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Skin Commission waiting time.


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Not sure whether this fits here, but I thought I'd post it anyway as it's something I really need to get off my chest since it's been stewing for weeks.   Custom skin commissions.  Not the ones you ask for on resource sites, which people pick up for free out of the goodness of their own hearts. The ones you actually pay for. How long is really acceptable to have to wait when you've paid upfront? As I have been waiting since the end of January for work to be completed. And keep getting told 'we are working on it', but there are always excuse after excuse of why it still has not been done when I check in. Which, don't get me wrong, real life issues I completely understand and sympathize with. But somehow during all of this they still managed to find time to put out a new multi-sale skin for sale.  Should it not be customary that they finish/complete and honor the commissions people have already paid them for first, and clear them. Before working on other content?

 

Should I be worried?  Do I have a legitimate reason to be annoyed?

Thoughts?

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Yeah, when I do commissions, the commissions that I already have money for come before another theme that may or may not even sell, for sure. There's kind of a hierarchy there, and paid-for-commission is at the top. I guess they just don't work that way? It's possible they had inspiration for something else and figured they'd just do that first, but this long it definitely seems pretty shady.

 

I'd keep on them for sure, and be prepared to take action if they don't deliver. After three months I'd probably be starting that process already, honestly, getting my money back and taking my business elsewhere. I had a company lose me after only one month tbh. But to be frank, it sounds less like purposely-trying-to-screw-someone-over and more like scatterbrained-as-heck-with-no-sense-of-priorities. Either way, you're totally within your rights to withdraw from this one.

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I haven't done commissions but I've been friends with someone who has and has been the one dishing them out; I think it's fair to give an estimate and to give it about 2-3 months before getting your money back as mentioned in prior posts. I feel like status updates should be more ... common? When I'm just skinning and coding for my own site, I give updates to my own staff members so they know what to expect and if they don't like it, I can change it up real quick.

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The answer to this question largely depends on three things:

 

1. How many commissions does the artist have before yours?
2. How much are you asking for in the commission (just a skin, a skin and templates, fancy headers, etc)?
3. How long did they state it would take on their information page?

 

Now as someone who does skin commissions sometimes, there are several things that I already notice within your post that makes me cringe everytime someone comments on them. First and foremost, don't pay for the entire skin up front unless you've already worked with the person before. Deposits to secure your place make sense, but paying up front when you don't know much about the artist is silly. I know some require it, but that being said, what has been said before is true: skins that receive up front payment should be priority.

 

The big thing here for a lot of artists, I think, is they don't want to be without payment if someone flakes but the reality is: you don't have to give them the code or access to it until payment is received (I operate on screenshots and a deposit and then give 30 days to pay the balance with fair warning that it's nearly done. No payment = no skin).

 

I also have major issue with artists who don't communicate with the people they're working for. Even just a short email to say that something has come up or a check in once every two weeks or so goes a long way. I personally provide updates whenever I do something big (e.g. "the main colours are finished, here's a look at it") because it gives people a chance to comment on it before you go ahead and make things match, but that's largely just me.

Now, as for how long you should wait for a commission, it depends. Typically, it's wise to look for what the artist says are their lead times (mine, for example, are 6-8 weeks because I also have a full-time job outside of coding). It's typically not a good idea to bug an artist before their lead time is up because it just leads to frustration all around. That being said, don't jump on them right away either, give a few days after the lead time has passed to see if they send an update. If I say it'll be 6-8 weeks, then don't bug me right at 8 weeks because that's an estimation, but a couple of days after is fine.

 

If they don't state a lead time, 6-8 weeks is usually a good time to wait. Since you've been waiting 3 months from what you've said, that's well past the time that anyone should reasonably wait without feedback from the artist.

This, of course, changes based on what you want. If you're looking for a skin and templates then that is naturally going to take longer than just the skin colours. Similarly, if they have more commissions before you and they're not getting to you right away, there could be a delay. In the latter case, they should be communicating that, though, as their lead time should be counted from when they start coding not from when you commissioned the skin (again with considerations for paying up front).

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On 3/28/2021 at 4:04 AM, BlackPhoenix said:

Now as someone who does skin commissions sometimes, there are several things that I already notice within your post that makes me cringe everytime someone comments on them. First and foremost, don't pay for the entire skin up front unless you've already worked with the person before.

 

This was me as well, just cringing at this. I haven't done skin commissions, but I've done professional web design and someone asking for payment up front should make you extremely wary. I know some folks have probably been burned by clients skipping out on them, but as was said deposit + holding the code until paid in full should be enough. It sucks to not get paid the full amount, but you can always rebrand it and sell it to someone else if the client skips out.

 

I also agree with pretty much everything @BlackPhoenix said, particularly the checking in bit. Heck, I would check in with people when I was coding them themes for free. Professionals know that communicating with the client is super important, and also saves them time -- If you see something you don't like in an early stage, it can be changed at that time rather than having to dig back through the code at the end.

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