Mind Games/Bloodrox

[cheesygoth.livejournal.com]

I have been very reluctant to post this here until now, as I am getting rather irritated and upset with the whole affiar and would like some advice on the issue.

On the 9th of July 2008 I got a reply from Bloodrox of dA (Mind Games on Furcadia) accepting an art commission, the commission was quite substatial work wise, but the payment was worth it.
(Wolviean(sp?) for life, Tris for Life and a Phoenix for life.)
These are items for a chat based game called Furcadia to improve your avatar. I would guess that they are worth about $150 possibly a little more? Not overly certain as I've not been on furcadia now for some time.

The commission was for:
An Icon
4 Detailed Images
4 Flat coloured images


At first the commission went well, I got the icon that was promised and a few sketches too approve, which I very quickly did. I log into dA everyday (5/8) (12th July)

However, things went down hill from there, it took a while for me to get a single final image, (20th August 2008) I can understand this is a normal amount of time to wait for an image, but from then contact seemed to cease and as the commission was rather large I go rather worried and asked for a fair amount of updates, maybe I was a little too pressuring, when it came to (9th October 2008)  I asked for an update and was promised that verything was being worked on, thats fine with me. Time went by, a month later (9th November) I asked for another update, most of her galler had gone at this point, and was asked again or the refs of my characters... fair enough people loose things, so I linked to my VCL and wished her luck with finishing,
10 days later nothing occured, no contact or updates or anything so I asked for a refund, as by this point I was really worried that she had gone/left dA, in the 23rd of November 2008, I recieved a piece of artwork that was sub-standard and obviously rushed compared to the rest of their artwork

On the 10th of Deceber 2008 I asked again for a refund on what hadn't been completed and on the 11th she agreedto get some digo's for me and asked me to pick some out, I repled telling her that I wasn't to worried about what items I got and told her to take advantage of the sales on at the time. she couldn't give me the original items back because she had either sold them or traded them off.
Since that time I was told that she was in a car accident, wasn't hurt, but needed the money for the car. Since that time she has completely vanished and I am totally unable to find her on the internet as she upped and removed everything from her dA account. This was 67 weeks ago according to dA
www.bloodrox.deviantart.com

Im unsure on what to do now as I have no way of contacting her through dA or through Furcadia as she has changed her username on there. I have even tried contacting those that she did a bit of gift art for to see if they still know of her, but that prooved to be a dead end as well.

I would appreciate any advice/thoughts, or if anyone knows where they have gone I would appreciate that too.

EDIT
I thought I would put this link in as it is the only remainder that I know of their art online.

http://www.furcartzone.com/index.php?action=gallery;su=user;cat=1065;u=1189

Never know, someone may recognise it.

Comments

[millilicious.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to get in contact with a commissioner for the past three months now across two websites. I was able to obtain her e-mail address from one of the mods on a particular website. Have you tried that maybe? It sucks that she just up and left without any contact whatsoever >:

[cheesygoth.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip, I shall see what I can do.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I think you might be out of luck. It might have been a good idea to arrange to pay in stages as the artist worked given that it was worth a fair bit.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Good luck, but I wanted to say, waiting ten days since last contact and then demanding a refund was jumping the gun, so to speak. You do sound impatient, and it can be frustrating when someone's pestering you for updates every couple of days. When it happens to me, it tends to make me not want to work on that commission (though obviously I do anyway, I'm more professional than that).

I'm not excusing the artist at all, just something to keep in mind for future commissions.

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it makes some artists do work less good then their usual stuff too. Like, not on purpose, just from the frustration of feeling like they need to do things quicker when pestered.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Oh definitely. I try really hard to not let that get to me, but I could definitely see it becoming 'Let's just get this out there quick so they'll get off my back'. I've probably fallen to it myself and not actually realized it.

I've complained in another post about it already, but I guess I just don't get the point of pestering the artist all the time. They'll tell you when they have something to show you, so what's the point? Mind you, if it's been months or something, that's another matter... but days?

