Not a beware, yet. Just wondering what to do, precisely.

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

Alright, so. Back in September of 2011, I commissioned an artist for a $15 icon and a $30 digital badge, to be worked on/completed in October/November of that same year. Said artist was trying to raise funds to move across the country, and, as I was looking for art, I went ahead and commissioned her. Paid the $45 via paypal, it was received, all was well.

After her move, she did complete the icon, along with all the other icons she owed. She forgot a couple of details, but she was happy to add those, and I was satisfied and very happy with the finished result. All I had to wait for was the badge, and as I was quite far down her queue, I was prepared to wait a while.

In October, November and December, she sent a mass email update stating that she’s taken on a bit more than she can chew, and the remaining commissions are going to be delayed. She posts a rough estimate for when they will be done. Mine was to be done in March, then in June, and now she’s removed the estimates altogether.

I’ve had five email updates from her, all stating that yes, she’s working on them, she’s going to get them done, very sorry everyone, and so on. I understand completely that she’s overwhelmed, and that she needs to take occasional commissions to gain money to live on. She frequently takes, and finishes, streaming commissions. She’s posted several over the last couple of months.

Meanwhile, her queue of thirty-five plus commissions that are overdue by 6-8 months is standing still. I’ve contacted her via twitter to ask what’s going on, and was told that she planned on sending out another email to update everyone. Which is fine, it’s great that she’s keeping everyone updated, but every email says the same thing. She apologizes, says she feels guilty and overwhelmed, and says she will finish her outstanding queue.

She’s offering voluntary refunds to those interested. I’d rather not take that option, since I really do love her work, and I do want my badge. The issue is not the waiting, it’s that I’ve seen no actual progress on her overdue works. None have been finished thus far. The one at the top of her queue is still listed as “pending sketch approval”, and has been for sometime. That’s the only one on a list of 35+ that has anything other than “unstarted” next to it.

I’ve contacted her on twitter again, stating that I understand that she needs to take additional commissions, but the fact that there’s been no movement on her backlog concerns me. It’s been nine months since I paid her, and roughly seven or eight since the work was initially supposed to be finished (which, whatever. I was prepared to wait if I had to, but not indefinitely). Am I just impatient, or am I right to be a little concerned?

Note: Not revealing the artist, although it's probably obvious to some people, because again, this is not a beware. I'm just looking for advice on what to do, and how to approach her. Also, I'm sorry if this is a little confusing, I tried to be as clear as possible on little sleep.

Comments

[fenris-lorsrai.livejournal.com]

since she's doing lots in stream, set up time to both be on and do it in stream. Send her the references again and what you wanted and that you'd like to set up stream time within this date/time range.

That may get it done because it goes through sketch and finish all in one go. sometimes the anxiety over STARTING the overdo project and then going through all the rounds of email and approving just paralyzes some artists.

This is inconvenient for you to have to hang out in a stream if you don't normally do so, but may be best bet if artist is doing these all the time.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

On the one hand, 34 commissions without progress is crazy. On the other, by refusing a refund, I feel that you are giving up your right to complain. A refund would be the easiest and fairest way to resolve your issue right now for both sides. You can always commission her again when she has things under wraps, and she may actually appreciate it if you gave her the "out".

[carristo.livejournal.com]

Gonna have to agree with Leahtaur, refusing the refund means you are just gonna have to tough it out and wait. I don't think she deserves a beware if she's keeping you guys up to date(even if there is no progress) and offering refunds if you get tired of waiting. It's not her fault you don't want the refund :P

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

Maybe you can suggest this to her:

She does one new commission, then one old one, back and forth like that. She -should- be working on only what's been paid first, but since she seems to need the money, I'm going to presume that isn't going to happen. By working this way, she can both make some new cash, while still working on her queue.

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea, I should bring it up to her and see if it's feasible. Thanks!

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

I don't know why refusing the refund means giving up the right to complain.

I refused a refund a while back for several reasons
- the artist really didn't have the funds at that time
- the artist eventually closed the commissions and hasn't opened since
- on principle, because I really want that art.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Refusing a refund sort of holds the artist hostage though. If they don't want to do the art, but you won't take the money, what are they supposed to do? Force themselves to make some horrible piece of crap just to get it out of the way?

Maybe you don't have *zero* right to complain after you've refused a refund, but you have very little, in my book. They offered to do something to make it right, you turned down that offer.

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

Even if I had accepted the refund offer, they would not have had the money right away.

As to what they're supposed to do. Well, they can do what they got paid to do in the first place.

