Warning: Long post ;w;. This is my first time writing a PSA, so I'm sorry if anything is unclear!
A few days ago I asked in the general PSA thread for some advice on filing a chargeback for a certain artist, where I learned two other users knew who I was talking about and had similar issues with her. After privately corresponding with both of them, we agreed that others should be warned, so here we are.
Note: Please don't harass or bash the artist! Any updates to the situation will be edited onto the bottom of this post.
Patreon (this is her new Patreon, she still has a broken link to her old Patreon on her deviantArt page) - WARNING: NSFW Artwork
Ko-Fi
Her old username on deviantArt was RUNA-W.
What: 2 animated headshots -> 2 fullbodies
When: March 16th, 2018 | Order changed June 30th 2018.
Issue: Art is still undelivered as of today with no refund promised, and the artist seems to have disappeared from all of her accounts. Furthermore, she has neglected many of the people on her to-do list, which is still not up-to-date.
After seeing RunaStark's animated icons, I decided to commission her for two and contacted her on March 5th. She replied on March 16th, so I gave her my PayPal email to send an invoice. At the time of her reply, I was on vacation so I promised to send payment after my flight home. 3 hours after this chain of notes ended, she sent me preliminary sketches of my commission.
Sketches: Sketch 1 and Sketch 2, uploaded on March 17th, 2018.
Once I got back on March 19th, I received another update from her and I paid the invoice. Two emails are linked to it, both are blocked out for privacy but one was on the drop-down menu displaying the payment and the other was in the invoice details itself. I sent her a note to let her know payment was sent, which she read.
Sketch update: Sketch 3, uploaded on March 19th, 2018.
After this, our correspondence dropped until months later. She became somewhat inactive on deviantArt shortly afterwards, but I thought nothing of it at the time because she had worked on my commissions so quickly. When she returned on March 28th, she posted what seems to be personal art, and 3 adopts in a relatively short amount of time. This was troubling to me and those I have spoken to about Runa because we did not see any work on commissions. Around this time, another artist who was engaged in an art trade with her called her out in a comment on the second adopt she posted, on April 15th 2018. When Runa did not reply, the artist commented again on the third auction Runa posted.
Runa never replied to these comments directly. However, she began posting commissions in rapid succession immediately following the third adopt I mentioned, which I can only assume is due to what the artist said about her work ethic. She also finished the art trade with said artist. Overall, after this prod, Runa finished about 4 commissions and the 1 art trade in rapid succession. She also posted this journal dedicated to her commissioners, where she included her Discord for those who wanted to message her there. (As an aside, I contacted the artist who publicly called her out and was told that the journal was only made because that artist noted her afterwards and spoke to her about what was going on).
I was concerned about the lack of communication for my commission as well since I was not on her to-do list, so I decided to contact her through Discord. For those who are unfamiliar with Discord, before you can directly message someone, they must accept your friend request first. After I sent her a request on May 8th, she added me almost immediately (this chat is with my sister, who sent me screenshots) so I messaged her ASAP since she seemed to be online. She never replied to my initial message, or the message I sent on May 22nd (same screenshot).
Realizing I wouldn't get a response on Discord, I decided to try her deviantArt again and noted her on June 18. She responded this time but told me she couldn't give me a refund, so I asked her if she could give me a partial refund and a make-up commission instead to make up for the $200 I paid originally. She read this note and did not respond. I gave her some time to respond and when she didn't, I prodded her on June 27th. In her response, she told me she was confused by my order, which I understood since English was not her first language. My sister helped me write a (hopefully clearer) note on what I meant by a partial refund and make-up commission, to which she told me she could not give me a refund in any way and offered to draw 2 full-bodies instead. I accepted her offer and sent her references, which she responded to on June 30th. Then, I received the sketches for my new commission on July 8th.
Sketches: Sketch 4 and Sketch 5, uploaded on July 8th, 2018.
