Am I being impatient?

[dspki.livejournal.com]

Hi all, I just wanted to say that I've been lurking a while and this will be the first post I make here. I came across a dilemma and I'm just wondering if I'm doing the right thing at this point.

So a quick backstory. I commissioned this artist back in January 2012 and I've been incredibly patient with her. After some thinking I emailed her last month and requested a refund. She said she would give it to me by the end of the week. A few days later she told me she was having problems getting money into her bank account. It's been a month and I have not heard from her at all. I sent her an email a few days ago checking in on what's been going on and as of this post I have not received anything.

My main question is regarding the issue with Paypal. Does it take a while for this kind of issue to be resolved and if it does should I be more patient? Or should I attempt to create a beware about her? I'm not really sure what to do at this point so I'm open to suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Comments

[midwich]

Hiya,

I've transferred money from my bank to PayPal on numerous occassions and other sellers have transferred money back to my account via PayPal. It does depend on your bank but it shouldn't take a month and the fact there's no response is disconcerting in my opinion because a good seller would update you regularly (imo)

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

I think after waiting almost two years you have been more than patient. I don't see why it would take a month for them to send a refund, especially since there has been no communication.

[dspki.livejournal.com]

I have suspicions that she's trying to hide and not confront the issue, hence why I'm contemplating about warranting a beware.

I know it's probably a common issue with transferring money from their bank to Paypal and errors could come up and stuff. I'm just wondering if it really takes that long to get it sorted out.

[adzuki.livejournal.com]

I have personally never had it take this long. The longest a transfer has taken me is a week and that was during a holiday weekend.
If she would keep you updated it wouldn't be a big problem because you would be in the know. But letting you hang for nearly two years and then again with no communication is not acceptable behavior.

[zaulankris.livejournal.com]

FWIW, whenever I have to give someone money via PP I use my credit card because then it's instant. I don't know if your seller has a card they can use, but maybe ask because yeah, two years plus a month plus additional problems? Kinda sketchy.

[dspki.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah it's sketchy from my own suspicions already (like not emailing me in a month yet she's fairly active on Tumblr...). I'm kinda hesitant because when I got into contact with her again she stated that she was jobless/moneyless and struggling to get refunds out...I'm really torn between being understanding of her situation and just wanting to get my refund so I don't have to worry about this anymore. I hardly ever have trouble commissioning artists so this is a first for me and I'm learning from this.

[zaulankris.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that's so awkward. It's not your problem that she's having financial trouble, but she can't magic your money into existence, either.

If I were you I'd be polite but firm and give deadlines, hoping for the best. As an artist, you're not supposed to spend the money before you do the work so when you do get closure (whatever it is), come back and give us an update. Good luck!

[dspki.livejournal.com]

Yeah I might send her a message on Tumblr telling her to check her email and get back to me soon. Will definitely give a deadline; I dunno if a month's pushing it or if I should go smaller. And I will keep y'all posted about this and see what goes down.

[ethelune.livejournal.com]

If I were in your situation, I'd send one more e-mail explaining that, if she fails to respond by a certain deadline (maybe by the end of the week?), you'll open a claim. The threat of action by PayPal will hopefully get her attention.

If you do have to go through with the claim, I really would encourage you to post a beware. Nobody should have to resort to that (especially after waiting for almost two years). :/

[mekania.livejournal.com]

Its been way too long to open a claim on PayPal so I wouldn't recommend saying that. But do let them know you will be posting about them

[ethelune.livejournal.com]

You can't open a dispute after 45 days, but I believe you can open a claim after any amount of time by giving them a call. I recently had serious issues with a transaction from last summer, and the folks at PayPal were more than willing to help.

[missicee.livejournal.com]

Untrue in my personal experiences. I called them twice about my transaction with Pirate-Cashoo (posted here) - elapsed time was 2 years and they told me in both calls with two different people they couldn't do anything to help me because the 45 days had elapsed...

[ethelune.livejournal.com]

That's really disappointing to hear. :/ Granted, the representative helping me did sound like she was making an exception. She emphasized that she was only escalating the dispute to a claim as a "courtesy," since I had been a member with PayPal for so many years and had never had any issues beforehand. Perhaps they're not as willing to open claims as I thought, which is unfortunate.

As a side note, I'm sorry you've been burned by Cashoo. I watched that whole debacle unfold and am still stunned by the lack of respect she showed to her customers. :/

[missicee.livejournal.com]

Lack of respect she showed and is continuing to show us... she posted two pieces on Hentai Foundry both for the same person and promised an update and all that jazz... and of course poofed again until the flooding hit her state when she popped back up looking for sympathy.

Having a major flood devastate your town sucks balls (I know... I dealt with almost 4 weeks of unsafe water when Minot, ND flooded in 2011) but I have little sympathy for her when I know she is just using it to continue to look for people to pity her by throwing up excuses as to why she cannot complete YEARS worth of owed work. I would have a lot more sympathy and understanding of the situation if she hadn't screwed people out of thousands of dollars and was actually producing artwork. Bleh.

Annnnnd now we are getting entirely off topic from OP's post so I won't continue this further. (SORRY MODS! ;__;)

[lurkerwisp.livejournal.com]

Whether you get your refund from the artist or not, I'd really appreciate it if you made a post here anyway. January 2012 - November 2013 with no art and no refund yet is pretty reprehensible.

[friskecrisps.livejournal.com]

The most I've waited is a year but this is crazy. You have been more than patient with this person and I suggest just making an AB post because it seems they are not being fair to you while you have been more than fair with them