Pompous

I recently met a client that I just don't really understand and I actually met him and his wife twice.



Normally when I meet a client that I do not like or just find to be a little odd and could potentially spell trouble and cause a lot of renovation anxiety for me in the future, I won't bother following up, much less actually agree for a second appointment, but this client is different.



During the very first meet up,  I asked them a simple question I ask all my clients before we actually start the consultation...

"Do you have a floorplan with you?"

...this is the very basic and vital item you will need when you actually visit an Interior Designer for a consultation, and I will always get responses like...

"Yes, here you go!"

or 

"I only have the soft-copy, maybe I can email it to you and you can print it out?"

...  but every once in a while, I will get a customer who will tell me...

"Oh, I do not actually have it with me right now."

...and then they will leave after 15 minutes because the consultation is completely pointless if there isn't any floorplan for us to discuss.




Even when they do not have a floorplan, they are aware, upon hearing my request for it, that it is very important for them to provide the designer with the floorplan.




Well, this particular client, let's call him Bill, not only did not have a floor plan with him, he actually had the cheek to tell me, straight to my face...

"I will not provide a floorplan for you, the floorplan will be prepared by you for us once we have confirm our services with you."

... upon hearing that ridiculous statement, I was honestly starting to get really irritated by how misconstrued his statement was and just how there was this air of pompousness when he was saying that to me.




No one wanted to serve him and his wife when they walked into the shop, I only did so because I had no choice as everyone else had a legit reason, so to have to serve a walk-in customer so begrudgingly and then to know right from the get go how unpleasant one of them was, I can't help but just feel annoyed.




Needless to say, the consultation was a complete waste of time but during the supposed "consultation", Bill and his wife were constantly sharing ideas with me, talking about how they wanted to shift the bed outwards into the dining room, how they wanted to knock a few walls down and remove the air-con unit because it was damage, I had no idea what they were talking about because there is no fucking floorplan, so it was still a very very pointless session.




The wife did showed me a video she took of the house and it helped a little, but there really wasn't much I could do because I needed a floorplan to play around with the space planning, I can't just do the space planning in my head through a video.




So knowing for sure that I was not interested in their project, especially after how the husband responded to my request for a floorplan, I decided to be very honest with them and told them I was not very familiar with their apartment type because I have never done it before, thinking that using my lack of experience was going to be sufficient at scaring them off, it did work for a little, but then it didn't because Bill went...

"I do not want to offend you, we would actually prefer a more experienced designer, but maybe you should drop by our house to take a look, get a proper feel of the home and have a better idea of the space once you are there in our unit."

... I really wanted to say no, but I didn't know how to say no, so I agreed begrudgingly and sent them on their way out.

Fast forward to today, I dropped by their unit in the afternoon and was greeted by the wife, Bill soon came out from the bedroom and greeted me as well and I just asked them straightaway...

"Have you guys decided on EXACTLY what you want to renovate because I honestly wasn't very clear what you guys wanted to do during the first consultation."

... Bill and his wife looked at each other for a while, and they started to repeat what they told me during the first consultation, to move the bedroom outwards, to knock the walls down etc etc, and then Bill starts talking about wanting to install a curtain partition between the dining room and the living area. 

I do not have any supplier that does the curtain partition he was talking about, so I ask him if he knew of any suppliers, that maybe he can get his own supplier to install those partition for him, to which he replies in a rather annoyed tone...

"I do not want to manage the renovation on my own. You are the designer, you should be the one managing the site for us. We don't want to be dealing with any of the contractors, if the contractors do a bad job, then we will find you directly, and we will beat up up."

....the way he said what he said really rubbed me the wrong way, like it would to anyone, but I just laughed it off and told him that I do not have any suppliers that does the curtain partition, to which he replies...

"You are the designer, you should be sourcing the suppliers for us."

All I wanted him to do was tell me if he had his own contacts, if he knew of a shop that could do that for him, just requesting for him to source for ONE supplier on his own and he makes it sound like I am making him do all the work, I wasn't asking him to source for his own carpenter, his own electrician, his own ceiling contractor, etc, I have a list of suppliers that are necessary for all home renovation,  but if you have a very specific renovation requirement, like curtain partitions (not the normal curtain but the heavy duty ones) or let's say a door for pets, don't expect every design firm to have the contacts for this items that will only only requested by a very niche group of customer.

But what really got me when I actually ask him if he knew of any supplier was the fact that he actually told me afterwards...

"Even if I did have the contact information of the supplier, I won't be sharing it with you. It is your job as the designer to source out this suppliers for us. And I also don't think it will be fair if I shared the contact with you because I did not share it with the other designer we met."

... HUH!!?!?!?!?! 

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

I really do not understand what upper-hand I would actually get should I be given the contact of the supplier.


Isn't the end goal to have a supplier install the fucking curtain partition for you?


Do you NOT want to receive the quotation as soon as possible? 


Do you NOT want to confirm with a designer as soon as possible?


Just what is the point of making things so difficult for the designers during the early stages when you haven't even paid us a single cent yet?


What the fuck does being fair have to do with the actual renovation?


Why is it so important for both designers to source out the supplier for the curtain partition themselves ?

This whole thing is just so bloody fucking unnecessary.

We are not getting paid to source the suppliers for you! I am not getting any monetary incentive to put extra effort into your fucking proposal. I don't even want to run the fucking project, the only reason I even showed up was at the flat today was out of goodwill.




I was honestly contemplating on being a complete no-show until the wife actually texted me in the morning to confirm the appointment.

I told them that it will take me 2 weeks to come up with the proposal and quotation, but it normally only takes me a day or two. I just have no interest to run the project for them because of how pompous Bill was coming across as a client, I just do not want to deal with that self-righteous, entitled attitude of his for the next 3 months. 

And another thing that Bill kept on saying that really really grated on my nerve was...

"This is not my problem, you are the designer, so it's your problem." 

....Whenever I pointed out certain issues that might arise. I fucking hate when customers tell me "it's not my problem, it's your problem", honestly, go fuck yourself.




 IT'S YOUR FUCKING HOUSE! So it is as much your problem as it will be mine, should I be desperate enough to actually close a deal with clients like these.

If I could reach out to the other Interior Designer they looked for, I would like to congratulate him in advance for getting this project because I am not interested AT ALL. So there really isn't any point in Bill wanting this to be a fair fight between the other Designer and me because I know for sure this is a project I won't be taking on.