I have more than a handful of regular clients but one of them (a long-time semi-regular) just lost his access to me entirely. He told me to spend ONLY two hours on a brochure and then decided he wouldn't pay for it because he was dissatisfied with the results.
I should have refused the project the moment he directed me to spend just two hours: I wanted to, but I didn't want to disappoint him; he has been a good customer and a fun guy to work with. I knew that rushing an important job like his brochure was stupid: rushing a project doesn't produce excellent results unless the project is a no-brainer (and brochures are BIG brainers)!
I'm actually "madder" at myself than I am at him. I was trying to give the guy a decent product on his budget; almost 3/4 of what I did was great; about 1/4 was not up to par, because I ran out of time.
And I got the shaft for it. I got NOTHING for it. I could redeem it, given another half hour or 45 minutes, but he'll probably do that himself--or have someone else do it--and then get a 100% great brochure that converts like made for NOTHING.
This won't happen again. Not to me. That's for sure. I'm going to get hard-nosed even with regulars and demand the money before I put fingers to keyboard and head to task. That's the way Elance and other freelance websites work. I have to be that way, too, it looks like, for reasons like this. You can't even trust the people you've done business with for a couple of years, it occurs to me now. (Sadly!) (He actually owes ME some services that I haven't redeemed yet.)
I need the money. I spent the time he allotted, not a minute more (after rounding down other projects I'd done for him previously to save him money).
What has just happened is a disgrace--but it's not my disgrace, except that I trusted someone I shouldn't have. THAT won't happen again!
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