“Instant Karma’s Gonna Get Ya! Part 2

(With apologies to The Beatles)

As I said in the last post, “then it got interesting.”

I emailed him and reminded him about doubling my rate.

He emailed back saying that he would prefer the standard rate as he had only used half of my copy. (OK, lesson learned. Bill it at standard and forget this guy. I wonder if he goes to a restaurant and asks for half off if, he doesn’t eat the whole meal?)

Oh, yeah. He would be paying with his partner’s credit card.

Now, here comes the interesting part. I received an email from Pay Pal saying that I had received money from an unregistered payer. Fine, it was his partner’s credit card.

The next day I got an email from his partner asking, “What is this charge on my credit card? I never bought anything from you.” I emailed back and explained the situation. (Notice, I didn’t offer to refund his money. I’m getting smarter.) He must have talked to his partner, because a few days later I got an email apologizing for the mistake.

A day or so after that, I get an email from the original guy telling me to start thinking about the work we had initially discussed. He said he’d be contacting me soon to do this work. Yeah, right Sparky. I’ll be holding my breath while I wait.

The funny part is I am friendly with many of the influential people in this area due to various organizations I work with or belong to. This guy is in an industry where I have a lot of contacts and could have helped him.

How disposed do you think I’ll be to recommending him?

“Instant Karma’s Gonna Get Ya! Part 1

(With apologies to The Beatles)

The call came in about 3 weeks ago. “Hey, Lou. I saw your ad and was wondering…”

He explained his business, his needs, and said that he’d never worked with a copywriter before. (That should have been my first red flag.) He told me what he wanted and I offered to do a small sample to see if that was the direction he wanted to go.

Suddenly I was inundated with emails. “I need this rewritten.” “Can you write this for me?” including his lists of the top words that copywriters should use. (So, now he’s an expert?) “Easy there,” I thought and sent an email suggesting that we meet and work out the details of an agreement.

Sudden silence! Followed a day later by a curt email saying that he had to meet with his partner first.

I went on about my business, writing for existing clients and forgot all about it. Then, late, last Friday afternoon, I got another phone call from him.

“Hi, Lou. How much would you charge to write a one-page email?” (It had nothing to do with the business we had discussed before.) I quoted him my standard rate. He said that it was a rush and would double my fee if he could get it by Monday.

I wrote it and emailed the copy on Sunday. (Without a signed contract…a rookie mistake.) He emailed back saying that it was great work. Could he pay me by credit card? Then…it got interesting.

…to be continued…