New! Improved! Insta-Art-O-Matic!

[spark]

Churns out your drawings in mere seconds! All pictures guaranteed to be done immediately! No waiting and no communication required!

Or that's what this customer seems to think.

So this... person (I can think of other words for her, but I'll keep it clean for now) decides she wants a drawing. I agree to a price, and she asks if she can pay part now, and part later. It is a really cheap price, and ordinarily I don't bother, but hey, gotta make the customer happy, right? It'll cost me all of $0.30 in paypal fees, so I can do that for her, sure.

She sends her tiny payment, I tell her I'll start work as soon as I can. She asks if I can send a sketch to her for her approval, because she's picky about her character. I say sure, fine, I can do that.

This was FIVE DAYS ago. I have been very busy, AND it's been the weekend, where I do try to usually take a day off, otherwise I'd go nuts, so I have done nothing at all yet, not even the sketch. And actually there are five drawing commissions ahead of her, some of which I've started on, but all of which still need work, so I haven't even thought about starting her sketch yet. And drawing is just my paying hobby, it's not my job. I fit it in between "real" work, so it goes slowly. (Which is totally normal in the art commission world! Few and far between are the artists who can make a full time living off of this, and they charge at least a whole order of magnitude more than I do for their work!) And as this particular customer made a point of telling me about all the many artists she had commissioned before, I thought she knew how this sort of thing worked.

Anyhow, today I check my inbox, and what do I find, but this:

"I am still waiting for my comission....if you're not doing it I want my money back. I don't like being cheated."

She had also left a public shout on my gallery page, "Are you still doing my comission?......I'm still waiting."

I saw red, let me tell you. The private message was bad enough, but the public shout was REALLY not called for at all.

Here's my reply: "What? It's on my project list! After five other people that are first. I am not an instant art-o-matic, and I will not be treated like one. You can have your refund, I don't care to do business with people who think I'm a machine."

If not for the shout I might have just sent the first bit, and gone on with the commission, but after that, I was DONE with this bitch.

What did she say in return? "I was just saying that I have been trying to get in contact with you about if you have started it or not. 4 of my other comissioner's have left me in the dark without saying if they were about to do it or if I was on their list to-do. that's all I was asking. "

BULL SHIT. She has not tried to get in contact with me! I respond to every e-mail and PM I get, usually within minutes. There is no such thing as "trying to get on contact" with me and failing. Not unless you've been using your e-mail for Nigerian scam spam, anyhow. And it's not like this little note had any trouble getting through, now did it?

Me to her: "You have not been "trying to get in contact with me." I have replied on the same day to every single message you have sent me. You accused me of ripping you off without even ONCE trying to contact me, and without ever having let me know that you expected your art immediately. I'm sorry, I'm not willing to work with you after that. Your refund has been issued, go commission somebody else."

And indeed by the time I'd typed up that reply, I'd sent a refund. But of course paypal sometimes takes an entire MINUTE to process payments. So she responded, accusing me of lying because she hadn't gotten the refund yet. I just blocked her, because I was DONE with her BS.

I am still completely enraged about this. You do NOT accuse me of cheating. You do NOT lie to me, and you do NOT publicly call me out without even trying once to resolve things in private.

[TheTigress]

This is one of the reasons why I stopped taking art commissions. It was far too stressful and I didn't enjoy being treated like an art pumping machine.

[spark]

Yeah, I'm considering quitting myself, after this. I don't really need the money, it was just a way to draw things I otherwise wouldn't really. Not worth it.

Though I'll probable keep doing the creative freedom, adoptable fantasy creature thing, where I get to come up with all the details. Those are more fun, and have fewer idiots, at least thus far.

Times like this just make me glad I don't have a boss to tell me I can't be rude to the customers. I value my ability to tell off these people very highly. I think if I'd had to bite my tongue and be nice to this one I might have exploded.

[ExArtShopSlave]

Same here. I used to do 3D model commissions. I once had a guy who asked me to do a project for him. Maybe 3 hours later, he pm'd me asking: "Is it done yet?" Seeing as how I had timed it as about taking about 12 hours to do....With 3D models, you build the basic model, then add higher resolution, uv map it then apply textures. But not in a total of 3 hours! Likewise, I am not a machine!

