Beware: Vella C. Raptor

[jagagreyfox.livejournal.com]

WHO: Vella C. Raptor on Furaffinity

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vellacraptor
and Email

WHAT: Very old digital art commission from October 2011.

WHEN: Paid in October 2011

PROOF: Her art que that I have been at the top of sense October, NO progress on my image sense then: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=0AjIe-vKisy0idEpuUjhpczFBakVnUWkzRjY4T19kWnc&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Our original agreement that was NEVER started so I ended up changing it with her full permission shown in the screen shot after this one:  http://tinypic.com/r/296knwi/5

Here is my commission change where she tried to charge me more after agreeing CLEARLY in the screen shot above to color the image how I had my previous commission done: http://tinypic.com/r/16ibuw/5

Our talk after I responded to her trying to change what she had promised: http://tinypic.com/r/14bqhhy/5

at this point im super annoyed.

The due date she promised to me: http://tinypic.com/r/25a2lo1/5

her excuse last month promising the commission before Jan was over. How could mine not get done when she posted random art and other commissions almost every other day? (view her gallery for more dates): http://tinypic.com/r/aka5np/5

message I sent her a week ago never opened when I see she leaves comments on others daily so I have been ignored: http://tinypic.com/r/mbidsj/5

So i decided to email her, it took a week as well to get the email response. And it was not a very nice response either. She talked to me as If she would be doing me a favor putting my art with her Christmas art...when my commission was supposed to be a gift in OCTOBER that I told her about multiple times, and she continues to ignore that acting like its a HUGE favor to allow my commission to go with over due Christmas art. She also previously gave me multiple due dates and such as listed above, NO progress images were ever given. Personal art and other art continues, but my art once again was the piece that magically vanished with her computer issue story.

http://tinypic.com/r/ka0lrb/5


VERY annoyed customer.


EXPLAIN: I asked her multiple times about it and she never responds, got two responses, one trying to charge me more money for what I already paid for going against our agreed price She told me that she did not agree to it, when I proved the message to her she simply said oh ok and let it at that. Have not heard from her at all, trying to get a hold of her. I paid her 6$ up front and was planning on giving her 15 more after the art was done, but at this point im not sure its even worth it. She has done other commissions over mine over and over again. No progress on mine. I am annoyed especially because i was her original first commission on FA and she was great for it, and she has treated me very poorly as a repeat customer.

Comments

[puritikoneko.livejournal.com]

Reading her response to you, I don't see where you're getting that her response "wasn't very nice". From what I've seen, she's been nothing but polite to you and very apologetic. o.O

[ladysnakebite.livejournal.com]

Agreed; it seems both polite and professional.

[ducttapeninja.livejournal.com]

I'm really not seeing where the artist "wasn't very nice" to you in that last link. She doesn't seem rude at all during the transaction. Like Puritineko said, she seems nothing but polite and apologetic the whole time.

I don't think she was trying to "charge you more" for the shading on the second commission-- Not maliciously, anyway... It seems more like you didn't actually read the journal advertising the commissions, as she claims it only says there that the NYOP offer is only for flats, not shaded. So that part is more on you than on the artist, I think.

The lack of progress and apparent lack of communication does suck, of course. But I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say she wasn't very nice to you in her reply, or claim that she was trying to charge you more for something that was previously agreed on when it was really just a misunderstanding.

[jagagreyfox.livejournal.com]

Actually I did read the journal and was just asking If I could do the pay what you want commission. AS THE ARTIST she is at fault for saying YES to my asking when the example OF HER ART that I showed her was colored in a certain way...SHE SAID YES to that...thats my point...then later said no...thats NO WAY of conducting business...you make a mistake its on you, thats how the real world works, thats why as an artist or seller its up to you to pay close attention to what others ask for, because if you screw up its on you.

And yes, her lack of communication was a huge issue. She was a nice girl, but almost to a fault, all she did was apologize and make excuses...what good is that when I still dont have my art or any progress when other things were done over top or around me?

