Refunds day

[bladespark]

Well, I decided to ask the artist to send me a refund and I'd send her back the guardian dragon. I just don't want it. I could try and repair it, but it would never be the same, and I'd always know it was broken. It's a piece I got to be symbolic, and being symbolically broken isn't good! Just having it here in that condition is kind of distressing, honestly.

And while I was at it, I've asked for a refund on my lightsaber. I can hear most of you going "Lightsaber? What lightsaber?" Well, this lightsaber. Notice the date on that post. I ordered said saber only a few days later. Paid half my money, got put on a long but not impossible waiting list. I expected to wait months. I looked at the fifty or so people in front of me, I noticed that most had 1-2 days work time listed by their projects. I figured there would be days of down time too, heaven knows I do that, and so I thought maybe six months, maybe nine, a year tops....

Yeah, no. It's been a year and then some, and I'm only just barely halfway up the list. The maybe six months worth of list has taken well over a year to get halfway through. I really do not want to wait another whole year for this thing. Meh.

So, refund request. Heaven knows if I'll get it. Heaven knows if I'll get refunded on my dragon either, but I can hope.

Curse business people who can't run a business!!!!!!! It's great that you want to make money with your art, I totally understand! And I know that things go wrong, and stuff happens, and it doesn't all work out as planned, but if you're shipping something, and you've broken pretty much every shipment ever, and then somebody is concerned, and you assure them that you're changing your methods and it will be fine, and then you don't change your methods and send it the same old way, well... not good business! And when you take enough pre-orders for something to make up THREE YEARS worth of waiting list (there are at least as many people after me as before me on the list) that's not good business either! You cut yourself off before you get that far into the hole, or else you give people realistic wait time estimates!

Though if I do get a refund without complaint, then both of these people will have done the right thing, and I'd happily endorse them as people to go to. We're human beings, we people who sell art. We make up. It's making the mistakes right when asked to that makes the difference. A good business isn't one that never screws up, that's not even possible. A good business is one that tries their best to fix it when they screw up.

So I guess we'll see...

Comments

[jtbeckett.livejournal.com]

:-( yeah... there's no real reason for someone to change their business practices if no one ever expresses their dissatisfaction.

[rmoorcat.livejournal.com]

hmmm, I bet I could get that thing built for ya. I know someone here who makes them "funtional" like the collectible ones (lights n sound) and that body doesnt look that hard to do...I have a machinest on my staff. email me and Ill pass around the pic and see what I can do here.

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Bravo. You are right.

I get tired of some of the excuses I hear from "artists" about why they can't deliver on time. If this is one's business then run it like one. If it is a side-line hobby then inform the consumer.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

That's cool of you. I don't really have much budget to throw at it just now, especially if I don't end up getting a refund though. But I'll e-mail you anyhow. Thanks!

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Indeed. *nods* Even as a hobby, if you've taken somebody's money, you owe them at least a certain bare minimum effort.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

It's really sad that the dragon broke.. it's just a loss for every one involved :/ You say that the artist is known for breaking shipments? They've made so many, I'd have thought they'd have it all figure out by now.

I also want to ask if you have any baby bait ponies for sale (I'd look through the list but I don't know names). Anything around 3 inch tall and smaller but with no embedded horns/wings (well, horns might be okay).

If not, I'll just go back to checking ebay now and again.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Here a photo of my really baity ones: http://bladespark.topcities.com/P1000983.jpg And here's one of my not-really baity but not particularly valuable ones: http://bladespark.topcities.com/P1000986.jpg

As for the shipment problems... on a thread about this artist, at least one person had had a whole batch of figures all come shattered, and I know somebody else got a broken one before mine was ever shipped, so she was very well aware there were problems. Her friend told me that the problems were fixed though, BEFORE my dragon was sent. And then it and a couple of other things sent about the same time all came broken, and all came packed pretty much the same way. She NOW says that she's changed, and is shipping differently, but that doesn't really do me any good, if it's true, and I'm not sure it is, because I was told it was fixed earlier, and it wasn't, so why should I believe it's fixed now? If she refunds me, I'll be satisfied, if not exactly happy, but even then I probably wouldn't be buying from her again.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

http://bladespark.topcities.com/P1000983.jpg

I'm interested in the little light blue one. Lemme know how much you want with shipping to Canada.