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

I do think it's good to poke them once in a while, but only cause I've forgotten about things before. But yes, that should be months in between, not days. Maybe one month at the latest.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

I don't know if there's something in the water, but I've had a rash of commissioners lately who bother me about it every couple days. It's driving me nuts! Fortunately, at least one of them backed off when I told them I'd let them know when I had something for them. They would ask literally every day.

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

I'd be super annoyed honestly!

One thing that bugs me is when they email me, I reply, then a few days later then note me asking something similar. When I tell them I replied already, they say, oh, I forgot to check my email. You'd think it'd be the first thing to do if you emailed the person.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

It's been REALLY irritating. Sometimes I consider just refunding them to make them go away. People need to understand that we do things other than just their art the moment they pay us.

And fortunately I haven't gotten that. Instead I get people who try to insist I give them one of my messengers, and I really don't like that... I'd rather keep it to email.

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

I prefer email too, but don't mind people on messanger, but I have a separate messenger for myself and for commissions. Only problem is that sometimes you really don't like the person in the end once you actually talk to them.

One annoying thing about it though, is that I get some people who don't reply to email updates and wait t'ill we're online at the same time. It's wastes my time.

Though, one thing I hate the most if when they think you're friends. I'm the type of person who doesn't like little things even like "hugs", except from close friends. But seems almost all furs do it. They don't get that not everyone likes it and when working with someone, you don't do it.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

All that is why I don't like to get on messenger... plus, I don't save logs and people tend to throw all their refs and info at me there even if I specifically ask them to email them to me so I can label them properly and have easy access. Sigh.

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

Ya, if people start giving me info, I refuse to listen to them and tell them to email me. If they don't, it's too bad for them, I won't do anything, and I tell them so.

[cheesygoth.livejournal.com]

Excuse me for butting in, but I have to agree with the thinking your friends thing. Being both a comissioner and the comissioned.
I find it really unprofessional and irritating!

Doing everything through notes or email is just so much easier, I dread anyone askin me for my MSN. MSN is used for friends or family, not random people who your working for/with.

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

I get too many people who hug or more to me. Be it customers or not, it's not really right to go up to a stranger and do that, even if it's just words.

I don't mind people on msn, but all info needs to be kept on email. Msn is great for updating people quickly though. Like, showing them the sketch, needs something changed, I can do it and send it right away, etc.

[cheesygoth.livejournal.com]

The 10 days was between posting the references which the artist should have already had and waiting for updates.
Maybe it was a little hastey but by this time I had already been waiting several months for a simple update or an "I'm still here" message. Anything at this point would have been handy, especially seeing as by this point the sketching had already been done and approved.

I would have thought that having expressed my concerns to the artist they would have been a bit more communicative?

Thanks for the well wishes and I hope that I can get something resolved.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, it's really more likely to run the artist off than anything. I'm not saying that's OKAY, but people in general, not just artists, don't like the feeling of someone breathing down the back of their neck.

I'm going to add the lost contact tag to this entry as well since it seems to apply. I do hope she gets back to you sometime, no amount of pestering would make it okay for her to just up and run off with the goods.

[cheesygoth.livejournal.com]

I think it was the previous moth or so of no contact that had me so concerned and asking for the refund so soon as I was having to ask every month or so for updates, and I initially asked Bloodrox if the comission would be too much for her to handle being so much artwork involved and they assured me that it would be fine.

It's certainly the last time I am going to order a bulk comission at a time from and artist, and since this I have been a returning customer to other artists rather than a bulk buyer. If that makes sense?

Normally I am a very patient comissioner and understand that art takes time to create. I suppose with this one warning signals were put in place very quickly after it took a while to start getting the first final image.

[minimalismo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a case where the artist has vanished.

[blackswan666.livejournal.com]

I know this is totally OT... but your icon of Severin from "Near Dark" is full of epic win. :D

But echoing the others, I see she not only emptied out her dA gallery, but hid all the comments in her journal there.

I'm sorry this happened to you. :(

[cheesygoth.livejournal.com]

Severen is one of the best "vampire" characters out there imo. None of this sparkling crap!

Thanks, I am really not that hopeful anymore about finding her, but if she ever does resurface at least this is here to warn everyone. :)