Maintaining work professionalism
Discussion
Anybody ever lost it with a client/customer?
I don't know if it's a combination of my advancing years, stress levels, or increasingly demanding clients (probably a combination of all of the above) but I'm finding myself at the end of my tether most days and often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret. Similar with phone calls although these have decreased since email tennis has exploded in popularity.
There must be some good stories from folks on here?
I don't know if it means I should start looking to move jobs, or I should just accept it as the way things are. I work in Engineering, with tight timescales and lots of finger pointing when things go wrong, so not conducive to a stress free environment.
I don't know if it's a combination of my advancing years, stress levels, or increasingly demanding clients (probably a combination of all of the above) but I'm finding myself at the end of my tether most days and often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret. Similar with phone calls although these have decreased since email tennis has exploded in popularity.
There must be some good stories from folks on here?
I don't know if it means I should start looking to move jobs, or I should just accept it as the way things are. I work in Engineering, with tight timescales and lots of finger pointing when things go wrong, so not conducive to a stress free environment.
Gary29 said:
Anybody ever lost it with a client/customer?
I don't know if it's a combination of my advancing years, stress levels, or increasingly demanding clients (probably a combination of all of the above) but I'm finding myself at the end of my tether most days and often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret. Similar with phone calls although these have decreased since email tennis has exploded in popularity.
There must be some good stories from folks on here?
I don't know if it means I should start looking to move jobs, or I should just accept it as the way things are. I work in Engineering, with tight timescales and lots of finger pointing when things go wrong, so not conducive to a stress free environment.
I don't have specific examples although many years ago (20 ish) I worked in a Call centre for British Airways and came close to getting sacked because I had basically lost the will to be there and got short tempered dealing with customers, I didn't lose it directly but just cut them off if I thought they were wasting my time and moved on to another call. My supervisor at the time caught me out and tried to discipline me which would have been justified in all honesty but I got a union rep involved and it all went away fairly quickly with a minor slap on the wrist. I don't know if it's a combination of my advancing years, stress levels, or increasingly demanding clients (probably a combination of all of the above) but I'm finding myself at the end of my tether most days and often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret. Similar with phone calls although these have decreased since email tennis has exploded in popularity.
There must be some good stories from folks on here?
I don't know if it means I should start looking to move jobs, or I should just accept it as the way things are. I work in Engineering, with tight timescales and lots of finger pointing when things go wrong, so not conducive to a stress free environment.
I left that company and area of work completely 6 months later, I knew it was time to go.
It does sound OP like you have probably come to the end of the line in your current job and it's time for change.
I had a customer tell me he was going in to a meeting in the afternoon to discuss our ongoing contract. It was worth around $10M. I told him I’d make it simple as I was withdrawing and would no longer provide service.
This did not go down well at either company. My management told me I had lost my mind. The business I was in was providing service and support in the pharmaceutical industry. If they had an issue, my team would have to run in and fix it so they could get back on line. The guy that made the threat was responsible for the up time of the instrumentation.
The most senior management at the customer called me in for an emergency meeting. The guy was many levels up from the original person and furious. He was there for a verbal fight. It was an odd location as they had put a table in the middle of the huge lab floor.
I said “before we begin, we need to agree on what we want from this relationship. You think you need to see my team more. But, you need to see my team less. Every time you see my team it means something has gone wrong. We need to stop things going wrong!” I then showed him all of the reports indicating user error. I also showed him my offers of training that had been rejected by the original guy.
The senior guy stood up and walked over to the original guys office and fired him. I watched him walk out of the building. Senior guy came back and said “I’m listening”. We transformed their operation that day.
This did not go down well at either company. My management told me I had lost my mind. The business I was in was providing service and support in the pharmaceutical industry. If they had an issue, my team would have to run in and fix it so they could get back on line. The guy that made the threat was responsible for the up time of the instrumentation.
The most senior management at the customer called me in for an emergency meeting. The guy was many levels up from the original person and furious. He was there for a verbal fight. It was an odd location as they had put a table in the middle of the huge lab floor.
I said “before we begin, we need to agree on what we want from this relationship. You think you need to see my team more. But, you need to see my team less. Every time you see my team it means something has gone wrong. We need to stop things going wrong!” I then showed him all of the reports indicating user error. I also showed him my offers of training that had been rejected by the original guy.
