artists_beware | Artist/Builder Beware!!!

EXPLAIN: Ok, so what had happened here was I commissioned Poprock back in December for some crow wings. I was having a different builder make a head for me, so I thought it’d be a good idea to make a collaboration of multiple builders for a partial suit. Poprock was saying, at the time, that she was really desperate for commissions, so I thought I could help her out by hiring her. I was talking with her on Second Life about the commission I had in mind, and even modeling it after a different builders design. When I asked for a price quote, she said that it would cost me $125, which I thought was a reasonable price. Afterwards, I asked Poprock how long it would take to make them, and she said that it would only take a couple of months to do. So, from there I sent her a duct tape dummy of my arm, and an envelope containing the down payment for my wings. ($50) In about 2 weeks she began working on the wings and had a livestream video of her working on the wings. In a couple of days she sent me a picture of the progress of the wings. They looked pretty rough so I hoped that they’d look better over time, and in all honesty I was just happy that I was getting the commission made. Periodically, I would check in to see if any progress was made on the wings. At first I was asking once a week because I was really excited having this commission done. Poprock told me, whenever I asked, that no progress had been made on them since the livestream video. I started asking less often because I wanted to give her some space and not put any pressure on her.

A month passes and I ask about the progress of my wings. She again says that no progress has been made. When the next month passes, she asks on Facebook for some money so that she could buy something. Out of generosity, I gave her that money and we both agreed that it would be put towards paying off my wings. ($35) I was hoping that by paying her a little more to what I owed, that it would motivate her to work on my wings. To my disappointment, another month passes and zero progress has been made. Yet again, she asks for money for another thing (which I don’t know what it was) so I gladly obliged and paid her the remainder of the money on my wings. ($40) Of course I was hoping that some progress was made on my wings by now...she tells me that barely anything had been done. I was remaining patient as possible with her because I knew that if I said the wrong thing, she’d probably get mad at me and take even longer on making them. It’s around April 2011 this time, and I ask her if she could give me a deadline on when the wings might be finished. At first she tells me that she’ll have them done by the end of the month. As April came to a close, I asked if she was almost done, and Poprock told me that only one wing was done, but I would have to wait a bit longer. Also, to state, there were multiple times when she was guilt tripping me by explaining why the wings were taking so long, and she even offered me a full refund in May because she was feeling really upset about some stuff. Being a nice guy, I told her that I was willing to wait for the wings instead. (I fell for her guilt trip)

Eventually, she told me that the new deadline would be at Anthrocon 2011. Even as the days drew closer to Anthrocon, I still asked if any progress had been made on the wings. She dodged the question by saying they’d be done by Anthrocon. So, Anthrocon arrives and I eagerly wait to finally pick up my wings at Poprock’s booth. When I get there, she tells me that they aren’t done. She goes on to say that she has a bunch of commissions in progress, that she was booked until Christmas, and that she’d fit my wing commission “in there, somewhere”. In other words, it wasn’t a priority to her. Let it be noted that she constantly was asking for more commissions as each month went by, while my wings remained untouched. Nearly a month after Anthrocon goes by and I asked if she had done anything with my wings. Wonder of wonders, nothing had been done at all. So, what did I do? I spent 2 hours online talking to her trying to motivate her to work on my wings and other people’s commissions. She agreed to that, and I was glad that some progress was about to be made. One more month goes by, and I ask...she tells me nothing’s been done.

In this 8 month timespan, only one wing was finished and the other one hadn’t even been started on. At this point, my patience ran thin and I had to ask for a refund. She was highly confused by this and didn’t understand why. I explained to her that I was tired of waiting for them. Poprock flips out on me and begins asking all of these questions of why I didn’t say anything. I told her that I was trying to be a nice guy, but in all honesty, I was being too lenient with her. So she tells me that she’s only going to give me 30% back of what I paid once she sells the wings to someone else. First off, how many crows are out there who have the exact same arm size as me, and want the wings? Secondly, only 30%?! I paid her to do a service and she didn’t provide the service at all!

