Surprise?

So the client drama that I told you about last week took an interesting twist today…

Earlier this morning hubby had a talk with the client’s (we’ll call her “G”) business partner/investor (let’s call him “V”).  Basically the hubs let him know what needed to be done to resolve the issues once and for all.  They just need to send us more text and more images and their site will look better.  V agreed.  We also reassured him that the bilingual capabilities of the site would be up and running by next week.  In fact we are updating all of our sites with the latest version of our software which runs a million times faster and is much more user-friendly (I hate that word, it is so over-used).  The bilingual functions are part of that upgrade.  Hubs also told them that they could pay off the rest of their balance over time.  It was all good.  V assured him that he would keep G under control and keep her from going off on us again.

Literally a few minutes later G called us to personally apologize for her behavior.  I don’t think I’ve ever heard a client apologize to us before, that was a huge surprise.

Then about six hours later we get forwarded email exchange between G and our business partner in the US (he usually handles all client relations but since this client is over here we had been more involved).  Her email started out as a request for an additional email server but then totally U-turned into this:

“Anyway your multi language not ready, We wanted to add Flash on web and Q already knows this but now he is telling me that need some one to do it,I mean we have to pay someone for design flash any way, We have pay to you 250USd for beginig I mean before starting web site and I told you that balance will be clear after web fnished.  Everything takes too long  time with you and be frankly I do not want to continue with your company. I kindly request you to refund of our payment.

Awaitig for your urgent response

Kind Regards”

What.  The.  Fuck.

He had already responded and agreed to refund her money, a fact that also took us by surprise.  As a company we had never really addressed whether or not we would give refunds, and even though it’s not a huge amount of money, it would be coming straight out of our pockets.  I wish he had talked to us before he responded to her, but I know he did it because he was frankly tired of dealing with her bullshit and would rather be rid of her.  He also wants to protect us from abusive clients.  I can’t say that we disagree, it just came as a total surprise.  We did not see this coming.  He had already taken down her website by the time I got his email.

I just finished drawing up a contract termination agreement.  They get their refund as long as they agree not to use any of the material we created for them.  For us it means a lot of hours down the drain, but for her it means she’s basically taken her business back to square one.  She don’t even have a logo now.

Le sigh…

Oh well.  Sometimes you just can help crazy people.

I do not run a charity.

Client drama had reared its ugly head this last week.  *facepalm*

How the hell does it happen?  They go from good client to bad client like warewholves under a full moon.  ARRROOWHHH!

First I should probably tell you a little more about what we do for our clients.  To say that we design websites would be an over-simplification, that’s what we used to do.  A year and a half ago when we started our business, we would both scower craigslist looking for any ole programming or design job that we knew we could do.  We got various clients doing this, but usually (okay, MOSTLY) with these gigs, people were always trying to get something for nothing.  Putting up a website that both looks good and works well takes hours and hours and hours of work.  We would put in these hours/days/weeks/…months of work, and then have to literally chase down payment from them, or they wanted so many changes that took so many more hours that end the end the payment wasn’t worth all the effort.  At a certain point we came to the conclusion that there had to be a way for us to get something for nothing as well.  Everybody else was doing it, why not us?  What I mean is, a way to make fully-fledged websites without all the hours of work.  There are three basic purposes for most websites:  publishing, selling, or social networking.  So if we could design a framework that could perform each of these functions by simply installing it onto a web address so hours of programming the same thing, over and over, would be eliminated.  Better yet, we would make our program easy enough to use so that when clients wanted changes they could just go make them on their own.

If you’re having a hard time understanding what I’m talking about, don’t worry, I didn’t know crap about any of this until about a year ago.  If you want an example of what I’m talking about, look at WordPress.  WordPress is the perfect example of a content management system (CMS) used for publishing.  It’s complicated, it’s got a lot of buttons, but most people are able to figure it out on their own and create their own websites.  We’re like WordPress, except we’re geared towards businesses and we have a lot more applications and functions.

So anyways, we’re still in the development/start-up phase of our business so we haven’t had a public release of our software yet.  Hopefully that will happen sometime in 2010.  Until then we are always trying to get new clients both in the US and Turkey.  One new client we have here is chick my age, who is starting up a mining export company with a few business partners.  Basically they ship stuff like chrome ore to China, pretty simple.  She’s a cool chick, speaks English well and I’d say she was a friend before she was a client.  Because of this we gave her a deep discount, and I mean DEEP.  We normally charge $2,000 dollars for a basic CMS website, but that includes a lot- custom web design, content writing, logo design, stock photos, hosting, etc, etc.  Because we are still developing a bilingual application for our websites (that button you click at the bottom or top of the page and it switches the language of the website, not easy to do) and her website would be the first to test it we gave her a huge deal.  We’re only charging her $500 dollars of which she has only paid half ($250).  Her website is very simple and very small, but like I said, she is also a start-up so she only gave us a tiny amount of content and a few pictures.  One thing we cannot do is invent fancy or interesting content for you…well, technically I have, but only for clients who are paying real money.