The senior guy stood up and walked over to the original guys office and fired him. I watched him walk out of the building. Senior guy came back and said “I’m listening”. We transformed their operation that day.
Engineer here – nearly 60….
I’ve seen lots of jobs disappear related to the engineering function and it’s just been expected that remaining engineers will pick up the work/slack- which by and large - they do.
In most places, even engineering companies, everyone else wants to be gatekeeper, and the engineers are pushed further and further back – until something goes wrong. Then everyone takes one step back and everyone definitely agrees it is definitely an engineering issue to fix.
As was told to me by an old hand when I started work “Even if the mashed potatoes are cold in the canteen, just wait - it will soon be engineering’s fault.”
I’ve not lost it with a customer, I’ve nearly lost it with a supplier. And I have lost it with a member of my design team. But telling someone to do something basic in an outlook calendar 12 times in an afternoon and he wouldn’t do it, pushed me to the edge.
It is increasingly common, and its take 5 minutes, have a brew, walk round, sit in your car for a bit, then walk back to the office.
’95 - An ex-chief engineer I knew (sadly no longer with us) had a bottle of whisky in the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet and so would just help himself to a swig!
A better way is just to update your CV.
I’ve seen lots of jobs disappear related to the engineering function and it’s just been expected that remaining engineers will pick up the work/slack- which by and large - they do.
In most places, even engineering companies, everyone else wants to be gatekeeper, and the engineers are pushed further and further back – until something goes wrong. Then everyone takes one step back and everyone definitely agrees it is definitely an engineering issue to fix.
As was told to me by an old hand when I started work “Even if the mashed potatoes are cold in the canteen, just wait - it will soon be engineering’s fault.”
I’ve not lost it with a customer, I’ve nearly lost it with a supplier. And I have lost it with a member of my design team. But telling someone to do something basic in an outlook calendar 12 times in an afternoon and he wouldn’t do it, pushed me to the edge.
It is increasingly common, and its take 5 minutes, have a brew, walk round, sit in your car for a bit, then walk back to the office.
’95 - An ex-chief engineer I knew (sadly no longer with us) had a bottle of whisky in the bottom drawer of his filing cabinet and so would just help himself to a swig!
A better way is just to update your CV.
Years ago when I was working in oil and gas in sales a customer came to us with a project. I put together a tender package with something like a 15 week lead time.
He said he wanted to use us but couldn’t live with the lead time. I spent a couple of days working out a project plan with manufacturing and we managed to get it down to 12 weeks providing everything went without a hitch.
I was completely transparent with the customer laid out the project plan in minute detail listed all the caveats.
The customer said fine and to go ahead.
Long story short we hit a few bumps in the road, but kept the customer up to date on the predicted impact on delivery.
On day one of week 13 the MD of the client calls me gives me both barrels. Went on to threaten legal action etc.
I forwarded him the document trail so he could see that his buyers knew the facts and had been updated. He carried on about how they weren’t going to use us again and how he was going to make sure I never work in the industry again.
At this point I’d sort of had enough, so told him we were going to revert back to the originally proposed programme and he’d get his stuff at the 15 week as per our original tender.
He went crazy. I pointed out what he’d already threatened to do to me and my company and that he couldn’t do any worse.
An hour later one of his project managers called me back to smooth things over. The MD didn’t have the class to apologise.
We delivered the project a day or so later.
The MD didn’t go through with his threats.
2 months later same thing happened with a proposed delivery date. Same customer.
I’m sure you can work out my response when they asked if we could improve the delivery.
He said he wanted to use us but couldn’t live with the lead time. I spent a couple of days working out a project plan with manufacturing and we managed to get it down to 12 weeks providing everything went without a hitch.
I was completely transparent with the customer laid out the project plan in minute detail listed all the caveats.
The customer said fine and to go ahead.
Long story short we hit a few bumps in the road, but kept the customer up to date on the predicted impact on delivery.
On day one of week 13 the MD of the client calls me gives me both barrels. Went on to threaten legal action etc.
I forwarded him the document trail so he could see that his buyers knew the facts and had been updated. He carried on about how they weren’t going to use us again and how he was going to make sure I never work in the industry again.
At this point I’d sort of had enough, so told him we were going to revert back to the originally proposed programme and he’d get his stuff at the 15 week as per our original tender.
