I work in a small PR Agency that handles international clients. We have an office manager, but booking travel is handled by the teams themselves. I am very junior and have been tasked to book a flight to the US for my boss on relatively short notice, about ten days in advance.

Client: “Please book a flight for your boss to DC for our meeting.”

Me: “Are you sure you want me to do it? If we book it, you’ll have to pay our service as per the contract, but if you book it yourself, it’ll be cheaper. I give you all my boss’s data, no problem.”

Client: “You book it.”

Me: “No problem.”

I book the flight, my boss flies to DC, and attends the meeting.

At the end of the month, we send our invoice, and we get a call:

Client: “Why do I have to pay several hundred Euros on top of an already very expensive flight?!”

Me: “That’s the reason I suggested you book the flight for my boss.”

Client: “Is there anything you can do about it?”

Me: “I’ll check with the owner, but I have my doubts. Let me get back to you.”

The owner didn’t waive the fee, and the client asked in a civilized manner, so no harm done, but read your contracts and don’t outsource services that you can easily do yourself!

I had just graduated from college, and I was looking for my first freelance job. Someone from my school was kind enough to introduce me to a local business owner.

Client: “I need this done yesterday. I need a new logo and a business card, and I need them quick! I’m only gonna pay you $100 since you’re fresh out of school and I was told you’d get me a deal.”

I was annoyed, but I needed money. I agreed.

Client: “95% of my company produces gas tanks for bigrig trucks, and 5% of it is me selling vintage guitars. So, I want my logo to be a guitar. And for my business card, I’m going to give you my work number, but I don’t ever answer it. Instead, I’m going to give you my cell phone number, but I want it to be secretly hidden in the card so only special people will know what it really is.”

Terrible ideas, sure, but he wasn’t paying me enough to fight him. I banged out a guitar logo and sent him a screenshot to see if he liked it (without giving him a copy he could steal).

Two weeks later, I got a voicemail.

Client: “Hey, this is the guy you’re building the logo for. I received our email, and the logo is looking really good. But you didn’t give me your email, so I can’t get back to you. I’m not really sure how this whole ‘paying you’ thing is going to work out.”

He didn’t understand the concept of responding back to an email.

I erased the files and blocked his number. I don’t care how new I was in the field. It wasn’t worth it.

I was designing a new office for a client. I worked on the design for nearly four months; they wanted changes made almost every single day and changed the location thrice. After four months of that, as well as corresponding back and forth with various building contractors, my client called me at 12:00 midnight.

Client: “We need you to see how many more people we can fit into our current office.”

Me: “Sure, but why? We’re already halfway through the various approvals we require to start building.”

Client: “We won’t be moving into a new place until next year. We’re not renting that unit anymore.”

Me: “Um…”

Client: “We will need this by Monday.”

I work as a hairstylist. This client mentioned previously that his sixtieth birthday was coming up.

Client: “You look like you’re twelve. My nine-year-old granddaughter is your size.”

Me: “Oh, really? I get told I look young a lot.”

Client: “Are you raising your son alone?”

Me: *Taken aback* “Yes, I am.”

Client: “Well, I would marry you.”

Me: “…”

Client: “Take down the exterior photo of our store on our Twitter immediately. It looks like slum trash. Please put up a picture of the interior instead. We are high-end, I put $100,000+ into this business, and your picture doesn’t do us justice. What were you thinking?”

The client pays $300 a month for rent for their store. I’m not sure they’re as “high-end” as they think they are.