Onbthe thread thing: that’s good to know now. To me I always thought that the thread held the rules higher because anyone dealing through the thread had to agree to those terms. The characters that I am private it without marking freebie, those were characters I was still trying to place and still have been but I’m not going through that trouble anymore. I even stated that earlier. I didn’t do it because I thought nobody would notice. I did it because I was going to place them and possibly still use them. And I’ll do that when I actually have time then if it’s going to be so much of a problem for me to check not before I post a thread but before I take any offers on them.
Who: Criimi @Toyhou.se / ViranArts @DA
When: Present
What: Asking for full price for a design then only giving half even after several message reminders, Selling designs from the gift threads/or traded designs with no new artwork, charging higher prices for designs that have no new artwork
All evidence:
Upcharged guppicorn/Transfer log stating $25/Last piece of art uploaded
All gifted/traded designs up for sale with prices and some transfer logs
Gaia online adopt marked for $15 / Transfer log from gift thread
Statement about knowingly selling/vouchering gifted designs due to "financial reasons"
Evidence of only trading half design, yet asking for full price
Waiting on:
Evidence of claiming designs to not pay them off, yet buying more designs.
Edit: You can see in conversation screenshot 9 they did not erase them but put them under unlisted, hiding them. They are still most likely marked for sale even though they have no value. Please be careful not to buy these characters.
As always this is not an invitation to witch hunt, harass, or go after. Just a warning to anyone who trades or buys from them.
Conversation about events below:
You can see in the entire conversation chain here when I asked about it.
Incident one: Trading
All my evidence is located here for the trade problem.
Here is the original adopt posting. You can still click the link to latest bid to see it was indeed bought for $50 TOGETHER.
https://www.deviantart.com/cemaradopts/art/AUCTION-CLOSED-Genderbender-Mahou-Shoujo-757995676
You can see the chain of events in the screenshots but I'll summarize it here.
Basically I enquired about 2 characters on Criimis thread, they went through and favorited all the designs of mine they were interested in. Well waiting on that I decided against Andraste and just wanted the one they were trading/selling for 50. This design was "silver" from the original auction post. It came with the male headshot and the female full body since it was meant to be a male transforming into a female magical girl concept. They came together I did not know this at the time and just figured they were being traded together as a pair. After they replied they favorited the ones that interested them I replied offering a mad carnival design for her. They replied they weren't worth enough so I asked for specification on what they'd trade for her. They asked for my dreamy Titania and my dainties. All who are worth more than 50. I said no and offered 2 characters to meet the 50 dollar mark that they accepted and I excitedly transferred the characters. But when I received the transfer from Criimi the headshot boy was gone. I messaged them IMMEDIETLY asking about it and they claimed they "didn't know I wanted it" even though it was technically part of the design and part of the 50 value I traded for. I told them it was fine an to send it separately I was going to seperate them myself on transfer anyways. A few hours later I received no headshot and I mailed them again. They claimed to be out and away from their pc so they couldn't. I apologized for bothering them but then my suspicions were confirmed. An anonymous user who I did not show in my message screenshots mailed me alerting me the that they were one design and I had only received half of it by not getting the headshot. It has been more than 24 hours and I STILL have not received it. The user has been on, replied to their trading thread 3 times, and even resurrected their month old sale thread to ask if a user was STILL interested in purchasing a design. So I'm posting this beware as it seems apparent they removed it on purpose as they stated they didn't know I wanted it,and have refused to send it to me even though they've been active enough to ask for a purchase of their designs.
Incident 2: Discovering sale of gifted/traded characters for sale
I did some digging to verify claims they made about why the character was labeled as UFS-50 when the original buyer @Shiinichi told me they traded it to them. Criimi told me they just forgot to change the name due to being busy, but then me and some friends discovered their trade folder was full of gifted/traded designs. One was even marked $5 higher than the original sale even though no new art was bought with it.
This is all the evidence I was able to get before the characters were hidden to remove the evidence. I am not aware of any artist that allowed vouchers on gifted designs and know MANY do not allow them on traded designs unless it was for art/another design. This does not appear to be the case in this instance however. Some do not even have artists listed, so no tos can be followed.
Charging higher prices:
They claim some of the designs have more art, but one user has been told that several times with no proof the extra art existed and designs they've had for over a year are still marked higher with no new art.
This can be seen with the guppicorn they have marked for $30 when the trade log clearly states it was sold for $25 and new art was added.
Claiming characters:
I do not have evidence of this yet, but was told in the PSA General thread that this user has had trouble in the past claiming characters than not paying them off, only to be seen buying new ones. The user is said to be posting themself on this thread soon. This section will be updated when they do.
PayPal practises:
They also ask that all designs be paid for via family and friends.
Payment Plans:
One user has come forward, though I hear there is more, about Criimi buying characters through payment plans, paying at first then disappearing. The user in question did not want their name brought up out of fear Criimi would drop the payment and they really needed it. They however a week or 2 ago dropped the payment now wanting their money back even though they hadn't paid in months.
This is the user who owns the nebnom allowing us to share their story, and their panic over Criimi suddenly wanting a refund after almost a year.
This is a user who approached us in their favor awhile ago, at the time we didn't have permission to post their pm due to the nebnom users wishes. Now that we do here it is.
If you have any of your own stories please come forward to myself or Lotor.
Please be safe out there.