Eventually, I found out that she’s been manipulating other furs as well. Apparently, all of the commissions she was asking people to take from her, were just excuses so she could take the money from them and run off with it. There have been multiple reports from people who commissioned her, where they’ve been waiting up to two years for a commission. Not only that, some people didn’t even get a refund or any kind of update from her. She would often get pissed at them when they asked for an update and she would even go as far as to block them from all form of contact. 14 other people have reported cases similar to mine. In addition to that, some people who actually got the commissions from her were highly disappointed. One of the suits she made at a con even fell apart. The stitching was bad and it couldn’t even hold itself up for a second.

Sorry that this is so long, but all of this had to be explained in explicit detail so I could warn others of this horrible experience I had with this builder. I really worked hard to try and be her friend, but she was just using me the entire time. On one final note, I found out from a friend that Poprock was taking about me behind my back at Otakon and she told him that I hadn’t paid for my wings in full and that I was being extremely rude to her and pressuring her for the wings. Both of these statements are completely false! So that’s my experience here. Please, PLEASE, beware of her!

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Unfortunately, we can't do it, the OP has to, and they seem to be unavailable. I placed a comment when I approved it, and we'll just have to be patient for the OP to fix it.

Thanks for at least trying.. It wouldn't be so bad but with it all so spaced out its just ouchie ;-;

Here's what I don't like about this post.

Poprock_grey set a deadline of two months, AND Anthrocon. While I understand real life gets in the way, I can't give a pass to such botched deadlines. If a commissioner cancels for no reason out of the blue (IE say a week after they comissioned you) yeah, do the 30% refund. However if they cancel because YOU botched something up, then you should atleast take a bit of a courtesy hit for not following through. Not give them all the money but maybe 50% instead of 30%.

Not a refrence to you Poprock_grey, but a general observation I'm beginning to notice: Fursuit makers should NOT use the nonrefundable down payment as an excuse to bully people into giving them money. What if I asked for someone to commission me, 30% non refundable payment, did a little work on it and strung them along until they felt forced to cancel? That could be a legitement scam. The vaguely made parts are then repurposed to be sold on auction.

I don't care if the buyer didn't PUSH the deadlines. That is not their responsibility. That is yours. Quit setting deadlines for yourself if you have no intention of making them. Kudos to you however, for offering the refund. That was definately something you did right, and the OP should have taken it when they had the chance if they had the slightest doubt things weren't going as they hoped

Second, Poprock_grey, your making me nervous when you draw claims of depression into this. Starfinder pulled the whole "Waa my landlord is mean/pet troubles/whatever else" and so on whenever she decided she didn't want to do work. What gets me is if you knew you had work to do, and that you were depressed, why did you ask for more comissions? The only thing that makes me really want to believe you is that you did offer a refund early in the game.

OP; You shouldn't ever treat a commisioner as a friend. Once you two enter a buisness agreement, you switch from friendship to buisness relationship. You absolutely have to communicate with the person you hired, and that means saying "Hey you're taking to long. Finish it by this "reasonable" date." I know your afraid to feel like your pressuring the artist into not doing your work, but if that is the case then the artist is clearly meriting a beware. Some times it takes a firm foot to not be pushed over. Once you get your comission, then you can return to friend mode.

Of course this post is almost all based on my opinion on what's provided. I'd love to see more proof from Poprock_grey because I do believe she has truth to what she's saying and I has had many successful deals with commissioners aswell as botched ones. I don't think either of you should quite be a beware quite yet, but you both should rethink your professionalism when working on the internet.

Wow, rereading that I kind of came off as a little bitchy. =/ Sorry about that.

holy shit put this under a cut please

I have already requested a cut. The OP seems unavailable. Please to not comment any more asking for cuts.

Are we allowed to ask if they can switch to a different font?
For some reason the one they used is showing as really tiny and hard to read,but all the comments and other posts here are normal...

Readability is indeed important. I'll add that to my LJ-cut comment up top.

Thank you...

Kerstin has already asked the OP to place a cut in the entry. Usually in cases of approval but needs a cut - a mod (such as Kerstin or myself) will be the first comment with that very request, to save the rest of you the need to.

Alrighty, sorry about that.

I agree. It really infuriates me when there's a post that makes these claims, but they have no names or evidence to back it up. I know in furry its supposedly 'taboo' to voice complaints when you have them to avoid drama - but something like a suit falling apart on initial wear? That is not something that can be kept under the rug. Even for the sake of 'no drama'.

