No Communication - PirateVixen / HollywoodSparrow / Spaztic-Demon

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

I've been having a frustrating time communicating with PirateVixen (FA). I've been sending her messages on various sites with no response and I'm not sure what to do.



Feb 15th, 2012 PirateVixen opened for commissions on FurAffinity. I contacted her Feb 25th about getting a reference sheet commission for my character:







Payment was made on the same day, Feb 25th:


A month later, March 27th, PirateVixen updates her FA Journal stating that "Commissions are Closed!" because she has enough commissions to work on as well as starting a new, full time job and moving. I completely understand that this may delay my commission, but I'm patient, so I decided to wait it out because she mentions getting back to drawing by April:

"So there you have it, commissions are closed, still slow going although slightly more so but I'm hoping to pick the pace back up the begining of April."

...And then she never came back to FA again. Every so often I would visit her FA page to see if there have been any updates, but nothing. Her last Journal was March 27th and her last upload was Feb 25th, the day I commissioned her. However, the last time she fav'd something was mid-April.

Flash forward to August. I decided to leave a shout on her FA:



No response. She hasn't been on FA in a long time so I decided to send her a note on her DeviantArt September 4th, where she was recently fav'ing submissions and her DA 'recent activity' said she was online.



The note remains unread, however when I sent it to her, the DA recent activity says that she was online. However a few days after my note was sent she did not log on to DA any more to this day.

September 14th I saw that she was active on her Twitter account, so I tried to contact her there. I even had sent a friend request to get her attention. Neither were responded to. I sent her a second tweet Sept 20th.



And finally, I decided to try to email her at the PayPal address that she gave me. The reason that I didn't email her first was that she didn't have it posted as a contact on any of her galleries and seemed to only use it for PayPal. Either way, I tried that too on Sept. 18th.
No replies.



I decided today that before posting her on A_B (which I was reluctant to do) I would contact another client of hers who also commissioned her for a reference sheet in February. This client told me that Pirate Vixen had never contacted them either and they never recieved their commission.

I'm looking to either recieve a refund for $19usd or have my commission finished by Pirate Vixen. Even any sort of response from her would be great! I really feel that I've been ignored or forgotten about. I feel that it's safe to say I tried multiple ways of contacting her. I'm very disappointed with this whole transaction.

**EDIT:

Thanks to Sableantelope I got into contact with Pirate Vixen on her active, alternative FurAffinity account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bahassi

A full refund has just been paypal'd to me as well as an apology for not doing my commission. Thank-you for your help! I think I can say this has been resolved.

Comments

[radiocatastrophe (from livejournal.com)]

Why $19? The note said you were to send her $15.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

The extra $4 was a tip because I had just over $15 in my PayPal account.

[intj-reflection.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how most people feel about things like this, but, as far as I'm concerned, a tip is the artist's money whether or not they complete the commission. It's a gift.

If it was intended to be a bonus for completion, perhaps sending one after the fact might make more sense in the future?

[fiercereaper.livejournal.com]

If they don't complete the commission(and if I'm reading right, we have no indication that it was even started), the tip isn't deserved. A gratuity is something offered for good service or anticipated good service. What this commissioner experienced is neither.

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

I dunno about that. AirGuitar is one of mt best friends in the world so of course my first instinct is is to jump up and down screaming they should refund her all her money; BUT...if I look at the situation objectively I really thing that if you give a tip you give a tip. It's separate from the contracted price for work.

I know that you cannot be sued say at a resturant if you do not pay say a party over 10 mandatory gratuity, it is considered legally as discretionary; however if reworded as a service charge it is mandatory.

Openly calling it/considering it a 'tip' seperates it from the main meat of the contract, I believe the artist has no responsibilty to return it.

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

Oh and just to add- I think that absolutely the polite thing for the artist to do would be to return it along with other money, as they were lumped together as one payment- not a separate gift sent at another time from the making of the contract, but I just believe in this case they have no legal responsibility to.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

Honestly, it would be the right thing to do to send it back to me, but I understand how it can be seen as separate from the original cost (which I thought was low for a ref sheet, hence the tip!).

In hindsight I obviously should have sent a tip AFTER receiving some artwork from her. I guess Im too nice.

[fiercereaper.livejournal.com]

Yes, but said contract wasn't fulfilled. To give you an idea of where I'm approaching this from, I worked as a tattooist for ten years, seven of which were based on 100% custom work. If I got money in advance aside from my fee and couldn't start or complete for whatever reason, which did happen, the fee in whole or part plus the entirety of the tip went back to the client. A tip is not a gift. Gifts have no strings attached to them. Tips are attached to the service provided because they wouldn't exist without it in the first place. I'm not sure how the restaurant thing is applicable. Would you still tip/not ask for it back if you never saw your food in the first place, and nobody would tell you why?

If whatserface had actually completed the commission and it was just a case of Air not liking the result, I'd say she's possibly SOL.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

I agree, tips are attached to the service you provide and in this case, I got -nothing-.

At least at restaurants you have to get your food most of the time before you get the bill. I think Im just too nice and should have waited until AFTER receiving my paid artwork.

If Bahassi/Pirate Vixen actually completed my artwork and I did not like the result, I know I wouldn't get my tip back (no big deal). Because at least then a service was provided.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

But if that's the case, then the artist can get rewarded for poor customer service. That's kind of the opposite idea behind a tip.

[conduit.livejournal.com]

I think that a tip goes without saying that your rewarding the artist for taking on your commission and it's like saying thank you. If the artist though doesn't deliver on their part of the deal then the tip is void. if a pizza guy came to your place without the pizza and asked for the tip.. would you give it to him.

[intj-reflection.livejournal.com]

Ugh, one of the things I hate the most is when an artist avoids communicating with their clients. That combined with the fact that she up and disappeared from FA is sending up more than the usual warning signals.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

I just found out that she has an alternative FA which she is active on: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bahassi/

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

Air they've been active three week ago on Deviant Art under SpazticDemon http://spaztic-demon.deviantart.com/ and active just a couple days ago on their twitter account so they are online, just avoiding their commissioners I guess. :/

You may want to try and message them on DA? Maybe link them here so they know the jig is up.

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

And here's there new FA account: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/bahassi/
They were active there just yesterday so you might want to try there.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

She was active on DA when I sent her the note, then she was online for two days after that then stopped logging into her DA.

She's active on Twitter, I've been sending her tweets with no replies. Even a friend request to get her attention, but no responses.

I will also note them on their new FA account. How greasy to quietly abandon their commissions on their known account then be uploading under a different name without telling her clients. thanks EN!

*Edit I have PM'ed them on their alt. FA account and told them about my post here.

[sableantelope.livejournal.com]

No problem buddy o' mine.

I think the Bahassi tag should probably be added to their tag here considering just how fast they replied on that account and their kind lame response excuse wise, it seems pretty clear they were just plain hiding from old commissioners and hoping no one managed to link their new account to their old.

[taasla.livejournal.com]

It's great that you got a refund~

[kalika-tybera.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear that you managed to get a refund in the end, but you really shouldn't have had to chase her down on multiple sites and find alternate accounts to get some form of communication from her over such a long period of time. Beware well warranted.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

Yeah! Well, like I said, I really didn't want to post about her here at A_B until I exhausted trying to get into contact with her.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

Tagged as resolved. Congrats on the refund. Hope this artist isn't stringing anyone else along.

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

Thanks! The artist said she will get into contact with the other clients she had on her other FA account.