After this, all contact was dropped... again. I waited a month because I thought the progress made was a telling sign she would finish quickly, but she disappeared from deviantArt. It was getting closer to the last date I could file a PayPal dispute so, seeing her inactivity on dA, I tried to contact one of her PayPal emails on August 27. At this point, I was no longer interested in trying to make a bargain with her and just wanted a refund if she didn't finish. She didn't reply. The dispute date was getting nearer so I pledged $1 to her new Patreon and DMed her there on September 6th, which is still unread as of today.
My last attempt at contact with her is with the second PayPal email that was on her invoice. I sent her an email on September 8th. Given her inactivity on all accounts recently, I don't expect a reply in a timely manner. I'm giving her a bit of time, but if she doesn't respond by the date I set in my email, I will move forward with the PayPal dispute for a partial refund.
I realize that 2 months may not be a lot of time to finish 2 full-bodies, but she has demonstrated that she can work quickly, and the fact is that I sent payment in March. If the PayPal dispute date wasn't so near, I wouldn't be in such a frenzy to try and get a reply out of her but at this point, I don't trust her to finish my commission in a timely manner or to give me a refund of her own volition. I also acknowledge that I was a bit too lax with asking for updates from her, as I was busy this summer and in-and-out due to vacations and other commitments. By the time I realized I needed to talk to her about this commission, she had already gone inactive.
Tl;dr Timeline:
- 3/05/18: Initial contact for commission request
- 3/16/18: Commission accepted.
- 3/17/18: Initial sketches sent
- 3/19/18: Progress WIP sent. Payment sent. Communication falls through.
- 4/23/18: Runa publishes a journal dedicated to her commissioners, apologizing for her long list.
- 5/08/18: I add Runa on Discord and DM her shortly after she adds me, asking about her to-do list. No response.
- 5/22/18: Again, I ask about Runa's to-do list through Discord. No response.
- 6/18/18 --> 6/19/18: At this point, Dolce has already commissioned someone else for animated headshots of the same characters and I am tired of the lack of communication, so I ask Runa for a refund. She responds and says she cannot refund me, so I ask for new commissions or a refund- whichever would be faster. The note goes read but unresponded to.
- 6/27/18 --> 6/30/18: Since Runa never replied to my commission change, I ask her what's going on. She tells me she didn't understand my previous note, so I send her a new one with compromises. She instead offers to do 2 HD Fullbody commissions for me, which I accept. I send her new references and she accepts the new commissions.
- 7/08/18: She sends me sketches of the new commissions, which I approve. Communication falls through again. Since then, I've contacted her PayPal emails and her Patreon due to her inactivity on deviantart, and have not received a response.
I spoke to cini regarding RunaStark and she graciously allowed me to share her experience with the artist. Here is her timeline of events:
- 10/20/17: Initial contact for commission
- 11/5/17: Payment sent.
- 1/19/18 --> 1/20/18: cini requests a refund on any unstarted orders. She is told that Runa has started on all of her comms and is promised a sketch by the next day, which she never received. Communication falls through.
- 4/17/18 --> 4/18/18: cini asks for an update due to the lack thereof. Here is Runa's response.
- 4/23/18: cini asks to change the details of her commissions in order to make them easier to complete, which Runa agrees to.
- 6/17/18:
cini contacts Runa again to change commission details, which Runa accepts, and asks to see the sketch, to which she receives no response. After this, communication falls through.
- 9/07/18 --> current: Cini has tried contacting Runa on Patreon and noting her, but has yet to receive a reply. As of today, she has received no sketches.
BlueSketchingWalrus was also kind enough to share their experience with RunaStark! Here is the timeline of events:
- 10/28/17: Initial contact and payment sent.
- 11/04/17 --> 11/05/17:
Blue asks to see sketch WIPs, which Runa agrees to. Communication falls through after this.
- 1/28/18: Blue asks to change the commission. This note is never replied to.
- 2/07/18: Due to the lack of response to the previous note, Blue repeats the request. This time Runa replies and accepts.
- 3/2/18:
Blue inquires about the prices for more commissions. This note is never replied to.
