Beware of LadyAvali

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

I've been in contact with her since making this post and I believe we'll be working things out just fine! I'm going to put the entry behind a LJ cut but other than that will not be editing it or deleting it in any way for the sake of the community rules and what not, thank you!


WHO: LadyAvali

WHERE: LadyAvali and Altana on DeviantArt, Avali on tumblr

WHAT: $20 Digital Sketch Commissions

WHEN: April 20th - commissions open and paid for. Last communication on May 19th.

PROOF: Various screenshots of the dates mentioned below in case of deletion:
Journal #1 - Journal #2 - Journal #3 - Journal #4 - My last communication with her - Note about her moving accounts

EXPLAIN: Back on April 20th, she posted a DevArt Journal saying she was doing some very lovely sketch commissions for $20 USD. She had 15 slots, so at $20 a pop, that's a hefy $300 all in advance - I believe the slots were cleared out in less than 24 hours.

Now, I have never paid for a commission 100% in advance - sometimes I'll pay after a sketch phase or when the piece is half done - but this was my first time paying in advance. I normally wouldn't have, but she has done this style of commission before and it seemed to go very well, so I thought it would be okay.

On April 23rd, she posted on DevArt that she was going out of town for the weekend and would be "having a livestream on Monday" to get these knocked out.

On May 3rd, she posted on DevArt that the bad weather was keeping her from working on commissions. I understand tornados, bad weather, etc - I live in Tornado Alley myself - but considering that was 10 days after she posted about just being gone for the weekend...

On May 18th, she once again posted that the 'last few commissions' were going out. By this point, I had sent her a polite message asking if she had any updates about how long the sketches would take. The day after she made that journal, on May 19th, she sent me a note on DA asking for my reference info again (even though it was in that first post, like all other references). I sent it back to her that same day and I have heard nothing from her since. I have sent her one other polite message since then just asking for an update.

Today, I stopped by DeviantArt again just to see if she had responded, and although she has not posted anything on her account, the user GoblinCrusher94 has gone around posting that she's "got a new account and this one is dead" on her comments. The new account is the one I linked to above, Altana (which actually seems like it's an old account she left, then returned to - or at least is planning to return to. It's very confusing). And of course on top of this, she is updating her art tumblr rather constantly.

I'm not sure how many out of those 15 people haven't received their art, but I know for SURE at least one other hasn't, user nosebleeds, because he is a dear friend of mine and we've both been complaining about this a bit together, heh.

I have no problem waiting a bit for commissions, I really don't - as long as the line of communication is kept open. When an artist stops responding all together to messages, changes DevArt accounts, doesn't update about it on her Journal and I KNOW I'm not the only one that got screwed... well. I think it's at least time to step up and say something. It doesn't help that it was a pre-paid commission, so like I said - if none of the 15 people have received their sketches, that's $300 she's basically pocketed while we all wait for our art not even knowing what Deviant Art account she's on these days.

(sorry if this is a little tl;dr! I try to be as thorough as possible when I do something like this!)

Comments

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

Did she leave an email you could contact her with? I'm never good at responding to Deviantart messages so this is why I am asking.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

No, no e-mail or anything like that - all the communication was either over her DevArt journal or through DA messages. I suppose I could try to e-mail the address paypal payments were sent to, but I felt like that was almost an invasion of privacy.

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

I would do it. :) It's unprofessional for artists to use DA messaging for commissions imo.

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

Here's her LJ -> http://altanachan.livejournal.com/ She has a gmail account listed in her profile. And she is very active on tumblr.

I got my commission from that set, finished on that Monday night session, so hopefully you'll get yours.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, her being active on tumblr is actually one of the things that annoy me. Good to know you got your art, I hope the rest of the people waiting do, too.

[thanatoast.livejournal.com]

Damn, I hate to see Avali on here... she's a sweetheart. But, if she's flaking out, she's flaking out. I hope you get your art soon.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

Honestly, she seemed so sweet in her journal and on DA that it was hard for me to put her here! But like I said... I don't mind waiting for art, but I at least expect SOME sort of communication more often than... once in two months. Especially if it's prepaid!

[ocelotish]

Dumb question, but are you sure GoblinCrusher94 knows what he's talking about? When I check out the other account it's not updated recently (it says she was last on that account 12 weeks ago Vs. 1 day ago).

