Vani/Vanimute/Vanillakitsune/stripesandteeth BEWARE

[nanook123.livejournal.com]

WHO: Vani/Vanimute/Vanillakitsune/ stripesandteeth

WHERE: VanillaKitsune.deviantart.com (now deactivated)
also
Vanimute@DA
Vani@FA
Stripesandteeth@Tumblr


WHAT: One Traditional Badge costing 45$ (Paid $46 to cover paypal's fee as a courtesy) and a Full Body Digital Badge Trade, my half was completed for AC 2010

WHEN: June 16th 2010 for the Badge Trade, June 22nd 2010 for the Paid Badge. She had been known for drama in the past, but I thought she'd gotten her act together. I guess I was wrong. I don't pressure folks to turn the art over, but I waited a year before I contacted her the first time, and that was because she made a Journal on FA updating everyone that had commissioned her of their place in line. http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1953643/

PROOF: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/badgecommission.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/badgeconvo.jpg

EXPLAIN: Well, 2 years ago, I commissioned a couple of icons from Vani and she turned them around pretty quickly. Soon thereafter we agreed to a trade, in time for AC 2010. I performed my part of the trade as outlined in my evidence image entitled "badge convo". The link to my part is here: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/4020610/ In her reply she mentions finishing my part before she leaves for AC that year. I was simply happy to get a piece from an artist who's art I admired. Then she made a post on June 21st 2010 http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/1494591/ for a round of badges before AC. I noted her as referenced in my proof called "Badge Commission". I sent payment of 46$ and set to waiting patiently like everyone else.

As an artist myself I don't make a habit of pushing another artist for work. I like everyone else had just kept quiet, even as Vani made post after post fretting about not having enough money to live on. I waited even as she took on more commissions from others. Even as she went from Con to con, making money off of other people, producing art and posting it on her blog, on her art sites and twitter. I clammed up afraid to speak up. I didn't want her legion of fans to come and get me. I didn't want to create drama. Like others who have posted here, I'm tired of that. It's not about the money now. That money is thrown away, it's gone. It's about the principal.

Well, in March I decided to speak up. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/emailcheckin.jpg I emailed her to ask for a status. To this day I haven't gotten an email back. Part of me never really expected to. If she had any intention of doing the work, she would have shown at least a sketch or something by now.

Finally I got fed up this week and made an inquiry to her on her Tumblr Page. To my surprise she replied with the attached... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/nanook123/tumblrmessage.jpg Her reply left me a little stunned. I mean, she literally has no intention of finishing any of the work she took from those on FA. I can tell it just by the way she's speaking. Just based on the badge commissions she took, basing them at about 40$ a piece, she made close to 800$ off of us. So after reading her reply, I sent her another message outlined below:

"I appreciate the reply, and sadly I fully expected the answer I got. I'm very disappointed. I know you're a college student with a lot on your plate, but your commission list is 8 miles long. You made a commitment to all those people that you would draw them something if they gave you money. You made a commitment to those who drew for you in exchange for a piece back.

You haven't even so much as done a sketch, but you're so happy to fill your blog with drawings daily. Instead of doing that you could do a commission a day until you're caught up. You know...if you'd just given me a sketch of the things you owed me, I would have been more than happy to call my debt paid and colored the dang things myself. You didn't even try.

I don't think it's fair for you to say that you're going to a con to earn money to live on when you've already lived on the money that you got from every single person on your commission list. You've already spent that money and even if every single one of them demanded their money back, there's no way they'd ever get it. Your answer to me is a cop out. You're more than willing to draw at a con or doodle on your blog, but for people on the internet you're just leaving them on the back burner with no idea when you'll actually get to it.

I'm very sorry you're in whatever situation you're in at school/home, but you made commitments to ALL of the people you took money from. So I guess consider the art I gave you a gift and consider the money I gave you a donation. I still really enjoy your art, but it isn't worth continuing to wait and hope for anymore.

Best of luck to you,

Trish"

So the purpose of my post here is to help others be warned before commissioning her online or at a con. Her art is pretty, well done and balanced. I really enjoy the style, but it's not worth the headache. 2 years have gone by. I don't think I'll ever see the pieces I commissioned from her. I don't want the money back. I want what I paid for. Even if she did it now, it would feel forced. I don't trust her to do what she says she'll do and neither should anyone else. So, Please, don't mark it resolved, because short of a public apology to everyone she owes stuff to, there isn't much else she can do for me. Please mark it as warning. She owes 54 people plus 5 trades. I somehow doubt she'll ever do it. Even if each of these commissions was a single character at $40 that's over 2000$ she's made off of a community that trusted she had changed. I don't want anyone else to make that mistake.