[magusmanx.livejournal.com]

The only thing that seems to suck here is the fact that she wasn't super communicative, and the lack of progress.

The rest well.. She was extremely nice and polite in all her replies to you, and it looks like you didn't read the full journal properly for the 'Name Your Own Price', but she ended up giving you shading either way.

[jagagreyfox.livejournal.com]

Yes she is very nice, but I still find it rude that 1 she continued to ignore my messages, EVEN after that email I have not gotten a response after asking what was going on with the situation. and saying she would put me in with her overdue xmas que when I should have been done LONG before there was an xmas que....I messaged and messaged her and got nothing...THATS rude when conducting business. You can apologize and make excuses but they are useless if you dont come through on them.

[vellacraptor.livejournal.com]

As I've said in a couple of journals, to try and contact me by e-mail when possible as I don't check FA as often as I used to. I wouldn't have even caught this post if it weren't for a friend letting me know. :)'

I agree, this beware is warranted because I understand you're frustrated, and I'm doing my best to get your piece done. I was waiting until the inking was done to send you an update but I'll post what I have here now. http://i.imgur.com/pS1l3.png

For the deadline, as I explained in my last e-mail, yes it is entirely my fault. http://i.imgur.com/jS7b2.png

By partial refund, hopefully so we're clear, I will not be charging you anything extra, and additionally it was my intention before I got your e-mails to throwing in shading for free for having you wait for so long, as well as a background.

As for the misunderstanding about price, yes at the time I was having a "pay what you want" deal that was for flat colors only, though I accepted your badge for shading since it was only a head shot. I did start it, I just never uploaded the sketch, so it might has well have never been started. Again, my fault for not keeping you as updated as I should have.

I stated the price would be 40$, we simply agreed to having you send me "extra" as I felt bad about the misunderstanding, and going from 6$ to 40$ felt like a huge jump, and I know if I were a customer I'd be rather shocked by it myself.

It is my intention to get your art done as soon as I'm able, and this definitely shows I do need to work on keeping my customers and que more up-to-date so this doesn't happen again.

[vellacraptor.livejournal.com]

Also here are the other notes if it helps? Well the two with her references for the new image and the 40$ thing. http://i.imgur.com/WutRr.png

[koisnake.livejournal.com]

I think Vella C. Raptor has a case of "bit more than she could chew" issue. She is a super sweet girl and I know she has no ill intentions, but perhaps she took upon too many commissions. I know I fell in that trap before and you often panic and feel too shy to answer emails and such :( Not sure if she's in this situation, but I have a hunch.

Sadly, I am still waiting for a commission myself that was in...December? She said she had computer problems, so I'm assuming this is why it's taking a bit for my commissions to be finished; however, I know she will finish it soon since she finished my last two commissions in the past. Sure, she may not get them done on a deadline but they finished product was always worth it <3 I hope everything is OK with her! She's such a sweetheart!

And I hope your situation is resolved as well. Good luck!

[iinkwell.livejournal.com]

First of all, please don't say rude things about her that aren't true.
Secondly, she DID contact you. Being one of the people closest to this artist, I can guarantee you two things. One, she lost TONS of hours of work when her computer melted down. No access to computer for MONTHS. At all. Meaning ALL digital work has been on standstill. She JUST got a computer from her friend on loan not but maybe a month ago.

YOURS is not the only commission she's had, and nowhere in her TOS does it state she goes by an 'in order' que. Having spoken to her, I also know for a fact that you mentioned it was a gift, but she forgot because she's had a job in RL she's had to prepare for, which also requires a computer. That takes precedence over rl.