Cut please.

"I have had my name dragged in the mud, users have been blocked, people go around and were spreading rumors that another builder supposedly had to fix multiple suits from me, that I have tons of supposed commissions I have run off with.

Hmm, I only have sold ONE fullsuit, a very few pieces and I always make sure to talk with the commissioners before, during, and after the creation.
Due to that, many commissioners have become good friends, and I let them know they have a free 1 year warranty if anything is to happen to their product.

Also, no one ever says WHO it is I supposedly ran off with's money. And I make posts EVERYWHERE asking these claimed people to contact me. FOR MONTHS. Not a single person has come into contact with me so I now see them as "fake" people that a competitor furuit "maker" has made up to slander and spread libel about me."

She is true here, as a good friend of hers online, I have seen her sell one fullsuit fursuit, and multiple parts, all with happy endings and if they have a problem, they almost always come back for their fix ups.

I have also heard these rumours, but not a single customer name in them. As someone who is about to commission Poprock, I believe her more than I believe the OP. Now I know "you're being biased". Well I am, the rumours are most definitely false, even I have tried to track these apparent 'upset customers' and getting fursuits fixed by other makers, and turned up empty.

Poprocks had alot of attacks on facebook and has even had to remake her account more than once due to flamers and reporters there :/ Not to mention her medical issues as of late months that took alot of money out of her pocket.

OP, life does get in the way, maybe it would pay to research more?

Also, i'll try and get screenshots for my own claims here, her illnesses, happy customers and trying to find the apparent 'upset customers'.

As a friend of Poprock, i've tried finding these customers as well, and to no avail.

But yes, i'd like to see if those customers come forward now, but she's only sold a few partials at a very cheap price, as well as one fullsuit.

I do feel 14 people is exaggerating it just a touch.

kerstin_orion has already asked the OP to cut the journal. No one else needed to after she did so. In cases of approval but in need of cut - please look for the first comment. It will be a moderator of this comm with that same request. We do this so that you do not have to, and to prevent 5+ other people doing it at the same time.

Half of my sentence there is actually cut off XD I was asking if it could be cut at all XD That's all, thanks for that :)

I think LJ is doing that, it randomly stretched a post I made last night with double/triple posting for no reason. It's really wierd :

How can anyone tell you anything when you delete their comments and block them? What are you afraid of, that people will learn the truth about you? Oh and why do you have so many profiles on here?

Poprock flags people who disagree with her or ask for money back and then blocks the so the can't dispute it.

Oh and for others out there, what more proof do you need from Aves to prove what she is doing?

She flags them when they attack her, like her facebook page which was attacked and reported to the point where she needed to create a new one.

I think proof is necessary for these 'claims' in the OP's post, as well as the apparent rumours. You can't go around name-calling and bagging out someones work like that without reason or proof of what's gone wrong.

I have never seen someone ask for money back on a project where she hasn't willingly agreed to it, paying it back in payments. I even see her work on current projects through her livestream.

No she flags them because she is a troll or she is trying to make it so they can't speak the truth and warn others. She is dishonest to the core and there is quite a few people that have asked for money back but of course she removes their post, then blocks them or if she get more than a few requests for their money back she goes into hiding and come on with another account.

I could ask Aves the same thing. I blocked you because you were causing un-needed drama on my journal on FA and you kept posting even after your comment was removed.

And this is my only profile on Livejournal besides on from when I was a young teen that I no longer go onto.

No, I rarely flag them, usually just block them and be on with my life.
You can speak this claimed "truth" all you want, but without proof on both sides, there is just a lot of drama mongering and BS.

I have only had Aves ask for his money back.

As for coming back with another account, it is because I have hordes of other people reporting me for no reason other than hearsay. Again, without this supposed evidence, you have no grounds. Please get pure, unedited screenshots.

If there are so many people claiming that I did that, then you should be able to get some sort of screenshots, right?

I have never seen someone ask for money back on a project where she hasn't willingly agreed to it, paying it back in payments.

... I see this project *right here* where she said the commissioner could only get 30% refund or wait another unknown amount on a "couple month" project that's half done at 8 months.

You blocked him he did not block you. Oh and the drama is the stuff you cause. And I counted 5 different posters that had your name so who are you trying to fool?

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