Client of the Day
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- ItalianStallion0
"Yes this one is perfect, but can you change the background color from white to black?"
- ylanse0
- Agree on an SOWcannonball1978
- I like this. I will buy it. Can i see it yellow? And maybe a 'fresher' font?MrMackem
- A more yellowy yellow please.MrMackem
- and move it 2 pixels to the left, then 2 to the right 10 down and 10 up please. and we will be done i promise.rodzilla
- Projectile0
Okay –
So on the front – let’s have:
£X discount to sold out shows (emphasize discount)
Including
Lady Gaga (emphasized)
Someone else
Someone else
Someone elseDiscount code somewhere on the front.
On the back will probably be a standard bit of informational text about us.
Just one short paragraph in English. I will write it soon, but won’t be much. Maybe we just have the big logo and then some explanatory text. I don’t really know what to do to make it pretty without images.Is that enough?
Thanks,
KevinLOL @ "is that enough?"
- PIZZA0
fuck sake clientsfromhell is just page after page of manual labour analogies.
If I hear one more "but if you got a dentist/plumber/chef to do X"
- megE0
C: Can you take this powerpoint presentation I gave and copy and paste all the information into the template predesigned by our other firm?
M: (begrudgingly) ... sure
M: Um... this powerpoint is all graphics, there is no text.
C: Oh... yeah, I guess it is. Okay, here (sends link) here is the mp3 of the speech I gave with the presentation. Can you listen to it, take notes and then write a piece to put into the template. Send it to me, I'll proof read it and add content, then you can plug it into the template.
M: (why did I even go to design school...)- awful. simply awful.sputnik2
- oooouuuch!Projectile
- Fuckin' A. I thought my shit was bad once in awhile.monospaced
- Yeah that's pretty bad. Damn!Glitterati_Duane
- Kiggen0
I have one!!!
Last week.Client mails me last wednesday at 9.30 in the evening:
Here is the copy for Catalogue, its still in Dutch, we'll translate it in Norwegian, It will be delivered on Friday. But you can start with the layoutme: Well the copy had to arrive before the 1st of may to garantue it be finished for you fair the 28th (production time, blablabla)
client: sorry, i still i need it the 28th.
so i pull of a marvel at my printers they get it fixed when i deliver this wednesday (yesterday).
Friday comes, no Norwegian copy untill 9 (!!!) in the evening.
All weekend layouting. I actually get in done. Happy.On tuesday morning the client calls that theyre translation agency
did a bad job and translated it in Danish....I get the Real Norwegian copy at 8 (!!!) in the evening and i manage to put into print yesterday...
WTF client. Never had this happen in 6 year.
Next week meeting, going to kick em out if this happens again.- HA. No not HA. F*CK. People have lost it. Including me.FredMcWoozy
- Honestly, what you just described sounds like nothing but a great way to make a lot of extra billable hours.dMullins
- at double time due to urgency and late hours.Amicus
- Yeah. Been there many times. Give em' the asshole taxGlitterati_Duane
- BusterBoy0
Fark me...just doing some recap on a project I've been working on since July 2008. Backed myself into a corner with a shitty agreement. Didn;t think the project was going to take this long - lost a fucking heap on it. Learnt my lesson pretty quickly - you need to nail down your agreements with clients. Progress payments. Variations etc etc.
Just checked - there are 810 fucking emails from this one client!
I'm such a dopey prick!
- haha yeah it's so easy to do! cos it's always a slight little changeProjectile
- i'm in this position currently too. i'm looking for a way out of it.
i'll never work with academics again.Samush
- sneakybadger0
Is there a bullet proof method of getting content on time/at all? I've been fairly lucky with clients in the past but the latest two are terrible. Getting a sentence out of them takes a week, been waiting for the content for around 8 weeks now and it is still vague with major chunks missing. What do you guys do to ensure they cough up the good stuff in a decent amount of time?
.. Yes it has got that bad, i'm calling content "the good stuff" !!!
- 30-50% down payment usually gets me the content in a timely manner.elahon
- Would you say a losable deposit is worth thinking about? eg "don't get it to me by an agreed date 10% is added" or simularsneakybadger
- they book a certain time period which is deducted off the quoted price if they aresneakybadger
- on time? If not it is kept and another deposit has to be made for a later date?sneakybadger
- write it yourselfmonNom
- noneck0
^
Two ways:1. Don't start the project until you get all of the final, approved content. You don't schedule it, you don't plan around it, you don't sketch, you don't even think about it. Until you get the content, it's not a real project, it's just a client dreaming about something they might want one day. This method works.
