Beware of Ticer

[clickclackcat.livejournal.com]

So, I just got back from FWA and I have someone that I believe all artists should beware of. Ticer.

Saturday -

So on Saturday I participated in the FWA fursuit parade, and as I was getting myself together again, a fellow came up and asked for a comic commission. Ticer. I don't normally do comic commissions at cons but what he had in mind was a fairly simple comic along the lines of my squish cat comics ( in order to make this TOTALLY clear, he SPECIFICALLY pointed to these comics: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/704469/ http://www.furaffinity.net/view/413799/ ) So... very simplified characters, short stories... you get the idea. Ticer didn't speak English very well but I understood the basics just of what he wanted. His character pets his friend's head, but the hair is too spiky and it hurts him. So he gets scissors and cuts the spikes off his shocked friend's head. Seemed easy enough. I give him the price and he says he will pay half then, and half once the comic is done. I tell him that's fine, but Ticer still only gives me about 1/4th the total price of the comic. I tried to get the full 1/2 price out of him but he didn't seem to understand what I'm asking for so I just dropped the issue as I had other customers in line. I asked for references (which was like pulling teeth from a crocodile) and he asked when I can have it done. I tell him that if I get to work right away, I might have a sketch for him by the end of the day, but chances are I wouldn't. He insists that he needs the comic quickly and I tell him that I will work on it that night and try to get it to him as fast as humanly possible. He comes by several more times before the dealer's den closes, obviously irate that I don't literally crap art and I have the audacity to work on other people's commissions without giving my full attention to his. Because I am a moron, I see none of this as red flags.

That night, I fully intend to get all of my con homework done, but my arting hand has other ideas. Towards the end of sketching out the comic, my hand rewards me with shooting pain whenever I try to even loosely hold a pencil. I put everything up and go to bed, convinced that I'll get up early in the morning to finish everything.

Sunday -

My plan to get up early has failed. x.x;;; I was exhausted, sore, and my hand was still on strike against me. I got to the dealer's den right as it was opening and took a pain pill so I could keep working. I explained to all of the overnight sketchbook commission people that my hand seized up the night before and they were all very understanding. I'm still getting all of their sketchbook work done, so it's not a huge deal. I don't see the comic commissioner, and I'm thankful for that because then I could finish up his comic before he knows I never did it the night before. I end up pretty happy with the results, and a friend of mine insists that I should have charged more. Other folks come around and comment on how cute it is and that the commissioner is just going to love it. More work, more soreness... I take another pain pill right as Ticer returns for his work. I happily had it over and... nothing. He simply stares at it. I try to work on some other things so as to not waste time in the awkward silence and finally he announces that it is all wrong. He thought it would be better. He says he can't even tell what is going on. He thought it would be more... "Anime" (???) I try to be professional and ask him if he wants his down payment back if he is so dissatisfied. He ignores my comment and points out more of what I have done wrong, saying a lot of "what is this?" and how he thought it would be more like "this." and he gestures to some other comic pages I have done. Specifically, he gestures to pages like http://castleofcards.com/archive/172/Castle_of_Cards_Chapter_6_A_Small_Favor/Page_8 and http://castleofcards.com/archive/172/Castle_of_Cards_Chapter_6_A_Small_Favor/Page_4. Ticer says he wants the comic done "properly." I tell him that if he wants something like the color pages, that it will NOT be done by the con and that he will owe me more. He is silent so I again, offered to give him a refund on the piece, and he simply walked away.

So, of course I was upset. I was sore, angry, and stressed as hell. Someone else mentioned that this "Ticer" has a habit of being very disrespectful and rude to female artists in general... though I don't remember who told me that so I can't testify clearly if he does, in fact, have a history there. I just know what he pulled with me. :/ So... I guess work with this guy at your own risk.

EDIT: removed some of the more personal bits of this post, and here is a link to his gallery on FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ticer/

I'm talking with Ticer right now and we are working it out.

EDIT AGAIN: I have been talking with Ticer and it has all been worked out now.

Comments

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

You may want to place most of your story under a cut, it's a bit long. Thanks!

[wyngaed.livejournal.com]

It's not that long... I've seen much worse, anyway.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Yikes!
Just to be clear on what happened, he walked off with the comic AND only paid you 1/4 of the price?

[mukichan.livejournal.com]

This.

I'd like to know too! I personally wouldn't give him the comic at all until he's paid in full.

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

I shall avoid him like the plague.. Sorry for your experience, but thank you for the beware. :C

[wyngaed.livejournal.com]

That is really awful! That is super rude. I wonder if he really does have issues with speaking english, or if he just pretends so he can rip people off and act like a jerk...

[origamigryphon.livejournal.com]

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ticer/

Looks like he knows english well enough to me.

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

Thank you for sharing this, I'm so sorry it happened though, holy cow :/

Hopefully other artists will remember his name too 8|

[corellian-ninja.livejournal.com]

What a dickhead, I'm sorry :(

[insane-kangaroo.livejournal.com]

This

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you at least didn't let him walk away with the comic!

