Beware: Stellary/Absinthe/Inky

[pumpkin314.livejournal.com]

WHO: Stellary/Absinthe aka Inky/Nancy/Stellary on Chatlands

WHERE: main base: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/absinthe, commission transactions took place on TheTotemLands (prior to closing) and on Serenity Isles

WHAT: 2 "poses" from TTL ($8 each [edit, my email says $6 was sent for the one pose which was completed, but I believe the other two were considered $8 as the ref was $20, if I remember correctly]) and 3 poses on Serenity ($13) each; one owed TTL pose completed

WHEN: Commission began around June 2009


PROOF:
Original emails (TTL):
http://screencast.com/t/98PDW8uwbk7Q
http://screencast.com/t/SpFiEGVGxa8r


Commission on Serenity:
http://screencast.com/t/GZJ4p9OK5b
http://screencast.com/t/CxfB8Mzu
http://screencast.com/t/xCLRtCZpn3o
http://screencast.com/t/iHiYSMKO
http://screencast.com/t/SsxU1Umrnv
http://screencast.com/t/uAsmT3stm

Note asking for a refund:
http://screencast.com/t/7YVmwKOchp
http://screencast.com/t/aHgmSR1kfSgI(Her response)

Recent emails asking for an update/refund:
http://screencast.com/t/OBofSPV5phO
http://screencast.com/t/JBMwY5sc81v (Message was forwarded because I did not want to type it all out again)

Recent PM on wolfhome asking for information:
http://screencast.com/t/UtvhDTq7hFV
http://screencast.com/t/18kgPpRfLoQ2 (showing it was read, the pawprint goes from yellow to white when a message has been read)

Unfortunately I have no paypal screenshots of the transaction as the account I used to pay has since been closed, however I would assume that her replying she had received payment should be enough proof on my end.

EXPLAIN:
Back in 2009 I commissioned Inky for a refsheet of my character, however I changed it from a ref to 2 chat poses (and got a third pose later which was completed) and told her to keep the extra (as seen in first email) [also this proof is lost as TTL has been closed and I never thought to get screenshots of these PMs].  This art was never completed and I lost contact with her.  In 2011 she posted a topic to sell poses again on the chat SerenityIsles and I contacted her then about the owed art and was interested in getting some new commissions.  One of the owed poses was completed and that was all.  Later in the year I attempted to contact her as she had posted another topic selling custom chat poses.  At this point she said she would probably no longer do poses but could instead offer me another type of art in place of these poses.  Unfortunately, life got the best of me and I was unable to reply for a few more months, this is my fault completely and not a lack of communication on her part.  However, I emailed her again almost two weeks ago without response.  A few days after sending the most recent email I forwarded it again to her.  Tonight (4/24) I tried to send her a private message on another chatlands forum she was taking commissions on.  She has read the message but has yet to respond.

EDIT:
Finally got a response from her.  I sent her a second PM on the forum she is actively making poses on and got a response.

Private Messages:
http://screencast.com/t/yvRXGMQgPR6
http://www.screencast.com/t/GBZYreZBH0
http://www.screencast.com/t/gCZPexld
http://www.screencast.com/t/XEXp9xgvokjX
http://www.screencast.com/t/TuDQGNS4

For the record here is the previously mentioned email about being "banned":
http://www.screencast.com/t/sMfKfRKU

I will accept blame for the email not being sent immediately.  I had written it up and attempted to send it from my school wifi on my phone but must have left the wifi zone and caused it to wait in my outbox until I was back home and using stable wifi.  The choice to keep her from selling on Serenity was not only my choice, as stated in my replies, but the choice of several team members giving their input and opinions on the matter.  She had taken not only my money but the money of other users on Serenity and they were, luckily, refunded.

And I managed to dig out the transaction in my paypal history:
http://www.screencast.com/t/B3AlkprkD

And her topic on the Wolfhome forums actively selling poses:
http://screencast.com/t/rSMhD49Eb

I was honestly shocked that she was treating me so unprofessionally because of a grudge about a supposed ban on her account on the chat I manage.  Whether I had banned her or not I would hope that she would be able to treat me respectably and professionally as this is a business transaction between two people, when money is involved there should be no room for grudges.


Will keep this updated as it all unfolds!

Comments

[pumpkin314.livejournal.com]

Sadly, not everyone knows about her business practices or how rude she can be to the people she obviously depends on to keep herself alive. I really will not ever understand how people can treat customers like this. I work in retail and if I gave a customer this much attitude I'd be out the door in no time! Some people really need to apply real-life work ethics to their "online job".

[tunavoice.livejournal.com]

I feel terrible for her that freelance work/art is her only form of income (correct me if I'm wrong) because I think it could fall apart so easily with the behavior she's shown. With the way she treats people and handles her business transactions, it eventually WILL become more known about on places outside of A_B and affect her greatly in a multitude of ways- mostly financially, and then it'll have a snowball effect from there. Word of mouth and recommendations can do very good OR bad things for an artist and their rep.

I'm sure she doesn't want that to happen, but I'm thinking one day that it will. She needs to straighten her act up before it gets worse, IMO. I just can't fathom using her mannerisms/language in a transaction with a customer the way she spoke to you. ESPECIALLY this: http://screencast.com/t/OBofSPV5phO
It was just uncalled for and I would just be floored if an artist I commissioned were to treat me that way.

WOW, TL;DR. Still, I'm so sorry that you had to go through this! :/

[pumpkin314.livejournal.com]

Nothing is really ever TL;DR for me.

Her behavior should be something I'm used to by now (having interacted with her for years on the same chat as well as dealing with her as a customer of her's), but her outbursts still never fail to amaze me. You'd hope that a person would learn after being criticized for how rude they are and how poorly they treat their customers, but I honestly do not think she will ever learn...which is just a shame. She's ultimately harming herself more than her commissioners, they can always take their money elsewhere.

As of right now, as far as I understand, she did recently get a job out in the real world. She's commented on working over 40 hours a week so I'm assuming she's been busy with it as well; so she no longer really relies solely on her commissions to get her by (although she has in the past).

I've worked with a lot of artists, I've had to deal with artists in the past who have owed me art after I've waited months/years and all of them treated me respectfully and with a professional attitude; thus far, Stellary is the only one to give me attitude because of her own faults. And I understand I've started getting nasty in my replies to her, but I've just gotten to the point where clearly nothing else will work for me.

[tunavoice.livejournal.com]

Exactly what I meant. She is DEFINITELY harming herself. If she were still reliant on solely commissions eventually she would fall out of business. I really do not blame you for getting nasty with her. And it IS very sad that she will never learn- the evidence is her being posted to A_B so many times with the major factor being her attitude during customer transactions. When I first read some of the screencaps, I was SHOCKED.

If she were truly sorry for her behavior, the outbursts wouldn't continue and she'd straighten up her act. She's come into A_B multiple times claiming to change and gets all apologetic, but to me it just looks like she's asking for sympathy, which she isn't going to get. I wouldn't be surprised if she came into this thread doing so, either. When I learned I was being a jerk to people in general the hard way, I matured and stopped acting rude to people INSTANTLY. It just baffles me how some others fail to do the same.

It's good to hear she's gotten a job out in the real world, though. Maybe it'll open her eyes and help her learn she can't act that way toward customers in a real-life setting. If she does, she gets the boot. Sometimes people gotta learn the hard way to see what they're doing wrong.