[frazzled-niya.livejournal.com]

Curious but if the artist doesn't want to do the work why did they take the commission in the first place? I dunno just some food for thought.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

You're making it sound like the only way you can accept the offer of a refund is when the artist has the cash to make the refund happen immediately. I'm not sure if this was discussed in the other comments (bladespark probably did a ways down,) but in that case, then a payment plan or date of refund should be set in order to ensure that the refund actually happens.

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

Well, considering that in my particular case, the artist requested the commission paid in full upfront in order to be in the commission list, then my answer is yes.

If the artist had request half upfront and half upon completition, i would probably be more lenient.

[zatanna-333.livejournal.com]

I agree in a way. I think the better bet is to take a refund if they can give right away, sure. But otherwise, I don't get the whole attitude that oh hey, they gave you the money back, so wasting your time and getting an interest-free loan is a-ok!

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

I don't get the whole attitude that oh hey, they gave you the money back, so wasting your time and getting an interest-free loan is a-ok!

Neither do I

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

I don't really see why wanting the art instead of a refund somehow makes the artist innocent of any wrongdoing. They have irresponsibly created a huge backlog for themselves and refuse to work on it. A customer has the right to be upset at missed deadlines and while communication is nice, when it's just a stream of the same tired excuses it gets real old. It'd be different if there was some visible sign of progress.

That said though, arguing over the application of blame isn't going to resolve OP's situation. My personal opinion is that you should accept the refund because there is no guarantee when if ever your art will materialize and like Leahtaur said, the artist may feel slightly less burdened and you always have the option of commissioning them again once the backlog is gone. Otherwise... yes you may have the right to be upset at paying for a service but that's not going to make the art appear.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Wanting the art doesn't make the artists innocent. That's not at all what I'm trying to argue here.

I fully agree the artist should have done the work as originally promised. BUT if the artist has offered a refund, they've made a good-faith effort to make it right, and turning down that effort really does put some of the burden of the situation on the customer. If the customer has been given a chance to resolve things and refused it, how is their choice not their responsibility?

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong I see what you're saying, I just feel that someone shouldn't be blamed for just wanting what they paid for. It's the artist's responsibility to provide the service they accepted payment to do. Their failure to do so in a timely manner is not their customer's fault so all the "you have no right to complain" stuff is unreasonable imo. But that's just my opinion, nobody is obligated to agree.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

Speaking as an artist, if she needed/wanted to refund you, I hope she's aware that she can do that and terminate the contract/commission on her own.

By choosing to go with the art, the contract is still valid... she will have to deliver. If she terminates, she is free to send the money via Paypal and notify you that she has done so.

As an artist, I would not hesitate to refund if I felt that was my best option for resolving a longstanding issue that I would not be able to complete to anybody's satisfaction.

So what I'm saying is, yeah, you are still well within your rights to get your art and contact her about it.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

This.

People are disagreeing about the refund bit, but I think they're forgetting that there's a huge difference between taking too long, and making a refund optional for those who aren't ok with the wait, compared to not wanting to do the art at all, making a refund the only option and the commissioner still refusing.

The artist isn't held hostage, the refund is just a nice gesture. I do it as well if I'm taking longer then I like, I let commissioners know I can do so if preferred since some might be a bit shy to outright ask for it.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

One of my personal rules is to never buy an "emergency" comission, no matter how tempting. The artist is basically telling you up front that they're taking on more work then they normally would right as their life is entering a situation that's not conducive to artistic inspiration nor the ability to sit down and get work done.

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

I've learned this the hard way.

[curiodraco.livejournal.com]

I'll come clean, it's me in question here. I'm not mad for being featured here. I don't even blame him. (and I want to thank him sincerely for being civil and honest in his not-at-all-unreasonable complaint.)

I know my backlog is ridiculous. I know people are tired of waiting. I also know there are only so many hours in the day, and I have been trying to figure out ways to both continue to make ends meet financially, and still make reasonable progress on my backlog. If anyone is interested in the finer details of how I gained such a backlog, it's all detailed here. http://furry.curiodraco.net/plan.html (TL;DR version: I was setting up to move across the country, and needed all the help I could get. I didn't brand them as "emergency" commissions, and truly thought I could get through them faster than this)

I'm not trying to avoid the work. I'm just having a hard time balancing hours I can spend on the backlog, hours for new work, hours to spend on personal chores, web site maintentance, getting out for anything fun once in a while, and more recently, trying to make time for more physical activity because sitting at my computer working on art for days on end is starting to take a toll on my waistline x_x

All I do is work. I don't play video games, I don't art for myself (short of the very rare project, something quick and silly every other month maybe), I turn down most offers to get me out of the house.. I want to be clear here that I don't say this seeking a pity-party, I say this to show that I am truthfully dedicated to my work. If I'm not working on art, I'm working on other tasks or chores necessary for life as an adult. I want to get these commissions done as much as the people still waiting.

