Question for other customizers (and custom customers)...

[s_bennett]

To other customizers (or customers):

If you charge a deposit on a custom order (I just started doing this after being burned twice), do you return it if the customer changes his mind/asks for unreasonable changes in the finished product?

My instinct is to return the deposit... A new customer ordered a Hawkeye to match one I'd already made, but now wants several changes to the original design (which I'd matched per his initial instructions to the original figure).

So the figure is to his original specs, and I'm not crazy about the idea of rebuilding it to suit a whim. It'd probably sell on ebay, so I should be able to recoup the cost, but being burned isn't feeling so cool.

Any advice/perspective would be much appreciated.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Ethically, I think there's two answers...and I think the solution lies in the middle.

1)If you can resell it with minimal effort, then I think you owe some kind of refund.
2)You aren't in the business to spend your time and effort doing something on someone elses whim for free.

Personally, I think you need to account for the additional cost it will take for you to sell the unwanted item and give the person a partial refund. So if you were going to charge $200 for a sculpt and now it will cost you a few hours of your time to list it on ebay or something, then I think you deserve to keep at least $50 for that time and effort of securing a new buyer, maybe even a little more.

 

[Mostly Fantasy]

If I'm doing a customization/original sculpt, I allow the customer (and tell them in the quote) that the initial/original cost contains reasonable revisions/or 2 to 3 revisions. After that, I charge an hourly rate for changes they want.