I just had an order that was on it’s sixth day with a time limit of seven. This client that I was working with was very positive and kind towards me…up until the point when I delivered the work. This particular work was a website design. With this job, I was given a google-doc that had all of their requests for the design. I compiled all the information and created a desktop and mobile design with additional high quality mockups. Throughout this, I stuck closely to their guidelines but made a few design choices (which is usually what you get when you hire a designer who knows the industry). For example:
-
I added a background with a neutral grey as every single colour that they had in their palette was not suitable for a background because they clashed with the images and other elements they had chosen. This was simply a design choice.
-
I added the title “About Us” to a section that had text content starting with: “We are a…” (which is clearly an about us section). I had my head ripped off for creating an “About Us” section and their argument was:
-
“Why did you add About Us? That is absolutely not an About Us section.”
-
My favourite example is when in the specifications (with regards to a graphic on the reference design they gave me) they stated:
-
“Please remove the current graphic from First Text Section. That graphic is not going to work for a variety of reasons. We would like to see some typography with those words but the current graphic should be deleted.”
-
Now, not being a graphic designer, but a web designer I just typed out the content of the text graphic as a placeholder value. Then they come back to me saying “you didn’t add a new graphic” to which I simply responded “I am not a graphic designer, the text that I added is simply a placeholder. If you would like a new graphic, please hire a graphic designer”.
There are a couple more examples but in general this client was completely unreasonable. My price for this gig was ** $40 **. I know for a fact that one is hard-pressed to find a quality web designer for that price. When comparing my design that I created to the “reference design” that they created themselves; it is ** extremely ** clear that my design was _ at least _ 10 times as good. It was at this point that I had a feeling I was getting scammed. I confronted the client when she requested a cancellation. These are my words:
- “I believe this cancellation request is unreasonable. My prices are more than fair and you will be hard-pressed to find a designer who will do quality work at such a low price. I created a very sophisticated design compared to the examples that you already had from previous designers and your own team. I am worried that if we cancel, you are going to take my work anyways. If we choose to cancel this order, I will deny any rights for you to use any of my work.”
Now after having declined her request to cancel she started saying that if she showed up to her meeting with my design she would be laughed at… Couple this with about 20 “rofl” faces and you get my experience. This very high level of unprofessionalism and the sudden change in attitude (from pleasant to rude) led me to believe whole-heartedly that I was being scammed. I cancelled the order and told them that they have no right to use any of my work.
TLDR;
Had an order with a client who I believe was trying to scam me. Signs of scamming were shown through the clients unprofessionalism (use of ‘rofl’ emojis) and disrespectful attitude. Of course, this attitude only showed after I had delivered the work. The gig was a web design priced at $40. The work I did was at least ten times better than the example they had given me (a cute little web design done by their team). For $40 dollars, this client was completely unreasonable and was definitely a scammer. The order has been cancelled and I have informed the client that they have no right to use any of my work.
For stolen update see this comment.