I was asked to design a website for an antique shop and auction house.
Client: “I’d like you to build a website for my company. I’ll be able to pay you in a few months, once we start making money.”
I passed after he asked me how to tell the difference between an oil painting and a print, and whether I knew anyone who could teach him how to restore antiques.
I work for a real estate company that has offices in two states. We have just adopted a new website platform and have had a lot of frustrations with the transition. One recurring issue we are having is that the pages showing specific property listings will display names and contact information that do not belong to the agents representing those listings.
I open an email ticket with support to get this addressed.
Me: “There is an issue affecting some of our property listing pages. For properties listed by [Agent], the page is showing someone else as the listing agent and a phone number that is not her cell number, nor our office number.”
Support Person #1: “I just took a look at your account, and [Agent #1]’s ID number was entered incorrectly in our system, so I fixed it. As for the phone number, that is a number assigned to your company by our system to capture customer contact information. It can’t be changed, but don’t worry; sale leads will still be directed to the agent representing the property listing. Have a great day!”
This explanation suffices for my team, and the fix they applied seems to do the trick… until I realize the same issue is happening with a handful of other agents. I reach back out to support.
Me: “I had a ticket open about agent information displaying incorrectly on property listing pages. I have now discovered that this is still happening for the following agents: [list of names].”
Support Person #2: “I see the ticket you had open with [Support Person #1]. Unfortunately, you cannot change the phone number displayed on property listing pages. It is a number assigned to your company by our system to capture customer contact information. Don’t worry; sale leads will still be directed to the agent representing the property listing!”
Me: “Okay, that’s fine and actually not what I’m concerned about. There are a handful of agents who are not showing up on their own listings. The last support person applied a fix to correct this for one agent, so now I just need that same fix applied to these other agents.”
Support Person #2: “I have put in a request with our developers to allow you to change the phone number in the future, but unfortunately, at this time, it cannot be changed. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Me: “Okay, as I already said, I understand that the phone number can’t be changed, and I’m not concerned about that. I need to ensure that the correct agent is displaying on property listing pages. For example, [Property Listing] is currently showing that [Agent #2] is representing this listing, but they’re not. This listing is represented by [Agent #3], so [Agent #3]’s name and photo should be on this page.”
Support Person #2: “That information is actually all random. The agent displaying on the page won’t always be the agent representing the listing. If you don’t want an agent showing up on these pages at all, you can turn that off in Settings.”
They send me a screenshot showing that they have ALREADY DONE THAT in my account. I rush into my account and turn that setting back on.
Me: “Actually, we aren’t allowed to turn that off. Our regional real estate commission requires the correct information to be there. I know for a fact that it’s not random because the last support person already fixed it for me once. Also, in the example I just shared, the agent displayed on the page is not even licensed in the state the property is located in, so they couldn’t even legally represent a buyer for this property. I really need these specific people’s information to be fixed.”
Support Person #2: “Unfortunately, at this time, the phone number cannot be changed.”
They go into the same spiel about the assigned system phone number.
Me: “I understand the system phone number, and that is fine. I really need the other part of my issue addressed.”
Support Person #2: “I have put in a request to allow the phone numbers to be changed, but at this time, they can’t be. I understand that this is not an ideal solution for you, and I apologize.”
Me: “Okay, is there someone else I can speak to about this? Or maybe we could get on a video call? It seems that my actual concern here is still being misunderstood.”
Support Person #2: “Sure, I’d be happy to get on a video call with you! Here is a link…”
We get on a video call, and I am able to share my screen, show them the exact place on our website where the incorrect information is being displayed, and prove to them that in most cases, it IS displaying the way we want to and not randomly.
Support Person #2: “Okay, I do apologize for the misunderstanding. Let me reach out to the first support person you talked to and find out what fix they applied so that we can correct these other agents.”
I breathe a sigh of relief, thinking I have finally gotten through to this person… until a day later when I get this response.
Support Person #3: “Hi there. I spoke to the previous support person on this ticket, and they were able to explain that they assigned you a system phone number to match the area code of your primary office. Unfortunately, at this time, this number cannot be changed, but I have put in a request with development to allow this in the future. I understand that this is not an ideal solution for you, and I apologize for the inconvenience. Have a nice day!”
I don’t think I’ll ever head-desk any harder than I did at that moment. This conversation was primarily over email, and it would sometimes take days for Support to respond, so this entire exchange took well over a month.
I still haven’t found out how to fix the problem.
I have a client for whom we host and manage a business website, and she can pull various data reports from the website to analyse its performance, etc.
One day, she reported a bug in one of the reports: the columns weren’t showing the correct information. I looked into it and, indeed, there was a bug, resulting in the titles and contents of the columns not matching.
I fixed the bug and explained to the client in a long email exactly what the issue was and how I fixed it. She didn’t respond so I assumed all was good.
One month later, the following conversation on the phone occurs.
Client: “This report is broken. Can you have a look?”
Me: “I checked and it looks good to me. What seems to be the issue?”
Client: “It looks different from what we are used to! I’m not happy that you just changed it without telling us!”
Me: “Well, I did fix the bug you reported, and I told you in an email, so that’s why it looks different now. Did you read my email?”
Client: “You should have asked me before changing the report! It’s very confusing!”
Me: “I mean… you asked me to fix a bug… which I did.”
Client: “We can’t work with this new report because the columns look different from previous reports!”
Me: “Yes… because the column titles were wrong before, and now they are correct.”
Client: “Please revert the changes so it looks like it did before.”
Me: “Okay, can you write me an email so I have it in writing that you want me to put a bug into your system?”
Client: “Yes.”
She did. And I charged her for both removing the bug and adding it back in, so I guess it’s a win-win?
This was a redesign to add a product directory to a magazine website.
Client: “I want you to bury all the links for the magazine at the bottom of the page.”
Me: “Wait, you don’t want them in the nav bar? At all?”
Client: “No, I want the product guide to be the only thing that matters.”
Me: “What happens if someone comes to the site to subscribe to the magazine?”
Client: “F*** ’em.”
A year later, the magazine folded.
I’m working on a website for a real estate firm who have decided to branch out into financing to allow people to buy their own homes. The client tells me he’s been bankrupted eight times and is required by law to tell anyone he enters into a contract with involving money that he’s not allowed to run a business.
Me: “You’ll be offering mortgages to people to allow them to build their own homes, and you’re not allowed to be running a business?”
Client: “Yes, but I’ve told you. That’s all right, isn’t it?”
Me: “I’ll have to mention that on the website.”
Client: “Is that relevant?”
Me: “That’s relevant. I can’t begin to tell you how relevant that is right now.”
