Client insists freelance designer send out unfinished flyer to thousands of people: 'They hadn't actually given me any information'

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 25, 2024 11:00 AM EDT

Proofreading: who needs it? Not the boss at this company that u/drakon99 freelanced for! 

Freelancing can come with some excellent perks, like getting to choose your own hours and pick the jobs you accept. But then you've got the clients, who are notoriously picky about what they want. Sometimes the freelancer will have to work with a big team of people who will each request different edits to the project. Other times they're stuck with just one person who won't respond to any emails, leaving them confused about what to do. It can be tricky to find the right balance between working with a micromanager and a person who simply won't respond to any message. It just depends on the project, and the great thing about freelancing is that the freelancer can choose to drop a client whenever they need to. 

This freelancer was a bit confused by the request of the client. They went along with it anyway, as you can read about in their great malicious compliance story below. 

Next up, read about the people who said some hilarious things while sleeptalking, like one person who was a witness as "One kid shouted 'I SEE THE LIGHT!' and then sleepwalked into a wall." 

Advertisement
  • 01
    - - DOG THE HARD WAY Four distinctly different makers shay why craftsmansh is the lifeblood their busing PER wwwww Tartine Bakery IN CLASSICAL GREEK ALCHEMY, THE FOUR BASIC ELEMENTS ARE Δ EARTH AIR FIRE WATER THEY WERE TROUGHT TO E THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ALL MATTER. IN THE REALM OF PRINT DESIGN THE FOUR ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS ARE AUDIENCE MESSAGE PAPER PRINT CAREFULLY CONSIDERED AND ARTFULLY EXECUTED THEY FORM THE BASIS FOR MEMORABLE COMMUNICATION. CHARACTER Butcher and Larder Tad Carpenter
    via 2H Media on Unsplash+
  • 02
    Insist that I get your flyer printed for mailing out tomorrow even though you haven't given me any copy? Okay then!
    via u/drakon99
  • 03
    As a freelance designer, getting content from clients was almost always the hardest bit. One client asked me to design them a flyer for an event they were running. Fine, no problem.
    via u/drakon99
  • 04
    After a few weeks, with the deadline getting closer, I still hadn't had any info from them, so I put together a design using dummy copy for the date, time and event details and sent it over with the hope they'd just fill in the blanks and send it back. They didn't.
    via u/drakon99
  • 05
    The afternoon before the mailing was supposed to go out, I got an angry call from them asking why it hadn't gone to print. I explained it couldn't go to print because they hadn't actually given me any information.
    via u/drakon99
  • 06
    "Oh no, we won't decide all that until the board meeting next week. But that flyer has to go out tomorrow. || "Are you sure? There's no information on it"
    via u/drakon99
  • 07
    "Yes, print it. It's fine as it is. "Okay, if you're really sure!" "Yes!" ||
    via u/drakon99
  • 08
    The next day I got a very angry phone call from the client's boss asking why the flyer sent to thousands of people was full of Lorem Ipsum. "Well..."
    via u/drakon99
  • 09
    Stabbmaster Who the schedules the meeting for the details of an event AFTER the marketing for the event is supposed to go out?
    via u/drakon99
  • 10
    [deleted] My workplace did a variation on this once. It was for a very large holiday party. They hadn't nailed down the dates when they "needed" to order the invites, so the invites were totally generic ones that pointed to a website for the details. This might seem clever, but nobody checked if the URL they listed on the invitation
    via u/drakon99
  • 11
    was available before printing. It was not. It was in use by another department. Whoops! They sent email invites and recycled the printed ones. We never had printed ones again.
    via u/drakon99
  • 12
    chosenchurro Ugh I feel you. I got bad- mouthed because a postcard hadn't gone out, and I was like...the design is done, I've been waiting for the export of mailing addresses for two weeks. Can't really do anything without that.
    via u/drakon99
  • 13
    Some people find it easy to blame everyone before taking responsibility themselves.
    via u/drakon99
  • 14
    Anabelle_McAll... If you're going to attempt this kind of malicious compliance, make sure to get everything in writing so you can prove you were only following their instructions.
    via u/drakon99
  • 15
    Don Draper27 I'm a designer at a print shop and I go through the exact same motions. Strict deadline paired up with lack of instruction / content. The absolute worst is when a group of people are CC'd in the email and everyone is providing different changes that conflict with others.
    via u/drakon99
  • 16
    Thank God our policy is that we charge an hourly rate so I'm happy to go back and forth for weeks with the CEO, marketing coordinator, sales manager, etc. racking up 4 hours of art time for a single sided business card.. And we ALWAYS get approval via email or a signed off physical copy.
    via u/drakon99

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

printing print flyer printer boss workplace-stories jobs job bosses work workplace
Scroll Down For The Next Article