Today's fun:
1.
The badge inserts that were sent to the printer ahead of schedule and all according to my design were halted today. They finally decided they'd add some drink tickets. All along they've whined about keeping costs low, but now that the show is nigh, they're panicking and the money gates are opening. Never mind months of asking, "Are you SURE you don't want drink tix?" No, let's wait until we literally have to stop the presses.
2.
My main contact at the company is from a design background. She supervises look and feel. Since they've pulled the Look/Feel internal she's been the one linking their design department and me. Today she pulled some shit on me about how the process has broken down and she's getting pieces thrown at her that she didn't know about. This was on speaker phone with High Intensity, our company's VP in charge of the show. I came right back and said, "That was all included in the Design Instruction document I gave you at the beginning of this whole process." (which I took two and a half hours to create and has likely never been seen by their designers...)
She responded in a really nice voice, "Oh, I'm not blaming you at all, OTRgirl! I just need dates associated when you send me things." This was all about Entrance Units and Impact Units that were due for production today. She claimed she never heard about the Impact Units and I hadn't been clear about them being different than the Entrance Units. BULLSHIT.
After finishing up and sending some other stuff to her tonight for morning approval, I sent this email (cc'ing High Intensity):
I thought I had the Production drawings with me at home, but I don't. On 3/31 at 9:22 pm I sent you an email titled "Drawings for Entrance Units/Impact Units". The three pdfs are there including one titled "Impact Unit".
For some reason, webmail isn't letting me forward sent mail with attachments, so I can't just send it to you. Sorry!
Hope that helps.
I'm so ready to go back to a boutique design agency and work closely with smaller companies and decision makers! This company is a STUPID seven-headed hydra that won't stay tamed!!! (Don't worry, Jrex, just venting. I'll stick with the 401(k) for a while longer.
5 comments:
Not that I am happy you are having these issues with your client, but it is somewhat comforting to know that I am not the only one with clients like that, the big yellow box pulls that shit on us all the time.
Got your message this morning. good to year your voice. I am ok....
jf
This is cold comfort, but the show will be done soon and then you can shake the dust from your feet. And you covered your company remarkably well in the midst of the conf. call and the later e-mail. Not your problem if they can't read their own e-mail.
Grrr.
Also, not always better with the smaller guys. I'm ready to flee and just go work the night shift at Wegman's because I'd like a living wage and health insurance that doesn't suck with the intensity of a million black holes.
(Maybe that was a little overwritten. But not thaaaat much.)
Oy. The client sounds awful. I would find it very hard to keep my cool in those circumstances.
It will be over soon, right? You should book a spa weekend when it's finished.
Oh, the beauty of emails and internet... I've had people come back to me and say, "It's not my fault... I'm not saying it's yours but I never got 'such' and 'such'" Then I pull up the email I sent, re-send it, this time cc'ing a few choice people... or better yet, send the CONFIRMATION they sent back to me, cc'ing a few choice people and say, "I assumed that this confirmation meant that you received the information. I apologize if that wasn't the case."
Aaargh. It's almost over... it's almost over... I hope they give you a BIG FAT BONUS for this project.
I'm sorry that you are having such a bad client experience. Can you not like cuss her?
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