I've never taken on commissions or any kind of work of this nature, but I think I would attempt to return the money, if possible, to include a message citing that you've been unable to reach them so you're stopping their commission and refunding them. If they've made it so you can't return the payment, for some odd reason...well tough break for them?

That former issue is particularly difficult though, because it sounds like you weren't even able to find a way to issue a refund if you need to. In both cases, I would document the communication breakdowns, screencapture the correspondences, system messages showing you've been blocked, etc. and include dates where possible in case they try to open a case via Paypal or where ever against you.

The later actually told me to keep the money and they left. I took a screenshot of it.

In case of the former, if you couldn't return the money, you could just settle on doing something for free for them, should they ever return. In case of the later... Well, yeah, document everything, like ConnorCat said. If they want you to keep the money and backed out of the commission then that's their decision. Just make sure you have it all documented.

Yes, I have a screenshot of it

Es una situacion dificil de responder, pero si ha pasado mucho tiempo creo que deberias dejar esos proyectos por muerto pero conservar el trabajo, al menos hasta re-econtrarte con esas personas

Y en este caso, ... si no aparecen no deberias continuarlo =/ ha pasado bastante tiempo y en todo negocio está escrito que si te pagan algo y ya no aparecen ya, no deberian reclamar nada, obviamente si en caso que les haya pasado algo extremo es cuestion de hablarlo.. pero no deberias preocuparte

I'd say set the status "on hold" like the previous commenters said. But additionally to that, have the work status displayed somewhere publically with dates and explanation like "waiting for approval"/"commissioner poofed" or something. That way you'll avoid being unable to defend your case if you get accused in the future.

Good point!

Sounds very reasonable!

IDK, the one from two years ago, I'd definitely cancel. And I personally would cancel the other one, or at least shelf your current progress in case they decide to come back. It might be a good idea to get rough sketches and/or story boards (for comics) done before accepting payment, that way you can at least finish if they ditch you.

I used to do that until I myself got scammed... x'D They'd run with the sketch and block me.

Oof, you have a point.

I'd probably suggest the same like others have already. Get as many proofes that this is not your fault and that you did your best to contact the others. Setting a fix time after which you'd definitely cancel the submissions after the last contact would also make it transparent and equal to future cases even if I do hope such thing won't happen again.

If there's going to be a line in the ToS I'd have it along the lines of:

Commissioner must ensure that I know where and how to get in touch with them - if points of contact change it is the commissioner's responsibility to let the artist know. If the artist attempts to contact the commissioner and there is no return communication all commission work with that client will be put on indefinite hold regardless of payment until contact is re-established.

That's a rough draft but I think it covers a myriad of eventualities about commissioners suddenly becoming difficult to contact.

In terms of the two specific examples you're talking about here it feels like you're well covered in terms of actions taken and other advice in the comments here.

I like your idea!

If they paid you using paypal, you can try contacting them using the email address that was associated with their paypal.
Most people, even if they leave a website such as FA, do not change their paypal emails, so they should be able to be contacted that way.

If they don't respond via email over I would say a 72 hour time span, I'd say any progress would be either frozen but if they block on emails then scrap.

Like a few others have said, you should make sure you have enough proof to show it is not your fault, just in case they mysteriously show back up.
Other than that I would probably drop the projects and remove them from your queue until they respond (otherwise your queue could slowly fill with projects that will never be finished).
And yeah, adding something to your TOS can also help to cover your butt in cases like this.

Another interesting thought if you don't want all your hard work to be completely for naught, is you could always post the unfinished pieces in Scraps.

Yep! Thankfully I made sure to take a screenshot in case anyone asks. I could potentially drop the pictures in scraps, maybe.

o-oh~! oh was that me? :o

return the money if possible, but you also worked so hard on the images, i suggest posting it in your scraps so that work doesn't go to waste. It's no longer the commissioners since they chose to cut contact with you so it's up to you for what you want to do with your artwork.

i would put these projects on hold, don't completely scrape them, but just put them away for later if the client ever contact you again. don't continue with them because that would just be a waste of your time. for the person that hasn't contacted you in 2 years, i would think the person as ether moved in a place without internet or most likely dead. for the second person, if they already paid you and you already starting working on their commission, it's kind of their lose. that money is yours unless they ask for a refund. if they never ask for a refund then you have the right to whatever you want with the money. also it would be good to get as much proof as possible that either cases were not your fault in case you run into problems with paypal.

I assume this did happen to you before? o:

well, not exactly like your situation, but very similar, i once at this client that didn't respond for weeks during a commission and like i said, when they didn't respond i would not work on their commission because it would a waste of time to finish the commission only for the person to respond back with changes and fixes.

Ah I feel you. I would be pretty annoyed if that happened

.......thats new

Don't worry, it won't be the only thing :D

Im'a have to step this one out as it's out of my area of expertise. I think a lot of people here have good ideas tho *sucks on thumb*

I'd just keep the current project files backed up on a hard drive somewhere, but definitely update your ToS to say that if you vanish after paying for a certain amount of time, it will be assumed that they don't want your services anymore and the projects will be discontinued.

Perhaps you should add a line about not giving refunds if the person disappears and you are left unable to communicate with them to finish the project. Communication is so important for a project.