When I first started as a freelance designer, I picked up a project designing some UIs (user interfaces) for some medical software. Basically, the screens that doctors use to control the system.

Though I was only supplying the designs, the client asked that I deliver them with some basic frontend coding so they could see the interactions in action and get a feeling of it as if it were real. 

I did the project and received heaps of praise for my work.

Then it came time to pay. 

I waited… And waited… Then chased… And chased.

I got passed around, fobbed off, and told it was coming. Just be patient.

Eventually, I decided to call the CEO. I had worked with him directly, and he had been singing my praises. 

The call went like this:

CEO: “Hello?”

Me: “Hi, sorry to bother you with this, but I’m still waiting on the payment for the UI design I did.”

CEO: “Oh! Sorry, we won’t be paying for that. Didn’t anyone tell you?”

Me: “What?! No… How come, I thought you were happy with it?”

CEO: “We are, it’s very good. But you know how we asked you to submit the front-end HTML? That wasn’t in a good enough state to use.”

Me: “But I told you I’m not a developer. I thought you were clear that it was only to show the designs in action?”

CEO: “Oh yes, but read the agreement you sent over. It doesn’t actually say that. It just says ‘supplied as HTML and CSS’. We think we could argue in court that we were expecting production-ready code.”

I sat back in disbelief.

CEO: “Look, I know you only just started. I can tell you, this lesson will be worth so much more over the years than what we owe. Make sure your contracts are watertight!”

He was right. Though morally reprehensible, for the grand or so I lost, my super solid contracts saved me hundreds of thousands in the years since, and taught me a rough but important lesson about businesspeople.

I work as an engineer. I do some consulting on the side, but typically only for people I know and as a favor.

A good friend asked me to help his in-laws, who were doing some fairly massive renovations/additions. I agreed solely because he asked me to. This is not something I have any interest in or need to do except as a favor. It’s an old house and had a can of worms written all over it, with some of the changes they wanted to do.

Now he warned me that the mother-in-law can be unpleasant, but that was an understatement. She seemed to think that because I was being paid (I charged probably 1/10th what a business would) that she could snap her fingers at me like a servant. I had a few unpleasant emails with her, but it was tolerable. She was rude when I was pointing out issues with their plans, but nothing too extreme.

That changed when I started trying to find a time for me to stop by and inspect a few areas of the house to verify some information.

I offered times to stop by on the weekend, but that didn’t work for her. Tried evening times, still a no. Nope, she wanted me to stop by during my office work hours because that was best for her. When I told her no, this gets done on the weekends or in the evening, she went from rude to incredibly hostile. Telling me that she is paying me (LOL) and that I work with her availability. Not the other way around.

I CC’ed my friend in on the chain, told them I was out, and to have fun working with whoever they get. My friend apologized, and I said no worries, not my problem anymore.

She emailed back, quite stunned that I was walking away, telling me that it’s not how business is conducted. I didn’t bother responding.

About three weeks later, I get an email from the husband now asking me if I would reconsider, and he promises that his wife won’t speak to me or be involved in any way.

I hear from my friend that while the quotes came back much higher, which was tolerable for them, it was how long the wait was. They just bought this house and wanted to move in ASAP, but it’s an incredibly busy time of year for the industry.

Turns out, when companies you reach out to are drowning in work and you have a potentially convoluted and messy project, they aren’t champing at the bit to get your business. So now they are going to lose the trades they lined up because design would be a month or two out.

I passed on the request as I struggled to believe she would be kept in check and had no desire to bail her out. My friend didn’t care, saying it was nice watching her attitude give the consequences that actually affect her.

At a small software development firm I worked at, a potential client (an insurance firm) was quoted a price for some custom software development work. The job would take six months with three staff devoted to it full-time.

The client was happy with the quote, so I said:

Me: “Okay, once we get a 50% deposit, we’ll start on it.”

Client: “No, I don’t want to pay a deposit. I want to see the completed work before I decide to pay. I’m not paying a deposit for work you haven’t done yet.”

This was sent up to our sales manager, who spent about three days fielding calls from the guy trying to explain why we needed a deposit.

Manager: “Aren’t you an insurance firm?”

Client: “Yeah?”

Manager: “Which means you’re in the business of assessing risk?”

Client: “So what?”

Manager: “Would you insure a company that did all their work upfront without getting paid, with the promise of payment only if their client was 100% happy with their work?”

Client: “H*** no! But this is different?”

Manager: “How so?”

Client: “Because I work for an insurance firm, you can trust us!”

Manager: “Oh, so insurance is measured on trust, not calculations?”

Client: “Look, we’re not paying anything upfront!”

Manager: “Then we will not be doing anything upfront. Good luck in your future endeavors, but please note that such a deposit is industry standard for this kind of contract. Have a good day.”

My manager hung up, only to get a call back from the client company ten minutes later, this time from a woman. She said they would pay the deposit, and to please ignore the guy from earlier. He was the recently hired son of a senior partner, and he thought he could “reshape the entire industry” on week one.

I got a call from a client I am doing graphic design work for.

Client: “My internet is down!”

Me: “I’m sorry to hear that.”

Client: “Well? Can’t you fix it?”

Me: “You realized you’ve called [My Name] at [Graphic Design Studio], right? I’m your graphic designer.”

Client: “Yes, but you know computers!”

Me: “I know computer design software. That doesn’t make me technical support.”

Client: “Then what do I pay you for?!”

Me: “For my knowledge of computer design software. Look, when I can’t connect to the internet, sometimes I’ve accidentally switched the ‘WiFi off’ button.”

In an attempt to be helpful, I explain to the client where such a button might be (either on his hardware or software), and lo and behold, it solves the problem!

Client: “I don’t know why you couldn’t have just helped me from the beginning!” *Click.*

If the story had ended there, it wouldn’t have registered much. Just another entitled client acting out. But then this pr*ck fills out a survey on our company website and rates me one star, which automatically triggers a performance review with my manager.

Manager: *Having to ask a set list of questions.* “What could you have done differently?”

Me: “Found a client with a better understanding of how his laptop works.”

Manager: “What will you do differently from now on based on this experience?”

Me: “Hang up the second the client tries to use me for tech support.”

Manager: “Okay, sounds like you learned your lesson!”

I work for a software development company. I take calls from clients to run basic tech support, but will also occasionally get feedback from clients as to how to improve the software, as well as develop customised modules for them.

A client is describing what they want from a custom module in a long and rambling way.

Client: “And then we want a button at the bottom to generate a report, but the report is custom to whoever presses it so that—”

Me: “[Client], this all sounds doable, but it’s quite complicated. I suggest you put down in bullet points all these features in an email, and I can go from there. If it’s based on previous modules we’ve designed for you, we should be able to get something testable in a few weeks.”

Client: “What do you mean, a few weeks? Weren’t you coding as I was talking? I heard it’s all vibe coding now! I thought you were making it as I was talking!”

Sigh…