PLEASE BE ADVISED, OUR COMMISSION PROCESS HAS SLIGHTLY CHANGED. SEE THE LATEST UPDATE HERE: https://about.furrynetwork.com/commissions/

 

We are excited for you to sell commissions through Furry Network! The system has been setup to guide you and potential buyers through the process. To help, we have created this guide that shows the various steps and choices that can be made with the commission tool. We also have information about what to do if, for one reason or another, things go wrong with commissions.

Opening for Commissions

Before opening for commissions, be sure the email associated with your Furry Network account is the same one used for your PayPal account. If it is not, you may change it under Account Settings. Payments will be made automatically using that email address.

Testing Period

During testing, to open for commissions, please contact the community manager. When your account has been opened for commissions, your profile will become visible under the Community tab sorted by “Open for Commissions.”

Please note that testing will continue until the major changes for the commission tool are finished. We may open for public testing at that point.

Receiving Commission Requests

When users visit your profile, they will also see that you are open for commissions, and they will have the opportunity to request a commission.

By clicking “Request Commission,” users will have a popup for a commission invitation. Here, they will be able to enter in information about what they would like and the specifics of their commission. If you would like any specific information in their first message, you may list that on your commission page.

You will receive a notification whenever you receive a commission invitation from a potential buyer. At this point, work on getting specifics about the commission; the more information you have, the better you will know what will make the potential buyer happy. The buyer will also be able to upload a reference sheet or any other helpful files to this conversation.

Scope of Work

Once you have enough information, put together a scope of work. This will include the price of the piece as well as specifics for what the piece will include. If you need any help creating a scope of work, please see our page of suggestions for what to include in the scope.

When you submit your scope, buyers will have the option to either accept or refuse the scope. If they accept, they will pay for the commission in full; this amount will be held until the commission process is complete. If they reject the scope, you will be able to either revise the scope of work or cancel the commission.

At this time, you may also set a due date. This date is not visible to the buyer, but it will allow you to look at your list of current commissions and see which ones should be finished first. We recommend setting due dates for yourself to help prioritize your work.

Up until the scope is accepted and a payment is made, either party may cancel the commission. After payment has been sent, any requests for cancellation will be reviewed by Furry Network staff.

Commission In Progress

When you begin work on the commission, you will be able to move the status to “In Progress.” This will notify the buyer that you have started work on their piece. As work progresses, we suggest sending milestone updates – for example, a sketch and lineart before finishing a fully colored picture. Milestone updates will allow the buyer to review the progress and see if any changes need to be made before the commission is finished.

Once the commission is finished, select “Completed” and upload the finished commission; if the commission cannot be uploaded, paste a link. This will allow the buyer to review it. If the buyer requests any changes, they may discuss those in the comments. Otherwise, the buyer will mark the commission as approved, and you will receive funds.

The buyer will have seven (7) days to review the finished commission. If seven days pass and the commission is not approved, the commission will automatically change to approved, and you will receive the payment for that commission.

When Things Go Wrong

While we expect for the great majority of commissions to happen smoothly, we know problems can happen. Sometimes they happen even when you’ve done everything right, and other times they come because of a genuine mistake. Problems aren’t the end of the world, and in most cases, we can help you work to resolve these.

The buyer doesn’t like the final product

Most of the time, buyers will be thrilled with the final product of a commission, but occasionally some may be dissatisfied. If they’re not direct in saying what the problem is, try to get a little more information about it. Sometimes the problem is small and can be fixed with a few tweaks to the commission.

If it’s a bigger issue, you have several options:

Modify or redo the commission

This can take a good amount of time, but most buyers will be extremely happy for the care and effort that you put into the work to make them satisfied. If this cannot be done quickly, we recommend discussing a possible finish date with the buyer to see if that will work.

Offer a partial or full refund

At times, a buyer may request a refund for the piece. Depending on the situation, a partial or full refund may be appropriate. If you decide on a refund, flag the commission conversation for staff to review.

An agreement is not reached

If you and the buyer are unable to reach an agreement, please flag the commission for us to review. In general, we will be looking at these three things:

• Is the final commission lacking something that was listed in the scope of work?
• Is the quality lower than what was advertised?
• Is there a legitimate reason for the buyer to be unhappy with the final product?

Staff will review the commission and discuss this with both buyer and seller. A full refund will be granted to the buyer if there appears to be a good reason; if not, the commission will be closed, and you will receive the payment in full.

For the first occurrence, we’ll generally discuss the situation with you to see if we can figure out how to avoid this in the future. If the issue is repeated several times, staff may decide to issue a temporary or permanent ban from selling commissions. Even if this happens, you will still have access to other features of the site.

We are thrilled to work with various content creators, but just as reliable creators help build the site, unreliable commission sellers can hurt it. We want to help you succeed as much as possible, so if you ever need to discuss how to be successful with commissions, feel free to reach out to our community manager.

You are unable to complete the commission

Real life can become chaotic, and sometimes it gets in the way of finishing commission work. While we want to make sure buyers receive the final product whenever possible, we understand that rare circumstances may prevent that. If you find yourself in that situation, we recommend letting the buyer know as soon as possible. You may also reach out to a staff member to discuss the situation.

