Advice post - paypal

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Question for all of you about what you think about this.

What should a commissioner do if they send a paypal payment and it is sent back to them?
Basically I paid for art from someone [I honestly don't even know who it is anymore, I'll talk more about that a little more down the line] and the payment was send back to me. Paypal said it was because they did not claim the payment within a month.

I am curious as to what people would do in this situation.

From the commissioners point of view, it seems like the artist should have claimed the payment within the amount of time. Should the commissioner really have to go out of their way to figure out who this person is, what the commission was, ect, ect, in order to see about the payment? Sending it back could work, but the issue is if they don't claim it within the amount of time, yet again it will be sent back.
I don't really know if it should be the commissioners responsibility to have to go through past emails and notes in order to hunt down this person. This is why I'm asking you guys. So far no one has contacted me about the money being sent back, should I just ignore it?

I'm just not sure whats the best thing to do here, and curious as to what others thoughts are.

Comments

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

No money was lost, so no transaction or art happened. I personally would just shrug it off and go on my merry way.

If you don't care enough about the commission to know who this artist was, then it's unfair to expect them to try and find out who you were in return. Who knows why they never claimed it, but if they haven't contacted you then I don't think it's too big an issue.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Why do you say no art happened?

I made kind of a big comment below that tries to explain it a little better, as it seems like most people don't understand what I'm trying to say.

[kaelstra.livejournal.com]

I think this is kind of a two-way street.

If you've forgotten the artist you commissioned, and haven't contacted them as a result, then they may think something came up, or something along those lines.

If it were me, and someone commissioned me and I lost their info/forgot who commissioned me for what, and I had a random floating payment, I might send it back and consider it a wash.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

I don't really see why I would need to contact them?
We did our buisness, I sent them paypal, they drew me art of some sort. The issue is that they never claimed this payment and it was sent back to me.

[breakspire.livejournal.com]

if you don't care to remember who you commissioned a month later... why commission them in the first place? did you get your art? how much time has passed since the money came back? maybe they don't even know yet or are having issues with paypal

forgive me but it almost seems like you're trying to rationalize just keeping the money

you have their paypal email at least, without having to do any looking around. email them?

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Its not so much as I don't remember them, as their email address. I know who I commission on fa, but so many people use random emails that do not match their fa names in the least.

I am most definitely not trying to keep the money, if I was trying to do that I honestly wouldn't have posted here in the first place, I would have just kept it.
This is meant to be an advice post for me, and if someone else got into the situation of having money sent back to them.
I have no issue whatsoever sending the money back, I'm just not sure what good it would do.

Email them?
I can try that, honestly this is why I posted this, for people to give me advice on what to do.

[onyxserpent.livejournal.com]

Judging by the fact they needed to "claim" the payment, it sounds like you sent it to a nonexistant Paypal. So maybe you (or them) typoed their e-mail associated with their Paypal account.

If you are actually curious about what it was for though... Check the e-mail, maybe do some googling on variants of it. Maybe check whatever auction/store sites you remember buying stuff on last to see if anything fit the time frame. But beyond that, pretty much what the above folks said. Though I'd probably keep the money in limbo for another month or two if possible just in case the person you were trying to pay suddenly gets in contact and you still want whatever it was you were trying to buy.

Edit: You probably SHOULD do at least SOME research to make sure that whoever it was isn't preemptively taking care of their end of the bargain.

[stolenmilkcrate.livejournal.com]

"Judging by the fact they needed to "claim" the payment, it sounds like you sent it to a nonexistant Paypal. So maybe you (or them) typoed their e-mail associated with their Paypal account."

Agreed with onyx. I have an e-mail address people typo sometimes, they leave out a letter, so I never get the payment or notification of attempts, which is why I ask folks to send me a separate reply if they don't hear from me within 24 hours upon sending funds.

Also agreed with the others, you should be doing your best to figure out who the payment was meant for. It was only a month ago, it should not be that difficult.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm not making myself clear x.x

The email is why I don't know who this person is.
Everyone on FA that I commission, I keep up with and talk to.
But usually when they tell you 'okay send x amount of dollars to xxx@gmail.com' is when I stop reconizing their name.

The problem is, I'm sure that I have gotten the art from them, because I would not pay someone and not get art for a month and just not contact them.

So yes I did get art from them, at some point, I'm just not exactly sure who the person is on FA as their paypal email is not familiar to me.

I would think they wouldn't have done the art if they didn't get payment, so obviously its not a fake account.

Basically what I'm asking is, should I send the payment back, email the account and hope its in use? Or what?
Although like I said, I feel that it should have been their responsibility to keep up with their paypal and claim the money as the customer really shouldn't have to do THAT much extra work after they have already paid you and went on their way.

I am seeing that a lot of you are calling me careless.
This isn't really the case, but when you commission up to 20 people a month and you have all these random emails that don't match FA names at all, its really hard to keep up with something, especially if you commission someone, then get the art, and expect that to be the end of the transaction.

Hope that clears things up.

[splatterhouse.livejournal.com]

How much extra work is it really to send a quick email to the paypal address & see who it is?

