an adopt with new pieces of art, or an adopt that has been made into a fursuit) change the way you feel about this?

-Design Rights. If a new piece of reference art is created for an adopt can the customer now sell the design? What rights do you think an artist has to a design they create?

Those are only a few questions to get a conversation going. Please feel free to leave any and all thoughts you have about adopts as long as you:
- Don’t name artists, species, or customers by name. This isn’t a beware post. Keep it anonymous.
- Try to keep the conversation on the transactions around adoptables and not to the concept of adoptables themselves. People love adoptables! We want to know your thoughts on the business side.
- Keep it civil.

We look forward to your discussion!