2. Don't let the client provide the content. You provide it. Hire a copywriter, a photographer, whoever you need to and bill the client for it. Do this when you quote the project out.
I've had this situation before, and I'm dealing with this right now. I have a project from about a year ago, a small website. Every other month the client calls me up and asks how the site is coming, and what I need to finish it off. Every time I tell him I just need all the content for all the pages I have laid out with dummy text. Then he goes away for six weeks until he asks the same question. This site is never going to launch because I didn't ask for content up-front.
- Thanks for the info, some really good advice, I'm only working for small businesses so number one is probably my only option.sneakybadger
- The problem with 1 is that some don't care and still send the content late.Glitterati_Duane
- Then you have a shit load of work to do with less time to do it.Glitterati_Duane
- Unless you have a contract that covers you for such a thing you'll screw yourself.Glitterati_Duane
- elahon0
Last client I had:
Me: Here is your invoice.
Client: (looking it over) Ok, here is your check. Thank you.
Me: You're welcome!- nice!bigtrickagain
- i also have one of those, he can get away with a lot of stuff because he actually asks for invoiceKiggen
- holy sjmilligan
- then you woke up?orrinward
- noneck0
Which reminds me. I recently met with a client to review the content they came up with for their website.
First, she hands me a sheet of paper, and tells me it is for the home page. Okay, I guess I can retype this, it's not too long.
Next, she pulls out a sheaf of paper for the products page. It's a printout of a competitor's website. She crosses out the pictures, and a couple of paragraphs, and says "Here, just use this."
"But that's your competitor's. And it's copyrighted content. We can't use it."
Client sits for a second, looks down at the paper, and back up at me. "Sure we can, it doesn't have their company name or anything in the text."
I point down at the footer of the website she printed out. "No, you really can't. It even says so down there. '© 2008 XYZ Corp. All rights reserved.' That means they don't want anyone to use it."
She gives me a blank stare for ten full seconds. "I don't understand."
I end up taking the content as she provided it to me. Whatever.
- there a short paragraph that you should add to you T&C mentioning that you won't be liable for any contents.. Ta-da!maikel
- hellojeehae0
client: Can you resend me the invoice with the EXACT hours you spent? I mean did you really spend 5 hours on this?
- BusterBoy0
^^ DId I really spend 5 hours? No I fucking spent 10 because you're such a cock and I'm such a nice guy I'm not charging you for the other 5.
- exactly...monospaced
- I'm glad I a have a salaried position because I whore myself out cheap as a freelancer.monospaced
- I always spend 2-3x more time on something than I estimate for.monospaced
- It's good you are a designer and not project manager...maikel
- d_rek0
Here's one for the books...Not really Client of the Day - more Account Manager of the Day:
So the last couple of days i've been working on a small printed piece for a client whom i've worked closely with on several projects now. The PM kicks me off on a project smoothly and I proceed to generate some initial designs for the project. Our plan is to have an initial client review before end of the week.
Everything is going smoothly, design is all well and we kick off some artwork to client for a first round of review and CC the account manager too (it may help to note he is also the owner, salesman and an account manager!!).
Anyway, we send the design comps off today, client reviews & loves them and OK's us on a design to work with.
Fast forward 6 hours from client review. Account manager/Owner/Whatever emails me and the PM with this line:
"Have we got budget approval for this yet??? I don't recall submitting costs...."
WTF! mind = blown.
- sneakybadger0
(Re: noneck and elahon's advice.... Client content)
Would you say a losable deposit is worth thinking about? eg "don't get it to me by an agreed date or 10% is added" or they book a certain time period for a fee (of say a week) which is deducted off the quoted price if they are on time? If not it is kept and another deposit has to be made for a later date?
- If I were the client I think that'd just sound like a money-grab.noneck
- Hmm, yeah maybe! Just a thoughtsneakybadger
- dMullins0
Some of these posts are legit for sure, but the majority of them are a bit ridiculous. Do you people not like more money, or is it that you don't contract out the scope of work for this kind of shit?
- necromation0
I just fucked my CEO over my new designs for the greatest website ever made and all she could moan about is how big my dick is and coming on her tits!!!
Some people...
- jmilligan0
Draft 21*
*cha-ching, cha-ching