Rendrassa

While Wise doesn't seem to take the same proactive steps PayPal does with fraud protection, it does list some things you can do about this: https://wise.com/help/articles/2978048/i-may-be-the-victim-of-fraud-or-a-scam

2 hours ago, Fairweather said:

It's right here, a link to a 5 year old journal entry

I appear to be blind. Thank you for double checking.

So as of this message, I could not find a copy of their ToS anywhere on their FA account. Not in a journal, on their profile, not linked in the above conversation. A ToS can't be enforced if the client had no way of seeing it.

12 hours ago, Kobaj said:

Oh! I assumed Paypal cutoff was like 30 days. I'll see if they can get me a refund, thanks :D!

For more info on contacting the artist and PayPal, see here:

If it's only been four months, you should be within time to file a claim with PayPal. I would send another message stating your intention to open a claim. You'll need to decide if you still want to try to get the art or push for a refund.

I'll never understand when an artist/maker finishes a product but then refuses to send/ship it. This is never acceptable behavior and I'm sorry you were taken advantage of.

As advice to anyone in a similar situation, begin pressing for the shipping number a week after the supposed shipping date and by a month after, begin talking about opening a claim. Always be aware of your protection window.

When doing YCHs it can be tricky due to our responsibility to multiple people at once. In this case, the YCH probably shouldn't have been uploaded to auction until payment from the first two. I see that there was some haggling over price and Chloe bringing up how they should pay less if the auction went high, but that's not how auctions work. Bidder A doesn't get a discount if Bidder C pays the full amount. This is a bit of a red flag for me, personally, and I would caution working with clients that haggle like this.

Something else you could do in the future is make it clear that if they don't pay in X time, they forfeit their slot and you are free to auction the slot or add your own character to it even if they were the "inspiration".

Seems like a classic tracer who can't do anatomy on their own. Mirroring CrimsonVexations to open a claim and immediately escalate it.

Since the client had paid without issue previously, you weren't wrong to begin work before receiving payment. However, upon finishing the artwork it would have been best to watermark the art with the words "unpaid" on it and only posted/given the unwatermarked art after receiving payment.

I do hope the client pays the rest of what they owe.

On 2/19/2023 at 8:07 PM, RTKobold said:

Considering this is his 4th beware and he considering this beware cyber buying on top of his constant ban evasions on FA and history of this of his previous three bewares. He's certainly making sure no one would want to commission him.

This is probably why the artist solicits customers in DMs. Just one more reason to do one's due diligence to look up who you're working with.

I honestly didn't even notice the watermarks, and had you not mentioned adding them, I would have been oblivious to them. It's fine to take payment after (though yes, you should stick to your practices) but if you do, make the watermark very clear. I would also advice the watermark say, as well as your username, "unpaid" prominently so that it can't be posted around without people pointing it out and questioning the poster.

3 hours ago, brynhildr said:

Appreciated.

Luckily they were all SFW renders, so nothing nude or anything sexual. About talking with the right person, I contacted the customer service so many times and they all told me the same stuff, that unfortunately I have to wait at least 75 days before it gets solved (because, supposedly, they're talking with the bank of the dude), and I hope it will get in my favor.

Otherwise paypal is dead to me and they can keep that debt because sure as hell I'm not gonna pay it, no matter what. It's not my fault and the screenshots I sent to them are the proof and I really, really hope that they take that into consideration. 

The fact of sending stuff through paypal, that's a new thing. Thanks for telling me. If this gets solved, I'll definitely keep that in mind!

To rephrase it more clearly in case my ramblings were unclear, I don't send through PayPal but the email connected to the buyer's PayPal account. (The one that PayPal uses to notify them of invoices/payment receipts/ect.)

PayPal prefers direct links to the PayPal email for communication in order to verify it was, in fact, the PayPal account holder. (Their logic is that anyone could use a third party social media site and pretend to be someone by giving an other's email as part of a scam/theft.)

Because of this, we should all be using only email for commission communication, but there's still the issue of NSFW discussion threatening our accounts. A step below that is my suggestion of having proof that something was sent to the buyer, as a lot of scammers will claim nothing was sent to them at all.