From the start she LOOOOVED the website, and I got tons of glowing feedback from her along the way.  When I finally finished putting in all the data and images she sent us (which by the way she sent on Dec 28 and her site was up by Jan 5) she still loved it.  Then, it turned….

She had a “friend” of hers look at the site and they told her it was too plain.  What the fuck does this “friend” know about web design anyway?  Suddenly she hates everything about the site.  She sent us links to other websites (one that sells cell phones, the other a music website) and tells that she wants her site to be more like them.  Here is what her site would actually look like if she would send us more content.  She also says she wants flash.  No other description, just, “I want flash.”  Flash what?  Dancing rocks?  You sell fucking ROCKS, fyi.

Flash is web animation, if you’re not familiar, and it is EXPENSIVE and time-consuming to develop.  For that reason, flash is one of the only things we don’t offer.  If a client really wants flash on their website then we hire an outside flash developer and money has to be paid from the client directly to person creating the flash animation.  In other words, Flash=Money.

Then she also starts bitching that it took three months to put her site up.  Uhh, your emails say differently lady, we only got your content a week before your site went up.  You had “Coming Soon” page on your website for three months because it took you that long to get off your ass.  We don’t put up blank websites.  Did I mention she’s only paid $250 dollars?  That’s what I usually charge just for a logo design (and yes, I designed her logo AND a business card on top of that).

Friend or not, we just don’t have time to deal with this crap anymore, we have too many clients that have paid full price and we have plenty of work still to do for them.  We gave her two options, 1) Stop bitching, or 2) Pay in full by the end of the month.  If you don’t do either we will take down your site.  Period.

Luckily (for her) she came to her senses.  She chose option #1.  Maybe it was just her time of the month?  The full moon has passed and she’s no longer werewolf-cunt, I mean, client.  We’ll just have to see what happens on the next full moon…

If you want to see a hilarious representation of how web designing can go straight to hell, check out this comic by The Oatmeal.  It is sooo true.

Updates!

So I fiiiiinally updated my Turkish blog with pictures from our new apartment.  So check that out if you’re curious.  I also post a lot of pictures on Facebook.  If you want to be friends with me on FB you can search me out using my gmail address:  txstatejo@gmail.com  Be sure to tell me what your WordPress screen name is when you request me because I don’t approve anyone I don’t “know”.

Much love to you all!

All Quiet On The Blogging Front

I’ve noticed a general silence this week among most of my blog friends, in both posting and commenting…myself included.  Hope everyone is okay!  Probably just busy with life…myself included.

As you can see I’ve been slowly but surely catching up with my Weeds recaps, although I’m not sure if many people are interested.  That’s okay, I’ll just keep on plugging and hope that I can find some fans will find me through google or something.

So this is sort of an update post on what’s been going on in my life.

In general I’ve been bogged down with work.  New clients keep crawling out of the woodwork, as it seems that we are the only kids in town who know anything about Linux.  Microsoft has all the technicians here pretty well brainwashed, so there is a serious need for good Linux solutions.  Because anyone who knows anything knows that Microsoft is crap.  I can’t go into too much detail because of confidentiality agreements, but one client needs to be able to send streaming video web broadcasts from around the world, and another client needs an automated sound decibel monitoring device for clubs.  I tell you, coffee shops are excellent places to make new connections!

In some tragic news, my favorite cat, Otis went missing from my mom’s three weeks ago and has not been seen since.  If you remember, we were sharing a house with my mom, so he was very comfortable with the environment, and didn’t run away because of a sudden change.  Our cats and dog go in and out as they please through the dog door, and out of all my cats I’d say Otis was the most “street smart” and usually pretty cautious.  My mom put fliers with a picture on every door up and down the block, but she got no calls.  I have a feeling he’s not coming back.  I’m devastated.  I spent a whole day in bed a few weeks ago crying.  The worst part is I’m thousands of miles away and I can’t help look for him.  I kept having dreams about finding him, I’d wake up and call my mom to see if there was any news, but there never was.  He lives in my dreams now.

My poor Bubs...I hope you're in a better place.

Okay, enough tears and sadness, I have good news too!

I’M GOING TO HAVE A BABY!