It is YOUR fault for not reading her journal correctly. She's basically giving you a full-blown, fully rendered commission AND a voucher that she has given ALL OF HER CLIENTS that this has effected for 25$ value to make up for YOUR misunderstandings and her missing the date because you only mentioned it once, maybe twice. She has been nothing but polite to you, and for you to claim otherwise is proposterous, especially when she's gone above and BEYOND to be kind to you when you're the one who made the initial mistake that she's too kind and polite to say no to. When you showed her your last commission with her, she probably assumed you wanted the same CHARACTER, not the full-blown render. Try to be patient and not jump the gun on someone who has bent over backwards to accommodate you and make you feel comfortable with this. RL and technical difficulties take priority in all cases, for ALL artists pretty much. The only way even me, as her best friend, could contact her during those months she wasn't near FA because of her computer being dead was by cellphone. So please don't act like she's been sitting on this work for months on end.

[astraldescent.livejournal.com]

I know I'm just a bystander, but I think Vella's reply up above was more than sufficient, there's really no need for you to rudely white knight her like this, at least its coming off as rude to me.

Just my opinion, I don't mean to offend anyone. Personally I think the response from her, if anything, makes me feel like she would be someone worth commissioning if I had something I wanted drawn.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

I personally feel that both sides are at fault to a degree here. As a client it is incredibly unreasonable to wrangle more than what you were paying for out of the artist at the beginning and Vella was entirely in the right to refuse giving special treatment when her IA images were specifically stated to be flat colours only. You are also greatly exaggerating by claiming that she was rude and never responded to you ever.

For Vella, it's incredibly disappointing that she let deadlines pass without acknowledgement. Customers tend to be understanding when something comes up, and rl problems like having no computer are big ones, but communication is still key especially when you've given a due date. I find her conduct to be professional otherwise and the apologetic nature of the communications seems sincere, but it's not good to put your commissioners into the situation where they have to chase you down for updates. Also putting christmas commissions first when this one was owed since october was a really bad idea imo.

[jagagreyfox.livejournal.com]

Once again. I have over 200 imags of my character. Never had people just walk over deadlines given, Do other art when mine is promised. and just ignore me.

I agree that I am at fault here at the beginning, but as the commissioner its her job to NOT accept that the first time. In any line of business when you make a deal thats the deal, you cannot go back on it. Thats life.

That was my whole point of this, It was a VERY early Oct commission as a birthday gift. She finished the whole Oct batch BUT MINE, and then moved on and did Xmas commissions. I myself am an artist who gets lots of commissions. You have to keep it to a small amount or any amount you can handle and NOT take any more till its done. Its common business educate

[pandacat-magic.livejournal.com]

Mmm. I remember she was having PC issues like hardcore towards the end of the holidays.

I'm waiting on a com myself, but it's all good. B)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Just my two cents, but I'm seeing an artist who's made a few small mistakes, freely admits to them, and is trying to correct them, and a customer who's making a veritable Himalayan range out of those tiny molehills, while not being entirely innocent of mistake either. I'm taking possibly a different beware than the OP intends away from this. I'd rather deal with slight miscommunications and a longer wait than expected (but not an extremely long one, calling something from just last October "very old" is a great example of what I mean here.) than melodramatic accusations.

[excessdenied0.livejournal.com]

Seconding this.

After reading, I can say that I wouldn't want to work for OP. Though the artist seems like a decent person to buy from, in spite of the little mistakes!

[obsidianwolfess.livejournal.com]

Maybe after missing the deadline, it might have been better to just ask for a refund of the $6 since no progress had been shown to you.

I think the $25 voucher was a really nice attempt to compensate on Vella's part, but I understand why you're annoyed. If she's been "skipping" you in her queue, it's possible that she just doesn't feel inspired to work on your art. Maybe the theme isn't something she's interested in, maybe she's burnt out, who knows. (Surely you've felt like that at some point with your art, too?) But if that's the case, she should be refunding instead of pushing your art off for "later". Hope I've been helpful!

[jagagreyfox.livejournal.com]

Oh god yeah I understand. And I mean I am a pretty patient person...as I have said before and you know, I will wait months for something, But I expect some type of update without having to nag lol.