He went crazy. I pointed out what he’d already threatened to do to me and my company and that he couldn’t do any worse.
An hour later one of his project managers called me back to smooth things over. The MD didn’t have the class to apologise.
We delivered the project a day or so later.
The MD didn’t go through with his threats.
2 months later same thing happened with a proposed delivery date. Same customer.
I’m sure you can work out my response when they asked if we could improve the delivery.
Many years ago - opening of new HK airport. It was a disaster. Anyway, all hands on deck and I end up as a flight supervisor for a client airline, for both passenger and ramp.
Urgent message has gone to the entire world - do not send any cargo to HK. The cargo terminals were just not functional.
Anyway, flight lands. It is in transit to another destination. It is summer, the heat and humidity at their peak. And there are ten tonnes of live seafood - mostly turtles and crabs - on board. I check the regulations - no way these can be sent to next destination, plus we need the space for baggage. So I have no choice but to order the pallets to be taken off, and left to die and rot in the sun.
Shift ends, and I go to the office where the airline manager has been hiding from customers and responsibility all day (to be fair, everyone was a bit shell shocked) and just scream at him.
The pallets stank the ramp up the next day - took another day before we could dispose of them.
Urgent message has gone to the entire world - do not send any cargo to HK. The cargo terminals were just not functional.
Anyway, flight lands. It is in transit to another destination. It is summer, the heat and humidity at their peak. And there are ten tonnes of live seafood - mostly turtles and crabs - on board. I check the regulations - no way these can be sent to next destination, plus we need the space for baggage. So I have no choice but to order the pallets to be taken off, and left to die and rot in the sun.
Shift ends, and I go to the office where the airline manager has been hiding from customers and responsibility all day (to be fair, everyone was a bit shell shocked) and just scream at him.
The pallets stank the ramp up the next day - took another day before we could dispose of them.
Gary29 said:
Anybody ever lost it with a client/customer?
I don't know if it's a combination of my advancing years, stress levels, or increasingly demanding clients (probably a combination of all of the above) but I'm finding myself at the end of my tether most days and often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret. Similar with phone calls although these have decreased since email tennis has exploded in popularity.
There must be some good stories from folks on here?
I don't know if it means I should start looking to move jobs, or I should just accept it as the way things are. I work in Engineering, with tight timescales and lots of finger pointing when things go wrong, so not conducive to a stress free environment.
Type the email, give it 5-10 mins then delete it. Good for the soul I don't know if it's a combination of my advancing years, stress levels, or increasingly demanding clients (probably a combination of all of the above) but I'm finding myself at the end of my tether most days and often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret. Similar with phone calls although these have decreased since email tennis has exploded in popularity.
There must be some good stories from folks on here?
I don't know if it means I should start looking to move jobs, or I should just accept it as the way things are. I work in Engineering, with tight timescales and lots of finger pointing when things go wrong, so not conducive to a stress free environment.
TX.
Terminator X said:
Type the email, give it 5-10 mins then delete it. Good for the soul
TX.
Or type the e-mail, leave it until the day after, then edit it until you don't look like a raving loony.TX.
Or save time by just waiting until the steam has died down, then replying.
Or phone them - actual conversation (which we evolved to do), can cross bridges where e-mail (we didn't evolve to type) can't.
Gary29 said:
often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret..
Outlook user here - I have a rule configured "apply this rule after i send the message - defer delivery by two minutes" - so once you press send, it stays in your outbox for two minutes before actually going.Comes in useful, more so for me because i think "oo i forgot to mention" - but it also a good protection againt rant-o-grams or sending mails to the wrong person!
eliot said:
Gary29 said:
often have to take 5 mins before replying to an email to prevent myself saying something I'll live to regret..
Outlook user here - I have a rule configured "apply this rule after i send the message - defer delivery by two minutes" - so once you press send, it stays in your outbox for two minutes before actually going.Comes in useful, more so for me because i think "oo i forgot to mention" - but it also a good protection againt rant-o-grams or sending mails to the wrong person!
I haven’t but someone once did with me.
He was a chief exec for a very major and notable NHS Trust he was unhappy that I had uncovered some major failings with his organisation and outed them all as part of an urgently convened SLT “summit” with all system partners present (as it majorly impacted all partners)
He lost his s
t massively. Squared up to me and took a swing for me - I didn’t react and that made it even worse.