Where there is death, there is always new life.  I just found out a few days ago, it’s really early, probably only a few weeks.  We’re super excited, we’ve been wanting this for awhile and we just started trying.  I haven’t told the whole family yet, just my parents and some close friends, so please don’t say anything about it on my Turkish blog or on Facebook.  I’m waiting a few more weeks to tell everyone.  I’ve got my fingers and toes crossed that everything will go okay.  I’m such a worrier.

😀

Progress…and a new blog!

I know I’ve been promising it for weeks, and my new Turkish travel blog is finally on its feet with a grand total of one post, but hey, it’s there!

You can now check out my adventures by going to http://turkdelights.wordpress.com

Now, some inquiring minds might ask, “Why do you need a separate blog for that?  Why not post all your stories and pictures on this one?”

Well…good question.  The short answer is that I really want to return this blog to its original intention, not a blog about me, but about my point of view on TV shows, movies, and silly things I find on the internet.  I’d like to keep my personal life more in the background.

Also, the other big reason is that my family and some of my friends don’t know about this blog and I don’t want them to so I can be free to say whatever the hell I want.  The travel blog is safe for grandma and grandpa.  But you, my bloggy friend, are welcome on both!  Just keep this blog a secret for me 🙂  Oh, who am I kidding?  I’ll get found out if I’m not already.  Also, just so you don’t get confused, I refer to my husband as “Q” on Turkish Delights because 1. That’s his real nickname, and 2. A few members of our family don’t know that we’re married yet, and I don’t want a bunch of angry emails about why they weren’t invited, and then I’ll have to explain that there wasn’t a wedding ceremony…blah blah blah.

In other news, I’m still up to my neck in work, so those Weeds recaps are going to be extra late.  Good news is we scored our first client over here!  They’re a body-building website that needs a re-design for their streaming video players, and we’re also going to sell them space on our servers.  Woot!  Work never stops.

What’s been keeping me going with all this non-stop work is music.  I’ve been thinking about starting a new section at bottom of my posts to discuss what I can’t stop listening to that week, but we’ll see if I can keep that up or not.  This week I cannot stop listening to Adele.  Just when I thought these young Brit soul singers were becoming a dime a dozen, Adele came along and proved me wrong.  Girl has got some pipes!  Her first album, 19, blows her contemporaries like Amy Winehouse and Duffy out of the water.  I have to wait till hubby wakes up and shows me how to hack back into youtube (yes, it’s blocked here) and I’ll post some videos so you can see what I mean.  I can’t get her single “Chasing Pavements” out of my head, and I think she wrote “My Same” about me and hubby.  Just to prove what a music schizo I am, the other album I can’t stop listening to is Pimp to Eat by the Analog Brothers.  Kool Keith with Ice-T…it just doesn’t get better than that!

“Chasing Pavements”

“Cold Shoulder”

If you like these you should also look up her song “Hometown Glory” on youtube as well.  I couldn’t find a version that would allow me to embed it.

I would post some Analog Brothers, but I don’t want to drive you all away.  If you’re feeling extra freaky, look them up.

Will It Blend?

In honor of all the computer problems we experienced yesterday (update–new video card, hard drive, ram and things are up and running again!) I thought I would share with you one of my favorite web series:  Will It Blend?

If you’re unfamilar with Will It Blend, you must watch all of them immediately.  They were created to advertise some of the most badass blenders on earth made by Blendtec. To see all of their videos go here or check youtube. They blend all kinds of things from iphones to glowsticks.

The Pencil Test

Do you have one of those friends on myspace that is obviously whoring themselves out?  You know you do.  Today on those sometimes annoying little status and mood updates I saw a new picture that a “friend” had posted looking all come-hither with a giant red “censored” bar over her boobs.  Her status?  “COME OVER AND KEEP ME COMPANY” mood: bored.  It’s as straight forward as you can get begging for sex from anybody and everybody.  The weird thing is in that tiny thumbnail form it looked like she had a tiny red keyboard on her breasts.  I’ll show you what I mean:  
I had to click on it because I could not figure out what the hell was going on.  I have not talked to this chick in a long while, and the last time I talked to her she had just gotten dumped by her boyfriend because he caught her trying to hit up one of her exes online, and he caught her by installing that software that tracks your keystrokes.  F-ed up huh?  Well when I looked at her profile it turns out that they’re back together and engaged! Yet the pictures and the status would clearly make you think otherwise.  What the hell?  And why are the sluttiest people always the ugliest?  Don’t ask me how I know, but her ass wouldn’t even pass the pencil test.

I’ve also caught a few exfriends posting live sex show and prostitution ads on craigslist.  You think you know a person and then…well actually each time it wasn’t that surprising, and this latest chick’s behavior isn’t either.

Does this ever happen to anyone else?