Negative Review: Bynder#230860 (Art Sales)
Who: Bynder#230860
What: Art Sales/Commission
Why: Very poor communication, untrustworthy, scammed out of valuable/retired items
When: Started on 20th October 2017, didn’t come to a conclusion until 28th January 2018, despite multiple attempts of contact from my behalf throughout the months.
Explain: Firstly, I just want to say that I hope my English isn’t too awful, and I apologise for anything that may read as confusing - I tried to elaborate and word everything as best as I could.
On 20th October 2017, I bought a character from Bynder at the price of Metallurgists Forgetools (http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/2302374 / screenshot in case deleted: http://prntscr.com/i6kyb6). I was also interested in purchasing more art from them for the character and they did offer this service to me (a feral version of the design). We began discussing this over PM the same day. We came to the conclusion that I would give them 1370 gems worth of items (300 of that being pure gems) for the full body artwork - Moonglow Thorns (x1), Solar Blades (x1), Runaway Rotclaw (x1), Time-turner’s Sandglass (x1) + 300 gems (http://prntscr.com/i6kr3b). Crossroad receipt: http://prntscr.com/i6krgp
I contacted them on the 5th November 2017 (hadn’t heard from them at all since paying them), inquiring about the current state of my commission (http://prntscr.com/i6ks23). They got back to me on the same day (http://prntscr.com/i6ks8p). I was happy to hear something from them, and I’m very understanding when it comes to life getting in the way of things; I am an artist also. Their polite, quick reply made me hopeful, but things actually just got worse from this point onward.
I didn’t hear from them, so on the 24th November 2017 upon me logging on (I am inactive, I only log on now to buy art with my left over items and currency, and to check how comms are going), I noticed they had opened a new thread in Art Sales, and were taking new commissions (the thread they made at the time: http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/2324267 / screenshot in case deleted: http://prntscr.com/i6kyi1). This concerned me greatly, so on the same day I sent them a message (http://prntscr.com/i6ktdo). They responded to me with no explanation, but told me it would be worked on asap. I started to doubt this, but I still had hope that something would be completed and wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt (http://prntscr.com/i6ktvg).
Again, I heard nothing from them as to what was going on with my commission. On the 8th December 2017, I contacted them once more, telling them I was concerned and if they had any WIPs to provide me, considering they had claimed they would work on it weeks before (http://prntscr.com/i6kugu). They were active on the site when I sent the message, but then did not come online for a couple of days after that. They started posting on the forums again a couple of days later (http://prntscr.com/i6kv1y), and did not respond to my message about the artwork. As a result, on the 12th December 2017 I messaged them requesting a refund of my items, or 1370 gems they were worth altogether (http://prntscr.com/i6kvq8) due to the poor communication and failure to show me anything at all to hint that they have started it. They responded to me four days later (16th December 2017), saying they respect my withdrawl and will refund me asap (http://prntscr.com/i6kw6s). Fair enough they needed time to gather the funds, so I was okay with waiting for a little while. NoTN was coming up, which was always a good way to build up funds when I used to actively play Flight Rising. I should have known that the “asap” promise would fall through in this case as well though.
Now it comes down to the final part, on the 27th January 2018, I contacted them as I had heard absolutely nothing and I still had not received a refund. I had noticed when checking their profile that they had created a thread for buying original characters, and had 700+ gems to use to purchase them (http://www1.flightrising.com/forums/art/2367055 / screenshot in case deleted: http://prntscr.com/i6kzs2). This irritated me quite a bit, given that they owed me a pretty hefty refund, and it had been quite some time since it was requested too - nearing two months (http://prntscr.com/i6kwqo). They got back to me, not with a message, but with a crossroad a few hours later (http://prntscr.com/i6kxbl). Two of those items were not part of our initial trade and of are nowhere near the rarity the original items (old, retired fest), but Bynder claimed they “covered the cost of the items” in the message. This was quite annoying, as I have little interest in actually playing the game to turn these items into currency - they’re also not easy items to sell from what I recall besides the Moonglow Thorns, which were originally mine anyway (http://prntscr.com/i6kxt0). Nonetheless, I took the trade because I was tired of the *awful* communication with this user; it was better than the nothing I had been getting since October 2017. My response may have come across as harsh, but at this point I was relatively upset and frustrated about the whole ordeal (http://prntscr.com/i6ky47). It could have been handled so much better.
While this may have been resolved, I had wanted to make a beware for some time. I am a very patient and understanding person, and have commissioned a lot of people in the past on and off of Flight Rising. The communication on Bynder’s behalf was very, very poor to begin with and still is months later. I would had been completely understanding if they had messaged me at any time, to keep me updated with how things were going. A very simple WIP, or just a message letting me know what was going on every now and then, could have prevented how things had to end. I always had to go to them, only to receive a very blunt and non-informative message, or to be ignored. Their way of dealing with things was very unprofessional and often made my anxiety quite bad. I am now out of some valuable, retired items and currency, that could have gone to somebody who would have completed their side of the deal. I won’t let this put me off from commissioning artists on Flight Rising, but I will probably change how I go about things from now on when buying art off of that website. I am pretty certain that if I had not been persistent with my messaging, that Bynder would have never returned anything covering the value for the incomplete commission, and rather they would have walked away with the items and currency from doing absolutely nothing. Please be very careful when working with this user, I really do not recommend doing any art related business with them presently. I can only hope that they will work on their communication and professionalism after this situation for the sake of their future clients, and that no other user has to deal with this.
