Respect Your Potential Clients!

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If you prefer to "learn by example" then here is an example of what not to do when someone wants to hire YOU. 

My issue is HTML for my internet/smartphone radio station's website, Groovy Reflections Radio. 

Everything is fine on the website except for one nagging issue: The coding for “recently played”  won't work correctly! HTML was provided by Shoutcast; they host the radio station. The song titles show up, however, 95% of the artwork (generally the album cover) shows up as missing. Here’s what it looks like:

Basically that piece of code needs to be rewritten. Also, it’s supposed to sync with Amazon and it does not. I also thought up an alternative solution: Insert the Groovy Reflections logo (see above) or some other graphics there. I want the listeners to know what songs they are hearing; makes it more fun for them! The current song does show up in the player WITH the LP cover so no issue there, thankfully.

I discovered that someone locally I know not only does SEO work but knows html as well. Know him a couple years, meeting through the vast Orange County network. Have met in person too at a meet-up. We had a nice phone discussion for about 45 minutes almost three weeks ago and I felt comfortable working on this with him.

Put all the information together in both text and graphics that recapped what I explained on the phone and sent it to him within 24 hours. 

He said he would look at it that weekend.

A week went by. Sent an email wanting to know if he was still interested in the project and he said he was. Then, silence. No follow through. I contacted again and said that it appeared he wasn't interested and that I would find someone else. He said he had emailed me a few days back. Never received it. Then, he said he would look at it on Wednesday! I figured, well, okay.

We are friends on Facebook. On Wednesday I saw him post about all the new clients he has. Great.

Last night I was supposed to go to a meet-up, however, taking care of my clients comes first. I stayed home. And wouldn't you know it, guess who did attend? Ah...the webs we weave by posting on Facebook. After seeing that, wrote another email and said:

 “I'm glad you are at that event tonight! I'm working on stuff for a client. My clients always come first. That's how I do business.

In all honesty, I am tired of getting messages from you that you are going to take on the project yet nothing happens. 

I am sorry. I really have to move on. I was looking forward to seeing the dazzling work you do and recommending it to others however I am on the hunt for someone who will actually do the work now.

Don't mean this to sound cruel or mean. You have to understand how I feel as an ignored client here. I have never done this to any of my clients and I guess my expectations were too high.

Thanks for your efforts.”

This morning I received an invoice for the work. 
Folks, don't treat potential clients like this! What would you do in my situation? It’s now almost three weeks and I still have an issue that needs fixing!

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