Artist: Spite

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I am not usually one that complains like this, but I think I have been more than patient.

In March at FWA, I commissioned Spite to make me a wolf with wings necklace. I paid for it up front, and gave her my information, and she said she would mail it out in a couple of weeks.

Well, I thought I picked up her business card, but I accidentally picked up her partner's card instead, so it took me a couple of weeks to find out what her name was. I first contacted her on April 13th.

I got a reply the same day, and she asked me about a character that wasn't mine, so I replied with more information on April 21st. She responded right away with:

sorry I have been having some family problems
I was going to email everyone with in this week and have them send me Ref work. I'm sorry for taking so long on it, once I get that email to you I'll work on it, then Post up the little guy, if you like it I cook him and paint him, you ok that, then he is glazed and sent out the next day I can mail him... I will be putting all of this in the Email I send out ^^; sorry for the delay once again

I did finally get an email that I lost in an email crash asking me again what my reference information was again (she said she lost it), and my address and what not, and after that I have not heard from her since.

I replied with the requested information twice. Once by email, and once by FA. My emails are sitting ignored at FA. One on June 8th, and June 23rd. The last one, I asked for a refund or the commission.

I completely understand her having a couple of family problems in March, and even having two dogs die in May, but it's now July, and I either want my money back, or the wolf I commissioned.

I have never received the images that she promised, or any other email. I have checked her gallery, and look at her page often wondering if she did it and just didn't tell me. No such luck.

I know she was on FA last month, because she set a new picture as her favorite on the 15th. So she should have at least saw the mail from the 8th. I think I am being ignored now.

I would really like this resolved, but she has ignored me since the end of April now, I don't have much hope that it will be.

Edit: I contacted her on DA on July 12th, still no word back as of July 18th, at 8:45pm.

Update: I was looking for something else while I was on vacation, and I ended up finding Spite's email address in my webmail box in Comcast. So I used the email addy to send her another message on July 26th. Still no word from Spite as of August 3.

Comments

[papayafruit.livejournal.com]

I can understand the not liking being ignored part, But Ive waited way longer then four months for art.

I was sitting in front of her in the AA at fwa and her table was swamped when ever I saw her. Maybe she took on way to much and is having problems catching up?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Just because somebody else has waited longer doesn't make this artist's behavior okay.

[brejar.livejournal.com]

Yes, I totally agree with you bladespark. I don't mind the waiting as much as the lack of communication. As I said in my below post, I am a very understanding person. If she just fired off a short mail telling me that she was sorry that she was a little overwhelmed due to something then I probably would have never posted here.

[shestah.livejournal.com]

she had 100+ sculpture orders at the end of the con. They are completed in the order in which they were received.

I gave this person her contact info a few times now. This includes spite's phone number. This post was unnecessary.

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I don't think so really at this point. Like I said, her first excuse was that she had family problems. I totally understood that as I am having a few here and there myself.

Then she has dog #1 die, then dog #2. I understand that losing a pet is hard, and I gave her my condolences and didn't even bother her about my commission for a week or so, before I asked again about the commission. Both dogs died in May, and since then no reply for June. The two emails I sent in June were ignored.

The only reason I paid up front and said she could mail it was because she was so busy at FWA. I walked by her several times and I knew there was a chance that it may not get done, but she seemed very professional at FWA, so I decided to take a chance and commission her anyway.

This is the first time I have commissioned someone and they haven't come through for me. Like I said in the post I am not usually one to complain and normally just count it as money lost, but I REALLY wanted that necklace and now it seems that I am out the money and the necklace, which makes me rather sad.

I understand being busy, and I understand family/pet problems. I am a very understanding person. The problem is, that she should have at least emailed or replied to my new posts and tell me that she was working on them, or why she wasn't working on them.

She told me in the lost email, that she had lost all the info from FWA except for email addresses. So, I can't be the only one that is out of a commission.

I do hope this all works out, she seemed like a really nice person at FWA. Maybe something happened to her, but at this point I don't know.

[shestah.livejournal.com]

This is EXACTLY the case. She had at least 100 sculptures ordered to be mailed after the con. Along with family problems and a prick ex roomate deleting all her messages, she has been having one hell of a time finding all the commissioners that correlate to which sculptures.

I really wish this person took the time to ask around for Spite's info again before posting in such thing. Sculptures don't just pop out of thin air. They take more time than badges, and with 100+ to finish, I can understand the wait.

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I did take the time to ask around. I just didn't remember your name at the time. After I realized I got the wrong business card, I threw it away when I was cleaning up my room.

I know commissions takes time! I said several times that I wouldn't have said anything if I had just gotten a short mail saying that she was having some issues and I would get it to you ASAP.

[uozlulu.livejournal.com]

When you sent the refund request did you send it both by e-mail and FA? Because sometimes the FA PM system is faulty.

I hope you can get your wolf or your refund D:

[brejar.livejournal.com]

Well, as I mentioned, I lost her email in an crash, so I don't actually have her email address anymore. :( The only way I can get in touch with her is FA at this point.

[uozlulu.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could get it from the girl you have the card from? You don't have to tell her all the gritty details but if you still have that card, you might have a way to get the e-mail.

I mean yeah it's been kind of long and it sounds like the run around but I'm not sure if the PM system delivered your PMs.

[chronidu.livejournal.com]

This is more of a comment on one of the excuses than advice but...

I don't understand when people say they lost EMAILS or NOTES in a computer crash. Unless you're for some reason deleting these sources of important information, theres no reason they shouldn't still be in your email or private messages folder regardless of what happens to your computer. The only reason I could see this is if the email/message provider deletes them after a certain time/amount. But again, that wouldn't be the fault of your computer killing itself.

