Client Threw a Shoe at Me

For a few months, I have been in communication with someone abroad who wants to buy an afghan from my Etsy site, and wants it custom-made to her liking, to be ready by a certain date. I said, sure, I can do that.

She said, "I don't want you to go to any trouble."

Uhm, that's why you're paying me!

Early on, I told her that certain patterns would take more time and be more expensive, because they are more complex and therefore take longer to make. I reminded her of this a few times along the way when I emailed her to see if she had made up her mind.

She said she could not look at the yarn on a website with pictures, and I, stupidly but in a customer-friendly way, offered to knit and send her swatches of the yarns I had on hand plus the ones she was miraculously able to choose from said website.

Even allowing for long postal times, it took her a month from when we first talked for her to choose colours and a pattern.

When she finally decided, wanted to snail-mail me her pattern idea (tack on another month where I have to wait to receive the pattern before starting), and told me in an email her ideas, catastrophe struck.

She wanted the most expensive pattern that would take the longest amount of time. I wrote her back and said (professionally and politely) that there was no conceivable way I could complete the project on time for when she needed it. Originally, I worked out how long each pattern would take me, and she was aware that a certain pattern would not be feasible if she wanted it by a certain date - which she did.

Her answer was "Don't worry about it. I will reimburse you for the yarn you've bought to send me the swatches".

Trying not to sound like I was begging, I emailed her and asked if she would like to continue but with a different pattern that I could complete well before the due date?

I hate to sound like I am begging, but let's be realistic. These knitting projects are not produced out of thin air, and it appears that she thinks they do.

My husband and friends agree that she is nuts, has no concept of how long these things take, and needs a reality check. The reason I am so disheartened by this is that my business is fledgling, and my customers are few and far between, so I need all the business I can get. If I lose this one, yuck!

On the positive side, if she backs out, I will get money for the yarn and shipping cpsts, and I can make scarves out of the yarn I bought to make her swatches. I am also updating my Etsy site's main page to prevent shit like this from happening again.

My husband quipped that this client threw a shoe at me, in reference to George W Bush's visit to Iraq last year, in which angry journalists lobbed shoes at the ex-president. Do to so says much more about the client than it does about me.

You can see my Etsy products at http://warmochfuzzy.etsy.com/