Ill-informed Buyer - What should I do?

dolly_donut · February 12, 2020, 12:22am

Evening all!

I had a buyer place a voiceover gig for a series of three answerphone messages. They asked for these not in my usual high quality .wav or mp3 format but in an incredibly low-quality format of 4 bit mono 8000khz wavs. They are now complaining that the recordings are low quality. Well, no sheet, Sherlock! They accused me of recording them on my mobile phone and told me to do them again. I tried to explain that the problem was in the file type but they weren’t having it. Apparently it should sound as perfectly clear as a high quality audio.

I used the analogy of pictures: that a high res photo would be clear, but if you reduce the pixel rate to reduce the size of the file, you also lose quality and clarity. But again, they weren’t having it.

They want me to record again, provide the desired file type but make the sound as good as quality as a high quality recording and I don’t even know what to do. It’s literally not in my capabilities to do that.

Any advice?

mariashtelle1 · February 12, 2020, 12:50am

Tell them you are not a magician and you delivered everything as promised and as per their requirements and that you can agree to provide a revision only if they are happy to receive it in a different format otherwise your job is done there.
(*bad advice time )

dolly_donut · February 12, 2020, 1:00am

Ha, if only! And then sit back and wait for the one star review

And annoyingly I knew this one would be trouble, it had all the hallmarks of it. Despite telling the buyer three separate times that if they changed the script after I have recorded they’d need to place a new order, they have made two changes so far and just told me “You must do the needful in making the adjustments.”

mariashtelle1 · February 12, 2020, 1:15am

I still can deal with people who are trying to be sneaky and get more work for free but this ignorant stubborn people that don’t want even to make a basic research are the worst. You usually end up with a cancellation or a bad review.

To be honest I think I would’ve sent a revision in a different format and sit and wait for a bad review or cancellation.
If you don’t want to deal with that then you should cancel. If you want to be paid you can also be stubborn and you can always leave your reply under their review explaining how ignorant they were

I also had client once telling me that vector files are pixelated which is like basically saying that the water is dry

dolly_donut · February 12, 2020, 1:24am

Ugh, I don’t even know what to do. You’re right - this has all the hallmarks of a cancellation once they have all the work or a bad review and I don’t know how to stop it going that way. I have tried to educate the buyer about what he has asked for but maybe it’s getting lost in translation.

ritaec · February 12, 2020, 2:01am

I wish you luck with whatever you decide to do.

dolly_donut · February 12, 2020, 2:12am

OK, this is where I went with this to try to appease the buyer. Thoughts?