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Whether you work in design, art, web development, or any other creative field, you're bound to deal with at least one absolutely terrible client in your lifetime. Thankfully, however, a magical place exists where all of your frustrations can be vented anonymously and among people who know exactly what you're talking about - down to the last revision.

It's called Clients From Hell, and it's so discreet that even its founders and admins remain completely unknown to this day, which is great news for the hundreds upon thousands of creatives and freelancers who have used the site to share their stories since 2009. If you've ever dealt with a client straight from the fiery pits yourself, these harrowing accounts of trickery and insanity with first give you a chuckle, and then a long, slow shiver of dread. The user-submitted posts can even be sorted by 'client type,' ranging from 'deadbeat' to 'racist' to 'chaotic good.'

Scroll down to see some of our favorite Clients From Hell moments, and be sure to check out these illustrated quotes from people who expected artists to work for free, as well as 15 types of difficult clients and how to deal with them while you're at it.

More info: Clients From Hell, Twitter

#4

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Michel M. Prins
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This is the most desperate way of talking your way out of a CONTRACT

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#9

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Nadine Ducca
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I sometimes wonder what parallel universe some of these people must be from.

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#11

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Daria B
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Ugh, in customer service we have a lot of cases like this "WHY DON'T YOU ANSWER ME?!" *the avalanche of spam messages was sent outside of working hours every 5 hours*. We are not a chatting service. And we are humans too, not NPCs programmed to answer any time you press the key.

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#16

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EvieNiffler
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Why don't these people understand they actually need to PAY for the service???

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#21

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Hans
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If this was CSI, they would use the reflection of the car in the puddle which is reflected in the window of the barn, increase it be 5000% and hit "enhance". Job done!

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#22

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EvieNiffler
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Tell them you accept either £20 per hour or £1 per minute for 60 minutes work ;)

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#23

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Anna Thouvenin
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That reminds me of a friend who had a flatmate who thought she had to pay only for the time she was physically in the room. One time she went away for two weeks and didn't understand why she had to pay for the whole month since she wasn't there...

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#24

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Anastasia B
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I had that exact conversation when I was working at an IT department. More than once... We used to go on site for support... So many times people weren't happy.

Angie Chan
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I am an air traffic controller and occasionally get an old male pilot that refuses to take my instructions because I am female. Things get really sporty when everyone in the sky suffers because of one misogynistic moron.

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Bror Hellman
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Terrible. I worked in IT-support for some years, and there was just one girl working in our department. She was quite young, but very bright and really good at her work - and at least twice every week there was someone who didn't want to talk to a girl. She had to transfer them to anyone else. I was the senior engineer, and I told her to always transfer those calls to me and to no-one else. Not only did they always have to wait longer (I placed them last in my queue all the time) and then I listen to their problems and took notes... and THEN I told them that I can't help them and that they need a specialist, the only one that is qualified for their "advanced" problem... and promptly retransfered them back to the girl, who helped them. I didn't really care what problem they had, but when they disrespected my colleagues according to their sex (or perhaps in some cases because of age) It made THEM my problem...

Rachael Marrast
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I get this a lot working at a car dealership in the service dept. I may not know the answer to the question, but at least give me the benefit of the doubt that I might know it. Just because I am a woman its assumed I know nothing about cars, which is not true.

Alex Parfitt
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Sexism in the motor trade is seriously a problem. I work for a motor factor in the UK and occasionally I need to phone suppliers for technical information. Quite often I talk to female technical advisors and 100% of the time they've been knowledgeable about the products they supply and helped me find a resolution to my problem. The assumption that women know nothing about cars is ludicrous, the pretence needs to go!

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Joyce Berman
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I wish this wasn't something many of us have heard, but we have.

Pi...
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"No, we're highly efficient Amazons here so go run around a tree fast enough to f*** yourself."

Nicklas Linder
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

On behalf of most men, I'd like to apologize. Most of us are pretty decent fellas, some are... A******s. I've asked around, and unfortunately we're not allowed to euthanize the a******s. But please trust me when I say they're in minority. They're just pretty damn loud about their behavior and as such, quite visible... Sorry.

