[Trending] Software Developer Shares His Worst Client Stories, And It’s Hilariously Entertaining

Those who had the “pleasure” of working directly with clients know a thing or two about how a clumsy communication can have grave consequences.

Software developer and an Imgur user BackDoorNoBaby, shed some light on these humorous situations and misunderstandings that often occur with clueless clients. Because we all have our niche interests and specializations, and it’s easy to sneer at the plebs who just don’t get it. To be fair though, dealing with unrealistic demands by clients who have no real understanding of what you do must get pretty frustrating at times, and if you work in IT, you’ll surely have come across at least one of these situations before.

What we have here are the daily trials and tribulations of an IT worker. Clients that read the latest trends in a tech magazine and want it right now. Business people who think that because they have the money, solutions should magically materialize. Clients that complain about something not functioning properly, when they clearly don’t have a clue how to use it properly. We all know these kind of clients, and these kind of ‘horror’ stories are part of what makes working in IT so special. Sometimes humor is the only suitable response.

Scroll down below to check them out for yourself and please, add your own funny work stories in the comments below!

Built a website for a client

“It runs on your laptop there! Why do I need to put that on a server?! Can’t I just send them a link to that?”

Explaining this was… a hassle… to say the least.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Blockchain…Blockchain…Blockchain…

I had to listen to blockchain crap for about 3 weeks straight before it started to die down. Even went to a few meetings with some of the business people and management to listen to them talk about how “Blockchain can improve our business.” Got a whole bunch of claps, but it was blatantly obvious nobody in that meeting knew what it was.

*Edit: To elaborate, and give a shortened explanation, blockchain is a software coding method implemented by crypto-currencies, ie: bitcoin, which is super popular right now. (remember the tea company that added blockchain to its name and got a massive bump in stock prices?)

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Client made the decision to switch engines in the middle of development

The client ended up getting a deal (without consulting us) for a license to a new engine that we weren’t developing on, and added requirements to change to the new engine. We explained to them that it’s a large move, and it would take time to do. But, we forgot to explain EXACTLY how much time it would take…

They assumed it was just copy/paste, and that “taking time” meant “about a week”. It all worked out in the end, but there was a decent amount of yelling during that first meeting back after the change, and I was just sitting in the meeting like: http://ift.tt/2tjgzz2

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Client asked for an android application to be built. Gave design details, features, Google integration, etc…

The conversation went along the lines of:
* Employee: “It doesn’t quite work that way… They are two different types of – ”
* Client: “It should! App “XYZ” works on both! Why not yours?!”
* Employee: [Wanting to strangle him intensifies]

Explaining this one was a hassle as well. Oddly enough, he paid us to develop on iOS as well, but didn’t renew the contract once we were done.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Hired by a client to build a cross-platform app for phones: gives good direction, good design choices, etc…

One of the first times we’ve had a new client with a clear direction. Though, after two weeks of working on the application, we found out about the other one. None of us had used or seen the other application, and had only heard of it (yup. we all live under a rock), so we had no idea how it looked or worked.

They said they’d run it by the legal department to sort things out… Never heard from them again.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Client we work with requires we use their “custom packages” to implement our code

Basically, We weren’t supposed to be able to “see” the code, but we knew the method names to use, and the result of each. We initially spent 2 days trying to figure out why things weren’t working (thinking the problem was on our end), and finally got on the phone with the client to figure it out. The client finally gave us their code to look at, after a bit of a fuss, and almost every other word in the client’s code was misspelled. The best part was that everything on the code’s documentation was spelled correctly, which added to the confusion.

IE: “StartNavigationService()” is very different from “StartNavagationSirvice()”

This was one of many, MANY, problems we had with the client. We probably won’t be picking up this contract again.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Built software for a client with a requirement that it gets updated about every three months, and the client consistently complains about the software not working

Constant issue with this client. Continuously behind on latest updates, and keeps filing bug reports and complaints for things already fixed. We even created pre-configured settings for the client (not part of the requirements, just a sanity check for us) so that it would be harder for the client to not update, or mis-configure the service — and the client still mis-configures the service.

Personally, I think they are looking for a way to weasel out of the contract and blame us for it – we’re apparently expensive.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Company I no longer work for decided the IT department cost too much, and wasn’t doing enough

They tried to get us to solve the issue first, but we aren’t networking or IT, despite what the business management people would like to think – those are entirely different fields.

The company’s total loss was estimated at just under 5 million.

One of the fired employees offered to come in as a consultant at $500,000 towards the end of the two weeks. Officially, he got hired for an ‘undisclosed’ price. Unofficially he’s going to have a nice vacation from working for the next few years.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Client keeps getting his server “hacked”

Ever wonder why you need to admin or root access to open or move something on a machine you own? This is why. It’s a sort of self-protection for the system. Never run as root. Never run as Admin. There are obviously a few exceptions to that rule, but mostly it just makes it easier for malicious software or “hackers” to ruin your computer.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

I can’t sign my name blatantly on the software for everyone to see

Personal win for myself. I was excited that I created, or helped create, something that would be used in a large-scale production environment, and used almost globally, AND I GOT TO PUT MY NAME ON IT.

If you are the average user, you’ll probably never see it, devs – maybe, but I still count it as a win.

Image credits: BackDoorNoBaby

Source: BoredPanda