Beware: Shizuki/Chevi

[nedrae.livejournal.com]

WHO: Shizuki/Chevi. She apparently already had a beware, but I didn't know of this community back when this started.

WHERE: FurAffinity

WHAT: Full-body color, one character, $60. Here are her current terms and conditions, but I don't know if they have been changed in the interim and I didn't save a copy. What I do remember is that the no-refunds clause wasn't there, but unfortunately I have no proof.

WHEN: Initial note sent on FA on July 18th, 2010, payment made the next day, mutually agreed deadline of early November 2010.

PROOF: Full album. (Screenshots in chronological order, same as below)

EXPLAIN: The full album, in detail. This is almost all of our communication, except for some of my replies acknowledging her notes, and which she usually quoted anyway:


http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#1o Initial contact

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#2o Paypal was being stupid to me

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#3o A friend helps me out and pays in my behalf, I pay him back here http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#4o

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#5o My friend had talked to her about this. She was okay with this and let me know I could go ahead with the request.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#6o e-mail with the commission details. Not blurred because meh, and her e-mail address is public already.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#7o She got my email. I assume she was okay with it (the only complicated bit was somewhat large wings for the character, but I made it clear that they weren't necessary)

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#8o She says deadline won't be met. That's alright, it happens and I understand and hope she gets it all sorted out soon. I responded saying it was fine and to keep me in the loop.

Then I admittedly let it slip for a while, and she didn't respond until I sent her another note on February 2011.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#9o I got pushed into her immediate to-do list apparently. In retrospect I should have taken that refund at this point.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#10o Got this at the end of March, she said it'd be done during April, offered me a free icon but I didn't care about it. I just replied saying I didn't see the need for changes, though I hadn't seen a sketch yet.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#11o July 9th. Again in the immediate to-do list. Promised to contact me on the 20th, or if not, done by early August. July 20th came by and I didn't see anything. Kept waiting.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#12o Sent on August 30th, more things had happened, offered free stuff again (that I ignored because I was focused on my actual commission). Sketch real soon she says. At this point it's been over a year since our first contact and payment.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#13o Apparently this was sent to all of the people she owed art to. My response is here: http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#14o. The link at the end of her note is this: http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm313/cheviart/Commissions/wheredoIgo.png

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#15o She acknowledges.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#16o Three months later I ask her again. She thought I asked for a deadline of December 15th when I had actually said mid-november. More than a year since the original deadline.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#17o She says she mixed up the dates, apologizes about the lack of a sketch (almost a year and a half now), and promises finished art (i.e. not a sketch, and what I assumed would be the final art with no possibility of change) by the 19th.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#18o I am an idiot and agree to the finished art instead of pushing for the sketch.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#19o As soon as she's on break I'm her top priority.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#20o December 21st and I haven't seen anything yet, now she says it'll be done before the end of the month.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#21o Mini-update on the 30th, it won't be done by new year, but she says she'll try to get it done before she returns to school on the 9th, and asks if any changes need to be made.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#22o My reply, can't ask for changes if I haven't even seen the sketch yet.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#23o January 20th, this is when I seriously started considering writing this whole thing, and I think it shows.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#24o I made a mistake, corrected

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#25o She is aware of how long I've been waiting. Says stuff will come out during the weekend.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#26o Apparently I misplaced those two files in the interim.

http://min.us/mNKxX8T9K#27o Sent the files by e-mail and also uploaded to min.us

And today is the 24th, and I haven't seen anything at all.


TL;DR Commission paid on July 2010, agreed on a deadline of early November 2010, commission kept being pushed back and in almost 18 months she has been unable to produce a single sketch.

Meanwhile

Until today, her commission account's gallery has 165 submissions since the date of my original deadline (October 31st, 2010). So yeah I'm a bit miffed.

Comments

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

I hope bringing her here helps you the way it did for me. I'm sorry you've had to jump through hoops like this.

[zombienerd.livejournal.com]

^

I only got my commission out of her after she got posted here and actually worked on her backlog instead of taking new commissions.

[megumi-kitten.livejournal.com]

165 commission added...and she still has a list of ongoing?

I couldn't do that myself, I'd be having panic attacks left and right! Heck I get them over art trades I'm doing now!

I hope it gets resolved for you.

[intj-reflection.livejournal.com]

I haven't checked her "To Do" lists lately, but at one point mid-summer she had over 200 outstanding commissions back-logged. Since I'm not a commissioner I never felt right making a beware, but she's definitely earned a "will not do business with" from me.

[slicklion.livejournal.com]

I've been one of those people who had to put up with Shizu's lack of both producing images, lack of meeting deadlines and constantly taking more and more commissions, and making adoptables which is like twice a week. Money grabbing... I hate artists like that.

It really pissed me off too, but I've never waited this long, I made my order in May, hoping to get it done for an occasion, I only got it back in November, after constant weekly nagging after about 5 months passed and all I ever heard was ''I'll send you the sketch this week!''.

I asked her for a refund around September but she offered to hand me over to someone else to do it for her, and I told her no :/

I even took up her ''free icon'' offer when I finally got the piece, told me she'd do it that weekend.