Regardless I would say wait maybe two more months, keep trying to contact her and hope for the best. Did either of you set a deadline for it to be completed?

[ichigoneko33.livejournal.com]

Hmm...maybe it's possible they put all their emails into folders on their computer and deleted them on their email? So that if the net didn't work, they could still access it but the computer crashed.

If it is that, not the best move. Would be fine if they kept it on email and they're computer at the same time.

[stormrunner1981.livejournal.com]

Depends on what the person uses. I use Thunderbird. I have to back up my thunderbird profiles to back up what is in the folders, because downloading them to a mail client removes them from the server - except in some cases.

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I was using a program called The Bat for my email client. It started to go wonky in April, for some reason, and I had to switch email programs. The email may still be there, but every time I load the Bat, it gives me major problems and crashes. So I may still have it, but the program won't load long enough for me to find it.

I couldn't find a good exporter program for the bat to convert to any other program, so I only got a few emails saved as text files before the program stopped loading. :(

No, I never set a deadline for the commission because she set her own deadline by saying she would mail it out a couple of weeks after the con.

[dinobutt.livejournal.com]

Anyone who uses an email client like Outlook can lose that stuff in a crash. I have seven email addresses, so for convenience I run them all through Windows Mail and have each email deleted off the server as I receive them. I back it all up frequently, but not everyone does, so a crash could certainly cause them to lose it all.

[mandyseley.livejournal.com]

As has been said, not everyone uses a web-based client for their email. The whole appeal of programs like Thunderbird is that they pull emails OFF the web server and store them on your hard drive. I use it because otherwise my email inbox fills up WAY too fast and I end up hitting the quota imposed by my web server FAR too quickly.

That said, it's till no excuse for losing contact information for commissions, since that information SHOULD be backed up properly. Something as simple as Google Docs lets you keep a record of customer and commission information on a web server that you can access anywhere, so there's not even any need to use an external drive or other backup methods.

[tibbywolf.livejournal.com]

I comissioned a mate's charm necklace from her and she told me months ago that she was having trouble getting pictures of the clay figures since they were kinda flesh-colored. My mate also had comissioned Shesta, her partner I think, for a rather large badge. He got it at the con though. We haven't heard anything about the necklace from Spite though.

[tibbywolf.livejournal.com]

this was also at FWA too.

[shestah.livejournal.com]

Hello there,

I'm a friend of the artist. You probably picked up MY card from FWA. I'm Inkpaw. We are not partners, nor do we share a business, so I would appreciate it if people spreading that rumor stopped now.

She has had a lot of family Issues, and a Deviantart user by the name of Dragoniangirl (ex roomate) deleted her messages on both FA, DA, Sheezy, and StormArtists to be a prick. She's been looking for her commissioners AND their info. She's usually on DA as Spite-full. She even has a journal up requesting her commissioners contact her due to the loss of their information. Maybe you should contact some people on her page or look her up on other art sites before you attack her. She's a nice person.

She doesn't have a livejournal so she won't find all this snarky crap. If you want her phone number, note me on Deviantart. My username is Lazeros.

And just so you know, most of the commissions I bought at FWA haven't been sent to me yet either, but I don't automatically get pissed and try to hurt their business.

If you don't have a DA account, note me, Inkpaw, on FA.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

I don't see any snark here. I don't see anything pissy either. I just see somebody posting the facts of what has happened. You need to calm down a little bit and not take this so personally. Especially since it has nothing to do with you anyhow.

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I didn't even mention you by name because I knew you were not involved except for giving me her FA name. If you go back and read the original post, it specifically only mentions her. Now, I am sorry that I assumed that you were partners in some way, but as I said, I never mentioned your name.

I also said that I didn't WANT to complain, but I figured that SOMEONE that knew her might be able to find a way for me to contact her. I also thought she was a nice person until she stopped contacting me at all. I mainly didn't want to complain at all. I was encouraged to report her by several of my friends because she was ignoring me.

I also mentioned that I understood the two issues I knew that she had. I didn't know that her family issues were still going on, however. How was I to know that she had someone deleted her stuff? Why didn't she post a journal on her FA account saying that if you commissioned me at FWA, please contact me at the following place? You seem to be jumping to conclusions here.

I am sorry that you saw this and automatically assumed I was attacking you both, which I wasn't. This was more of an information seeking post than an actual report. I am sorry it doesn't seem that way. I will look for her DA page and send her a message.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you might want to encourage Spite to post here in her search for her lost customers. We allow that sort of thing, especially with the major loss of notes/comments from all of her art sites. Also, has she checked to see if she would be allowed to post to the FWA LJ community? That would be another good place to look for lost customers.

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I updated the page since I found her email address and was able to send her an email about my commission. Still no word back.

[shestah.livejournal.com]

I know I was really defensive of her before, but the few times I have seen her, I have brought up the fact that you and a few other commissioners were waiting for their sculptures, and she hasn't responded to me about them. :C

I'm so sorry for barking at you when you made your complaint, it wasn't my place.

I did, however, want to let you know that I've heard she will be at FWA this year. I don't think she will be accepting commissions, since obviously she hasn't finished last years :\ but keep a lookout for her.

I'm really sorry to hear she has never gotten back to you, I really thought she was better than that...

[brejar.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to let anyone interested in this thread, that this issue has never been resolved. I am still waiting for a return reply to my emails. The last time I heard from her was Sept. 2010.