What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

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What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#1 Post by discriminate »

I don't know where else to post this but if I posted this in the wrong forum, I'm sorry.

Basically, I hired an artist here and we discussed everything for the art. I also explained as much as I can and told her that if she needs help, she can contact me anytime and I'd help her ASAP. We agreed upon it and she said she can't start without the downpayment which is very understandable so I paid her a downpayment.

A month passes with no response from her after I paid her despite me messaging her from everywhere (discord, reddit, email) so I got worried if I got scammed. She then responds to me apologizing because stuff happened in her personal life. I said it's okay to take a break but be sure to send me a message so I don't get worried. Anyway, she said she will send the draft a week later and she will send the full artwork after a month. I was happy and we agreed.

A month passes and she only sent her draft and apologized for not finishing on time and promises to finish it in a month. I said I understood but I told her I need the art already since I have a schedule planned and it has been severely delayed. I also have a down payment and waited this long already so I'm invested into her at this point. I also asked her to update me often because she vanishes. She said she would but she doesn't.

Another month passes and she sends 3 more drafts which are just line arts. She apologized saying she just got out of the hospital. I responded to her and I still have yet to receive a response back. I messaged her everywhere including her thread here in Lemma Soft. She logged on recently here but she hasn't responded to me.

She has good feedback from her past clients so I wasn't worried at the 1st two months thinking she just had personal issues like everyone else but I was starting to get impatient because I was hoping for this project to somehow at least help me in my financial struggles even for a little bit and I have a schedule all planned out in the next few months. I can't follow that now since the project has been delayed.

I did notice that the last customer who posted in the artist's thread said she hired LoiLoi and the customer waited for 5 months and hasn't heard from the artist again.
Arent wrote: Thu Oct 26, 2017 5:59 am Ok, it's now 5 Months & I never heard anything from Loiloi again. I commissioned now another artist.

I do not like to do this, but since the replies by discriminate & several others on deviantart give the impression that they had similar experiences I have to caution everyone & advice you to demand a watermarked version of the final picture & not pay anything upfront.
I do not want to exclude the possibility that loiloi has stuff for school to do or simply has taken too many commissions for her to fullfill, but that would result in a similar caution.
I'm not entirely sure what's the reason for the long delays. She said she just had family or personal issues but it could also be that she gets a lot of commissions.

I didn't want to do this but I've invested so much time waiting on the artist and trusting she would deliver so I just wanted some opinion and help as to how to handle this. This is the second time I got an artist to help me. The first time was with a friend whom we agreed that we would partner together and that he would do the art and I would do everything else like the coding but after a month passes, he never did the art and never replied.

For reference, this is her thread viewtopic.php?f=62&t=42601&start=30 Her DA is also there. Her art is really amazing and she has had positive feedback from her past customers. As of the time of this writing, it has been 4 months since I hired her. :(

Sorry for the long post. Thank you for all the help.
Last edited by discriminate on Thu Dec 14, 2017 9:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#2 Post by Zetsubou »

How many more art pieces have you paid for? One? A dozen?
If they owe you several, how did you pay for them? Paypal?

If you've paid for several pieces in advance (which you haven't received), and you've paid through paypal, lodge a dispute.
The artist may not agree to refund the money, but it'll at least get their attention and let them know that you've lost patience.
I know it doesn't sound like a nice thing to do, but I believe that what you've described merits that response. (Bear in mind that you'd need to lodge a dispute within a certain timeframe, so you can't put it off or else that option will expire)

If you're only waiting on one piece, or they're already up to date, just start looking for someone else.
Get the final pieces they owe you if you can, but don't hire them for anything new.

Someone who constantly misses deadlines and breaks off communication won't suddenly become a model worker. They'll continue to miss deadlines, fail to communicate, and ultimately hold you back. How many more months of delays and silence are you willing to accept?
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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#3 Post by SundownKid »

If you are paying for an artist, it's well within your rights to set deadlines, and ask the artist to give you a guarantee that it will take X days. It seems like in this case you should be asking for your money back in its entirety and looking for a new artist. Ultimately if they have health issues that would prevent them from doing commissions to this extent (and it seems like a continuing trend) they shouldn't be doing commissions in the first place and they are being irresponsible (or in the worst case, knowingly defrauding people) by doing them. If she went to the hospital then she should have sent back your downpayment due to not being able to deliver. This is a business after all and you can't give excuses to a real employer.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#4 Post by morinoir »

I pretty much agree with everything that Zetsubou has said. You may also want to consider sending the artist one last warning message before you lodge a dispute (if you decide to do that). Tell them that it's your last email and that you will wait until certain date to get response from them along with the works that you've paid, or else you'll lodge a dispute and leave them bad review.

