Is it just me?

[CatintheHat1]

In the last 4 days I have had two, "hey, where are the files, everything else is at the printers?" eMails from clients who have never sent me the materials or information to even complete their design proofs. One is waiting for printer's specs ("oh, you need those???") and the other said she must have forgot to send the files (text, images, etc.). The printer's specs one just wrote again, still no printer's specs, but still wants to know what the holdup is. I dunno, do ya figure I should just make up a trim size and assume it's CMYK and hope that'll fly? LOL

[jimking]

You must use the "Download the client's Brain" button!;)

[Logo-Mechanix]

Jim made it nice and simple for ya, I don't know what more you could do.:D

[John G]

http://www.staples.com/sbd/img/cat/std/s0105150_std.jpg
I can't give out the name of my supplier for security reasons.

[Broacher]

Some client's brains can simply be sent as an e-mail attachment.

[jimking]

Some client's brains can simply be sent as an e-mail attachment.

Very true. No need to zip or stuff! :)

[PrintDriver]

Is that what those 0k files are?
I thought they were bad fonts.
:p

[LeftBrain Artist]

Its not you, its the clients. I just had one last week give me approval to do up a web page (home page only) in html - for the past few weeks we've been working on the concpet - art direction for the site by working with an Illy file and pdfs only to keep costs down - making htmls with mouse over states for the buttons and such would be a little more time consuming so this is saving them money, I hope. So last week we're discussing changes to the homepage and he says "can I see that as an actual live webpage" - I said sure, its as good a time as any to see how it will look when viewed in a browser window. So I plop the Illy stuff into photoshop as a layered document and export from Imageready to GoLive so I can make some quick mouseover states and have it pop up as a centered item in a browser window with a colored background - nothing really labor intensive (especially considering this is 6th round of revisions to the home page look). Anyway, my retarded work flow aside . . .

I get back a kind of nasty email asking why I put it into html when we agreed we shouldn't do so until the concept had been finalized.

WTF?! Umm, because you asked me to? Remember? In the way back, before 'poxyclypse?

To be fair to him, I've received a number of emails from him over the last week at 10:30 at night - he's been working himself pretty hard.

[CatintheHat1]

...
To be fair to him, I've received a number of emails from him over the last week at 10:30 at night - he's been working himself pretty hard.

Or just having to stay late to fix what he broke from 9 to 5.

[budafist]

This thread is very amusing.

Not so much this situation here for me but rather, client gives a deadline: end of week. Client comes in today (Tuesday) in the morning to pick up the job.

I can't find the printed job. Sends me into a panic because the job isn't ready yet. Boss goes out to tell client that he had told us end of week. Client goes "oh yeah, but I just wanted to check if it was ready yet".... :rolleyes:

[Virgo Nightingale]

What a dumbass...

[jessicam]

My clients are unaware of the clock and calendar normal people live by, I guess. They want everything, they want it now, but they don't ever actually send me images or approve comps I send or anything else.

And enough of them want me to steal stuff for them that I'm starting toget a tad cynical.

[CatintheHat1]

I have started charging hair-trigger clients for changes. I hate to do it, but man, if they'd waited a day and gave me the "real" price to embed into the barcodes, I wouldn't be here wasting my morning making all new barcodes. That little note in my contract saved my sorry behind last year, I sent a proof (I send jpg) and was told by some "manager" person who I'd never met or heard of and who had not signed the contract that...."we need this as a clear, hi-res PDF, this is a proof, we are going to be making changes to all of this, so need to see it, " and then I got a little lecture on how "real" designers work...LOL. ...to which I replied, "no problem, but you do realize the contract you signed specifies that you get 5 text changes (it's 250 words, for Pete's sake) to catch typos, etc., and additional changes will cost $XXXX"....suddenly they had no changes. I mean, seriously, my work isn't "quick and dirty" these people have 6 months to a year to write that 250 word blurb, there's no reason not to have it edited and clean when I get it.

[budafist]

Man, I hate when clients that demand to see proofs before they have given the the required images and text needed to complete the job. The point of a proof is to get approval. Why should I hurry and get a proof done that I know cannot be approved because is missing all the relevant info?

[CatintheHat1]

Man, I hate when clients that demand to see proofs before they have given the the required images and text needed to complete the job. The point of a proof is to get approval. Why should I hurry and get a proof done that I know cannot be approved because is missing all the relevant info?

I give them X number of proofs and if they waste them, they get charged for more. No more Ms. Nice Guy. People don't seem to have enough manners to respect our time, so maybe they'll respect their own money.

[budafist]

I give them X number of proofs and if they waste them, they get charged for more. No more Ms. Nice Guy. People don't seem to have enough manners to respect our time, so maybe they'll respect their own money.

My day job doesn't value my time that much unfortunately. Clients get proofs until they are happy. :confused:

[SpugNothuson]

We'll do PDF proofs for clients whenever they want them, looks like our place is similar to yours Buda.

The only thing that gets some of our clients to stop making changes is when you point out to them that they're going to miss their print slot and not have it delivered when they wanted it. "But can you just change..." So you think you're our only customer? See this stack of work? You're at the bottom. :)

[CatintheHat1]

A large percentage of my clients publish with PDFs and unfortunately, most of the POD printers will print anything the client sends, no matter if it's formatted at low res, or not, so I usually send jpgs...if I must send PDF I put "proof" on them, then go through the, "will the word "proof" print on the real product????" questions. I feel like saying, "yes, why yes it will. We make it our policy to have "PROOF" show up in every piece of work we do."

[budafist]

We'll do PDF proofs for clients whenever they want them, looks like our place is similar to yours Buda.

The only thing that gets some of our clients to stop making changes is when you point out to them that they're going to miss their print slot and not have it delivered when they wanted it. "But can you just change..." So you think you're our only customer? See this stack of work? You're at the bottom. :)

I normally put those customers at the bottom of the pile but I got one customer that calls 10 minutes after she has emailed me changes (for the 5th time that day) and wants to know a ETA. At least I was not the only person that found her incredibly annoying. Yes it does make me feel better that other people hate her stinking annoying guts!

She wanted to do a "press pass" because she must've heard that term before and thought it was cool. Only her job wasn't on the press, it was a photocopy job. And she made changes when she was standing at the photocopier. :confused:

[Logo-Mechanix]

This thread is very amusing.

Not so much this situation here for me but rather, client gives a deadline: end of week. Client comes in today (Tuesday) in the morning to pick up the job.

I can't find the printed job. Sends me into a panic because the job isn't ready yet. Boss goes out to tell client that he had told us end of week. Client goes "oh yeah, but I just wanted to check if it was ready yet".... :rolleyes:

We get alot of this here, moody biotch of a secretary comes back looking for a job on say 5/14, finds said job and hands it to me asking why it's not done. So first thing I check is the due date (maybe it's just me but seems like the smart thing to do), due dat says 5/17, so I point this out to her. Well they are here to pick it up, what am I supposed to do? My response, crawl back up front and tell them either you or them put the wrong due date on the order, 'cause it ain't happening today.