I’m going to add this on because I realized I forgot to tag wHEEZE but I also want to put this out there, there are days where I have little to no free time at all and I’m trying to work on projects in between those days as well as fit in time for me to rest. Under no circumstances was I’m really or even intentionally trying to trade Characters I got for free. My exact thoughts to myself when I was making that thread were that I was going to quick throw it up so I could bump it when I have a free minute and address trades every few days or so or in some of my downtime between my projects
Criimi thought I'd jump in because this thread seems to be causing you a lot of distress, and I'm sorry to hear about that.
For now, I suggest you take a couple deep breaths and stop thinking about defending yourself. I know that sounds bad but let me explain - From your wording, it sounds like you're catastrophising in your head and it's causing you a lot of anxiety. Catastrophising is a thought process that makes you panic because your brain starts snowballing your fears into a gigantic mess. You're exhibiting fears about this reputation never going away, which is completely understandable.
There's no need to fuel the feeling of being attacked - somebody just pointed out a mistake, and mistakes happen with inexperience. They just want to make sure nobody - including you - gets harmed in continuing that mistake. You're safe, everything is okay. A mistake is a learning experience, and it's okay to make them as long as you do learn for them. So just take the suggestions in stride and remember that that's all that needs to be done. It'll help you a lot.
My personal suggestion to you is this;
If you have characters that aren't ready to be put up for offers accurately, it's best to hold off on putting them up for offer until you have the time to make sure that everything is in order. Otherwise, people will end up offering on things they're not supposed to be offering on, or even get the wrong idea of your intentions considering this PSA.
FreeFallingUp13 thank you for that. I do try my best not to get worked up over this but I do have diagnosed anxiety so I do tend to get stressed out about it very quickly and do the other mental conditions I feel like I have to defend myself for everything I say which I realize I am doing right now and I am so sorry about that. I have hidden all of the characters that I’m not going to put up for offers. All of the others I really want gone{ A few of which I might actually take down now that I’m thinking a little bit clearer. }
And again I’m going to explain myself a little to mini ramble mostly to just get it out of my system. Feel free to completely ignore this and anyone can feel free to ignore this honestly. I’m getting so worked up because at the moment it really doesn’t feel like this will go away. Especially when I find out through close friends of mine or decent friends of mine that they have had people approach them and tell them not to do a trade with me or to cancel a Trade that I have over half completed { and I’ve been extremely worried that the person who did that is going to follow me and do the same with a comfort character who I am getting back right now.} Sorry for this mini ramble bit and
I just wanted to say thank you so much for adding in your input and staying a bit neutral on it. I really appreciate having the unbiased addition
I am coming back here to add my half of what was added. I no longer felt comfortable finishing up the payment plan because of the persons following me around from this thread. I did not know the real use of what the money from the plan was going to and if I would’ve things would have been a lot different. I was backing out because I really didn’t want to continue making the plan. A friend of mine agreed to help me out because they also like the character as well and I will be giving half of the ownership to side friend. I am paying it off even quicker now because I now know the reason behind what the money is going to pay and because of the people following me around or rather following around my trades, I don’t feel comfortable in backing out of anything
I scheduled the multiple plans because my area of work/volunteer that pays under the table had me set to be able to pay off everything at the end of next month. I had to leave that due to family reasons and that only happened recently
Malachi I was an idiot at the time And I was over excited. I also figured that the item that I made would be able to add value in case something were to happen. I also needed something to base a project on for school which is what the item was for, a school project. I did ask before if it would be all right
It does not matter what the money was used for. You agreed to a condition, began following it, then stopped foe months before deciding it wasn't for you anymore. People will not trust selling to you. What if you were a landlord, took a contract with a tenant then received no months pay after the first month. You try for months to get them to pay until finally they say, I didnt even live there! I want my money back! Thats essentially what you did. Except in the real world places like that have no return policies so you can't get your money back. No one has to tell you why they need the cash. You agreed to something, paid one payment, used the character for months including creating collectables for it (Which you were told was ok most likely in hopes you'd pay them off again!) But you continued to sit silent til now. This thread is "following" you because you continue to prove you are a bad customer and community member. People may change their terms because of your past and make a nonrefundable down payment when working with you now, and I do not blame them. Again I must reiterate this. No one has to tell you why they need the money for you to pay money you owe. you agreed, you began payment, then you went radiosilent. It's other people's decision to work with you from there and what precautions to take.
I will say one thing here as I'm not the biggest fan of call-out culture, I did not say what the money was for and I did have other issues in my life that came up when I asked for payment but they were still issues that at one point I asked for money, was promised they'd send something and then they'd go silent.
Criimi, I truly truly don't mean for these people to constantly hound you but I l have been badgered over this neb and to be pulled along since like.... March(???) for money, just to have the plan cancelled and then later in the night you swear it will be paid by early November. As you know, we have an agreement with someone else now and again, I apologise but I'm so tired of keeping up with this. I'm so depressed and upset and nervous now because of this.
@Maple-egg
I'm sorry Maple but could you clarify something? You just said you never said what the money was going towards, but Criimi said in their post word for word "I am paying it off even quicker now because I now know the reason behind what the money is going to pay" Do you know what they're talking about?
The majority of the money was intended to go to help my mother pay off my fathers medical bills from cancer after he passed away in January this year. They did not know that until now apparently. I did give other reasons throughout the time of the plan, like needing tires on my car, but the fact that it was for bills after my fathers death is what they're talking about.