End of an era
Nov. 30th, 2012 09:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nightshade1972A fairly short one at that, but anyway.
I signed up for a particular website a little over a year ago. This site is devoted to crafters who are disabled. I took a handful of well-lit pictures of some of the plastic canvas tissue box covers I made (they fit over square or rectangular tissue boxes), posted them on the site with prices, and waited. The lady who runs the site, who's also disabled, said she'd be responsible for all the advertising. Guess how many tissue boxes I sold last year? One. And that's because I posted a link to that site here on LJ, one of my LJ friends saw it, I directed her to the other site, and she bought one of my TBCs.
Cue the first inkling of a problem. Because I was already personal friends with the lady who bought my TBC, I dropped her a note after I mailed it to let her know it was on its way. Next thing I know, the lady who runs the crafter's site emails me asking me WTF I'm doing, I'm not supposed to have personal contact with clients, only she is, yada yada. I told her I had no problem abiding by that for ppl who were strangers to me, but for someone who's actually a friend, I didn't think telling her to keep an eye out was such a horrible thing.
Last year, she let me run my part of the site the way I saw fit. This year, she's decided the whole site needs to "look more professional", so she suggests I retake my pictures. Then she insists I retake my pictures. Then she demands I retake my pictures. The pictures were taken against a pale yellow background, under a lot of light, and really showed all the colors of the various TBCs quite well. I admit some of them were only of the TBCs themselves, without any actual tissue boxes underneath them/tissue poking out of them, but it's not that hard to tell by the size and description what the TBC's intended use is even if there's no kleenex in it. If you look at similar products on ebay, very few of them look like they've been shot in a professional photo studio. I'm handicapped, which makes it difficult for me to photograph things like a pro. If I could afford to hire a pro to do it, I would. You'd think since the boss lady is also handicapped, she'd understand that, but I guess not.
She also unilaterally decided it would be a great idea if we offered a "free" box of kleenex with all the TBCs. She sends me ten bucks and tells me to send her the receipt. Well, before I knew she'd even been thinking about this, I'd gone to Sam's Club and bought myself a ten-pack of square tissue boxes, for my personal use. No idea where the receipt is, since it never occurred to me I'd need to keep it. I emailed her back, told her so, and asked her to just trust me for the ten bucks. Initially, she says fine, no problem. Well, she emailed me a week or so ago to tell me she's apparently sent me *another* ten bucks, and she wants me to send her a receipt. One, I still haven't sent out any from the set I bought for my personal use originally. Two, I had sorta assumed *I'd* let *her* know when I needed more money for tissues.
Then she emails me around October of this year to tell me my contract's expired, and I need to fill out a new one. Well, if she sent it to me, I can't find it, and I emailed her back to tell her so.
She's still pestering me about the kleenex money and about the retakes, and she still hasn't gotten back to me with a second contract to sign.
I give up. I sent her a very carefully worded email asking her to just remove me from her site entirely. If she can't be bothered to send me a contract to sign, and if she's gonna send me more kleenex money without having a signed contract in hand, I'll happily refund the ten bucks but I dunno why she'd send it in the first place.
ETA: Bosslady claims she *did* re-send the contract, twice. Also claims I misunderstood her about the $10-for-kleenex thing. I politely told her to remove me from her site and I'd happily refund the ten bucks. So that's that.
I signed up for a particular website a little over a year ago. This site is devoted to crafters who are disabled. I took a handful of well-lit pictures of some of the plastic canvas tissue box covers I made (they fit over square or rectangular tissue boxes), posted them on the site with prices, and waited. The lady who runs the site, who's also disabled, said she'd be responsible for all the advertising. Guess how many tissue boxes I sold last year? One. And that's because I posted a link to that site here on LJ, one of my LJ friends saw it, I directed her to the other site, and she bought one of my TBCs.
Cue the first inkling of a problem. Because I was already personal friends with the lady who bought my TBC, I dropped her a note after I mailed it to let her know it was on its way. Next thing I know, the lady who runs the crafter's site emails me asking me WTF I'm doing, I'm not supposed to have personal contact with clients, only she is, yada yada. I told her I had no problem abiding by that for ppl who were strangers to me, but for someone who's actually a friend, I didn't think telling her to keep an eye out was such a horrible thing.
Last year, she let me run my part of the site the way I saw fit. This year, she's decided the whole site needs to "look more professional", so she suggests I retake my pictures. Then she insists I retake my pictures. Then she demands I retake my pictures. The pictures were taken against a pale yellow background, under a lot of light, and really showed all the colors of the various TBCs quite well. I admit some of them were only of the TBCs themselves, without any actual tissue boxes underneath them/tissue poking out of them, but it's not that hard to tell by the size and description what the TBC's intended use is even if there's no kleenex in it. If you look at similar products on ebay, very few of them look like they've been shot in a professional photo studio. I'm handicapped, which makes it difficult for me to photograph things like a pro. If I could afford to hire a pro to do it, I would. You'd think since the boss lady is also handicapped, she'd understand that, but I guess not.
She also unilaterally decided it would be a great idea if we offered a "free" box of kleenex with all the TBCs. She sends me ten bucks and tells me to send her the receipt. Well, before I knew she'd even been thinking about this, I'd gone to Sam's Club and bought myself a ten-pack of square tissue boxes, for my personal use. No idea where the receipt is, since it never occurred to me I'd need to keep it. I emailed her back, told her so, and asked her to just trust me for the ten bucks. Initially, she says fine, no problem. Well, she emailed me a week or so ago to tell me she's apparently sent me *another* ten bucks, and she wants me to send her a receipt. One, I still haven't sent out any from the set I bought for my personal use originally. Two, I had sorta assumed *I'd* let *her* know when I needed more money for tissues.
Then she emails me around October of this year to tell me my contract's expired, and I need to fill out a new one. Well, if she sent it to me, I can't find it, and I emailed her back to tell her so.
She's still pestering me about the kleenex money and about the retakes, and she still hasn't gotten back to me with a second contract to sign.
I give up. I sent her a very carefully worded email asking her to just remove me from her site entirely. If she can't be bothered to send me a contract to sign, and if she's gonna send me more kleenex money without having a signed contract in hand, I'll happily refund the ten bucks but I dunno why she'd send it in the first place.
ETA: Bosslady claims she *did* re-send the contract, twice. Also claims I misunderstood her about the $10-for-kleenex thing. I politely told her to remove me from her site and I'd happily refund the ten bucks. So that's that.
