PSA/Beware: RunaStark (Semi-resolved| Update 2/29)

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:

Stash link of all screenshots

- 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.

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!