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This happened last year. I make various costume items, mostly mascot suits and related fuzzy things, for a living. I sell over the internet mostly, so I do a lot of IMing with customers.
I was contacted via IM by a young man who wanted a pair of costume tails, one a rainbow fox and one a cheetah. Now it's my normal policy to never make anything without a down payment, but these would be just a few hours' work, and I was feeling nice that day, and he explained that he'd just started a new job and didn't have any money yet, but he would at the end of the week. So I went ahead and agreed to make his tails.
And so our saga began!
Now normally I'm pretty busy and it takes 2-3 weeks to make a small custom order. (For the big stuff, I suggest ordering at least 6 months in advance!) So I hadn't even thought about starting this guy's project when he contacted me less than a week after I'd agreed to it, to ask if they were done yet. Quite politely I explained that I hadn't had the time, and it would probably be one or two weeks more. He seemed surprised by this, and got a little bit pushy, insisting that he needed these right away, and I should have mad them by now, but when I reminded him that I hadn't yet been paid, and so I wouldn't be shipping them to him right away in any case he backed down.
He said that he did have the money, and he'd write me a check and put it in the mail tomorrow.
So I thought happy thoughts at the prospect of getting paid, and went about my business. A little over a week later I had the one finished, and the other nearly done, when he contacted me again, to ask if they were finished. I explained that they were nearly done, and once again asked about the money. He promised that it had, indeed, been mailed to me and I should get it any day now. Then he asked me to please mail him the tails as soon as they were done.
Ha.
Well, I'm sometimes too nice, but I'm not stupid! I said they'd be done tomorrow, and I'd put them in the mail as soon as his check arrived and cleared at the bank.
I finished them the next day, as promised, and dropped him a note to that effect, with a photo so that he could tell me if they looked the way he wanted. But funnily enough he didn't reply for more than a month.
When he did reply, he told me that something had gone wrong with my address, and the check had come back to him. He would send it out again right away, but he really wanted his tails, and could I mail them that day? He was sending the check, I'd get my money, no worries!
I hadn't gotten any stupider during that month, so I told him no again.
To make a long story short, that check was in the mail and on its way to me about four more times, I think. I still have one of those tails sitting here, more than a year later! I sold the other one to somebody else who liked it and sent me the money by paypal right then and there.
Anybody want a cheetah tail?
I was contacted via IM by a young man who wanted a pair of costume tails, one a rainbow fox and one a cheetah. Now it's my normal policy to never make anything without a down payment, but these would be just a few hours' work, and I was feeling nice that day, and he explained that he'd just started a new job and didn't have any money yet, but he would at the end of the week. So I went ahead and agreed to make his tails.
And so our saga began!
Now normally I'm pretty busy and it takes 2-3 weeks to make a small custom order. (For the big stuff, I suggest ordering at least 6 months in advance!) So I hadn't even thought about starting this guy's project when he contacted me less than a week after I'd agreed to it, to ask if they were done yet. Quite politely I explained that I hadn't had the time, and it would probably be one or two weeks more. He seemed surprised by this, and got a little bit pushy, insisting that he needed these right away, and I should have mad them by now, but when I reminded him that I hadn't yet been paid, and so I wouldn't be shipping them to him right away in any case he backed down.
He said that he did have the money, and he'd write me a check and put it in the mail tomorrow.
So I thought happy thoughts at the prospect of getting paid, and went about my business. A little over a week later I had the one finished, and the other nearly done, when he contacted me again, to ask if they were finished. I explained that they were nearly done, and once again asked about the money. He promised that it had, indeed, been mailed to me and I should get it any day now. Then he asked me to please mail him the tails as soon as they were done.
Ha.
Well, I'm sometimes too nice, but I'm not stupid! I said they'd be done tomorrow, and I'd put them in the mail as soon as his check arrived and cleared at the bank.
I finished them the next day, as promised, and dropped him a note to that effect, with a photo so that he could tell me if they looked the way he wanted. But funnily enough he didn't reply for more than a month.
When he did reply, he told me that something had gone wrong with my address, and the check had come back to him. He would send it out again right away, but he really wanted his tails, and could I mail them that day? He was sending the check, I'd get my money, no worries!
I hadn't gotten any stupider during that month, so I told him no again.
To make a long story short, that check was in the mail and on its way to me about four more times, I think. I still have one of those tails sitting here, more than a year later! I sold the other one to somebody else who liked it and sent me the money by paypal right then and there.
Anybody want a cheetah tail?
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