Custom Trouble: ProffessorFluffyBuns

Posted 5 years, 2 months ago by Strex

Not exactly a scam per se, but I thought I would document it in case this ends up being something recurring, especially because it really irked me.

I approached ProffessorFluffyBuns ( DeviantART ) on December 23rd asking about customs, because I really liked their FNaF designs. I've had a small handful of characters I've been putting together since high school, but I've never been great at designing and wanted to get them from Fluffy because I thought their designs were really well done. Their reply was pretty nice, overall, and on the 25th they said they didn't have customs open at the time but would let me know when they were open because they needed to get a new laptop.

On the 31st, they let me know they'd gotten their laptop and could do customs then. My own drawing tablet had broken by then, and I would be unable to pay in cash or trade art, but that I'd be able to trade them designs instead, and we agreed on 2 of them for 2 customs. They say it will be awhile as they have a big list, I'm fine with that, everything's fine. I give them detailed information about 4 OCs (a panda, a capricorn, a wolf, and a squirrel) and let them choose which ones they'd like to do for convenience.

On January 20th, nearly a full month after this (important later) they post the panda design and I compliment it, it's adorable, I love it. I don't mind how long it's taken. During this time I've officially gone on hiatus on DeviantART, which means I'm not very active but I still check my notifications when I have time. A couple days later, they post the wolf design and again, I love it. I express this.

Almost immediately after this, they send me a message over DeviantART, letting me know that they've decided they don't want one of the characters we agreed I'd be trading them anymore. I'm surprised, as they already finished their part, but let them look through my trade designs again. I let them know I still don't have cash or art and can't really do much for them other than a premade design. They link me to another design while I'm away, and I don't get time to check until the next day, where they've already changed their mind and don't want that one either.

I'll admit, I put them on hold for awhile because I would be coming into some cash on February 1st and figured I could just give them a little money then instead, because they seemed to decide they wanted something else whenever I asked. Not even 2 days pass by, mind you 'hiatus' is plastered all over my page, and they come to me asking in 3 separate messages (within the span of 10 minutes, while I'm out of the house) if I'm ignoring them. 

I wasn't the nicest about it, especially because they immediately made it clear they wanted to keep the designs because I was apparently ignoring them and they didn't want the payment we'd agreed upon. I would be fine with that under normal circumstances, but considering these are redesigns for characters I've had for a long time and they're not changing the names, specific accessories, backstory or personality, I feel like these characters have been personally stolen from me as I no longer have anything but concept art and my original ideas that they now have taken and applied to actual designs.

I'd also like to note that during our conversation they used many excuses such as having a family of 4 to feed, family problems in general, having 200+ pieces of art to do, and also being autistic. Mind you, this conversation wasn't very long at all, and they blocked me immediately after I outright said I was only going to pay them in character designs, as agreed on, and would not shell out cash, as we did not agree on.

Let me know if I'm in the wrong here, but I honestly just find this shady and a little messed up.

ToyHouse PMs | DeviantART Notes

TheBrightestEyes

Dunno if you saw, but it seems they really are just going to keep the designs - the descriptions on the deviantart posts say they belong to them because they 'were for someone else but they became rude'. If you want to pursue this you probably should.

Strex

TheBrightestEyes

I can't see, because they blocked me immediately. I really don't know what I can do other than draw attention to this.

Necromite

I mean like.... nah this is pretty gross. They kind of screwed themselves over on this one personally because they already did their parts for you? If they weren’t happy with what they were getting then that’s their fault tbh. You weren’t the one who backed out and it’s not your fault that they suddenly didn’t want the OCs they picked from you anymore. That’s on them and frankly the designs they did for you are yours? Because you provided the descriptions and they simply drew it. I haven’t seen them post art of the customs they did for you beyond their initial uploads from a quick skim of their gallery so I’m not super sure if they intend on using them as their own. If they do that’s a serious problem but for now there’s not much for you to do. I’m not sure if using the customs they did for you are a good idea unless you can somehow get their part to them though unfortunately because that is their art and you probably don’t have their permission to use it. If they don’t use the customs as their own OCs there’s not much to pursue so unfortunately I think you’ll just have to count it as a loss and get your kiddos drawn by someone else.

Thank you for the warning though because this is pretty scummy. It looked to me like they agreed on something just to lock you into a situation to get something else out of you. Though I’m not really sure why or what they wanted because they seemed cross about money too? All in all this whole thing is confusing and hopefully it fixes itself by not escalating any further.

Strex

Necromite

Like I said, I think the problem here is that they decided they liked the designs they made too much to let them go. Which I wouldn't have been super hurt about except for the fact that not only are those basically my characters, but they also didn't offer to redo them so I could also have what we agreed on or anything like that. I'm not planning on using their designs but I'm pretty pissed about it still.

Necromite

Oh yeah musta misread a little bit I can’t blame you for being upset about it tbh Would you want someone to message them for you and ask about if they’re keeping the customs for themselves or not?

Strex

Necromite

You can if you'd like, I'm not sure I want to engage them as I'm afraid they'll throw a fit or something.

Strex

Bard

Well, heck. Thanks for letting me know, maybe I can flag the characters or something.

Strex

Beefy

Will do. I was still a little unsure, thanks for making it clearer.

Strex

WindWaken

That's very kind of you, but I wouldn't want to ask you to do that without compensating you in some way.

Nyria

A heads up, they posted a status on DA referring to this so they may intend to fight a bit on this. 

mothgf

Nyria mind posting a screenshot of the status?