GOOD NEWS UPDATE *WARNING*: Commission Fraud

*UPDATE* February 7th,  2015: Opening a case with the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection lit a fire under Paypal's ass, and they refunded me for my missing commission!

STATUS

Company responded 

PayPal said:
Explanation of closure 
Although PayPal acted in accordance with the User Agreement, we have issued a credit of $--.-- to your Account balance in an effort to resolve this matter and in hopes that you will continue to use our services for years to come. We offer our sincerest apologies for any difficulties you may have encountered while using our services. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns, or if I can be of further assistance to you.

Relief 
Your complaint is regarding a request of a refund for a payment you made using your PayPal account because you state you had not received the item purchased. At the outset, it is important to note that you received a refund of $--.-- on February 6, 2015, which was applied to your PayPal Account balance.

$ --.--

Dispute

Response 
On March 1, 2006 you created a PayPal account, ("Account"), at which time you agreed to PayPal's user agreement ("User Agreement"). On June 12, 2014, you sent a payment from your PayPal Account in the amount of $--.-- to the seller. On January 28, 2015, you initiated a PayPal Buyer Complaint case stating you had not received your purchase. At this time the Seller was sent notifications via email and the Resolution Center advising them you had disputed this payment and asks for them to work directly with you toward a resolution. The complaint was closed without a refund as the purchase was not eligible for PayPal's Purchase Protection. Pursuant to §13.2a of the User Agreement, you must open a Dispute within the timeframe noted in the transaction details. Your Buyer Dispute was initiated after the deadline date, therefore was ineligible for this protection. More information on this process can be found via PayPal's online Help Center articles; copies have been included for your convenience.

It's not the solution I was hoping for, but it's probably about as good as it's going to get.
I would advise anyone else who didn't get  any sort of resolution from Paypal to do the same so they may at least have a chance at being refunded, and so that Paypal may consider re-evaluating their policy on refunds for commissioned artwork after seeing so many complaints against the same person. 

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Janurary 28th: I have submitted a formal complaint with the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, hoping that they will step in and ask Paypal to help out. I'll keep you guys posted; in the meantime, please take the time to file a dispute with Paypal to bring their attention to this mass fraud.

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*UPDATE* January 23rd: As quoted by another client who's been helping out with figuring out what we can do --- "Apparently, if enough of us submit claims against this seller, regardless of the time for complaints having elapsed, they are still on record against the seller. According to the paypal response, if enough complaints against a user are filed, paypal may investigate."

So bottom line, if you paid for your commission through Paypal, submit a claim, even it says it's past the deadline. As long as it's flagged in their system, that's all that matters, so please do it!

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December 24th: For those who were wondering just how many people have been affected by this... so far I have been contacted by 16 other clients who have told me that they have paid for their work (some single pieces, some multiple pieces) and received little to no updates from the artist, and no completed work. It has been 18 weeks since the artist has been on deviantArt and I am starting to hear from more and more people that are in the same position. 

If you've come to this journal looking for help, I have good and bad news.

The GOOD news is, if you paid through DA's commission widget, there is a strong possibility that you can get your points back. Just open a case with the staffers, and hopefully they can help you out. 

The BAD news is, if you paid with paypal longer than 180 days ago... you're out of luck and there's nothing you can really do. 

Either way, if you are one of those who are unsure of whether or not you've been ripped off, either leave a comment here or note me and I'll do what I can to help you out.

I'm not sure what having this journal up will really accomplish, but if nothing else it will deter others from handing over their money without considering that this could happen to them next.

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*Edit*: I have since found the worklist of artists and will probably start noting people a little at a time to find out what the status is on their commissions as well. The list is not updated, as my commissions at the top of the list have not even been marked as paid even though I did pay for them, and there are at least 10-11 people other than me that for sure have paid.

I would also like to take the opportunity to remind you guys to make sure you send your commission payments as a payment for "Goods / Services" ALWAYS, to protect yourself from being taken advantage of. Paying the paypal fees is worth it for your peace of mind. 
Also keep in mind that Paypal only has a window of 45 days from the date of payment to open up a dispute... which is even more of a reason to wait until you see proof of work before agreeing to pay artists. Please don't ever send payment up front if you have never worked with an artist before, or there's a good chance you'll end up getting burned.

*Edit 2*: I've gotten in contact with several of the clients on her list that were confirmed as having Paid, and none of them have received their work either. It looks like no one has received any work at all since her last update, nor had any sort of communication regarding when the work will be done. 

*Edit 3*: Still nothing. It's now going on 12 weeks since the artist was last online, so I'm chalking this up to a loss. I wish there was something that deviantArt or Paypal could do.

*Edit 4*: We're at 18 weeks now and still no word. At this point I doubt the artist is coming back.

Edit 5: I've attempted to contact Nina through the email address that her paypal is linked to. I'm not expecting much, but we'll see what happens. 

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I really hate having to do this, but this is the second time this year I've been a victim of fraud and I don't want anyone else to fall victim, as it seems this artist has also ripped off many many more people than me. 

I commissioned [ this ] artist for three sketches back in May, and so far (after a lot of annoying notes) I have received two of the three. 

