I was running social media for a small, but nationwide, retail chain. They haven’t updated their marketing in several years, and they came to me to help bring in younger consumers since their current customers tend to be retirees.

After going through six weeks of writing drafts, making edits, and getting approvals, we are finally ready to start posting — only two weeks behind schedule.

A few days after I start posting content to their channels, I get a frantic phone call.

Client: “All of the Facebook posts you’ve made need to be deleted, immediately!”

Me: “Okay, I’ll pull everything down now. What seems to be the problem? I thought everything had been approved.”

Client: “Yes, but we decided that the messaging was too off-brand. It sounds too ‘young’, and we think it might scare off our current customers.”

Me: “According to my documents, you already approved and signed off on the entire campaign several weeks ago. We’ve already started running ads on Facebook and Twitter with this messaging.”

Client: “Those ads need to stop, too. Just because we’ve approved something, it doesn’t mean we’ve read it. From now on, you need to double-check everything we approve to make sure it fits the brand outline we provided.”

The project ended a few months later when a higher-ranking manager at the client’s company contacted us to let us know that the person who hired us failed to get approval to outsource social media before signing the contract.

My friend’s E-Sports team manager wants a new logo, and my friend asks me if I want to do it. The manager wants to remain anonymous, so he is using my friend as a middleman. I have never met him before.

Me: “So, what kind of design does he want for his logo?”

Friend: “He says, ‘Make a design that you think I will like. I’m going on vacation for about a week, so I’ll look at what you have made when I get back.'”

Me: “Can you please ask him for any ideas that he has for this logo, like colors or symbols?”

Friend: “He said, ‘Something E-Sporty.'”

I used to work for a well-known photography studio as a photographer. We were always swamped between October and May, so we called frequently to confirm and remind people of their appointments.

The day before Easter, I called one client to confirm. There was no answer, so I left a message. On the day of the appointment, I called in the morning about four hours before the appointment time. Again, there was no answer, so I left another message informing them that if they did not show, they would lose their appointment.

Six hours later as I was closing up, the client arrived with about ten people total, demanding that they have their appointment.

Me: “I’m sorry, but you’ve missed your appointment. I called to confirm, and you didn’t answer or return my messages to say you would be running late.”

Client: “We were waiting for family who had to fly in. They are on their way now. This is very unprofessional of you! You should have known we would be late because we didn’t answer.”

I work for a corporate identity firm.

Client: “I don’t like it. Make the text in the middle bigger, but leave the blue box around the word the same.”

Me: “I can’t do that. I have to scale the full object, or else it would go against your branding standard and the EPS you sent us. It would look wrong.”

Client: “Those don’t apply to this. Why is this so hard for you, a designer, to understand? Just make the text bigger and leave the box the same!”

Me: “I’m going to have to get you to sign off on these changes before we send them to be manufactured. Please find the attached approval form. Once again, I do not recommend this modification.”

Client: “We need this installed next week. I don’t have time to argue with you! Just make it the way I asked.”

The client forwards back the signed approval form.

Later, during installation…

Client: “This looks horrible! Why didn’t you tell me it would look so different?!”

I forward all the emails warning the client, detailed measurements, the changes from the original EPS, and the signed approval from him and his Vice President for the changes.

Client: “Well, I’m not paying for this. It looks completely wrong!”

At 8:42 pm, I receive a text message from a client. 

Client: “I’ve got a 9:00 am conference with [Person] from [Big Corporation]. A BONUS for you if you can finish both of my videos TONIGHT! REMEMBER, I am FINANCING this out of my POCKET!”

Me: “What kind of bonus are we talking about? You know I have to stay up all night to finish them, and I have no direction for the second video, so it will be my writing.”

Client: “$20 extra?”

Me: “An hour?”

Client: “Oh, no! REMEMBER, I am FINANCING this out of my POCKET!”

Me: “You will have your videos in TWO DAYS like we planned.”