Comments

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Do you think you could blur out Vani's last name in the paypal screenshot, please?

[nanook123.livejournal.com]

Done :)

[tunavoice.livejournal.com]

"She owes 54 people plus 5 trades."
Oh my god, my stomach lurched really bad at this. That is a LOT of people to owe.

I'm really sorry you had to go through this, and how she's not working on what she was paid for is really sad. I checked her tag and she's been posted here four times already... she should be put on like an ultimate warning list or something.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I've noticed this trend where people take on more commissions and finish those before older ones because they need the money and I never fully understood that.

It's happened before I needed the cash and took on some extras. But in those cases, I was always upfront about what I owe, put my Queue and a warning in the journal, letting people know about it and giving them the chance to decide if they're ok with the wait or not and most are. Then I finish those I already owe, then go on to the new batch.

Edit: Whoops, I did not mean this as a reply, my bad!

[viothefoxbird.livejournal.com]

At least you got a response out of her. I sent her probably about 4 or 5 notes on tumblr trying to offer advice and what not and she ignored me completely.
She still owes me 2 pieces, and owes one friend of mine over $300 worth of art.

She really needs to stop going to cons, every time she makes another post about going to another con my blood boils.

She definitely owes more than $800 worth of stuff. Definitely more than that.

[nanook123.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I know that! I mean I was going on a base price of $40 per piece, but obviously, I would think the icons would be less and the full pieces would be more.

$300 worth...good lord.

Yeah, I get so bent whenever I see her posting doodles of stuff when she could just as easily be posting progress shots of the pieces she owes.

[cyiakanami.livejournal.com]

If only people would open claims against her. She'd get on stuff either real quick or end up with court bills and fees and well, lesson learned. She is doing something illegal, and should feel the repercussions of doing it.

The fact that so many people just let her walk away without her learning anything makes me more mad then anything for these situations.

Money doesn't grow on trees and she should learn, to work for her money like everyone else and not just be allowed to get away with this.

[viothefoxbird.livejournal.com]

Can't you only open a claim in the first 3 months or something? (maybe I'm wrong)
All of these commissions are 1-2 years old.

[shinigamigirl.livejournal.com]

I don't even know her and I can't stand her, that attitude is just so rotten. Why do people continue giving her money? It's literally GIVING her the money, she doesn't do jack shit, complains about her anxiety (baaaawwww) and then turns around and draws personal art. If she did the work she wouldn't have to worry. Has anyone ever actually confronted her at a con? Because you should, and you should demand your money back right then and there, and not take any of her sob stories. She makes money there, she can pay you back.

These kinds of artists make me so angry. >:|

(frozen)

[claytronic.livejournal.com]

This is the "life cycle" of anxiety. I have extremely bad anxiety so I know this feel

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3jjb7uAQX1qzvlcyo1_500.jpg

if she has anxiety, i understand, but I agree in the fact that she shouldnt be taking on a million billion people and never talking to them.

[funkicarus.livejournal.com]

54 people
holy-

(frozen)

[intj-reflection.livejournal.com]

Is sadly not the largest "outstanding commision list" we've seen here.

[skulldog.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'd like to see someone gather up more claims against her and start contacting the Artist Alleys of conventions she's planning to head up. Getting told she can't have space due to her past, will change her tune really quick.

What I rotten attitude she gave you in that reply.

I can promise I'll be telling everyone I know that heads to Anime cons to avoid her, I know that won't stop sales, but it does add up if enough of her profits start to shrink.

[aerospiritual.livejournal.com]

THIS THIS THIS ^^^

Someone should really be notifying the con-managers about her practices.

[radiocatastrophe (from livejournal.com)]

She also has a LJ account: http://stripesandteeth.livejournal.com/

:P I also agree with the ideas of taking her to court or at least providing her tag her to any cons she plans to be visiting this year. if I see her at Metro Con or Mega Plex this month and next I'll be sure to poke her about this an inform her that she has multiple bewares and warn anyone wanting to buy from her that she really can't be trusted.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

I'll have a more coherent post a little bit later after I've cooled down because this makes me so mad, but seriously... her last reply? I have only one thing to say to that: Boo. Fucking. Hoo. Do the work you committed to!

[lucky-graffiti.livejournal.com]

Just a good example of someones eyes being bigger then someones stomach. I see a lot of people recommending small claims court but small claims court across state lines is hard to do and even harder to enforce. The only good it probably give you is paperwork of the court finding in your favor to scan and offer as evidence of her bad behavior. But you'd still be paying for the court fees etc, because those have to be paid upfront and your only get them back if you win the case and that the defendant actually pays the fine. Being across state lines or country lines it's hard to actually get them to pay. Even in the state lines it's not something easily enforced unforunately.

