Advice needed

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Hi guys, I’m looking for some advice on an artist who’s finished artwork but won’t give the artwork to me.

I commissioned an artist for 3 digital images. I paid them $300 on 13th Nov 2010.

Normally I only commission real media as I like to have physical copies of artwork, however I thought the artist digital work was good so I commissioned them. I made sure to check that I would get large, high quality files that I could print out. The artist specified the size though they’ve deleted the journal so I can’t remember the exact measurements but it was 300dpi with size in the 1000’s.

They completed the artworks and uploaded the images on FA. However, they did not email me the large copies of the images. I didn’t take a copy of the FA images as I know the size/quality is so low it’s not worth it and was expecting the large copies.

After two weeks I gave them a quick poke to ask about sending through the large copies. They said they had forgotten and would send them.
But they didn’t and I eventually sent another note. They said they were away and needed to get the art off their external hard drive and to send a reminder if they didn’t send them through in a week as they were very forgetful. Again I didn’t receive them so I sent them a reminder but never got a response.
I left it another month and sent an email, which also wasn’t responded to.

Then they rage quit and deleted their gallery (so it’s a bit of a regret I didn’t take any copies of the artwork from FA). I didn’t do much about it at that point as I had some health problems that were taking priority.

However, the artist has returned saying they want to sort everything out. I asked them again for the artworks on and got another I’m so forgetful, I’ll send them through. The next day I still hadn’t received them so sent a reminder email. I’ve waited the last 3 days to give them a chance to do that and still no response/artwork.

I’m beyond frustrated with this now. It seems that asking politely isn’t working. At this point is it reasonable to send one final email saying if the artwork is given by a set date that I’ll open up a paypal dispute? What would be a good deadline? I would normally think about 5 days but I know it’s a really busy/ stressful time of the year for most people so should that be longer?

I don’t want to kick someone down when they’re getting up and cause they additional stress but I don’t know what the problem is. I had to resend some old artworks to a client the other day and it took me 15 minutes to get it off the external hard-drive, check in them in Photoshop and email them so I don’t know why it’s so difficult for them to email 3 digital files…

I know there have been some instances where people have commissioned physical items and had problems with the artist actually shipping the final items. Has anyone had to take it to paypal and do they have any advice? In the artists defence, they did do the work but the fact they will not actually give me copies of the images means I have received nothing for that $300…

Edit- the artist has now give me the high-rez copies of the images. Thank you everyone for the help!

Comments

[wolf-goat.livejournal.com]

Just so you know, you cannot take it up with Paypal. There's a 45 day limit on disputes.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Interseting, it says 65 days on mine. However, I know of at least one other commissioner who commissioned the artist and got a refund 3 months after during the rage quit incident. Paypal will already have a black mark on the artist so I don't think it's so clear cut...

[thejeweledhorn.livejournal.com]

From your start date, I would have thought the PayPal date would have been well over a year now?

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Yes it is, though I'd still be interested in what Paypal has to say. I've also started looking into the Small Claims Track and there is an option for 'goods not supplied' which is what I consider this matter to be so that might be the route I have to take.

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're experiencing so much trouble =/ it's unfortunate that they havdn't taken the time to do what is really a simple task at this point. Hopefully it is just stress from the time of year and he comes through.

There's been enough time now that I don't think you could even dispute it with your credit card. The most you can do is take him to small-claims, or post a warning here and other places. That said, usually the threat of going public is enough. I wouldn't make a legal threat unless you fully intend to go through with the process.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Problem is, it's been a year and i've asked 6 times now so it's hard to excuse it as Christmas stress ^^

I know it's past the 65 paypal limit, however I think talking to paypal may still yield a result as failing to deliver a product that's been paid for is something they take seriously.
I'll look into the small claims, I'm not sure how that work in the UK. do intend going through the process if necessary (though I don't particularly want to). If it was a £20 commission I would chalk it up as a loss but $300 is a lot of money to be let with nothing.

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

Completely agreed, and I hope I did not come as excusing it--it's unacceptable at any rate, even if he does get it in now. I was just thinking about this past 3 days, not the whole ordeal. I had typed more originally but deleted it.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

It's okay, I knew what you meant ^^ Well actually as it takes a while for A_B posts to approve it's now 5 days and still no joy...

[mazz.livejournal.com]

Explain to them in an email you'd like the work you paid for. Let them know if it's not sent in a week you will post them here to warn others of their bad business practice.
You can't really file a dispute because it's been too long "forgetting" is NOT AN EXCUSE to not giving someone their art. It bothers me how many artist use "a shitty memory" as an excuse to rip people off.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

The artist has already been AB'ed twice so unfortunately I don't think threatening them with that will make a difference.

[mazz.livejournal.com]

Ouch... yea then they might not care.
How sad, I think either way you should let people here know so people know there's more reasons to avoid them.

