zim Nah it's all good! Probably for the best to have a public list as well, for accountability. And I've contacted one of the need-info people on the private list, and they're pretty pissed off cos they were ghosted. But they also seem to have given up on the comm, which is just so weird to me? I mean . . . dude, they've taken my money. There is no way in hell I'm letting that go. But that seems to be normalized in that community? o-0 Man, idk.
Heyo! I wasn't intending to post a PSA at first but matters have forced my hand, and I find it now prudent to let the community know how unwise it may be to work with Quillcoil. I left a comment on her journal and was blocked in turn. As someone who Quillcoil actually owes art to, this is very unprofessional and concerning and I felt I now needed to make a PSA to let others know.
The artist in question: Quillcoil (DA) (Patreon) (Twitter) (Ko-fi) / Qulll (TH)
In July 2017 I ordered a chibi commission and two customs:
I've contacted her a few times in the intervening period, and eventually got the chibi in 2018:
april 2018 - dragon chibi received
dragon chibi in gallery
It is now August 2020 and today, Quillcoil posted this status, which has since been deleted:
https://www.deviantart.com/quillcoil/journal/Do-Not-Note-Me-853152907
(screenshot)
I posted two (admittedly) irate comments owing to the frustration of my own situation as a customer who has been owed work for 3 years now and have little to no updates, and was blocked:
As a related aside, a fellow commissioner awaiting art since about 2015 posted a beware on this artist in 2018:
As you can see, Quillcoil has owed a lot of people artwork, and today, blocked one of the customers. The artist does not have a public work list, and their work ethic and communication concerning owed artworks is questionable and concerning. I recommend that people do not commission this artist and to be wary of transactions with them.
The artist left an indirect response to the commenters on the journal nearly an hour later with their reasoning for their lack of communication and poor work ethic, as can be seen in this screenshot:
Thanks be to Vespisia, who rewrote this nicely and took my rage out of it! Chuus ❤ ❤ ❤
Update 29/08/2020
Yesterday Quillcoil sent me a note containing a list of clients and a statement on her intent to refund me. I sent this response. A few hours later I got this enigmatic note back, which I didn't respond to given its apparent lack of relevance.
As of now I'm respecting Quillcoil's wishes to keep the client list private, but a rough breakdown is: 60+ names on the list, and of those 15+ have been completed or refunded. The rest are either active, awaiting refund, or needs more info.
Update 19/04/2021
Quillcoil made a post explaining their side here.
There's also a journal on their DA, containing a google form for refunds/etc.
To anyone else Quillcoil owes art to:
zim is making a public list of the artwork owed by Quillcoil, please contact them if you'd like to be added to the list!
216th Alright, sweet. And I think people give up because it's just been so long, and there are a lot of art scammers, especially on DA. Maybe they just don't want to be bothered anymore, too much stress and not worth their time. Some people hate contacting artists multiple times for commissions, they feel guilty for "bothering" the artist (btw don't, you absolutely have a right to ask for updates for something you paid money for)
Though the situation involving myself and umbral-wind has since been resolved with this artist, I feel I can share this story now.
Beau commissioned them for a small custom of a fox/dog creature from QuillCoill meant for myself in April 2018. It was $70 USD and at the time the artist was dealing with a number of personal and financial issues so it wasn't much of a rush. Two years pass, and Beau actually noted QuillCoill for any progress and a refund if the work wasn't completed in a month's time in November 2019 that went unanswered.
They of course continued to post quite actively on DA in the mean time, and I eventually commented publicly on one of their submissions (that I assume is also deleted now) in April 2020, asking if we could actually get a response. They noted me in turn saying they would have preferred a note, to which I replied, no note was ever answered in the first place and to contact Beau.
They did come in contact, promising a turn around time within that month, but technically the allocated time Beau had initially noted had long since passed and said she would prefer the refund. Instead of doing so, they made a mock up of the design we had initially asked for, and when Beau requested the refund again, the artist more or less said they would sell the design (a custom made to our specifications mind you) to make up for the losses on the refund. After sending the $70 refund, they ended up selling the design they hashed up for us for $90 soon after. It was a very vague and general idea for a character so it wasn't a biiig deal, but the entire interaction did rub me in a bad way and I had since unwatched them because of it.
So I would be wary to deal with this artist with anything but already finished designs for any future endeavors.
quicklevin Thank you for sharing your experiences! And yeah . . . that's some pretty scummy behavior =/
Yikes holy taco tuesday! i got the same exact problem with this user. Good to see that i'm not the only one.
I don't have any income, so truly no money to refund. I take on a bit of extra work each month to pay for my phone and some services. I'm still delivering owed art regularly and I have lost a few orders but most of them are kept/were recorded before I lost my home in 2018. I am currently paying on a large payment plan, I don't have more money to handle the larger refunds. I am harrassed when I make new adoptable sales so I don't even draw adoptables to make income now. I have not had income for years // am not homeless/are living only by the generosity of a hard-working roommate,
I posted that status because I was in an unsafe situation and messages that I cannot help to fix cause panic attacks, and I have been hospitalized for/suffered an unpayable debt from. I am currently physically disabled and have untreated medical and no family or other assistance. It causes me enormous grief to be unable to amend a situation that was made worse by being stuck (in something I have struggled for a few years to define, but have come to terms with as abuse). It doesn't seem okay to alert thousands of my watchers on behalf of these people so I do not make a public post to address anymore.
You may message me directly. I do my best to make a little progress every day.
I am going to give my insight on the situation as I have commissioned art before (well, its only once...) and done many art trades before and I can say that communication IS key!
Now personally I have never commissioned them and I don’t plan to now because of this PSA and I have other reasons.
One, when they do communicate for some reason it sounds quite passive aggressive. Like they are trying to literally deny their own wrong actions that has affected MANY people (the amount of owed art they have from YEARS ago is honestly appalling, never seen such a list of art owed YEARS ago.).
Two, their poor communication with their clients honestly scares me, and adding to how passive aggressive they sound, they are also unclear. Their messages honestly don’t clear up EVERYTHING and still leaves some things in the shadows, which is honestly just so suspicious AND unprofessional.
Three, their actions of guilt tripping and honestly scummy behavior in general to their clients makes me want to back away. When I do art trades or trades in general I try to be as clear as possible to my person who is trading with me and when I got my first commission the artist was so clear to me on the progress, the payment, etc. But this artists actions are just. Scummy.
Ill stop rambling now (and I am probably making no sense) but I hope things get resolved soon! :(
-Victory
Hello, just a passer-by in the thread that's been keeping a close eye on things.
I noticed a discrepancy in the linked google form and your post here, Qulll - I'm pointing this out in good faith, and I'm assuming that it's just an oversight.
In the form you offer a voucher for adoptables as an option for those whom you owe work or refunds; and yet, in your post here, you mention that you don't create adopts due to harassment; it's up to you on how to handle this of course, but I wanted to bring it to your attention that these two things contradict one another. c:
