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Hi guys, been a rather chaotic time for me, so I haven't been able to post a lot lately. Sorry. Between attempting to actually have enough money for groceries (that crisis was averted) and trying to restrain myself from punching our insurance in the face.... not much time to do anything else.
Trying to Pull One Over, Eh?
Client orders a premade template, and is told it'll be 24-48 hours to install, but to please understand I'm in a bit of a swamp right now with orders. 36 hours in, the coder tells me that he's working on installing the design right now, should be done soon. Its like midnight my time, so I said thanks, and head to bed.
The next morning I wake up to a MASSIVE amount of emails from the client, screaming that the design wasn't done, where is it, he wants a full refund. Half awake, I go to his site, and sure enough, no design. I freak, and tell him I'm investigating right now. I frantically call the coder and its like WTF IS GOING ON. Client is still demanding constantly that I give him a refund now, he's very upset, blah blah.
Coder responds "Huh? I did his design last night....Um, I just logged in to the admin panel, and you can see in the log where HE logged in, browsed a bit, then specifically went in and turned the design off, then on, then off."
Eye twitching at this point, I told the client our findings. He immediately stopped yelling, and said "I have no idea what you're talking about. I did NO such thing." I asked for him to stay right there, I'd be right back with a screenshot momentarily, of the admin logs.
Client promptly logs off, blocks me on instant messenger, and then IP bans both me and the coder off his server.
Yeaaaah, I figured he "didn't know". Right. :P
I seriously hate you
Client contacts me looking to get a rather large website project done.
Red flags are everywhere, as he purchased a rather cheaply priced script in the first place. The standard script that almost EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY CLIENTS uses. And yet, here he is bragging about how he's using "top notch custom programming" for his site. Erm, I know exactly what you bought, and no, you didn't "spend a pretty penny". You spent like $50.
Then, he asks for a complete web design, "all the bells and whistles, money is NO OBJECT! I need to make my website stand out!". I give him a quote for a few custom pages, about...$1100. He IMMEDIATELY accepts the estimate, too fast to have even glanced at it. When I say immediately, it was pretty much as soon as he opened the email.
I question him if there's anything he'd like to change. "No, this is GREAT! Just what I wanted. Now, I can't afford to give you the deposit you asked for, but I'll give you $100 now, and in a few months when my site is making money, I'll start sending you $100 a month until its all paid off! Good? Good. Now where do I send the money?"
I declined and said maybe he should look elsewhere. You'd think this was the end of it, right?
Nope, he promptly makes a new email and tries again. I went with it up, even making a second estimate, before I realized. He throws a fit that "my prices aren't going down", and I figure out who it is. I blocked him again.
He ended up trying twice more before finally sending me a nasty rant about how I need to work with his money, because nobody else will, and now he's at his "last choice".
Yeah well, up yours, buddyroo.
Deny, Deny, And Maybe Reality Will Change
Client: I'd like to get a custom made graphic, sorta like this <insert high detailed graphic I'd done for another client>
Seraph: Sure, things like that start at $35, can you give me some further details?
Client: No, I'm sure you have a premade graphic you will change a bit for me, and give it to me for $5. Where do I paypal you?
Seraph: Um, no, its all custom work for these, no premades. They start at $35.
Client: Where do I paypal my $5 to?
Seraph: You mean $35, right?
Client: You just aren't getting this, are you?
Seraph: I'm pretty sure you're not the one getting this. $35, starting price, nonnegotiable. Now excuse me, I have paying clients. :P
You do not comprehend STEALING, do you?!
So, I'm surfing the forum where I commonly find people attempting to pirate my work, and surprise surprise, I find some guy in the graphic designers section, bragging about his new design for sale. Its...remarkably similar to mine. To the point you can see where he traced over, and stole text off mine. Amused, I post a joke about how I appreciate that he likes my work so much he felt the need to try and make his own version.
His response was to call my work uninspired and trivial, and that his design was unique and far superior to anything I could make.
Oh. You. Did. NOT.
I promptly whipped up a side by side comparison, highlighted where he copied and stole...and also sent off a round of PMs to the forum admins. You see...while these guys steal from me CONSTANTLY, they also have a large amount of respect for me.
