Beware: Robaato

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/923124.html

WHO: Robaato
          robaato.deviantart.com
          www.patreon.com/Robaato
          about.me/robaato
          twitter.com/robaatox
          robscorner.tumblr.com

WHERE: Nearly all correspondence was sent through email, with a few messages sent on tumblr and twitter

WHAT: Digital Colour Sketch

WHEN: Originally made contact on November 8th 2012. Payment was sent November 23rd 2012

PROOF: Screencap of the paypal transaction https://www.dropbox.com/s/6i50r52q1lxtpkz/2016-06-27.png?dl=0

EXPLAIN:

On November 8th 2012 I commissioned this artist for a quick digital full body colour sketch. The artist was prompt in getting back to me and I sent payment on 23/11/2013. Between then and March in 2014 I had no issues with the artist. They were prompt with their responses and polite.

However, on 14th March 2013 everyone who had commissioned him (including myself) had been sent an email stating that commission progress would be slow due to work commitments the arts had. As such they were offering full refunds to anyone who wasn’t willing to wait. At this point I thought it best to get a refund as I didn’t really want to wait a very long period of time for the commission to be finished so I sent him this response.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbpqtrhxw4zbrld/14-03-2013.png?dl=0

On 1st April 2013 the artist sent me this response.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9ws322uedwsuly/01-04-2013 reply.png?dl=0

Perhaps I was wrong in assuming this but it seemed like the artist had made significant progress on the commission and was relatively close to finishing it. I thought that would be great and decided to wait for the commission to the finished.

Between then and May 2015 I had not received any updates regarding the commission.  I had sent the artist a few emails on 1st July 2013, 16th July 2013, 9th September 2013, 17th February 2014 and 3rd May 2014, asking for an update. On 09th September 2013 in particular I actually had requested a cancellation of the commission as at the time I was desperately in need of the money.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wnvqiajfxeepjo2/01-07-2013.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/do0bvmxad21eojd/16-07-2013.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ji7wv2kfbpkly4f/09-09-2013.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jwq81wkk19hjgqf/17-02-2014.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6acpuoof18tu0fh/03-05-2014.png?dl=0

 I didn’t receive a reply to any of them. I will say that in that period I had sent a question to the artist’s tumblr, asking for an update, which they did reply to. However, I can’t remember when exactly I sent it and have since deleted the reply. The question was essentially asking whether they were still working on the commission, which they said they were.

At this point I was getting concerned so on 8th May 2014 I sent this email to the artist (I used a different email account I was unsure if they were receiving the previous ones).

https://www.dropbox.com/s/e52ilgg90irznnl/8-05-2014 Replied.png?dl=0

I was essentially trying to convey my annoyance at what had been happening without angering the artist. The artist did reply to this email the same day. Said email and the response I sent can be seen below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/geoqk5eexfs9y52/14-05-2014.png?dl=0

I was happy with the response and decided to wait patiently again. I was also expecting a full response to the previous email I sent, which the artist said they would send. However I never received this.

At this point a long period of receiving no updates or such happened again. I asked for an update on 13th October 2014 and, after receiving no response to this email, I sent the following email on 14th November 2014.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vboeaeulmzajon/14-11-2014 Replied.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l68ddwcsum3020g/14-11-2014 Replied Part 2.png?dl=0

The artist sent a prompt reply to this email and sent the following response.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ces8u6o3n0rjtwz/Untitled.png?dl=0

I was satisfied with this reply and decided to wait again. I didn’t receive the progress update and the end of the year came and went so I sent an email asking for an update on 8th January 2015 and 1st February 2015.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/81ip6v5p0ez98nh/08-01-2015.png?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1grmzbrxkuwdlr6/01-02-2015.png?dl=0

At this point I was getting very frustrated and ended up sending the following email on 12th February 2015.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1hc27tjieb65gbn/12-02-2015 (Replied).png?dl=0

I’ll admit this email was very rude and I could have worded it a lot better. I sent a similar worded message to the artist’s tumblr. Neither received a response (most likely due to the tone of the email). I eventually sent an ask to the artist’s tumblr and got A response saying that he would refund me the money as I can't comprehend that if I’m not able to get back to your emails on your timetable, it must mean I’m busy" (I don't have a screen shot of the original message unfortunately as it has since been deleted).

At this point I sent a hastily written response to the tumblr message on my phone where I compalined about the long periods of time between responses (again, don't have a screenshot of the orginal message unforutnately).

At this point I genuinely still wanted the commission and thought both messages were very rude so I wrote an apology email which is below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v6ymh6zmog38inc/28-02-2015 Apology email.png?dl=0

A Little while after that I sent this email to him.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ti76r3odcbx4zs/Robaato March 9th 2015.png?dl=0

The general gist of it was essentially me explaining why I was annoyed with him. The links are to pictures of the correspondence I have recieved from him. He sent me this response the next day.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ow1jj6jwu4d7ddq/Robaato March 10th 2015.png?dl=0

I then sent a response, giving him my paypal email. After not hearing anything for a while I sent him this email on January 4th 2016.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dfmqpe6fyxcsevl/Robaato January 4th 2016.png?dl=0

I sent this from two different emails. I never got a reply. Since then I have tried to contact him on twitter. He claimed he had never received the emails on one occassion and that he was waiting to be paid, but after that any messages I sent where eithier missed or ignored.

At this point I don't think I will ever receive a refund from this artist. Most attempts to conact him have been unsuccessful. He has claimed that he isn't receving my emails, but I find this claim dubious as I have successfully contacted him in the past.

But to get some feedback, do you think I have been overzealous or have done anything wrong here. I'd like to know if I have because I wouldn't like something like this to happen again in the future If I have caused it.

EDIT: Chnaged some of the incorrect dates in the entry