Commissioner Islandforge won't pay or communicate

[tess cooper]

WHO: Islandforge on Deviantart.com

WHERE: http://islandforge.deviantart.com/

WHAT: He ordered a commission from me for a lineart of him and his wife...Said he liked the finished product- and more than a month later hasn't paid OR responded despite being online and posting work.

WHEN: I finished and posted his commission July 21st.

PROOF: I went clearing out my inbox and naively got rid of his notes too. All I really have is the commission- and a photo he sent me for reference. The commission is here http://mousenibbles.deviantart.com/gallery/36945032#/d54i0mw. I wouldn't go through the trouble to draw something that wasn't a personal work if someone hadn't asked me to.

EXPLAIN: Islandforge commissioned me to do some lineart- not expensive at all- of him and his wife. The agreed price was 15USD, which would be delivered on delivery of commission. I sent him the image and he was happy with it- but since then he's ceased all communication, ignoring my polite notes requesting payment/reminding him.

MOOD: Unsatisfied.

Comments

[rivkahwinter.livejournal.com]

What I would strongly suggest is for you to write up a Terms of Service for your commissions, and in this ToS, mention that you require payment before the finished product is given to the person.

I don't know what else to suggest, but getting the payment before giving the product to the customer is definitely standard practice in the online art commission world, and it is the best way to not get ripped off.

Also, try to keep backups of the notes you exchange between yourself and commissioners. E-mail screen shots of the notes to yourself before you delete them, maybe? Because of the lack of evidence/proof, anybody from an outside point of view has no clue if this posting is truthful or not. Not that I'm accusing anybody of lying, it's just very hard to figure who's telling the truth if there's no record of the events that took place.

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

Pretty much this.

[tunavoice.livejournal.com]

Rivkah said pretty much everything I wanted to say.

I'm so sorry that you got ripped off. :( It's awful, and no artist deserves that. I don't see it happening, but I'm hoping for you that this guy pays up.

[radiocatastrophe (from livejournal.com)]

Also so add onto Rivkah you should start requesting commissioners PayPal email address and send an invoice once they approve the final product (with a watermark attached, and possibly a smaller resolution version of the work). :P

It makes things a lot easier on yourself so you know they pay you in full and when they pay you.

[karthegrax.livejournal.com]

This. Post it to your DA sta.sh half size (or smaller) and watermarked until payment clears. If they're going to rip you off, they will trace over your art if you watermark it, so its much better to reduce size.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

To be honest, in all of my years of freelancing I've never had a client outright trace a commission like what you're describing. But...I also have always taken payment upfront, so that's probably why!

[karthegrax.livejournal.com]

Lol. Yeah that can help.

I'm sure you're aware of those free-art scammer "ooh I don't like how the picture came out, I'm not paying" *saves image* sort of people.

It's like that but when the artist watermarks it to avoid theft. The scammer traces it and throws it in their gallery, claiming it as their own. Back in the day you'd just report them and the image would get removed. But on DA that's near impossible these days.

Its not so much a problem for bigger, more expensive artists such as yourself, but the littlies who only charge $10 for a picture. Never happened to me, but I've seen it, though not for a while. But then I haven't been active on DA for years, so that may be why :P

[0acorn0.livejournal.com]

You can get things removed from DA pretty easily. It's retarded and more complex than it should be, but just file a DMCA takedown notice with them and it'll be taken down. I had to get something removed from there a few months back cause someone stole one of my drawings.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Please refrain from the use of terms like "retarded" in our community. Terms like that are hurtful to some and unprofessional for the comm.

[purpule.livejournal.com]

This is one of those awful learning experiences I think :<
As everyone else has said - always get money up front!

I think it's happened to almost everyone; even though I've always taken money up front, with one of my first commissions I completed it and then they asked for another and I completed that thinking they'd be good for the money and they never paid (though, granted, I also never showed them the commission so at least they didn't get it for nothing, but I still spent that time on it)

[ansitru.livejournal.com]

While I understand being frustrated about this and you sure as hell don't deserve to be ripped of, there are a couple of things you can learn from this (unfortunately).

Write up a proper ToS and always ask for at least half of the payment in advance. Say, for sums under $50 the entire payment is in advance. Everything ranging from $60 and up could potentially (but doesn't have to) be half in advance and half upon completion.

When you finish the image, but still haven't seen your pay, you don't upload the image, nor send over the full-size unwatermarked file. You can show them a low-res, heavily watermarked file to ensure them that the work is finished, but until you see your payment, that's all they should get.

Lastly: I think it's a good thing you posted this here and I certainly hope this will get resolved, but if not, at least other artists are aware of this guy's practices. I'm sorry it happened to you, though..

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

Going to agree with getting payment upfront. However, I know that for some artists, full payment upfront can make you nervous, which is why you prefer to get paid after.

For that, I personally suggest payment plans. When I offer a payment plan, I get half upfront, do half of the work, then get the rest of the payment and continue with the work. That way you're still paid, while not feeling as nervous since it's only half.

[rivkahwinter.livejournal.com]

I like this idea.
The only thing is that sometimes that can get confusing with PayPal and such.

But other than that, it is a good middle ground between doing all the work before getting paid, and getting paid before doing any of the work. :)

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

It's actually not too confusing if you make sure to keep everything listed. I'm awfully forgetful, so I have a list of all commissioners, when they paid, what type, etc, so I can write how much and when half was paid.

[syrusb.livejournal.com]

Googledocs spreadsheets are a wonderful way to keep track of things like this. <3 them

Problem fixed

[tess cooper (from livejournal.com)]

It's highly complicated, but this situation has been fixed! And my policies have been changed. Does anyone know how to remove this post so my commissioner doesn't get a bad rap?

Re: Problem fixed

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

We don't allow the deletion of posts, what we do instead is mark the post resolved for you.

Re: Problem fixed

[tess cooper (from livejournal.com)]

In that case, will you be kind enough to mark it resolved? Thank you <3

Re: Problem fixed

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Already done! :)

Re: Problem fixed

[logosh.livejournal.com]

You can't remove posts, just have them marked resolved

Re: Problem fixed

[syrusb.livejournal.com]

Posts on AB don't get removed, but they can be marked as resolved.