How would you deal with a client who rejected a prototype because of a "lorem ipsum" placeholder?

Hi fellow pinoy!

As far as my views about the "lorem ipsum" episode, the moment the client says or complains about it, just lay down the fact that the "lorem ipsum" placeholder is universally used by anyone, anywhere at any point, in web design mockups or prototypes or whatever you produce without any proper content.

I also made the habit of asking or telling beforehand that "any placeholder content will have a standardized content (lorem ipsum) to provide proper demo content. Any customized content, text or color scheme requested specifically by POC is welcome."

This will seem pretty neutral but as always, there is two ways to approach this kind of situations:

1. The safe way, which is giving the client what they want, no matter how idiotic it is, we have a saying here in France: "The client is king".
2. The "how to deal with idiots way": Don't. They don't like how you work? Don't work for them. But you'll have to assume the consequences.

If you need the work, you should take option 1, assuming it's not too late and that you can get the project back. Dealing with potentially moronic clients is part of being freelance, unfortunately.

Now to satisfy your curiosity: personally, I'd take option 2 because the client is just being an idiot there. And I don't like dealing with idiots. But that's also why I'll never be able to do freelancing, so that's just my two cents, don't take this as advice (or do, but again, consequences and all).

My response would have been:

"I can make that change, what copy would you like to go there. This was not previously discussed, therefore a standard placeholder text was used."

And if the copy on the page was not in scope, you can also add:

"Creating the copy of the page was not in scope, would you like me to quote that now?"

Also what does your contract state? From the limited information, it sounds highly likely this was an excuse for them to back out, but they may have no grounds for doing so.

As the saying goes, "the customer is always right".

As a consultant myself, I've learned that clients can sometimes be unreasonable, but it's usually better to just do whatever you have to inorder to keep the client satisfied. Don't take their critique personally, just let them know that your happy to fix the problem for them, and keep it in mind for future work. In fact, learn to love their critique, since it will make you better at what you do!

For this particular client, I doubt how useful it would be to follow up and try to explain further. It doesn't sound they they were unhappy with you or the work you've done, so don't take it personally. They're just trying to visualize the prototype as closely to the final product as possible.

I guess this is over with now but you shouldn't be doing 6 hrs of work for a client before they have accepted your quote.

Get the details, write the quote, then get 50% fee up front, then start the design work.

The kind of people that won't agree to normal business terms are the kind of people that will give you hassle like you have experienced.

If you are desperate, like, about to become homeless desperate, you have no choice, but you need to get some savings built up quickly to give you a buffer and let you avoid clients like this.

The time that they wasted and the extra work these clients expect in either deliverables or just hand-holding are time you could be working for proper clients. I know it's almost irresistible to turn down what seems like free money but you have two choices:

Bite the bullet and turn it down the first time when you really don't want to.

Or get burned a few times until you aren't going to take being messed around any more.

Just as @sudiukil said. You have 2 choices, it's either be the client's dog, or stand up and leave the moronic client.

But my way is, to persuade the client to agree to your terms.

Which I think is impossible to this client since I haven't heard from them for a week now lol