Courts will unforunately tell you that trying to claim a small claims settlement your basically on your own.

[uhbiscuits.livejournal.com]

I used to really love her artwork, and had been planning to commission her, when I came across this community. It's been really enlightening, though tragic. It makes me angry that people can continuously do this, even though there is plenty of proof that they're not doing what they're supposed to be!

If you cannot handle commissions, don't take them. It's just not fair to yourself, OR your customers. I wish you all the luck to get your money back, or your artwork, but I don't think luck'll get much out of this situation.

[accomesafterb.livejournal.com]

I admit, I was tempted to make my own entry after getting a similar response from her on tumblr the other day. I mentioned we had an outstanding trade from 2 years ago. Her response was along the lines of "I'm going to be selling at another con so you'll have to wait". She then proceeds to upload 2-3 personal doodles every day. A ton of fanart, art for her friends, etc. All of it labeled as "I drew this this morning" so it's obviously not older work. I have no idea why she can't just replace those doodles with 1-2 badges or commissions. She could probably kick her backlog in under a year if she did that. It is possible to do an AA/DD in a convention and still do work on the side. It can be stressful but it CAN be done.

[intj-reflection.livejournal.com]

You have pretty much summed up my thoughts perfectly with what I believe would be a perfect compromise for getting her backlog cleared.

[xenafox.livejournal.com]

I followed her for a while on Tumblr. One of the...flakiest people I ever encountered. Not good for commissioning.

I am just so disgusted by her. I wish there was a way to get people to open claims for their money. I don't know if she's going to AC this year...but I think I'll check the AA list and see if her name is listed next to a table. If so I'm hoping I can talk to a friend of mine staffing the AA and maybe she can get things going from there.

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

She uses different names at cons. There's no way of knowing what she's registered as.

[dangercrow.livejournal.com]

man, i can absolutely empathise with putting off your workload because of anxiety. i really really can. and that is precisely the reason why i will never take commissions: because i know i can't be trusted to do the work people pay me for.
if there is something preventing you from fulfilling your obligations (which you have made to your paying customers), then you need to stop taking commissions. it is not a job if you are getting paid to ignore your customers.
that she sees very few consequences for stealing from so many people is just a little bit infuriating.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

I sound like a broken record, every single time she's posted here. But really, honestly, that Tumblr reply is absolute horse shit and she knows it.

I really hope someday she works on that backlog. I simply cannot follow her or her art anymore without being disgusted by her flaky behavior. The more posts about her the better, considering more and more people get a warning about handing her cash. I certainly hope it gets around to the various convention goers that she's not someone to be trusted.

Anxiety and life are one thing, I can understand how both impact how an artist works. But she's been scamming people for -years- with this behavior and excuses and needs to grow the hell up.

[latiro.livejournal.com]

+1

I feel the same here

[lackoflollies.livejournal.com]

...

[superstarvocal.livejournal.com]

I contacted Ashley via Tumblr and Twitter last month, regarding my 5-year-old commission.

I asked her to refund me (quite nicely, actually), since it has been pretty obvious she has no interest whatsoever to work on my commission. And sincerely, I don't care for her art anymore; I'll rather have my money back. But she has been ignoring every single one of my notes/tweets... I don't know what else to do anymore. She is impossible to deal with. :/

And after reading that reply you got... good god. I'm so disgusted by her. I wish we could contact her parents or something, since it's pretty obvious she won't be paying us back anytime soon AND she has been scamming people for years. I even contemplated contacting Ringling... but I don't know, it felt wrong.

[nanook123.livejournal.com]

5 years! holy sh--

Honestly. I don't think there's hope for her.

[eenyuwolf.livejournal.com]

I agree that whichever convention she is planning on attending next should be warned of her actions. I've managed to get another artist banned from ever selling at Anthrocon because they screwed myself and a handful of my friends out of some money.

I'm sure if a few people were to email the artist alley staff, or maybe one person who was willing to gather enough evidence then she would be banned from selling as well.

I've seen her name pop up here enough that I think she needs to learn a lesson the hard way.

[serious-mccoy.livejournal.com]

...arrgh. Really not helping the stigma against mental illness when she goes, "I'm just gonna take your money/art/etc and give nothing back within any reasonable time-frame back because anxiety k bye." And "...which I know is unprofessional, but..."? No. When you've been paid to do something, the realization of "I know it's unprofessional" should never be followed up by anything but doing something professional about it. Her last sentence or two made it sound like she thinks a job is something she can just "get around to" whenever it's convenient and she happens to feel like it, and I'm kind of very mad that she appears to be blaming her anxiety for that. Obviously, she has no anxiety about doing art in and of itself, considering how much of it she's doing on her personal time. If she wasn't making any personal art and wasn't selling more art, I'd believe that more, but... yeah... what?

