16
devRow
7y

As a freelancer I get side requests from bigger development companies from time to time that don't have the time or capacity to deal with it themselves.

So usually the employees are pretty friendly but they do not like to read any of the documentation I send with the code. They call me up with stupid questions that are usually answered in the documentation.

I had sent them everything they had requested last Thursday so they called me on Friday to ask the usual stupid question. However, this time I had beforehand decided to have some fun! I told them I had to leave for the weekend and to call me back on Monday. Of course they called me during the weekend, but I didn't answer. So they called me today.

What I had done before handing it all in was I had named the methods that I wrote illogically, while stating and explaining the whole situation in the documentation extra clearly.

So I answered the call today and the first thing they did was apologize. Since I didn't answer their calls during the weekend they finally realized that the best way to go is reading the documentation instead of calling me all the time. They were freaked out at first because they thought there was something completely wrong with the code and they had to tell their client that the deadline had to be pushed back.

We are all good now :)

Comments
  • 3
    This was probably satisfying but not very professional
  • 2
    @rtpHarry That is true, however I told them to read the documentation every time I was answering their question but they kept continuing so doing it the professional way did not help. They also know me well enough to the point where it would not hurt our relationship.
  • 0
    @rtpHarry well he told beforehand he's leaving for a weekend, so don't really see the big problem.
  • 0
    @rtpHarry I don't see where he was unprofessional... The client I see where they are inexperienced...

    The first thing I do with contractors/suppliers when I have a problem is to go to the documentation... Sometimes there is none and then it's bad... However, he did document it....

    If I call a supplier with a question and the answer to it is clearly stated in the documentation i feel like an asshole!

    @devRow do you bill for this kind of support?
  • 1
    @rtpHarry being ignorant doesn’t make others unprofessional

    @devRow nice story sir
  • 1
    @mmcorreia No I'm not billing those short kind of phone calls.

    @devTea Thank you :)
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