Yeah I mean, I just want my art. Thats why I posted here to get my art lol, not to have people act crazy about some post. but then again maturity in most areas of the internet is lacking.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Artist: Probably would be easier in terms of the "but I want it shaded for the same price!" confusions if you make a Fill-Out-Form for these 'Iron Artist' commissions with a very clear 'FLAT COLOR ONLY' clause in it. Also, make an Excel or similar document to keep track of deadlines, or better yet-- include 'DEADLINES' in your Fill-Out-Form or decline to accept deadlines less than a month away (as I do).

Client: Your messages are completely confusing. You never specified wanting shading, you pointed at something and said 'like this', and to an artist that means nothing. Does it mean you wanted saturated happy colors like the image or something? We don't know. PLEASE learn to be SPECIFIC and ELOQUENT when speaking with somebody who is making you custom work, or you'll only confuse them and be unhappy yourself. Furthermore, if you 'just want your art', you should note she is giving you many free features that fall way outside the range of $6 in order to make up for her personal failure. If you don't want 'free and takes longer', you should get a refund. No, the time taken isn't your fault, but you do have the power to end it.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and Artist: Was there a queue or wasn't there? If you don't go in order from your listed queue, you should state so publically and cover all your bases, or if the 'October' queue was meant to be finished all at once (allegedly it all was except for this client's, and a deadline missed), it's best to contact those that didn't get done during that time if October gives way to Nov/Dec and offer refunds.

[vellacraptor.livejournal.com]

I do keep a to-do list, which I refer to as a "status update" list rather than an actual que. I'll add clarification when I update the list, thank you for pointing that out and also for the form tid-bit!

I don't do the month-by-month thing. I took a couple commissions in October, got the majority of them done, she changed her commission at the end of October. November is when I took my Christmas commissions, and I did NOT accept any new commissions in December as I knew my plate was already full. October/November was when I started accepting "Christmas Commissions" so I'd have plenty of time to finish them before it was actually Christmas.

In December is when my computer crashed and died unexpectedly, and then is when I posted a journal about it. I've since contacted multiple commissioners, offered ALL of them either a refund or the voucher, and a good chunk of them I have lost the art for and they have been told. Some that I missed have sent me either an e-mail or note inquiring about their updates, and that is when I apologized and told them the situation as well (Jaga being one of these).

So Jaga is not the only person waiting, she's not the only person I've lost the art for, and she's not the only person that I've offered compensation for either. The majority of my commissioners are watchers, so most of the time I post journals with larger updates (ex; computer crashing) and include an e-mail for fast reply times.

Admittedly, I would not taken on as many commissions as I did if I had known that my computer would crash and I'd be set back a few months, but that's something I couldn't predict happening. It's not an excuse however, and I'm doing my best to finish commissions as I am able. I set priority to people who's commissions were meant as gifts, and some of my commissioners have contacted me and let me know they're fine with waiting, and those are the ones who were bumped back.

Of course, I appreciate their understanding, and I actually find Jaga's complaint more as a form of critique for my areas of weakness. I'm glad she came forward and told me she was upset, and I'm going to do my best to make sure she walks away from this with a lovely piece of work that I've put my time and attention into.

I'm doing my best to make sure all my commissioners walk away from this with more than they asked for in exchange for their patience, as it's the least I feel I can do as an artist to make it worth their time and understanding. :)

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

Valid beware, yet I do not see the rudeness you had mentioned. Vella seems to be very professional, especially in their replies here.
I believe you seem to be overreacting a bit. Not to say you are wrong in being upset, you are completely right to be, but you are being a bit dramatic and it seems that you are also being rude to those whom disagree with some things in the beware.
Though Vella had made multiple mistakes, it seems that they have been doing many things to own up to it. If you really are sick of waiting, then ask for a refund. That doesnt seem to be the case, however, Vella also has other customers to work with.
RL problems may not be a complete excuse, but at the same time I believe that patience should be given to her as this is not something anyone could have foreseen.

[iinkwell.livejournal.com]

First of all, now that it's a new day, I'd like to apologize for being quite so rude and snippy. Vella's very important to me personally, and I turn into a very angry momma-tiger when I feel someone's ganging up on her.