Other than that, it looks like she's still active so I hope she gets back to you soon. I'd email her if I were you.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a good chance he DOESN'T, but then if I were her I'd probably go through and hide those comments if I'm still active on my main account, haha. There's a chance it's some bull, but I thought it best to include it!

[clockworkshadow.livejournal.com]

ladyavali@gmail.com

roguish_candy@yahoo.com

hopefully you get into contact with her!

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the extra resources, I appreciate it!

[altanachan.livejournal.com]

Hey bby, just thought I'd get in touch with you. People have been receiving their work, it's just slow right now. A lot of the things I post to tumblr have BEEN those commissions, because storms pushed me back for some time and then I had to work double shifts at my regular job twice in a row. Since it took me so long, I upgraded a lot of them to regular paint commissions. The one of Azazel, for example.

Most of the time when I get home the only thing I have time for is a few practice sketches and one commission and that is it, and I did end up having a good number of couples commissions, in addition to my regular commissions as well. I'm sorry this upset you, and I don't mean for it to take so long, but I cannot keep up with both my day job and everything else without it being slow. If you'd like, I'd be more than happy to refund your money. But that's up to you, of course.

[lynstraine.livejournal.com]

Mmyup--I'll refund your money and your friend's money; just give me a PayPal to send it to.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

Sorry if this reply is awkward - I hate LJing from my phone! Honestly i'd still love the commission, and like I said, I really don't mind waiting, I just hate when the line of communication completely breaks down and I felt that's what happened here. Thank you for replying to me howevsr, and I really do apologize for not trying to contact you via email first. When I get home i'll edit this post to say you have contacted me =)

[biodisaster.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna be straight up.

While I applaud your attempts to get in contact with Avali, she has SEVERAL mediums in which she could have been otherwise contacted that she has available -- deviantART was probably the worst you could have chosen considering how much traffic the site gets and how poor the overall notification is.

I'm rather disappointed seeing this up here for several reasons, the top of them being that there doesn't really seem to be much effort at all as far as communication goes on your end, not to mention the level of baseless accusation you're making. If you were paying as close attention as you appear to be claiming, you would have noticed that several of those tumblr pieces were commissioned work, upgraded because she had fallen so far behind.

Slandering a hard-working artist's name instead of politely requesting a refund is rather despicable of you. Frankly, if I paid any money for a commission and I had not received it in what I deemed a 'timely fashion' I would not be concerned with messaging someone on their personal email that they had given to me. I purchased a service, and if that service is not provided, than I am due a refund regardless. That is the nature of business. But as I understand it, a refund wasn't even discussed.

I've received commissions from Avali in the past, and I've also had the pleasure of witnessing her work in person. She is not a slacker, and she is not a thief. She's a hard-working individual trying to make ends meet in a very unfavorable environment.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

Actually... in my last attempt to contact her, I DID request a refund and never heard back. That was at the end of May. Which is why I decided to go ahead and make this post after waiting.

[lynstraine.livejournal.com]

End of May? Try less than a week ago, sweetie (I can screencap it right now)--and be that as it may, your post is pretty much nothing but libel and misinformation, particularly the gross accusation that she stole three hundred dollars from anyone. A cursory review of facts as opposed to Random Dudes Posting What They Feel Like also reveals that the Altana account has been abandoned for quite some time and, again, that the art tumblr contains commission pieces.

While a communication breakdown obviously occurred here, your discussion of the matter is absolutely anything but thorough.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty damn confused over who I'm speaking to here - since one person I thought was LadyAvali seems pretty nice and if you are LadyAvali, you... seem surprisingly less so (and if you are not, then I'm curious why you have access to messages I've sent her, but that's neither here nor there). I've been pretty polite throughout my responses and I've already talked to her, so I don't think there's any need to be flat out condescending, thank you.

[lynstraine.livejournal.com]

I live with her--sometimes you can see the screen of someone you live with.
If I'm not being nice, it's because I tend to take it poorly when someone treats my friend like a thief, as you have done here. Being concerned over a lack of communication is one thing--making spurious accusations about events to which you are not privy (i.e. the status of other commissions), quite another.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Might want to be careful, you're not really helping your friend by publicly messing with her business / commissioner like this.