It's been almost 3 months :P

Yeah, well deserved Beware, I considered making one too but, I never saw anyone complain about her before.

[slicklion.livejournal.com]

No, not 165 commissions( even though she probably as 3x more than that right now.)

165 submissions since nedra commissioned her. Most likely 100 of those submissions are adoptables, she really loves her money...~

[rottencanines.livejournal.com]

About above comment, I was the one Shizu was going to do a free icon to in behalf of my friend above.

I like Shizu's art, but seeing how she is all "promise this, promise that" and "I will give you this and that if you wait" ... like one note saying "I will put you up on a free chibi stream" (which probably was never planned to do) she just say so to have a hook on you.

It annoys me she doesn't realise people don't have all the patience in the world >.

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

This is unfortunate. I really adored her art but now hearing that multiple people had to throw her here just to get results is disappointing. Nother artist to cross off my list.

Also a backlog that huge would drive me insane as well. I stress if I have even close to 10 people waiting. D:/

[latilombax.livejournal.com]

that's a shame. I've always been a huge fan of her art. I did send her an email about my two commissions (both of which are extremely overdue), and she said she'll have 'em done and send 'em to me on the 25th (which is tomorrow)

as much as I respect Chevi as a great artist with cute work, she needs to slow down on taking anymore commissions than she can handle

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

Just peeked at her 'lists' of backlog. I have no clue how someone can take that much on and not break down at one point.. She's clearly dug herself a VERY deep hole... It sucks because she's continuing to make it deeper by taking in more work. That's pretty bad..

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

She actually *has* broken down at least once in the two years I've been watching her on FA. :c

I don't think she means to screw people over, but she really needs to get better at balancing commissions.

[puritikoneko.livejournal.com]

I really, really hope that two bewares will light a fire under her bum so she can start working on her backlog instead of taking on more stuff.

I have an icon she did for me a while back, but it was an on-the-spot type of deal for guessing the right answer to a question she asked in one of her streams. I managed to grab another one for my husband shortly after, and she got it to me fairly quickly, but I'm supposing that's because it was done using a template and didn't have to be done from scratch.

I currently have a friend who's waiting on art from her, and I really hope she gets it sometime soon. I think she's been waiting quite a while. :|

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

Yeah if she actually cut back and worked on what she had maybe she wouldn't freak out as much. Still continuing to take on work is no excuse for a breakdown when you did it to yourself..

[megumi-kitten.livejournal.com]

OH! I was going to say!

Still, that is QUITE a bit of submissions, commission or no to put up during the time you're supposed to be working.

[roocodendron.livejournal.com]

That backlog..wow D: I can't see how she can stand it! I might take on 5 sketch commissions and even then I get this sense of urgency, 'cuz lets face it these people are giving you their money, and I don't think I've ever had anyone wait for more than two weeks.

She has cute art but I definitely won't be commissioning her any time soon. Thanks for the beware.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I've had some trouble with her as well before. However, at the time I was really bad at mentioning that I didn't think things were right and accepted the finished commission as is. Because of that, I didn't beware her and don't considering what I'm saying a beware, but just an add on to more things she's done.

She firstly missed the deadline for the commission, which isn't horrible as she had let me know. But, to save time and get it to me faster, she got someone else to shade it with ought asking me.

I didn't say anything, since I didn't want a confrontation and the shading did look good, but I was still very miffed that I had paid for her type of work and got something completely different. I paid for cell shading while what I got back was soft. If she had asked though, I would have been really fine with it.

[intj-reflection.livejournal.com]

This is actually something I had been curious about for a while. I noticed that after her original beware, Chevi had started using other people as colorists in order to speed up her work-flow. I was always curious if she had notified her commisioners prior to the change over and what they thought of the substitution.

Thank you for posting and satisfying my curiosity.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, a backlog like that is just intense. I couldn't have more than 10 people waiting in line before the anxiety kicks would start.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that backlog. I hope a second beware brings things in perspective for her =\ I really think she'd have less stress by just getting a regular 9-5 job at this point.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_patches_/]

HOLY BACKLOG BATMAN. Chevi... if you can see this... Please don't take anymore commissions. I understand you need to money, but this is ridiculous. It's just going to get worse and worse if you keep going on this way.

[kairi-koitra.livejournal.com]

I've never had an issue with her. this is surprising

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

WOW. I thought she had straightened out since last time, guess not.

[nedrae.livejournal.com]

Well, to be fair I don't think she has actually accepted commissions for quite a while now. In fact I had to do the whole paypal dance with my friend because she had said that she was stopping commissions forever in order to focus on school or something like that, and I wanted one of those last spots. But she keeps cranking adoptables and chibis and icons and whatnot out, and her commission info journal is still up after all this time, so...

And lol I just noticed that the format I paid $60 for (full body, full colour) is now down to $50 according to her price list.

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

I had my calculator handy and counted the number on the backlog, and, holy crap, 189. That's only counting individual customers; some also had multiple pictures commissioned, so the count is over 200.

I don't know how she handles it, but I would have gone coo-coo a long time ago.

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

Not just breaking down, but how can you not feel any remorse knowing you have such a HORRIBLE backlog and still take on more work.. I thought 10 was too many but hot damn... No excuses, NONE.