I want to start off by saying I don't really want to write this, but I feel like I have no choice. I hired deathklok, who formally went by nurgleboy77 on December 7th to paint a number of models for me. I paid him, and over the course of the last two months gave him several more models. The total ended up being two squads of 7, a vindicator, touch up of a squad of terminators, a shrike model, a dreadnought, several other models to have their faces painted up, several landspeeders (most just to be touched up), and six rhino variants to be touched up. In short, it has cost me 1,948 dollars for his painting service.To date all he has had to show for the last 70 days is what has been posted on this website, and several of those models were already painted before he got them!
Regardless, I have found this unacceptable and have as recently as three weeks ago asked him to give me weekly updates, as I was unhappy with the progress of the project and still am. He has since decided to ignore my requests and inquiries for the most part. Finally I had enough and told him I wanted him to send me back the models and refund me what he hadn't painted or I would take legal action, I still got no response. It wasn't until I finally set up a dispute on paypal that he contacted me asking me to resolve the disputes. He also gave me his phone number, saying that if I got this upset again to please call him. I called last week and of course when I spoke to him he promised me an update (that was last week, still no update, and it's Friday of the next week). He made it seem like the reason that he had not made any progress on my commission was that he had been busy, he also sited that he had received an even larger commission and that now apparently took precedence. I had given him my commission first, I feel that mine should be completed first, regardless of the order it was received, or the amount of money involved.
I also do not like being ignored, you'd think for 2 grand that I would get what I wanted in terms of service and communication at the very least. I have done nothing but praise his painting skill positively on the site so far, but I feel like he has abused me as a customer. He ignores my emails, and as of today has ignored my calls. Heck, I have even messaged him using this site, as he is a regular poster here, but still I get no reply or response. You'd think he could at least listen to his client's requests instead of ignoring my emails for almost a month. So I am writing this as a warning to other potential customers, he advertises that commissions are welcome on this site. I don't want this to happen to other hobbyists like myself, who enjoy the hobby but can't paint that well. I sent him a copy of this before posting it so he could maybe respond to my concerns, he had replied with an apology and the promise of a post (again two weeks ago now) but has since gone back to ignoring me and not delivering on his promises.
I welcome his response and any others that may have concerns and would ask that this website kindly ask him to remove his painting service advertisement in his profile if this is not resolved. I will gladly forward all of my communications I have had with him to current clients so they can see what has happened to me. I don't even trust him not to delete this post, and if that happens I will post this elsewhere with a warning. I am seriously considering reporting him to the better business bureau, and have called him asking him to refund me for the painting services on the models he has yet to paint, and also to send me the models he has painted and has not painted. Again he has had 70 some days for this commission and has had infrequent communication with me, but otherwise from what he has shown on the website he is a good painter. He has told me he is not trying to con or scam me, but at this point that is EXACTLLY how I feel. Hopefully this situation is resolved and i get my money back.
The straw that broke the camel's back was tonight. I had called him tonight twice, after seeing him online twice during the evening for more then a half hour each time. I had sent him a message asking him if it was ok to call, to which I got no response. This is after I called earlier in the afternoon today requesting he call me back, which is after a month of being ignored. I cannot afford to part with 2,000 dollars and not have what I payed for, it is extremely upsetting and frustrating, as well as infuriating to be toyed with like this.