I was just wondering...and I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but have any of you guys ever had problems with people paying you for art, but then disappearing completely and leaving you no way to contact them before you can even send them their picture? Like they fall off the face of the earth, do not answer your questions, do not reply to your notes/e.mails/IMs, making you wonder whether you should bother to finish the picture or not.
I'm not sure if it's something to be worried about, but I don't want to labeled as a "money stealer" later on in life when these people magically pop up again years later still expecting their picture. I've had this happen to me twice now, and it's kind of disconcerting. It plays with your head, you know?
Similar stories?
I'm not sure if it's something to be worried about, but I don't want to labeled as a "money stealer" later on in life when these people magically pop up again years later still expecting their picture. I've had this happen to me twice now, and it's kind of disconcerting. It plays with your head, you know?
Similar stories?
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You and miss Bruton, creepy!
I've never considered that this could happen.
It actually still bothers me to this day, even though I know it shouldn't. :(
Have one running right now, asked the guy to mail me the info a bazillion times, he always says he will but I still haven't received anything yet, but he has paid in full -_-
It's kind of annoying because if we ever fall out over something I expect him to go "OMG MY GOD YOU STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED MY COMMISSION!! *trashtrash*" and though I'll go "ZOMG you never sent me the info I need!" there'll still be people who run with it and will gleefully piss on your reputation if they get half a chance.
Plus it annoys me that it's been sitting on my to-do list for over a year now and if it's up to him it'll stay there for a lot longer it seems -_-
Makes me feel like a slacker even though it's out of my hands.
I even sent a post card via snail mail to try and contact them, to no avail. I was worried he'd died or something. Then he resurfaced about 3 years later and I offered a refund or the art and well, he just didn't want to talk about it.
I know it shouldn't have since it was out of my hands and I essentially got a donation, but it made me feel like a jerk. -__-
actually, twice. and i still send the one guy an email every other month or so...i don't want to take his money and give him nothing in return, you know
and one time a commissioner died ;________________________; i got a very nice letter from his mom, though.
As for disappearing? OH yes, I have a big A3 picture of a ninetail fox and a wolf/werewolf and I am out 40 bucks on it and the client is plain gone. I still have the original ready to ship but... where to? No response or anything. VERY unsettling!
The best you can really do is email/note them now and then as shine has mentioned, its all you can really do XD
Personally I take the view that each side is responsible for their own communications. If the customer pays me and vanishes, I'll continue to try for contact occasionally but generally I'll wait on them getting back in contact, after a certain period though I'll put the information into my defunct pile so I can pull it if they resurface but otherwise if they disappear either there's a good reason for it or it's their own fault.
Personally I take the view that if a commissioners vanishes for a year or more and reappearing tries to drama when they just didn't bother to give me the info needed to complete the work earlier then it's their own damn fault the works not done.
One sent me a money order that got lost in the mail, and said he'd check on it, and that was the last I heard of it. Since he was in the military in Iraq at the time--and I didn't get the "trying to cheat you vibe" the fact that I never heard from him again was a little worrisome. I've been sitting on that painting for five years now, but I've always felt weird about putting it up for sale.
The other one paid me some on an installment plan, vanished, got ahold of me a year later, apologized, paid some more, vanished. I don't even know what to do on that one....
It's been two years. I've assumed she forgot she paid for it and moved on.