Sanity check please - was I 'devaluing her art' or is this seller a headcase?

[catPA]

I bought some items from an online artist based in Canada. The first purchase was for just under £200 and I paid about £45 in customs tax for that. Fine.

After my first purchase (but while it was still in transit), I looked at her Instagram and the seller had done various posts about how her business is struggling to survive, 'artist poverty is real', '30% off with code 'help me pay my electric bill' etc. I thought all this seemed a bit 'unusual,' (also possibly a bit 'tone deaf' as she lives in a huge, beautiful house by the sea and does her art full time so she can be a SAHM - not a choice many women could make)! But I thought fair enough, she's being honest; I genuinely love her art and good for her living her dream. I wanted to support her business if I could.

So I bought another item for £280 which had previously been listed at about £450 (I think). She was doing a sale across all her work.

I couldn't have afforded it at £450 and also the higher customs tax would have been a bit much for me, on balance.

Anyway, both packages didn't arrive for ages and it turned out they were being held at the post office, pending customs charges. The first package, as I said, required a £45 customs tax payment. However, the second package, required a customs tax payment of £95! I asked how that could be possible, when I had paid £280 for the item. Then I saw that the unexpectedly high customs tax was because the seller had stated the value of goods as £450 (or the equivalent in Canadian dollars).

I messaged the seller and told her that surely it's standard practice to state the actual transaction price on a package for customs purposes.

Thst was it. She was straight into "What do you expect me to do?" etc. Then went into the woe-is-me 'artist poverty is real' and how could I be devaluing her art in this way. She got very personalised very quickly. She said she will never devalue her work again because I had done that for her! She said I was essentially asking her to defraud customs. She basically said she wished she had never sold me anything because I don't value her art!

Ffs I had spent over £600 on it (with the tax). I was talking about labelling for customs tax - I believe it should be the transaction amount stated, not some previous price. How is that in my control?

In summary, she became very unprofessional with me and then blocked me.

I had left her a really positive comment on Instagram as well - before all this!

Apologies for the length.

WIBU?

Also, should I leave her a review stating my experience?

Do you mean via national couriers? Or international, for pieces that are not regarded one-offs? If so, that is absolutely correct, but not international one-offs. One offs are pieces of art, antiques, ceramics or other limited edition pieces which are sadly subject to a volumetric weighting rule if damaged/lost with a general carrier. This has been my experience importing antique furniture, art pieces and other one-offs for photoshoots. Obviously there are specialist art/antiques couriers out there, who are adequately insured and would provide a full refund, but often people take a punt on general carriers, so artists often up the value to ensure a higher payout if things go wrong.

The bigger difference I see is the output quality criteria. If a plumber puts in a few unnecessary feet of copper piping, or fits a tap wonkily - you might moan for repair or live with it. If it's art and you don't like it, you just walk away to look at more art. Something might be objectively perfect in a particular style, but that doesn't mean many people even like it. Art can be brilliant while riddled with flaws, or pointlessly boring perfection. The inconsistency of the range of beholders' eyes might be what drives some artists a bit mad.

That's a really good point! One person's "this is the best art I have ever seen" is another person's "chuck it in the bin". We've all seen "modern art" that looks like it took seconds to create, yet people pay a fortune for it (and one counter-argument to "I could have made that" is "but you didn't"). There's an interplay of valuation between the seller and buyer, but ultimately I think the buyer (or "the market" decides).

I would agree with you had I not been offered a large number of commercial projects with a ridiculously low price offer when I know what the industry standard is. As well as emails saying, "we would like you to make this correction, we are sure it will only take you 5 minutes", plus all the offers to produce art "for exposure". As I mentioned up thread, art is not just a pretty picture on the wall. A lot of products you use every day have been designed, decorated or produced by artists. Personally, I design for wallpaper and fabric market - a tangible product with a tangible demand and a price ticket. This doesn't stop commissioners from offering low compensation because "it will only take you 5 minutes" and because there will always be a student willing to do it "for exposure".

It's not vindicative. She has a business and she is not professional. Nothing wrong with letting us know whom to avoid.

