Hi folks!
I'm looking for advice about how to approach a friend regarding owed commissions. A few years ago, this friend was actually following through on commissions regularly and I was happy with services rendered, so I kept going back to them. Eventually they started producing less work, but were consistently needing emergency money, so I kept getting commissions from them. Their backlog of work they owed me got pretty long after a point, and I wasn't seeing any new work. I asked for updates intermittently and kept getting promises of updates, but never any follow-through. In the meantime, they kept regularly taking on new commissions from others, and I have no idea whether those were actually completed.
This friend owes me at least $1000 total in owed work by this point. Unfortunately, it's been anywhere from 1-2 years since I originally commissioned this work, so I have no recourse for getting that money back through PayPal, etc. I haven't commissioned them at all upon realizing how much they owe me and how non-communicative they've been. I regret not being more forthcoming about asking for the work that's owed to me, and for being too anxious to confront them about it. I was starting to make peace with the fact that I'm probably never going to see this art.
Unexpectedly, a few weeks ago, this friend messaged me saying that their queue is in order and they just need a list of what art they still owe me so they can get to work on it. At the time I said I would try to figure out what specifically they owe me, but... I started to feel frustrated about this interaction the longer I thought about it. Is it not the artist's responsibility to keep track of what's in their queue? Is it really my responsibility to track down every single interaction we've had online to figure out all of what they owe me? I feel like I've invested enough time and money in this person as it is and that it shouldn't be my job to do this.
I've never been in this kind of situation before, so I don't actually know if my reaction to this is reasonable. I feel like their financial situation leaves refunds out of the question, but I also don't want to get my hopes up that they'll actually complete the work they owe me once they have a list of it all.
Ultimately, I'm wondering if there's any good way to tell my friend, "You owe me a lot of money's worth of art, and I don't think it's my job to track down all of what you owe me, and I'm feeling pretty gross about all of this"? Or if there is a reasonable way to approach this situation at all? I'm curious what any of you would have about what you'd do in this situation.
Thanks so much for reading and for your help!
p.s. don't worry, I've definitely learned my lesson about commissioning that much art from someone when they still owe me a lot of work :P
