I commissioned an artist who will remain nameless for now back in February. Full color, two characters for $50. They were under hard times, and needed money fast. I've commissioned her in the past, and she had my piece done in a fairly reasonable amount of time. I figured since we were in the same fandom, and basically online acquaintances, that I'd give her some support. She said she was excited to do the piece, because she liked my characters. I sent the money and all was supposedly peachy.
Months went by, and nothing ever came of my commission. I sent her a note on Dec 4th basically saying, "Hey, I know life is crazy, but is there any progress on my commission? If there is none, I understand." The note was read the next day and not responded to.
My question is, would it be overstepping any boundaries if I contacted the other person that commissioned her in her journal to see if they got their piece? Also, I don't want to be too pestering to where she won't finish my work, but how many more times should I try contact before I say, "Ok fine, I'd really like a refund or the work." The last thing I want to do is bring her name here, because she seems like a generally nice person, and I don't think anyone's had problems with her in the past. Googling her name didn't bring up any previous grievances.
Months went by, and nothing ever came of my commission. I sent her a note on Dec 4th basically saying, "Hey, I know life is crazy, but is there any progress on my commission? If there is none, I understand." The note was read the next day and not responded to.
My question is, would it be overstepping any boundaries if I contacted the other person that commissioned her in her journal to see if they got their piece? Also, I don't want to be too pestering to where she won't finish my work, but how many more times should I try contact before I say, "Ok fine, I'd really like a refund or the work." The last thing I want to do is bring her name here, because she seems like a generally nice person, and I don't think anyone's had problems with her in the past. Googling her name didn't bring up any previous grievances.
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There is nothing wrong with enquiring as to whether other people have got their commissions. It's natural to be concerned when that amount of time has passed and you still haven't heard anything.
Asking for updates after a considerable amount of time has passed without response is not and never will be "pestering". Pestering would be mailing the artist daily or even hourly asking about it.
Contact the other people who have commissioned her and ask if they've got their artwork, try asking for an update once more, perhaps contacting her via several methods in case she merely forgot, if neither yields any sort of response then I would suggest sending a polite final note asking for her to either provide the services you have already paid for or to refund the money since she has not fulfilled her part of the contract.
Feburary to December is far too long for a single commission piece to take. At this point you are fully justified in attempting to find out what is going on, if the artist does not contact you back then I would suggest posting about her here, being a nice person does not excuse someone from consequences if they take money for services they cannot or will not provide.
Also google does not always reveal prior issues, some people who mess around may make a practice of changing names or in some cases it takes several years for someone to complain about them despite repeated customer issues.
February to December is nearly a whole year. If you haven't received any news at all about your commission, you are absolutely within your rights to be asking the artist about it! Give her a deadline by which you want news/progress pics/whatever about your commission, and if nothing has been done by then demand a refund. If you know more of other ways to contact her, do so. See which one is responded to. Hopefully this is just a one-time mishap that gets dealt with, but if not, I agree with what
And 12 months is a long time to go without a so much as a whisper on progress. o_o; Perhaps drop her a couple of lines in different places, like not just email but her LJ, DA, FA, whatever. Get a comment/note to her in multiple places in hopes of signs of life.