- 4/18/18 --> 4/19/18: Following the public callout, Blue contacts Runa to ask for any sort of visual progress on the commission. Runa asks them to write tomorrow, which they do. No replies on deviantart occur after this.
- 4/25/18: After Runa's public journal to her commissioners, Blue messages Runa on Discord. Although Runa replies, she doesn't seem to address Blue's concerns about sketches or updates.
- 5/01/18: A brief conversation about Runa not addressing Blue's concerns occurs, in which Runa says she uses Google Translate to communicate in English.
- 5/02/18: With the help of a friend, Blue translates their original message into Russian for Runa. After Runa replies, Blue's friend translated it into English - she says she will send Blue sketches after 2 orders she was working on at the time, which Blue says is fine.
- 6/15/18 --> 7/02/18: Due to the lack of updates, Blue prods Runa but receives no reply. Around this time, an anonymous user posts about RunaStark on Artist-Grapevine (the post and blog is now gone), which Blue alerts Runa to. Again, Blue asks to see the sketch they were promised.
- 7/08/18: Runa replies and asks for links to the characters again, which Blue provides.
Runa promises a sketch is coming. Communication drops after this.
- 8/06/18 --> current: Blue has tried prodding Runa on Discord more than once. As of today, they have received no sketches.
Overall...
Runa is a great artist with incredible talent, and she shows the capacity to work quickly and efficiently... when prodded. However, given all these experiences, it's rather clear that Runa is quite unorganized and selectively communicative with her commissioners. For example, her to-do list is littered with comments from who I assume are commissioners asking to be added. I believe she is going through some things in real life, hence her absence from her accounts, but she has kept almost all of us in the dark about it and, given her lack of reliable communication thus far, I cannot in good faith recommend doing business with her in the foreseeable future unless she shows signs of change.
Furthermore, despite her large to-do list, Runa doesn't do things in order. For example, I ordered in March 2018 and received 3 WIPs in rapid succession, then 2 WIPs after I changed my order. On the other hand, both cini and BlueSketchingWalrus ordered in October 2017 and have seen no visual progress other than promises that they will receive sketches. I don't know what influences Runa to work on which order, since as far as I've seen she doesn't go straight through her list, but it isn't fair for her older commissioners who have been waiting for upwards to a year and can no longer file a PayPal dispute. If anyone knows where to contact her now, it would be greatly appreciated!
9/13/18: January and xEleyia have also shared their experiences with the user on page 1.
96hime has linked another Facebook page belonging to Runa, although it seems to be inactive. They also provided screenshots of a conversation they had with Runa, which may provide insight on Runa's current disappearance from her social media or situation in general.
9/14/18: MinawaSeiko and Yoclesh have shared their experiences with the user on page 2.
Yoclesh also kindly provided screenshots of a conversation with Runa that might provide further insight on why she disappeared from her accounts.
Update 9/16/18: Runa is replying to messages on Discord and has mentioned she will address things in a journal.
Artysaur also shared an experience with Runa on page 2.
Update 9/30/18: Runa has finished my (and MinawaSeiko's) commission pieces so I've closed the dispute and marked this as semi-resolved for the moment.
(Note: I'll mark this as fully resolved when I see that she has finished commissions for others who have spoken to me about missing commissions, though I'll keep this up as a warning to future commissioners.)
Update 11/5/18: I and others I have spoken to haven't received any updates from Runa herself and she hasn't been active on dA for 2 weeks now, but a user who wishes to remain anonymous sent me screenshots of Runa taking commissions on vk.com recently. Here are links to her her page and her group, though both are private to only authorized users.
Update 2/29/20: Runa has returned to both dA and vk and posted announcements on both. Here is her announcement on dA. Old customers have notified me that she is reaching out to them through notes to finish their commissions - if you have yet to receive a note from her, I'd suggest messaging her at this point. I hope everyone can get their owed art in time!
I get people are angry with the situation but at the end of the day anyone who commissions artists risks the chance of being scammed. That being said I know friends still waiting for commissions from her but they don't get aggressive to people just for speaking about their relationship with artist and trying to help the situation by giving more information.
