FA+
Shop
About commissioner sniping
5 years ago
General
Commissioner sniping is the practice of targeting people that are commissioning other artists to convince them to commission you instead.
This same dynamic of facts has at this point happened two times in a row:
I get commissioned.
I show work in progress.
Commissioner shows work on progress to a third party modeler.
Third party modeler points out a huge number of flaws.
Commissioner bothers the crap out of me to apply those changes.
I get bothered and cancel the commission.
In one case out of two, the third party modeler got the money I had refunded. In the other case I was enforcing a strict "no refunds, no exceptions" policy after what had happened last time.
I'm going to be straight and clear here. This is shit and I want to have nothing to do with this. I'm no longer accepting commissions for the time being until i can figure out a way to defend myself against this.
This same dynamic of facts has at this point happened two times in a row:
I get commissioned.
I show work in progress.
Commissioner shows work on progress to a third party modeler.
Third party modeler points out a huge number of flaws.
Commissioner bothers the crap out of me to apply those changes.
I get bothered and cancel the commission.
In one case out of two, the third party modeler got the money I had refunded. In the other case I was enforcing a strict "no refunds, no exceptions" policy after what had happened last time.
I'm going to be straight and clear here. This is shit and I want to have nothing to do with this. I'm no longer accepting commissions for the time being until i can figure out a way to defend myself against this.
I seriously can't see how. Sorry it had happen to you :/
Other artists quickly told me what had happened so i'm led to believe this is somewhat common : /
Maybe refund but not 100% ? Like, when you start the work, you can only refund 75% and as soon as you show any wips, 50% can be refund and if they agree with the wips, then no refund or 25% refund until work is complete ? Some sort of system of the more you advance, the less you can refund.
And yeah decreasing refunds with work is what a lot of people seem to suggest anyways, read nakamura below.
My take on it is be neutral & equal to everyone. Explain everything with the why you do it and always be open for any question they may have. Take longer but it show the honesty.
Better than losing both face and money tough.
it's a good thing to have in a contract or tos
I don't understand exactly.
"Maybe refund but not 100% ? Like, when you start the work, you can only refund 75% and as soon as you show any wips, 50% can be refund and if they agree with the wips, then no refund or 25% refund until work is complete ? Some sort of system of the more you advance, the less you can refund. "
But FA is weird how it batches reply chains.
Thanks.
I know it may be difficult in these times and with your current situation, stay strong
You need to understand that you're running a business. And a second pair of eyes can often discover things that the original commissioner may have overlooked in their haste. This isn't a bad thing, but merely a good tactic to avoid overlooking mistakes.
Yes, people I suppose could do that, but at the end of the day that's not something you can stop. Nor should you.
What happened here was that the guy was asking for a 400-500$ model while only having paid 100$, there is only so much I can do for that price.
I do not price higher to avoid entering in direct competition with people more famous than me. Because between me and mr superduperfamous, mrdupersuperfamous would get the comm and not me.
Either way the animation experiment still proven that even if I can get a lot of love for high quality work, people still aren't willing to pay. Pricing higher still wouldn't solve this problem, not entirely.
You need to be professional about it. If you're getting people looking at your works and deciding halfway through that they don't want to continue? Set countermeasures, sure. Early cancellation costs, and the like.
However, if you cancel the project entirely based upon your own perceptions and emotional instability, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
As someone in this line of business, one needs to have a thicker skin. In addition to a keen business sense, you can use that to get people whom you'd hate to pay you money.
Now, I'm not saying it's easy, but I -am- saying that if you master that, you can have a crap ton less issue.
Also kaiser we are not friends and I do not appreciate being called "emotionally unstable". You don't know me nor care about me, neither do I, so keep such comments to yourself.
For the most part, I just refer to my friends to get some help.