Fed up with Seux

[carnivaldog.livejournal.com]

A few months ago, I agreed to take a collaboration commission with Seux a.k.a. Zeriara. At the time, we were on good terms, but after visiting her for 2 weeks and finding out a great deal about her true character and the kind of person she really is, I could not abide to continue with the collaboration. During my visit, I witnessed her spending her money frivolously, rather than using it to pay bills as she led people on FurAffinity to believe when she accepted commissions and donations.

After seeing this, and that she had no obvious remorse whatsoever for misleading so many people, I couldn't stand to have my art be associated with hers. The person who had commissioned us was OmbyShadow, so I contacted her via FA notes, to let her know that due to personal issues with Seux, I could not continue the collab. We were both given $100, $200 total, to draw a two character colored image. I told Omby that I would give her a real media commission, colored, with 2 characters, for the $100 I received, and that she could contact Seux in order to work out what she would be willing to do to compensate for the $100 she received.

A great deal of time went by before Omby noted me again, telling me that despite many attempts to contact Seux, she was being ignored. I apologized profusely to her for the trouble, and to see if she could try again once more to contact Seux. Soon after, Seux made a shout on my adult gallery, telling me Omby wanted the collab, in public, as if to try and make me look bad and that I was neglecting the commissioner or something along those lines. I reiterated to her that I refused to have anything to do with her, and that I had already worked out with Omby what I was going to do for the $100 I was given, and that she needed to do the same. She responded by saying she didn't want to do more work for Omby, and that it would be easier to just get the collab over and done with. That may be, I understand maybe I'm being the difficult one here, but my feelings against Seux and everything she stands for is far stronger than my desire to make things "easier" or more convenient for her. I would rather that Omby gets more art that's actually worth the $200 she paid, because I really don't feel that a collab between Seux and I, for only 2 characters, is worth that.

From then on, Omby and Seux noted each other, as Omby tried to work out with her what she would draw for the $100 she was given. Seux absolutely and completely refused to cooperate, told Omby to report -me- on Artists_Beware, and that she was "paid to do a collab, and if that's off, it isn't her fault and she doesn't have time to hand out FREE ART. When Omby alerted me to what Seux said, I was honestly immensely confused and frustrated. I told Omby that since Seux refused to do anything for what she was paid, then I would pick up the slack and do another two character colored commission for her, so that her money wasn't simply wasted.

However, Seux is still getting away with $100 she did nothing for. To my knowledge, she sent the inked version of one character and refused to do anything else. I don't know about anyone else, but a single character inked piece is NOT worth $100 in my book.

If Omby can come forward with screencaps of her conversations with Seux, then I would definitely invite her to share them here, to show how rudely she was treated despite the fact she has been nothing but patient and kind toward the both of us.

I also want to invite anyone who has had a bad commission experience with Seux to say something here, since I know for a fact there are a staggering amount of people whose commissions from her have been "lost in the mail" to the point that it obviously is not the case, and I know there are people out there who haven't received art from her at all even though they paid, either with a similar excuse, or no explanation at all. People need to be able to see this and know exactly what they're getting themselves into and the risk they're taking by commissioning Seux. They may get their art without a hitch, or they may never get what they paid for. Personally, I feel that the people of this community should be able to see these experiences for themselves so they can weigh the odds before they take a chance on her.

Comments

[shinmaxwell.livejournal.com]

Why am I not surprised? from what I hear she's been nothing but trouble as of late.

I feel lucky I got mine, even though it took awhile to get. I feel bad for the people getting gyped though :(

[thefilthhigh.livejournal.com]

Paid for two icons plus and extra $5 to help out or give her more motivation to finish. Only got one.
I'm not going to bother whining to her about it because she probably just isn't going to do it so whatever.

[banrai.livejournal.com]

I've never commissioned her, because of all the horror stories I've heard about how she treats her commissioners.


This new stuff doesn't surprise me one bit.

[fiercereaper.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fuck you should see how she treats her pets. To death. Seriously, she fucking tortures and kills animals for fun.

