Starfinder/-Star-/Astray/Kannos (Again)

[kesslan.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a shame I didn't know about this place, or this artists reputation prior. Counting the recent entry by Murdercrow on the 8th in this very community the presently outstanding, prepaid value of artwork that I'm aware of that Star owes people is $550 USD split between 3 individuals (This would include Mudercrow's $30 con badge and the commissions owed to myself and another party).

I'm presently asking anyone who is owed art by Star that they have actually paid for contact me on FurAffinity here: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/kesslan/

Please provide a simple note of the following:
-The amount you paid up front
-The date the payment was made and when the artwork was to be due by
-If you are willing to allow me to post this information and what specifics you will allow to be publicly posted.
-If you have records of notes, IMs, PMs or any other communication with the artist in question.

If need be I fully intend to look at the options available in regards to legal action, but I would much prefer negotiating either a refund to all those owed, or failing that having Star own up to all her outstanding, prepaid commissions.

Doubly so considering this artist is constantly accepting new commissions, and doing said new commissions before doing her outstanding ones. Everyone goes through hard times, hell I spent a year and a half on the street myself. That's not an excuse to treat people the way this artist has, and I for one don't intend to idly sit by.

EDIT:
Update: I've since been contacted on FA by at least one other individual bringing the total of outstanding work/prints etc to $708 USD that goes back as far as 2006. I must note however that my own issues do not date back anywhere near as far.

1 Issue resolved: Oustanding total is now 678

Edit Nov 26/2010:
So all the issues that I'm aware of were resolved save mine so far. Friend of mine who commissioned her got a drawing, though not the one he was supposed to have. He decided however to just cut his losses and accept what he got, and by all means that's his choice.

The only thing I've seen so far out of her in regards to mine was an extremely crude sketch that Arinmal had pointed me towards. The layout would actually be pretty good if she finished it in the degree of quality she puts into even half her work. All said and done, I honestly wish I'd given the money to a more worthy artist such as Strype who was very good to work with (And cost me less to boot)

Comments

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

"Everyone goes through hard times, hell I spent a year and a half on the street myself. That's not an excuse to treat people the way this artist has, and I for one don't intend to idly sit by." the worst part is theres almost always something going on with her =/
I hope something can be done for you guys. This is seriously not cool that shes continuing to do this :(

[ashleyvsdestiny.livejournal.com]

Geez Kesslan, it's like you get screwed trying to get almost every furry thing you buy online. I feel kinda sad for you. Did you ever actually work out that fursuit thing, BTW?

[kesslan.livejournal.com]

I did yes.

Supposedly.

The builder and I have come to a mutually agreeable solution. I'll find out at Anthrocon for sure though.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I am curious, if you'd be willing to answer
When did you commission her? Was it after she supposedly started taking payment /after/ finishing a commission, or has she abandoned that model?

Also, Kannos? This a new pseudonym of Starfinder's?

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Kannos appears to be her Inkbunny moniker.

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

Astray is her new FA username, but Kannos is the new character/fursona she's going by now. Well, not "new", it's an old character, she's just resurrected it.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Good luck with it, hopefully if more people are prepared to take action over artists like star who have woefully bad business practises, it might become less common for cases like star to actually happen.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

It was just a matter of time before someone got annoyed enough with Star to get their money back.

I am interested to see how many people come out of the wood work.

[kesslan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not annoyed exactly. Not yet.

I am however preparing for the worst.

[ellonwye.livejournal.com]

She's been 'in a financial hole' the entire time I've known of her, which is going on 5 years at least. Yet she can buy wolfdog puppies and expensive photography equipment. She's a liar, sorry.

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've known of her longer, and she's constantly 'in the financial hole'

her house is always up for foreclosure, her dad steals all her money...etc, etc...

Yet she gets shitloads of expensive photography equipment, cars, wolfdogs, computers, printing shit, t-shirt presses, tablets...etc, etc...

[thejeweledhorn.livejournal.com]

She took a commission from me several months ago, and I was really excited to get it. However, she never gave me a total so I never paid. The first time I noted her about it she said she had the drawing done, but was taking a little while to post. I never heard back from her after that, though I sent her several notes on her old (and later, new) account saying I would still be glad to pay, sorry if I had offended somehow. I found out later she has a bad reputation.

Anyway, since I never actually paid, I never felt like I should make a fuss. But I do think it's a shame. Her art's really nice.

[coyote-feathers.livejournal.com]

I think this is a really good idea. Good luck, I hope you (and everyone else) gets their money back.

Although I can't help but wonder how long it'll be before she just reinvents herself again with a new murrsona and the cycle starts all over again. It's upsetting.

[werewolfofwater.livejournal.com]

Well, so much for her changing her ways. I guess she only fed this com that BS because she got caught. Not a huge surprise though.

[kitefeathers.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that no matter what is done to get the warnings about Starfinder, they're will always be some new/nieve folks who jump on the chance to commission her, thats what she feeds on.

Seux was banned from FA, and she's not even half as bad as Star, I sorta wish Star would be banned, it would really help cut the amount of peoples money she can run away with. DA is another matter though. v__v

And to the people that defend Star, why are you defending her? Is it /really/ that hard just to finish the commissions she's taken money for?

