Fellow freelancers -- what's your best/worst experience with a client? I'm in the mood for a good story.
I'll start: After sending over a finished article for a client, they paid within EIGHT MINUTES of receiving the invoice. I have never been more stunned or delighted in my career so far.
Replies10
- I was brought on to an ad agency who has seen better days. They were losing business left and right and the people I was working next to knew they were finished at the end of the month. The CCO was an aloof jerk, no other way around it.I was getting along swimmingly with the CD's who really loved my work. Two week sinto my six week stint, I was giving an internal presentation when the CCO waltzed in, sat for ten minutes and then left without saying a work.The next day he called me into the office and told me "it wasn't working out," and cut me early. No explanation. Rather than be offended or protest, I told him I understood where he was coming from because I was CD level and paired with a junior/mid and he probably wanted someone more junior who would keep their opinions to themselves.He was startled by this and asked where I'd worked before. I listed all the names in my fifteen year career. Turns out, he was intimately familiar with my adidas work; he used to run that account and the agency I worked for won it from him in a pitch.After that, he awkwardly wished me "no hard feelings."I don't know if that was the best or worst experience. Ha ha,And for the record, they lost the pitch.The best experience was being brought on to CD Mazda's biggest launch in U.S. history and spending a few weeks shooting it in Chile with John Hillcoat. I still can't believe how beautiful that country is and how warm and friendly Chileans are.
- Once I asked a client to send over their brand font (They has a branding in place) and they said it’s something I should create.
- I once gold told that I was overly verbose and boring :0) by the most unorganised chaotic client I've ever worked with. It inspired me – greatly – to shake up my onboarding process to weed out the weirdos.
- @Jonathan Roberts and that was the marketing director? Oh dear
- I was once told to 'remove all the yellow' from a design by the Marketing Director who said 'I showed it to my wife and she doesn't like yellow' ... their corporate colour was yellow. I left shortly after that.
- @Danny Kiln Best story ever!
- @Grigoris Kampouridis This makes me really happy, that's incredible! Thank you for sharing it ☺️
- The best story I had with a client which is now a friend, is that the collaboration started when I attended one of her live conversations she did with former Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue Alexandra Shulman. On that day I was just in the audience and I took pictures of the event just for the fashion company I was working back then. After the event, I posted the picture on instagram and the speaker messaged me asking if she can have the picture and that she wanted me to be her paid photographer/videographer on her next events. I couldn't believe it that I could get a job just from a random post on instagram. The vibe and energy she had on every event she was organising was the best to keep me motivated to take her pictures or make her videos from her interviews. Now she is a good friend that I can contact anytime for support or advices since she moved to US from UK. I hope you all have great stories and collaborations with your clients.
- It's not really a client story but I once had a department head complain to my line manager that I was drawing too much... I was hired as an illustrator
- @Sahil Sharma I'm so sorry to hear this Sahil, unfortunately we've all been there with clients who try to delay paying or avoiding the full amount. Did you agree a payment date?A couple of suggestions for you:1. If the invoice is now late in being paid, you could inform them that you'll have to include a late fee. Sometimes this is enough to encourage them to pay.2. Failing that, and if the amount is really worth it to you, a letter from a solicitor requesting full payment can also get the job done -- however in this case, the letter may end up costing more than the amount you're seeking.As general advice, I'd always suggest asking for payment upfront (or 50% for larger projects). I really hope you manage to sort this out!
You must sign up or log in before you
add a comment.