[pocket-entropy.livejournal.com]

Since you mentioned you commission about 20 people a month, it might be worth it to put together an organized list of your current commissions with the artist's name, what you commissioned and paid and the paypal/email address. That way you have a reference in case something like this happens again.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Regretting posting this now. :I

[clockmagic.livejournal.com]

I don't see why. You're getting reasonable solutions to find the artist you've lost the paypal of. I doubt some of the people may have even known you were posted here previously and if so it shouldn't matter (at least I would think it shouldn't) you have a question and there are folks here trying to help you solve it. Others who have been listed here before have come with a problem and they were helped. I am afraid you are just getting frustrated and so overreacting.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

All I was trying to do was ask a simple question.
I feel that coming here was a bad idea now, I should have known I'd be attacked because I was posted here previously, but I thought people could be a little decent and just say 'yes you should send the money back' 'no you should wait for them to contact you' yadda yadda. Instead I get comments saying how this is somehow MY fault.

I felt I WAS being responsible being afraid to post here due to fear of getting attacked, but still wanting to know what I should do, rather than just keeping the money. But if I can't be shown common decency I am just going to cut my losses and this community completely.

[pinstripedtiger.livejournal.com]

You are so incredibly overdramatic.

People are offering advice for shit like this to not happen in the future, and telling you to make an effort to find out who you owe money to.

Now you're sitting here crying and pulling the freaking victim card just because you didn't hear a 'simple' answer.

How dare we suggest something that might actually SOLVE the issue!

I didn't even know you'd been here before, and based on your attitude in this post alone, I would never even CONSIDER taking a commission from you knowing that you are so careless that you don't keep a list, and so fucking entitled you won't even bother to look through your notes to find out who it is.

THINK ABOUT IT.

You sat here and whined about the effort to look through your notes and are arguing about it. In all that time, you could have actually gone through your notes and gotten some results.

I hope you realize you're ridiculous.

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

It's not normal for someone to need to claim a payment, but I think it did happen to me once, somehow that payment was just different then regular ones, I don't know why that is.

In those situations, the artist probably doesn't even know. When I got such a payment, I never noticed the claim option until a while later since I never needed to do that before, and if you're getting more then one payment at a time, not paying attention, you might not notice that the amount in your paypal isn't correct.

I'd say try and find out who the artist is and contact them for good faith, plus it will stop any drama later once they realize the cash is gone. First try would be to email the paypal email and if no luck, try asking other artists if it's their email.

[fenrirs-child.livejournal.com]

This has happened to me when I've been paid with other currencies, and from unverified accounts. I never notice until I check my balance and see it's lower than I expected and go double check, because at least at first glance the notification email is virtually the same.

[johis.livejournal.com]

I would personally try to find out who it is (even if it meant going through a lot of notes), send them a note back on the website and tell them what happened. Or just send an email to that address. Even if you're quite sure you got the art anyway, this would confirm it when you find out who it is.
I wouldn't really care whose responsibility it was in this case, it's still something a a good customer would do out of courtesy and kinda common sense too if you want to remain a good customer instead of just keeping the money. Mistakes happen but you want to make the transaction still fair for both and I don't think it takes that much effort anyway to find out who it is (it must be there somewhere in the notes).

Kinda like getting too much money in a store as change but still returning the extra pennies. OR even noticing you weren't fully charged but still want to pay for it instead of basically stealing it.

Maybe the artist didn't notice a button saying "claim" or forgot to press it? Most of the payments I get at least don't have a Claim-button there so guess they might have missed it.

That's what I think at least.
e: why remove your LJ account though, I think you were getting good advice o_0

[synviver.livejournal.com]

why remove your LJ account though, I think you were getting good advice o_0

Were I to speculate, I would guess because the responses weren't to the tune of "Too bad for the artist, keep the money and the art!" and were actually suggestions of sending an email to the Paypal address to find out who they owed money to.

That's me, though. :x

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

After seeing the explosion from the OP, I'm going to make sure never to accept work from her should she ever get the chance to do so from me =|

[aerospiritual.livejournal.com]

Wellp.

This just became a beware against the OP.

[copper-curls.livejournal.com]

Exactly. I have the feeling I've seen this person here before, too - and not in a good way.

[fastbreak333.livejournal.com]

Talk about making a mountain out of a molehill. I think it's safe to say that this put up a lot of red flags for me on dealing with Marbles in the future.

(frozen)

[norsepaw.livejournal.com]

I made myself a list on who I am commission or things I am waiting for since I can forget things so easy. Now I have to find out WHY I am sitting in the kitchen and not in the living room with my computer O_o

And also.
She commission 20 people a month O_o?

[lucky-graffiti.livejournal.com]

Personally I'd go back through payments figure out when I sent it and how much I sent it for. Then go through my notes on FA and try to find the person or persons I sent it to for that amount. It should be pretty easy to determine out, plus paypal does send you an email with the exact date you sent the payment. It only takes a little bit to back track and if you can put art that you've gotten around the same time as that payment it may help you remember who you sent it to.

