Friggin'....fraccckkking.....GAH!

[secondlina]

Okay - Old contract person tells me he really needs me to refinish old drawings on a contract completed 4 months ago. Sure. I say yes. Then he tells me it's mega urgent. So I get it done on the same day. THEN he expresses how he dislikes the refinish I did and asks me to change things in the image that litterally calls for me to re-draw it. FINISH the job at 4am this morning. Goes into work half-asleep. Sent Invoice and drawing. Guy sends back drawing asking for more changes and claims he will not pay me since I only re-tweaked a drawing and it  (and I quote) *Can't possibly take that long*

*Isa brain twitch*

Should I -

• Try to explain to him that I require payment and that I had to re-draw the thing and that I won't do any other changes before he pays me.
• Tell him politly to keep this drawing since he already has it and doesn't want to pay me but that I won't make any more changes or deal with him again due to this attitude he has and has had in the past.
• Tell him to stick the drawing where the sun don't shine and never deal with him again.

One of the reasons I decided to pause my contract work was because I was tired of dealing people who think making a drawing is like typing a word document. OBVIOUSLY, it takes FIVE SECONDS and if you don't like an inked section, you can just hit the backspace button and ink it again! Yooooweeeeeh! Drawing is, after all, a portal to a magical land where no work is required to create something that looks exactly how it does in your head!

Fuck this guy.

Have some Slayers Fluff to counter-balance my foul mood.



-Isa

p.s. I'm aware that i'm exagerating and that he's not that bad but iv'e had 2 hours of sleep, my REAL boss is riding my ass and this guy just sent me five emails asking when i'm gonna be done when I clearly told him I am at work and cannot complete this task. He's a moron.

Comments

[ichiban-victory.livejournal.com]

Possibly tell him that yes, drawings take a LONG time to do properly. I'd also tell him I'd not do anything else without any sort of payment since he's already gotten plenty of work out of you already. Or, you can always tell him you quit and if it's so easy, he can draw it exactly how he likes it!

Good luck surviving the work day. Sounds like you're going to need a lot of stress relief...

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

I'm agreeing with Ichi here. No more work until more money is in hand.

Tell him that you require payment and that you had to re-draw it and that you won't do any further changes before he pays.

Tell him politely that if he won't pay to keep this drawing since he already has it, and that this completes the existing contract.

Furthermore, tell him that your costs are going up, and that should he wish further work, it will be at a new contract with new contract rates and that the new contract will have:
a) 30% downpayment due prior to any work begun,
b) an expiration date, and
c) a clause that won't allow for further modifications over 20% two weeks prior to expiration.

Post expiration revisions will require a new contract.

..can you tell that I am an accountant?

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

.....oooh, I like these. I think I may include them in my future contracts. Thanks for the tip! I already set expiration dates on my contracts, but I like the idea of setting a downpayment. A lot of people refuse to give artists down payments. I already got the *If you ask for money, you're not an artist* line thrown at me. WTF? Dude, I'm humana and I need to eat. Art does not feed.

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

If anybody says "If you ask for money, you're not an artist" the proper response should be, "if you refuse to pay, you're not a customer."

Or even better, "... you're not a patron of the arts."

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Not a problem! :)

I understand your 'art does not feed' line. I stopped taking most costuming/jewelry commissions because people weren't willing to pay upfront and I would have to go buy that which they wanted me to use.

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

This is fantastic advice. *jots it down for my own freelance stuff*

[eveshka.livejournal.com]

Glad to be of service! ^_^

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

No more contracts man. At least no more from this guy.

[chaos-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Oh so much cutness

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

thanks.

[neshel.livejournal.com]

I would explain it to him and demand your money. I would then say that if he pays you, you will make more changes, but that after this you won't be working with him anymore.

If he grovels and offers you heaps of money you can, of course, change your mind about that last part. But I think that seems unlikely.

*hugs*

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

This seems like the most business-like response.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

What sucks is that I had two guys ask me to do stuff yesterday and I chose this jerk over the other guy that I like and who pays me.

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

Damn.