@96hime sorry for people attacking you hun *snuggles*
@96Hime Ah ok! Thank you for sharing! I apologize if my comment was insenitive, rude, or made you uncomfortable! If you felt that way, Im sorry, that wasnt my intention ;-;
Well, it's reached the date that I warned Runa I would chargeback her, so I've gone ahead with the dispute for a partial refund. I'll provide updates about it when relevant (i.e. she responds directly on PayPal, however unlikely that is.)
January and xEleyia thank you for sharing your experiences with her! I've edited them into the main post. I'm sorry to hear you went through similar frustrating experiences - I did notice Runa's art looked slightly different around the time of her return in April, but I chalked it up to a style change. After hearing from you and the art trade artist, I can see that she rushed owed art.
@96hime thanks for the information! I've added the screenshots and the Facebook page you linked us to. From what I read, this might explain some of her tendencies like her sudden absences, including her current one. Otherwise, I don't know enough about Russia or its healthcare to comment any further on her statements, though I've asked someone from Russia if they could provide any insight. If it is true, I hope she's doing well and will return to her commissioners soon. Personally, though, I will say I don't think this fully excuses her lack of communication with all her commissioners as she continued to post Patreon art for her supporters while leaving us in the dark. I hope you can get your commissions or a refund soon though.
Iceliarea//hugs back thank you hun T // T
Lotor Its okay, I was taken back at first cause I expected questions rather than people interrogating me honestly, but as mentioned earlier, I can see where you guys were coming from, after all, I stopped publishing my art and emptied out my accounts, though I was never scammed before, so I didn't even thought about people could think I'm pretending to be someone :/ I'm sorry to hear you were included in the anurinchii incident as well urgh..
@MythicDraws don't worry I didn't mean you with this honestly its fine ! As said I was more overwhelmed and the last comment someone wrote took me back cause it was really passive aggressive and implying that I defended her .-.
Synchronicity Anytime, I really hope I could help out, I messaged her on her new fb, and her old one as well as discord again, I really hope to get a reply. In case I do I'll update you guys here too, the only method I haven't tried so far was, to message her through patreon, since i haven't pledged yet I couldn't do so ..
And I'm not quite familiar with Russia laws and such myself, I just know from another friend who's Russian, that there are parts over there which are fucked up indeed, I asked her too and she said she can imagine this being true, it wouldn't surprise her if it is, if this is any help for you too? Though I haven't done my internet research yet, a friend of mine googled it and said the last records of such experiments were from 2012 (those which she found) but she told me to be careful if I look it up cause the content is quite graphic so a heads up for anyone who wants to google it !
Anyways I can't file a dispute anymore, since it's been a year or so already when I commissioned her.. :/ it's a shame so I hope she'll come back and finish the owed work, on her to do list was written that she already did a sketch of my com but I never received it .-.
you're welcome, I promised her not to tell but I think regarding the circumstances she's in now I figured its the best to let people know anyways.. I hope if she comes back, that she won't be mad at me for telling, and I genuinely hope she'll be okay, I'm just more worried that mad about my money, in the beginning I was really disappointed when she published other personal art and patreon stuff, so I can understand the problem very well and as you said she mentioned that she was drawing everyday in order to get faster and so on, so I do think it would have been the best for her to come clean and be transparent as much as possible
I really dont know what she was thinking, I just hope she's okay and will come back soon, and now that its out in the open I'm sure people would be willing to help her via gofoundme too, rather than her working herself to death with patreon and all the coms she took in ..