He had to be removed by his Medical Director and then escorted off the premises by security - thankfully I’d arranged the meeting at a location that wasn’t his hospital for this very reason.
He never spoke to me directly again after that.
Quite pathetic given he wasn’t a small, young, healthy/fit chap.
He was a chief exec for a very major and notable NHS Trust he was unhappy that I had uncovered some major failings with his organisation and outed them all as part of an urgently convened SLT “summit” with all system partners present (as it majorly impacted all partners)
He lost his s
t massively. Squared up to me and took a swing for me - I didn’t react and that made it even worse.He had to be removed by his Medical Director and then escorted off the premises by security - thankfully I’d arranged the meeting at a location that wasn’t his hospital for this very reason.
He never spoke to me directly again after that.
Quite pathetic given he wasn’t a small, young, healthy/fit chap.
Had a customer come with an idea for a new product/part so they sent a some sketches over and I made some very basic mock-up prototypes.
Customer then sends some extrusion across which I turned into pre-production prototypes
Customer then sends lots of extrusion and proper production drawings, I took one look at the drawings and immediately knew they were wrong so to save any arguements I made one part to their drawing and put it through their letterbox on the way home. When I got in the following morning I reset the CNC to make the parts to my fag packet sketch.
Nine AM the customer is on the phone stting his pants about the incorrect part that doesn't work and asking how many had I made?
My reply of... 'Just the one that you have on your desk and I've just finished re-setting the CNC to make them correctly. Want me to carry on as before?' was very well received.
That was thirty plus years ago and I was making the exact same part today using the same numbers I calculated all thse years ago!
Worked at another place where I spent two or three days making over one hundred complex parts only for the assembly department to reject them all as out of tolerance. dhead manager made a big show about bringing them back into the machine shop and telling me I'd scrapped £££ of time and aluminium.
I asked if they'd actually checked them to which dhead replied 'They don't fit on the assembly jig so they're wrong, we don't need to check them'
So I took one at random from the pile of 'scrap' and inspected it in front of dhead manager and lo and behold it was spot on, took another one with the same result, checking a third and a pattern started to emerge...
Turns out the assembly jig was wrong but none of them had the good manners to apologise
Working nights at one place and when I turned up Friday night at 10pm, the operator on late shift had gone home at 9pm leaving a note telling me he had been told to increase all the feeds on a particular job as according to the applcations 'engineer' in the office they were too slow. The parts were all scrap due to cutter deflection etc and the operator hadn't even noticed! So I looked at the program and immediately saw where the in the office had got it wrong.
When you program a Heidenhain control in metric you'll get a line of code like...
L X+10 R0 F100 M
The bed will move by 10mm and the F100 means the bed will move at one hundred millimetres a minute
Set the control to imperial and the same line of code will result in the bed moving 10" at a speed of ten inches a minute or 254mm/min, the number of people that know this is very small due to probably 99% of jobs being metric or imperial jobs being converted to metric as they're programmed on the shop floor.
Now the bloke that had written the original program was my dads old apprentice from another company and his feeds were spot on as he knew about the metric/imperial feed difference, I changed them back to what they originally were and ran the machine all night no problems. Before I went home Saturday morning I left a note on the white board on the machine for all to see in big red letters...
'Please note, this machine was programmed in imperial and all the feeds are also imperial so all of Friday evenings production is scrap. As for the feeds suggested? IN YOUR fkING DREAMS SUNSHINE!!'
The in the office saw my tactfull message Monday morning when he rocked up at 9am or so after everyone else had had a good chuckle and wanted my on a disciplinary. The machine shop manager had already checked with the bloke that wrote the program about the feeds and the applications engineer was told to STFU
The Foreman who was ex-military was tasked with asking me if I wouldn't mind being a bit more diplomatic in the future, at least I think that was what he was asking, he was laughing so hard it was difficult to tell...
Customer then sends some extrusion across which I turned into pre-production prototypes
Customer then sends lots of extrusion and proper production drawings, I took one look at the drawings and immediately knew they were wrong so to save any arguements I made one part to their drawing and put it through their letterbox on the way home. When I got in the following morning I reset the CNC to make the parts to my fag packet sketch.
Nine AM the customer is on the phone s
tting his pants about the incorrect part that doesn't work and asking how many had I made?My reply of... 'Just the one that you have on your desk and I've just finished re-setting the CNC to make them correctly. Want me to carry on as before?' was very well received.