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

He'll most likely just find another sucker to draw for him. *is angry*

[fenmere.livejournal.com]

Every time I see this post it makes me so angry! Don't take it down on my account, I'm just commiserating, but I've had enough bad experiences with commissions that I'm kind of shell shocked from them I guess.

I suppose you have to be somewhat thick skinned to be a business owner (or at least to do contract work). But there have got to be some good ways to filter out those clients with time or head them off at the pass. Contracts are supposed to be for that, but the bad customers seem to ignore them. I'd imagine market demographics might have something to do with it, so if you aim for the right kind of people you'll get less trouble, but it also seems that every business owner I know has to deal with them sooner or later (even and especially in retail).

[auriga]

Bah, how frustrating! The guy obviously has no concept of what it takes to draw something...I think it's incredibly unfair that he's refusing to pay you after all that work. Does somebody feel entitled, or what? XP

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Honestly, from the sounds of it, nothing you draw will be good enough for him. You have already wasted time and effort correcting the drawing more than twice, and he hasn't even paid you. I think you should just terminate the contract. Be nice about it; tell him thank you for the opportunity, but it looks like that what he wants isn't something that you can create for him. I would also ask for the drawings you sent, so that he won't be able to use those drawings at a later date and cheat you.

People like this, no matter how good you are, will never be satisfied. While I wouldn't quit contract work as a whole, I would for this asshole.

[inverce.livejournal.com]

Wow! I'm so glad its not just me this happens to!
As much as telling them to stuff it would be better to go with option 1 lol.
I've never told someone off but i get my replies get shorter and shorter (never rude!) and I guess they sense this and think i'm being difficult- even though I make the blasted changes!
sigh oh well. "of course drawing isnt real work" so why should they pay us? grrr

[earthstar-moon.livejournal.com]

*bands head against desk* The guy clearly doesn't realize how much time it takes to create one drawing, but I agree with Diane and the others. No more work until you get paid. If the worse case scenario happens and he ends up not paying in the end, at least you know you won't have to deal with him anymore.

Also, love the fluff. Very cute! ^_^

[dqbunny.livejournal.com]

Both Diane and eveshka are absolutely right. Heck, if the guy wanted a witness to you redrawing the stuff, YOU WERE TALKING TO ME. I know for a fact what day and time you were working on this and can detail the changes since you didn't list what they were in the post. HA. Take that, Mr. Mean Contract Guy.

But seriously? I had to drop contract work because of the same thing back in February. I wasn't sent all the materials, then the person wanting it never paid the down payment and disappeared for a month, then wanted to know where her designs were. I just walked away and chalked it up to a lesson learned. Your priority is making sure to get through your day job and if your contract people don't respect you enough to realize that, they're not people to do business with.

*curls toes and enjoys the fluff*

[secondlina.livejournal.com]

I figure that you probably should've agreed on a price for the first fix up before you actually started working on it. Urgent or not, some procedures are good to keep. Especially if he gave you some trouble in the past.

But I think you should contact the guy and tell him that you fully expect him to pay you for the re-finishing job you did (a little description of what you did do and the amount of time it took you to do it as well as describing the fact that you stayed up so late for it wouldn't be a bad idea either) and tell him that if he expects you to rework the drawings once more you're not going to do it till you get payed for the first part and till you both agreed on another amount for the second retouches.

If he disagrees, tell him that those are the terms your offering him and that if he's not happy with them, he can just go find himself another artist to exploit.

You deserve better than that.
Hell, it's not like your in desperate need of money or anything.

Anyways.

Ciao

Link

[snapdragon76.livejournal.com]

OMG, what an asshole. Obviously he's never dealt with anyone with artistic talent before in order to realize that they can't just crank out a decent piece in no time flat. I give him Mordecai's STFU glare.

As for your options, I do think you should ask for your payment. I mean, this was a paying job and you busted your ass for it and deserve compensation.

Our company recently had a de-stressing seminar. Maybe I should send you some of the info...


Stay zen girl!

[(Anonymous)]

Get your money and then don't deal with the idiot ever again!

OR

Treat him like a idiot and explain VERY slowly everything to him and then make him pay!

Just get your money!!

~BallSabre