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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

For refusing to DO meetings?

53 replies

morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:04

I do websites

I hate it when clients ask to meet me

I know this means that their ideas are vague and requiring rambling for three hours

It's a WEBSITE. If you can't express it on an email then how am I going to turn it into a website?

Also I'm at IT person and frankly we don't like emerging into the sunlight while they are pizzas that can be delivered to your door

Is this unreasonable, do you think?

OP posts:
edam · 21/05/2007 20:05

No, entirely reasonable!

CountessDracula · 21/05/2007 20:07

Maybe they want the benefit of your expertise and suggestions?

JodieG1 · 21/05/2007 20:08

I can see how some people would prefer to meet and talk about ideas rather than email back and forth. Could you set up a video link if you couldn't/didn't want to go and meet them in person? I do think it can be easier to speak to someone rather than write an email though as you don't get the same feedback by email.

NikkiBFG · 21/05/2007 20:10

Oooh morningpaper! I may need a web designer in the near future!! Are you very pricey? I don't expect you to give exact figures, but you know - would I need to hawk my fanjo in order to pay for it???!

fadgewash · 21/05/2007 20:13

On the one hand you are being unreasonable - after all, they are clients and presumably they want it and are paying for it (so to speak)

On the other hand, you are saving them from an entirely avoidable meeting with Ms Spod the Computer Geek.

So, you might be being unreasonable, but every cloud has a silver lining!

Original poster
morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:14

I think I am going to dump my new client because she is insisting on a meeting

I am very succinct and organised via email

I offer a very thorough design process which allows client feedback and input at all the right places

The only dissatisfied client was one I used to MEET up with - I think this is because people who need meetings are unable to express themselves succinctly enough or have specific enough ideas of what they like - these kind of people make AWFUL clients.

I also think that if they are uncomfortable with email and the internet, they are probably never going to be happy with whatever I do for them in a website

Yes I am pretty cheap Nikkie unless you want a meeting or a phone in which case you can bugger off

OP posts:
Original poster
morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:15

generally they don't pay by the hour though fadgewash, I do a fixed price for the job

which does not include meetings

So I could add a price for meetings

But I just wonder whether Meeting People are going to make Awful Clients

I am appreciating your opinions ladies

OP posts:
ScummyMummy · 21/05/2007 20:16

up to you but I suspect you will lose business if you don't schmooze them face to face.

p.s. I have just made a moue of prudish distaste at your talkname, fadgewash! Are you a namechanger?

NikkiBFG · 21/05/2007 20:17

MP - I'm profoundly deaf so no worries about phone calls from moi!! Am a SMS and e-mail gal!

Taylormama · 21/05/2007 20:17

some meetings are useful
but some of the ones i go to just involve people who like writing things in big shiny notebooks and getting other people to action things

Original poster
morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:19

Nikki FANTASTIC

OP posts:
fadgewash · 21/05/2007 20:19

I may be
(said in accent not dissimilar to those found on Allo Allo)

I seem to remember I bagsied it around the legendary time of the UCM and then thought about resurrecting it for a thread a few days ago, and just keep forgetting to change back. It is bad, I agree....

Lol at your moue of prudish distaste

Original poster
morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:20

I don't see how it can really be useful to meet about WEBSITES

I mean they are pretty small sites, like 10 pages or so

How much RAMBLING do they need to say about it?

OP posts:
NikkiBFG · 21/05/2007 20:20

Being deaf has its advantages...all my gadgets vibrate

Taylormama · 21/05/2007 20:24

MP - if this isn't against MN guidelines i am looking for a website designer - can you CAT me please????

LongDistanceClara · 21/05/2007 20:25

Most meeting I go to at work have a signer translating [random trivia]

Katy44 · 21/05/2007 20:34

mp I'm in a similar business and know exactly what you mean! They're usually the ones who make a big fuss for web stats and then do absolutely nothing with them.

Original poster
morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:35

Urgh yes Katy

Or the ones who insist on "maintaining their own site" and then make such a pig's ear of it that you have to remove it from your portfolio

OP posts:
foxinsocks · 21/05/2007 20:38

because some people aren't very eloquent when it comes to writing down their thoughts (ahem)

some people find it easier to communicate what they want face to face

but it's your business, you do whatever you need to to get by! I imagine loads of people would be quite happy not to meet tbh.

TinyGang · 21/05/2007 20:42

It's all very 'Matrix' isn't it?

Maybe they want to see if you are real

Original poster
morningpaper · 21/05/2007 20:46

Matrix is good

It's bad enough that I've got to go downstairs to get to the fridge...

OP posts:
NikkiBFG · 21/05/2007 20:47

MP - have you seen The Net?!!

TinyGang · 21/05/2007 20:52

I shall think of you as Neo now

Vikkin · 21/05/2007 21:09

Nikki - ALL your gadgets?!?
I usually like to meet solicitors and accountants who are working for me face to face so they can see what a nice, honest person I am.
But I don't know if I would insist on meeting my website designer.

weirdbird · 21/05/2007 21:18

I know entirely where you are coming from, we had a client who was like this, he also insisted that his website should be bright pink and yellow, I later discovered he had also painted his shop the same colour.

He was the worst for wanting face to face meetings at which he waffled on for hours, had vague ideas of what pages he wanted but had no "content" for them even months and months later. Whats the point of webpages if you have nothing to go "on" them!!

He would suddenly ask us to make major ammendments at a minutes notice and then we would discover that he had already started advertising the new area, well in advance of him talking to us about it!!

Gah, we let him go in the end, he was more hassle than the money was worth.