hi all

what do you do when someone asks you to build a basic site for them and they wont give you any feedback as to what they want. i then go ahead and build it after doing tons of reseach on the net about what a site like this should be about, next thing i know he starts sending me all these weird looking backgrounds with bricks etc that he wants on the site. i try and explain that putting such a background on a site is tacky looking and makes reading very difficult.

this guy knows nothing about computers let alone the net, nothing about what makes a site look good and what doesnt, nothing about what puts a person off etc etc yet i spend hours upon hours working on his site only to hear he wants to come 'sit down' with me and go through it. he has a thing about coming here to 'go through it'. this is not only me, it is everyone i think. even his hosting provider - he wanted to go to their offices and 'sit down' and discuss things. i dont have an objection about this, but he is just a time waster. if he could just email me what he wants then it would be fine.

also, he wants me to put animated gifs on the site which make it look terrible. that doesnt give the impression of a professional site at all. i am so mad having just spoken to him on the phone. i have busted my behind off over this site and it really is a basic static site. i have charged him next to nothing and have done tons of unpaid changes to the site. i have asked him to supply me photos of his work which would make a nice impression but he keeps coming up with excuses, and instead of real photos he wants stupid gifs. argh!

then he tells me i have changed the site too much - well i have changed it a few times and everytime i do a change i email him to ask him what he thinks and if this is the final layout now. i never get a response and i keep trying to improve the site and he never tells me if it is ok or not. so im leaving it now, what i have done is what i have done and i am not working another second on it. i am fed up.

what do the rest of you do when you get a client who thinks he knows it all, but actually doesnt know much at all about this stuff?

dodabby

Just Kidding.

Did he pay you orady ?

he has paid me just over 50 % of the cost - he says he will pay the rest at month end which i trust he will. this has been going on now for almost 6 weeks or more, that is why i am fed up with this now. i am trying to make the site as nice as can be for him, but that is just about impossible with no feedback from him (or only negative feedback cuz i just know he is going to moan when he comes round here).

If he wants to come and talk to you. Then it would be easy to explain to him whats good and whats bad.

If he still want cheap animated gifs on his site, so what. its his site. do it and get rid of him as soon as you can. If he come's back to change the site again. Explain to him that you have other clients to work for and you can't keep changing and updating his site for free.

Cheer's

thanks, i will take your advice and just explain to him the net rules etc lol (thats what i call it). then i will write his entire site to disc and send him home with it. then it can be up to him what he wants to do with it. there isnt much else i can do.

Charge him for your time, including the time he wastes in meetings. If he becomes too much of a problem, fire him (wiht a refund, of course). At some point, you have to ask yourself if the aggrivation is worth the price. When the time comes that it's not worth it, tell him you're the wrong person for the job and he should look elsewhere. Thank him for considering you for the job, and let him go. Even better, refer him to someone who might be willing to put up with his shenanigans. Then maybe you can take a little finder's fee off the top too :)

Can you show samples of what he's been asking you to create for him? I could use a good laugh!

I don't see what the big deal is. You build what he wants. Thats what he is paying you for. You don't have to like the site, he has to like it. If you don't want people to know you developed it, don't put your signature on the site.

Look at it this way. He is willing to pay you for a crappy site! How sweet is that?...lol

Originally posted by RMF
Look at it this way. He is willing to pay you for a crappy site! How sweet is that?...lol

That's what I am talking about. :D

Originally posted by RMF
He is willing to pay you for a crappy site! How sweet is that?...lol

Unfortunately, that is what a lot of web design boils down to.

hi all

thanks for all the replies, much appreciated :) i have no problem with developing a crappy site for him if that is what he wants, but he has told me out right that he cannot afford more and in another conversation he bascially said that he is not willing to pay more. i said that is fine as he does a lot of work for me as well (i pay him good money by the way, one job he did for me cost 12 grand - house renovation stuff). so i think it boils down to me doing this as a favour as such a low rate. i dont mind but i do mind when he gives me no feedback and then asks for wood, i give him wood, i change it somewhat to make it look basic, and he still wants to come here and waste my time? i really am so busy at the moment, i dont have time to sit in front of this box with him for an hour talking about his site. if he could just email me with what he wants.... oh well. i did some more changes yesterday and asked him to take a look, hopefully he has done so by now. i was silly, i should have done a mock up and gotten him to sign it off and any further changes would cost. the good thing is i have learnt a lesson on a small site - thank goodness it is not a big site to have to learn this lesson on lol!

Just the other day, one of my clients asked me to put one of those big green site visitor counters on his page. I tried to explain that he could keep track of how many visitors his site was getting by accessing the log viewer built into Cpanel, but he WANTED the big green counter. He said that it "looked professional" LOL So I slapped one on there...

I think we just have to face that we're at the mercy of the client's taste.