Thomas Meyer
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As long as he doesn't ask men emotional questions, he should be alright.

Pat Hege
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Had that happen to me one time, his wife looked at him and said " They sent a damn woman" did they

April Showers
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This kind of mentality exist....lol I already did a three paragraph comment, aka...rant on this, too, haha( see#21...scroll down til you see it..can't miss all that yapping ! 😂)

Aunt Chloe
Community Member
6 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

This makes sense. We women just aren't good at technical things. Men have more of a mind for that sort of thing.

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#27

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Pamela24
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

What is wrong with people these days? Expecting to get paid for services not later than they choose - are you crazy? (*sarcasm*)

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#31

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Victor Calamity
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"Why, of course it did! Legally, we can't discriminate against people named 'Bob'..."

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#33

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Anna Thouvenin
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I don't, absolutely don't know how an adult would actually believe that someone would do free work. But then, it's another level where they believe YOU pay to work for them...

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#38

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J. Pell
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The ignorance displayed is staggering. I remember a post on Quora asking if they spoke Latin in England.

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#41

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Iveta T
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

"please don't correct me again" "can i slap you in your face???"

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#43

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Victor Calamity
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My reply would have been: "I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with that word... is there another word you'd like to use that won't get you sued?"

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#44

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Juana
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In fairness, anyone who does this professionally should learn how to explain and translate their work to lay people. If everyone knew and understood the details of this stuff, they probably wouldn't have to hire a professional.

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#46

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--
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

well but at least he wants to pay unlike some of the idiots here

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#49

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Anna Thouvenin
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

He is probably used to being logged in his Google/Apple account everywhere and import all his bookmarks.

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#56

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Michel M. Prins
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Okay that's just horrible. Have the agreement of the model himself first. The rest comes later.

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#57

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nanashi
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

how? make a captcha-like test of a picture of an orange and Trump and make visitors to choose which they have more negative thoughts on?

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#58

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Hans
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

At least this client understands that files have a size. Tell that to all these people sending insanely large attachments and replying to emails with attachments always with them kept.

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#60

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Michel M. Prins
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I can understand that you can fool a teenager with $20 extra. ...Probably not a full-time freelancer

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#62

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EvieNiffler
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In all fairness, it can be very frustrating trying to use a technology you don't understand. At least he was honest about his lack of understanding, rude yes, but honest.

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#64

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Anna Thouvenin
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If they can somehow send food through inboxes, I would like to order a Double Whooper.

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#66

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EvieNiffler
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Bill him hourly for the time you will be spending on creating a time machine ;)

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#69

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Michel M. Prins
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Okay, fair play. The moment someone send you a photo with him and a crack cocaine pot, you can pretty much expect all kinds of answers.

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#70

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EvieNiffler
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Some closeted bastard wants to jump on your a*s... get out of there!

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#74

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Michel M. Prins
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Horrible client, but make sure the contract has everything perfectly written out. That way they can't rat out of something.

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#77

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Oscar Acevedo
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lmao... The fact that most of the 4GB was already used is hilarious!

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#80

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Trond B Krokli
Community Member
6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The client could possibly be biased from hearing about (unwanted) internet traffic making sites slower. Might have been avoided by saying "customers" instead of "traffic". Technological terms are rarely the clients' strong side.

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#81

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Hans
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If we, for a moment, forget about any technical details, he has a point.

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#84

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Trond B Krokli
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My customer support colleagues and I used to joke about all kinds of flat stuff (pizza etc.) we would love to be able to fax to each other. Then again, we knew we were joking. :-O

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#87

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Trond B Krokli
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I would definitely not want to be one of "them" with their racist attitude.

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#99

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Trond B Krokli
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looks like a straight-forward request to me. The only "challenge" would be updating the website, which would need to be the complete site on CDs as well, discarding the old CDs.

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#106

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Joe Reaves
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We have a racially diverse customer base but apparently not a racially diverse workforce. I guess they forgot to ask their token African American emplyee. *rolls eyes*

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#111

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#112

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Judy Semmens
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6 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I think of the complexity and intricacy of Chinese characters, that comment is extremely funny.

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