Beware: SanuraPanthress / Darth Ibony Sera

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

EDIT: Sanura and I have since come to an understanding, and are putting this situation behind us. She has acknowledged being at fault and is amending both her ToS and conduct. We are both treating this as a lesson learned and as entries cannot be deleted I would like a mod to tag this as resolved. Thank you.


This is an update of what was originally a discussion post here http://community.livejournal.com/artists_beware/420021.html about how to deal with artists who don't like to be contacted, where the artist was not named. Even though it has been concluded by me getting a refund, and thus I was concerned that this may be viewed as a grudgepost, people who I have discussed this situation with advised me to continue with a beware due to her attitude and conduct.

Her pages are http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sanurapanthress/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/user/darthibonysera/ though it appears that she has now deleted everything. I have no idea whether this means she has run off on her current clients or not.

EDIT: She has moved back to DA, http://sanurapanthress.deviantart.com/ and appears to be in contact with at least some of her clients there so that is a good sign.

I commissioned Sanura fror a coloured bust shot, paying her $25 up front. I was fairly certain in the note she said she'd have a sketch for me to look at the next day, but over recent notes below she claimed she'd said sometime that week. Either way, she missed that deadline as two weeks from the date I commissioned her I have heard nothing, and she posts a journal saying her laptop battery has fried and that she's thinking of doing adoptables.

Now this makes me curious about the status of my commission as I was supposed to have a sketch by now, but that deadline came and gone, her work queue says she hasn't even started on the piece, she doesn't seem to have acknowledged the missed deadline at all and generally I wanted to know what was up. Here is a screenshot of the queue img217.imageshack.us/img217/8113/sanqueue.jpg

She send a reply that rubs me quite the wrong way, telling me she doesn't like to be contacted on the status of commissions and to read her journals. Of course that sends up a red flag, any artist who doesn't want to be communicated with does. This leads to me posting the AB entry above for advice.

I ask for a refund as a result of this advice, not expecting there to be any problems with this since no work has been done on the piece. She initially refuses to refund me because she already spent it. Then she offers a refund, but with no certainty when or if this would even happen.

At this point she posts a journal, publicly complaining about her clients and it incites her watchers to bash her customers for being impatient and inconsiderate. The journal was later deleted but I anticipated this and saved a cap with some comments. I am one of the customers complained about in the comments, but even if I hadn't been the unprofessional attitude shocks me. Here is the cap pics.livejournal.com/shukivengeance/pic/000043bt

Here is our exchange via notes.






After sending that last note I file a dispute with Paypal.

Rapidly enough I get the refund from her, after she posts a few journals whining about needing money for the refund and for her battery. She receives some donations and someone else takes my commission spot, and the refund is sent with a snarky message attached to it along the lines of "I hope you're happy now" etc.

Not wanting there to be bad blood despite how the transaction failed I sent her a note saying thank you and that I appreciated the refund, had no ill will and wished her luck in the future.
She responds "Would have been nice had you waited just a little bit on the refund thing instead of giving me a black mark on my PayPal account that was completely unnecessary. So, your "I feel no ill will against you" seems quite insincere. But, whatever; I'm done."

When I send her the note I saw that her profile was changed. From her artist info on FA:

After my cue is empty, I will no longer be taking commissions due to multiple incidences and an unwarranted
dispute against me on PayPal. This has left me extremely bitter about doing further commissions or any other
work for people. Please do not contact me about doing work for you. I'm sorry..

Her journal footer also said "* -__- Issue resolved after an unnecessary dispute was filed on PayPal against me... Awesome... " but seems to have been removed now. I did not see what it said about me before that edit.

A little drama happens when I post a journal with my side of the story. I do not name names, but regardless Sanura reports me for harassment img208.imageshack.us/img208/4787/sanjournal2.jpg The person who tells them to report me for harassment came onto my page asking why I made the journal when I wasn't naming anyone. Trying to lure me into doing something report-worthy I guess?

After this, I looked at Sanura's FA page once more and the above information is now gone and replaced with "You win. I hope you're happy." (EDIT: This has now been deleted also)
All information, including her work cue and Terms of Service have been removed. Since her ToS was referred to a few times in this entry though, I have a screencap of it too which can be found here. img96.imageshack.us/img96/2500/santosub.png

Even though she has left FA and this entry may seem moot, I recall her leaving at least once before and there is every chance she may come back, or even return under another name. She is very rude and snarky, despite how nicely you may try to approach her about an issue.

