Customer will not finish commission process

[Sarahcat]

Howdy! I have never had anything like this happen before and I will try to keep this brief, but I am at a complete loss for how to proceed. 

Client commissioned me in August for fursuit parts. Paid down payment + a large chunk off. It took him some time to get me a DTD but he eventually did. Because it was only parts it didn't take me very long to have his entire commission done (3 days) and it was finished on February 9th. 

I have not heard from him since January 29th. Someone reached out and showed me that he is incredibly responsive on Telegram and he runs some of the largest VR Chat furry events, so he is incredibly active online. He owes me a final payment and his address so I can ship him his commission.

I sent him a Telegram message that has been unread. No response to my emails. He does not have social media so this is the most I can do (I don't use VR Chat). Is there anything more I can do? I have limited space in my apartment so I can't start new commissions until his is mailed out, and I have never had a client take this long to answer me back. Usually people want their commission, haha.

[querrieoh]

So, this advice unfortunately won't help your current situation much, but I would definitely recommend adding some section into your TOS setting deadlines and expectations regarding this exact situation- ex, laying out how long you'll hold a finished commission before it becomes yours, you have the right to resell it, etc. Having that kinda stuff in your TOS helps you in these situations for sure. 

For example you could have a clause where: After commission is complete and client is notified, client has (reasonable amount of time units here) to communicate with (Sarahcat) before the commission is considered as abandoned, and (Sarahcat) retains the right to resell,destroy, or otherwise deal with the commission. If client regains communication in the future, they may receive the commission upon payment of storage fee, or receive a partial refund if commission is no longer in (Sarahcat)'s possession [or whatever terms you decide to write up, this is just an example)

 

 

For this current situation, one possible solution would be to refund him and then just sell what you made- that way it's more of a clean break, you don't need to worry about him coming back in the future wanting his money or the items

 

Hope this helps!