I used to do freelance web design. I met with a new client one day, and we talked about her website. The site in question was supposed to be for an online catering service.

Me: “Okay. I will need the product descriptions for each one of your dishes.”

She takes out a large notebook.

Client: “I have the text right here.”

Me: “But this is all handwritten. I will need this in DOC format.”

Client: “Can’t you just scan it?”

Me: “No, it has to be typed on a computer so I can paste the text into the site.”

Client: “Well, here you go. You type it.”

She tries to hand me the notebook.

Me: “There are more than fifty pages in there. My job is to make websites, not to transcribe notebooks. You’ll have to transcribe it yourself and hand me a DOC file with—”

Client: “But this will take me at least three days! Can’t you just do it?”

Me: “Well, I’m not going to transcribe a notebook of handwritten text for you. I’m assuming you won’t even pay for a job like this, as it will cost you more than your budget affords.”

Client: “Can’t you just do it for free?”

Me: “No.”

Client: “But it will take me a lot of time to type all this on a computer. I’m not a fast typer.”

Me: “I’m sure you understand that I am also not thrilled about the idea of wasting my holidays transcribing all that text.”

A week later, she called me and accused me of ruining her holidays with boring transcribing.

(I do transcribing from home, and a potential customer inquires about rates.)

Customer: “What will it cost to transcribe this interview?”

Me: “It will be [amount] per recorded minute; how long is it?”

Customer: “[Amount] per minute? What if it takes you an hour to transcribe ten minutes? Why should I pay so much?”

Me: “It’s [amount] per recorded minute; the rate is based on how long the recording is, not how long it takes me.”

Customer: “I don’t know why I should pay so much if I don’t know how fast you’ll work.”

Me: “Here’s a link to [transcription service that charges more than I do]; I understand they work very fast.”

(I take in a high volume of manuscripts to edit. I don’t offer discounts or deals because of the high volume of work I receive, and because my prices are already a little bit below the average cost. This has never been an issue for any of my customers in the past.)

Author: “Hi. I would like to price out how much it will cost to have two of my books edited.”

Me: “The pricing is on the website. Pricing is typically done by word for proofreading, and by page for content editing, at size 12 font, 1.5 space, 8.5 x 11 page size.”

Author: “Yeah, I saw that, but I figured I could get a discount since I have two books.”

Me: “Unfortunately, I do not offer discounts, because I already have a backlog of work. My pricing is quite fair, though.”

Author: “What if I gave you five books to edit?”

Me: “You would be paying for five books, then, and I would give you an estimated date of delivery for the completed work.”

Author: “Fine. Just charge me for the two books.”

(I get the word count from the author.)

Me: “All right, this is what your price would be based on the information you gave me.”

Author: “That’s fine, I guess. I’ll send you the files.”

Me: “Okay, once I get your deposit, I will give you an estimated date of delivery for the completed work.”

Author: “Okay.”

(I get the payment notification and the email with the files in it, but there are ten separate documents attached.)

Me: “Oh, did you mean to send me ten files? Which two did you want to have edited?”

Author: “I figured you could just go ahead and give me your take on the others.”

Me: “I can look at the other files, if you pay for the other eight.”

Author: “Why?! That doesn’t seem fair! I sent them to you! You have to look at them!”

Me: *head-desk* “Okay, I really don’t have time for this. I will refund your money and you can find another editor.”

Author: “No! My friends said you were the best! I want you to look at my books!”

Me: “I am not playing this game with you. I am not going to waste any more time explaining the concept of you getting the exact amount of work that you pay for. If you don’t understand it, you can try your hand at editing your own work.”

Author: “I just want you to look at the other books for me! I don’t think it’s unfair to ask you to look at a few other files, since I just paid you to look at a couple already! It’s not that hard!”

Me: *cancels the order* “Okay, I just canceled your order. You should see an email within the next few hours. Good luck with your writing.”

Author: “But why?!”

(I work as a freelance editor, including editing CVs and cover letters for jobs. I had a client ask me to improve his CV, “make it sound fancy and good,” as well as to write a cover letter for his applications, primarily for a teaching assistant job. I rewrote almost all of the CV and an impressive cover letter. About two months later I receive a phone call from him.)

Client: “I’d like a refund for the work you did.”

Me: “I’m sorry, what’s wrong?”

Client: “It’s been two months, and I still can’t get a job. The CV and cover letter are s***.”

Me: “You were happy with both when I delivered them, and also it clearly states in the contract that I do not offer refunds and that there is no guarantee of employment.”

Client: “The reason I’m not getting the jobs is because of this s*** you wrote. I want my money back.”

Me: “I’m sorry, but I don’t see how what I wrote would prevent you from getting a job. Are you sure there’s no other reason?”

Client: “No! I even had my brother look over the CV and he said it was s*** and it’s why I wasn’t getting a job. He’s a professional editor too, and he knows this s***.”

Me: “If your brother is a professional, then why did you hire me instead of him?”

Client: “Because he’s busy with a real job, unlike you!”

Me: “Look, I’m sorry, but unless you can prove to me that I somehow voided our contract, I am not giving you a refund.”

Client: “I CAN prove it!”

(The client continued to bug me until I agreed to meet up with him and go through his application form, proving that it was the CV and not him. I watched as he filled in every detail without any worries, until we reached the problem question.)

Me: “Wait, you’ve put that you have a criminal conviction?”

Client: “Oh… yeah… A couple of years ago I got arrested for assault. But it was total bull-s***. She was a lying b****.”

Me: “You’re applying to work in a school with an assault charge. That’ll be why they’re not hiring you.”

Client: “No, because I tell them first.”

Me: “You tell them?”

Client: “Yeah, in the cover letter. I added a note at the end saying that the assault charge was false.”

Me: “But you were found guilty?”

Client: “Yeah, that’s just because my kid said she saw me do it.”

Me: “Okay, it doesn’t matter to the employer whether you claim it to be true or not. You were convicted, you were found guilty, so they take that as truth and won’t hire you to work with children.”

Client: “But it wasn’t true.”

Me: “But the school will believe it is.”

Client: “But I tell them first it ain’t.”

(We went around in circles for a while until I just got up and left. He continued to harass me for a while, and even threatened to sue. Needless to say, nothing ever came of it. As far as I’m aware, he’s had a couple jobs, not in schools thankfully, but lost all of them.)

Client: “This is not what we requested at all. This [document] looks exactly the same as we provided a week ago. The deadline is tomorrow, we need this ASAP! When can you apply the edits?”

Me: “[Client], there seems to be a misunderstanding. I click the link and see the entirely new document. Have you checked this [link]?”

Client: “Found it. This should have been sent sooner.”

Me: “There were three versions sent earlier during the week to your email. Did you not receive them? Just to show, I’ve attached screenshots of the timestamps and emails sent.”

Client: “I did not scroll down to see the emails in Gmail. Please notify us earlier if I haven’t seemed to have noticed the link in your opinion.”

Me: “…”