And dont worry you dont sound insensitive at all u.u !! I was glad to share what I know and maybe it helps you guys out
A friend of mine suggested, in the worst case we could file a missing person complain perhaps..? Her irl name is indeed Runa Stark (she told me she changed it from her old one to stark legally ) And we know she's in russia, so yeah.. I just want to find out what had happened
Hello everyone ! <3
I'm so sad because i ordered a headshot picture from Runa. i think i will never do it again on deviantart, it was a big mistake. I learnt the lesson , i was too naive. *crying face*
Here is the notes: https://sta.sh/0oe1g3yuyk0
i sent her a new note ( after i saw WhiteKana's reply on my notifications), but Runa didn't read it yet:
After i also send a message on paypal too, beacuse i think she will never finish it. ;-;
I want to get back my money. ;-;
[Sorry for bad english, this is not my main]
Are you asking for proof and screen shots? Here is is: https://sta.sh/02tr6n3e94z
I've contacted a bunch of her commissioners back in April and I am that artist that called her out and spoke to her privately in Russian. This is true.
Those comments about Russia and health care is a bunch of bull, because she is trying to create a sob story for people to feel bad for her. It doesn't give her an excuse to run Patreon when she owes art from a year ago. Her work ethic is terrible. It took some convincing from me for her even to post that journal where she lets people know how she is. She told me whats wrong with her, but after finding out she has a Patreon and runs it, I don't believe a word she says.
@96hime
last time we talked she told me she couldn't get out of bed because of spine issues for one month.
And she continues to create art. She is so ill apparently that she still draws.
How is she creating Patreon art when she owes art from a year ago. For Patreon to rise - you need to be at a loss for several months until you get enough people to support you. 4 artworks is around 400 usd depending on details. She will earn more money from commissions. But she doesn't do them.
Also I am from Russia. She is lying about the medicine thing and doesn't wanna post it publicly, so people don't catch her shit in case some of her watchers are Russian. If she lives in Moscow I am sure there will be people out there who would wanna see her and help her. She wouldn't want that cause they will find out the truth.
If her condition is so bad how can she finish a full body in 2 days for the adoptable that she sold? Money hunger.
I spoke to her via notes in Russian she told me her situation. I don't believe a word of it anymore, because facts.
Thats totally undertsandable, as I said I am just sharing what she told me in our conversations, it is up to the viewer if they believe it or not, I am by no means defending her and as said I am disappointed myself that she chose to do patreon stuff first instead of owed art, regardless thank you for your insight !
I thought I should share my experiences with Runa as well since my commission was the last one she finished and uploaded on her Deviantart.. And I was friends with her I guess.
Okay so on Nov 3rd, 2017 I made my order for a headshot commission which cost 40$ at that time. Screenshot -> https://sta.sh/21h4scu2uiz6?edit=1
After that we continued writing since I asked her if she was from Russia and she gave me a Facebook account so that we could talk there. However, I didn't had a Facebook account so I asked her for her discord but she didn't answer that note anymore.
Around January/February 2018 she posted a journal regarding family problems and real life problems in general and apologized to her commissioners who are waiting for their commissions. However, she didn't stated what kind of problems. And she already deleted that journal so I also can't exactly remember what was written there but I noted her at that time again to make sure that she didn't forget about my commission because I also wasn't on her to-do list but also because I was worried since we both understand each other quite well. ;; Screenshot -> https://sta.sh/29nxgk2heu6?edit=1
Around April 2018 she posted a journal sharing her Discord ID so commissioners could talk to her and since it wan't that easy to keep contact with her through notes I messaged her there. I only share parts of our conversation that might be necessary according to that what @96hime said. I translated the Russian written parts with the orange text next to Runa's messages. Screenshots-> https://sta.sh/2187x3ojpzq0?edit=1
She was talking about her health problems and also giving small hints on why she has changed her name. So I was really understandable and din't wanted to rush her with my commission because I know that many others rushed her at that time probably. I gave her the time. Looking at the screenshots it was also the last time we talked to each other until June.
In June 2018 she uploaded a few personal artworks where I started to think '' okay maybe she has more time now and could cope with her real life problems. So I noted her on 17th June, 2018 on Deviantart. Screenshots -> https://sta.sh/21f4o78ee4it?edit=1 I asked about my commission and she asked me to give her a week to finish. I was okay with it and gave her a week.