Heh, I sent one of my heads double boxed with styrofoam and waffled cardboard between the boxes and the item itself wrapped and taped in bubble wrap with extra packing materials in every corner so it didn't shift. I can't imagine shipping one of those delicate things, as I'd be too paranoid it would break.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Call it $2 shipped.

[beetlecat.livejournal.com]

works for me. I'll go paypal right now.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

I don't want to intrude on your journal and your venting but I just wanted to say that it's really untrue and unfair to say "and you've broken pretty much every shipment ever," because you do not know that, you just have the testimony of a handful of people on a small forum mention they received broken sculptures and that does not represent the rest of the buyers who have received their creatures just fine. As I said, you guys happened to be a group of people I posted a link to her website because I was excited and wanted to share my friend's art with people I just knew would love it. Neither of us realized how much of an issue packing would be until after the fact, so it's my fault that the forum users were offered a chance to have first dibs but also act as first participants in an attempt to expand her customer audience.

I'm not going to rehash anything with you that I've already brought up elsewhere but please try to not make broad-stroke statements when you have no evidence to back up a claim like that. It's a damaging claim that should not be made without hard evidence, regardless of how hurt or frustrated you are about the situation.

I know I sound unsympathetic to your issue and I'm really not, but you are making public statements about someone else's livelihood and I think you can appreciate as a selling artist yourself what you would not like people to say about you if they had a problem with your products.

I really appreciate your last paragraph there, because it's very true and I know it's hard when you think people are trying to screw you over. And I'm really sorry if my presence here offends *bow*

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

Sorry to intrude, but I wanted to point out that that the artist has only recently started selling online, though she has had years of selling through conventions and in person. Packing methods that work perfectly for conventions don't seem to work so great with the current postal system and the artist (and me, indirectly, as her friend and interested party to getting her sorted out) are making effort to change over from old methods to new. But unfortunately, a large number of sculptures were sold at the same time and have been arriving to their buyers in a staggered time arrival a noticable number arrived with minor to major breaks, due to the old packing method. That staggering has given the impression that the artist was ignoring feedback and using the old method after complaints were made. A simple yet understandable misunderstanding. Some have been sent back to the artist to be repaired, some are totally fixable by the buyer, and the artist tries to pick a solution that is economical and logical for both parties.

Man I sound like a PR machine, I should get paid for this LOL

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

"It's hard when you think people are trying to screw you over."

Perhaps before you get on my case for making broad, sweeping statements unsupported by fact, you should consider avoiding such statements yourself.

I have NEVER said or implied that El was trying to screw me over, or defraud me or any such thing. In fact, honestly, if YOU had not said outright that she would fix anything that broke, I might not have been so shocked when she didn't.

I do not think she's trying to screw me over. I think the only person that's getting screwed over is El herself.

I have stated the facts as I know them. I cannot name one single person who has said they've gotten a piece from her intact. Every single comment regarding shipments received from her has mentioned something breaking, large or small. I have said, several times, that I understand and sympathize. I know it's hard. All the same, she used a method that she KNEW, before she used it, had resulted in broken items. And she used it anyhow. I hope she will be willing to make that right.

And no you presence doesn't "offend" but I am VERY upset, so if you don't want to argue, you're probably better off just letting me deal with El directly.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Nope. Sorry. Go look at that Windstone forum thread again. "Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:11 pm" That's when Arlla posted that she'd gotten a package of broken pieces.

"Wed Oct 24, 2007 8:03 pm" The date of your post assuring me she'd changed her methods.