At least you can tell is name of her account 😀

But this thread is not the right place to spread the awareness.
It's about Op's experience with the crazy art seller

Exploitation within the working world is different - this isn’t unique to artists. Unpaid internships, contractors in many oversubscribed fields, “test” shifts waiting tables in lieu of an interview, not to mention government supported schemes that are never going to lead to a job. All undervalue labour.

Cmon, it's 100% vindictive. You definitely have bitchy plans. She's an entitled up her own arse whinger but let's be real, it's not like you were ever going to buy from her anyway.

Tax is due on price paid. Simple. She sounds like a pretentious c*nt. I’d pay the duty, get your lovely items, then tell her what you think of her.

Definitely leave a review, briefly outlining your experience. She is completely unprofessional.

Tax on imported artwork is only 5%.
It should have been imported under commodity code 9702.

Hidden Gallery www.hiddengallery.co.uk sell limited editions by world famous artists and every work has a price on it including framing.

I’m speaking as an artist who sells online too. I would never have replied or reacted the way she did to any collector of mine! Now more than ever every artist would be grateful for sales. Sounds to me like she’s quite the diva and is acting as if she’s doing you a favour by “allowing” you to buy one of her precious works of art :-s
I would however, like to point out one thing that she is right about and that is that artists are having an absolutely terrible time at the moment. Understandably with the cost of living this means that buying art has become a luxury and is way down on the list of things to buy. But if there are any of you out there who have a bit of spare cash and a few empty spaces on your walls that could do with a piece of art stop and think that there are many of us struggling artists that would jump for joy at being able to fill those spaces and most of us are friendly creatives and not divas at all! :-)

at this stage if that is how you feel, try and sell it on for a profit and get it right up the “poor hard done by artist” 🙄
personally I don’t think I’d have her art on my wall after that. She sounds like an asshat. 🤦‍♀️ when’s selling abroad I used to say was a gift on smaller items, and lower the value for customs so they didn’t have to pay higher price for customs. It alot of the time makes a buyer want to come back, when they don’t have to pay extra to receive their item. Fabric I used to buy from USA used to put a wee card in with the item 😂 as if it was a gift so I didn’t have to pay customs tax on the fabrics as postage is very high as it is. Was lovely and made me do the same for my customer for small items which I sold. They were already paying high postage far less paying an additional amount on top. Scammer some may say, but really it’s a scam having to pay our countries import tax on small amounts of things, ie not wholesale.

anyway the artist is an asshat and not worth the worry about, see her what she is the always in woe.

Oh and I would use your proof of purchase with the price you payed for the art to what she has put on the customs form and you will get a refund to the value of the actual sold price. She will then hear from customs and they can put her right x

YANBU at all. I bet you can’t really enjoy the art now either. I’m sorry this happened. I think an up-to-date balanced review would be appropriate, as a warning to others.

I really want a clue now so I can go and have a nosey at her work. But she sounds like a loon. Unless she’s getting a kickback from Customs (unlikely) there’s no possible reason to overstate the value on the declaration.

It’s worth what someone will pay for it! Is she honestly saying if someone had offered her £550 for it, she’d have said ‘no, that’s not its value’. Nonsense.

I haven't read all the posts, so apologies. I sell on line and understand what has happened here. She put the "value" as the price on the customs form in order to get the isurance cover in case it went missing in transit. What she should have done is listed your purchase price, with the postage as an extra, then pay a small fee for added insurance (at her own expense) for the "value" price. Pretty rooky error. Shame it would be difficult to correct her now.

She’s an artist, darling! It’s an excuse to be temperamental at best, rude at worst!

She's bonkers. Her art is worth what someone will pay for it. Both prices - original and discounted - were arbitrary. You confirmed the lower price by paying it. That's what it was worth.

That would be better business!

This.

A piece of art is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it and not what the artist thinks it should be worth. She sounds a right PITA.

If you'd read all the posts, you'd know OP says the artist relinquishes any responsibility for the art once it's paid for.

So it's not about insurance.