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

Eh honestly dude, at this point id have to agree. Especially with the name changes on FA, not everyone knows her rep and falls in a trap when commissioning her. Its not fair :(

[trianine.livejournal.com]

I wish you and all commissioners aboard much luck in this endeavor.

I had mentioned before putting forth a petition against her on FA. Since you are actively attempting to organize folk, I would like to keep that option in thought, as this has been going on for far to long. While many of us in this community would gladly cry out against her, it's really only the commissioners of past, present, and future that have valuable input on this matter.

[jurann.livejournal.com]

It's tempting to keep quiet about this and be all morally superior or whatever, but I feel you and the community have a right to know. StarFinder's account on FurBuy has been suspended indefinitely pending her getting things ironed-out with all of the people on FurBuy she's gotten negative feedback from. Your accounting of things plus your negative feedback on FurBuy were the last straw. So, if you are having trouble with her from something on FurBuy please leave negative feedback and we'll use that as her tally on that site at the very least - she will not be able to do business on FurBuy again until she's resolved matters with her current set of bidders. I really hope she comes around and does so too, it's a shame such talent is so irresponsible.

[kesslan.livejournal.com]

I agree.

I'm willing to be reasonable and work something out. I'm even willing to wait. Indeed, considering what I've been noted so far, and that people have been owed things far longer (going back as far as 2006 so far) I'd like to see her own up to them, before my own issues get settled.

Hell as it was, if she at least kept up regular communication and commission list instead of deleting any and all past history the way she has done at least twice now, I wouldn't even have gone anywhere near this far yet.

That said, I had to talk to both Furbuy staff and Dragoneer before I got a response from her after the auction was over and she'd changed accounts yet again. She responded for a little while then went silent again. So this time I decided to start building up a case.

That said she has started responding to me again, so we shall see what happens.

[cuprohastes.livejournal.com]

http://inkbunny.net/Kannos
Starfinder, selling prints of previous work on Inkbunny

[furryskibum.livejournal.com]

It should be noted I'm the one that dates back to 2006. While I've written off the prints I paid for (yes, PRINTS of completed work) some time ago, it's something I will probably never really get over unless she decides to resolve it. I've tried several times over the years with no success.

On another note, I have received some sketch work after she instituted the pay-upon-completion policy and was quite pleased.

[kesslan.livejournal.com]

Simple fact is your owed one way or the other.

As far as I'm concerned, she owes you to take some sort of reasonable step for compensation. The specifics of which would be entirely between the two of you as far as I'm concerned, but I'm going to give this all a few days and see who else pops up. After that, then I'll see if I can get her to start owning up to people.

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

:( hope it all gets worked out. If not you can always set up a public page keeping track of alias's etc to warn people away from starfinger/blahblahblahbalhb

[growly.livejournal.com]

Starfinger is my favorite mispelling of her name I've seen so far.

[grygon.livejournal.com]

damn. i feel for you guys. i lost $400 to blaquetygriss years ago, so i feel that pinch!

[jurann.livejournal.com]

Wait, what?! Really? I've never known her to not complete something. o.O Can you elaborate?

[murdercrow.livejournal.com]

Figured I'd post an update here, since my post has been bumped off the front page by now:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4021627/

She's finished my badge and it looks terrific. As soon as it arrives in the mail I'll happily mark this as resolved, but I'm also really happy just to have something for my money. ^_^

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

@-@ Wow, I'm glad you finally got your badge, and it is cool that she made it nicer! Too bad you had to hassle her so much to get the work done tho.

[starchildebrite.livejournal.com]

With all the scamming and tracing she has done, why has she not been banned permanently yet?

[sekhmet.livejournal.com]

i have no idea.
But by letting her stay on FA(one of the largest, most popular furry websites-if not THE most),its only expected that more people will get scammed. Not everyone who stumbles upon her FA page know her history, and not everyone is following A_B to know. Which is in part why she still gets commissioned. Then some people are fooled by the fact shes uploading new commissions and think she's "ok/safe" again, when in fact she still owes a lot of people either artwork, prints and the like. So not cool :(

[ukthewhitewolf.livejournal.com]

Wow. Glad I read this. O.o
I saw their newer FA account, Astray, and was pondering whether to save and commission them.
I think not now.

[kesslan.livejournal.com]

Feel free to commission her, just don't pay in advance for any reason.

That's the only advice I'd give some one dealing with her. She still does nice work.

[theredwolf.livejournal.com]

Its really a shame you can't finda broader avenue to post this, because I'm sure there are sevral thousand dollars worth of people who havn't gotten their product yet.

I'm sure you could do a class action suit against her for the amount, but I'm not sure the good it would do. People have to have the money to pay people back and I'm under the impression she never has money for whatever reason.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Actually she has money, she seems to buy enough expensive toys.

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

She's good, but just sucks at business. Dayum.

[witchiebunny.livejournal.com]

Hey, can you contact me on FA about this issue?

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Considering how old this post is, you might wanna contact them directly instead of asking them to contact you. They might not be getting comments emailed to them anymore.