Other end of the spectrum...

[shaddiewolf.livejournal.com]

I was just wondering...and I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but have any of you guys ever had problems with people paying you for art, but then disappearing completely and leaving you no way to contact them before you can even send them their picture? Like they fall off the face of the earth, do not answer your questions, do not reply to your notes/e.mails/IMs, making you wonder whether you should bother to finish the picture or not.

I'm not sure if it's something to be worried about, but I don't want to labeled as a "money stealer" later on in life when these people magically pop up again years later still expecting their picture. I've had this happen to me twice now, and it's kind of disconcerting. It plays with your head, you know?

Similar stories?

Comments

[thornwolf.livejournal.com]

Ive had that happen before. In my case the commissioner went into the hospital and well...I don't know what happened after that :(

[grygon.livejournal.com]

dear gods, that would scar me for life... always wondeing what happened. :(

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

I had a client DIE in the middle of a job. It was very, very sad. She was only a couple years older than I was at the time. :(

[thaily.livejournal.com]

O_o

You and miss Bruton, creepy!
I've never considered that this could happen.

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

Neither had I; it happened while I was still in college. She went into the hospital for a skin infection, a nurse gave her penicillin without bothering to read her chart which said she was allergic to penicillin and it killed her within minutes. It happened while her father had gone downstairs for a cup of coffee. She was dead by the time he got back to the room.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Oh my God, I hope they sued the crap out of that nurse or something. They need to pay attention to those things!!

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

I didn't find out she had died until months of unanswered e-mails had passed. Her younger sister finally contacted me to let me know what had happened. The last I heard the family was in a multi-million dollar lawsuit with the hospital. I hope they milked the bastards for every penny. It was just pure, stupid negligence and laziness on the part of the nurse.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Good on them!

Paying attention to that kind of thing is part of your job, you CAN'T be lazy about that kind of thing! I mostly just hope that nurse got fired, at least, she shouldn't be handling people's lives!

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping the nurse got whatever certifications and licenses required for nursing revoked so she can never work in the profession again.

[kayfox.livejournal.com]

I think it would be a moot point anyhow, I dont see someone being able to work in that profession after doing something like that. Prolly scarred the nurse for life.

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised. But if the nurse is scarred I say good. Anything to keep her away from a patient. It was her own fault for not checking the patient's chart before giving them an injection of a medication that is a common and deadly allergen. If she's that careless about her p's and q's I wouldn't want her working on me or any of my family members; my dad is allergic to penicillin. :/

[chapperice.livejournal.com]

Jesus christ that's horrible and scary. It reminds me of a show I saw when I was little where a girl fell down stairs on her birthday, carrying a bunch of presents, and a nurse gave her a shot of pennicillin because she dropped her medical bracelet sayings he was allergic (and she fell trying to pick it up) so she died from it..and this girl got sent back into the past and had to relive this over and over again until she finally figured out the nurse wasn't a murderer, but just didn't know and didn't check.

If a damn children's tv show can have a story based on something like this, then I have to imagine it happens way too often D:

[onesteptwo.livejournal.com]

That's a scary thought. I have a friend who's allergic to so many things, we just say she's allergic to air. She also allergic to penicillin and sulpha drugs, the two major ones used in hospitals. >>;

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Gah! That is so horrible!! D:

Mind if I ask what you did with the commission? Did you finish it or refund, or?

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

It was images of her (Lexi) and three of her friends for a children's charity she was in, and they were going to be used on shirts and such for fund raising. I had gotten two out of three payments, had finished the job, and while I was trying to get final approval on the whole thing is when she disappeared. Her sister told me she wanted to finish the job out because it was one of the last things Lexi had been involved with and it had been important to her... but I wasn't able to get all the info and such out of her that I had needed to finish payment, so I just let it be. I didn't want to press her for the money because of the horrific thing that had just happened to their family, the lawsuit they were involved with about the hospital, and trying to get Lexi's estate in order. I think I was out about $70 for that last payment, but I didn't feel it would have been right to pursue it.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

Tch, crazy stuff.
You just don't think about how you're going to handle stuff like that when you start taking commissions.

[sarah-cowan.livejournal.com]

Fuck. Just fuck. That is awful.

[vulgaris.livejournal.com]

Moldred is the only one I've had dissapear on me, and I just don't worry about it anymore. When its done, its posted, I e-mail them, if they don't respond? Tough tittes. Lol.

[moonsongwolf.livejournal.com]

Moldred disappeared on me, too, well over a year ago. He paid me, but never gave me instructions on what he wanted. I tried e-mail, snail mail, and a post through Furbid. He never answered any of it, so I never even drew anything.

It actually still bothers me to this day, even though I know it shouldn't. :(

[tailypo.livejournal.com]

He's the one I had disappear on me. If he ever contacts me again, I'll redo the commission, as it's been years and I've improved a lot since then. x_x

[thedogisdead.livejournal.com]

Wow, he disappeared on me too, after paying for an animation but never following it up. I wonder what happened to him...

[growly.livejournal.com]

I had one disappear for over half a year, then return to say they were away in the National Guard and didn't recieve any of my emails and that they sent me a bunch too and I didn't recieve a one. o_O It was very strange.

[hbruton.livejournal.com]

I have had two customers die in the middle of commissions but no one just disappear.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

O_o

[thaily.livejournal.com]

I had it with one person but got into contact with him via this comm.
Have one running right now, asked the guy to mail me the info a bazillion times, he always says he will but I still haven't received anything yet, but he has paid in full -_-

It's kind of annoying because if we ever fall out over something I expect him to go "OMG MY GOD YOU STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED MY COMMISSION!! *trashtrash*" and though I'll go "ZOMG you never sent me the info I need!" there'll still be people who run with it and will gleefully piss on your reputation if they get half a chance.