[hibbary.livejournal.com]

Seriously. I have bouts of intense anxiety. I get heart-palpitations checking my notes sometimes. On bad days I have to psyche myself up for hours before going to the post office. I do these things anyway, because it is my social and professional obligation. Anxiety is incredibly miserable but is not a good excuse to steal people's money. :(

[candyfizzle.livejournal.com]

I have anxiety. Avoidance of things, then guilt BECAUSE you're avoiding things, is definitely an issue.

But I have long since dissolved my patience with this person. They are in legitimate legal trouble, especially if everyone decides to come together in court or something like that..

[kwolf13.livejournal.com]

Wow 54+ owed commissions? That's a lot. I have a list of 3 and I think that's a lot. I can't imagine owing over 50 people xD

Obviously she isn't the kind of person responsible enough to live solely off of her art. She needs to stop prioritizing Cons, and get a real job. Living off of your art alone is fine, but if you're not diligent enough to keep up, it's best to just join the rat race like everyone else. I would know, I KNOW I'm not responsible enough ('nor good enough, frankly) to live off of artwork 100%, and that's why I keep it a hobby for some spare change, and not a career.

What really made me cringe is how casual she is about shrugging off the the work she owes in her reply to you on Tumblr. It's almost like she doesn't think of her clients online as real people, but just pawns she can get money from if she tells them she'll give them art.

I do like the idea of reporting her to the Cons she plans to work the Artist's Alley in, though. I'm sure they'd be very interested to know that.

Not only would it be a good wake-up call, but it might be the push she needs to stop feeding off of (and scamming) the fandom, and get her life together. Because her parents cutting her off and having lapsed Commissions doesn't seem to be enough.

(frozen)

[serious-mccoy.livejournal.com]

If she is as unstable as she says she is (claiming that doing owed art might give her a breakdown and such), I'm... reeeeally doubtful that cutting her off from the Alley will help her. It may help people who may otherwise get cheated out of money by her, yeah, but... I wouldn't act like it'll push her to get her life together. Probably be a hindrance to that, if anything. Personally, the idea of jumping on her with this with such enthusiasm is kinda making me uncomfortable. By all means, if people who are reporting her are doing it out of concern for future clients, do it, because that's totally legitimate and warranted- but I'm pretty sure it's not going to be the magical "get your shit together!" sign she needs, if everything else has already failed to do that. Fwiw. So, uh... I dunno what exactly I'm saying here, so much as, do things for the right reasons, not for the wrong ones? It just really bothered me to see such eagerness about it (not just yours), given her mental state, and trying to put a good-for-her spin on it.

[otherscape.livejournal.com]

What's worst is that TODAY she's announcing to do MORE commissions.

She really is turning into Starfinder 2.0. So long as she can fool people, she's never going to do those commissions. I'll bet my stars and stripes that she's not even going to even contemplate these new commissions.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Not just more commissions, but commissions based off of characters whose owner already said he doesn't allow merchandise? She's trying to get around his request by "giving away" the buttons and prints with each sketch commission of the characters.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's intense. I just can't believe how people get backlogged that bad. If she just opted to work on a thing a day, then she'd have that thing kicked faster than she thinks it would take. Or maybe two hours a night? They don't look like they'd be hours and hours worth of work. It just boggles.

[skiota.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I know her personally, and I love her to death. She's talked to us a few years ago about this stuff and I do understand. I feel so torn when I see a post about her. I know the kind of shit she has to put up with IRL, but from the standpoint of a commissioner, I see everyone's grievances and what she does is wrong. The area she lives in has little job opportunity for college students, and rent is pretty high there. I know she's between a rock in a hard place but I wish she'd work on owed art before working on new commissions. The new people can go to the back of the line. I agree with the one drawing a day thing.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Boohoo bad opportunities and all aside, half her rock and hard place is of her own creation surely she realizes this. Leaving all of these people in the dust and WILLINGLY? You cannot tell me it isn't a willing avoidance of her responsibilities because that reply, her choices and more says it all.

As her friend since you claim the mantle you need to try to get her to get her priorities in a line before she doeenough damage to warrant people saying "Court is a GREAT IDEA" because her job market is gonna dry up like a tumbleweed if her background checks and google searches show she cannot handle money and proper responsibility.

[sintocat.livejournal.com]

She also has another DA account that she has been on recently. She responded to a shout 5 days ago. I honestly can't understand her...I have horrible anxiety - you just need to either get on some medication or learn to deal with it yourself.

[sintocat.livejournal.com]

forgot to post the link
http://www.stripes-and-teeth.deviantart.com/