(no subject)

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

I was hoping I wouldn't have to do this but I suppose it was only going to be a matter of time. I'm posting this so that other artists can watch out.

I'm reporting my first bad commissioner: She goes by "Ahna" or "crazy_kitten86" on her e-mail, and is "DraconaInVolata" on Deviantart.com.

Do not take commissions from this girl if you see her, as she won't pay you.



Background: The way I've done commissions until now was to ask for the payment when I completed the image (basically I would show the final version with a very neon and hard to remove watermark over it as a preview/proof that I finished, and the commissioner would pay. Once I received payment, I send the clean version of the commission). This is a "just-in case" measure, in case I have to drop the commission due to IRL or can't finish for some reason, etc, and the customer will not have risked any money; this method hasn't been a problem for either party before. This is instead of all-up-front or half-up-front.

Because of this girl, I will no longer be doing it that way.

What happened: She first notes me over DA to talk about a potential commission. We respond back and forth and it gets moved to e-mail (easier for me to keep track of commissioners that way), and the price is settled.

The commission she asked of me was going fine - communication was relatively fast and I made sure to include her in seeing every step so she could catch if I did anything she didn't want ahead of time, which she didn't. She approved everything. Things were fine until I sent the e-mail to her telling her that I'd finished, attached with the watermarked preview of the final image (around April). I don't hear from her for around a month, when she e-mails back that due to some IRL financial problems, she can't pay me until a month later.

I take this with a grain of salt, especially considering the timing and what I've already heard from other artists about problem commissioners doing something similar. But I okay the extension.

Another month flies by and nothing. I e-mail her again.

She responds that she sold some stuff on E-bay and is $8 short, and once she ships out what she sold, she'll be able to pay me.

That was back in May.

It's mid-July now, and I tried contacting her several more tmes and I've heard nothing from her: no e-mail, no payment.



Avoid this commissioner!

[edit: January, nearly February 2008 and she still, unsurprisingly, hasn't paid]

[edit 2: Now getting into November 2008, still no payment.]

Comments

[lindblut.livejournal.com]

Wow that blows, sorry to hear that :/
Just curios, can be any particular piece of comission and not the one we're talking about, but can I see the watermarks you're using? :V

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

Used a collab I did with my sister for the example:



It's never been an issue before, but I guess it's not enough anymore.

[faithry.livejournal.com]

Ok, this may not be appropriate for this journal, but..

Oooooh. What creatures' skulls did you use for -that- one?

Very nice.

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

It's just a fanart I did for the "Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess" game. Basically a stalfos and a stalhound.

Thanks :3

[faithry.livejournal.com]

I have -no- clue what those things are!

Out of curiosity, how are you at swans? Swan-liches? I pay up front! 8>

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what a swan-lich is. I've only drawn a few birds but I could always give it a try, I suppose.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Late reply, but in the original game, Stalfos were animated skeleton enemies. I guess Stalhounds are like that, but dogs. ;)

[lindblut.livejournal.com]

Yeah, these are really good. B:

A friend of mine hands out preview without any watermarks at all on it x_o
Someone who is happy with the small version (because it isn't that small either) could just run off with it :C

Thanks for sharing :>

[ksharra.livejournal.com]

Yeah, ever since the first commission I ever got stiffed on (which happened to also be the first one I ever TOOK), I only take payment up front. And I'm glad I do. I've got about 5 people who asked me for commissions two or three months ago that still haven't paid that I just sent new emails to. People like that are everywhere. *shrugs*

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Sorry this happened to you.

You should post this to your DA journal as well since she's also conned other DA artists?

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

I definitely will. Who else has she conned, if I may ask?

[saiu.livejournal.com]

Be careful with that, part of the DA policy says you're not allowed to name and shame individual users on your journal (no matter how true). Some users in the past have been coaxed into doing so and ended up banned until the journal entry was changed or deleted.

[onyxserpent.livejournal.com]

Actually, the way I understand it now, they don't care about calling out... Just don't go creating a giant mob to flame the other person's page. Supposedly they haven't been enforcing it for like a year now. -- One sec, I'll find the link.

http://news.deviantart.com/article/31138/ (original article)
http://realitysquared.deviantart.com/journal/13699379/ (response about calling out deviants)

[duraji-synth.livejournal.com]

I think that someone should already have the money available when they commission the artist... not necessarily give all the money up front before starting any work *cough*Jace*cough*, but a commissioner should never claim that they don't have enough money all of a sudden when you ask for it. :/

[growing-rose.livejournal.com]

I'm not defending her, but it's completely possible that things do "come up".

Example: Today, my vet's office called me to remind me about my kittens' appointment tomorrow to get spayed and castrated. No one remembered to tell me that they need their boosters before I could get that done, so here I am, with all the money saved for their fixings, but not for the needles. If it wasn't for the fact that I happened to have received some cheques in the mail I hadn't been expecting (vacation pay from a former job and a GST cheque), I'd be completely screwed. Might've had to cancel the commission I planned to pay for on Thursday since I'm on such a tight budget. (The needles are going to add four times the cost of the commission to the money I need.)

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

That's the thing, I did give her an extension and tried to work with her, because yes, real life happens.

However, even after I tried my best to accomodate h er, she hasn't bothered sending any more e-mails or responding to the ones I've sent, much less any payment. I also checked over her DA and she has been online several times, so it's not like she hasn't had internet access. :/