12 replies to this topic

[Hans van der Maarel]

Clients from hell

Ah... so much recognition

[ELeFevre]

I love this one.

"Thanks for emailing me the PDF. Can you please resend it to me at 100% and not at 147%."

[rudy]

Clients from hell

Ah... so much recognition

That's good! I'm sure all of us "free"lancers out there can add our own story . . . . like this: I created a number of maps for a small publication. The person putting together the artwork would convert all the 4 colour pdfs I provided her into 3 colour jpegs then would send it to a 4 colour printer and wonder why the colours were different . . . .

[Jean-Louis]

That's good! I'm sure all of us "free"lancers out there can add our own story . . .

I see a new thread here....

My own favorite..

Client. (Looking at my draft-proof of a pictorial map of the ENTIRE Province of Quebec)
'Can you ad a little boat here boarding one of the steamers sailing down the St-Lawrence?'

Me:
The little steamers you see on this map are already 100 times bigger than scale. I suppose I can create an impression of a tiny little boat running along side.

Client
Great! ...and can you show that the boat is carrying a pilot with a current and valid permit?

Me:
Well, the little boat itself will be about 3 pixels so I'm not sure I can get a true likeness of the pilot on his ID picture not to mention his signature.

[razornole]

I just got one of those yesterday.

Client: We have decided that we don't want an icon to represent the wildlife viewing areas.

Me: Ok, then what do you suggest we do.

Client: We just want to put a green dot there instead, it make more sense to us.

kru

[MapMedia]

I have a rule to not get attached to the process or final product, but attached to the client's satisfaction
Life's too short

[BioGeoMan]

Good rule

[EOSGIS]

Hi,
Two typical situations in cartography:
a) 2D carthography. The client ask for a map of Europe that sould fix in 10 x 10 cm...with as much informatios as possible. You calculate the scale and send him the preview... 50% the times I recieve a mail with a scan of a 1: 200.000 map of an Atlas with all its information, telling me to include all that in the 10 cm map .. Thumbs rule: Scale is not a simple thing to understand...
3D drawing: Once you have send 7 point of views as previous test to select the one the client wants, he decides about one... You begin working... 3 weeks drawing... sending previews... and in this case, 60% of them, at the final product asks if you can just rotate the view a little... just about 130 degrees left and 30 up or down... thumbs rule: its difficult to understand hand drawn 3D perspectives and 3D space...
;-)
Best regards

[Lui]

3D drawing: Once you have send 7 point of views as previous test to select the one the client wants, he decides about one... You begin working... 3 weeks drawing... sending previews... and in this case, 60% of them, at the final product asks if you can just rotate the view a little... just about 130 degrees left and 30 up or down... thumbs rule: its difficult to understand hand drawn 3D perspectives and 3D space...

Ah, so true that I have to put in contract: when client agree on direction and FOV there is no going back. And 50% payment should also be on account.

The most bothering clients from my point of view are those that think that they know everything about cartographic design and rules (oh and about colors, here they really shine) but they don't have a time to get familiar with cartographic software and workflow and data due to their hyperactivity... And there comes a day when they (after a month or more of unavailability and no contact) have a time (well no more than a 15 minutes) and they want to sit down with me on my workstation and just suggesting some small and (I swear) final touches. Well 15 minutes is a quarter of and hour not a quarter of a day! Did I mention that they are the worst payers?
We even have one that disappear for one quarter (of year this time) due to severe lost in his own reality and following hospitalization in adequate institution. So some psychoanalytic skills are most welcome in client relationship.
Maybe I was a bit sarcastic here but sometimes this is a only weapon to put it out.

Stay safe

Lui

[EOSGIS]

well, clients wanting to sit side by side in your office, sugesting or ¿trying to learn? is not new... specially significant are those sitting as MI5 trying to learn what software, data, techniques etc... we use... the problem with them is that 1/4 hour that converts in half a day and go through the door with lots of printed examples & some CD with examples, data or some software saying they will contract a job, but happy with them thinking they've got great secret thing in their hands they will use to make the job themselves...
Two week later they return for another spy morning...
How difficult is to explain those clients, that even, with all the complete oil pinting colors of the universe, without the "Know How" and a great deal of "inspiration" plus lots of "WORK", they would never became i.e: Rubens?
How difficult is to explain that in a work (cartography, drawing, painting, writing , engeneering, plumbing, car mechanics, ...) when someone costs $$$$$ is not just because a mental loto gived us a price?
You get for what you pay in 75% time.
Even, when a client says... $$$$ for 1 hour? !!!!!!! Well, I know my results in 1 hour aren't the same quality as for other people, so , you just not pay form results, but as a base for all the know how a proffesional have adquired along time. Isn't it true?

best regards

[MapMedia]

I would charge the person who wanted to watch over my shoulder 3X my going rate for 'learning'. No other way about it.

[Jimbo]

It's not always the client that is the problem, sometimes there's another freelancer working on the project. To save from paying a huge sum of money to the other freelancer he/she may want to streamline the project looking for a faster method. Here's the problem, the client gives a lot of the say to the other freelancer on who else maybe involved in the project. And if there is a streamline method out there the other freelancer may decide upon themselves to look for an excuse to to keep the project to themselves. So the other freelancer may either try & learn the product or find enough flaws to keep the client all to themselves.

In this case I call it a competitor from hell!

[EOSGIS]

I lile competitors, even more, I hate to self-copy myself,and always I look others work to learn. Competitive work make bussines go on.
But I hate bad "copiers". If someone can make a best copy, good copy or version of my work .. congratulations, It will make me move a step forward and try to make my own a better one.
Bad copiers or those "competitors from hell", ussually just make a not so good work, and ussually make our work appear as not so reliable one. Think upon chinese copies of Rolex or so. They appear to be the same in the outside, but ... you know what I mean.
At last, when you call a client telling him you make "those amazing street maps" they think about those "amazing 15 minutes google tranformed to ilustrator " maps and the price go to floor. Try to explain that a good street map may take some hours and that it's not made of lines but of polygons, matching a scale and adapted for them...
Perhaps I use google as a reference for city and street information too. But as a cartographer the final product has other feeling.