Annoying Experiences with Commissions

[Guest]

So, I've had a lot of experiences with artists, plenty of good and plenty of bad. However recently I am having an experience that it sort of frustrating me because I know if it doesn't progress today, that I get to enjoy an incredibly awkward conversation where I have to explain to a grown human being how you should quit art if you are not going to treat it as a proper job and that they will not be getting a good review from me. What's more annoying is many people get defensive of artists for this even when they are in the wrong.

 

The shorter version of the story is that a few weeks ago I detailed a commission with an artist at a friend's recommendation. His price was a bit high for my liking, but I figured "hey, the holidays are coming up, he deserves to make some money." So we set a price in the $130+ range and I detail what needed to be done and by what date. The agreement was I'd give him a third of the money up front, and he'd have it done by the 26th of November. He was given 3 weeks and I stressed how it was important it was done on time or earlier. He assured me he could get it done.

 

Well the 23rd rolls by and I finally hear from the guy again saying he finally has a sketch that he wants me to look over but he needs to get back home to send it to me. He promises he'll get it to me by tomorrow morning. The 24th comes and goes and I never hear from him. Now it's the day before it's due and I have not heard from the guy. If he intends to get it done by tomorrow, he has not checked with me at all yet to make sure he has the go ahead with his sketch. So if he doesn't catch me while I'm here today, there is absolutely no way he is going to finish this by tomorrow.

 

So now I get to have the awkward conversation of what the penalty will be, because there is no way I am paying someone $130 to do a job late. I let it slide in the past, but I think it's becoming clear that some artists COUNT on you feeling guilty so you won't dock their pay, but I'm definitely going to if he is late. It's like any other job, you set a deadline, you didn't meet it, therefore you get a penalty. Honestly I am considering how much he will be docked and part of mean is thinking he  only deserves that 1/3 he's got if I don't get it on time. A bit extreme, but I really feel the guy needs to learn that deadlines NEED to be met because I am paying you to have a job DONE by a certain date. If you procrastinate and put yourself in a position where you can't finish the job then that's no one's fault but your own. If some family trouble came up or something, you should have contacted me and given me the option to refund my money and go to someone else who was more free.

 

 

This is just the latest in annoying experiences with artists I've had. It's really frustrating because I wanted to be a nice person and support a local artist, but it's just been a nightmare.

 

What are some of your experiences? Keep in mind this isn't a hate on artists thread, this is just for sharing bad experiences.

[Chara 1,565]

I have never in my entire history of being here went to Commissions for art but if I ever do in my lifetime I will keep what you said in mind.

[Guest]

I have never in my entire history of being here went to Commissions for art but if I ever do in my lifetime I will keep what you said in mind.

 

The sad part is... I've had lots of negative experiences such as artists not wanting to make changes/adjustments, FLAT OUT cussing you out for being uphappy with something you paid for, and even awkwardly trying to flirt with you as an excuse to not finish something. I've even had people flat out just not finish something and still expect to be paid.

[Chara 1,565]

The sad part is... I've had lots of negative experiences such as artists not wanting to make changes/adjustments, FLAT OUT cussing you out for being uphappy with something you paid for, and even awkwardly trying to flirt with you as an excuse to not finish something. I've even had people flat out just not finish something and still expect to be paid.

If only you could go "screw it!" and get your money back. I know I would do that.

[Guest]

If only you could go "screw it!" and get your money back. I know I would do that.

 

Once I reversed a transaction via paypal. It was a lengthy process but it worked and I got my money back, however what happened after wasn't pretty... The artist flipped out and posted a long thing about how I ripped them off, and got all of their friends to defend them. Then when I explained that it was me who was actually ripped off, no one cared. Some just were like "Oh okay" and walked off, not once holding the artist responsible for flat out lying and others insisted that it didn't matter, that the artist was still the victim... Somehow.

[Astral Blitzen 469]

Eh, I don't pay for commissions for this reason. If you look hard enough on DA and such, you'll come across really good artists willing to do requests.

Eh, I don't pay for commissions for this reason. If you look hard enough on DA and such, you'll come across really good artists willing to do requests.