[theblackdragon.livejournal.com]

I dunno, man... this is a mess. It's great you were able to stand up for your morals and stuff (seriously, more power to you) but if you just jerked the rug out from underneath Seux/Zeriara without warning, she should at least be allowed to finish her half of that collaboration and send it off to the commissioner, if you don't want to do your half, because that was what was agreed on with her and paid for by the commissioner.

and then that leads up to the whole 'there is no set price for artwork' deal, where one artist may normally charge double the price of what another artist would charge for the same work because they feel they're worth it and that's what people will pay for their work. If she normally charges $100 for a one-character inked piece, it sounds like she's done. if she doesn't, though, perhaps Omby can at least ask for the difference back, if she feels she's been ripped off.

either way, provided Seux was working on the commission and would've had her half finished in a timely enough manner (i don't know how long it takes her to do something or what was agreed upon between you three), I really think the onus is on you to make the commissioner happy at this point. congratulations on doing what you feel was the right thing, but know that standing up for your morals is never easy (and usually not cheap).

[wingsofjudas.livejournal.com]

She charges $30-40 for something inked and coloured in real media.

[x-thor.livejournal.com]

I tried to leave my story on the last Zer post but that was deleted. A shame.


Anyways, yeah, ignored for months on end after payment was sent, I finally got in contact with her.. I was treated like crap, humiliated and publicly mocked on her livejournal. All for just asking where my damn commission was.


I want to warn people to never ever do buisness with her.. But after reading this post I think you've pretty much said it all.


I find it unfortunate that those who sent her money this time ended up paying for her new bong and probably some burgers or something.

[industrialwolf.livejournal.com]

Did some digging and found the screen grabs from my way way old mock entry on her. :D

[http://users.livejournal.com/_gilligan_/]

Thats a pity I like her art and was going to commission her..

Thanks for the warning..

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

Luckily, her style is quite simple and you should be able to find someone else who has a similar style and can do the same work for the same price or less. :3 With much less drama!

[warumonster.livejournal.com]

I have a story to add on to her poor commission skills. About 8 months ago I commissioned Zer for an icon and a mature image, she told me she would ship them to me. About 5 months passed, I noted her and she told me I had to give her another $20 just for the images (which I had already paid for). Then went to telling me she had sent them out. I waited a total another 3 months and messaged her one last time...IGNORED.

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

I don't even watch her anymore [I used to 6 years ago when I was a new artist]. I'd never want to support the things she does in any way.
I'm glad you posted this here to warn others, though. I don't understand why, after all this evidence is shoved in peoples' faces, they still give her money.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Ditto.

I like her art, but man... how is it she's still getting money from people?

[wingsofjudas.livejournal.com]

I posted this (http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b365/wingsofjudas/artistbewareorig.jpg) to the community some time ago.

I unwisely deleted my post, taking many many complaints about Seux/Zer with it. This was bad on my part but being pretty stressed out from RL stuff at the time I caved and thought that if I sucked up I'd have a shot at getting my art.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Live and learn.

Sometimes it's worth it to suffer through the drama just so other people don't fall in the same trap. :(

[hellebore.livejournal.com]

Anyone have problems getting commissions mailed from pandadox, her roommate?

[sorethumb.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, Pandadox moved out from Seux because, supposedly, Seux's mom was threatening to kill Panda's animals and etc.

Wtf :|

[sorethumb.livejournal.com]

I hate hearing about people in the fandom using others, and frivolously spending money. It's quite aggravating to see people just throwing money at a vague situation... to never find out that this person needed money.. "While in another state and needed food money.. to eat out".. or needed money "because they were in Las Vegas and lost it all... on a game of pitch & toss."

or whatever. Why can't Dragoneer post like, public warnings above people's pages? I know that on some level it's gossip, but FurAffinity'd definitely benefit from some sort of Commissision/feedback system.

[lastres0rt.livejournal.com]

... I hear enough horror stories from my sister freaking out over any changes to eBay's rating system that could possibly mar her 100% positive rating, and all she does is list + pack + ship other people's merchandise.

Lord knows what a similar system would do to people that make custom work and need actual time to make the items involved first.

