[TexasJack]

Listen, I don't regret dragging out the rest of the story from y'all. Up to my post, it looked like just an artistic disagreement. The rest of the story is that the customer was a knothead. I've seen some of Ron's other posts around the forum and, believe me, I have never seen anything that would lead me to believe that he's anything but a gentleman.

If you think this kind of customer only exists in this line of work, you are mistaken. Everybody who deals with the public runs into this personality disorder sooner or later. My first real entanglement with one was while working for a consulting firm. (In fact, the one who's owner at that time I quoted earlier.) I had a project where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Worst of all, the customer kept requesting changes. I managed to recover some of the money owed to the company, but nearly lost my job over it. I learned a valuable lesson: Document every change. Do it clearly, and make sure the customer has it along with the new cost. The customer either agrees or the project stops.

With a customer like this, $2 changes can add up to thousands before they finally pull the plug. The fact that you try to be nice and be accomodating doesn't register to people with this disorder. They may ACT like it - until the bill comes. ("Oh that a man can smile and smile and still a villain be")

You have my sympathy on this one. Let's hope some younger folks reading this thread will be able to dodge such a problem in the future.