[lynstraine.livejournal.com]

I'm really not that worried about it--misinformation is misinformation, and I've pointed it out. Story ends.

[robotlizards.livejournal.com]

You are really, really not helping her, though.

Things seemed to have been going just fine between Avali and the OP. There was no need for you to intervene since everything had already been resolved.

[arachnida.livejournal.com]

biodisaster chiming in here.

I can't say she's not exactly warranted. It doesn't really matter if 'things were going well' considering the weight of the accusation.

$300 is a lot of money and people don't just forget about claims like that. This entry obviously isn't going away. Stuff like this can ruin a person, all over a little misinformation and/or impatience.

Also I believe when she had commented, the edit to the entry hadn't been made yet...not that it matters, but timeframes and all.

Also the edit was made for syntax errors.

[jessibean.livejournal.com]

When she commented, Avali had already responded to me - in the comment RIGHT above her original comment - so she knew that Avali was in touch with me as is (in fact, I believe she responded specifically to Avali's comment). Either way, I have absolutely no problem communicating to Avali herself (which I already have) or responding to other posters here with questions, but I don't really see the need to respond to someone that feels like they need to white-knight their roommate when said person can clearly handle themselves.

[arachnida.livejournal.com]

But you did respond.

I wasn't really looking for a response, to be honest (and I'm not sure lynstraine was either). I just felt that it should have been brought to your attention what exactly you just did, since I'm not sure you were thinking clearly when you posted? I like to give people the benefit of the doubt.

Reviews and things like this are all a person has to go on when commissioning. Please remember that before you post one of these again, especially if the community has rules that the entry can't be edited or removed once posted. You could do a lot of damage.

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

From what I read in the original post, the buyer was not provided with another means of contact with the artist aside from DA notes. It is the responsibility of the artist to keep in contact with her commissioners. They can't do that if other means of communication are not provided. Commission was paid for in April, it is now June.

If you guys didn't expect replies then why even bother posting to this entry? When I first read this I saw someone who may have trouble keeping in contact. Now I see an artist who is struggling to practice good business and will have people butt in to harangue customers who want to know where their commission/refund is. Please remember that before you post one of these comments again, especially if the community has rules that the entry can't be edited or removed once posted. You could do a lot of damage to your friend's reputation.

[biodisaster.livejournal.com]

They had an email address from paypal, and I already stated why I posted. Regardless of the fact that I happen to know the artist, it's poor conduct to post these entries without making an effort to get in touch outside of one medium. Even if you go to her deviantART account (her old one and her new one), she has several sites listed where she is available. There's a tumblr website, an AIM address, an MSN address, a yahoo address and another email address.

Nothing I posted was incorrect in any fashion, so there's no reason to be passive aggressive. I didn't call this person any sort of derogatory name and I didn't sugarcoat the situation.

All I did was bring to light the consequences that spawn from ads like these, and that it's not fair to post them without making more effort to contact the person in question.

[altanachan.livejournal.com]

Alternate means of communication are provided on my site. I list my tumblr which has a private message box, I list my AIM and my email, and I also have a full contact post which provides everything available for speaking with me.

I am not chastising anyone for this, I understand that my time schedule is hectic right now, that I am behind on work and that DA is not the most reliable form of communication and that it does take me days to respond to any notes there because of how many I get. I really wish nothing further was said, because this is not about anyone but the OP and I, but again, I am not scolding anyone for this. Please judge me by my actions and not what someone else has to say, whose opinion is colored by concern only.

This is the last comment I will be making on the matter as this is resolved, and truly should have ended with my previous comment.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

You know, at the end of the day, it's your responsibility as the artist to keep in contact with the commissioner, and I found it in poor form that you and your friends made it the commissioner's fault for not hunting down other forms of contact.

I admit my impression has been a bit coloured by your friends barging in here being rude to the OP, but I also don't like that it seems like you feel it's the customer's issue that you didn't keep in touch. That's all on you.

That said, I'm glad it's all resolved. But everyone needs to own up to their own mistakes, here, instead of going 'Well there were OTHER ways to contact me if she looked for them!'. It's simply not her job to look for them.