However, please keep in mind that the artist may 'actually' in a bad period of their life. Some of their clients did left good review of their work and that means at some point the artist actually did good job. Think of lodging a dispute (and other things that me and Zetsubou had mentioned) as your last resort.

I'm sorry this happened to you and I hope your problem will be solved as soon as possible. Best of luck to you!

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#5 Post by Zylinder »

I'm sorry this happened to you!

I'd suggest:
  • Sending them a message, asking for either the piece immediately, or a refund. I'd recommend asking for a refund at this point, since an artist that disappeared for that long may take a very long time with it. I myself have disappeared as long (bless the clients I had at the time for forgiving me at all) due to real life circumstances and later on made up for the work -- but it was almost a year later, and I wouldn't recommend it.
  • Dispute the claim via Paypal. The last time I peeked, I think the time limit may be a month, which you might have exceeded. The rules may have changed since/I was wrong in the first place, but you can lodge one through it.
Either way, flagging someone on Paypal should have consequences from Paypal's side towards the seller, so it depends on how you'd like to handle the situation and the artist.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#6 Post by Arent »

discriminate wrote: Tue Oct 31, 2017 11:22 pmI didn't want to do this but I've invested so much time waiting on the artist and trusting she would deliver so I just wanted some opinion and help as to how to handle this. This is the second time I got an artist to help me. The first time was with a friend whom we agreed that we would partner together and that he would do the art and I would do everything else like the coding but after a month passes, he never did the art and never replied.

For reference, this is her thread viewtopic.php?f=62&t=42601&start=30 Her DA is also there. Her art is really amazing and she has had positive feedback from her past customers. As of the time of this writing, it has been 4 months since I hired her. :(

Sorry for the long post and writing about something depressing. Thank you for all the help.
Loiloi still goes to school (I think) & can probably work only on weekends, while other artists work full time.
Additionally, it seems to me that she has taken *way* too many commissions.

The right way to handle that is to cancel the commission & demand your money back.

I don't think she is trying to cheat anyone, she is just disorganized. But of course also for disorganization
there have to be repercussions.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#7 Post by discriminate »

Hey everybody,

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. After making this thread, I recently got a PM from LoiLoi and one of her customers. One of the customers besides Arent has also been waiting for LoiLoi for months as well and the fact that I'm not the only one here makes me think that she is really doing this and this is not a one time thing. I will just post her reply.

Take this however you want but I do hope people do learn from this so it won't happen again. Both artists and customers, because it really hurt me having to wait this long for nothing...

As of right now, I am just waiting for her refunds.
LoiLoi
Hello,

With a heavy heart, I hate to break this to you but I think I can no longer continue this project due to my health condition. I believed I have cause you serious delays and with that, I'd fully refund your initial payments. All sketches and past drawings will be free of charge to at least compensate a little the delays I've caused. While my heart desires to continue the circumstance just don't permit. I am sorry and I hope you do understand.
Last edited by discriminate on Wed Apr 20, 2022 10:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#8 Post by Arent »

discriminate wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:10 am my very long and unprofessional reply.

Take this however you want but I do hope people do learn from this so it won't happen again. Both artists and customers, because it really hurt me having to wait this long for nothing...

As of right now, I am just waiting for her refunds.

Feel free to correct me if any of my actions are not merited but I just feel like letting people know all about this trumps privacy
It doesn't help arguing or writing "long and unprofessional replies". Do note that you can't really force her to refund you.
If she does, take that as a sign that she is not trying to cheat you & carry on.

Of course the loss of time is a problem. I hope that your project was not a commercial one, so that you had no losses.
Apart from that I learned that it is, sometimes, better to invest more money & hire full time artists. If I/you want to
save money & contact people on deviantart that might, of course, go awry.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#9 Post by discriminate »

Arent wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:33 am
discriminate wrote: Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:10 am my very long and unprofessional reply.

Take this however you want but I do hope people do learn from this so it won't happen again. Both artists and customers, because it really hurt me having to wait this long for nothing...

As of right now, I am just waiting for her refunds.

Feel free to correct me if any of my actions are not merited but I just feel like letting people know all about this trumps privacy
It doesn't help arguing or writing "long and unprofessional replies". Do note that you can't really force her to refund you.
If she does, take that as a sign that she is not trying to cheat you & carry on.

