I need help with a scamming...

[Psycho Lee]

There should be an easier way to do the money thing, so the person doesn't get the money until you get your art, instead of pre-paying for something that may never get finished.  

[Garek Maxwell]

But then you have the problem where people take advantage of the artist in that the artist does all the work but never gets paid. This is often why many artists want either the entire payment upfront, or an installment for the sketch plus more to finish it from there.

There's not a whole lot that could be done to fix this really... Unless you wrote out a contract with the artist every time you commissioned them, and the contract contained everyones contact information so that one could in turn sue the other party... But frankly, the court case would probably cost more than most commissions anyway, even if it was in small claims and had no lawyer.  

[Rainey_angel81]

Psycho Lee

There should be an easier way to do the money thing, so the person doesn't get the money until you get your art, instead of pre-paying for something that may never get finished.

you can do half now/half later. or get a heavily watermarked image before sending payment  

[Kakarotto-san]

Garek Maxwell

But then you have the problem where people take advantage of the artist in that the artist does all the work but never gets paid. This is often why many artists want either the entire payment upfront, or an installment for the sketch plus more to finish it from there.

I've had that happen to myself several times. And recently one of my friends, PandaJenn, just got taken advantage of by someone because of that..She ended up losing a good chunk of change which was money that would have helped pay off her rent. :/

Yes, this forces a lot of us to ask for money upfront because of trust issues..:/  

[Sadinda]

I've onlyhad a handful of problems with artists that didn't follow through. No biggie though. About 95% of them are really good about getting the work doen and those that aren't, apologize and return it or I can't contact them.
I don't care enough to make a big deal out of it, unless I paid over a certain amount for it