Client of the Day
Out of context: Reply #364
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- Nairn7
I've just got rid of a long-term client.
They build robots and have always been interesting, but each new project they start is a new company, with a new engineer / point of contact, so I'm always doing the same old dance, bringing them up to speed. In and of itself, it's a little infuriating, but the projects have always been cute and I've always been kept in the loop and given enough time and info to turn around.
Latest iteration.. less so. New point of contact is infuriating to deal with - leaves everything to the last minute, never listens to what I say, insists upon specifying impossible materials and pushing the designs of possible materials too far, always sends the wrong files, set up incorrectly, etc etc.
I got a new batch for another job from him late on Friday and I scanned it and thought "Fuckit, I'll deal with that tomorrow". Thankfully, as he re-sent all the files again this morning as they were all a bit wrong. That in of itself would have been a grand waste of my time had I started last night. I take a better look at the specs - three materials I don't cut, one of which I'm not even sure exists; The designs have technical details that are Bad that I've mentioned to him previously (repeatedly) and on top of all that, they have a stupidly-tight deadline, despite the fact he first mentioned this batch about two weeks ago, but made no mention of the materials, etc. If he had, I might've been able to squeeze it in. But no, he's basically sent a job that I couldn't start until Monday, at which point I could only order materials which wouldn't make it in time for his mid-week deadline, never mind my being able to do my thing and then mail back. Just really ill-considered.
Me being me though, I fretted about how I'd accomplish this for longer than I should this afternoon, a stressful lump growing in my stomach as I appreciate how Hard this would be until I realise - "I don't have to do this, do I? This isn't actually my problem". So I'm not. Bye-bye old client. I'm sure I'll get a call from his boss on Monday asking WTF, but hey.
- oops that was a long whinge! Sorry.
Ignore.Nairn - so you got your hands on multiple companies or its always one just the brand and the contact changes?sted
- well... you're a single point of possible failure, eg, if ill or injured. Perhaps tell them you can off work ill.. please send grapes and whiskey...shapesalad
- @sted - it's one 'organisation' that sets up a new company and employees for each new project which then gets sold on if successful (last one to Bosch)Nairn
- as I say, it's always been a bit faffy, but interesting. This time around the contact's dismal and I've not been kept in the loop so I'm not emotionallyinvestedNairn
- Good for you...I've "let go" a few clients over the years when the cost they were incurring just didn't make sense.yuekit
- gotcha. and you never felt like going with the projects they let go, or craft out some long term solution for yourself?sted
- oh, it's an interesting thing to have a small thalidomide hand in, but it's not at all my focus.
I have no idea what my focus is.Nairn - to be clear - i'm merely a minor, replaceable part of the flow of these people. A small cog. It was just an interesting relationship, whilst it lasted.Nairn
- oops that was a long whinge! Sorry.