Plus it annoys me that it's been sitting on my to-do list for over a year now and if it's up to him it'll stay there for a lot longer it seems -_-
Makes me feel like a slacker even though it's out of my hands.

[shaddiewolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's exactly how I feel XD What is up with people?

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

i think a year with no info you can tell him he has six months or you're keeping the money for WASTING YOUR TIME!!!! jeez. that is lame, sorry you are stuck like that...

[b-dogskennel.livejournal.com]

Yes, just once though with a thoroughly nice commissioner.

I even sent a post card via snail mail to try and contact them, to no avail. I was worried he'd died or something. Then he resurfaced about 3 years later and I offered a refund or the art and well, he just didn't want to talk about it.

I know it shouldn't have since it was out of my hands and I essentially got a donation, but it made me feel like a jerk. -__-

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

actually, twice. and i still send the one guy an email every other month or so...i don't want to take his money and give him nothing in return, you know

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

and one time a commissioner died ;________________________; i got a very nice letter from his mom, though.

[shaddiewolf.livejournal.com]

Wow, I never really considered people DYING as a reason for their disappearances... That's a lot to think about :/ But judging from the amount of stories about it here, it doesn't seem that far fetched.

[likeshine.livejournal.com]

i thought it was so random, but after reading these comments, yeah... like 4 other people at least?

i had mailed his art and never heard back from him, so i didn't know, until someone on FA noted me about memorial art.

and then his mom sent me a card, she used my return address to send it. wrote me a nice note. she thought i had been a friend of his... i cried so hard after that

[chapperice.livejournal.com]

God that's sad..It's making me cry just thinking of it..

[twospotz.livejournal.com]

I have to say, yes, but the client died unexpectedly and with the client I lost track of several beautiful originals I'd made. Never heard form the clients estate about it because now I fear the pieces we so lovingly conjured up together is lost in the recycling bins. :-(

As for disappearing? OH yes, I have a big A3 picture of a ninetail fox and a wolf/werewolf and I am out 40 bucks on it and the client is plain gone. I still have the original ready to ship but... where to? No response or anything. VERY unsettling!

[dirtiran.livejournal.com]

Ive had it happen myself. Ive had one client die quiet a few years back, it was rather sad :/ As for vanishing, its amazing how many people commission and then just leave the internet or move on and forget!
The best you can really do is email/note them now and then as shine has mentioned, its all you can really do XD

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Personally I take the view that each side is responsible for their own communications. If the customer pays me and vanishes, I'll continue to try for contact occasionally but generally I'll wait on them getting back in contact, after a certain period though I'll put the information into my defunct pile so I can pull it if they resurface but otherwise if they disappear either there's a good reason for it or it's their own fault.

Personally I take the view that if a commissioners vanishes for a year or more and reappearing tries to drama when they just didn't bother to give me the info needed to complete the work earlier then it's their own damn fault the works not done.

[ursulav.livejournal.com]

I've had two people vanish.

One sent me a money order that got lost in the mail, and said he'd check on it, and that was the last I heard of it. Since he was in the military in Iraq at the time--and I didn't get the "trying to cheat you vibe" the fact that I never heard from him again was a little worrisome. I've been sitting on that painting for five years now, but I've always felt weird about putting it up for sale.

The other one paid me some on an installment plan, vanished, got ahold of me a year later, apologized, paid some more, vanished. I don't even know what to do on that one....

[lurkerwisp.livejournal.com]

I had an overseas customer pay me for an item but never reply to my emails asking about how to send the item to them. It was packaged and ready to send as soon as she gave the rest of the information on her address. I didn't want it to get lost overseas, so I wasn't going to mail it without a real address, and preferably a real name.

It's been two years. I've assumed she forgot she paid for it and moved on.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

That has happened to me twice actually. I tried to contact them to no avail, so I kept the money.

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

It's not just art land. I own a bookstore (http://www.rainydaypaperback.com ) and couple times a year I'll have people purchase stuff and it'll turn out the address is bad. It gets sent back.

And then its frequently two or three months of trying to get ahold of them to send the book to the correct address. About half eventually end up reversing the credit card charge because they never respond to "please confirm address!" emails.

[chapperice.livejournal.com]

Well at least in their cases they don't lose money, and you're not wasting too much time/effort/resources :>

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

Yes, I do end up losing money on the shipping however. Which is annoying.

[obliviousally.livejournal.com]

I had a commissioner win an auction, send me the money, and never sent along descriptions after a few prodding e-mails. I'm not too concerned about it, I'm still open to do the commission, it's just one of those things that /could/ be done instead of sitting in me queue. :/

[kilroyfirelizrd.livejournal.com]

Wow.. Sometimes I'll joke to people I commission that they can take as long as they need, just as long as I get my art before I die; I never imagined it was an actual possibility that I could just die before they finish, especially after reading some of these comments...

[shaddiewolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah really <__<;;

[thrivis.livejournal.com]

Yeah... that whole "doctor prescribing the wrong thing" makes me think it's so possible the most. I've been prescribed the wrong thing before (not fatally, obviously). So... yeah, damn. O_o

[lozpie.livejournal.com]

this post makes me feel sad :(

[aazhie.livejournal.com]

I've had a few art contest winners go AWOL. still have not heard from them. They were super-nice too! i feel bad but in a year or two i may sell their stuff after changing it. I have stacks and stacks of old sketches i don't expect to finish ever, their art cycles through those piles and into my current art pile depending on how often i sort through my stuff.
That sucks though. I figure a year or more of no contact nulls my obligation, but it still feels mean to keep their money or sell off their art if they haven't paid it all off.
if they pop up years later and say money stealer, i think you won't have to worry about getting a bad rep if you save the emails you sent. That's why i love gmail...