Other payment methods or than paypal and venmo for commissions?

[EncryptedWriting]

Hello. I am not sure how well this fits here, but I know a bunch of artists here do commissions, so I am looking for a little insight.

Popping in a little edit to say that I am only now realizing how sketchy this is. I have screen shots of everything I've said and I have put my foot down firmly to stop everything until it is settled.

I am commissioning a particular artist for a short comic, but there seems be an issue with my payment not going through. I was on a long talk with paypal (over couple of days) and they said there was nothing wrong with my account, rather there was an issue with theirs. I explained this and we started to explore other method of payment.

I suggested Zelle which is the offical bank of america app or Venmo, but she said she doesnt have either of those (she's in france and I am in the US). She said she has a payoneer and I am willing to do that if necessary (though it is quite --- info needy). Are there any other avenues for payment than Paypal and Venmo? It would make my life a lot easier.

Additionally, I have a little bonus question if anyone can maybe help think this out? ^^''

The artist has gone ahead and started to sketch out the first episode, and while it looks great, I keep expressing not to move further until we can figure out payment. She is very persistent to keep going, but I am really worried we won't find a way for me to pay, and then I am in some uh - oh cause I can't pay her.

Y'all see what I am saying?

Is there any way I can approach this? She says we can think about it later but I rather think about it now so I can pay on time. Thank you for both!

[RedLenai]

How strange about Paypal not working when it's fairly easy.

The only thing I can imagine as I experienced it myself is if you both tried to pay as "friends and family", for certain accounts this option is not available and will in fact mark an error to the client. She should try to make a "Pay for Goods and Services" or "Generate an invoice".
In my case, I can accept payments this two ways, but not the first one, it throws an error to my clients and makes it unable for them to pay me if they choose "family and friends", as well, it is illegal to pay for services this way to avoid fees, not to mention it is very difficult for clients to make a refund if something bad happens.

Other method is if she creates a paypal.me link and then you can pay, it is also like a normal purchase.
Or doing a proper invoice and requesting the payment (Basically, you giving her your paypal email and let her do the recepit with the contents and specifications of the service/product bought.

Did she bother into asking Paypal why she is the one not being able to accept payments, because if I were her I would be desperate since that could also mean that I may be in trouble with other clients that are unable to pay me and to me it is so weird that she insists into working on a comic when you can't pay her and there seems to be no other viable method either.

Not to mention she doesn't have an alternative like CashApp, Western Union, or the other methods you mentioned, as well, according to what you wrote she doesn't even sound desperate either.
I don't want to jump into conclussions but I'll be careful, some scammer artists do these thing of building trust and that "oh no biggie!" situations but later on these cost a lot or they cancel you on social media with "BUHUU I WORKED HARD AND THEY DON'T WANT TO PAY MEEE!".

So yeah, Insist on NOT moving forward with the series and avoid sending her scripts or anything whatsoever, her persistence is weird, and I say it as an experienced artist that works full time making comics.
Again, I don't want to jump into conclussions but it is also common that... the usual artists that do this are either art thiefs.. tracers or just con artists in general.

[candiedcotton]

I agree on pretty much all fronts with @RedLenai. I've done commissions for people all over the world, as I'm sure many artists here have. Paypal is literally always an option. There are even prepaid card things you can buy (or something like that, I can't remember, but I had a customer in south Africa use one once).

The artist's behavior is pretty sketchy. It may be nothing, but it does send off some red flags for me and it's definitely unusual. If you said in writing to stop, keep a copy of that convo. Screenshots or whatever, with time stamps.

I've been in the business of art commissions for well over twenty years, and I've only seen this sort of behavior with scammers.

[EncryptedWriting]

This is lovely, thank you.

I have my receipts. It so odd cause it went through in my bank statements but she never received it (according to my app and her app). We tried the whole invoice thing and it still wasn't working. Like, my bank statements would get it but she wouldn't. I suggested an alternative paypal account but she hasn't really responded.

Her work is really good! But that's my biggest worry is we get really far into the project and it ends up that we still can't pay.

It's also so odd that she isn't the one worrying about paypal and being on hold with them for three hours and then constantly texting tech support for two straight days. Ik my paypal is fine cuz it works for other artists. But yeahhh ty all great advice.

[EncryptedWriting]

Adding in one of their replies with info blurred out. I sent them another message saying that we should basically stop for right now. Hope it brings more context. ;')

I also have SS of me insisting to pay through payoneer and idk how it works if I'm honest but I'm still willing to try.

[candiedcotton]

Does this artist have verifiable reviews from other buyers? Usually a credible artist will have a list of their reviews somewhere public, and people who have commissioned them will comment/vouch on their social media. If it's a supposedly experienced artist in commissions but there are no reviews, that's a massive red flag.

If she does have reviews, try and hit up one of them privately and see if they experienced the same issue, and how they resolved it.

[EncryptedWriting]

Oh! That's a great idea. They reached out to me about the project and we have a general budget. However, we dont have a specific per panel price cause I'll be doing some of the work. I don't see commissions on their page but they do have webtoon stuff posted.

I'm now noticing that this is very iffy. Ahhh thank you.

[darthmongoose]

This seems a little sketchy... Check if you definitely sent the money to the right email address on Paypal, and if you did, the artist should be talking to Paypal help about the failed payment, not telling you to find another way to send money. You can also try contacting Paypal yourself. They're generally pretty good to talk to when there are issues.

It's possible the artist isn't trying to scam you and it's a glitch, a mistake, or the artist isn't experienced at commissions and doesn't know they should contact Paypal, but... hmm.

[EncryptedWriting]

Yeah, we double checked the email. She is trying to contact paypal and I'm trying to see if there is another route we can go. It's really suspicious now that I think about it but I have put my foot down to stop anything else from proceeding.

Paypal staff was really great for me; they said my stuff was fine it was just hers. I suspect it might be a national thing where she doesn't have currency thing set up on her account (usd to euros). Anyway, this was super helpful.

[system]

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