[zoom-gas.livejournal.com]

Commissioned her for a 15 dollah colored headshot last year (around the summer, I think?), making it relatively clear I wanted the final piece mailed.
WEeeelll She did a sketch for it, uploaded it to her gallery, and was like I DREW THIS IN MY NEW SKETCHBOOK
Somewhere else on her FA she'd referred to the sketchbook and mentioned how she refused to tear any pages out of it.
I noted her and Reminded her that I wanted to own the commissioned piece, and offered to pay extra to have it removed from the sketchbook.
She apologized profuseley and said she'd re-do it on a loose piece of paper.
She never did, (I gave her the benefit of the doubt, people get busy, you know?) and in that time (around January) I found out she had some kind of nonsensical hate-boner for me (who DOESN'T she have some kind of vendetta against?? haha) and decided that, HEY, she never finished my commission, I want my money back. She did the sketch so I was cool with letting her keep the money for that, even if I didn't get the hard-copy, but I still wanted the money that would have gone towards inking and coloring back, and she refused. I need to go through my logs and get caps.
SO YEAH That is my ZER STORY. Man I feel like an official furry now. Where's my membership card?

[laneypanda.livejournal.com]

Somewhere else on her FA she'd referred to the sketchbook and mentioned how she refused to tear any pages out of it.

To steal the idea later, methinks?

[shadow-coon.livejournal.com]

It seems like every time I'm beginning to consider commissioning Zer when she opens slots, I see a post here that acts as a "Woah, hold on now..." for me.

While I've never had any experience, positive or negative, with her, I have seen dozens of horror stories about how she treats her commissioners, many of which were posted in another Zer warning that was made here in artists_beware a couple of months ago (which seems to have been deleted, oddly enough). You can get away with the "it got lost in the mail" excuse once or twice, but when it reaches the point that it might as well be your commission slogan, like in her case, people stop believing it.

I felt a ting of sympathy towards her after reading her long-ass journal about the whole "Panda being forced to flee the state because her mother is an insane drunkard," but when I see things like this, particularly ones in which people are able to describe her behavior and attitude from first-person experience, I can't help but think that she and Panda made the whole thing up and are riding a "lol-ocoster" over all of the "gullible furfags" that bought the story and sent money.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

... wow. Just... wow. May I repeat the statement of "why [the fuck] are people buying from this person still"???

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

THIS

[rexxwolfe.livejournal.com]

The Anti Drama lama movement removed Seux from the charity raffle because of too much drama and scandal. Its terrible people like these cause people to close their hearts when someone genuine needs help.

[jademare.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just wow. That's stupidity in it's highest form. I'm shocked she treats her commissioners that way. K, staying away from her now. Thanks for the warning.

I had to lol at those screens posted in the comments above though. Holy shit. XD I find her excuses for not getting her commissions done absolutely laughable.

First of all, even a slacker like me knows that if you
1. Have a full time job
2. Have more going on IRL than you do on the internet
3. Don't think you can put the time and effort needed into it

Then...
*LE GASP*
DON'T TAKE COMMISSIONS.
And if you do, don't bitch at your commissioners for trying to contact you. Instead, finish what you promised you would. Because by taking a commission, that's exactly what you're doing, making a promise. You have NO place to bitch if someone reminds you or calls you out.

I'm sorry, but just...wow. I can see where commission money might come in handy in paying rent and all, but honestly. I don't see how, in good conscience, she can treat her commissioners that way.

[venemesis.livejournal.com]

Agreed completely. I always have a "commissions open" and "commissions closed" status ready all the time, even if I'm having a bad day. In January I had enough money and completed 8 commissions just to get a new Ipod, it was awesome. But I would never make someone wait more than over two days without any communication about how their commission was coming on. I've never had a single complaint or even a single note on how long it was going to take, in fact.. It was always me who would contact them first and keep them updated on how far I got with it.

I'v never experienced a case like this, or even 0000.1% of what is posted in A_B... It actually makes me feel bad. :/

[anuvia.livejournal.com]

This is the person that runs around saying that she hates the furry fandom, blahblah and stays to take money from "suckers".

In addition to that, she makes up BULLSHIT stories about getting kicked out and this and that. Apparently her lover was just kicked out of the house by her abusive, druggie parents that threaten to kill her pets. Her reaction: Get people to organize a charity auction and then Beg for money and then draw self indulgent watchmen porn. Now, according to her, the friend that was living with her is homeless and she's too -poor- to help out or move out of the house herself. After reading this, I completely believe she's a conniving piece of filth. I'm going to be linking this journal and others here on Artists Beware to FurAffinity's owner, Dragoneer and see if he can put an ed to this bullshit like he had done with Allan.