EDIT: A cap of her journal announcing her return to DA and leaving FA due to 'drama' img641.imageshack.us/img641/2769/journalentry12954818441.png
After becoming aware of this entry, rather than defend herself here she posted this img7.imageshack.us/img7/7655/igetitigetit12954873226.png

Comments

[kairi-koitra.livejournal.com]

Personally I've never had an issue with this artist and i've worked with her on many occasions. She has an extremely fast turn around has ALWAYS been nice to me even when at one point she had to refund me.

This seems to me to be an isolated incident and I really wouldn't allow this to detour people from working with this artist.

My experience with the refund.
We had a disagreement that made the commission impossible for her to do. I was placed on a refund list and was given a refund within a week after the request as soon as my slot had been filled. The refund was prompt as soon as she had the funds she refunded them directly to me and sent me a note telling me they were completed.

Before being able to refund me she did inform me that she had to wait until my slot was filled as it was also stated in her tos. I knew that at the time the economy was bad and honestly I didn't really expect my refund as fast as I got it. I was truly amazed at how prompt she was. Even with this bump I still continued to work with the artist again.

She recently redid a tattoo design for me when another artist was having trouble finishing it. I had a two week turn around time on the completion of this project and even then she thought she took to long and did a free chibi of my character as a gift for the wait.

All in all I have almost 20 pieces by this artist and as stated I only had one bump so to speak that required a refund. She was NEVER rude to me and it was always very professional and very prompt with answers.

I really do think this was a closed experience with this artist and I hope others give her a chance.

She truly was an absolute gem to work with and I can't wait to get my next piece from her!

(frozen)

[angelaito.livejournal.com]

This seems like an isolated incident to me.
I've commissioned her many times before and she has always been very professional, polite, fast and easy to work with. My latest being my new icon, as shown in my current icon here, which I am very happy with and was done very quickly. She is always a pleasure to work with.

I've also ordered a few of her detailed busts from her before, which take a long time and work but are so worth it. One of these she even redid the entire image because she wasn't satisfied with the finished product the first time.

This was very impressive to me because even when I told her it was alright she insisted because she wanted to give me something she was happy with the outcome of. This is one of the qualities that make me continue to come back for more because I am tired of artists giving me mediocre work and not even be willing to fix mistakes they did on my characters. She always gives spectacular pieces of art in a speedy manor.

I've also worked with her on collabs in the past and she has always been very prompt to respond to anything that needs her attention, retains her speed of work, and makes sure everything is as good as she can do.

Once we had a client that for personal reasons, we could not finish their collab piece. She was very polite in telling them so and very promptly issued a partial refund for the work not completed once it was confirmed that the piece would not be finished.

She's also very kindly red lined artwork for me in the past, taking time out of her own schedule to help out a fellow artist.

I do hope others will continue to give her a chance. This seems like such an isolated incident and I've never had any issues with her. I can not say it enough that she is always so easy to work with amazingly fast turn around times and stunning work. Always.

(frozen)

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

I'm happy for you and all, but honestly you're necroposting on an A_B that's over two years old.

This is rather mindboggling, and if you feel the desire to say you've had a good experience with Sanura, you're better off using one of our Monthly Positive Review posts. We just had one made for June, strongly suggest sticking to that.

I'll be freezing this now.

(frozen)

[xetsa.livejournal.com]

I am a little surprised to find an A_B post on Sanura.

I have been a client of Sanura for a few years. In total I have gotten 38+ various pieces of art. From sketches, icons, and chibis, to full blown works. I've also had several collab commissions from her as well.

Not once in this many times commissioning her has she ever remotely done anything unethical or business like when she is contracted. Nor is she before or after the contract, either.

I am fairly well known amongst a lot of artists on FurAffinity. I strive very hard to be a good client but I also don't allow artists to step on my toes either. I won't do bad business, no matter matter what skill level an artist has.

Sanura is very easy to talk to and she keeps conversation to strictly to business when it matters.
Not once has she had to issue me a refund. There have been a few times she offered but I politely declined on my own accord and asked if she could try holding out til a later time to finish them.
Sure enough, my patience paid off and I was rewarded with artwork that showed not only her normal effort but sometimes, extra effort because she chose to repay my kindness and patience. She understands just as I do, that you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Not only does her style attract me from time to time for whatever image I have in mind, her willingness to work and ease to work with, keeps me one extremely happy repeat customer.

(frozen)

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

I'm happy for you and all, but honestly you're necroposting on an A_B that's over two years old.

This is rather mindboggling, and if you feel the desire to say you've had a good experience with Sanura, you're better off using one of our Monthly Positive Review posts. We just had one made for June, strongly suggest sticking to that.

I'll be freezing this now.