That was thirty plus years ago and I was making the exact same part today using the same numbers I calculated all thse years ago!
Worked at another place where I spent two or three days making over one hundred complex parts only for the assembly department to reject them all as out of tolerance. d
head manager made a big show about bringing them back into the machine shop and telling me I'd scrapped £££ of time and aluminium.I asked if they'd actually checked them to which d
head replied 'They don't fit on the assembly jig so they're wrong, we don't need to check them' So I took one at random from the pile of 'scrap' and inspected it in front of d
head manager and lo and behold it was spot on, took another one with the same result, checking a third and a pattern started to emerge...Turns out the assembly jig was wrong but none of them had the good manners to apologise
Working nights at one place and when I turned up Friday night at 10pm, the operator on late shift had gone home at 9pm leaving a note telling me he had been told to increase all the feeds on a particular job as according to the applcations 'engineer' in the office they were too slow. The parts were all scrap due to cutter deflection etc and the operator hadn't even noticed! So I looked at the program and immediately saw where the
in the office had got it wrong.When you program a Heidenhain control in metric you'll get a line of code like...
L X+10 R0 F100 M
The bed will move by 10mm and the F100 means the bed will move at one hundred millimetres a minute
Set the control to imperial and the same line of code will result in the bed moving 10" at a speed of ten inches a minute or 254mm/min, the number of people that know this is very small due to probably 99% of jobs being metric or imperial jobs being converted to metric as they're programmed on the shop floor.
Now the bloke that had written the original program was my dads old apprentice from another company and his feeds were spot on as he knew about the metric/imperial feed difference, I changed them back to what they originally were and ran the machine all night no problems. Before I went home Saturday morning I left a note on the white board on the machine for all to see in big red letters...
'Please note, this machine was programmed in imperial and all the feeds are also imperial so all of Friday evenings production is scrap. As for the feeds suggested? IN YOUR f
kING DREAMS SUNSHINE!!'The
in the office saw my tactfull message Monday morning when he rocked up at 9am or so after everyone else had had a good chuckle and wanted my on a disciplinary. The machine shop manager had already checked with the bloke that wrote the program about the feeds and the applications engineer was told to STFUThe Foreman who was ex-military was tasked with asking me if I wouldn't mind being a bit more diplomatic in the future, at least I think that was what he was asking, he was laughing so hard it was difficult to tell...
Many years ago we supplied the BSM with decals for their cars, 8000 cars per year and the job was worth over £100k/annum with a good margin.
At one point we went through quite a rough patch in the relationship. The vinyls we supplied were not adhering to cars being the main issue. I had visited their site in Coventry on numerous occasions to discuss this problem and it was a simple resolution. They were paying cheap labour to badly apply the vinyls and in a cold damp industrial unit, firstly washing cold/freezing cars in cold water on a cold winters day and expect decals to adhere, I can assure you they will not instantly and if you applied vinyls and then immediately sent freezing cars straight onto a transporter you’ll have problems and they did.
Roll on a month or two and a new marketing director joined and told us we were letting the side down, under performing, too expensive and he didn’t want to discuss the problem in detail, he knew better and we were at fault. Provide a fairly large credit now or there would be serious repercussions.
He picked the wrong day to try and tell me how to do my job, I simply said he could stick his decals where the sun didn’t shine (if they would stay in place), I was ending our supply chain there and then. He stood up, reminded me he was a director and told me I not only couldn’t talk to him like and I couldn’t leave them with no supply chain/stock.
I simply said I owned the company and I will do what I want and I have, I won’t be talked to in that fashion and I walked out of the room never to talk to BSM again.
I felt quite good that day, I’ve never done that either before or since but on that day I felt good.
At one point we went through quite a rough patch in the relationship. The vinyls we supplied were not adhering to cars being the main issue. I had visited their site in Coventry on numerous occasions to discuss this problem and it was a simple resolution. They were paying cheap labour to badly apply the vinyls and in a cold damp industrial unit, firstly washing cold/freezing cars in cold water on a cold winters day and expect decals to adhere, I can assure you they will not instantly and if you applied vinyls and then immediately sent freezing cars straight onto a transporter you’ll have problems and they did.
