"Artists Beware"

Hallo!

Basically gonna quote inaliwhitewolf:

I wanted to alert you of a client that I just had a very negative experience with. I do not know how she will treat other artists in the future, however, I thought people should know of this.

Zero commissioned me at AC last year ('08) for a $20 traditional badge. I got extremely swamped and had trouble keeping up with all my commissions, so asked if I could take it home and send it to her later- to which she agreed. Back in July I had posted a journal on my Deviantart account requesting addresses from my commissioners, so I could send out their badges when I was finished.

Since July, there has been a lot going on in my life. I don't feel it's necessary to go into detail about everything, but an example of what I was dealing with was my grandfather passing away and my entire family accusing me of not caring because I didn't drop what I was doing and hop on a plane (which I wouldn't have been able to afford anyway) last minute and attend the funeral. It was a huge emotional strain and really hit me hard.

I will admit, firstly, that I am guilty of not keeping in good contact with my commissioners. I recognized that I was doing a poor job of keeping up with everyone, so I posted general updates on DA, but eventually decided that it was best to offer refunds to everyone who had been waiting a long time for their commissions. Everyone, save about 3 or 4 people, has contacted me and I've already refunded their commissions. I'm in the process of contacting the remaining people.

Zero (who I hadn't heard from since a note containing her mailing info in July) sent me a note filled entirely with threats and lectures, basically telling me that she either wanted the finished commission or her money back. She was very rude and overreacted, when all she had to do was discuss the issue in a calm, mature manner and I would have been happy to resolve the issue. I responded to her the very next day explaining that she didn't have to come at me like that. I told her that I'd be glad to send her a refund and requested her Paypal info.

I sent that note in November of '08 and had been waiting to hear from her up until a couple of days ago. She hadn't even read the note on DA. I realized only recently that she also had an account on Furaffinity, so I copied and pasted my note with an additional side note explaining that I'd been trying to contact her since November and simply wanted to resolve the issue.

She responded with more rudeness and lectures on the "right" way to handle commissions, etc. Three times I attempted to get her information so I could send her refund, but she kept ignoring my request and continued acting childishly and informed me that she was going to "expose" me as a bad artist. She posted a journal on FA telling people that she wanted to warn everyone about an artist and would reveal who it was privately if they noted her. Two of my friends responded to her journal, shedding some light on her twisted version of the situation and she deleted the journal. She also replied to my note and failed, once again, to provide her info and told me to stop harassing her, then proceeded to block me on FA. I wasn't aware that trying to retrieve Paypal info to send a refund was...harassment? I could be wrong. I also don't understand why you would block someone you're attempting to get money from?

For the sake of not giving her the chance to try and say I ran off with her money and didn't try contacting her, I sent a note to her DA account explaining that it was my final attempt to resolve the issue. If she didn't provide the necessary information to allow me to refund her money, I'd assume she didn't want it. The end. I have all of her notes saved, as well as some screen caps of the last note I sent her and my Inbox that shows all of the notes she's sent me. I'm just trying to cover myself, because I don't know what she's going to try to do on her quest to attempt to ruin my reputation as an artist.

I just wanted to warn people about this girl. I'm sure she can be a nice person when she wants to be, but if you don't follow her own ideas of how the commission process goes, she will most likely throw a similar fit and give you a whole lot of unnecessary drama/lectures. She doesn't believe there are any excuses that justify delays in commissions, so if anyone dies in your family or you have to go to the hospital for health problems...you are probably a bad artist 8|

I am fully prepared to defend my reputation as a GOOD artist and have several people who can testify that I have never been shady or unfair in any way. I am more than willing to explain this whole situation in detail and provide solid evidence that Zero is taking everything completely out of context. If you have any questions or anything, you can reach me on DA/FA/LJ/AIM/MSN/Email. I have nothing to hide with this situation.

Thanks C:

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***EDIT***
Where I'm at with this whole thing is best summed up by anjel_kitty:

"Yeah both parties could have handled this situation a lot better, the artist in communication and the commissioner in her ill tempered response to the lack of communication. If anything readers should take away from this it is that an artist has an obligation to be communicative, and the commissioner should refrain from resorting to internet threats of "ruining" their reputation and making angry public journal entries which call the artist names when not responded to.

In the interest of a better way to resolve the situation in the commissioners case though, if she couldn't get in contact with the artist, a polite inquiry on the community would have been her better bet."

I'm posting all of the scans and screenshots I have, for those who had requested them. I'd simply like to move on and learn from this situation, rather than start all kinds of new drama. Soooo...I may not reply. If it's a valid question, I will answer it, but if it's something I've already covered either here or in my other post, then I won't respond. I'd like to avoid repeating myself over and over xD I also refuse to participate in any more lingering drama wars. I feel that I was wrong about some things and that Zero was wrong about some things. All we can really do is learn from this C:

( Scan and Screenshots )

And that's all I have to share. I've never been given an answer as to whether or not she actually has a Paypal account. I'm assuming she does, since she seems to commission frequently? Honestly, I would much rather prefer to use Paypal for several reasons...the most important being that I don't feel comfortable giving her any of my personal information. That and I'm paranoid when it comes to mailing important stuff (like money). I work for UPS and see first hand how many letters/packages get lost or delayed. I would much rather have a safe/fast transaction. Is that a reasonable request? Or am I being unreasonable?

