Updated on Sept 10th, 2015..I have noticed for a few months now that I’m able to access DPW site again. So, I have gone ahead and made a new account there. It’s been about 3 weeks, and so far, everything is great. Pages are loading fine, and I’m not getting any error messages. I’m really hoping this was just a fluke thing that happened, and won’t ever happen again. Crossing fingers because I really do like the site, and I’ve missed being there.

No, I’m still not pleased about what happened. I still think I should have been able to delete my account when I wanted to because I was a paying customer. I felt pretty helpless, and angry when I wrote the post below. However, I’m ready to let it go, and move on. You can find my DPW shop here.     

I hit a wall at Daily Paintworks last week, and sadly I’ve asked that my account be deleted. I started having trouble loading pages about a week and a half ago. It wasn’t too bad, at first, just annoying. I had to refresh the page a bunch of times, but it would finally load. Then, it went completely belly up. The images won’t load on the front page, and I started getting the error above every time I tried to sign in.

and this..

“Unable to make a secure connection to the server. This may be a problem with the server, or it may be requiring a client authentication certificate that you don’t have.”

It doesn’t matter how many times I reload the page, the error message remains, and I’m unable to sign in. I contacted DPW, and for several days wrote to David, the owner of the site. He suggested very basic things for me to try, like check my clock settings, and reboot my computer. None of that worked. I researched the error messages for 3 days straight, and never found an answer.

All other websites load instantly for me, and throughout the house. Greg’s downstairs right now streaming a movie from Amazon, while I’m up here doing all sorts of things online. There’s no lag, no problem at all, but not one of our 3 computers or tablet can access daily paintworks dot com. We’ve tried multiple browsers, and resetting the internet connection FIVE times. We get the same error messages no matter what we do. It’s so frustrating.

I finally had to wave the white flag Friday afternoon, and give up. I’ve asked David to completely delete my account. I can’t risk having a painting sell over at Etsy, and not be able to mark it sold on Daily Paintworks. Plus, I don’t want my paintings sitting on a site I can’t sign into. The thought makes me extremely uncomfortable.

I put A LOT of work and time into DPW, and met some nice people there. I hate leaving so abruptly, without being able to explain what happened. So, this is what happened, and this is why I’m leaving Daily Paintworks.

Edited: I found out tonight that David won’t delete my account. At first I was willing to go along with his response, but then I thought wait a minute! I’m a paying customer, and I can’t delete my account if I want to??? No, no I can’t. Welcome to the Hotel California. You can checkout, but you can never leave. Evidently, my paintings, and my personal information will be on Daily Paintworks until the end of time. He said that since I’ve canceled my membership through Paypal, my bill won’t be paid, and my paintings will disappear from the front end of the DPW site. However, if I’m ever able to sign in again, everything will still be there…all I have to do is pay them a monthly fee again (Ha!).

I don’t want my paintings, listings and personal info being stored on his site indefinitely. I never signed up for that.

In the meantime, because he won’t delete my account, I could double sell a painting, which I’ve explained to him over and over again. I’ve also said I don’t want my paintings on a site I can’t access. He completely ignores what I’m saying. I am done with the site. I feel like I’ve wasted enough time and energy on this. I didn’t paint one painting all last week because I was dealing with all this. I want to move on, but first, I want my account deleted. I don’t think it’s too much to ask. It’s bad enough to encounter all the technical problems I’m having there, but to now have to fight for my right to delete my account is just ridiculous. I’m not happy. :/

Be very careful of the sites you trust. Always remember that if you don’t own the site, you have absolutely no control over anything.

bah. I’m going to bed. I hope things will look better in the morning.