I was initially told that my work was scheduled for completion around mid-June and showed a list of where I was at on her work-list. The first came in on June 19th, so I assumed that (according to her previous work habits) that my other two would be soon to follow. 
But that was not the case. 

I paid for all three pieces on June 12th, before my work was even started.

Not only did she skip over me in her [ list ] (my commissions were originally all three in a row, this has since been changed obviously) and give me vague reasons as to why she couldn't finish my work, I was promised on several occasions that they would be done within "a week", which she did not follow through on. I was patient at first, because I understand art-block and real-world problems, but after a while her excuses became stale and recycled, to the point where I no longer believed that I would get the work that I paid for. Here is a log of my messages to and from, over the course of the last five months:

June 26th (from me to artist): "Hey, just checking in to see how those other commissions are going? It's been a week since I heard from you last. Did you hit a snag?"
June 27th (response from artist): "Hey, dont worry, both of your commissions will be finished in day or two, lol you are kind of right with snag, but for me snags are not strong, I am already sketching Gabriel & Phillipa, but is always good to ask "
July 10th (from me to artist): "Just checking in again... it's been a couple of weeks and I'm starting to worry. If something's come up please let me know"
July 10th (response from artist): "It is completely understandable for you checking. Sorry for making you worry, I've started working on Gabriel & Phillipa "
July 15th (apology from artist): "Sorry for lateness again, I am really going trough artist crises, but I've promised myself if I don't finish your commissions till the end of week I will return you a money + fees, are you okay with that." ------- promise of a refund if commissions are not finished within a week
July 15th (from me to artist): "It's okay hon, I understand art crisis, I've been going through a rather bad one lately too. That's fine with me, just don't force it if it's not coming to you "
July 16th (response from artist): "No it is not fair toward you, you paid when I told you, and now nothing is coming out from me. (...) I will still follow my request, it is mental training game after all  so expect it soon.
August 6th (from me to artist): "Hey there.... still waiting, and I just realized this. Are you any closer to finishing my commissions?"

After this I had several back-and-forth notes with her in which she  was very snarky and stated that I should "chill out" because "commissions are supposed to be fun", in which in which it is clear as day that she has no respect for commissioning as a business transaction, nor does she care that she's taking people's money and not giving what was agreed in a timely manner (i.e. 6 months or less). I also asked several times for a refund, as was promised, and was not only flat out ignored but not given a refund. 

I was sent my second piece on September 2nd, and promised that the third piece would be finished within a week. I figured, maybe if I left the artist alone and gave her some space, she'd finish my work... but I have heard nothing from her since. I sent her another note on November 2nd, and it hasn't even been read yet. She hasn't even been on the site in 8 weeks. 

The artist has since closed her commission list, but if she opens them again be wary- this artist is prone to taking on more work than she can handle, seems as though she is working quite fast to get through her list and then stops without warning, and is very lax with other peoples' money. She probably had close to 20-30 people behind me on her list, and I am also concerned that they have been taken advantage of too because the artist has not uploaded any art since she finished my last commission. Unfortunately, the list she originally linked me to has been taken down, and every time someone leaves a comment on her profile to get in contact with her, she immediately hides them... so I am unable to get in contact with these other people and find out what's going on.  

Please... please, PLEASE, if you decide to commission this artist, insist that you will not pay her until you see completed work. Do not let her take your money and string you along by promising finished work with no proof of work or results. Do not let months pass without asking for an update. Make sure you stay on top of this artist. Commissions should never take longer than six months from the time the artist has taken your money. 

A few other clients have taken the time to upload journals of their own to help others out, so please feel free to contact any of us if you need help figuring out how to file a dispute.

~Commission Fraud~ Hello!
I know... long time, no see.
As you can tell by the title, this isn't a normal/conventional journal entry.  
If you've commissioned an artist by the name of Nina-Mandarina and didn't receive what you "ordered", then you may want to read this:
Back in June (2014), I commissioned an artist on Deviant Art. 
I paid the artist and was told that my commissions would be ready by the end of June. 
The end of June passed, so did July. I sent a 'note' on August 6th. 
The reply that I had in return was that, the artist was going travelling between the 9th and 19th and, it would be finished after that date.
Weeks passed. I didn't hear anything. 
In late October, I went onto the artist's DA page. The last time that she had signed in was six weeks before then. It was then that it was looking less likely that she was going to produce any work... but I (foolishly)   An Artist to Avoid + Take Action*Edit 08-02-2015* - as suggested by The-Shadowsmiths I have filed a complaint with The Consumer Financial protection Bureau in the hopes of coming to some closure with this case.  I would prompt anyone who has experienced something similar, to do the same - check out the results for yourself


With regard to my last journal, I have decided that it might be wise to name the artist to avoid - I also do this, as a plea to others who have commissioned her, as I have a plan of action that we can all take to move forward with this case.
I do not want anyone to harass this person.  We're all adults and better than that, she is already hiding from dA, and seeing loads of aggression on her page will definitely not encourage her to come back - those concerned have already left her multiple comments requesting responses and are gathering to d