Foul commission job

[panzercreations]

Some of you may remember the Trumpeter F105 I was working on..and had decided to sell unfinished. Well, that turned into a commission job, the buyer wanted me to finish it for a larger sum. I was cool with that, I do commissions on armor all the time. ..no problem. I asked for a small portion of deposit, usual deal. ok..that was 1 month ago. This week, I got an email from him asking how I was going to correct the rudder issue on the kit.. that was 3 days ago. Busy work week for me, so I waited until this weekend to check it out, see what I could do (without buying the OOP CE set) But since I let 3 days go by without responding..he opens a dispute on the down payment on Paypal...putting a $400 negative balance on me! what the hell! ? 3 days and this.... which really burns me up just in principal.. Ive been doing comm jobs for nearly 10 years now..never had this happen...and this kind of BS is really uncalled for . I think it'll do it for me on taking comms.. Im done! Most people have been fairly pleasant to work for, but then comes along the hard cases that want a 1/1 real deal downscaled to sit on their shelf for dimes and pennies. can you tell Im irritated yet? The buyer is Pieter Roel Bakels of the Netherlands

Edited April 24, 2010 by panzercreations

[SonyKen]

Hey, man.

That all sounds very interesting. All the commission work that I do, I make sure that I have a signed or agreed upon electronically contract before any money is changed hands. Did you have such a contract? Most of the contracts that I have had has basically agreed upon by both parties of how much detail will be put into the model, stage of construction milstones (on long projects) and completion dates. I also have a 100% satisfaction guarentee clause that if the models is return to me in the same condition as I shipoped it then all monies would be returned. This clause does two things. It assures the customer that he/she will be satisfied, and if the customer finds something about the model he absolutely can't "live with", it forces him to at least invest in shipping costs back to me. This clause tends to cut down on the "nit picking". They will usually reside to the fact that "OK, I wll live with it". It also forces me to NOT spend the money until I have been assured by the customer is fully satisfied. Hope this helps!

Best Regards,

Ken Bailey

(SonyKen)

POST EDITED: I don't think at this point this classifies as a "Bad Trader". You are still very early in the PayPal process. Cheers!

Edited April 24, 2010 by SonyKen

[panzercreations]

hey Ken..thats a good plan. Though Ive been doing comms for nearly 10 years now (armor and figures) and have never had issues like this. Never considered a physical contract..especially over seas. Nit pickers are fine,and just part of the business, but ,considering the time allowed for the project, to cancel the whole deal just because of a lack of email response over just a few days? I think in this case, in dealing with Paypal, the contract wouldnt have done any good. I called Paypal this morning, all they want to see is a tracking number showing its delivery. so be it. I packaged up the model and all the AM stuff, and mailed it out.. the model was already half way built, and Im certainly taking a loss, but consider it a done deal..the deposit covering the kit cost and AM parts mostly..only a small amount for the work. I figure its best to take the loss and pease the Paypal gods...

[Hundriver]

Some of you may remember the Trumpeter F105 I was working on..and had decided to sell unfinished. Well, that turned into a commission job, the buyer wanted me to finish it for a larger sum. I was cool with that, I do commissions on armor all the time. ..no problem. I asked for a small portion of deposit, usual deal. ok..that was 1 month ago. This week, I got an email from him asking how I was going to correct the rudder issue on the kit.. that was 3 days ago. Busy work week for me, so I waited until this weekend to check it out, see what I could do (without buying the OOP CE set) But since I let 3 days go by without responding..he opens a dispute on the down payment on Paypal...putting a $400 negative balance on me! what the hell! ? 3 days and this.... which really burns me up just in principal.. Ive been doing comm jobs for nearly 10 years now..never had this happen...and this kind of BS is really uncalled for . I think it'll do it for me on taking comms.. Im done! Most people have been fairly pleasant to work for, but then comes along the hard cases that want a 1/1 real deal downscaled to sit on their shelf for dimes and pennies. can you tell Im irritated yet? The buyer is Pieter Roel Bakels of the Netherlands

I know it must be frustrating to do commission work. I hate just doing a favor for a friend. It usually turns into a "lifetime repair job" when he or his family damages the finished project. But, also as a frustrated "customer," I have a suggestion or two in addition to SonyKen's. I notice that you say that you had a "Busy work week for me, so I waited until this weekend to check it out." Perhaps some of this could have been avoided if you had simply replied to the buyer's email with that very same sentence. Most people understand if you are doing this in addition to a primary job. However, once money has changed hands and the customer perceives no response to the simplest query, a sense of helplessness develops. One feels that he's been "taken." I think Ken's idea of agreed upon milestones and a timeline is fantastic. That gets the buyer off your back, and also would have the effect of forcing you to be more realistic in completion projections, and perhaps give you more time to enjoy the project as well. I salute your willingness to do commission work. I have a friend who does it for a living. I don't know how, but he does it.

Joe Vincent

IPMS*Memphis