Thanks for posting this.

[katze-neko-mew.livejournal.com]

LOL I was reading your reply and was all 'hmm, this sounds like someone I know...' and then I looked at you avatar, thought it was 'Nuka, then saw it was you XD

Anyway, I was 'introduced' to Zer/Seux a year and a half back when ShenTao complained about her. I couldn't find anything about her online, so on a hunch I looked on ED, and boy howdy.

Now, while the girl has talent, its wasted on her. She can spit out 30 pieces of FANART for her un-countable fancharacter fandoms, but I have yet to see much of what people commission from her on FA.

Jello says she's not hard to work with, but those $15 chibis that used to be crap ass head shots last month? Yeah...so not worth $15 no matter what you do. I was afraid to tell her not to waster that much money, but she's a big girl, and, while she DID get what she commissioned, I wasn't impressed.

AAAAAAAAND it seems she's since completely purged her gallery of anything post Watchmen. Wow. That's...retarded.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

This is why you should only do joint projects with people you really, really know. If the other person is an irresponsible slacker and holds up the work then it's also your reputation that's marred. I think you did the right thing by offering to do the commission for the customer by yourself, Seux is getting away with free money but at least your reputation will remain intact and it'll pay off in the long run.

[venemesis.livejournal.com]

I really don't think Carnivaldog cares about how this will affect his reputation, he's just doing the right thing. People need to know how their money is being spent, especially if they believe it's for a good cause.

He's been afraid to say something for a while, because people may misjudge him for having a personal vendetta. But there's just so much evidence now to prove that he was right all along, I've given Sux the benefit of the doubt for a long time, because she kept her head low after communities were made about her. But... now... yeh... enough is enough.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose it's still an option for OmbyShadow to get the money back through Paypal with a transaction dispute? If Omby acts quickly maybe it won't be too late.

[carnivaldog.livejournal.com]

No, I'm afraid that isn't an option. :C She paid me through paypal, and sent Seux her half with a money order, I believe. And I personally doubt Seux would ever refund a person that amount of money. You practically have to pull teeth to get her to refund $10, I've seen that situation go on before, so there's no doubt in my mind that Seux would not cooperate with a refund.

[orthanphyle.livejournal.com]

I have to admit, when my friend linked me to her journal about her mom threatening to kill pets and shit, I saw she mentioned your name and thought, "Fuck, but Carnivaldog is nice and awesome. How's he mixed up with this?" Good on you for doing your best to distance yourself from her; she's bad news.

Sorry you and Omby had such a shitty time of it. People like her take away from those who do need help and actually spend the money wisely.

Re: Question

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Maybe she's running out of friends?

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

The biggest tragedy of all this is even after this huge shit storm of proof of how she will blatantly ROB people, furries will still throw money at her.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

A professor once told me 'insanity truly is when people do the same things over and over in hopes to achieve a different result'. The people who keep throwing money at her - are NUTS!

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

I think it was a wise idea to "pull the rug out from under" Seux (as one previous commenter stated) because you do not want to tarnish your reputation as an honest artist. One mistake and you could lose more than a single customer.... you could lose dozens in the future.

Holly thrives on dramaLOLInternets because she has psychological problems. She probably gets an adrenaline rush the moment she ignores someone who paid her for nothing... just like shoplifters. The moment they steal that thing from a store, they get high. They go back and do it again and again because they are addicted.

My advice to the Internets world is to just not commission her... leahtaur is right, there are plenty of other artists on the web who charge Seux's prices and output superior work to hers.

[haricotvert.livejournal.com]

i linked this entry on her FA page. she noted me promptly and asked me not to link this place on her page again. so i went back and all her page shouts are gone now. hmm.

[syncglitch.livejournal.com]

*stomach turns* I wish I knew about this community earlier, I just sent out the check for a commission from her.
Great..

[syncglitch.livejournal.com]

But then again she seemed very nice about the info exchange and such.
I dunno, I'll just see how it plays out. If she does do it, fantastic. I love her style and artwork.
If she doesn't I guess I'll just move on? Eh, who knows.