ThiefDesigner tries to get nasty at me, throwing insults and saying that he didn't steal from me....but once he gets a look at the side-by-side, he admits that yes, he did copy my work. But, you know, since he made the copy in photoshop, that now means that its HIS design, not mine. So he's not violating any copyrights.
...Seriously? How dumb do you have to be to believe that for a second?!
In a rather short amount of time, the thread became a very, very popular one as various members of the forum joined in the discussion to dogpile on Thief and point out what a horrible attempt it was, and that he should be ashamed. (No, the irony of a pack of thieves calling out a thief did not escape me, lol.)
A few minutes later, one of the admins popped in, removed the link to the copy, apologized to me , told off Thief , and then closed the whole thing down. Thief is pretty much unable to show his face there any more, he's tried making a couple of threads since the incident, but is now always met with a "did you steal this off of Seraph too?"
He's quite upset, and blames me for "ruining his reputation".... Because, you know, I totally forced him to copy my work and make an idiot out of himself.
Sorriest "Hacker" Ever
So, again, I have premade templates, with a paypal checkout system that's not exactly...sophisticated. Doesn't bother me though, because I have to manually approve all orders anyways, to process them.
This gets to be especially fun when I get idiots who think they're so clever by manipulating the Paypal checkout system. This guy was a CLASSIC.
I get a notification that I have a rush order that was just placed. These need to be done within 8 hours, and as such, are expensive. I check over the order, and notice that instead of the typical $125....he paid 1 cent. One Canadian cent to boot.
Laughing, I deny the order and email him letting him know that not only have I denied it, but that he's now earned a ban across all sites I own.......and I'll be keeping the penny.
Within minutes he emails me back, claiming he has no idea what I am talking about, that he "paid in full", blah blah. I actually got up and left at this point, figuring its not even worth fighting.
I came back an hour later to check my email, and notice that he's sent me not one, not two, but nine emails demanding his penny back. He admitted that yes, he tried scamming me, but that I "had no right to hold his money hostage" after his failure. He even threatened to call Paypal about it.
I told him to do just that, and that I'm sure they'd love to see proof that he tried cheating their checkout system.
....He didn't reply back after that.
Trying to Pull One Over, Eh?
Client orders a premade template, and is told it'll be 24-48 hours to install, but to please understand I'm in a bit of a swamp right now with orders. 36 hours in, the coder tells me that he's working on installing the design right now, should be done soon. Its like midnight my time, so I said thanks, and head to bed.
The next morning I wake up to a MASSIVE amount of emails from the client, screaming that the design wasn't done, where is it, he wants a full refund. Half awake, I go to his site, and sure enough, no design. I freak, and tell him I'm investigating right now. I frantically call the coder and its like WTF IS GOING ON. Client is still demanding constantly that I give him a refund now, he's very upset, blah blah.
Coder responds "Huh? I did his design last night....Um, I just logged in to the admin panel, and you can see in the log where HE logged in, browsed a bit, then specifically went in and turned the design off, then on, then off."
Eye twitching at this point, I told the client our findings. He immediately stopped yelling, and said "I have no idea what you're talking about. I did NO such thing." I asked for him to stay right there, I'd be right back with a screenshot momentarily, of the admin logs.
Client promptly logs off, blocks me on instant messenger, and then IP bans both me and the coder off his server.
Yeaaaah, I figured he "didn't know". Right. :P
I seriously hate you
Client contacts me looking to get a rather large website project done.
Red flags are everywhere, as he purchased a rather cheaply priced script in the first place. The standard script that almost EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY CLIENTS uses. And yet, here he is bragging about how he's using "top notch custom programming" for his site. Erm, I know exactly what you bought, and no, you didn't "spend a pretty penny". You spent like $50.
Then, he asks for a complete web design, "all the bells and whistles, money is NO OBJECT! I need to make my website stand out!". I give him a quote for a few custom pages, about...$1100. He IMMEDIATELY accepts the estimate, too fast to have even glanced at it. When I say immediately, it was pretty much as soon as he opened the email.