Hallo!

Basically gonna quote inaliwhitewolf:

I wanted to alert you of a client that I just had a very negative experience with. I do not know how she will treat other artists in the future, however, I thought people should know of this.

Zero commissioned me at AC last year ('08) for a $20 traditional badge. I got extremely swamped and had trouble keeping up with all my commissions, so asked if I could take it home and send it to her later- to which she agreed. Back in July I had posted a journal on my Deviantart account requesting addresses from my commissioners, so I could send out their badges when I was finished.

Since July, there has been a lot going on in my life. I don't feel it's necessary to go into detail about everything, but an example of what I was dealing with was my grandfather passing away and my entire family accusing me of not caring because I didn't drop what I was doing and hop on a plane (which I wouldn't have been able to afford anyway) last minute and attend the funeral. It was a huge emotional strain and really hit me hard.

I will admit, firstly, that I am guilty of not keeping in good contact with my commissioners. I recognized that I was doing a poor job of keeping up with everyone, so I posted general updates on DA, but eventually decided that it was best to offer refunds to everyone who had been waiting a long time for their commissions. Everyone, save about 3 or 4 people, has contacted me and I've already refunded their commissions. I'm in the process of contacting the remaining people.

Zero (who I hadn't heard from since a note containing her mailing info in July) sent me a note filled entirely with threats and lectures, basically telling me that she either wanted the finished commission or her money back. She was very rude and overreacted, when all she had to do was discuss the issue in a calm, mature manner and I would have been happy to resolve the issue. I responded to her the very next day explaining that she didn't have to come at me like that. I told her that I'd be glad to send her a refund and requested her Paypal info.

I sent that note in November of '08 and had been waiting to hear from her up until a couple of days ago. She hadn't even read the note on DA. I realized only recently that she also had an account on Furaffinity, so I copied and pasted my note with an additional side note explaining that I'd been trying to contact her since November and simply wanted to resolve the issue.

She responded with more rudeness and lectures on the "right" way to handle commissions, etc. Three times I attempted to get her information so I could send her refund, but she kept ignoring my request and continued acting childishly and informed me that she was going to "expose" me as a bad artist. She posted a journal on FA telling people that she wanted to warn everyone about an artist and would reveal who it was privately if they noted her. Two of my friends responded to her journal, shedding some light on her twisted version of the situation and she deleted the journal. She also replied to my note and failed, once again, to provide her info and told me to stop harassing her, then proceeded to block me on FA. I wasn't aware that trying to retrieve Paypal info to send a refund was...harassment? I could be wrong. I also don't understand why you would block someone you're attempting to get money from?

For the sake of not giving her the chance to try and say I ran off with her money and didn't try contacting her, I sent a note to her DA account explaining that it was my final attempt to resolve the issue. If she didn't provide the necessary information to allow me to refund her money, I'd assume she didn't want it. The end. I have all of her notes saved, as well as some screen caps of the last note I sent her and my Inbox that shows all of the notes she's sent me. I'm just trying to cover myself, because I don't know what she's going to try to do on her quest to attempt to ruin my reputation as an artist.

I just wanted to warn people about this girl. I'm sure she can be a nice person when she wants to be, but if you don't follow her own ideas of how the commission process goes, she will most likely throw a similar fit and give you a whole lot of unnecessary drama/lectures. She doesn't believe there are any excuses that justify delays in commissions, so if anyone dies in your family or you have to go to the hospital for health problems...you are probably a bad artist 8|

I am fully prepared to defend my reputation as a GOOD artist and have several people who can testify that I have never been shady or unfair in any way. I am more than willing to explain this whole situation in detail and provide solid evidence that Zero is taking everything completely out of context. If you have any questions or anything, you can reach me on DA/FA/LJ/AIM/MSN/Email. I have nothing to hide with this situation.

Thanks C:

--------------------

***EDIT***
Where I'm at with this whole thing is best summed up by anjel_kitty:

"Yeah both parties could have handled this situation a lot better, the artist in communication and the commissioner in her ill tempered response to the lack of communication. If anything readers should take away from this it is that an artist has an obligation to be communicative, and the commissioner should refrain from resorting to internet threats of "ruining" their reputation and making angry public journal entries which call the artist names when not responded to.

In the interest of a better way to resolve the situation in the commissioners case though, if she couldn't get in contact with the artist, a polite inquiry on the community would have been her better bet."

I'm posting all of the scans and screenshots I have, for those who had requested them. I'd simply like to move on and learn from this situation, rather than start all kinds of new drama. Soooo...I may not reply. If it's a valid question, I will answer it, but if it's something I've already covered either here or in my other post, then I won't respond. I'd like to avoid repeating myself over and over xD I also refuse to participate in any more lingering drama wars. I feel that I was wrong about some things and that Zero was wrong about some things. All we can really do is learn from this C:

( Scan and Screenshots )

And that's all I have to share. I've never been given an answer as to whether or not she actually has a Paypal account. I'm assuming she does, since she seems to commission frequently? Honestly, I would much rather prefer to use Paypal for several reasons...the most important being that I don't feel comfortable giving her any of my personal information. That and I'm paranoid when it comes to mailing important stuff (like money). I work for UPS and see first hand how many letters/packages get lost or delayed. I would much rather have a safe/fast transaction. Is that a reasonable request? Or am I being unreasonable?