I had an old client email me today and tell me……
CLIENT: “The ordering process in our website is not working at the last step. One of our products will be featured in a big website so we will probably receive orders from there. And the final step of ordering is not working. Can you please check this and see if it can be sorted asap?”.
Its no problem, I did not actually design the web site myself and the client cant go back to the old designer because he fell out with them so he is asking me because I am a nice guy, which I am, but my time is not free and I am a busy guy, so I sent back the following email….
ME: “Dear X, My normal rates are €50 per hour and Emergency rates are €100 per hour. If you wanted me to look at it today and tell you where the problem is, the charge would be €100. I would also tell you how long it would take to fix.
I am actually booked out for appx 8 weeks anyway but I can check it out for you today for a fee of €100.
Let me know and I can send you an invoice and look at the issue right away for you”.
A few minutes later I get an email back saying…
CLIENT: “Ok Craig Thanks”.
Errr…? thanks what exactly? Kind of a “damned if you do and damned if you dont” situation I guess, so I sent back another email.
ME: “Hi X, Which one do you mean exactly? – “Ok thanks for letting me know but no thanks” or “ok thanks please raise an invoice and fix the problem for me”?”
Still waiting for a response! (so we can guess which one it was then).
Why cant people just be a “little” more descriptive rather being so cryptic in responses?
Am I not deemed important enough for a more extensive response?