Client emails that make you crazy!

[john1]

I feel everyone on this thread.

I have a guy im guessing emailing me about car team graphics (oh no) and i now have a total of 18 emails back and fourth due to his stupidity.

They keep asking about getting a logo then i said it will be $xxx.xx and then they go "Yes we want stickers made for our cars?". I mean really? What kind of answer/question combo is that lol

Then i say if you want just a basic text design let me know what design you had in mine if any and they keeps saying they will send a design and never do and just ask more questions about pricing. So after telling them numerous times to send a design over and i have nothing to go off of for a quote they ask me "Do you sponsor people"....*sigh*

I'm giving it one or two more emails and if they are as bad as the previous i am done and blocking the email address because it has wasted enough of my time. I'm waiting on deposits to get here in the mail for about $2,500 worth of work and I'll be damned when they come in if i will be wasting time with this person anymore.

Bad part is, there are 18 emails but they keep sending one liner replies

 

[Colin]

john1:

Whatever their type of business is, ask them "how much is it?"

For example, if they sell cars, ask them "How much is a car?" If they sell houses, ask them "How much is a house?" When they reply with a bunch of questions, don't answer, just keep asking "how much?"

 

[john1]

Just emailed over pricing for some basic size graphics since they failed to supply me with that, Let's see how many emails i get back.

I always try to get to the point as fast as possible to avoid this but sometimes people still drag it on out.

 

[RobbyMac]

lol.. I can definately relate... in this 'point, click n ship' world we find ourselves living in, we often joke about charging 5$ per email received.

I've got one client that drives me bonkers with strings of incomplete thought type emails...
ie, I send off a prelim design. To which I then get about 6 emails, every 5 minutes, with just one sentence/direction each...
So I am in the middle of revising, think I am done and ready to fire off the revised art, when 'pop' comes in another email... and so on. To the point where I now wait until I see the emails quit. Then I begin working on the revisions.

 

[mark in tx]

On the one hand, I try to treat each customer the same, with the same amount of service, but on the other hand, how can I justify 5 emails with a customer over a single $135.00 banner, and another customer takes 2 emails to complete a purchase of 20 banners that cost $300.00 dollars each?

 

[Gino]

I get a kick out of the people that say they are the main contact, but when they send out e-mails..... they copy half the town in on it.

Later, you see him address someone else on his list and then he asks you a question from one of his people and then expects you to address it through reading their e-mail. I don't mind one or two of these, but it almost always gets out of hand. This always happens with lawyers, churches and municipal projects.

Just recently, I had an e-mail that went down about 20 or so deep and trying to get these people to stay on topic without referring back to things two weeks ago is very comical.

Although I save them, I tell them, I don't.... and make them repeat this chit in new e-mails. They then go into their folder and later archived.

A typical one would be after reviewing my original drawings... guy # 1 asked for a maroon background with larger words. His chums all chime in and respond with, what about dark blue, how 'bout a phone number, hey.... whaddabout a different shape with a yellow border, can we have a look at it being smaller, does this fill the entire code size specs, how long until it will be up, can we pay you separately, can you do two of these and bill us one at a time so we can stretch the payments out, do you accept credit cards, what size was that again and best of all...... can you do this in purple neon ??

My typical response is: Hey Larry [my contact]...... I'm working with you. If you want me to answer all of these questions, I'll do so, but it will most certainly change your bottom number........ considerably. Your call, I already have your signature on what we're doing and the deposit, but this crap was not part of the deal, so we'll have to bill you on a time basis structure.

Seriously folks.... I just had one like this and it was finalized after some problems, but we got a considerable amount more than what the original quote was indicating. I kept a very accurate log and made notes and recorded my time and it added up and they didn't believe I would go through with it until I had to send out a somewhat nasty letter, but they paid in the end.

 

[Border]

The ones that I loathe are the ones that feel that they need to call after EVERY single frickin' email.

Me too!

Also the ones who start a new message every time rather than reply with the previous exchange of text. Then you lose the written trail of proof about who said what. So I usually follow-up the phone conversation with another email confirming what was just talked about.

 

[RobbyMac]

Man i just remembered this one guy we have.. after every initial email, he calls to follow up.. then proceeds to have us google whatever thumbnail jpg he wants to use as reference... but he ALWAYS says the same thing...
"Do you have the google? You can use it to search for stuff"
THE google lol
'Um, no.. we havent upgraded our computers since 1970, so we do not have the google just yet"

 

[Colin]

Man i just remembered this one guy we have.. he ALWAYS says the same thing...
"Do you have the google? You can use it to search for stuff"

The other day I had a guy phone me to inform me that the emails he's been sending me keep coming back to him.

"What email address are you using" I asked.

He said: "www......."