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Hi all, I've had some problems with a commission painter and am looking for people's advice on how best to move forward towards a resolution.

I first messaged the chap back in June or July last year, and he seemed legit and friendly. He had a Facebook page, website and eBay store, all with pictures of his work and testimonials. On eBay a handfull of people had winged about shipping times but in Australia, our postal service can be a bad joke at times, so that's expected.
I pushed ahead with my order, a Start Collecting Blood Angels box and a Rhino. The price was reasonable so I transfered the money, cost of models plus half the commission fee, to a bank account in his name, in Australia, all legit. The guy stayed in touch the whole time, and bought the models on the day promised. All good.

I instructed him on how I wanted the models assembled and that's where we hit the first problem. We were trading messages over Facebook up until my intructions on the loadout, which wasn't read for a few days. When the guy did read the message, he said he had assembled them a different way, saying I should have told him the loadout before he bought the models, which didn't sound right. Then he said me a picture of the tactical squad.

The tactical squad had been assembled with the Chapter symbol on the right hand pauldron (wrong) which was a mistake I doubt a commission painter could make, especially one who worked mostly with 40k. Despite him saying he built the loadout to match the box art, this was not true, and the Marines were all standing arms lowered, eyes forward, instead of aiming their bolters, the way they should be. Even the Heavy Flmaer guy was just staring forward! He offered to try and fix the models, but a few days later said it couldn't be done, so I said we would reduce the total amount owed by me for the Baal Predator, Rhino and Captain, and he said he would just put the Tactical Squad on eBay to recoup his costs. Annoying, but it sounded fair, and no extra cost to me.

After that I had no contact for a few weeks. In (I think) Septemeber we traded a few messages, where he said the rest of the commission was coming along slowly, because he had been sick recently. I said that was okay. I messaged him a few weeks later after hearing nothing, and have a few times since, but have had no response whatsoever. Now it's January and still nothing.

What's the best way to move forward with this? The guy won't answer any Facebook messages, so is it worth putting a public post on his page, or contacting my bank to try get the money back? Just looking for advice from people on how to find some resolution here. Honestly I'm not too worried, at this point if he contacted me saying the models were done and asked for the rest of the money I'd tell him to shove it. Having only paid half the commission plus cost of models I'm not out of pocket too much, just annoyed.
Cheers

I'd contact your bank.

I don't know about Australian rules for such things, but professionally I'm familiar with UK ones.

I'd start be searching for your equivalent of Which? or MoneySavingExpert. They should be able to give you a steer as to your rights regarding your bank.

Main trouble I can think of right now is that Bank Transfers tend to have less protection than say, Credit Card payments - but again that's from a purely UK perspective.

Or even better, contact The Australian Financial Ombudsman Service. Likely as not they can't get involved straight off the bat, but again they seem a likely place to find out where you stand, and what you can and can't expect.

Best of luck getting this sorted out

Awesome, thanks I wish I'd used Paypal, could have been much easier

PayPal does have some protections, but they tend to be more limited than a straight Credit Card payment, even if you paid via PayPal with a credit card.

In short? Most financial rules just haven't caught up to the Internet age!

diepotato47 wrote:
Hi all, I've had some problems with a commission painter and am looking for people's advice on how best to move forward towards a resolution.

I first messaged the chap back in June or July last year, and he seemed legit and friendly. He had a Facebook page, website and eBay store, all with pictures of his work and testimonials. On eBay a handfull of people had winged about shipping times but in Australia, our postal service can be a bad joke at times, so that's expected.
I pushed ahead with my order, a Start Collecting Blood Angels box and a Rhino. The price was reasonable so I transfered the money, cost of models plus half the commission fee, to a bank account in his name, in Australia, all legit. The guy stayed in touch the whole time, and bought the models on the day promised. All good.

I instructed him on how I wanted the models assembled and that's where we hit the first problem. We were trading messages over Facebook up until my intructions on the loadout, which wasn't read for a few days. When the guy did read the message, he said he had assembled them a different way, saying I should have told him the loadout before he bought the models, which didn't sound right. Then he said me a picture of the tactical squad.

The tactical squad had been assembled with the Chapter symbol on the right hand pauldron (wrong) which was a mistake I doubt a commission painter could make, especially one who worked mostly with 40k. Despite him saying he built the loadout to match the box art, this was not true, and the Marines were all standing arms lowered, eyes forward, instead of aiming their bolters, the way they should be. Even the Heavy Flmaer guy was just staring forward! He offered to try and fix the models, but a few days later said it couldn't be done, so I said we would reduce the total amount owed by me for the Baal Predator, Rhino and Captain, and he said he would just put the Tactical Squad on eBay to recoup his costs. Annoying, but it sounded fair, and no extra cost to me.

After that I had no contact for a few weeks. In (I think) Septemeber we traded a few messages, where he said the rest of the commission was coming along slowly, because he had been sick recently. I said that was okay. I messaged him a few weeks later after hearing nothing, and have a few times since, but have had no response whatsoever. Now it's January and still nothing.

What's the best way to move forward with this? The guy won't answer any Facebook messages, so is it worth putting a public post on his page, or contacting my bank to try get the money back? Just looking for advice from people on how to find some resolution here. Honestly I'm not too worried, at this point if he contacted me saying the models were done and asked for the rest of the money I'd tell him to shove it. Having only paid half the commission plus cost of models I'm not out of pocket too much, just annoyed.
Cheers

Unfortunately you've probably not got much recourse other than a small claims court to recover what you've paid. That may cost more than the amount you're out by though, even if said costs can be recovered at resoultion. Even then you may be chasing a straw man.

Evidence of your message chain may be enough to be considered a de-facto contract. Many places (myself included) will require that details be covered and confirmed in an email chain for this purpose.

This said, there shouldn't have been any payment or work started before basic details were covered. I'm not privy to the infomation exchanged so I can't say much past that.

If you're not going through court, name and shame (doing so before may be construed as a damaging act to the business and get you stung with a counter-suit). Regardless, this sort of thing isn't on, and it puts those of us in the commission business that work bloody hard for our money in a bad light.