Here are the main options:

Offer a refund to the buyer

In most cases, a refund should be offered to buyers when you are unable to complete the commission. This will allow you to take one item off your plate and focus on the most important issues. Most buyers are understanding and will appreciate a refund.

For any refunds, please flag the commission, and staff will review it.

Establish a later date to complete the commission

If the buyer is willing to wait and you know for certain that you will be able to resume work at a later time, you may talk to the buyer and establish a completion date in the future. Whenever possible, this arrangement should be discussed before the original deadline is reached; buyers are often willing to work with changed deadlines if they are changed in advance.

All commissions are expected to be finished within 6 months of the payment being made. If you know you will pass the 6 month mark, offering a refund is appropriate.

Generally, we hope you are able to discuss issues with the buyer and resolve any issues. Buyers may flag a conversation if they do not receive a reply to messages within 7 days, and if Furry Network staff is unable to reach you, a refund will be issued. No further action will happen for a one-time occurrence, but if this happens repeatedly, staff may issue refunds for all current commissions and temporarily disable the ability to receive commissions. If you do find your commissions disabled and wish to re-enable it, please reach out to a member of staff.

An agreement is not reached

If you and the buyer are unable to reach an agreement, please flag the commission for us to review. In general, we will be looking at these things:

• Has the original deadline created by the artist passed? If no deadline was given, have two months passed since payment?
• Has there been significant enough progress to show the commission will be completed soon?

In most cases, staff will allow the seller one week from the time of the report to finish and send the commission. After that time, a full refund will be granted to the buyer.

When staff is brought in to resolve the issue, we’ll generally discuss the situation with you and talk about ways that this could be resolved in the future. If the issue is repeated several times, staff may decide to issue a temporary or permanent ban from selling commissions. Even if this happens, you will still have access to other features of the site.

A shipped item does not arrive for the buyer or becomes damaged during shipping

The best way to protect yourself when shipping items is to including tracking and insurance; if something does happen during the shipping process, you will be able to discuss this with the shipping company and get the problem fixed.

If the shipment does not arrive at the buyer’s address

At times, items shipped just do not make it to their destination. We recommend checking any tracking information that the shipment has; often, there will be some status that shows what has happened. There’s a chance that the address is incorrect or that the item couldn’t be delivered for another reason. If that’s the case, talk to the buyer and see if there’s another address that could work.

If the shipment has been lost by the shipping company, you should reach out to the company to resolve any payment or insurance returns. You should also discuss how to resolve this with the buyer; if it’s something that’s easy to recreate, you may do that, but you should issue a refund if that is not possible.

If the shipment is damaged during shipping

Ask the buyer to send pictures of the damage. It’s best to have these uploaded to the commission tool; that way, if any disputes do arise, the information can be in one central location. Depending on the extent of the damage, you may wish to either offer sending a new piece or issuing a partial or full refund. We also recommend discussing this with the shipping company.

Lost or damaged shipments are generally one-time occurrences. However, if you have multiple problems with a single shipping company, we recommend switching to a different company.

Harassment

We take harassment at Furry Network seriously. The commission process can have some rough moments, but we expect you and our buyers to behave professionally. Smaller conflicts can usually be resolved with a calm response, but if it escalates to the point of harassment, staff is more than willing to step in to resolve the situation.

Harassment is a little hard to define. For the commission process, here’s what we generally look for:

• One party has attacked, insulted, or acted in any way to deliberately scare, anger, or provoke the other party.
• This harassment occurred on Furry Network during this this specific commission, not before nor after.
• This harassment has occurred either publicly or privately on Furry Network, and either the harassment remains on the site or has been captured through screenshots.

If the buyer harasses you during the commission process

When facing harassment, you are always welcome to flag the commission for staff to review. Be sure to write a message including links to the harassment. If the harassment happened on a journal or submission on Furry Network, we recommend taking screenshots; otherwise, staff will not be able to review this if the content is deleted.

Depending on how comfortable you are handling difficult situations, you may wish to talk to the buyer about this harassment. However, this may not resolve the issue and could result in anger from the buyer. If you do choose to talk to someone who is harassing you, make sure you are not harassing them in return.

If we do find that the buyer has been harassing you, we will discuss with you how to resolve the financial aspect. Per our refund policy, we do not by default give refunds to people who have harassed our sellers. However, if you have not started the commission yet, we suggest giving a refund; the buyer may still be upset, but this will help them move on from this issue. If you have started, we may talk about whether a partial refund is appropriate in this situation.

Staff will make a decision about whether or not any other actions, such as a temporary or permanent ban, would be appropriate for the buyer.

If you harass the buyer

We do not tolerate harassment on Furry Network, and if a buyer flags a commission due to harassment, we will review this closely to see exactly what happened. For this review, we will only take into account material on Furry Network through the duration of the commission. If staff does find that you have harassed the buyer, a full refund will be given to the buyer.

The people who sell on Furry Network represent who we are as a community. Because of that, we have a strict three-strike policy:

• First offence, a refund will be given, and you will be issued a warning.
• Second offence, a refund will be given, and you will receive a one-month ban from selling commissions.
• Third offence, a refund will be given, and you will receive a permanent ban from selling commissions.

Depending on the severity of the harassment, staff may jump to harsher punishments, and you may also receive temporary or permanent bans from the site as a whole.