Job gone bad!

[glorybound]

I thought I would use this forum to vent. I have a first time client, who approached me with a large project 10 days ago, and I gladly excepted the job. I knew that I would have to work day and night to meet the deadline, but.... I didn't get the site plan until 2 days ago, and it was a weeks worth of site work. I also was given the wrong color elevation to work from, and I didn't get the correct one until the morning of the deadline. I was working through a tech, I think, and not the architect on the project. The architect, who is the owner, called me on his way to the city meeting, very mad. He said the renderings were so low resolution he couldn't use them, but I sent him high resolution images, that somehow his staff didn't get to him. He also said the colors were totally wrong, but again, he must have been seeing old progress renders showing the wrong colors that I was told to use.

How do you guys handle things like this? I called him back, apologizing for any part I had in missing the deadline, but I explained the issues. It would be nice to get all the information before starting, but these things are usually a work in progress, and I am sent changed files daily. Is it my fault that I am given the wrong color elevations to work from and is it my fault that the site plan wasn't disclosed until 3/4 of the way into the project? Do I cover my butt, which might mean pushing the tech under the bus, or do I take the blame and try to make it right?

here is the email I sent last night: Dan is not the architect, he is the tech, and I don't think he is the one who left the message. I was working with Dan over the past 10 days. I sent this e-mail to Dan and I carbon copied the owner, who I think is the one who left the message.

Dan-

Thanks for the phone call, I did call you back, but I got your voice mail. I think it was you who called; the name got cut off. I hope your meeting went better than you expected and I apologize for my role in missing the deadline. I think the project has a lot of potential for an awesome rendering, and I hope I can complete it for you. I didn't receive the site plan, as you know, until late Tuesday (7-19). I know how important landscaping is, and it is important to get it right. The site plan alone will take me 3-4 days to model and place all the vegetation across the site. I also noticed that the updated site plan, that I got today, is different from the one I was modeling from, so I'll have to do some re-modeling. With all the proposed landscaping, the rendering times will exponentially increase, and we are probably looking at 8-12 hrs per view. I have some serious hardware, so there is no limitations there. I am running your project through a render farm with 40 cores and about 80Gb if ram. If you are not a techie, that is some serious horse power.

We also have some confusion on the colors. The color elevation I was working from was old, and I got a new one yesterday, but it still needs some clarification because the design has changed since that model was done. Per our correspondences today I thought we were good on color, after I corrected the siding color. I did send high resolution JPG's for print, so I am confused on why your images were pixilated. I am thinking the last files I sent, via sendapace (below), were not the ones that finally got printed.

Let me know what I can do to make this right.

Thanks,

Bobby W Parker

Here are two of the four images I sent him yesterday.

[mikeh]

Bobby,
I feel your pain. A habit i have adopted because morons tend to pass along progress stills as final images, is i ALWAYS place large letters on the image identifying it as a draft/progress image. I've had people in my office pass along progress prints to the client who then presented them in a meeting with city officials who all reacted negatively to the images (the images, of course, were not supposed to be shown outside of the office). To make matters worse, one of the principles of one of our departments was there and assumed that the image was finished and came out of that meeting with nothing good to say about me. It happens. So, the only thing i can say is, cover your butt at all times. Politics can be nasty. Communication is always iffy, at best.
mh

[glorybound]

Very good advice, I will adopt it!

Bobby,
I feel your pain. A habit i have adopted because morons tend to pass along progress stills as final images, is i ALWAYS place large letters on the image identifying it as a draft/progress image. I've had people in my office pass along progress prints to the client who then presented them in a meeting with city officials who all reacted negatively to the images (the images, of course, were not supposed to be shown outside of the office). To make matters worse, one of the principles of one of our departments was there and assumed that the image was finished and came out of that meeting with nothing good to say about me. It happens. So, the only thing i can say is, cover your butt at all times. Politics can be nasty. Communication is always iffy, at best.
mh

[Da_elf]

my contracts always state that drawing received at the start of a project must be final and extra cost and extra time is added to the proposal for any changes to drawings that come in after work has commenced and work doesnt commence until items asked for from me have come in

[flino2004]

You made a couple mistakes here, if you don't get the information on time you have to send emails saying that and of course saying that it will affect the schedule and the final delivery to have record of their mistakes.
2nd huge mistake was the "appologie" because you are accepting in some degree that was your fault and it wasn't.(I kind understand that because your are "Minnesotan nice")...but I never got to this point because I send emails very often alerting the clients that if I don't have the information on time they won't have what they want on time....and even if I got the info late I still send emails saying " Do you still want the renderings? because it will be imposible to have them done for that day...at the end, they always move the deadline and iI receive "appologies" from them for all the problems.
Maybe He is accting to pay less money or don't pay at all.

Fernando

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

Here r my two cents Bobby...
Ive stopped taking mega tight deadlines from completely new clients i have no experience with. Its usually not worth the hasstle anyway. I do such jobs only with client i know since few jobs.
Some might say this approach can be hazardous when maintaining the average monthly jobs turnover but its certainly better than one stupid client ruining your good reputation and spreading the bad word around...

Ive had few jobs like this this year which ended up like catastrophy compˇetely for the similar reasons such as your job. Try to forget it the sooner the better for you man.

Fingers crossed, i feel with you.

Best

[glorybound]

stopped taking mega tight deadlines from completely new clients

I will make this practice!

[Da_elf]

i put in a policy as well that on sending an email a client has 48 hours. weekends not included to respond to me or i start adding daily penalties. seems harsh but it keeps them on their toes

[glorybound]

yes. That was another issues. I would get replies days later. I would say 48 is generous.

[Da_elf]

i hated it when either there was an inconsistency with the blueprints and i need confirmation before continuing or that ive sent in proofs and just waiting for the ok to render the final

[Morne]

I've had plenty times where the sections, elevations and plans don't correspond. Then I phone the client to see which one to use. Then he says the elevation is the correct one. Then use the elavation. Deliver the 3D and then client says, but that section is wrong. I said but you said to use the elevation, cleint: yes but for that part you were suppose to use the plan and for that part you were suppose to use the section.

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

i get this shit quite often
and i also get things like:

"pls make the glass non reflecting" followed by later emails saying "the glass doesnt look like glass"

[Morne]

"pls make the glass non reflecting" followed by later emails saying "the glass doesnt look like glass"

yes that is classic

[glorybound]

i get this shit quite often
and i also get things like:

"pls make the glass non reflecting" followed by later emails saying "the glass doesnt look like glass"

ROFL... I had that just last week

[PIXELBOX_SRO]

lol

the funny thing is that i had this from a world famous architect!

sometimes i really wish i had a boxing bag in my office