I feel ya on the tendonitis thing. Aside from pain meds I found LUSH's Fair-Trade Foot Lotion to be helpful because of the arnica oil. It's expensive but one pot has lasted me more than a year. Lastly, if you aren't already get a hand brace for sleeping with--it does wonders. Best not to push it in the future though, even $100 worth of sketches isn't worth permanent damage to your tendons. When I pushed it too hard once it took several months to recover, I'll never do that again o.o

[suewithers.livejournal.com]

I use a pair of compression crafter's gloves myself for long days. They keep the swelling down and things more in line. I get re-occurring bruises in my palm if I don't watch what I do on the long days, but then again my longest days are charity 24 hour drawing events and 12 hours of free comic book day sketches for food bank donations.

[scardykat85.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, and not to sound too furry but I doubt I can avoid that, I've never met a decent black and orange tiger. To be avoided imho.

Sounds like this guy feels he is entitled to be recognized and given special treatment. It's really unfortunately typical of a lot of people. All I know this guy for is him ripping his suits crotch in a dance competition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe1wq7uCOC0

[starcharmer.livejournal.com]

One of my very good friends (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/syrieltiger) is a black and orange tiger, he's a sweetheart. :) Don't let alllll the bad black and orange tigers ruin tigers for you! ;D

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

This if off topic, but got me wondering about something.

If someone isn't English, so either can't speak it well or write it well. Would it be rude of me to decline working with them?

I've had trouble working with commissioners in the passed when I couldn't understand them well nor them understand me. Nothing to do bad, but sometimes I'm not sure if I should take things on since I know it can get bad.

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't think it to be rude to decline someone who couldn't speak proper or coherent English. I've had to decline a few who just made no sense, and I wouldn't want to mess up their commission due to miss-communication.

[drakenbyte.livejournal.com]

Oooooooh that guy. :I Yea, I heard of some other things that he did at the con too, I'm sorry that it happened to you. :(

[sashowind.livejournal.com]

I won't try to defend what he did but there is one thing people have to remember, especially in a fandom that span's the globe. Its that each society has different norms. our friends joke that 'Ticer's biggest problem is that he is Russian. Literally russian. He does speak english well enough but doesn't understand certain phrases that you and i may take for granted. For example I told him once, when he was going to be working on a stage show, to 'break a leg'. And he wondered why I would wish a friend badly. He didn't understand that in our culture thats not considered a bad thing. The gap here is more cultural then it is language. But it probably is a combination of the two.

[fatkraken.livejournal.com]

he's from Russia, not Mars.

If you show someone a simple black and white comic and they quote you for a simple black and white comic, you don't get to be butthurt when you get a simple black and white comic. And if you don't know the English words for "pay half now" and "would you like a refund", probably best not to commission people through the medium of English. Plus the whole checking back every hour thing is rude wherever you come from

[icen-rose.livejournal.com]

Oh wow what a friggin' jerk. (I hope this is okay as far as name-calling.) I'll be sure to steer clear of this guy and tell my female artist friends to do the same.

If I had seen someone be that rude, especially knowing they were like that with women I would have called him out. >/

[ticerthetiger.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to be any rude? and why are you making it even worse like telling i'm a female artist hater ?
The problem is that you people yell and point at me but never even try to help me understand what is wrong and how somehting should be done and how not. once again - i didn't mean anything bad at all and i'm really sorry for the whole misunderstanding.

[x-thor.livejournal.com]

Lame. Sounds like he treated you pretty disrespectfully. x.x This would have totally ruined my trip. Even if there had been a problem (which there wasn't, it was his fault for requesting something specific and then changing his mind), he shouldn't be able to get away treating you like that.. It's just rude and hurtful.

Ex: when he told you it needed to be done "properly" as if you had somehow done something wrong.

[clickclackcat.livejournal.com]

I have to say... the comment about it needing to be done properly was prolly what got to me most. x.x

[mysterymoose.livejournal.com]

I heard he was also a real jerk to some other artists as well, he was very rude.

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

oh no, not *that* guy..... ugh. a friend had issues with him as well.

[rahni.livejournal.com]

that is the cutest rude icon i have ever seen.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

What he did was pretty rude and frustrating, but I do gotta say this: Your post could use a few paragraph breaks and maybe less personal info. I realize you were trying to explain the pain you were in, but it's not really necessary to mention how often you took vicodin or some of the other events involved. Either way this guy sounds atrocious!

[clickclackcat.livejournal.com]

Yes, sorry. ;;; this post was pretty much copy/pasted from my own personal con report, but I'll be sure to edit that stuff out. <:3

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Seems like a lot of people have trouble this guy, I'm surprised there's only one entry on him... One thing I'd like to ask is for you to edit the post to contain a link to his gallery? It's in the comments now, but it'd be helpful in the main post since that's easiest to find.

