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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

NikkiBFG · 21/05/2007 21:27

Yes...all my gadgets! Pager for the doorbell/smoke alarm/baby (at least it means I greet the postman with a smile even if look a right munter with mad morning hair)

Mahoosive pager to put under pillow for waking me up when baby cries at night - you may think mmmm but its fecking awful - like concorde taking off and vibrating alarm clock and vibrating mobile....

At least I'm always cheerful!!!!

Katy44 · 22/05/2007 08:29

mp - you need a name change - NeoPaper?
PS can my website have purple writing on a lilac background? I think that would look very stylish!

nogoes · 22/05/2007 09:09

I need a website too. I will CAT you.

MrsBadger · 22/05/2007 09:18

Don't meet them - it won't do you or them any favours and it's not helpful to your business practice.

DH has the opposite problem - he does buildings security and stuff, and his business model hinges on him meeting someone and doing the honest look-'em-in-the-eye firm-handshake stuff because that is what they buy - they buy a chap they can trust rather than a faceless email contact.

Is there a halfway compromise - could you make them send you a storyboard or a tear sheet or choose from a list of keywords or some such?

sar123 · 22/05/2007 09:20

As someone who has commissioned websites in the past yes i think YABU. I'd be very suspicious of a supplier who didn't want to meet face to face if I asked to. I'd understand if you charged by the hour and didn't want to waste time in meetings but i'd probably have expected your fee to include time spent doing things like discussing the project. Also the reason i paid other people to build them is because I can't do it myself, so i'd need your input and help on some things. If it was simply a case of me sending you some copy for you to paste into a page, then maybe not, but if it was a bit more sophisticated, I'd expect at least one meeting. I'd also be checking you out - to make sure I wanted to employ you! After all - I'm the customer! That's not meant to sound harsh but just trying to put across the other side. But then again i'm not the kind of person who would have spent hours waffling at you !!!! I'd have come to the meeting with a very focused agenda. Maybe you could do a POST for your meetings - purpose, outcome, structure, timings - which you could agree with your client before you meet. Then at least you can keep it short, sweet and focused. HTH.

ThisIsDavinaPleaseDoNotSwear · 22/05/2007 09:26

My web designer lives in Italy (although he is called Keith ) and I live in the UK so obviously we have never met.

I do talk to him on the phone quite a bit though or at least I did when we first started and probably couldn't have managed without that.

It's often a lot quicker to say something, then to type it and there is less room for misinterpretation. I think mumsnet can sometimes be a good example of how written words could be miscontrued (or misspelt )

Can you compromise and have a phone chat?

rattleskuttle · 22/05/2007 09:52

how about having an extra service? they pay more but have a face to face meeting.

if you don't want to do it yourself you could pay someone to go and listen to them waffling while taking along a checklist to get all the important details you'd notmally get from an email.

i run my own business and do this; when my dcs are older i'll do the meetings again myself because i quitwe liker them - i build them around something i already need to do, and i make out i'm really busy and only give them 20 mins at the most.

you prob. lose a lot of business by not doing meetings. there are lots of people who want a website who don't have a clue about the whole thing.

btw i made my own website but have a prob with updating it due to an earlier computer crash. maybe you could help me.

i've probably x posted with about a thousand messages cos i'm bf and arguing with a 3 yr old.

Elasticwoman · 22/05/2007 16:34

Can you suggest video conferencing?

Kevlarhead · 22/05/2007 19:15

If it was me, I'd want to draw you a big picture, with lots of arrows and diagrams and ideas of how the site should be structured... which would be a pain in the arse to email.

And I'd like to see who I'm hiring.

And I'd also like to get expert advice on whether then plans I have for my website are practical/desireable/useable before committing them to email and all the accompanying misunderstandings that can ensue.

In the nicest possible way, YABU and shooting yourself in the foot to boot.

Although I totally understand the desire to avoid timewasters... why not email them a checklist of things you need to know, treat it as an agenda, and stick to it ruthlessly throughout any meetings? You get the information, they get the face time...

Twiglett · 22/05/2007 19:18

gimp

Judy1234 · 22/05/2007 20:09

I tried really really hard to put some people off meeting me today as I'd told them everything in advance but they insisted. They were paying so it doesn't matter but I agree a lot of meetings waste time but some people just like them. Why I can find them a hassle is sometimes you're late and you're sort of waiting before for them to arrive and then you get less done and then I feel I have to dress up so that takes a bit of effort. I usually end glad I had it I suppose.

Original poster

morningpaper · 22/05/2007 21:11

In the end I told the client I wouldn't do it

I have a very clear way of doing things with appropriate forms filled in at certain places - I think it works very well (for me!).

I don't want to deal with wafflers. They can find someone more pricey...

OP posts:

Judy1234 · 22/05/2007 22:19

Entirely your right. Once I tell people they're paying me per hour including from when I leave the house they often settle for a phone call.

islandofsodor · 23/05/2007 00:01

I'd want a face to face meeting too. I'd want to see you sketch out examples, listen to my ideas, give me advice and I'd want to just meet the person I was going to be paying.

Sorry, but you wouldn't get my business. I may as well use a DIY web design programme.

Original poster

morningpaper · 23/05/2007 08:49

Sketching out examples, see when clients want to sketch out examples then you know they are going to be awful to work with

OP posts:

Elasticwoman · 23/05/2007 10:46

Morningpaper I don't want to meet you but have you seen page 9 of the latest edition of Private Eye (1185)? Legal news about libel laws and freedom of speech mentioning MN so pls pass on this message to your MN colleagues. If they haven't already seen it.

Slight hijack there, sorry.

Enid · 23/05/2007 10:48

are you serious?

I wouldn't use someone who didn't want to meet me!

I agree meetings are mostly shite (and I insist on no meetings longer than one hour when at work), but you can meet them for an hour surely?

Enid · 23/05/2007 10:51

also, sorry mp, it just doesnst seem v professional to not want to meet your clients. Also agree with Xenia though you should charge for them - although when I was building my freelance career I never charged for a first meeting.

Elasticwoman · 23/05/2007 10:58

Have you seen v. old VideoArts film Managing Meetings with John Cleese?

Enid · 23/05/2007 10:58

yes I have

Enid · 23/05/2007 10:59

(oi mp, how much do you charge for a fairly basic 6 page site?)

Original poster

morningpaper · 23/05/2007 11:00

I don't WANT to meet my clients

I'd have to double my prices

I've offered one of them an hourly rate for meetings and I've not heard back since

OP posts:

Original poster

morningpaper · 23/05/2007 11:02

Email me Enid and I'll send you my New Client info

OP posts:

Enid · 23/05/2007 11:03

do you have my email adress? am at work but I can cat you

Original poster

morningpaper · 23/05/2007 11:03

I DID have your email address but I MAY have mislaid it

OP posts:

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