It seems to me that there's a disproportionate of threads in the shitlist where the person being accused disappearing without completing what was paid for blames one of those things for the problem.

If you were to take it at face value there is enough of a sampling to determine that providing services must have a higher ratio of serious family problems, illnesses, and funerals occur at a very high frequency.

I don't mean to make light of serious problems, and for anyone that actually is dealing with things like that, I really feel for you.

But when things go wrong in a business deal and someone is reported in the shitlist, it's quite suspicious that over 90% of the time some such serious thing is claimed to be the cause.

I'm just sayin'....

Look if you screw up and don't do a service someone paid you for, don't come up with lame excuses like that. If it's bullshit then it's actually pretty offensive. If it's real then it really isn't an excuse for not doing the right thing and taking care of your customer now.

If you screw up for whatever reason, then be accountable for your actions. Give a refund or whatever else needs to be done to resolve the problem.

i will try to send before this time
sir u know i got severe family probs.my life was on edge .my mind really got disturbed due to problems.please bear wid me .tomorrow by this time u hav report
my team is working on ur order wid high priority

Oh i am sorry, i coudn't reply to your thread i'm overwelmed with personal matters.

I really don't want to tell you my personal worry as my dog passed away hit by a bus which was doing a looping while my dog flew ...

+100 OP

I had an employee do this to me for almost an entire year. Every week was another excuse of some "serious" situation. Even after I fired her, she still contacts me with "serious" situations and needs money that she can't work for yet. I'm so tired of these excuses.

It's like the boy who cried wolf, when something does actually happen, no one is gonna help them out.

I think one of the issues with a lot of service providers is the fact they are scared to admit when they are wrong, man up and sort the issue out properly.

By making up bullshit excuses and then setting unrealistic deadlines for the work to be done properly, it digs and even deeper hole making matters worse.

I've dealt with a lot of people over the few years, and I would never have an issue if someone just told me the truth. If they forgot to do something, didn't do it properly, made a mistake - that's usually not a problem at all. If they lie, tell me their house has burned down (my house did actually burn down this year and it didn't affect service to any of my clients!), someone has died, they are sick etc then I don't really have much sympathy.

Customers will almost always respect you if you just tell the truth. We all fuck up from time to time, it's nothing to be ashamed of. If you really do have a problem that means you can't complete the service - just send a refund. Stringing people along with lies isn't cool and it's not going to get you a good rep.

Also - never underestimate who you are dealing with. Some of my very best clients (worth 6 figures to me a year) initially approached me for something very small in value ($XX) and they always appreciate the fact I'm straight up and honest with them. It will get you a lot of business in the long run, a ton of referrals and more importantly, you'll be able to sleep well at night

It's the semi-adult way of saying the dog ate my homework. It's not a valid excuse; it's just lame!

It's not just service providers that deliver the excuses, clients try to shift the blame/responsibility almost as much. Just this week I had one client claim to fall asleep while we were working on something and another claim that he couldn't figure out how to pay the paypal invoice?!? And in the past, I've received almost every excuse that you mention above - death, fire, and disease...

So maybe it's just IM in general and we should all be vary of for whom the bell tolls, because it tolls for me and thee...

Originally Posted by Jonny Quick

Every once in a while, things get fouled up and I tell a customer a "little white lie" about some family crisis or other. Not often, but y'know sometimes we all drop the ball, and if you haven't got a good-sounding reason, the customer takes it personally, making the relationship strained.

Well, about a year ago, I had one of these customers ask me about me <person> in my life and how they were doing with their <medical condition>. At heart I'm an honest person. A good liar can keep track of who they said what to, and I cannot. So I stood there (oblivous) actually brainstorming with this guy as to who in my life he might be talking about, and what medical condition he was referring to me, because nothing he was saying to me had anything to do with my life.

It didn't occur to me until later that day that I must have made up some story or other, and he remembered it, and was probably checking if I could remember it, and I couldn't.

So, the moral of the story is... Well, I dunno. Tell your customers the truth? There's a part of me that thinks it's none of their business. A lot of their "deadlines" are BS anyways, and I see no reason to jump through my butt in order to satisfy someone elses odd little demand that things get done "perfectly". So I have a certain amount of sympathy with the whole "Sir, my family has been ill..." people because they alternative is to tell you "I took a day off (or a week, or whatever) and your stuff is going to be late." I know the prices for some of this work, and all these high-demands for on-time delivery etc... seem pretty unreasonable to me. I'd be tempted to steal your money too, lol... Not for the money so much, but because some of you are annoying assholes and deserve to get screwed.

"I paid $35.00 for 10-500 word high-content articles and it's been 6 days and I haven't got my articles."

