I came across an artist that I am following on FA which made a recent change to their TOS. They now added a clause on Harassment. If you Harass the artist they will cancel your commission with no refund at all. The rational is kinda vague and they operate on a 3 strikes policy. They say they will answer any questions on your commission, but the vague part is here: "We will not tolerate being constantly messaged, contacted, e-mailed, etc. about your commission."
So what do they consider constantly messaged, contacted, e-mailed, etc? Is it Once a year, once a month, once a week, once a day?
What keeps them from saying my message would be considered harassment to give them an excuse to take my money and run?
So is this even legal at all?
I sure hope that more this doesn't become a trend on scape goats to take our money and run for more artists.
So what do they consider constantly messaged, contacted, e-mailed, etc? Is it Once a year, once a month, once a week, once a day?
What keeps them from saying my message would be considered harassment to give them an excuse to take my money and run?
So is this even legal at all?
I sure hope that more this doesn't become a trend on scape goats to take our money and run for more artists.
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At a minimum it's completely unethical.
Legal or not, it's the biggest red flag there is to not commission them.
Seriously, no one is that amazing for their price.
An artist can not refuse a refund. You may only get partial, but they cannot outright refuse. If they've done half the work, they will keep half the payment.
The only time they shouldn't, is if the artist cancels. Save for harassment/breakage of terms. Full refund should be given if the artist cant/no longer feels like working on your image.
That doesn't clear you to take someone's money and refuse to send the product they paid for.
Sure some customers get over enthusiastic and email every other day, but those tend to be rare and the artist can simply ask them to stop (or set specific dates for contact, like "expect a progress email from me on the 15th!")
That is theft.
If you give me a down-payment on a car I can't just decide not give you the car or the money because you called me five times in one day. I can tell you to cut it out or I can give you your money back.
though it can be unethical
If you think of this in any context other than art it becomes really clear how illegal it is. If you pay for one night of a hotel stay, show up, are told you don't have a room, you expect your money back. If the hotel was like "well its a deposit and you're making me uncomfortable so we're gonna keep it" most folks are gonna call the cops and a lawyer.
Canceling a commission and giving a refund for any reason is legal.
It's really this simple.
The artist would be obligated to return the funds if they cancelled the commission, or whatever work is done and the funds remainder for work not completed.
Vague "no refunds in case of harassment" disclaimers are just one giant red flag. To me it kind of feels like they're planning to take offense and taking the money. Especially on such a huge expense as a fursuit? Find another artist to work with.
Legality-wise I think it depends on where they are, that's worth looking into. I think a partial refund (minus material, work and shipping unfinished product&material out) would be acceptable.
If you promised art, reply "yeah, yeah, I'm on it" for the first few times, then ignore the next few messages asking for updates or even another "I'm on it"... you don't get to call harassment and keep someone's money.
I'm purely speculating here, but this seems to be a pattern I've noticed. Bad comms/slow delivery/angry artists have harassment clauses. Cos they don't like to answer emails asking "where's my art?"
And yeah, not legal. Some nice analogies already posted :)