Artist Not Opening Messages

[kaspian]

I commissioned an artist on toyhouse around 27th August for two customs that came to about $40 (together). Last week they said they'd be giving me an update that day or the day after, and I haven't heard anything from them since. I sent them a message (through toyhouse) a couple of days ago and they've been online, but they haven't opened my message.

Do I contact them again on toyhouse, contact them through a social media, or give it another 7 days? And should I demand an update or just send a message to check in and see if everything is okay?

I don't want to sound pushy but I also don't want my PayPal buyer protect to run out if they're not going to deliver. I've checked toyhouse forums and artistsbeware for any PSAs or warnings but there's nothing on them, so I don't know if this is just a minor delay or if they have a pattern of ghosting.

[VosurAekira]

From what I see based off of this (if you paid on the same day), the latest you would have before you should initiate the dispute/claim would be 22nd of  February 2023. The longest I'd suggest in waiting would be 27th of January 2023 (5 month mark), which should give more than ample time for a response. 

But If they mentioned a deadline, it would not be a bad idea to find out if something may be happening on their end to cause the delay.

[baja]

It has not been a month since you initiated the transaction with the individual, while I understand it can be frustrating to not have that prompt communication as promised, I would give them until the one month mark to follow-up with the artist in question through another means of social media or the paypal email you were provided.

Note you will have 180 days if you do feel the need to open up a case to resolve the transaction, but overall, I think its a matter of patience that should be exercised here before jumping the gun.

It's coming off like you expecting the artist to not deliver if you're already worrying about the worst case scenarios. Yes, follow up with them, but I personally would abstain from making demands right out the gate.

As you are coming from toyhouse, if you are basing their online activity based off of the public profile activity, it has been known that the way the site tracks the 'last seen' feature is not indicative of them actually having proper activity on site. The lack of any administrators/moderators outside of the sole site owner does not help in clarifying for the community exactly how this feature is supposed to function with regards of tracking individual activity.

[kaspian]

20 hours ago, rikki said:

It has not been a month since you initiated the transaction with the individual, while I understand it can be frustrating to not have that prompt communication as promised, I would give them until the one month mark to follow-up with the artist in question through another means of social media or the paypal email you were provided.

Note you will have 180 days if you do feel the need to open up a case to resolve the transaction, but overall, I think its a matter of patience that should be exercised here before jumping the gun.

It's coming off like you expecting the artist to not deliver if you're already worrying about the worst case scenarios. Yes, follow up with them, but I personally would abstain from making demands right out the gate.

As you are coming from toyhouse, if you are basing their online activity based off of the public profile activity, it has been known that the way the site tracks the 'last seen' feature is not indicative of them actually having proper activity on site. The lack of any administrators/moderators outside of the sole site owner does not help in clarifying for the community exactly how this feature is supposed to function with regards of tracking individual activity.

The biggest problem I have is them giving me a deadline and then completely ghosting without dropping in to let me know that's it's been pushed back. I've waited over a year for a (digital) commission before and had no problem because the artist kept me in the loop (and had a Trello for updates) and never had a set deadline, so waiting isn't a problem itself.

I was given a deadline for the sketch/WIP, waited a week, and sent them a message, to which I didn't get a reply to nor has it been read. I get the last seen feature on Toyhouse isn't incredibly accurate but all I have to go off of is that feature. No other social media is linked on their page or commission thread, and activity in the forums means very little when I sent a PM (and the last activity in the forums was over three weeks ago, before I even got the message with the deadline).

I'm going to wait until around the 27th because that'll be two weeks since I sent the PM, then I'll message them again to see what's up and if everything is alright. I'll refrain from using the email linked to their PayPal until I absolutely have to though because that's kind of an invasion privacy unless they explicitly said it was cool to do.

[baja]

If you are forced to utilize Paypal's claims system, it will go through to that email regardless of whether or not you attempt to contact them through it beforehand.

Either way the email will come into play whether you intend for it to be used or not. It's not necessarily an invasion of privacy as it does serve as a means of communication that they provided you when you both agreed to the transaction.

It should not be explicitly stated as it was an integral part of initiating the transaction in the first place.

Edited September 22, 2022 by rikki