Rosiel-kun, Ratt, Kageookami

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

-sigh- Really didn't want to have to do this, but I may as well. Avoid commissioning Rosiel-kun, aka Ratt. She's apparently one of those people who does the work, then does not send it out. Likes to blame her post office because "someone once sent a bomb around christmas-time," so now nothing ever leaves her city. I guess they just take the mail and dump it into a black hole or something. Can't provide any sort of tracking number, insurance, anything like that.

Traded two badges and some money for a tail, which I finished like two days later. She needed it for an event, so I went ahead and sent it off (she'd already paid the monetary part of the trade), then a while later I get a low-res photo of the badges, but never get the badges themselves. I may be able to fiddle with things in photoshop and clear up the images so that I can print them out and laminate them myself, but I'm annoyed enough that I don't think I want to wear her art. :\

Her:
deviantart
furaffinity (defunct)
livejournal
Also on y! gallery as "LittleStarfish" but I have no idea what that is, nor how to link it.

EDIT: To answer a couple of questions, the trade was initiated in February. I did go back and reread a few things, and I messed up the dates. She finished the badges a few days after the trade was agreed upon, and I finished the tail on March 9 and sent it off around the same time she mailed the badges off. The tail arrived, the badges did not. So I asked her about it in May, and she said that she had sent them off, and that they "weren't at the post office anymore," so they were "probably sitting at a customs office somewhere." Even though... there are no customs offices when you mail in-country. And I assume that if she knew they weren't at her post office, she sent them with delivery confirmation. She also did mention that her post office frequently takes forever to mail things out.

When I told her about their non-arrival, she said she would remake the badges and send them via UPS. I told her to at least get a tracking number on it this time. So around June I ask her about it again, because we had a con coming up, and I wanted to wear it. She says she sent them off UPS (which means her crappy post office could be avoided) and it should arrive before the con, at the beginning of July. Never arrives. So I guess I kinda give up.

EDIT: This has since been resolved. She contacted me to let me know that the badges never did get sent off, but she promised that she would get them to me. They arrived not long after. She has informed me that she's aware that she has a lot of trouble mailing things out and keeping deadlines, so apparently she won't be doing commissions anymore.

Comments

[purpule.livejournal.com]

I don't really think I know the whole story here, but things DO get lost in the post. Did you ask for insured shipping? Did she offer any? I know that I say that people can have their work shipped regularly or by registered post (the latter costing more) but if someone takes the first option and it goes missing, there is nothing I can do about it, and it's honestly not my fault.

Could it be possible that she really did send it to you?

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

I asked for her to at least use delivery confirmation on it, so that I could track it. It is possible she sent it off, sure. But there's really no way of knowing. And like I said in the edit, she offered to remake them and resend them via UPS, rather than USPS, but they never arrived that way, either.

[chronidu.livejournal.com]

http://yaoi.y-gallery.net/user/LittleStarfish/

Here you go, the link for Y!
Out of curiosity, do you have time frames for all of this? Like, when did you two decide on this trade, how long since it was initiated, how long have you been waiting for the badges, etc etc. Also, did you set up a deadline for receiving said badges, and have you had frequent contact with her.

Screen captures or logs of conversations entailing her inability to mail things out may help.

These are typically important things to note.
Also, have there been other occurrences of her 'losing' work in the mail? You speak as though this is a well known and regular thing for her, so elaborating on that would also probably be helpful.

[hobokitten.livejournal.com]

Oh that is a lovely tail O=
I do hope this gets cleared up. But not providing a tracking number? That is a bit iffy :/

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, sometimes you ship it, and then get asked for a tracking number after, and there's not much you can do then, if you didn't already get one.

But if he asked beforehand, it's a different matter. And the bomb thing is a ridiculous excuse.

[ryunwoofie.livejournal.com]

customs within the US seems worse lol

but ya dude that sucks, such a nice tail gone to waste D:>
Thanks for the warning ;3

[filthy-animal.livejournal.com]

I know this doesn't help-- but I really love that tail. Do you still do trades for them? My character's tail is many shades of green, so... yes. XD;

I hope it gets worked out. :c

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think it was a one-time thing. I'd never commissioned a badge before, so I wanted to give it a try, and the person wanted a tail from me, but couldn't afford it, so we made a deal. :C

[clover-elf-kin.livejournal.com]

Would it be bad form to say I'm a seamstress who's looking to branch into tail-and-ear making? ^^ Though admittedly I've never made a curved tail before and wouldn't know how to do so without a wire being involved.

I have... one satisfied customer to vouch for me, but that was a few years ago and obviously he's a friend of mine!

[theblackdragon.livejournal.com]

lol, in-country customs? seriously? D:

sorry you got jerked around, but I just wanted to say holy crap, you really have some nice tails in your dA gallery. I like how they're not all the same template in different colors; they're tails with personality. :)

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

Thanks on both counts. :)

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

>"probably sitting at a customs office somewhere." Even though... there are no customs offices when you mail in-country.<

Only thing I can think of is when my buddy used to sell MLPs on eBay. She knew that Phillie's postal system is a quagmire because she lost a package through there once (it tracked up to Philly and then ceased to exist) and from then on she slapped DCs and insurance on everything. So failartist really has no excuse if she knows that her local post office is weird.

