Don’t push people to leave a review

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I hired a graphic artist recently to do a book cover but she didn’t do a good job. Frankly, her first effort was abominable. After many revisions, I accepted the work but I wasn’t crazy about it.

The designer asked me to leave a review. I usually do that but in this case, I knew the review would be negative and I thought I would give her a break. No, I wasn’t happy with her work, and no I won’t use her again, but life is too short to dwell on negative things. Move on, I told myself. And I did.

But she persisted. Emailed again, asking me to post my review. And again. “Still waiting. . .” she said.

She obviously didn’t know what I was thinking. So I told her.

I said, “If I leave a review, I will say that the work is adequate, but nothing special.” I then pointed out several of her shortcomings that I would address: lack of basic design skills, laziness (copying and pasting the copy I supplied, instead of designing), blatantly ignoring instructions, being argumentative, and more.

Yeah, I beat the crap out of her. And asked if she still wanted me to leave a review.

I was more upset about repeatedly being pushed to leave a review than I was at the work itself. Note to self: don’t push people to leave a review.

I felt bad about blowing my top but (don’t tell anyone) I also felt good telling her off.

Life is complicated.

I didn’t think I’d hear from her but I did. She said I was ungrateful after all of the revisions she’d done (aka, “you’re a jerk”), and said, “go ahead and post the review if it will make you fell better”.

It won’t make me feel better. I should have followed my original plan and kept my mouth shut.

On the other hand, maybe she needs to hear some of the things I said. I didn’t have to be so mean about it, but if she listens to the substance of my complaints and changes her ways, she would be better for it.

Am I right or am I rationalizing?

Well, this morning, the other shoe dropped. I got an email from Amazon telling me that there are technical problems with the cover and I might not be able to use it. Karma, for me being a jerk? Or further evidence that this gal doesn’t know what she’s doing?

I don’t know. All I know is I’m not going to let it bother me. If I have to hire someone else to fix it, or start from scratch and have a new cover done, that’s what I’ll do. End of story.

On the other hand, she did tell me to go ahead and post the review. . .

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