Dealing With a Pain in the Ass Client

potentialeight

potentialeight

Expert Gambling Writer
Oct 30, 2010
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I have a guy who's wanting to become a regular client who's turning into a pain in the ass very quickly, and I'm just wondering if I'm being unreasonable. There are two main issues.

The first issue is that he's Russian, and there's a little bit of a language barrier. We haven't really had trouble communicating at this point, but it seems like it's going to happen a non-trivial percentage of the time.

The second issue is that he's Russian, and he says that he has sent money to my PayPal for a little bit of work I did for him to see how things were going to go. After I told him that I hadn't received anything, he replied with, "i haven't own paypal account...paypal doesn't work with my country...so i sent money through money exchanger...and it takes some time for successful transfer...i am sure that money will come very soon...you will see."

My research says that PayPal does work in Russia.

My bullshit sense is tingling because he's already asking for [much more] work to be done within a short amount of time. I don't know how sketchy this is on a scale from 1 to Drew Myers since I don't have much experience with the comrades, so hopefully someone can shed some light on this for me. Thanks.

Unrelated: Exclusively from the neck down, which of these two girls do you prefer? I prefer the second, and some of my friends think I'm crazy for having this sort of preference.

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If you are talking about content writing services then it's only natural that foreigners will order your stuff, so you shouldn't be so alarmed.

Just wait for the money and see if it comes or not. If it never comes, ditch him, and if it comes, quote him, including possible mindfucks into your price. You do it for the money, right? :)
 
Up your rate by 10% due to the language barrier issues, and don't do any additional work until the first transfer has been received. Once received, have all future funds sent via Western Union, bitcoin, or some other medium.

Just explain to him it's a new business relationship, you don't know each other from a hole in the ground, so you want to wait for the first payment to come in before doing any more work. I'm sure he'll understand, and if he doesn't, tell him to go fuck himself.
 
People in Russia hell can send everything thru gaypal. And actually can accept payments, from the last year. They just cant withdraw the funds from gaypal.

And yes, for many of them the hardship may be in funding gaypal, as not all of them have credit cards that they can link to their gaypal accounts. I know it well as i often exchange gaypal to something else for them.

:eatmousepointer:
 
Even if the money comes through, ditch him.

Rightly or wrongly you've got it into your head now he'll be a trouble client. Future reactions and work for him will be affected as a result. Not worth the BS
 
Russia has their own paypal, called webmoney. Exchanges between paypal and webmoney exist and it does take a while. Paypal in Ru is very uncommon. Anyway I wouldn't do any further work till money is there. Moreover, why not get paid upfront?
 
onkelmicha said:
I chose less money over more headache any day, listen to your gut.
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This can't be more true.


ALWAYS listen to your gut. If red flags stick up when speaking with someone, listen to them and make judgments accordingly.

Sooooooo many times I've seen people burned by giving others the benefit of their doubt. Fuck that.
 
Thank all of you for your advice. The money literally hit my PayPal about five minutes ago, and he paid for a bit of work in advance aside from the small amount that I did as a trial to see if we were going to work well together.

My current plan is to finish out the work to cover the payment he sent me and to continue having him pay me in advance.

dzianis said:
If you are talking about content writing services then it's only natural that foreigners will order your stuff, so you shouldn't be so alarmed.

Just wait for the money and see if it comes or not. If it never comes, ditch him, and if it comes, quote him, including possible mindfucks into your price. You do it for the money, right? :)
Click to expand...

I've never had a problem with people from Russia getting me paid via PayPal before, so it was kind of weird to me since I'd never had to deal with it before.

golan said:
People in Russia hell can send everything thru gaypal. And actually can accept payments, from the last year. They just cant withdraw the funds from gaypal.

And yes, for many of them the hardship may be in funding gaypal, as not all of them have credit cards that they can link to their gaypal accounts. I know it well as i often exchange gaypal to something else for them.

:eatmousepointer:
Click to expand...
This helped me to understand the situation a lot more. Thank you for this.

nator said:
Russia has their own paypal, called webmoney. Exchanges between paypal and webmoney exist and it does take a while. Paypal in Ru is very uncommon. Anyway I wouldn't do any further work till money is there. Moreover, why not get paid upfront?
Click to expand...

Again, I didn't know about their PayPal or rubles or any of that shit, so I appreciate this information. The plan was to wait until the money got there, but it hit my PayPal earlier than I guess I expected it to.

Typically I don't ask to be paid upfront for small amounts. I have a number of clients that pay me weekly or monthly after the fact, but I don't really do this for large amounts unless I have either a contract or a good relationship with a client who has proved themselves to be reliable.

Thanks again to everyone for the advice.
 
blureach said:
This can't be more true.


ALWAYS listen to your gut. If red flags stick up when speaking with someone, listen to them and make judgments accordingly.

Sooooooo many times I've seen people burned by giving others the benefit of their doubt. Fuck that.
Click to expand...

This. Your gut instinct is right more times than it is wrong. Look for reasons not to work with someone, rather than reasons to work with someone.
 
#1

When things are this much of a pain in the ass BEFORE you've even done any work for a client, odds are it's only going to get worse down the road. Probably a negative outlook, but I don't have time for that crap.
 
mituozo said:
This. Your gut instinct is right more times than it is wrong. Look for reasons not to work with someone, rather than reasons to work with someone.
Click to expand...
As the OP gains a reputation and credibility for himself he'll be able to pick and choose freely who he wants to work for. He might be going through the painful early stages of learning the ropes.

Occasionally a good client morphs into a bad client, and I'm wondering if a bad client can be trained to behave.

Last night I saw a repeat of TBBT where Sheldon was training Penny to be a better-behaved girlfriend by rewarding her with chocolate treats, sort of like housebreaking a puppy. I started wondering if chocolate rewards would work with clients, and should I smack them with a rolled up magazine if they misbehave? :2gunsfiring_v1:
 
send an invoice with 2checkout payment option, it works in Russia (hint curdbee.com)
 
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