[clickclackcat.livejournal.com]

Can do. I hadn't looked for a link to his gallery before so I wasn't totally sure if the one provided was really him, but it certainly seems so. :3

[sepp.livejournal.com]

Pardon me if this is a silly question, but are entries supposed to be friends-only here?

[taasla.livejournal.com]

No, they can be open to anyone.

[meradragon.livejournal.com]

My advice to you for ALL future commissions is that unless the price is very high, take payment in full. And if you take it in parts, specifically express something like 'I will do a painted comic for you, and you owe half now, and I will NOT start the painting until the second half is received"

To be completely honest, I've taken a ton of commissions at con, and the only people I've ever had issues with are people who don't want to pay me their small commission amount up front. You're not being an ass by asking for all the money up front, but you're being a normal person.

Also why would you offer to give him his money back? It sounds like you were very clear with him from the beginning, and he was just being a jerk. If you didn't do the work, refunding what you didn't do may be acceptable, but considering you DID do the work, ... you're not Wal Mart. Don't undermine yourself by trying to make happy someone who won't be happy anyway. Just teaches him to try and take advantage of other artists.

Also, to everyone who says that it may have been a language issue. Obviously this guy has been in the fandom long enough for other people to know who he is, so while he may not be perfect, he's been here long enough to realize that if he risks a business transaction, that he had better make sure the artist is aware what he wants. I used to sell tickets and tour packages to numerous foreigners who had VERY poor English, and some how I managed to work everything out with them just fine.

[neive.livejournal.com]

^ This. I commend people with good customer service, but offering him a refund when the error of changed expectations was entirely his own doing doesn't merit one. :[ It kinda sends the message of if he pitches a fit he can get what he originally wanted for no cost/its okay to bully artists since it'll pay off in the end.

[perro.livejournal.com]

Hearing both sides of the story I think it's pretty clear that there were obvious language barriers at issue. I'm not saying he's not partially at fault and I certainly wasn't there so it's all speculation, but with it being a con, combined with limited English skills and hectic time frames, can be problematic.

Either way I know he wants to try and make this right, and has messaged you in hopes of discussing what happened and to calm whatever tensions arose last weekend. I'm pretty confident he's sincere, and in the least, is sorry for causing an issue (intentionally or not).

[mysterymoose.livejournal.com]

No, from what I heard it's not a language barrier thing, the guy is just a real jerk, he's very verbally rude to artists and is especially, ESPECIALLY picky.

The fact that he called a couple of artists douches...there's no problem with him name-calling apparently.

[ticerthetiger.livejournal.com]

I don't appreciate you going out to write things like this about me without trying to talk to me at all first, I have tried to get in communication with you to alleviate the issues, but i have yet to get a response from you, It is clear that there was misunderstanding on both parts and in turn caused both sides greif. Please let's work this out i don't want trouble or hard feelings I just want this straightened out.

Pl

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

Please understand that I only have the OP's story to go by, so if she's telling it wrong, I'd also be wrong.

But, reading what she wrote, it sounds as if she did try to talk to you and settle things, but you walked away. She shouldn't have to find you online when she already tried.

yea.

[shilzo.livejournal.com]

My view on the situation is as follows

This applies to both parties really

Misunderstandings happen, however it does sound like Ticer came across as a bit of an asshole, even in his replies to the journal the same again, it could be your delivery, it could be the language barrier, or it just could be you, however the artist was professional and offered you a full refund on the product that you were not happy with, rather than just sit there and point out more mistakes, which by the sounds of it were not really mistakes by the artist more you expecting something different than was received despite asking for a black and white work, style or colour etc, you had the choice of accepting the refund and walking away leaving the work there or not accepting the refund and keeping the work as a memory of the con, taking note that although not what you expected it was still a nice piece of work and a memory of your convention where you got it.

Ticer
Take it on the chin, be careful how you say things to people as they way you say them and how you come across often means more than the words them self, for example I can go and call my mate a "bastard" in a friendly way with no offence or with intent to cause hurt and distress, both words have the same meaning but the delivery is what is important.

The artist in question has done everything by the book and produced a black and white comic like you originally asked for, you cant go getting upset because that is what you got.


Please note, i'm not trying to be rude, more objective, I don't know you, I don't know the artist, all I know is what I have read from you and the artist and putting two and two together to get a number somewhere near 4 though not quite.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

What happened to the tags on this entry?

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

The moderator that tagged the post is offline currently, but I'm going to ask her about it when I see her again.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Please don't strike out your entire post like that, it violates rule number 1.

1. No screening or deleting posts or comments (INCLUDING YOUR OWN). Ever. If you notice someone doing this, please email one of the moderators.
If your situation is resolved, do not edit your post with strike-through text.

You can just leave it be and tack on edits to the top instead.

[ichi-black.livejournal.com]

Isn't it also against the rules to find and harass people outside of this comm..? If so he's been bugging me on FA and notes me again if I don't respond fast enough..

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Glad y'all worked it out! I'm tagging this as resolved.