Forums » Art & Creativity » Commission experiences?

From dreamclients/artists to people that are rude, unreliable or otherwise unpleasant, I'd love to hear people's stories.

If you're the artist, what are your best and worst client-experiences?
If you're the commissioner, what are your best and worst artist-experiences?

I feel a thread like this can be a good way to vent or praise, but also something we can learn from, wether it's because someone did everything right, or through a good old cautionary tale.
Maybe while you're at it, also share some things you'd like future artists/clients to know/understand.

I've never done drawn for a commission myself, but I have bought off of someone before.

Unfortunately, that experience has left me cautious, and I haven't bought another once since.

This was actually a couple months ago, but I commissioned for a full portrait of one of my characters with shading and a background, which cost me around $15 - $20 (can't exactly remember, it may have been slightly higher.).
This person seemed nice, and we befriended each other rather quickly. She showed me progress on the sketches, and the one-colour versions.

But a couple weeks later, and I hadn't heard anything from her. I tried messaging her but she never responded and then she blocked me for around a week. I spoke to one of the website owners and they said wait a little longer and see. After a month, she still hadn't replied. I gave up, and assumed she probably forgot about it and found me annoying. The next day, she had deleted her account.

I don't actually know whether it was a scam or not, but I'm pretty sure it was. I mean, if she had actually forgot she could've had the decency to scroll up through the conversation and reboot her memory.

I dunno.

Man, scammers really suck. I do commissions and once I never got paid for the commission but it was a long time ago and since then I started taking payment up front.