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Still troubles with a suit maker! It won't end!
9 years ago
A suitmaker has 25 or so suits on their queue right now.
You commissioned them about 3 years ago.
There are some people on their queue who have been waiting longer than you, some 4 years or more!!
In the past few years since you got your slot, this maker has made a total of 9 pre-mades that they sold.
The pre-mades get done lightning fast from the rates you see the WIP pics posted
Commissions are worked on WAY out of order and randomly instead of making the next project in line start to finish like all other makers do. So you have NO idea who will get their suit next and when anyone will get their suit.
This maker you commissioned even makes random parts or pushes ahead projects that are in much later batches, people who paid their suits off AFTER you.
When a customer of this maker starts communicating to them publically about their suit it's as though this maker 'feels caught' or 'busted' for slacking on commissions and pushes them ahead and gets them done much faster. It's almost as if you, a customer who paid a ton of money and entrusted this costume maker to provide the service you paid for, it's almost as if you HAVE to bug this maker to work on your nearly 3k costume or else you will be waiting and waiting and waiting. Cos it seems your money just gets you the slot, but the service is not guarunteed. The maker works extremely slow on commissions unless they are bugged and you've seen at some point the maker flat out ignores communication with a concerned customer cos they don't wanna hear it from the customer(who is only asking about a progress update, not harassing the maker or anything) when really it's the maker's fault cos they're not that great at keeping up with their queue and communicating what's going on with their customers.
Here is a rough estimate of the maker's productivity the past three years since you got this slot(best I could count up):
As far as I can tell no suits were officially completed in the remainder of 2013.
2014: 11 commissions(1 head, 1 partial, 9 fulls) and 2 pre-made partials
2015: 8 commissions(2 heads, 3 partials, 3 fulls) and 4 pre-made partials
2016 so far: 5 commissions all fulls and 3 pe-made partials
At least 2 of the fulls recently completed were done quicker cos the customers had to pester the maker about them. 2 others were worked on mostly/partially in the previous year so only 3 fulls were made start to finish in this year so far. Not a lot of work has been done this year compared the past years and there's 25 more suits to make. Their productivity slowly drops as pre-mades become a more common thing. It's obvious after the past few years this maker started to favor and prioritize pre-mades and continues to push back people who have been waiting years, some even 4 or more years! Other people on this maker's queue have been contacted and they're just as frustrated or upset about how things are going.
I posted a journal about this maker before but seriously this maker keeps going at it. They posted a journal a bit ago saying they will work better basically but I've seen no improvement. The only GOOD thing this maker can do at this point is give their waiting, frustrated, or hopeless feeling customers some releif and offer those who have waiting a long time the opportunity to get full refunds cos this maker is at fault for this being such a long painful transaction for these poor people!! It's fun dishing out nearly 3k on a high quality animal costume, obviously their customers do not feel bad about that!! But what does leave a bad feeling is being pushed aside like the amount you paid means nothing cos your character isn't exciting or something. Or that your payment is so old it doesn't feel like providing better service for that payment is essential or necessary. That's just what I think might be what the maker feels or thinks after all I have observed.
I dunno this maker has been slowly more and more disappointing over the years. Which is upsetting cos I really wanted to get something from them. I just feel extra bad for their customers, cos everyone is a bit too afraid to say something cos if this maker decided to cancel them they'd lose a lot of money from the deposit and that's not right to leave people waiting then screw them over when they start saying something about it.
Any suggestions on what might be done to convince this maker to either 1. work better on commissions or 2. offer long waiting customers FULL refunds?? I'm not on their queue but I know of people who are and I've watched this maker and if I can I want to be of help to the people who are just waiting and waiting :C
I won't name the maker of course but if anyone wants to know who it is so you know not to commission them in the future feel free to note me! It just feels lame when you think about it, spending nearly 3k on something and watch as you get pushed back all the time when you could've had something from almost any other maker way faster. At the rate this maker has been going, if it's steady to how they've been working now, I estimate you won't get this suit you commissioned(3 years ago right now) for another 1.5-2 years. 1.5 if they actually work on commissions in order. 2 or more if they make a lot more pre-mades and push later batches ahead of you still.
I don't think this maker is a bad person and their skill and quality is outstanding. But the way they operate their queue and what gets worked on when and how fast, that's where the problem is at! :C
You commissioned them about 3 years ago.
There are some people on their queue who have been waiting longer than you, some 4 years or more!!
In the past few years since you got your slot, this maker has made a total of 9 pre-mades that they sold.
The pre-mades get done lightning fast from the rates you see the WIP pics posted
Commissions are worked on WAY out of order and randomly instead of making the next project in line start to finish like all other makers do. So you have NO idea who will get their suit next and when anyone will get their suit.
This maker you commissioned even makes random parts or pushes ahead projects that are in much later batches, people who paid their suits off AFTER you.