[emax4]

Well, at least you can breathe easier now knowing that she's someone else's (aside from her parent's) problem.

[Micer]

That's why I have my list on Deviant, to kill that whole 'Is it done? Is it done? Is it done?' well, that and I generally shoot for payment upon completion so they don't have to right to say that I've taken their money and run. Just means holding the final piece until payment.

But I hate that sort of folk, drive myself nuts enough times as it is on the whole doing something other than art business, and the last time someone started on posting when when when and publicly mentioned -what- I was working on for them on my gallery (hint, another adult piece - why is it always those sorts that are the worst behaved?)

Ooo, they got a very curt reply from a very irate Micer. But I would say make a list and make them very aware as to their place on the line, and that you do have that curious and odd thing called 'A Personal Life' and the horrible habits of eating/sleeping/interacting with society - if you don't throw in the towel on those folks.

Still... ye gods that chick had her panties in a twist.

[spark]

I DO have a project list! I just don't keep it on the drawing gallery, because it's mainly for my business, ie. the sewing stuff. Two minute's worth of looking around or a minute to ask me the question and she'd have found it. :P If she'd said ANYTHING about being concerned about time I'd have made sure I gave it to her! But for a dinky little drawing I really don't usually bother. (And if it was such a big deal to her, she could have fricking asked. It's not a big deal to me though.)

[maskedpuppy]

I can't stand that. Commissioners should be honored that you're willing to do art for them at all, and be patient, especially when you obviously have more than one commissioner. >>

You know you can delete shouts, right? :P

[ApolloSZ]

See. I occasionally offer, intrade, to paint miniatures for my friends. I contemplated making a larger deal of it, i.e. making it more publicised. But I don't want to put up with this kind of thing. And I know I wouldn't

With my friends. I do it as quick as I can, but I do it OCD cos, hey, I'm giving it to someone else. The upside is, my friends will happily wait until they get it, when they get it.

[spark]

You know you can delete shouts, right? :P

Yes, and after getting a screen shot of it I've done so. Nevertheless any number of people might have seen it before I logged on and noticed the problem. It is still being put up in public, even if I later remove it.

[Seshat]

Heck, Spark. You've responded to me within minutes at times when you had every right to be asleep in your timezone.

(And at times when I figure you SHOULD have been asleep, or at work!)

You do communication well. And I, for one, would be disappointed if you stopped doing commissions. But I also wouldn't blame you one whit. Flat-out-rude customers spoil a lot of good things.

[Polenicus]

Bleh, that sucks.

I always approached commissions with the feeling that, regardless of what I was paying, it wasn't enough for what I was getting. And generally, I'm right; With a few exceptions I've always been happy with any pictures I've had commissioned. And those that I wasn't happy with were still great pieces of art, just not quite what I had in mind (Generally, it was when I was having the artist draw something outside of his or her strengths).

I'm actually probably a little too timid. I give the artist the source material, and just kind of stand back and let art happen, keeping my mouth shut until I'm asked for feedback or input. And I accept that, unless it's a commission done on the spot (Say at an anime convention, doing sketches), it will take time. Even the ones done on the spot generally take the better part of the day, if not into the next day.

I just never understood how someone could be so jerky to someone who is being nice enough to use their talent to help you dig an image out of your brain and put in on paper, bypassing your own lack of ability.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I just never understood how someone could be so jerky to someone who is being nice enough to use their talent to help you dig an image out of your brain and put in on paper, bypassing your own lack of ability.

They probably think all you have to do is tell the artist what you want, crank their arm a couple times, and their perfectly-done artwork comes sliding out the artist's butthole.

[Kanalah]

Dang it, Dr pepper hurts when it comes out your nose!

[dalesys]

They probably think all you have to do is tell the artist what you want, crank their arm a couple times, and their perfectly-done artwork comes sliding out the artist's butthole.

And if you don't like said art, turn artist over and shake to erase.