Beware Blackwalker80.

[sinn4u.livejournal.com]

Artist Handles: Blackwalker/Blackwalker80/Blackwall/Ozzy
Artists URL’s:
http://blackwalker80.deviantart.com/
NSFW http://www.hentai-foundry.com/profile-Blackwalker.php
NSFW http://forum.hentaipalm.com/member.php/117082-Blackwall
NSFW http://www.furaffinity.net/user/blackwalker/
Uses the handle “Ozzy” on gurochan and has a thread in the artists section there.

Time Period: Commission 5 months overdue.
Initially approached Blackwalker80 for a short comic commission through note on deviant art on the 25th August 2010.
Was communicating well and all seemed good so paid upon sketch approval of all pages the total sum of $300US on 23rd September 2010. Proof of purchase screencap -http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/1014/37102797.jpg
First sign of trouble was on 27th September 2010 when he failed to meet the deadline he set.
Last heard from artist, 31st October, 2010, see Explanation of Situation below.


Items Ordered: The commission was for a six page color comic plus 3 censor chibi’s of the lead character at a cost of $300US for all. To date I have received 3 color pages the other 3 being still just the rough sketch’s that I approved upon payment, I have received no chibi’s either.

Explanation of Situation: First sign of trouble came after he vanished for a week after saying he’ll have an update later that night, apparently his uncle had taken ill and he was the only family member that was looking after him at the hospital. Then after being promised it’d be finished by Sunday, this being a Friday, he vanished again for another week, returning with the excuse that he had broken his wrist in a bike accident but not to worry, he could still do it in the next days.
I was massively patient with him and understanding but weeks began to go by and still nothing, sent him at least an email a week, just a friendly query seeing if he was ok, to which I received no reply.
Then finally he came back to me with the first 2 pages colored, this was on the 17th October and on the 18th I received the requested small edit of the first 2 pages, we where back on and all was good and he thanked me for my kind patience, it was seriously all ok…but then he went silent again and I waited 10days and finally sent him a concerned email, hoping he was alright, I got a reply on the 31st with the next page colored and the reason for his new delay being how his broken wrist had gotten infected and he’d been in the hospital, again I was understanding and he promised and swore that he’d finish my commission by the 3rd November at the latest. That was the last I heard from him.
I have emailed him many times to the 3 emails I have for him and noted on deviant art, pm’d hentaipalm, commented hentaifoundry, since then, asking for an update at the very least and a resolution, either he refund half the money back or complete my commission, I even went so far as to just request the lineart of the unfinished pages rather than coloring them and to not bother with the censor chibis either that where part of the commission, as I just wanted them done…nothing.

Now amidst all this before he went silent and whilst doing my commission he had taken up 5 other commissions on deviant art for his character “Reddish” in a Halloween theme, he has done none of those as I have been in contact with all commissioners involved. I also know of another person who is still awaiting another paid commission from black walker.
What annoyed me most though is that I was still patient, friendly, understanding, tolerant and then, after weeks of him ignoring me, I see him online on his hentaipalm account. The last I heard from him before he dropped off the earth was on 31st October but from the 10th November for two weeks I saw him on and offline there, his last login on hentaipalm is 24th November, this mysteriously happened after I mentioned it in one of my emails that I can see he’s online there so could he please just respond to me.

I notice he’s had an artist beware before here and comments on his hentaifoundry account signify clearly he has done a runner on paid commissions before also. I just don’t get why he does this, he seems a really nice guy and I want to believe all his excuses…but most of all, I just want what I paid him to do, I personally didn’t want to write this out or badmouth him but it is now 5 months since I paid him, the thing the commission was for has past, I just don’t get it.

So, for all this, I give blackwalker80 a big beware! If he ever returns and you really want to commission him, at the very least only pay half upon sketch approval, DO NOT agree to pay full upon sketch approval.

- sinn

Comments

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Hi, I approved this, and I just have to say, thank you for using the template draft, although not finished, I'm sure this will benefit both you and the comm to see it in action already.

[sinn4u.livejournal.com]

thank you, its my first time using livejournal and the template helped muchly to vent my problem more concisely, but this artist commission has really been bothering me, i've tried for over 4 months to get him to get in touch, he left me no choice, wanted to warn others of this artist, sorry i didn't use the LJ code thing, didn't quite know how. Tried follow the template as best i could, so thanks for the approving it and hopeit helps refine your template.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

I am really glad it helped you! As for the LJ cut, if you choose to go back into the post and edit it in you can and here's how:

Place this at the top of your post:
‹lj-cut text="Click here for my report"›

Put this at the end of it:
‹/lj-cut›

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

It looks like you were charged the paypal fees - did you send payment as a gift?
It may be too late for a paypal dispute but maybe you can do a credit card dispute since it looks like that's how you paid.

I don't know if you can only dispute a "half charge" (ie, $150 out of the $300 paid) but if not, maybe you can dispute the whole thing and that will light a fire under the artist's butt to get in contact with you. Or if you got all your money back then you could just resend $150 to cover the work done?

[sinn4u.livejournal.com]

unfortunately it was sent as a private "other" and when i went to dispute it on paypal it had passed the deadline to do so, i think they had a 48 day refund thing and i had left it too late in the hope that blackwalker would pop up with the work or a response. Sadly i'm not the only one, there are six artists on dA alone who've paid and not got their work from him, i think i'm the only one majorly bothered about it as it was for 6 pages and not one pieces like they got. Thanks but as far as i can see the only way i'm getting any of my payment back is if blackwalker sends it to me.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I mean you may also be able to contact the credit card company your money originally came from (looks like that's what you used to get the money to Paypal) and /they/ may be able to file a chargeback! Usually CC companies have a longer dispute timeline, usually a year.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

The fees the OP was charged, I believe are conversion fees. I was curious about that and did a little digging, apparently if you are buying something from a seller who only accepts payments in a certain currency, the BUYER pays for those conversion fees, which might be what that additional $12 is.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

This is a real shame, you are out a lot of money and blackwalker always seemed like a nice guy when I talked to him. I do recall him vanishing a lot and posting journals about how X in real life was happening. It has been quite a while since he submitted anything as well that I am aware of. Wonder if he abandoned his accounts.