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I just has a customer tell me that he was "hurt" (that is literally the word he used) that I was taking on other customers.
*beats head against wall*
The actual details:
I'm doing a HUGE project for him that is due in January. I've promised him it will be done by the end of December, even. But he's getting all antsy about it. He was trying to pressure me to get it for him by Halloween, but I told him no freaking way. (More politely than that, of course.) Anyhow, I can't in good ethics ask for him to pay the remainder that he owes me for his project until it's done, so that money will be turning up in late December.
But bills are turning up right now, and it's nice to take a break from the big, complicated, stressful projects and work on little bitty things, so I put out word that I would take a handful of tiny projects for this week, just to give me a day doing something different and a little immediate cash. And this apparently hurt his feelings. He says that if I need money so much I should be working on his project early, so that he can pay me. *sigh* I mean obviously he has no idea how I run my business, but asking for a handful of half-hour projects is not pushing his project back any. And spending that one extra day this week working on his stuff means that I'd get his money on December 20 rather than the 21st kind of thing. Not really helpful!
Really so long as I get it done by his deadline in January it's none of his bleeping business. I wanted to shove his "hurt" e-mail down his throat, but I managed a perfectly polite reply instead.
He's actually starting to creep me out a little bit. He's sent me messages after I changed a few minor things on the front page of my website, about the changes, and he's obviously watching my blog, and he IMs me a lot too, sometimes just chatting, not about his project. And he e-mailed me about this being hurt within an hour of my putting out word that I wanted to take on a few new projects. I mean... all this is public, it's a business site and a business blog and even a business IM, but it's still starting to be a little creeper-ish. I've never had a customer pay this much attention to every single public thing about me before.
If I didn't desperately need his money right now I'd be seriously considering telling him to take a hike. Unfortunately life is proving annoyingly expensive right now and Halloween wasn't as good this year as it is most years, and if I tell him to shove off I won't be making rent in January and probably not in February either.
Ugh.
*beats head against wall*
The actual details:
I'm doing a HUGE project for him that is due in January. I've promised him it will be done by the end of December, even. But he's getting all antsy about it. He was trying to pressure me to get it for him by Halloween, but I told him no freaking way. (More politely than that, of course.) Anyhow, I can't in good ethics ask for him to pay the remainder that he owes me for his project until it's done, so that money will be turning up in late December.
But bills are turning up right now, and it's nice to take a break from the big, complicated, stressful projects and work on little bitty things, so I put out word that I would take a handful of tiny projects for this week, just to give me a day doing something different and a little immediate cash. And this apparently hurt his feelings. He says that if I need money so much I should be working on his project early, so that he can pay me. *sigh* I mean obviously he has no idea how I run my business, but asking for a handful of half-hour projects is not pushing his project back any. And spending that one extra day this week working on his stuff means that I'd get his money on December 20 rather than the 21st kind of thing. Not really helpful!
Really so long as I get it done by his deadline in January it's none of his bleeping business. I wanted to shove his "hurt" e-mail down his throat, but I managed a perfectly polite reply instead.
He's actually starting to creep me out a little bit. He's sent me messages after I changed a few minor things on the front page of my website, about the changes, and he's obviously watching my blog, and he IMs me a lot too, sometimes just chatting, not about his project. And he e-mailed me about this being hurt within an hour of my putting out word that I wanted to take on a few new projects. I mean... all this is public, it's a business site and a business blog and even a business IM, but it's still starting to be a little creeper-ish. I've never had a customer pay this much attention to every single public thing about me before.
If I didn't desperately need his money right now I'd be seriously considering telling him to take a hike. Unfortunately life is proving annoyingly expensive right now and Halloween wasn't as good this year as it is most years, and if I tell him to shove off I won't be making rent in January and probably not in February either.
Ugh.
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