I've been really busy with clients lately. I love helping clients, but nothing gets me more steamed than potential clients wasting my time. This week I dealt with the all time, number one time waster.

First, he refused to look at my site to see what type of services I offer and wanted me to type it all out in an IM for him. Then, he told me that he had a budget of around $3,000. When I quoted him a price of $1,000 for my services, he changed his mind and told me that his budget was actually $400, but he could throw in an extra $100 if I could do the entire job. Plus, he wanted everything done ASAP and wanted an in-person meeting! Oh, and there's the charming fact that he said he wanted a local Texas writer, but wanted to pay Indian rates.

I told him what services I could provide him for $500 and that there would be no in-person meeting. I mean come on! There's no reason for an in-person when you can Skype. Besides, I'm not going to meet someone who randomly contacted me on the internet who has already lied to me.

After almost a solid week of him emailing me about how I need to help him and do his whole project ASAP, I got really fed up. I told him that instead of half up-front I required the total payment up-front. I mean if he's this big of a pain in the butt now, imagine what he'd be like during the project. After all of his emails, I didn't trust him to pay the other half, especially after he mentioned that several other writers disappointed him. Here was his response:

"Ok. Let's not start the work without any trust. If don't believe me, I don't need to believe your experience and trust.

Thanks knowing you and willingness to work with me.

All the best!"

Well, let's see, dude. I have tons of references and screenshots on my site, proving my professionalism and I have tons of publishing credits. What do we know about you? That you are super unprofessional in your IMs and emails and expect someone with more than 16 years of experience to work for chicken scratch. 

I just can't get over his nerve.