Anuvia

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

New information: Anuvia has refunded me the cost of the icon (apparently some hours before this post was made, but I didn't know it was coming and missed it), and has promised to deliver it to me soon. I will edit again if I receive the icon this time.

Second edit: I have received the icon and am satisfied, it's quite nice. Things have been resolved.

Way back in early-ish December, I made this post right here: http://community.livejournal.com/furryicontrends/31155.html

Anuvia replied to it personally, saying she would be up for it and that it would be 'easily' done by Christmas. I requested an email to contact her through.

At first, it was fine. There were some communication problems (as you can tell from the comments thread), but she was fairly communicative despite it. She wanted payment upfront, 20 dollars for the icon I was asking for, and it was made clear in the post it was to be a Christmas present (and I also asked her in the comments if she could do it before Christmas). So I paid her, and not long after, she showed me a prelim sketch. I sent in some corrections, and then the problems started.

She had sent me the email with the sketch on the 19th of December, I sent in minor corrections when I saw it the next day (the 20th), and then nothing. I sent an email asking for an update on the 23rd (since it was to be a Christmas present), got no response, sent another email on the 4th of January, to which she responded fairly quickly to tell me she had had a power outage for a week and that's why she hadn't been responding (even though I had seen her replying to things on Livejournal in this very community before then, so I don't know why she didn't just take a moment to reply to my email if she had time to look around Livejournal, but eh). She also added she had been inking the icon for the past hour (I have no idea if she inserted the changes we asked her to or not, as I didn't get to see a new sketch before she says she inked it).

I replied on the fifth apologizing for being worried she was going to run off with my money, and then didn't hear anything again. For 20 days. So I sent another email on the 25th of January.

Unfortunately, not long after I sent that email, where I live was hit by the horrible ice storms that knocked out power for over 2 weeks, killed a chunk of people, and Obama declared our area a national disaster and everything. To make it worse, our house was hit and run through by a tree (no, really, a big part of our roof was caved in) so it was uninhabitable for a while. Point being, I didn't exactly have access to email for a while, our cell phones didn't even work half the time that was going on, not that anyone without a generator/car charger had a way to charge their cellphones anyway.

I finally got to reply back on the 8th of February but things were still a mess, I just emailed her to note I would try to get back to her with a better email soon.

Fixing up the house and all took a while (we still need to replace our carpet, so expensive!), but I was able to finally sit down and respond to her properly on the 5th of May. She had asked if I wanted compensation for going so far past the Christmas deadline, and I had replied to tell her that I'd be fine with just getting the piece I paid for.

No reply.

March 24th, I emailed her again to ask for an update.

She replied on the 8th of April, telling me she hadn't been getting my emails because they were being redirected into her spam folder. However, this doesn't explain the lack of response to messages left on FA and LJ and the like. I didn't only try to contact her through email. Unfortunately, I don't have specific timestamps for these since the comment on her FA has already fallen off the front page, and I don't remember which exact posts I replied to her to on LJ. In this email, she said the icon was finished and she would send it to me the next night (on the 9th).

I replied the same day of the 8th, but never heard anything through email again. It is now May 10th (when I wrote and submitted this post for approval).

However, Anuvia was recently brought up here on Artists_beware, and her Deviantart account was linked. I went to a journal about new commissions she had been offering, and commented on the 3rd of May asking about my icon. You can see the exchange here: http://anuvia.deviantart.com/journal/24481053/#comments

She says she sent me the finished file, which I never got. I replied to her saying I never got it. I also replied to one of her comments on the AB post about her, telling her to please check her DA. I left another comment a few days ago asking about it again. I have received no reply. She has, however, faved artworks all the way up to today, the 10th, on her furaffinity account, so she is about. She has also replied to shouts and the like.

I'm not foaming at the mouth. I don't want her head on a pike. More than anything, I'm disappointed that she has been trying so hard to avoid communicating with me. Or I guess I should say she's been NOT trying to communicate? Either way, this is the worst commission experience I've had yet and I've been commissioning people for years.

According to her, my icon is complete. But I simply can not get her to actually give it to me. This commission was started way back in the beginning of December, meant to be finished by Christmas, and it is now May and I can not get her to keep in contact and just give me the icon she claims is already finished. If it is complete, why is there a problem? Even if there were email problems, there are other ways she could reply to me, and even give the file to me. So I don't understand why she is ignoring me.

Short version: Paid 20 dollars upfront for an icon to be done as a Christmas gift. Haven't received it months later despite claims that it is indeed long finished. Extremely non-communicative artist.

I just want my icon. It was a little embarrassing not having it to give to my boyfriend for Christmas. But fortunately he's been pretty understanding. Regardless, I DID pay for it, and I still want it. If it's done, why don't I have it yet?

Comments

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Tell her that if she doesn't upload it to Photobucket/Tinypic and link it to you in a comment as proof that it's finished (that way e-mail won't get in the way), then you want a refund.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

It's hard to really ask for much of anything when she ignores me all the time, is the thing. But she keeps saying the icon is finished. If it is, I want it. If it's not ... well, I don't particularly appreciate being lied to and I would like a refund, yes.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, honestly I have a similar situation going on; the person said their DA and Gaia Online account were hacked so they didn't get my messages. But that has to be B.S. because I e-mailed their Gmail account and commented in their LJ.

I'm very sorry to hear you're going through this, since it's completely unreasonable. Good luck getting either the icon or the refund!

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's WAY past the time I could get a refund from Paypal, so all I can do is hope she'll realize she's being unreasonable and give me my icon or refund me. Good luck with your situation, too!

