"Artists Beware"

A preface for those unfamiliar with the site YCH.Commishes: When an auction ends, the website creates a little communication portal/page where the buyer and the seller can privately communicate, send references and files, etc.  Notifications for all new messages added to the portal, including when the portal itself is created automatically upon the auction ending, are sent to the person's email.

So, this has happened several [I'd guess 6-10?] times over the past year.  I end up winning an auction on YCH.Commishes.  I add my information to the portal and leave my PayPal e-mail, too, so I can be invoiced and pay for the auction.

But in several cases, the artist never responds even once.  Over a month or two, I left a few, "Hello?  I won this auction." type messages in the portal.

Two or three times, the artist had other websites listed in their auction, such as their deviantArt, FurAffinity, Twitter, etc. pages.  With those ones, after 2-5 months had passed without a response, I went to those other sites and asked them about the auction.  But in those cases, the artists still didn't respond.

I realize at a certain point I have to just give up.  I guess I'm wondering when would be a fair time to do that?  I've been keeping money set aside specifically for those auctions I've won but had no response to.  When can I give that up and use the money for something else?  I guess I just worry the artists will show up and be upset when I can't pay in a timely manner... =/

I commissioned an artist to do a piece for a deadline a few months out, which they were aware of and agreed to. A few weeks had gone by with no word, other customers were inquiring about their art, and they had visibly not signed in to that website in some time. I contacted the artist on a second platform and politely asked about the status of my commission. They stated they had lost their login info for Website 1 and asked me to switch to Discord for the remainder of our communication. More time passed in which the artist would continually set and miss small, indistinct benchmarks (e.g. "I will send you the sketch when I get home"), citing forgetfulness, and often outright ignored my requests for updates despite asking me to send them reminders. I was only ever provided with one progress image; the rest of the "updates" were them claiming to have completed certain stages with nothing to show for it.

On the due date of the commission, the artist messaged me to say it was done, but they had a problem uploading it and were going to "ask a friend to try" while they were away from their computer. I expressed alarm at this, as well as confusion as to why they couldn't simply upload the picture to their pick of image hosting websites and send me the link, if it really was finished. Needless to say, I didn't get my art in time and they didn't contact me again for 3 days, promising to send the image "when they got home" yet again. During this timeframe, the artist was actively online (even playing PC games per Discord, proving they had computer access), completing art for other commissioners and uploading it to their public gallery, and my attempts to contact them on Discord went unanswered.

A few days ago, I messaged them back on Website 2 in an effort to get some sort of reply, and they responded with another excuse and told me to message them on Discord. I replied with frustration that I'd been sending Discord messages for the past few weeks and been completely ignored, and confusion as to why I still had yet to receive my art due 2 weeks ago if it was completed as they said, and they were clearly able to upload pictures to their gallery. Unfortunately, this commission was paid for with non-monetary Website 1 currency, so I don't have any sort of legal recourse to take or even the option of forcing a chargeback to get them to give me the art. At one point, I had even offered to pay them in USD to guarantee they'd do the commission, and they declined. I frankly am not worried about the payment, I just really want the art I commissioned them for. I'm not even certain posting an A_B would be effective or allowed considering the commission was not for legal tender. I'd appreciate any insight or advice as to how I could go about getting my art from this person.