I usually try not to place people in a box, or generalize or stereotype. Not everyone is going to have the same walk of life, share the same path, and be cut from the same cloth – after all, this is the spice of life, our general differences and intricacies.
But there’s a reason we have essentially our own “Spidey-sense” – our instincts and gut feelings need to be trusted.
My referral group is usually about 99% on point, they refer to me clients that can be trusted and clients that will not waste my time. In this case I was referred a client from an urban environment; nothing wrong with that – from Harlem to Wall Street, everyone has a design problem and I am more than happy to solve it.
The issue started with the point of contact; at first I spoke to a gentleman who was the main contact and interested party, we had a wonderful conversation and by our engagement, he realized I was the right fit to help transition their business from a brick and mortar to an e-commerce one. At his request I spoke with his partner, which took a couple of phone tag moments to finally have a full conversation. The new contact took over and I never heard from the other contact again, my “point person”… The new contact was pretty horrible at scheduling, and communication overall. To make things simple I outlined the deliverables for this client, created a schedule for the project and broke down several price point options along with payment plan options – very simple to follow and to proceed.
This is where things got sketchy and fell apart… The client insisted we meet, because he had reservations due to someone on Instagram he hired, ripped him off on a $50 logo project…… This is where my spidey senses started tingling. I mentioned to him that you are aware that this is a different circumstance and a much more considerable amount, right? I totally understood his concern because in the end, there were a lot of $0’s involved in this project, and therefore meeting was not out of this world – in fact I encouraged it. He decided to choose the most expensive option because he wanted “the best”. We tried to meet several times, but our schedules conflicted. I offered to have a FaceTime session or Skype, so he could assign a face to the soon-to-be brand provider and assured him throughout the project we could meet, that I wouldn’t be going anywhere and we obviously have contracts in place to protect both parties. This appeased him and we were ready to proceed.
At the 25th hour, he mentions that all the business info has to be put in his wife’s name; this came after I requested his full name for contract details. He then disappeared for a week, and when I finally put some pressure on him we had a phone call. In the phone call he expressed concern that he never has seen my work, portfolio, or any social media presence. I mentioned to him that this was all covered in the preliminary meeting with his partner. He stated that his partner never showed him anything and also confirmed the same concern… WTF!??? I provided him with sample work again and let him know if this was a concern, that he could have mentioned this anytime and I would have obliged and provided the information he needed, to appease any concerns he had. Then he mentioned that he didn’t like paying in installments and having to pay an interest fee due to the installments, because it felt like he was paying a “loan” and he doesn’t like being in debt… Again, WTF!!!??? This fella picked the most expensive option, because he wanted THE BEST, and we worked out a plan where he could afford it in installments; and now he feels as though he was paying a loan??? LOL this just escapes me…
The client said he would get back to me, and a month has passed, and I never followed up… I don’t like letting thousands of dollars walk away, but I also know when a client is not all there, communication is not working, and when a client manipulates facts to support their stance , well it’s an obvious sign the client will not be easy to work with. I rather let significant dollars walk out the door, then to sacrifice my mental stability, peace of mind, and most of all my patience.
Never work with a client that substitutes the plural with the letter “Z”, okay BOYZ and GIRLZ!!! 🤣🤣🤣
… DAMN MONDAYS!