I hope you can dispute the payment somehow or have the ability to take it to small claims. It's a lot of money of yours they are refusing to send the product for.
I don't get how it's so hard to send an email. O.o

[ocelotish]

They might not care as much, but it is relatively easy to email the larger files if they still have them.

My money is on that they don't have the hi-res files anymore. I'd talk to them ask them to please send them again, or they will be posted to a_b. In addition talk about if they no long have the larger files what compromise/refund might be acceptable if they were only able to deliver the low res (if any compromise would be acceptable to you).

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Yes, to be honest i've been thinking that they've lost/ deleted the files too. I'm happy to work out a compromise but can't if they won't talk to me about it. I just have to assume the worst of their character instead...

[ocelotish]

Bring it up. Nicely. Yes, they should have told you first, but I'm guessing they feel too far in at this point to do so. If you want resolution, give them that opening, if you don't and just choose to assume the worst, just send them a last email and then post them.

[ocelotish]

Im sorry I got angry in the last post, but the next move is really up to you. You can make it easier to resolve by mentioning if they lost the high res that you're willing to work out a compromise, or you can make it harder to resolve by thinking the worst of them and pushing this further towards a posting. You're not the one at fault no matter what you do, because it is the artist that screwed up, but how you handle it may have an effect on whether this gets resolved, when it gets resolved and how it gets resolved.

[deejthistle.livejournal.com]

In that case, it might be best to gather your evidence and post a full beware. :C That doesn't preclude your attempting a refund, and if the previous bewares are fairly old, it'll let people know they're still up to their old tricks.

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

I second this.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Well they've been mentioned fairly recently so I don't think it's hard to guess who I'm talking about. I didn't want to name them as this was an advice post and also I didn't want to knock them while they're trying to get back on the right track.

However, looking back at that last entry on them the artist complains that everyone else is dragging this out which is even more frustrating to read. Maybe I should link them to this post?

[wolf-goat.livejournal.com]

I think at least some of us have guessed who you mean, anyway.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was trying to avoid saying too much but I did have to mention a few things that are a bit of a clue.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

I will give them a deadline and a chance to see if they can send me the artworks. If that isn't met then I'll make a full beware ^^

[creamytea.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's pretty bad. In my opinion this artist should take a little more responsibility for his or her forgetfulness. It can be as easy as marking a reminder email as "unread" and/or "important." It honestly shouldn't be your duty to send out this many reminders. Like the others are saying, it sounds time to take the kid gloves off and let them know politely but firmly that you've been patient, but if you don't receive the full sized artwork that you paid for in a week or so's time, you will warn others. This sounds bordering on necessitating a full beware.

[creamytea.livejournal.com]

And as a follow-up, I agree with celarania. It could be that this artist has lost the files and in trying to avoid embarrassing himself or herself, or to avoid making you mad, they are just skirting the problem. A lot of artists think stringing people along or ignoring them will make it go away. If you opened up dialogue about that and paved the way for the person to come clean if that's what happened, maybe you could come to some other agreement. Anyway, good luck with this.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case, though if it was I would have preferred the artist to say so we could work something out. It just seem to be plain old forgetfulness/ not getting round to it after all ^^

[ogawaburukku.livejournal.com]

I love your icon bunny girl. She's so cute :D

[creamytea.livejournal.com]

Aw, thanks! :-)

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

well I'm used to dealing with forgetful people (my memories isn't so good either). I probably should have sent out more reminders but I didn't want to harass the artist and in their journals, it never seemed to be a good time as there was always something going on.
I'm not sure how often it's polite to contact an artist. Plus as I brought up to never ask for anything, I'm very timid in doing so. So yeah, I probably should have been a bit more insistent on this XD

[ogawaburukku.livejournal.com]

Not all artists email high res files to their commissioners. For example, I don't unless I'm specifically asked for it. I just post images to DA at a fairly good resolution and allow the "download full image" option. So keep that in mind for future digital commissions! And grabbing the preview image while you can is always good, just in case.

I think you are totally in the right on this, though. And $300 is a LOT of money for art and you either need to get your art or get a refund. I would even say a full refund as opposed to a partial if they can't even get the low-res pics they posted to you. I don't understand people who constantly delete their galleries, unless they are doing some shady business practices...

Personally, I'd like to know who they are because they don't deserve the opportunity to cheat customers out of art anymore.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

That's okay, I know there's a lot of text to read in the report but the artist said the commissioner would receive high-rez copies of the art and I also double checked that I would get large copies of the artwork before commissioning the person ^^
And yes, not grabbing the low-rez FA images was a mistake. I was a bit complacent as I was expecting the high-rez files but in future I'm going to make sure I nab low-rez copies too!

[ogawaburukku.livejournal.com]

Why yes, you even mentioned that in one of the first paragraphs. I are can read, derr.

Good luck getting those images or a refund.

[ogawaburukku.livejournal.com]

And I failed to read this was resolved. Not a good day for my reading comprehension.

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

*LOL* No worries, I regularly have reading fail so I know what it's like to have one of those days XD