Peh-seh-teh-row.

You have just learned to say cheapskate in spanish. Congratulations.

What's up with cheapskate clients? You tell me, 'cause I really want to know. I mean, if your company is making a shitload of money, what gives you the right to undermine another person's work? Who are you to determine which price is ok and which price is not?

You don't see me going to the supermarket, getting all the crap I want, walking to the nearest cash register and demand that all the prices go down just because I have a budget. Look, if I have 50 bucks, I know I can't get 200 bucks worth of groceries, right? Yeah, logic. But that doesn't seem to enter my latest client's head.

I give a price. Make it lower. I give a lower price. Make it lower again. Dude, why don't you tell me the price you want to pay and I'll tell you if I decide to suck on your balls and do it... or not?

I have been writing about this shit... as long as I can remember. And it still bugs me that though I try to make them understand that certain things have a cost... it doesn't compute in my client's head. The one thing that really makes me angry, Hulk angry, is the astonishing way that they bitch about prices. I can yap about experience, delivery, quality... they just want it cheaper.

And telling me that they are going to do it with another supplier is not giving me the jibby jeebies that much anymore. Once one client of mine chose that path. I didn't say a word. Months later, the client called me back. Seemed that the cheaper supplier that they found did so many crappy ads and made so many mistakes, they realized that sometimes a more decently priced creative was not that bad. Instead of waiting months for a turd of an ad, full of typos and low res logos, they knew that by calling us out they could have a better work. Yes, it costs a little more, but at the end they got exactly what they wanted.

The thing that bugs me even more? I sometimes give stuff for free. You know the deal, they want some stupid revisions that I can do in 5 minutes and I don't charge them for that. And I make a point not to even say it. The bill just never arrives. I do it because I believe in loyalty. If you are a great client, I will, from time to time, give you shit for free. In ALL my years of doing this, I have seldom seen a client call me back and say thank you for that. Instead, I get call after call telling me... are you going to charge me for that?

What balls. What balls.