The warning signs of a trouble client: real emails of lunacy and horror!

Sure, it’s happened to all of us. A prospective client contacts you and something just doesn’t feel right. The hair on the back of your neck stands up, you feel a cold chill in mid July or you just say to yourself, “this person is a wacko!”

Of course, you need money and you hope that it’s just a bad smoothie you had for lunch and you agree to take on the project. You think that if you stick with a contract and get a 50% upfront fee for the work, you’ll probably get through the project for what must be just a colorful character, and they may end up being a fun, and regular client. As the project progresses, you realize the person is not colorful or quirky… they are certifiably insane and you wish you had listened to the hair on your neck or that the smoothie had been fatal.

Let’s take a look at a recent horror show I experienced with a client and the steps I took to protect myself from the growing insanity and nightmare ending. All email content guaranteed verbatim! The names and contact information has been changed to protect… me!

The project begins…

The first email contained this short, simple message. Naturally, I wondered why someone would word the subject in such an… odd way, using foul language while not knowing what kind of person I was. The typo in “resipond” or grammatical error didn’t really bother me but the whole thing just put me on guard. I didn’t call him, choosing to keep all communication in writing just in case my suspicions were founded.

Speider Schneider

Speider Schneider is a former member of The Usual Gang of Idiots at MAD Magazine and has designed products for Disney/Pixar, Warner Bros., Harley-Davidson, ESPN, Mattel, DC and Marvel Comics, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon among other notable companies. Speider is a former member of the board for the Graphic Artists Guild, co-chair of the GAG Professional Practices Committee and a former board member of the Society of Illustrators. Follow him on Twitter @speider or add him on Google+