Waiting 6 months for a commission-feeling anxious..

[WinterFaint]

(Hi there. I am sort of new to this type of thing, both commissioning artists and writing on a forum,  but please let me know if I did anything wrong)

 

So about 6 months ago in August of 2020 I had commissioned an artist for a fullbody painting with a background of a character of mine, it came to about $70. I had sent them refs as well as a link to my toyhouse for the character having all the reference images. Without any luck, it was through DeviantArt, and the artist was Russian, and just around after I had commissioned the artist Russia had apparently blocked Deviantart. 

 

Now a lapse in communication because of this error is reasonable, I get that, but it happened in September and the artist afterwards had made no attempt to track me down and let me know this happened. (All my social medias on Instagram and Twitter, which the artist has, was all in the same name as my DeviantArt at the time so I would've thought they'd find my name and reach out to me )I live nowhere near Europe and I had 0 idea the artist was Russian until I got fed up with no response all through August to December and found the artist on VK after finding a link on their profile I had missed due to the Eclispe update. This is entirely my fault, I should've dug more.

 

So, Jan of 2021 comes around and I message the artist through one of my dud accounts on Instagram recounting my commission and such and they explained to me the situation with Deviantart being blocked and asked who my character was and I showed them the references and gave the description and such, and I guess they had never started at all on the commission since I received no response in regard to it other than they'd get started on it? They post plenty of art and paintings and I assume they're busy in school maybe. I don't want to be rude in asking for a refund but I don't even want this person's art anymore after this experience.

 

It's not like they're rude or anything, they're very approachable so far with our messaging. I'm wondering if I should just cut it as a loss and either ask for a refund or give up on this as I have received no communication or asking for proof of me commissioning them or anything like that. I'm honestly exhausted and confused on what to do and would love some outside perspectives as other advice on this forum has helped me before and I don't any artist people to go to for help as I am a bit of a hermit.

 

Any insight at all would be very helpful, thanks 

 

 

[VosurAekira]

Filing a dispute/escalating to a claim in paypal (if you used that for payment) is usually your last line of communication, but if you could not get through to the artist before this point, you might need to resort to doing this. If you do go through this, make sure you do not close the dispute (or let it auto-close without escalation) if you don't get what you paid for.

Once a dispute is closed, you cannot reopen it and a claim cannot be filed. Also disputes will auto-close within a certain number of days (one week to ten days if my memory serves me right? could be mistaken here). 

Make sure you have exhausted all means you know of, but if time is running short on that protection window, then you may need to resort in the dispute/claim process.

[WinterFaint]

On 3/13/2021 at 11:27 PM, VosurAekira said:

Filing a dispute/escalating to a claim in paypal (if you used that for payment) is usually your last line of communication, but if you could not get through to the artist before this point, you might need to resort to doing this. If you do go through this, make sure you do not close the dispute (or let it auto-close without escalation) if you don't get what you paid for.

Once a dispute is closed, you cannot reopen it and a claim cannot be filed. Also disputes will auto-close within a certain number of days (one week to ten days if my memory serves me right? could be mistaken here). 

Make sure you have exhausted all means you know of, but if time is running short on that protection window, then you may need to resort in the dispute/claim process.

I'm thinking to ask for another update and if they have nothing, I'll request a refund and if they ghost or refuse for some reason, I'll call my bank since I tried with Paypal previously in January of 2021 and they said the window for a chargeback was gone

It wasn't an invoice which I should've been weary of I guess, but it came from my card through paypal so the bank may have some leverage over this kind of thing, right?

[VosurAekira]

It depends on the rules for your bank, but sometimes banks have the same window as paypal (180 days from transaction). It wouldn't hurt to look into it.

[WinterFaint]

On 3/13/2021 at 11:27 PM, VosurAekira said:

Filing a dispute/escalating to a claim in paypal (if you used that for payment) is usually your last line of communication, but if you could not get through to the artist before this point, you might need to resort to doing this. If you do go through this, make sure you do not close the dispute (or let it auto-close without escalation) if you don't get what you paid for.

Once a dispute is closed, you cannot reopen it and a claim cannot be filed. Also disputes will auto-close within a certain number of days (one week to ten days if my memory serves me right? could be mistaken here). 

Make sure you have exhausted all means you know of, but if time is running short on that protection window, then you may need to resort in the dispute/claim process.

So I had actually gone ahead with what I said I'd do and the artist told me they couldn't draw nor refund because they were in school..but continued on posting art consistently...I feel like I'm being lied to at this point and that they're hoping I just drop off trying to get my commission from them 😞  They didn't respond to my last message after they told me that they couldn't refund or draw and they haven't reached out to me since...They tell me they're not active on instagram but I can see when they're online and using it and they're almost always online

I'm way past paypal's limit and I don't know what to do . Is there even anything I can do?

[baja]

Outside of Paypal's window, you are left without much recourse outside of contacting your financial institution (Depending on what you used with paypal to pay them) for a possible chance of recovering your money.

Note: A 'no-refunds' clause is not legally enforceable, regardless of what terms you agree to when entering a contract with an artist.
If they do not provide the service you paid for, you are entitled to a refund if you so choose, but remember to act before your 180 Day window closes.

This is a hard lesson learned unfortunately.