As far as my streaming commissions, yes, there are a lot of them in my recent uploads. But please know that I only do these new streaming commissions 2 days out of the week. The ones I offer are purposfully quick and easy so I can take them and finish them on the same day they're purchased (or at least within the same week, for I do take 2 pre-orders every week to start off said 2 days). The commissions in my backlog are of a different style, in which more concern is given for anatomy and details, and thus can take longer by that aspect (it also doesn't help when your art software totally eats an entire day of work, setting me back even further. Seems I'm still learning just what NOT to do when I use Sai :/ Rare problem, but did just set me back a day this week.)

I can't do streaming commissions any other time unless I can rearrange time slots with my roommates. Our internet is pretty worthless, and unfortunately it's the best available for where we live (welcome to the corner of No and Where, please leave your high speed internet and any cell signal at the door, 5 miles away!) They like to use the internet as well, and we have it arranged that we can all share it to different extents on different days. So cramming as much new work as I can into these 2 days is pretty much the only way I'm keeping a roof over my head right now. Furthermore, I'm purposefully limiting how much new work I take, streaming or not, to just enough for me to survive. I could be earning more than enough $ to spoil myself stupid for having the extra cash lying around to do so. But I won't, knowing that this backlog is my #1 priority before I can rightly pursue anything like that.

I'd like to note also that in addition to offering these voluntary refunds, I've offered everyone in my backlog extras to try to make up for the wait, such as life-access to my hi-res collections that I put out periodically, or an extra single-character doodle of sorts (even to those who may opt for a refund, for holding on to their $ for so long with nothing to show for it)

I know full well that this kind of wait is unacceptable, and constant apologies only go so far. I didn't want to get myself in a situation like this. But here I am, I put myself in this situation in spite of my best efforts, and I'm just doing whatever I can think of to get through it with minimal damages.

If anyone has any helpful suggestions, or knows where I can hire personal assistants who would be happy to work for peanuts, I'm open for feedback on the matter.

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

I would highly recommend you stop adding on extras. From what you've said, you're already very far behind. Why add more work for yourself?

Instead why not keep a separate list of the user names of the people who have waited and perhaps when you've caught up, you can pick from that list to use as examples of quick things, or do some headshots or something.

Right now though, you need to focus on the work you've been paid for and that's behind, not giving yourself MORE work on top of it!

I did the same thing to a lesser extent when I had a heavy backlog and it did nothing but cause me more stress. Yes some customers appreciated that I'd done something extra, but people appreciate MORE getting what they paid for.

Do you have a well organized system for your commission information currently? Once I switched to Google Docs for -everything- and went no-notes, my commission efficiency is very much improved. I noticed your queue has a nice organized spreadsheet and that's awesome.

What other things are keeping you behind? You mention needing a personal assistant, but for what sorts of tasks?

[spartanwerewolf.livejournal.com]

I deliberately didn‘t name or link you, because I don‘t neccesarily think being overwhelmed with work is beware worthy on its own. Like I said in the post, I was aware tht I‘d have to wait for quite awhile, bc of your huge move and that I‘m fairly low in the queue.

I do very much appreciate you keeping in good contact, and you‘re always polite and responsive when I‘ve contacted you. I didn‘t post this to trash you, I promise. I was hoping you wouldn‘t see it :x I tried to keep it as anonymous as I could while keeping relevant details.

I was unaware that your streams were so quick for you; I thought they took longer than they apparently do. My apologies for that. There are some good suggestions further up, such as posting WIPs/sketches and completing one old commission for every new one you take on.

Urgh. I feel like a dick :( I really don‘t mind waiting, and I saw a bit of progress on your queue, so that‘s good. I‘d really love to see you clear this backlog up, since it is so stressful for you, but not at the expense of your health and mental well being.

[cyiakanami.livejournal.com]

Perhaps take the advice posted above? Someone mentioned doing one new piece and one old piece ect ect. This way you can still bring in money if need be, and also work on that backlog as well.

Also, I've downloaded evernote which is an amazing organizing program that I put all my commission info into. Each note is an individual's commission info and much easier to find and look up.

And last, make a schedule for your self. I've been working by an agenda for art for a long while now and while I might not get someone's piece done the exact day I tried planning it on, it does help me organize and keep me on track with who needs their art done first.

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

You might not like this advice, but I would suggest raising your prices. I don't actually know what they are, but if you have to take on so much to make end's meet, then you need to charge more to take on less.