QUESTION: How often should be the ethical custom 'follow up'?!

[LoneWolf]

..because I have a boardie who follows up his custom headsculpt every friggin' day even if I do my best to provide updates every week, or even every 3-4 days, on the progress of my local sculptor.

At the start, before initial payment was sent, it was established that the sculptor is still finishing a bulk order and which he is down to just two (2) heads to be cast & painted (from members who paid ahead of him) before he starts working on his sculpt.

How often should be the ethical custom 'follow up' PM/email/Visitor message? I feel like the person is doing this on purpose to annoy me, or simply disrespecting my request to just email me instead of PM since I'm trying to manage my PM count (almost 100) as I keep a lot of PM-trails for unfinished transactions.

Is it worth the trouble to push through with this if he does not cooperate, or should I just talk the sculptor into refunding the money to the buyer, since only half was paid to start the sculpt and the sculpting will only be started probably this week?
Your feedback will be greatly appreciated. Thank you, dear Sideshow boardies.

 

[galactiboy]

Tell him to leave you alone (assuming you are holding up your end of the deal) or offer to refund the money. I imagine daily PMs would make any kind of profit seem like it was not worth it.

As for how often should people contact you, I have no idea... but I'd say even once a week is a bit excessive.

 

[MarfMaster]

If a specific time frame is given, I always wait until a few days after said time frame to follow up. If I'm told "soon" I don't go beyond once a week. The only exceptions are when I have a suggestion or questions beyond "is it done yet?"

 

[TheObsoleteMan]

Like MarfMaster said, if a time frame is given, you wait til that time is up before you start sending pm's asking for updates. After that, I'd say once every couple of weeks. Every day is ridiculous, especially if you're providing him with weekly updates. I'd refund that dude's money and tell him to beat it.

 

[2000man]

Every two weeks is reasonable, pending of course what the time frame was given. There is no reason to contact every day.

 

[King Darkness]

Tell him your wife is pregnant/you're busy at work/you lost your job/russians spammed your email/russian spammed your wife/bears ate your homework/bears ate your wife/your wife ate a russian bear.....ect ect ect.

 

[die]

The climate has definitely changed here over the years. With alot of the getting swamped, biting off more than you can chew, love of money, slacking off and sometimes just straight-up ripping off that has happened on the board with custom works in general, it's just got most people paranoid and cynical.

It's understandable....to a point.

I think some people have taken advantage of the general patience and understanding that has always existed here at SSF. It's not very fair for the people who are giving 110% to do their very best to make customers happy, but hey, it is what it is, you know.

I've just made it a point to never sell anything that I can't ship out right away.

 

[LoneWolf]

Thank you for your feedback, some of them are very heplful.

I hope all newcomer artists, who have excellent potential, do not get compared to douchebags who rip people off. My sculptor has delivered both in quality & quantity so far, and should not be judged merely because he is backed up by 4 projects.
He is already starting 1 out of that 4, and we have stopped taking projects as of now.

Not everyone is out to steal people's money. The lack of trust is understandable, but to the point of judging someone - judging him guilty before proven innocent - is unfair.

Again, the sculptor only asked 50% of the payment to buy materials and the like.. Not 100% and run away like the excellent robbers here.

 

[Skiman]

I've had this problem, for me I would refund the buyer. You both verbally or PM electronically agreed on a certain time frame. If you were to give him a specific date and are positively sure to hit that date and then a time period has come to where he hasn't heard back from you with a status then I can see his point.

That's the case I have with a lot of new clients that come into the custom area without knowing what most turn around times are on projects, etc.... Especially full figures and if you are sculpting something from scratch or tailoring from scratch is a whole nother level (if that's the case I always quote quarters or time frame of the year) if they are that antsy then they will hold off and wait for the right time or pay whatever is agreed and wait patiently knowing the agreements of the verbal/written contract between the two parties.

Some others are just really excited and all I can do is to insure them that as a artist you would like to take your time with a sculpt to try and perfect and come out with the best product possible that is capable of your skill. Most can respect this and should respect this, especially if it's a from the ground up custom.

Bashes, weathering, painting I can see taking less time but it all depends on the agreement and time frame of what the artist has on their plate, so it's best to be upfront with the client as well so they don't get the misunderstanding of how soon "really means" in the aspect of time or time frames.

If you've giving numerous updates and the client can see that progress is indeed being made, I think you are in the right and the constant nagging can come across as annoying and it's best to just refund the money because the expectations of art to be accomplish in a certain time frame is unequal between the seller and buyer.

 

[LoneWolf]

^^Thanks for the feedback, Ski! I will have a talk with my sculptor and share this feedback of yours.

I'm glad there are still people like you, who take time to give sensible & valuable feedback.. There are a lot of people here who are stupid enough to waste their time typing up long posts, but their posts really count for nothing because they are not helpful, irrelevant and unnecessary.