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Well hopefully this will get you your icon, or else a refund. What a depressing turn of events to have all this trouble, and via a request in a community I moderate. I should ban her from furryicontrends until she turns in your icon

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

If you want to. It's just kind of ironic that she had me pay up front because of bad experiences, just to turn around and not give me what I paid for.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

20 dollars is a lot for a freaking icon too. We'll see if it gets resolved, but if not I'll probably bring the ban hammer down on people who try to elicit customers from my community and then not deliver.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Ahh looks like you got a refund and the icon! AB success story!
I revoke my threat of ban hammer

[allykat.livejournal.com]

Do you routinely bar people who don't turn in? I've been way reluctant to get involved in disputes on teenycom and only link here- because I'm afraid it would get carried away or people would ask me to police too much/often. I'm interested what your experiences might have been taking a stance on delinquent art in an advertising community.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

This would be a first for me. But since the whole experience cropped up in a community I moderate I have a mind to ban her so she can't use the community to find new customers. I'll give it a few days to see if it is resolved, but if by Friday she still hasn't resolved this, I might just do that

[allykat.livejournal.com]

Yeah it's already come up for me more than once, but I've been pretty firm about NOT doing anything (it was not this extreme and I felt it might work out without my involvement which I believe it did.)

I guess in a case like this I'd HAVE to do something. Ugh- I guess I better find a way to write that into the rules.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

It just depends on how much time you want to exert moderating the community. Teeny com has become quite the popular little community. Even I have gotten a few bits of art from it. while the commissions are less than 10 dollars, I can see the possibility of people getting ripped off. You might want to think it over and see if there is some policy you can implement so people can continue to abuse the community over and over again.

[sakariflurry.livejournal.com]

Did you try using messenger? They mentioned having that as a means to contact them and file transfers through the same client works out pretty well.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

No, because I don't really like using messengers and tend to be pretty private about it. Personal preference.

But I will say if she wanted to send it to me through AIM, I would do it if I had to. I just don't see any real reason why she can't email it/upload it somewhere and give it to me. It's not that she doesn't have other ways to contact me.

[anuvia.livejournal.com]

11:11 AM (12 hours ago)



You have sent a payment of $20.00 USD to danillama@gmail.com.

This transaction will appear soon in the Recent Activity list on your Account Overview.


Payment details
Amount: $20.00 USD
Transaction Date: May 10, 2009
Transaction ID: 75927048FF278441K

Subject: You've got a payment

Message:
Refund from Anuvia for the icon cost. You'll still get the icon when I get a chance to upload it (I've been out of town this last week due to some family troubles) but I wanted to refund you for the outrageous wait time you've endured.
View the details of this transaction online

Sincerely,
PayPal

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the refund.

More than anything, I wanted the icon. If you had been more communicative, I wouldn't have even minded the wait so much. I have been told repeatedly now I would be getting this icon soon/tomorrow/tonight/whatever, so I can't deny I'm a bit.. well, suspicious of the idea of actually getting it THIS particular time.

I'll edit this post to note the refund, however. I just wish it weren't so difficult to get you to respond to me.

[anuvia.livejournal.com]

Truth be told, I'm not normally this uncommunicative, I've just been swamped with college life, family problems and another huge project that has been hogging my time.

I do apologize for the inconvenience and I my offers to compensate with a second icon still stand. I do wish you would have mentioned my offers to compensate via refund and or second icon in the post though as I'm having an irritating enough time with this community right now over the previously mentioned project.

The last thing I want to do to ANYONE is to run off with their money since I've been screwed out of a total of $140 dollars in commissions I've never received myself. I know how it feels and I feel ashamed to have put you through this scenario.

I'll be calling my house right now to see if I can get someone to send it to me at my current location.

Out of curiosity; Why did you post this AFTER I refunded you?

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I did mention it, but I was trying to keep the entry from turning into a novel so I wasn't insanely specific about much of anything:

Fixing up the house and all took a while (we still need to replace our carpet, so expensive!), but I was able to finally sit down and respond to her properly on the 5th of May. She had asked if I wanted compensation for going so far past the Christmas deadline, and I had replied to tell her that I'd be fine with just getting the piece I paid for.

And as for that, I was actually expecting a payment from someone else, so when I got a paypal notice in my email I ignored it for now because I would have figured you would have replied to one of my messages or emailed me if you were going to refund. I didn't know that one was from you. So yes, that was a my bad on my part, and I don't mind admitting that. I honestly wouldn't have noticed the paypal note attached to it since they're so far down on the page. It also takes a while for posts to be approved and put through, I wrote this earlier in the day.

I can understand that there are problems in life, but you have to understand when I leave you emails and messages and I see you doing things online but not replying to them, it's going to give me a bad impression and I'm going to feel like you're ignoring me, specifically. I'm not really even mad at you, just frustrated, and I really do just want my icon. I don't have any ill will towards you, and I do hope things get better for you.

[anuvia.livejournal.com]

Here's the finished version:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v480/anuvia/wescommish.jpg

Sorry for the delay, it took a while for me to get my mom out of bed and explain to her how to go through my files and then use photobucket.

There's also a larger res version of the file, but I'll have to get that to you when I get home.

If anything needs to be changed, let me know.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I showed it to Westly and he LOVES it. It's very well done! I do really like it, and I appreciate you finally getting it to me, even if it was an inconvenience. I'll edit the post to reflect that my icon's been received and consider it a closed case. Thank you very much for finishing this up! Hopefully there are no hard feelings.

[anuvia.livejournal.com]

Glad he liked it.

[westly-roanoke.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

It's exactly the image I was hoping for!

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I added in that you refunded me before I made the post and I'd just missed it.

[delphinios.livejournal.com]

This was an excellent resolution in the face of a difficult situation (life happens, ya know?) and it's nice to see things worked out between commissioner/commissionee for once. I think with this you've earned an even better reputation as a reputable artist. :)

[dirge-de-valeur.livejournal.com]

Glad you got this resolved!