I question him if there's anything he'd like to change. "No, this is GREAT! Just what I wanted. Now, I can't afford to give you the deposit you asked for, but I'll give you $100 now, and in a few months when my site is making money, I'll start sending you $100 a month until its all paid off! Good? Good. Now where do I send the money?"
I declined and said maybe he should look elsewhere. You'd think this was the end of it, right?
Nope, he promptly makes a new email and tries again. I went with it up, even making a second estimate, before I realized. He throws a fit that "my prices aren't going down", and I figure out who it is. I blocked him again.
He ended up trying twice more before finally sending me a nasty rant about how I need to work with his money, because nobody else will, and now he's at his "last choice".
Yeah well, up yours, buddyroo.
Deny, Deny, And Maybe Reality Will Change
Client: I'd like to get a custom made graphic, sorta like this <insert high detailed graphic I'd done for another client>
Seraph: Sure, things like that start at $35, can you give me some further details?
Client: No, I'm sure you have a premade graphic you will change a bit for me, and give it to me for $5. Where do I paypal you?
Seraph: Um, no, its all custom work for these, no premades. They start at $35.
Client: Where do I paypal my $5 to?
Seraph: You mean $35, right?
Client: You just aren't getting this, are you?
Seraph: I'm pretty sure you're not the one getting this. $35, starting price, nonnegotiable. Now excuse me, I have paying clients. :P
You do not comprehend STEALING, do you?!
So, I'm surfing the forum where I commonly find people attempting to pirate my work, and surprise surprise, I find some guy in the graphic designers section, bragging about his new design for sale. Its...remarkably similar to mine. To the point you can see where he traced over, and stole text off mine. Amused, I post a joke about how I appreciate that he likes my work so much he felt the need to try and make his own version.
His response was to call my work uninspired and trivial, and that his design was unique and far superior to anything I could make.
Oh. You. Did. NOT.
I promptly whipped up a side by side comparison, highlighted where he copied and stole...and also sent off a round of PMs to the forum admins. You see...while these guys steal from me CONSTANTLY, they also have a large amount of respect for me.
ThiefDesigner tries to get nasty at me, throwing insults and saying that he didn't steal from me....but once he gets a look at the side-by-side, he admits that yes, he did copy my work. But, you know, since he made the copy in photoshop, that now means that its HIS design, not mine. So he's not violating any copyrights.
...Seriously? How dumb do you have to be to believe that for a second?!
In a rather short amount of time, the thread became a very, very popular one as various members of the forum joined in the discussion to dogpile on Thief and point out what a horrible attempt it was, and that he should be ashamed. (No, the irony of a pack of thieves calling out a thief did not escape me, lol.)
A few minutes later, one of the admins popped in, removed the link to the copy, apologized to me , told off Thief , and then closed the whole thing down. Thief is pretty much unable to show his face there any more, he's tried making a couple of threads since the incident, but is now always met with a "did you steal this off of Seraph too?"
He's quite upset, and blames me for "ruining his reputation".... Because, you know, I totally forced him to copy my work and make an idiot out of himself.
Sorriest "Hacker" Ever
So, again, I have premade templates, with a paypal checkout system that's not exactly...sophisticated. Doesn't bother me though, because I have to manually approve all orders anyways, to process them.
This gets to be especially fun when I get idiots who think they're so clever by manipulating the Paypal checkout system. This guy was a CLASSIC.
I get a notification that I have a rush order that was just placed. These need to be done within 8 hours, and as such, are expensive. I check over the order, and notice that instead of the typical $125....he paid 1 cent. One Canadian cent to boot.
Laughing, I deny the order and email him letting him know that not only have I denied it, but that he's now earned a ban across all sites I own.......and I'll be keeping the penny.
Within minutes he emails me back, claiming he has no idea what I am talking about, that he "paid in full", blah blah. I actually got up and left at this point, figuring its not even worth fighting.
I came back an hour later to check my email, and notice that he's sent me not one, not two, but nine emails demanding his penny back. He admitted that yes, he tried scamming me, but that I "had no right to hold his money hostage" after his failure. He even threatened to call Paypal about it.
I told him to do just that, and that I'm sure they'd love to see proof that he tried cheating their checkout system.
....He didn't reply back after that.
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