Honestly, I do agree with keeping extreme track of artists. But I would around that point say they either need to get it done by a certain time or you're going to issue a refund. Because just doing it without a warning might lead to a negative image [if they make mention of it publicly] if you don't have something to prove that you warned them before hand.

In fact part of the same issues you are dealing with is why I keep a public waiting on art from list on my profile \:

I've only just started getting commissions, but I've been keep tracking of every purchase in an Excel file. I list the artist name, commission date, price and type etc.

And the reason I'm doing it is because I had a bad experience like this on my VERY FIRST COMMISSION (lucky fucking me). Once it had hit 4 times longer than agreed upon I started threatening to submit a dispute on paypal and what do you know, I got the almost finished piece within days. And corrections within hours.

I wouldn't have been so harsh if the artist had just communicated with me instead of taking weeks just to view a note. But I wasn't about to be made a fool of and get ripped off.

It wasn't Lauralien, was it? I noticed that was the first thing in your gallery... O.=.O!!

She's always incredibly fast and professional in her communication in my experience, and all my friends' too...

I had a commission from someone a while back, take about 4-5 months before they even STARTED working on their queue, and I was like... really? >.=.>

My guess it's the second picture. it's one of the same artists for me!

I had a good experience with lauralien, so good I'm getting another piece from her soon. I didn't commission that piece.

And I don't want to publicly shame anyone either especially since I did get my artwork.

I like agreements that says the artist will be done within a specified time or a refund will be given.

If an artist is giving you the runaround with bullshit excuses after an entire year, you are fully within your rights to demand and receive a 100% full refund. If they can't fucking buckle down and actually do the work you paid them to do, then why the fuck should they get to keep the money? There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for this bullshit behaviour that so many artists pull. Fuck 'em. Get your money back. Commissioning an artist is a legally binding contract, even if it's verbal (and it's not even verbal, it's actually in writing), and if they do not fulfill the contract, they don't get paid, pure and simple.

I think running chargebacks at the 175 day mark, out of 180 for the paypal protection or whatever should be a standard procedure. If the artist won't talk to you or tell you any updates even, maybe they will when they lose the money. "OMG WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT I WAS 2 DAYS AWAY FROM DOING YOUR COMMISH!!!" -- Aritst probably.

But seriously. It doesn't hurt them at all if they end up contacting you and then saying "Hey, what's up with the chargeback? Ill get to work on your piece this weekend" or something, when they haven't started at all on your piece, and then you simply re-pay them when they realize you aren't fucking around with your money. Then you even get an extra 180 days to make sure they don't try and scam you twice.

Losing $300 on a commission though is a bit more painful than them getting a $40 overdraft fee if they don't realize you refunded it. It sounds mean, but if they are scamming you or lying to you, it's not your problem. Thankfully I have never had to use a chargeback yet, but there's no way I would let people get away with taking payment half a year in advance. Sorry. I think you can visit Lockheed Martin or the whitehouse with less of a waitlist.

truthin

This is one of the most frustrating things for me and a reason I don't commission much art myself and I'm an artist myself!! People who don't do the work, or take a year or something to finish it and don't communicate with you, suck.

I use excell. Everything I have ordered and have had done are inside that list. Trust me, I know when people owe me stuff. My Ex owes me two drawings from five years ago when I paid to help fix his car, and Exterio still owes me a Kiribian art from three years ago. Along with a few others I figured I'd never get no matter how much I tried to contact them for the money back.

Yes, please do keep a track of your commissioned artists, and practically anything else important. Archives are crucial for proof.

Kinda understand, i actually lost my list on who i've commissioned already x.=.x

I hit hide instead of edit, waking up is hard.

I've basically hit that point, I have a excel file in my Dropbox of names, dates and cost. But the remaining pieces in their are basically over the 5.5 months :v

Yeah, it's a pain in the ass to deal with. I'm still expecting two stories from someone, over a year old, and I'm sure one or two small pieces I've forgotten about never got done. Some people just are twats, and if you don't do anything, they won't either.

gdrive offers google sheets to list everything down in excel

Furry Network aims to protect commissioners and artists by allowing monetary transactions through their system from what I hear. The money goes to a temporary holding location and a 3rd party, staff of the site likely, observe any complaints and such and decide whether or not to return the money, or give the money to the artist.

In other notes though, you should use artist beware. Its there to help artists not be dickwads and to help commissioners stay away from bad artists.

Of course, many publicly shamed artists decide to change their name every so often, so you should have a difficult time trusting new artists who've just joined the site too. :P

I keep track of my commissions on my profile page myself and also put down how many different picsthat are in progress, when I commissioned them, and if the payment has been made yet or not. If the payment HAS been made, then I think Paypal's buyer protection covers you for 6 months before the ability to put in a dispute or claim can't be done anymore, though I could be wrong.

I'd say if an artist doesn't have a commission list available for the commissioners to see where they are and/or if the artist is taking around or more than 4 months to do a simple picture without prior notification that it would take that long, I'd file ask for a refund, file a dispute, or file a claim.

For me personally, I've only had issues with two artists so far. One who tried bailing on the internet entirely for a month and a half, and the other one kept telling me my commission would be complete by a certain date but still hadn't done that much work on it until I gave them an ultimatum.

To me it ultimately boils down to commissioning people I've grown to trust and only going outside that circle on rare occasions. I've stopped getting burned because of it.

I have been lucky enough to not actually be scammed by anyone on here, but there are alot of stories going around of course. So I have not needed to make a list just yet. But I recommend doing like Varanis said above where you find a circle of your favourite artists that you work with, that way you probably won't be screwed over. Though it is fun to get art from a wider range of artists, but it comes with a bit of a risk of course.

Sorry... a YEAR of waiting for the commission?
As the artists who draw a lot for ourselves and for our clients, we can say that there is nothing that can take this long. Even if it's a super-detailed scenery with 10 characters in it.
We can spend a month or two for hight-detailed picture, but that's the maximum, so this looks more like a lie or lazyness of the artist. Or maybe he/she just wanted to stole your money in the end.
Pfff, unprofessional.