Advice on how to handle this situation.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

   I'm reluctant to do a beware on this but a commissioner has me a little stressed out lately and I am simply asking for advice on how to handle it. The commission started as a complex part for a Second Life avatar that involves a lot of scripting. After finishing that the commissioner came back wanting it to be bigger and with more features and, though I shouldn't have I agreed to try and make another version and ran into roadblocks on how to finish scripting it.

   Because of these complications the commission took longer then expected and I eventually tried to refund the commissioner telling them that I don't think I'd be able to complete it, who became very disastified afterwards. With a disgruntled commissioner on my hands who refused my refund, I offered to complete them artwork in place of the Second Life build and the commissioner said that the replacement will "have to be at least a 10 page comic." Wanting to satisfy the customer I agreed to it and am currently about halfway through the commission, working on the comic in 5 page intervals.

   But then the commissioner decided that I am to make them the orginal Second Life object anyways, so I'm expected to complete that with now a 20 page comic on top of it. (Note: the commissioner insisted on it being 20 pages after I tried compressing the story they've given into 13) The result is about double the work now for the price of one, and as a result has been taking up my time and filling a slot that other commissions could take up. The whole experience has caused me to stop commissioning for anything Second Life related and since then I've included a TOS point of not communicating except by email (the commissioner used to litterally hound me both on Second Life and on Skype).

   What do I do? I've already tried refunding this person but they won't take it, and I fear they're going to report me on here if I inisit on it. Other commissions have gone quite smoothy it's just this one that's been troublesome.

Please note that I am reluctant to give any names because I really want to avoid a beware before trying to salvage the situation.

EDIT: Looking back on the logs the comic started out 10 pages, but over email I was given a story that I could only compress into 13 pages, only for the commisisoner to insist on it being 20. That's where the 20 page comic came from.

Comments

[celestinaketzia.livejournal.com]

Go through your Paypal records, send the refund, and walk away. Unless they paid you a large sum of money, very little is worth a 20 page comic. You are allowed to refund a commission at any time, without any reason.

If they never paid you extra for these "bigger, more features", then they have no leg to stand on to keep demanding more and more from you. It seems like they figured they could push you around, and nothing is worth that.

They do not get their original item + a 20 page comic. No. Put a stop to this immediately. They can try to report you here, but I doubt any member here would take a client who came in and said "I wanted them to do this this and then THIS all for the original price I paid!!" seriously.

[mazz.livejournal.com]

This like I told you in PM when you asked me about it. They're a bully, stand up to them, refund them and block communication. If they attempt to post you here they'll end up causing it a beware of themselves or it won't even make it through because you did nothing wrong.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

To make matters worse, the payment was in "lindens" which is the Second Life currency, not dollars. It was a literal nightmare logging the payments because the commissioner would demand things and then pay be lindens before I could even agree to anything. There's also the complication of converting lindens into US dollars and calculating what that equivalent comes to.

Just one of the many reasons I've stopped doing Second Life commissions, my TOS now states that I will only be accepting payments through Paypal.

[ljmydayaway.livejournal.com]

Just give them back the lindens and block them, for goodness sake. :c

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be looking to see if there is a record of linden exchanges as well, I just need it for verification since even the refund was so long ago.

Unfortunately, transaction history is limited to 31 days on the Second Life homepage. (ANOTHER reason I don't do linden exchanges anymore!) So I am going to have to search SL up and down to see if I can somehow get the chat logs from that date.

[mistresswolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, jeesh. Even at my cheap comic prices, the comic alone would be $400 if I did it.

OP, the customer should get their original Second Life doomahickey thing (not this bigger upgraded thing plus a comic) and that is IT. Period. And if they manage to get a post through the queue here? Well, you can easily defend yourself and turn it around to show just how is at fault.

[rimpala.livejournal.com]

They already have the original doomahickey and have been using it, that is considered a finished product.