That being said. She can grow from this, and learn from the mistake, but please realize OP she hasn't tried to do anything to personally offend you. There were bad calls on both sides, I'll agree with that. I hope you accept my apology for my earlier blow out.

edit// Ho my, I misspelled some things. o ^o;; Edited only to not look like a grammatical moron.

[mgsfriedchicken.livejournal.com]

From what I'm seeing here, this is both the commissioner and the artist's fault. The commissioner overreacting, and Vella having the "taking-more-than-she-can-handle" issue. OP if you really can't wait, ask for a refund.

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

All the emphasis caps in the post come off as really impatient and entitled sounding, and if you are getting such a lovely commission as what has been posted on here for a mere 6 dollars I think its worth waiting just a little bit longer and showing a little less feigned anger at "rudeness" no one else seems to think is there but the OP. The artist needs to learn how to organize her commissions better and increase what she charges, because he work is worth more than that paltry amount and all the headache from dealing with costumers as impatient and quick to claim offense as this one.

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

Someone correct me if this is wrong, since the OP's post is kind of... hard on my eyes.

OP ordered from her IA, which was flat shaded. Demanded shaded, and Vella worked on other stuff/didn't do OP's order, and OP claims notes/email are rude, and Vella tries to fix it, but still gets posted here?

Please let me know if I missed anything, because I know when I ordered from vella I got my stuff extremely fast and I got extra free stuff.

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

That's the basic gist. The commission was also changed to something else at some point and Vella has missed a few deadlines, including a recent one for the end of January which she apparently let pass without saying anything. The beware's valid for that and also for her taking on later commissions and working on them first.

To Vella's credit it does look like she's been trying to make amends and has been more than polite throughout the whole thing. I've commissioned her myself and was delighted with it so for her to be featured here made me very sad indeed.

[copper-curls.livejournal.com]

From where I sit as a spectator, I see Vella being polite, calm, acknowledging her errors. She has, if I understand this aright, up-scaled the original commission to something that would usually price out at considerably more than a $6.00 piece, as well as offered a $25.00 voucher for goodwill.

Jaga is upset, and I understand why; she's been waiting a while for her art. I see what looks like miscommunication regarding the nature of the artist's work queue, but she's clarified that. Unfortunately, Jaga came across in her initial post as belligerent and impatient, and while I understand the impatience, her further responses have only reinforced in my view the belligerence, or at the very least, an unwillingness to accept that how she's presented herself here is not doing her any favours.

While I don't see her conduct here as beware-worthy, it would certainly make me reluctant to work with her, either as a customer of hers, or an artist doing work for her. Jaga, may I suggest that you consider carefully how you express yourself?

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

You summed up my thoughts far better than I could.

[canineatheart.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting since October as well for my commissions. I was kind of miffed at first when I actually had to contact her after a month or two to ask when they would be completed, but if she's having computer issues - the oh well I guess. I'll just keep waiting.

[vellacraptor.livejournal.com]

Was having, currently not now. Yours is in the batch of re-sketches I'm sending out, I'll send you a pm shortly.

[millislim.livejournal.com]

Vella, good job for not making excuses and trying to fix this issue.

OP, um...I won't echo what others have said about your conduct. I will say this tho, You catch more flies with honey. You were lucky that she didn't just blow you off completely after some of the notes you wrote. Should you be mad? Sure! Should you be rude? Nope!

As for future commissions may I make a recommendation. This is not saying you didn't do some of these things in this trasaction but maybe this will help prevent this from happening again.

1. Be extremely clear about what you're expecting. Don't assume the other person knows what you mean. If you want a fully shaded, 2-character commission please say so. I've had many customers show me a pic as reference with no explanation.

2. If there's a deadline say that first.

3. Be concise. Too much needless information clutters up the meat and potatoes of the commission details.

4. No emoticons, role playing or baby talk. This is a business trasaction...leave the acting at the door.

5. Be polite. When things are going well AND going badly.

Mod post

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Tagged as resolved since Jaga has received the art.