My friend found this artist for me a while back and she drew my OC for me

[Treble Sketch 360]

Since I'm an artist myself that has opened commissions in the past week, I haven't have experience in making commission deadlines nor commissioning someone, due to my lack of money. But I will learn from your lesson here. I would agree about the penalty, it's only fair. Everything has a penalty if it passed the deadline, aka school projects Late = minus marks

[simba86 1,541]

i wouldn't call it extreme, in fact you are quite generous, if you tell him you are going to dock him he can say "forget it then" because you have still paid him like $43.00 to do a rough unfinished sketch he may or may not have even done yet

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,690]

I recall looking through comments of drawponies's Deviant Profile and, ignoring the scandal, I saw one user stating that they paid for a 190USD commission that has never been fulfilled despite waiting over a year for its completion.

 

I haven't done commissions, but if I were to, I'm considering making it so that I complete the image before the user has to pay (would contact the user on the process if they approve) so that I don't have to worry about any deadlines. True, this leaves me open to many people who may make requests and never pay in which case I may still release the image to the public but only at 1080p resolution (rather than 4K), an obnoxious watermark, and shame the user who ended up not paying by saying something like "X commissioned this image but never paid" (perhaps making that as part of the watermark). I figure it would be better for me to be scammed by other users than have myself be the scammer. And at the very least, making completed images is still a way for me to practice drawing digitally.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Tsaritsa Luna

[Guest]

It always seems the excuse is something to do with family too. Like the guy is telling me now his mom was hospitalized, but to be honest with you... As mean as it sounds: I've heard this excuse like 400 times, and why is her being hospitalized YESTERDAY an issue? You should have had work on this done a week ago. That's not an excuse as dickish as that sounds. I feel like a majority of the time when I get this excuse it's to sugar coat the problem so that I feel so bad that I don't penalize, but I am getting to the point where my patience is being tested every time this happens.

[Luna the Great of all the Russias 2,690]

It always seems the excuse is something to do with family too. Like the guy is telling me now his mom was hospitalized, but to be honest with you... As mean as it sounds: I've heard this excuse like 400 times, and why is her being hospitalized YESTERDAY an issue? You should have had work on this done a week ago. That's not an excuse as dickish as that sounds. I feel like a majority of the time when I get this excuse it's to sugar coat the problem so that I feel so bad that I don't penalize, but I am getting to the point where my patience is being tested every time this happens.

Quite a coincidence that people's families are suddenly facing some sort of dilemma. Honestly, if you've been scammed that many times... well... you've already tried being patient so I think you've long since had the justification of being strict with the artist.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Tsaritsa Luna

[simba86 1,541]

It always seems the excuse is something to do with family too. Like the guy is telling me now his mom was hospitalized, but to be honest with you... As mean as it sounds: I've heard this excuse like 400 times, and why is her being hospitalized YESTERDAY an issue? You should have had work on this done a week ago. That's not an excuse as dickish as that sounds. I feel like a majority of the time when I get this excuse it's to sugar coat the problem so that I feel so bad that I don't penalize, but I am getting to the point where my patience is being tested every time this happens.

that is not just a commision problem, it is a big problem with online buying in general, I must be cursed because it seems like everytime i buy something all of a sudden the seller has a death in the family or they or a family memeber has health problems,or they have been "crazy busy" they always find time through it all to take care of all the other stuff they do online "like posting memes and liking pics of a friends breakfast" and keep listing stuff for sale but for some reason they never can find the time to send my item or spend 2 minutes issuing a refund, it does not take a week to issue a refund, it is easy to do and takes just a few minutes. most of the time I just file a case and paypal or ebay finds the time to do it for them LOL. oh and ain't it amazing how you will message them over and over and they ignore you for days or weeks but you open a case to get a refund and BAM! they get right back to you within minutes

Edited November 25, 2015 by simba86

[ILikeNightmares 163]

That's why I simply draw my own pony art. I am not a great artist and I don't really do that for a living, but I can draw ponies 99% same looking as in the show.

[Koukatsu 5,898]

I don't put a firm deadline. I'm more of a "Before next year" kind of guy. :v

So no, I've never had an experience like yours. :v

[Jeric 46,834]

You see, this is why you should use our Comissions Shop. We hold the payment in escrow until we confirm that the buyer is satisfied with the art that they received, preventing an artist walking away or having unforeseen issues that you have to fight for a refund. We have also mediated disputes previously between buyers and artists related to quality.

