Search the Community

I reached out to WetVenom in late October 2023 inquiring about his rates and terms. After talking for a bit about his rates and the character being drawn, we settled on $150 for a two panel, comic-style commission. I sent the first payment on November 1st, but we ran into a small problem. Because I paid through PayPal with a checking account, PayPal turned the payment into an eCheck. Since Venom is from outside of the US, it took almost a week for the transaction to even register, and by that time I didn't have the funds in my account. PayPal automatically retries the transaction after a few days though, and ultimately the eCheck cleared on the 16th of November. After receiving email confirmation that it cleared, I followed up with Venom and he confirms that he received the payment and will be starting on the commission. A little over a week later he reaches out again to reconfirm the details, and I verify the details of the commission once more. From this point however, communication starts to taper off. The next communication is two months later on January 17 2024, where I reach out to ask how the commission is coming. He responds a few days later asking to once more confirm the details of my commission, and stating that he's fed up with impatient customers. After confirming who I was and clearing up the misunderstanding, he then says that the commission may already be finished and that he needs to double check. I ask him to let me know if that's the case, and then I wait another ~2 weeks before checking back in. This time he responds the same day, confirming that he is still working on the commission. I wait another month, March 7th, before checking back in on his progress. This email goes unanswered. I wait another month, April 4th, to inquire about his status. He responds the next day citing family issues are what caused him delay. I empathize with his situation, and let him know that if he wants to cancel the commission all he has to do is let me know. This goes without response, and I reach back out a week later. After reconfirming privacy details and format, I wait a bit longer, thinking that his last email was an implication that the commission was nearly done. I reach out again on the 29th of April to confirm, and he responds shortly after saying he's sending the commission later that night: stating that an error within the commission gave him some delay. A few more days pass and I send another email on May 3rd to verify if the error was still giving him problems. After telling him that I didn't need another commission and that I only wanted to confirm where he was on this commission, I receive nothing back but silence. I send another email on the 24th of June to ask what the status of the commission is, to no response. About a week later I send a separate, Ultimatum email. This too went unanswered, and ultimately nothing came of the PayPal dispute since 180 days had already passed since the transaction date. As of 9/27/2024, I've reached out to both of wetvenom's public emails to confirm their intent on completing the commission.

On January 31st, Baasil made a post for Tarot card slots, two separate decks that would ideally be finished and printed. After kind of waffling about it for a couple days, I reached out on February 2nd. I promptly paid for the slot, very excited to be a part of the project. They confirmed payment and shared their excitement for the project with me. I hadn't heard anything in March, so I sent a note for an update. I was not given a wip, so I figured maybe they had fallen a bit behind, as trying to keep a deck consistent is most definitely a lot of work. So I gave the benefit of the doubt and patiently waited as time ticked on. Then I requested another update in June. Here they acknowledge that there wasn't enough interest for a full deck, but was still happy to do prints for the people who commissioned the art. I was more than happy with just getting the art in general. July rolls around, and I still don't have a single update or wip, and I start getting a bit nervous as it has now been about 5 months since I commissioned them I'll admit I got a little too stern for my liking, but I was getting increasingly nervous as they tended to disappear for a while and randomly come back. They were very polite towards me in their response, because I did genuinely still want the art, I still loved the concept and I was happy to wait. In August, Baasil posted one of the cards, and I got excited again, knowing that they were being worked on, and that the style was looking really good. After this, starting in September, they were focusing on streaming work. I thought, okay sure, we all have bills to pay, so I patiently waited. At this point I was preparing for a massive career change so a lot of time got lost on my end, and I ended up reaching out in March 2020. I wanted to give another chance as I really do love Baasil's style and part of my thought process was that it was only $35, so I'd be happy with any art from them. They still remained very polite towards me throughout this entire exchange, while explaining loosely what was going on. I changed my character choice as well as offered full artistic freedom, as I wanted it to not be stressful on them, as I know sometimes drawing with heavy constraints in an art piece can be a lot, and they have a super flowy style that I thought would work well with this character. Which brings us to our last correspondence with each other, two years later. Again, we both remain civil through this exchange. At this point, all of the journals except a select few have been deleted, and I didn't think to screen cap them because of a huge move and personal issues going on in my life as well. Every so often they come back and post more, but they haven't been active in almost a year, and truthfully, I'm just really disappointed. I tried to give chances, and I'm a very patient person, but if this was really going to be this much of an issue, I would have done that chargeback back in July of 2019. I recently reached out one more time to see if I could get some response, however my note when completely unread. The only positive thing to come out of this was that neither of us were confrontational at any point in time, and it was always a civil and professional discussion between the two of us. I commission a lot of artists and I almost never have these issues, I am going to have to take this to heart and maybe some day I'll see my $35.

Uses deceptive wording and pressure tactics. Initially I was willing to forgive and assume inexperience, but the ask for double for delivery, then for a different commission, then for a 50% tip flew way past the acceptable line and drained the remainder of my good will. End product (no watermark free copy was received) not received as of today 9/17/2024. Artist reached out first after small talk and was the one who initiated conversation after I followed them on Tumblr.

Was in talks with the artist prior to commissioning them about ideas. Officially commissioned them February 12th, 2024 when I was invoiced and paid for a two character NSFW commission of my character Lumi and my spouse's character, Milosh with an alt version. The agreed amount for the commission was $300 total. Experienced some major delays initially on seeing any progress, which lead to a few inquiries. I eventually settled for the idea to be changed to a one character pin-up of Lumi in a cheerleader outfit with an alt, and receiving a half refund on that. I didn't get the half refund until quite a bit later, then received a passable sketch. Asked for some minor changes, then nothing. Weeks turned into months, months approaching a near year, and no correspondence from the artist as seen in the images prior despite numerous attempts. The artist however still active and drawing despite owing me and avoiding me. The images show the main area of communication via Discord, but I have inquired on Twitter and via email. Unfortunately for me PayPal can't do anything as it's taken longer than what protection they offer customers, so here I am. I wanted to settle things civilly but have been outright ghosted by the artist.