On 23th June, 2018 ( a week later ) she noted me saying that her laptop was broken, hence she couldn't work on my commission. So I asked for the refund that she promised me to give if she couldn't finish the commission in that time. Screenshot -> https://sta.sh/02b7j9cbej33 She didn't answer my note.
On 26th June, 2018 she messaged me again without answering my previous note just telling me that her laptop is okay again and she can work. Screenshot-> https://sta.sh/03scqg2klvp
She started to rush the process and it just seemed that she didn't wanted to refund me ..
On the same day she sent me a sketch of my commission really rushed. Screenshot-> https://sta.sh/22aysscrhgta?edit=1
However, I accepted that since it seemed that she finally started to work on the commission an I couldn't be that mean to her ;; On the next day (27th June) I asked her how many days I know have to wait until it's finished and then I got the finished commission right away on the same date. Screenshots -> https://sta.sh/26483bqjuk9?edit=1
I wasn't that happy with it since it was obviously rushed and din't look like her commission examples. So I was .. rather disappointed because I considered her a friend and I thought that she would put more fun and effort into this commission.
On June 28 She have read my note and sent me her answers. We had a little talk but in the end she apologized and changed and finished my commission. Screenshots -> https://sta.sh/229wap2vtg6k?edit=1
I'm happy I could get my commission but I'm still sorry for those who haven't received anything yet. As we can see.. she was able to work fast in that short amount of time. She actually needed 3 days in total to finish my commission. I waited 8 months for 3 days of work. Although, I can understand that she has a hard life and has to deal with her illness.. still she shouldn't have taken so many orders so that she overworked herself easily.
I still hope she's alright and will return soon to deliver all commissions. ;;
Hope I could help with my experiences somehow ;-; Sorry for any grammar mistakes T w T English is not my first language adjkas If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask qwq
Yoclesh and MinawaSeiko thank you both for sharing your experiences ^^! To both of you - your English is fine and understandable, no worries! I've added both stories into the main post.
Minawa, I'm not sure when you ordered and correct me if I'm wrong but it looks like it was in June? If so, you could still file a dispute (it sounds like you might have already?) and, if Runa doesn't reply, you can escalate it into a claim within 20 days of your dispute and then it's up to PayPal whether or not you can get your refund. I'm still going through the process myself so I'm sorry if I'm wrong about any of this, or if I misunderstood!
Yoclesh, thanks a lot for sharing the screenshots of your conversation with her! By the way, I noticed you left your PayPal email in one of the screenshots - I just wanted to let you know if you want to black it out and edit that in for privacy :). I'm glad she was willing to edit your commission after rushing it though, and the edited version looks gorgeous <3!
On what's been revealed about Runa's lifestyle, I think it's best to leave it up to everyone to form their own opinions on it after seeing the screenshots and what Nyomo said, since (in my opinion) we have no way of knowing which of what she said is true or not or opinion or fact. The only thing I'll say is that I find it interesting both Discord conversations took place on the same day and her tone sounds extremely different talking with one person over the other about what she's going through, though I might just be overthinking everything. Anyways, I think that's the last I'll say of it.
Update: It looks like Runa got on Discord??, though she hasn't responded to any of my prods and doesn't seem to have been on her dA. At the moment, her status is set to idle. I tried to contact her earlier this morning/late last night (12 am-1 am CDT/UTC-5) but I didn't get a reply. If anyone else can get a reply from her, I'd love to know!
Edit: Now it seems she's offline or invisible. As far as I know, she didn't respond to anyone I know who prodded her today through Discord. RIP
I commissioned her back in December 2017 for her Christmas discount. ( http://fav.me/dbsxs1i )
I noticed she had a huge to-do list but I figured it would be normal since she had such a lovely art style. So I just went ahead and sent her a note with an interest in her discount package and paid her invoice when notified. ( http://oi65.tinypic.com/34ybg5d.jpg )
That was the last time I heard from her. She didn't even let me know if the payment was received. I have had 0 updates besides seeing this journal: ( http://fav.me/dc9p05r )
I really hope all of this gets sorted out and she comes back to address it all!
