PREVIOUSLY: The Customer Is NOT “Always Right”.

If you thought THAT was bad, check this one out! This is much longer and is a larger image, so apologies to those who are reading this over a slow internet connection. But it’s worth reading through the entire exchange:

Breakdown time.

So once again we have the two people, A: the person who wants the blanket, and B: the person who makes blankets. Now, I don’t know anything about these people (just like yesterday’s post, this is actually a post I’ve had unfinished in my draft folder for quite some time, so I don’t even remember where I originally got it from), but they clearly don’t know each other and have never done business before.

So A contacts B via Instagram at 11:18pm. Now we don’t know exactly when the next attempt was made, it just says “today” at 12:12pm. But however long it was, it was clearly not so long that A started looking into other options to get this blanket made. Instead, when B does reply, A immediately cops an attitude. Frankly, B probably should have just told A to stuff it right then.

The attitude continues when A explains what he wants. “You do know what that is right?” But of course gets much worse when B gives their price.

Look, I am someone who has solicited artwork from many amateur artists that I’ve found online over the years. Some artists I’ve had to pass on because their prices were too high for me. There are also some artists that I stopped buying from because they raised their prices higher than I was willing to pay. And that’s fine. If someone is out of my price-range I don’t know start arguing with them, telling them that they’re charging too much and that I could art from others for cheaper than that. I can’t draw, which means I’m forced to rely on others to draw for me. These people all have the right to set whatever price they choose for their talent and labor and I, certainly as a non-artist, don’t get to decide for them what their talent is worth.

But that’s what A does here. He doesn’t think B.’s price is reasonable. He argues he could get a cheaper blanket at Walmart and that other crocheters  can do it cheaper. But instead of going to Walmart or finding some other crocheters he continues to insult B. Now, like me with art, A obviously can’t do this himself, yet he seems to think it’s reasonable for him to insist that someone else should charge to do it for him. He even demands a discount. Then he just declares “here’s what we are going to do” and orders B to get the material “ON SALE ONLY” and says he’ll pay an amount that over 80% less than what B wants. The entitlement here is just mind-blowing. A doesn’t even try to negotiate nicely, or do something like offer to find and buy the martial himself and ship that to B, so B can’t take that out of their price. No, he just tries to dictate terms and price to B, then threatens to expose B when B doesn’t comply.

Well, if anyone should be exposed it’s A. I wish B didn’t block out his name, I’d have problem sharing it, as I’ve done with such things before. Let this clown stand by his words, since he thinks he’s so right.

The bottom line is, when approaching a freelancer for work online, treat them with respect.