Insights
Insights
- by Ambreen Z.
- Posted: 3 May 2016
- by Kasper V.
- Posted: 22 Apr 2016
- by Minaz M.
- Posted: 18 Dec 2015
Design of single wrapped
- by Erik H.
- Posted: 5 Oct 2015
- by KEMI J.
- Posted: 20 Sep 2015
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No result found
Leaflets ++
- by Anne B.
- Posted: 25 Aug 2015
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No result found
Graphic Design for Mystery Shopping Business
- by Paul T.
- Posted: 20 Aug 2015
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Paul T.
Exeter, GBOne month after making the decision to use Kalina I’m £148 down, with nothing to show for it, but I’ll still try and be fair here in describing my experience.
Minuses first. The actual quality of the designs was poor. 2 out of 3 of the initial designs were really inappropriate. This was for a friendly, customer-service based venture, and designs looked weird, almost forbidding, the fonts were kind of soviet, kind of gothic. We wanted to attract customers, not scare them off!
The icon proposed by Kalina (a shopping cart) wasn’t appropriate, so I came up with some suggestions for icons – a smiley face and a graph, early on. The rest of the time was spent trying to get these to work, with me asking for small “30 second” changes, but often waiting 3 or 4 days for each one, and as it turns out paying for each one dearly..
The initial price agreed was £98. After some time (and poor looking designs), Kalina told me that each further round of revisions would cost a further £15. Wanting to get the logo finalised quickly and not feeling I had any choice I said “ok, please go ahead with the extra revisions and then we’ll see where we are”, meaning that I approved a further charge of £15 – but I really hoped to be kept up to data with further charges as they were applied.
Towards the end of our engagement I was feeling a bit indecisive about whether to accept something mediocre, or keep putting up with the long delays, poor designs and (I suspected) increasing costs by using Kalina, and perhaps still never reaching the goal of something good. Eventually I faced the truth that I had to move away.
I told Kalina this and asked her if we could come to some sort of arrangement to cancel the job. She rather surprised me by telling me that there was a bill of £158 (£98 initially agreed and 4 x £15). Interestingly, PPH rules state that the seller has to provide at least 2 further revisions for free before the buyer gets to actually cancel the job (paying nothing I assume). Perhaps that’s what I should have done: threatened to cancel the job, got her to do the revisions (free of charge!).. and then cancelled paying nothing (!?!).
Anyway after I asked Kalina to be reasonable, she made it clear that she thought that no reduction was reasonable, but that if I didn’t want any of the logo versions she had done, she would reduce her bill by £18 to cover the time she would save in final preparation. How gracious.
I’m not interesting in messing around or going through the PPH dispute resolution process , so I’m paying Kalina’s inflated bill like a good little buyer and moving on with life. But I am certainly going to tell it how it was for me.
Kalina’s designs were of poor quality, most of the initial ideas were clearly inappropriate, and then at the end she proved that she had an extremely rigid (I’d say unreasonable) approach to billing a client when it hasn’t worked out (e.g. the last “round of revisions” she’s billed me £15 for was just adding the word “UK” to the end of a logo in the same font!!!).
Now, the positives: Kalina appeared through her messages to have a real interest in my project as a client. She came across as a nice person, at the start, and she probably is a nice person (although based on this exchange I wouldn't way she's been very reasonable).
I think there’s definitely room for a bit more grace and flexibility when things don’t work out with a client.
The reason I’ve written this account is because I feel that I’ve lost out here (quite a lot – time as well as money) and Kalina hasn’t lost out at all. If any potential buyers are still reading this, please take warning: whatever standard of work Kalina produces for you, Kalina will expect Kalina not to lose out: Kalina expects to be paid in full whatever she produces and whatever you think of it!
Kalina will have her say here too, that’s fine. The above is my truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And just to repeat – I have paid my bill and done so promptly. I hope that Kalina recognises this and doesn’t suggest otherwise. I think I’ve done my bit as a client – provided direction, been patient, and paid - even though I thought the bill has been unreasonable.
I will be more careful from now on when using PPH.
Kalina O.
Dear Paul,
Thank you for your extensive feedback. I won't comment it back - my rule is to speak about my customers good or not at all. I will however (proudly) publish initial artworks that were produced and delivered to you under this project to let anybody involved judge its quality by themselves - as is known - there is no accounting for tastes...
Although I'm truly surprised by your resentment caused by the fact you were requested to pay for the bespoke service you've ordered, I wish you all the success in further attempts to finalise your corporate branding in cooperation with another designer.
All the best!
Kalina
- by Erik H.
- Posted: 14 Aug 2015
- by Charles S.
- Posted: 30 Jul 2015
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No result found
- by Intelli F.
- Posted: 18 Jun 2015