Of course the loss of time is a problem. I hope that your project was not a commercial one, so that you had no losses.
Apart from that I learned that it is, sometimes, better to invest more money & hire full time artists. If I/you want to
save money & contact people on deviantart that might, of course, go awry.
Well I said that because I really wanted to know the real issue since a handful of people have been in the same boat as I am and I don't want others to be in this situation the future. I don't want to be branded as someone who causes drama and I never wanted for things to turn this way but I really do feel bad through all of this and the way I am, I tend to be more real and not put on act but still try to be respectable. So again, I apologize for all of this.

And as for the money, I'm not thinking much about the money as much since I can earn it back but I do still want a refund. The time it took waiting is really the one that really rubs me the wrong way and I can never take that back nor any money can take that back.

I do think that she really wasn't trying to cheat me since I saw a lot of good feedback from her past clients and I've seen her work. I feel like it was more like she was taking on more than she can chew and when it got too much, this happened. But I wanted her to know that I was willing to help and listen to her if she did encounter issues. I also do not want to belittle her health condition either and if she does have one, I hope that she does get better.

On a side note. This is my first project though so I guess things will go wrong eventually. I also saw her on this thread so we might see a response from her here. She still hasn't responded to me privately though.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#10 Post by Aviala »

From her message it seems like she was offering you a refund - it's a bit vaguely worded, but that's the message I get.
She did wrong by disappearing on you and not being honest about her ability to work, but in the end she did the responsible thing and cancelled the commission.

I get that it's not fair to you, but for future reference you might get better results by just saying "All right, please send me the refund ASAP. I'm disappointed in your services, but I will accept your refund". You've already warned other people about her in this thread, so sending her a long and threatening message probably just stresses her out even more, and makes it more likely that you'll ever see your money again.

Again, I know it sucks it's not fair to you, and I get why you're angry, but I know from exprience how much pressure it can be to have promised to do commissions and then realize that you can't do them all fast enough. It's a surprisingly stressful and horrible place - it's much easier to just push the work aside, stop communicating and pretend everything is ok. Thankfully I finished the commissions eventually, started communicating with the clients more and learned from my mistakes - maybe this artist will learn too, and think hard before taking more commissions. I've been on the both sides of this problem - both as a commissioner who had to deal with a disappearing artist, and an artist who's worked way too slow. So I understand both sides.

I have a couple of tips for people dealing with artists that don't communicate and take way too long. From my experience, if an artist is taking too long, the best thing is to say: "I'm not angry at you, but I need you to either finish the commission NOW, or give me a refund. I won't be angry at you if you decide to quit because you'll be saving my time."

This way, you help the artist get out of the headspace of "I have to finish this commission because I started it", and they'll probably be relieved to have an opportunity to get out of the commission deal that they can't fullfill - or if they really feel like they can do it, they'll hopefully message you and tell you so.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#11 Post by Arent »

Loiloi refunded me now. From my side, there are no hard feelings &
I understand that sometimes there are unforseen events/time restraints.

I therefore deleted my former posts in her thread.

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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#12 Post by sasquatchii »

Oh man, sorry to hear about how that all went down.

As someone who does freelance work on the side on top of having a day job, I can sympathize with life happening and not being able to deliver on time. In the past I've struggled with depression & mental health, and gave away quite a lot of free work because of how terribly slow I was and because people were waiting on me and counting on me and I let them down.

I also recently was in a car accident - which impacted my ability to deliver on promised deadlines. In that case, I was proactive and reached out to my clients, explaining the situation, and asking for an extension on things I needed to get done. Everyone was so amazing, kind, and understanding. I didn't even lose any money or faith from my clients - because I was honest with them and got back to work as soon as I was able to.

I think one really helpful thing I've learned as a freelancer is to set dates for deliverables, and hold myself accountable to them. I'll get an assignment, and then get back to the client, saying "I'll work on this and get back to you on X date." I think that really helps, because they're not sitting around wondering why I've gone quiet - and they always know when they will hear from me again. Maybe moving forward, you can set deadline or check-in dates with the artists you hire? I think that might really help.

I hope this experience doesn't turn you off to hiring other artists in the future. I think there are probably many reliable & talented artists out there who would be a great fit for you & your project.
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Re: What should I do if the Artist I hired takes way too long?

#13 Post by discriminate »

LoiLoi messaged me a few days ago saying she will refund me ASAP. I messaged her and talked things out. We are good now. Hopefully everyone will just take this as a learning experience from both artist and client. I won't deny, I've also made mistakes on being too rash so for that I apologize.

Today, I also just recently received an untitled payment from a person named Daniel with the same amount I paid LoiLoi so LoiLoi if this is you, please confirm this as I always thought you were a girl.

Thank you to everyone who helped and to LoiLoi, there are no hard feelings on my part. I wish you the best and that you learn from all of this.

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