Augh

[bladespark]

I have 40 pages. Forty freaking pages of logs with a single customer, discussing a single fursuit.

I know the guy just wants to get it the way it is in his head, but after tonight if he asks for one more design change, he's going to be murdered with a spoon. If he hadn't already paid in full for his suit, I'd almost be tempted to tell him to go somewhere else, but... *shrugs* I need money. And it's not malice, just utter lack of design sense.

Still, 40 pages! *dies*

Comments

[chadpanther.livejournal.com]

Jeez! Thats alot of pages, I'm glad I am not that much of a pain in the butt for you. I will make sure to get your money soon. :)

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

(I suppose I'm earning my pay there.)

[bobkat357.livejournal.com]

wow he sounds picky

[draggo.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the idiots I have to deal with at work on a daily basis. I'm glad that I don't deal with the public directly anymore.

We get these type of people here a lot on a daily basis. A lot of them are also terminally stupid as well. They are so bad that if breathing wasn't an involuntary action they would forget to breathe. I'm pretty much immune to stuff like that now.

Does he have a charatcher sheet yet?

[bladespark.livejournal.com]

He's not idiotic, but he doesn't have a character sheet, and that's the problem. He's verbally describing stuff, and then I'm trying to draw it out.

[draggo.livejournal.com]

Customer service is fun.
My suggestion is to be firm and set a final date that all changes must be in by. I have to do that a lot especially when I have to escalate an issue to the Maintence office. I get to play middleman between the frontline agents and those working on the network. Basically I am forced to tell customers that they either give me the information I need or their DSL service remains broken.

If you need to save time you can always have someone else draw the ccharatcher sheets for him or refer him to someone who will draw them. I know of others who already do that.

[2dlife.livejournal.com]

You are allowed to ask him to fix his changes. Specify a date by which he cannot make any more changes before the cost goes up.

[silveradept]

I like C's idea. Set a hard deadline for him. With me, there would be those forty pages, too, if I felt I had to design to the very last detail. But generally, I trust the people who are making things that it will turn out properly. If it's not completely what I envisioned, it's still usually freaking cool enough that it counts.

Of course, that requires actually ahving the cash to make something like that work...

[draggo.livejournal.com]

Another way is to have him get someone else to draw a charatcher sheet detailing exactly what he wants then only allow changes if he is willing to pay for them. I know of others who already do that.

[lacy.livejournal.com]

Urgh, yeah I dislike the really nitpicky people. And I really hate it when they say things like: "the ears shouldn't be too small, but don't make them too big either."

They can be rather difficult to work with.

[kainhighwind-dr.livejournal.com]

Creative services, no matter what they may be (design, fine art, crafts), seem to attract the same clientele issues. I feel your pain. Must be especialy difficult because you're working in a physical medium, and alterations can be permanent and would require redoing from the start to change things back (unlike digital, where it's always possible to undo, revert to another saved state, etc much more readily).

Yeah I would normally vote for the the idea of informing him that further alterations are on billable time. However, I realise that may not be feasible in your situation if you haven't already announced to him there is an upper limit on time spent for the initial contractual obligations. Do you keep track of your hours spent on actual projects (e.g. when you're not doing test runs to determine cost structure)? That might make it easier if you can defend your position by demonstrating you will be going over your initial cost allowance. If you're lucky though (and I hope you are) he'll be through soon and you can get it over and done with and send him on his way.

I've seen plenty of start-up and low-cost graphic designers who offer 'unlimited' revisions as a way to attract the cheapskate control freaks who are afraid they're not going to get away with their novel-length list of demands for free. I say they're crazy. @_@ Who wants to encounter the client who is going to take them literally at their word, and have the legal right to enforce the designer's offer??

[muadragon.livejournal.com]

Wow, I thought I was bad, but FORTY PAGES!? That's just crazy....