An artist works hard for their funds but they are sometimes forgetful as well. If you like commissioning people on FA or anywhere honestly putting a little bit of effort into trying to sort this out yourself witll get you postive feedback from the artist community. By not putting effort into it at all will probably have the opposite effect. The ball though is in your court we can only give you suggestions on what you could do the rest is up to you.

[mistresswolf.livejournal.com]

If the case is that the person wrote out their email address wrong or Marbles did... whatever the situation is that leads to the address being incorrect, what I would do is post a journal addressing the situation and say that any artist that is still awaiting payment, to please Note me and tell me the amount it was for. That way the person who has the right amount and that you received art from, is most likely the person.

I'd also try going back through my emails/notes and seeing if I can find anything that way. For important things, instead of deleting the emails when the transactions are over, I move them to my Personal folder in my gmail. That way if I need to check something, the email is still there. I do that will all things relating to my customers, ebay transactions, apartment rental, roommate stuff. Just the other day I wanted to get some contacts and needed my prescription. Lucky me, when I had the optometrist email it to me 2 years ago, I saved it there so I didn't have to bug them again.

[cyiakanami.livejournal.com]

I feel horrid for that artist. Did we even know if the artist she sent funds to had a foreign money account that she had to accept the charges for to convert the money and maybe never did and that's why it was sent back?
I know if I get CAD I have to hit the accept button in order for it to get to me. If the artist didn't know it could of well just sat there and then got sent back.
Marbles I hope you read this. It's called theft. And you coming in here pulling what you did, only puts you on everyone's beware. I personally will be placing you on my block list and spreading the word. And I pray you do the right thing here and give that artist the money they deserve.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Thats fine, I suppose I can't stop you from 'spreading the word' although most people who I have commissioned can probably tell you I always pay them upfront, and am a good commissioner. Just because I was asking you guys a question is no reason to assume I'm not a good commmissioner by any means.



I sent the money back and am trying to get in touch with them.

You can view my comment below.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Listen, I sent the money back and sent an email.

It WAS NEVER about keeping the money nomatter what you people assume. I just wanted advice on the subject. The reason I got upset was NOT about people telling me to send the money back, although you are entitled to believe what you want.

The reason I deleted LJ is because I felt that I needed to step away for a bit before I said something I regretted because I knew I was going too.

I had no problem with looking through notes, I just made the point that SHOULD that be the commissioners responsibility? NEVER did I say that I was against doing it :/

I feel that all I got out of this journal was attacked and peoples extremely wrong assumptions. I posted this because I wanted to make it right and wanted to know if I should send the money back, I never once said I was against doing so.

I REALLY don't like that people are looking at my personal facebook, and ask them nicely to back off. It is for friends ONLY. I thought I set it to private.

With that comment I leave this community, as it has caused more drama for me than it is honestly worth, when all I did was ask a question but called insulted and negative assumptions instead.

thanks to those who weren't biased in their responses, however. ^^

[taasla.livejournal.com]

I posted this because I wanted to make it right and wanted to know if I should send the money back, I never once said I was against doing so.

If you wanted to make it right, then what was the point of asking? You got the art, and therefore the artist should have been paid. It's that simple. Do what it takes to find out whose paypal it was and contact them. No "I commissioned a lot of people" or "I don't remember who it was" or anything, because none of that matters when it comes to doing the right thing.

No one is attacking you. You asked a question and people are responding. You really need to learn not to take everything as a personal insult, and it seems to be a huge common problem with you.

You cause yourself drama, Marbles, not this community. =\

Edit: And to make things clear, I am not trying to attack you. When you come to a community where a large number of artists go to, you are going to raise some hackles and get people side-eyeing you instantly the moment you have to ask if you should pay someone after they've done the work.

Yes, the artist should have been paying attention to their account, but things happen and the onus is as much on you as it is the artist and that is what people are trying to get you to understand. Phrases like the one above that I quoted comes off as excuses to people who are standing on the sidelines reading this.

[familliaraver.livejournal.com]

Instead of posting this, you should have posted a "lost contact" and left it at that. Hey some stuff got mixed up, does anyone recognise *e-mail address* I owe them money and can't get ahold of them.

Secondly, I don't see anything that suggest you have tried contacting them. Maybe they lost your e-mail too or something happened with their paypal.

Lastly, no judging or anything, but that is a lot of commissions a month! I can't imagine commissioning so many people I don't know who made me the art.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I should have posted something like that.
I didn't think this would turn into such a big thing.

I am trying to get in touch with them and have sent it back.

And yeah, I commission a lot of people, it just never occured to me that I should make notes, as I've never had an issue.

[enter-data-here.livejournal.com]

If you can't find the artist after looking through your emails, you could post a lost contact like familiaraver suggested. A lot of artists come to this community so they might recognize the email you post and remember you never got the money to them. Good luck!

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping that I can get in touch with them, although if I do post such a thing, it will be on fa rather than here x.x

thanks though.
I'm hoping payment will go through this time around.

[norala.livejournal.com]

My thought is, as an artist if I do work and not check if I got funds or contact said customer its my own fault. If I don't keep my books organized enough that I lose money it's my fault. The right thing is to find them and try to resend funds but if haven't contacted you its their fault as well. I don't get the big fuss.
Edited for typo