"Wed Nov 07, 2007 10:01 pm" The date of my getting finished photos, BEFORE she shipped the dragon.

She knew it wasn't working, she did it again anyhow. Now who's distorting what happened?

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, that statement was supposed to be sympathetic, I wasn't trying to make an accusation. I got the mistaken impression that you felt that El was trying to get out of helping you out.

You are right, I should have said that she does her best to fix broken creatures within reason. By saying she'd fix anything, I set up an unrealistic expectation that was not my promise to make, so please do not hold El accountable for my mistakes. That was my bad choice in wording. It does nothing to address the fact that people do often try to take advantage of her good nature and her policy did use to be more along the lines of she'd fix anything but now due to people being unrealistic (not refering to you, before any of this) with their fixing requests and expectations, it has to change for purely practical reasons.

She made a mistake with your creature, I'm not disputing that. But you can't possible be in contact with every single person who has bought a creature from her online, they are not all from that forum. Most of them aren't even aware of the forum, so how could they post to say anything on the matter? That's all I'm saying.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well what I'm saying is that this is none of your business. Let El handle her own customers. I was perfectly calm about this. Sad, but calm, before you butted yourself in and tried to tell me that I'm in the wrong.

You making excuses for her is making it worse. I'm discussing what will be done with HER and it has nothing AT ALL to do with you.

Get out of my journal. I said I didn't want to talk to you about this, I wanted to deal with El herself, on the forums. You should have respected my feelings instead of following here here, to MY space. If you comment again, I'll be banning you. We're done talking.

[sunhawk.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry if I was unclear, but there is a window of a few weeks going on where things were shipped out before El had found a new method to pack with. In your case, I know she was working on that dragon for weeks so I'm not sure if that had something to do with it. I've watched her test boxes for flippability and breakage, so I don't think it was an attempt to purposely mispack but rather just plain bad luck. Even with the best packing methods, sometimes things just go wrong.

I'm not trying to distort anything, I am just trying to explain a delay that without context I'm sure seems really odd.

[jordanis.livejournal.com]

Executive summary: you are a nosy bitch. Please graduate from high school clique-style thinking before attempting to interact with the adults.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

hey....

in that second pic you linked to....

...if you still have the pink and blue gal in the bottom corner. i wouldnt mind taking her off your paws. >.>

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

You know what? This is a pattern with you. I'm banning you anyhow. I really do not like it that you couldn't respect the fact that I said I was through discussing this. Pursuing a conversation when somebody replies to you is one thing. Disregarding their express wishes and invading their personal space is something else. This has happened before with you, and I do not want to have it happen again.

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Pink and blue? Firefly?

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

yeah yeah ^-^ i dont have her <3

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, you're just barely too late for me to throw her into the package with everybody else, but if you've got $3, I can stuff her into an envelope and send her along on Monday.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

well, it may be a bit. ive just checked my bank account and it made me die inside a little bit. XD i literally have $8 to my name. ill check with Psyko XD

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Ouch!

Well... nobody else seems interested, so I'll just hold onto her for you. I'm sure eventually you'll be able to get her. Or maybe I'll send her to you for Christmas. *grins*

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

you neednt send her for christmas ^-^ i can pay, itll just be a bit. *hugs*

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Well, I intend to send you something! I have no idea what. Three bucks worth of pony isn't exactly extravagant, really.

[harliquinnraver.livejournal.com]

i certainly dont expect anything extravagant. i honestly dont expect anyone to send me anything. but its incredibly sweet when they do. ^-^ i need to organize myself a bit. i have loads of stuff to send out.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

*sigh* it's sad that it doesn't take a great business brain to figure this stuff out. It doesn't take a genius to research appropriate packaging. doubly so when you KNOW your packagaing is flawed. It doesn't take a genius to figure out how much you can produce in how much time and not to overcommit (or at least, not to overcommit that badly)