 

[Guest]

You see, this is why you should use our Comissions Shop. We hold the payment in escrow until we confirm that the buyer is satisfied with the art that they received, preventing an artist walking away or having unforeseen issues that you have to fight for a refund. We have also mediated disputes previously between buyers and artists related to quality.

 

Yeah but at the cost of giving honest artists who don't rip people off some of their pay docked because the forum collects some. No offense intended, but I don't like a middle man getting involved to take a cut when someone does a great job and treats their work professionally. They shouldn't need to be baby sat is the issue. Now in instances where people DO need to be babysat that's one thing, but you kind of can't predict that.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Guest

[JonasDarkmane 19,777]

I have heard about cases such as these where customers don't get their products either delivered in time or at all. 

 

Business is business though, no room for personal feelings . If a deadline is set, one should meet the deadline as to not lose reliability as well as credibility. That is bad business. As soon as you enter the world of selling art, you start building yourself a reputation. If you don't meet deadlines, get offended because people asked if you could do a small little fix or just stand by your words, you earn yourself a negative reputation and lose customers. If you stand by what you say, you respect your customers wishes (as long as it is nothing major like a changing what they asked for completely) and meet the deadlines, you get a positive reputation and gain more customers. However, that is what would be expected and what one would predict. As I myself have never purchased art online, I am not versed in that section, so I am interested to know if the expectations are true . 

 

@@Key Sharkz

So my question to you, since I saw that you talked about people defending that artist. Were there a lot of people, or just about a small amount (like 3 (which could maybe be seen as the artist's close friends who would feel obligated to defend their friend no matter what)) defending this artist/these artists? 

You see, this is why you should use our Comissions Shop. We hold the payment in escrow until we confirm that the buyer is satisfied with the art that they received, preventing an artist walking away or having unforeseen issues that you have to fight for a refund. We have also mediated disputes previously between buyers and artists related to quality.

 

Advertising much

[simba86 1,541]

You see, this is why you should use our Comissions Shop. We hold the payment in escrow until we confirm that the buyer is satisfied with the art that they received, preventing an artist walking away or having unforeseen issues that you have to fight for a refund. We have also mediated disputes previously between buyers and artists related to quality.

 

that is actually a good idea, that keeps the artist from walking away with the money, and the fact that the forum takes a cut should be no big deal, it is no different than if he was selling art on ebay or etsy.a selling fee is a part of online sales that a seller should account into the price anyway, I buy a lot of stuff online and sellers ignoring me and dragging there feet for a long time before shipping happens a lot, 

actually the MLPforums system is alot like Amazon's system, when you sell on there they hold your money in escrow until you ship and then they hold it a little while longer to make sure there are no problems. yes you shouldn't NEED to hold someone's money to make sure they deliver but the huge amount of deadbeats that scam people out of money makes it something that needs to happen. 

the way i see it let MLPforums handle the headache of dealing with a scammer, you're WILL get your money back if the seller flakes because MLPforums has the money, that might not happen if you have to open a case with paypal and  you WILL NOT get it back if you send payment as gift through paypal or send cash through the mail

[Guest]

I have heard about cases such as these where customers don't get their products either delivered in time or at all. 

 

Business is business though, no room for personal feelings . If a deadline is set, one should meet the deadline as to not lose reliability as well as credibility. That is bad business. As soon as you enter the world of selling art, you start building yourself a reputation. If you don't meet deadlines, get offended because people asked if you could do a small little fix or just stand by your words, you earn yourself a negative reputation and lose customers. If you stand by what you say, you respect your customers wishes (as long as it is nothing major like a changing what they asked for completely) and meet the deadlines, you get a positive reputation and gain more customers. However, that is what would be expected and what one would predict. As I myself have never purchased art online, I am not versed in that section, so I am interested to know if the expectations are true . 

 

@@Key Sharkz

So my question to you, since I saw that you talked about people defending that artist. Were there a lot of people, or just about a small amount (like 3 (which could maybe be seen as the artist's close friends who would feel obligated to defend their friend no matter what)) defending this artist/these artists? 

Advertising much

 

It can vary. Once it was a fairly large circle of followers from them. Like for example if you were screwed over by like John Joseco, he has quite a bit of followers so naturally you're going to run into more than 3 people defending him. In my case it's always greater than 10 when it happened to me.