And yeah, ,I LOL'ed at customs but I think she meant "homeland security". Honestly it would only be sitting there if it was really suspicious and last I checked, dogs don't react to furry con badges.

[mialattia.livejournal.com]

This. :B

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, some people just are really... lazy? Phobic of the post office? It is hard to fathom but it seems to happen from time to time O-o Someone doesn't mind doing art but doesn't like going to the post office.
Though true usually the issue is they (likely) haven't done the art *at all*

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

I've been late mailing things out occasionally (ending up in A and E tends to make it hard to get to the PO) but I just don't understand people who can keep someone waiting for months when all they need to do is go post the finished work.

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

I can imagine all sorts of reasons, but who knows?
Maybe the art gets lost or destroyed before it can get to the post office, and the artist doesn't want to admit it
Maybe the artist has a hard time getting to the post office during regular hours and is out of stamps
Maybe the artist has a super-avoidant personality and once they get behind enough to feel guilty, prefer to forget about the problem rather than deal with it.
IDK! None of these are reasonable excuses, of course, but these are the scenarios I can imagine.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Accidents happening to finished work is why I always keep the original sketch, okay so nothing has happened so far but seriously a backup is always a good idea.

As for the other two, there are services that will pick up packages and the last one means that it'll only get worse the more they ignore it. But I guess people are just silly like that.

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

From what I've gathered, a lot of the "do the art but don't send it" people have hectic lives or they're short on money, and they use that as an excuse. This instance is no exception to that--the artist keeps gaining and losing jobs. She's also been spending a lot of money to attend conventions. I suppose I can understand a delay if you have no ride to the post office, don't have any stamps on you, et cetera. But not for 6 months.

[houndofloki.livejournal.com]

Maybe it's just because I live in the DC area, but the first thing that pops to mind for me is that they didn't feel like standing in line at the post office :p

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

Depends on how much you trust the postal service, I ship all my badges and laminated items in bubble envelopes which need to go to the local Post office. Plus someone recently set the post box at the end of my street on fire.

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

You can do just about anything online these days, including buying postage and scheduling carrier pickups. :) Might be something to consider if you mail off a lot of art (just suggesting in case you weren't aware). :)

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

It's easier to take it to the main post office, I'm literally ten minutes walk from it.

[kadaria.livejournal.com]

Uh huh.
Off topic: Monk seal cowers before blue shark D:

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

You'd be surprised actually, I agree that a lot of 'omg the postal service ate it' is phony (example: The customer who claimed a sculpture was 'lost' then put the so-called 'lost' sculpture up for sale on furbuy) but the postal service is not infallible. I've had letters show up months late and everytime my local postal employees go on strike? My post goes haywire (I get most of my things but they're all weeks if not months late and some vanish). One time it took them five months to deliver a letter posted to me from two miles away.

Fortunately I've yet to have an issue with shipping stuff out but I am aware that the local post service can be screwy about getting stuff to me.

I know people who've got parcels with items missing from them or sent stuff that just never got there. Unfortunately it does happen.

[byakko-tsuki.livejournal.com]

My invoices for things do not show up fine, I haven't received quite a few personal letters that were to be sent. Several packages that are supposedly sent to me are missing..

Of course, maybe the companies I owe money to, my friends, family, and people I have commissioned never really sent anything at all, leaving me to think poorly of the system.


x__x In my honest opinion, I do believe it varies from post office to post office.

[byakko-tsuki.livejournal.com]

JakeJynx, I think it was really nice of you to trade your quality work for those two little badges and some money.

I would like to advise anyone who does not already know: UPS DOES ship for the USPS, DHL, FedEx, etc. Often times the USPS is SO overwhelmed that they have a bit of a deal with UPS to ship things.

If it were to go through UPS, there would always be a location via tracking number-- It starts off with an address of "coming from" and upgrades always to current locations via the hubs the packages/parcels go through. SO-- the most common way for a package label to give incorrect information is if the scanner does not scan the code on the label-- thusly not updating or placing the new location into the system. Rather-- it doesnt associate it with the truck destination that the package is being placed on.

It costs a few more cents for tracking via USPS-- so I don't know what her problem would be.

Maybe it's hard for her to admit she sent it with stamps like she wasn't supposed to-- or that she still hasn't sent it at all.

Who knows what her deal is right now?

I thank you for the update, and will keep this in mind when doing business with said party-- if I ever do.

Thanks.

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the compliment, and the information (and sympathies). :)

[epiceternity.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, when she offered to remake the badges and send them out again, did she show you a picture of the finished second badges? It may be that she hasn't actually done the remakes yet or sent them out. It may be recreating the artwork is too daunting in her mind or she hasn't had the chance to do them.

Given that she did complete the artwork make me feel that she didn't have scamming you in mind. It maybe that they did go astray in the post. It sounds like she not that hot on knowing how the post system works and may have made an error. The post address may have been wrong and she forgot to put a return address on it etc. Have you checked the address was right and does she have proof of posting?

A lot of artist say their not responsible for stuff getting lost or damaged in the post so offering to remake them is generous but maybe she regretted that as the extra work/ postal costs seems too much?

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Was this ever resolved? Did you ever get your art?

[jakejynx.livejournal.com]

Yes! I'm sorry, it was resolved during a really busy time for me, and I never got around to posting an update. She contacted me and told me that she had indeed mislead me, and that the badges had never been mailed. She promised to mail the badges out. I got them not long after. :)