I can't tell how this buyer actually paid you, but I would further recommend sending an invoice with an attached ToS, making sure "shipping info" is set to not required and specifying the payment is for digital goods/commission work.

While I hope PayPal decides to pay you back out of their own pocket, I would start prepping for a lose just in case.

I'm sorry this happened to you, and I hope you talked to the right person in PayPal because they rarely take third party screenshots are acceptable evidence. You also need to be careful of PayPal seeing anything NSFW, as that's against their ToS and could close your account.

Something I've been doing for a while now is send an email to the client's PayPal email with the files attached/a link to the final renders via mega.nz if the files are exceptionally large/NSFW. The email basically explains that I'm sending over the final product and to back up the files because I do not guarantee to have copies if they lose the larger sizes. That way I have a solid proof of delivered product for PayPal in case of a chargeback.

While the car accident is tragic, that's really no excuse for the previous months of ghosting beforehand.

In future, if you're being ignored for more than a month without response, start expressing the desire for a refund if communication/deadlines won't be met and hold to that while still under PayPal's protection window.

This is one the worst kinds of clients, who approve linearts only to request line changes after coloring, or sometimes even shading. I looked at that ref sheet and my (also ADHD) brain started swimming at the differences in front and back views. (My biggest issue lies with the drastic differences between all the elbow areas.)

Aside from that, I would recommend adding your ToS to invoices and send those to the client over using a pay link. It removes the "I didn't see your ToS" which, to be fair in this case, wasn't shown to the client before payment.

If the maker is incapable of standard communication, they either need a manager who can be their communicator for them, or not take commissions. Communication is a standard. It's not optional. The tweet guilting you for asking for basic updates? Not acceptable. Ghosting when they've taken your money and not delivered the product? Not acceptable.

I don't know much about Etsy's policy, but I would try to get in touch with their customer service about an undelivered product.

This is a good example to avoid getting multiple art pieces from the same artist when the first art piece hasn't been produced, yet.

I really hope this beware can also reach the artist to stop piling on work and to focus on clearing their queue.

If you sent the $8 through friend and family, you're going to have to rely on Blue's word that he will pay for Pink's scamming. I'm hoping you sent it as a business purchase and can file a claim on if it Blue ends up ghosting as well.

Always watermark unpaid WIPs so they can't be used like this.

Ghosting to this degree is never acceptable. Though it sounds like you're past the protection window, I would advise bringing up a refund after month two at the latest when an artist is ignoring you, and filing that chargeback before the 180 day deadline. Terribly sorry this happened to you and I hope something will get resolved.

Never send through friends and family, as that strips you of all buyer's protection. If an artist claims it to avoid the PayPal fees, it's a red flag.

That said, and I'm in no way approving an artist ignoring a client and they were clearly hard to get hold of from the beginning, please avoid the RP texting you gave the artist. It's highly unprofessional to be *waving* and *poking* and s-studdering their "h-hello"s like (I presume) your character. I would certainly want to avoid that discomfort by refusing further work from you, as it's too familiar from a business standpoint. (No disrespect intended.)

On 7/21/2020 at 4:11 PM, WereMorta said:

I haven't closed the claim, nor have I received the refund yet either. According to the artist's TOS a refund can take 1-6 months.

Do not close it. The artist can say it takes 1-6 months, but PayPal will ensure you get it through the claim unless something goes horribly wrong. It's not on you to wait, and closing the claim because the artist gives delays robs you of refund protection, permanently.

Blocking is never a good sign. I hope that you haven't closed the claim, as once it's closed, it can't be reopened.

It looks like you passed the 180 day limit for PayPal's chargeback. In future, never let that time run out unless you 100% trust the artist to deliver past that date.

Absolutely despicable customer service and quite clearly (in my opinion) ran with the money when she rebranded. Further, artists really shouldn't be doing free art when they fall behind, either finish the work that was commissioned or refund, don't complicate things with "freebies" that only delay the commissions further.