Argh!

[Kanalah]

This is kinda a SC, but it's in-progess a bit so I stuck it here.

I have an Etsy site where I sell my quilts online. Normally it's a pretty smooth process. Someone buys something, I ship it, and then there's unicorns and rainbows.

As somewhat of an artist, I've been told that I need to sign my work, so I put a little signature of the back of the quilts, near the bottom.

I sold a quilt recently and today I got a really snarky email from the lady that bought it, saying that my signature was "tacky" and "ruined this beautiful quilt".

Now the only reason I can see that someone has a problem with a small signature on the bottom of the back of the quilt is...

wait for it...


they want to say that they've made it themselves.

So now she's demading me remake this quilt for her and give her a refund and an apology over something tiny and quite frankly petty and pointless.

And I'm all stressed out over this for some reason.

[Food Lady]

Give her a refund, but DO NOT make anything else for her. And she should apologize to you. If she were around to come across Picasso's work, she'd do it to him, too!

[It's me]

Bah.

If I were you I'd just give her the refund and have her ship it back. And then dump her as a customer.

She'd probably complain if someone gave her a signed van Gogh....


Edit: ^^ I hadn't seen the above post when I posted this! Really!

[Amina516]

Tell her that's "copyright infringement " or something similar. And then I echo what was said above.. Have her ship it back ( her expense) and then drop her as a customer.

If ur site clearly listed that ur signature was at the bottom, then I would also talk to Etsy about the inevitable bad feedback.

[csquared]

The signature is on the back where it would not be seen under normal circumstances? That does not ruin the beauty of the quilt. Your are right. She is trying to claim it as her own work.

You owe her nothing. Don't take it back. If you do decide to give her a refund, she gets it AFTER the product is returned undamaged, and no replacement. She probably tried to bleach out the signature.

As a CYA, I would state on your web site "All work is signed by the artist."

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I'm with everyone else.

Have her send it back, give her a refund, and then have nothing more to do with her. I sure as heck would not remake the quilt.

She's tacky.

[PsychoTeddyAppear]

I sell on etsy and if that happened I would have the quilt sent back refund her money and then tell her to kiss my ass but then again I hate people.
You should probably contact etsy about her possibly leaving you a bad feedback and explain what happened and show them the convo or email.

[zombiequeen]

That's sad. I once had a lady contact me about remaking her a baby whale because she tore the one I had sold her apart trying to get my embroidered signature off. It kind of made me cry a lot.
I think you should try to get the quilt back, she obviously doesn't appreciate it.

[Kanalah]

Thank you guys.

I sent her a very nicely worded message that if she returned the quilt I'd be happy to refund her.

And it is listed in my shop's info that all my quilts are signed on the back. Heck I won awards for my quilts, of course I'm gonna sign them!

I'm still a bit shook-up, but it's starting to pass now.

[AccountingDrone]

I love having signed pieces - it is great to be able to attribute stuff [and let people know where to get a similar item] I embroider my hoc fecit on all the garments I make. {I do medieval and renaissance clothing so putting the sig in latin makes sense =)}

[RecoveringKinkoid]

When you do art, remember this: people are assholes and you have not a friend in the world.

Believe me, I know.

Everyone could do it better.
Everyone could do it cheaper.
It's not worth what you are charging.
Why did you "mess it up" by putting this on it?

Do not take this personally. I know it feels personal, because art is personal. But the way a lot of your clients treat it? Not personal. Art can bring out the best...and the worst in people.

[zombiequeen]

But...those of us that do appreciate art will LOVE what you do as an artist, the quality, the price (sure it's expensive but TOTALLY worth it), and knowing that you signed it because you personally love it.
At least that's what I tend to tell people at my booth at shows. I would never sell or sign something I didn't personally approve.

[Kanalah]

ty kinkoid and zombie.

I actually do have a tiny update...she's not responded to my offer of a refund if she sends the quilt back. I've also kept an eye on the paypal account to check if she's tried to file a dispute there.

I have a feeling she was just trying to rile me up and get a reaction out of me, or a refund without her having to ship the quilt back.

Why is it that if family insults me it's no big deal, but strangers do it and I get all stressed out?

[Taboo]

Why is it that if family insults me it's no big deal, but strangers do it and I get all stressed out?

Because we hope that people are actually good and as much as we've seen what assholes many of them can be, we still don't want to believe it. From family, if they're assholes, we already knew it was coming.

I get this same kind of crap too. Try not to let it get to you too much.

[Kanalah]

Update!

I did hear from crazy quilt lady today!

She's being very polite and humble. Also she's shipping the quilt back.

So I guess it worked out.

Also I spent the last 2 days uploading all of the one of a kind quilts to the Etsy store and I already sold and shipped one tonight.