My sentiments: Fuck you. You owe me $35.00 for the privilige of knowing my name. Talking to me is another $35.00. For me to know your name is $35.00. I'll send you your articles as soon as you send me a dated digital image of your keyboard shoved up your ass, otherwise you can go fuck yourself.

Maybe I shouldn't be in IM, lol....

hahahaha.... note to self...never buy shit from this guy.... hahaha

I'll gotta be honest here as a service provider.

If I can't solve your code in the same day, it's your fault. If 24 hours pass and you still didn't answer my e-mails it's your fault. If you sound like you don't have your shit together, as a customer, can't decide over 2 features in one mere wordpress plug-in and we bounce e-mails back and forth with details for 3-4 weeks until you can make up your mind - guess it - your fault. So I'll always invent an excuse to delay, delay, delay up to the point where I can solve your code in less than 24 hours.

Also if I'm switching apartments I'm afraid you'll have to wait; or ask for your money back.

P.S.: In my country folks skilled in expensive watch repair usually die from old age and it's not funny; you get your watch back with court order taking 6 months and usually it doesn't have all it's gears or wristbands back together. Not funny.

I just aint do it. Was tired and had too many drinks. plus when you sent the project it was all greek to me.

i just wanted to take the job b4 anyone else did. Damn mom talking about charging me rent. The bitch.

With that being said, you can send the rest on my money to my paypal account. I wont do the work then either, but fuck it. Whats the worse that can happen.

Have a nice day.

Originally Posted by nesterdwarf

It's not just service providers that deliver the excuses, clients try to shift the blame/responsibility almost as much.

That's a good observation.

I guess the point is... when a shitlist thread is posted about someone (whether they're the buyer or the seller), it seems like these lame type excuses are the typical first answer.

I'm sure in some cases they might be legit, but if that's the case I would expect to see the complaint dealt with professionally and whatever needs to be done, be done.

I think more often than not though the excuse is bullshit, and (as could be expected) rather than take responsibility for the problem, in these cases the excuse is somehow used to justify telling the other party to just f'off.

Like meathead said, anyone in that situation should man up and own their responsibility. A hardship might be a reason for something to go wrong, but it isn't an excuse for not making it right.

Sir, I am writing this to inform you that we are really really working very very hard to complete your project before deadline which was 3 months ago.

I/we will complete it on time (al)though I am really really held up by a marriage in the family. I was out of station for the month because of unseen problems in the house yesterday which I had already told you last month.

I think there will also be untimely rain in the northern parts of my country and it will affect working for everyone here in the south for about a couple of months. But as soon as the sun comes out we will return to do your work on time of course.

So then I will complete the project on time of course. But there is also going to be a family problem soon in next 2 days repeatedly after that, so please send me advance fees today which you should have sent yesterday.

Other than that, I will keep you informed about the report that I will send you soon but if I don't then you understand that it was delayed because of the death of my favorite rat which died last year.

Hope (i.e. you hope) that my positive reputation here will keep your nerves in the deep freezer, stay cool, and keep the money coming to me at regular intervals every day. Will write to you regularly on the new year eve.

Hope you and your wife and kids are fine... after all. Thank you for your patience and money. Will send you the report soon, hopefully.

... To be really serious, it is hard to digest all those petty reasons given for not completing the business. The only way out is to disregard all those family issues.

This may sound a bit inhuman but as it is said, time and tide waits for none (nothing). And the second part is: time is money (i.e., business), so obviously business must carry on whatever the obstacles.

A death in the family is always a sad thing and a devastating impact on the person and it stops the person from doing a work -- but there is a reasonable time to overcome the sorrows, esp for a professional. And getting back to work at the earliest, say within 3-5 days is also good for everyone concerned.

But then when everyone gives the same reason and takes an extended holiday from work, beyond a reasonable time, then that reason too becomes suspicious. I have read once that the Japanese are the fastest to get back to work after a family crisis. Obviously, they have helped their Nation to grow because of their love for work in spite of personal tragedies.... so why can't others?

Sir thank you for bring up this information in this thread.
I'm sorry we can't give you the article you paid for. I did do your article and wrote it on paper. Rest assured that I did my work.
But my dog ate the paper and so I have nothing to give to you for now.
But rest assured this won't happen again because my dog just died a few days ago.
However, I am experiencing so much grief that I wasn't able to rewrite your article.
Please give me some time and I will send it to you asap.
Rest assured that I won't be grieving for too long since I'm going to get a puppy.
I'm going to try my best and not let the puppy pee or poo on my laptop but I can't protect it all the time or 24/7 and stuff does happen.
So thank you for your patience and please if you want more articles I'll give you a 50% discount if you buy from me now.

My dog ate my hard drive