When a customer of this maker starts communicating to them publically about their suit it's as though this maker 'feels caught' or 'busted' for slacking on commissions and pushes them ahead and gets them done much faster. It's almost as if you, a customer who paid a ton of money and entrusted this costume maker to provide the service you paid for, it's almost as if you HAVE to bug this maker to work on your nearly 3k costume or else you will be waiting and waiting and waiting. Cos it seems your money just gets you the slot, but the service is not guarunteed. The maker works extremely slow on commissions unless they are bugged and you've seen at some point the maker flat out ignores communication with a concerned customer cos they don't wanna hear it from the customer(who is only asking about a progress update, not harassing the maker or anything) when really it's the maker's fault cos they're not that great at keeping up with their queue and communicating what's going on with their customers.
Here is a rough estimate of the maker's productivity the past three years since you got this slot(best I could count up):
As far as I can tell no suits were officially completed in the remainder of 2013.
2014: 11 commissions(1 head, 1 partial, 9 fulls) and 2 pre-made partials
2015: 8 commissions(2 heads, 3 partials, 3 fulls) and 4 pre-made partials
2016 so far: 5 commissions all fulls and 3 pe-made partials
At least 2 of the fulls recently completed were done quicker cos the customers had to pester the maker about them. 2 others were worked on mostly/partially in the previous year so only 3 fulls were made start to finish in this year so far. Not a lot of work has been done this year compared the past years and there's 25 more suits to make. Their productivity slowly drops as pre-mades become a more common thing. It's obvious after the past few years this maker started to favor and prioritize pre-mades and continues to push back people who have been waiting years, some even 4 or more years! Other people on this maker's queue have been contacted and they're just as frustrated or upset about how things are going.
I posted a journal about this maker before but seriously this maker keeps going at it. They posted a journal a bit ago saying they will work better basically but I've seen no improvement. The only GOOD thing this maker can do at this point is give their waiting, frustrated, or hopeless feeling customers some releif and offer those who have waiting a long time the opportunity to get full refunds cos this maker is at fault for this being such a long painful transaction for these poor people!! It's fun dishing out nearly 3k on a high quality animal costume, obviously their customers do not feel bad about that!! But what does leave a bad feeling is being pushed aside like the amount you paid means nothing cos your character isn't exciting or something. Or that your payment is so old it doesn't feel like providing better service for that payment is essential or necessary. That's just what I think might be what the maker feels or thinks after all I have observed.
I dunno this maker has been slowly more and more disappointing over the years. Which is upsetting cos I really wanted to get something from them. I just feel extra bad for their customers, cos everyone is a bit too afraid to say something cos if this maker decided to cancel them they'd lose a lot of money from the deposit and that's not right to leave people waiting then screw them over when they start saying something about it.
Any suggestions on what might be done to convince this maker to either 1. work better on commissions or 2. offer long waiting customers FULL refunds?? I'm not on their queue but I know of people who are and I've watched this maker and if I can I want to be of help to the people who are just waiting and waiting :C
I won't name the maker of course but if anyone wants to know who it is so you know not to commission them in the future feel free to note me! It just feels lame when you think about it, spending nearly 3k on something and watch as you get pushed back all the time when you could've had something from almost any other maker way faster. At the rate this maker has been going, if it's steady to how they've been working now, I estimate you won't get this suit you commissioned(3 years ago right now) for another 1.5-2 years. 1.5 if they actually work on commissions in order. 2 or more if they make a lot more pre-mades and push later batches ahead of you still.
I don't think this maker is a bad person and their skill and quality is outstanding. But the way they operate their queue and what gets worked on when and how fast, that's where the problem is at! :C
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I would begin by saying that you should start to contact the seller starting on at least a bi-monthly basis. Checking in and seeing if there is an approximate time slot where they will be working on your suit. Everyone does their ques differently. Some go start to finish, some it's based on how quickly its paid off, and others who have the freedom to do so will pick and choose based on which character they want to work on. Unfortunately the later does make a lot of customers anxious, but you can usually get a general sense of those makers at the beginning when you go through the TOSs and contracts. However, since it seems like this maker may be the latter, I would begin contacting them in a non-threatening or off putting way. It's really easy to set someone off when they have a huge que it seems. :/ after a few months if they haven't given you a solid date, I would recommend contacting them a little more frequently, but still being chill- "Hey it's me again. I was hoping to get an approximate date of when you would be able to work on my stuff" or what ever. Short and simple.
As for the pre-mades I can understand that, but to put them ahead of commissions who have been on the queue for 3-4+ years, get the pre-mades done lightning fast all at once(instead of work on the side and keep commissions the priority), and get commissions done in random parts out of order at a slower rate. It's very unbalanced and gets minimal of the most important work-the commissions- done. If the big queue is stressful the maker should consider allowing full refunds so they can downsize it and make more time for what they actually want to work on rather than make their customers feel unimportant and frustrated and leave them waiting for an unreasonably long time. D:
I wholly agree about the refunds, but it seems like more and more of the mid grade makers are taking on more than they realize when they are in need of funds and are unable to give refunds. It's a crappy way to do business especially when they can't keep up and take on more.
Make sure you let them know how you are feeling though. Especially the last part. It's unfair to you and the maker should realize what is going on and that you are extremely unhappy.
Those must be some seriously patient commissioners
Could you note me who the maker is?
How much money have they taken from you?
How long did they specify or lead you to believe the suit would take?
I would consult a lawyer.
If you could shoot me a note about the maker who is messing you around that'd be awesome.