PeachyMars

@wickchlorite I'd definitely ask for a refund first, and if they can't follow up, go ahead with the chargeback if it's within the 180 day PayPal window. Good luck!

You've asked more than once for WIPs, and they haven't delivered. Artists shouldn't give personal deadlines if they can't commit, and this one has failed you twice. It's fair to give an ultimatum given the circumstances, but it's even more suspicious IMO that they've hopped accounts. Based on that alone, I'd go ahead and ask for a refund. The account hopping makes me worry that they're trying to run from outstanding/angry clients, but that's just me.

I commissioned Zack/vampbyte on March 25th for a custom character design and paid up front. I did not have drawn references but put together a description with visuals and gave Zack an overall concept with what was needed. He was totally on board and offered to stream the work for me! Tonight and yesterday, I worked with him in stream from start to finish with the design. Zack was incredibly accommodating and great to work with; he was patient with whatever tweaks I pointed out, and the end result was perfect and exactly what I wanted. He is a very talented and skilled artist who is also super professional and polite and I would definitely recommend him for commission work. Here's the final design! This character is nonbinary with a masculine and feminine form. ?

Assuming your commissions are larger in size/canvas, your pricing is pretty fair for the quality of your work. Some advice: I have had plenty of people call my prices "steep" or "expensive." Yet I still get commissions. Genuine customers who value your work will pay for it whatever the price is, because they understand that art is a luxury. They also know that they're buying a custom product created by you from scratch, and custom products take more time and a considerable amount of skill. Other factors such as a pleasant personality and good turnaround/good business transaction increase the chances of repeat customers who won't mind your prices and want to support you in any way they can. This is entirely optional, but I've been told this by some artist friends: If you feel like you've improved over the year and see a quality increase in your work, consider raising your prices at the beginning of the next year. If you're not comfortable, keep them the same, but you can bump them up later if you think you're putting in more work than what you're being paid for. Good luck! ❤️

I don't feel like I can comment on the rest of your post, and for that I apologize. But to respond to what I have quoted, it is absolutely the artist's responsibility and not yours to keep track of their work. They are the ones providing a service, and it's up to them to keep track of what the artist was paid to do. All artists who do commissions for a business regardless of financial situation should keep a queue of sorts and have the type of commission and the amount paid for it saved. Even if it isn't a public queue, they have a way to look back and see what they owe, even if they forget what the subject matter was (I recommend keeping this saved as well obviously, but things do happen such as sites going down if the artist uses notes or DMs). Trello is great for keeping track of commission work. $1,000 is a lot. I am so sorry this happened to you and hope you're able to reach some sort of solution.

I wouldn't commission anyone like this to be honest. The way this ToS is worded is a bit of a red flag. To me it reads "no refunds unless I decide your reasons for requesting a refund are legitimate." That's entirely subjective, and it could be abused as another commenter said. Sometimes people don't want to share their reasons for requesting a refund because it's a personal issue or they're uncomfortable. To answer the second question: No, I do not think it is appropriate. If a customer were to ask me for a refund, the reason is none of my business unless they decide to tell me why, and I'm not going to hound them for those details. It sucks to lose a sale, but I'd rather be respectful and let my client sort things out and come back when they're better equipped to commission me than make them uncomfortable by demanding why they want a refund and have them never commission me again.