Roll on a month or two and a new marketing director joined and told us we were letting the side down, under performing, too expensive and he didn’t want to discuss the problem in detail, he knew better and we were at fault. Provide a fairly large credit now or there would be serious repercussions.
He picked the wrong day to try and tell me how to do my job, I simply said he could stick his decals where the sun didn’t shine (if they would stay in place), I was ending our supply chain there and then. He stood up, reminded me he was a director and told me I not only couldn’t talk to him like and I couldn’t leave them with no supply chain/stock.
I simply said I owned the company and I will do what I want and I have, I won’t be talked to in that fashion and I walked out of the room never to talk to BSM again.
I felt quite good that day, I’ve never done that either before or since but on that day I felt good.
Here's my story of the Graphic Designer and the Colour Blind client!
Graphic Design is part of my professional repertoire. Some years back, I'd produced a brochure for a client including the printing. The client rejected them because the blue on the cover did not match their brand blue.
(Without getting too technical, colours are made up of four colours in printing so there's alway a bit of scope to adjust).
Despite me and others being unable to identify any meaningful difference, as they were a profitable, if demanding, client, with some meaty pipe-line orders hanging, we re-printed adjusting the blue slightly. He rejected these too.
For the third time, we printed the blue as a special 5th colour - the exact same blue as their brand manual. This costs more but we wanted to get this job done and out. He rejected that too.
On the fourth attempt, I insisted that he come to the printers and pass the job on press himself. After about an hour of tweaking, he mentioned in passing that he was colour blind!!
The print minder and I looked at each other with that 'WTAF look'. I instructed the minder to stop the press and invited the client to the car park and said as professionally as I could muster that given his admission of being colour blind, I didn't consider his demands appropriate and that the consignments already delivered to him can be considered as final. He then went off on a rant about 'the client always being right' and 'professional standards' and such like. As he did so, I recall thinking that I was in the middle of loosing a client and really couldn't care less.
I said that unless the previously delivered brochures were not returned to us, we'd bill for all them. They weren't so I sent the invoice in and hunkered down for a legal fight to get our money. Remarkably, they paid within a few days. Even more remarkably, a few months later, he got in touch to discuss the pipe-line work. When I looked at the brief, I could foresee all manner of difficulties of a similar nature and declined the work. This sent the guy into an apoplectic rage insisting that we take the job but stood my ground.
I found out some months later that he had had similar run-ins with other designers on the same issue over the years and had basically run out of companies willing to do work for him. He'd gone round to all of them before coming back to me.
Only the second time I've sacked a client but on each occasion was fully justified and and exceptionally liberating experience.
Graphic Design is part of my professional repertoire. Some years back, I'd produced a brochure for a client including the printing. The client rejected them because the blue on the cover did not match their brand blue.
(Without getting too technical, colours are made up of four colours in printing so there's alway a bit of scope to adjust).
Despite me and others being unable to identify any meaningful difference, as they were a profitable, if demanding, client, with some meaty pipe-line orders hanging, we re-printed adjusting the blue slightly. He rejected these too.
For the third time, we printed the blue as a special 5th colour - the exact same blue as their brand manual. This costs more but we wanted to get this job done and out. He rejected that too.
On the fourth attempt, I insisted that he come to the printers and pass the job on press himself. After about an hour of tweaking, he mentioned in passing that he was colour blind!!
The print minder and I looked at each other with that 'WTAF look'. I instructed the minder to stop the press and invited the client to the car park and said as professionally as I could muster that given his admission of being colour blind, I didn't consider his demands appropriate and that the consignments already delivered to him can be considered as final. He then went off on a rant about 'the client always being right' and 'professional standards' and such like. As he did so, I recall thinking that I was in the middle of loosing a client and really couldn't care less.
I said that unless the previously delivered brochures were not returned to us, we'd bill for all them. They weren't so I sent the invoice in and hunkered down for a legal fight to get our money. Remarkably, they paid within a few days. Even more remarkably, a few months later, he got in touch to discuss the pipe-line work. When I looked at the brief, I could foresee all manner of difficulties of a similar nature and declined the work. This sent the guy into an apoplectic rage insisting that we take the job but stood my ground.
I found out some months later that he had had similar run-ins with other designers on the same issue over the years and had basically run out of companies willing to do work for him. He'd gone round to all of them before coming back to me.
Only the second time I've sacked a client but on each occasion was fully justified and and exceptionally liberating experience.
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