AluminemSiren

[kaliamberscale.livejournal.com]

WHO: Aluminemsiren, a.k.a. Orion

WHERE: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/aluminemsiren

WHAT:  One $25 character bust

WHEN: October 27th - Present

PROOF:  I don't think this needs much explaining.  Artist was commissioned in late October.  I didn't bug them about the commission until months had already passed.  Bugged them 2 or 3 more times between December 2011 and May of this year.  One of my emails even went ignored completely (probably because they were getting hounded by so many disgruntled commissioners).  May 12th, 2012 I requested a refund.  The email was read but never replied to.  I then sent another email asking for a refund, this time with more "srs bzns" verbiage.

I was told I would have to wait until Friday May 18th and will receive only a partial refund because the sketch had already been done. It is now 3 days after the 18th and my Paypal account is still at $0.  Aluminum, if you're reading this... I understand it's your business and you make the rules, but at this point in the game, a partial refund is only adding insult to injury.

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o605/kalipython/AS01.jpg

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o605/kalipython/as02.jpg

http://i1150.photobucket.com/albums/o605/kalipython/as03.jpg

EXPLAIN: Not much else to tell here.  The screenshots speak for themselves.  *shrug* 

EDIT: I have received a full refund in my paypal account from the artist.  Aluminum, I sincerely thank you for refunding me and I hope you are able to get your commission queue under control.  Good luck and thanks again.

Comments

[conigliomannaro.livejournal.com]

Idk about this, I get that the artist would have worked for free, but OP cancelled the commission because of the artist's bad business ways, not because they changed their mind. I wouldn't probably press the matter, but I would be as pissed as OP if not more, if I was dragged along so much by someone I paid, got a sketch only out of it, and then was offered a partial after I sent a slightly aggravated note. OP didn't cancel the commission on a whim, they did because the artist dragged them along with little to no progress for months. Having waited for commissions even years on my end (not even getting the art I was promised at all in the end) I can tell you it's very infuriating to be ignored like that.

I personally feel that the full refund isn't necessary, but it would show an apologetic note to the situation that the artist should have probably bothered to give out. All I see here is 'fine okay I'll give you back the money', but I read no 'I'm sorry I took so long.' The artist is not supposed to give a full refund, but a bit of an apologetic attitude would really have looked better, on them. Even the tone of their comments on this entry is rather entitled, when really, they are on the wrong side of this transaction.

I understand why you think so, but as the person that actually did the sketch, I'm not going to do a full refund while she gets a free sketch and I get nothing out of it.

Regardless, I don't actually have the money to refund her right now anyway, so she'll still have to wait for it. She's already contacted me about it, so that's that.

Really, guys? Really?

In my book, this is a beware well earned.

[puritikoneko.livejournal.com]

Couldn't have said it better myself, and believe me, I thought several times on how to say exactly this but it never sounded right.

So yes, I'd have to agree with this very much.

[ladysnakebite.livejournal.com]

I agree that an apologetic attitude was definitely warranted, but absent; I can understand the customer's irritation and don't dispute the beware.

I do not, however, think the artist was in the wrong giving a partial refund only. Had the artist wanted to keep the OP as a later customer, a full refund would have been more likely to leave a good impression, but the partial refund IMO was nevertheless fair.

I kind of feel as though the artist's attitude during the refund, and the refund itself, are separate issues.

[conigliomannaro.livejournal.com]

I did concede that the artist isn't supposed to do a full refund. However, if I started on someone's story, wrote the first page and left it at that for over six months, I wouldn't have the courage of asking a partial payment for it. When the responsibility of the commissioning debacle is on the artist, I kinda feel like the artist should put on his big kid pants and suck it up.

Of course, I don't know what kind of sketch we are talking about: some artists' sketches are chickenscratch, others' are nearly clean linearts, and if a significant amount of work/quality has been done and delivered, then good, partial is fair. I have my reservations when the sketch isn't good quality, because charging someone, making them wait and then delivering messy lines seems borderline scammy to me. But this is more about how I personally feel about the issue in general than this particular case, so I'll try to get back OT.

I know they don't have any obligation to it and I know I'm pretty much the only person to think this way, but I understand charging people for partials just when the responsibility of the end of transaction is on the commissioner; if you fail to deliver what I asked for your own problems, then it's your own problem. I do however know I am the only one who thinks this, and I would accept the partial as part of the unwritten rules of the art world.

What I meant is: artist didn't have to offer a full refund; yet, his business ways have been so poor, a full refund would have seemed in order, at least as a way of 'making it up' to the customer.

Not sure if I made my point or not.