Client: “I recently saw all these A.I. generated images and it made me wonder if I can make those myself, why am I still paying you guys to draw stuff for me?”

Me: “Well, A.I. is definitely a powerful tool, I will give you that, but it still can’t match certain specifications that you can only get from a human artist.”

Client: “I think you should reduce your rates. In a market with this much competition, you should stay competitive.”

Me: “We don’t regard A.I. as competition so that won’t be happening.”

Client: “Fine! We’ll be using A.I. for our next campaign, all because you couldn’t compromise.”

Me: “We are sorry to hear that.”

A few days later we receive an email from the same client, asking if we could just “touch up” some of their “in-house artwork” for a fraction of our usual fee. Some of the requests were to “remove extra fingers”, “hide all teeth”, and rather ominously “ensure all customers in view only have one head.” 

We rejected the job.

Client: “How much would you charge to photograph my apartment for [Rental Website/App]?”

Me: “£150.”

Client: “Would you do it for £120?”

Me: “Are we haggling?”

Client: “Um, yeah… I guess so.”

Me: “Okay, let’s start again.”

Client: “Pardon?”

Me: “Ask me again. I didn’t realize we were haggling.”

Client: “Okay… Um… how much would you charge to photograph my apartment for [Rental Website/App]?”

Me: “£300.”

Client: “We’re really pleased with how the social media campaign is going. People are really responding well to the images especially, and we know we have new customers as a direct result.”

Me: “Yes, it’s really gaining momentum, and it’s great that you can see the results. So, I take it you’d like to keep going?”

Client: “Oh, yes, we wouldn’t want to stop now. We’d like to do at least another six months. But we don’t want to pay you for it. After all, you’re only basically messing around on Facebook and Twitter; you can just slot our stuff in between your other clients.”

Related:
Why Didn’t You Do It Yourself, Then?

I am running through some requirements from a client we are designing a website for. We also host websites online for clients.

Client: “Oh! And we want our website to be on the cloud!”

Me: “Uh… by their nature all websites are, kinda on the cloud? I mean, they’re all always online.”

Client: “Yes but my boss told me to specifically tell you that he wants it on the cloud. All the modern stuff is on the cloud these days and he also told me to say he won’t be paying any extra for it.”

Me: “That’s… fine? I can assure you that any website we design and host for you will be… on the cloud.”

Client: “Oh! Good! We heard that the cloud is the place to be!” 

Me: “It sure is!”

I worked as a graphic designer for this client for almost two weeks. I asked them what they needed, and they were able to provide me with a detailed brief. Despite the brief containing something about using a “web builder” in WordPress, I made my point that my job was to simply provide them with mockups and they would need to find someone else who would integrate the design that I did in WordPress. They agreed, so I did the job. They liked every layout I did, so I was able to complete the JPEGs quicker than expected.

Me: “Hi! I’m done with the designs and have sent them to you.”

Client: “That was fast. Thank you!”

Five minutes later…

Client: “Why are they not working? I need you to upload the files to this domain and make it work before I show it to my boss.”

Me: “What? My contract was to provide design and images, not to code the site.”

Client: “This is urgent! My boss needs to see it live as soon as possible! She needs to click on the pages and check if they’re all working before she presents it to her friend.”

Me: “The coding was not in our agreement.”

Client: “You can’t possibly let me show these to my boss!”

It took us almost an hour to settle this dispute. It came to a point where my client was begging me to code the project (which I don’t do) or find someone else. I soon realized that they were expecting me to do everything despite the agreement. I bailed after that.