advices?

[kiriska.livejournal.com]

Hey guys, I need some advice. :(

I have this one very frequent Wolfhome pose commissioner who can't seem to spell or punctuate worth beans and it's incredibly, incredibly frustrating because I have to reread pretty much every thing she says three or four times to understand what the hell she's trying to say. And when I reply back to her, sometimes she completely ignores some of what I've said. I've considered all the usual reasons, but don't really think they apply to her.

1. I don't think she's from another country (and even then, I've met tons of people from all over the world with nothing less than impeccable English; I know a Norwegian girl who can write more properly than most Americans I know).

2. I don't think she's very young. She mentions work and a job and I'm pretty sure it's her own Paypal account she's using so here's to assuming she's at least 18. And anyway, I almost suspect my seven year old brother can type better than she does. D;

3. I don't really think she's dyslexic. I've know dyslexics also and while it's true some of their writing can be frustrating, I think this exceeds even that. Then again, I don't pretend to know that much about dyslexia and I suppose it's possible that she's a more severe case. A lot of times it just seems like she's phonetically typing out words like "axpect" instead of "expect." I've confronted her about it once and asked if she could please type slower and better and maybe check her spelling once in a while. Her only reply was that sorry, she couldn't type well and didn't have a spellchecker (bull). I didn't really want to push the issue because I already felt rude, but I'm really, really tired of deciphering her words.

Here's an example of how she writes:

mks well the lick for oner leaning a bit out so i can lick other ppl. i cant really use it with it in so far :3, the plushie ose maybe not curling so much it looks like my other plushie curl sorta. and the oke pose make reaching ut more for the pose and looking all o.o;; the others i like :3 i can pay you today for them or monday if im not on to your respond :3

Should I confront her about her writing again? Should I ask if she's dyslexic? Would it be rude to? :/ She's also amazing impatient and wants her stuff ASAP all the time and I keep having to tell her to be patient (especially considering my normal turnaround after payment is less than two days; she wants me to be even faster than that?).

Comments

[tealizard.livejournal.com]

I would politely mention that her spelling and grammar is very confusing to you. Ask her if she could please read her emails over a few times before sending them to you as communication is key in business situations, and you want to be able to give her the best service possible. Don't ask if she's dyslexic... just impress upon her the idea that you have a very hard time understanding her emails and want to be able to give her the best service possible.

[leahtaur.livejournal.com]

It almost sounds as if she's not worth the trouble. Is the business she brings you worth the annoyance? If you advertised a bit more or in other places, would you be able to make up for the income she brings you?

Because I can totally see what you mean about her writing. Eesh. It might be rude to ask if she's dyslexic, but it's not unreasonable to ask that she use her spellcheck. Ask her to copy-paste her message for you into Microsoft Word, Hotmail or any of the other spellcheck applications out there -- and let her know that if this is too much trouble for her, then it's too much trouble for you to struggle through her encrypted messages any longer.

Even aside from the spelling, the fact that she sometimes ignores your questions and is THAT impatient would be enough for me personally to drop her business. But it's up to you to decide how much her business is worth to you.

Personally, I find that Furbid, Furbuy and advertising on FurAffinity and DeviantArt bring me more than enough business, and so far I've been pretty lucky as far as good communication skills go. :3

[casteddreams.livejournal.com]

I agree with tealizard on this one. Definately try to politely ask if she can try to make her words more understandable, as it's very confusing.

I can see your frustration, as it took me a moment to understand some of it myself. Hopefully you can work things out with her so she can make things more easy to understand. Good luck! :)

[theassassinnox.livejournal.com]

"Should I confront her about her writing again? Should I ask if she's dyslexic? Would it be rude to? :/ She's also amazing impatient and wants her stuff ASAP all the time and I keep having to tell her to be patient (especially considering my normal turnaround after payment is less than two days; she wants me to be even faster than that?)."

Meaning that she has not yet paid you? I'd simply tell her that you can not accept the commission. She's not worth the headache.

At least, that's what I'd do.


~S

[shivra.livejournal.com]

Haha I refused her for this reason and the impatience.

(kiba?)

She's also been perma banned and this is her second chance on wolfhome. It's borderline harassment if she bugs you so much.

[kiriska.livejournal.com]

She's been banned before, huh?

I think I might just finish up her ridiculously long queue right now and refuse commissions in the future, but the income really is helpful, so I don't know. :(

[neongryphon.livejournal.com]

It’s part of my ToS that buyers have to communicate their concept clearly.

You could mention her spelling is an issue, but it’s none of your business to ask her why her grammar and spelling is so poor.

In your position, I’d reject her commission and tell her why. It is no good trying to work with someone who can’t communicate and has no patience.

[niiku.livejournal.com]

To me, it really seems as if she's just lazy and trying to shorten her words as much as possible. x_x If it were me dealing with this person, I'd have to tell her "Please type in complete sentences, using proper grammar and correct spelling, or else I will refuse your commission. I can't understand what you want if you do not speak English, because what you are typing in is not English."

[dinogrrl.livejournal.com]

If you've already asked her to be more clear and she's refused, I'd just drop the commission. She obviously doesn't care enough about this to take it seriously, so why should you bother?

[aaaamory.livejournal.com]

Whether or not she is dyslexic will not change how easy or hard it is to interpret her descriptions. If she's ignoring some of what you say, either she really is ignoring things, is not paying attention, or has something where it is difficult to sort incoming information. Your example of how she types could be a demonstration that it's hard for her to sort out information before converting it into sentences. What is up with, "... and looking all o.o;;"? Is that the extent of her ability to describe a facial expression? It's okay to fail at something, you can tell her you just don't know how to read her emails and wish her luck on finding another artist who can.

[snapesgirl34.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is bad, I can't even understand what she wrote. :X I think politely asking her to please check her emails for spelling and grammar as you can't understand what she's saying is not rude at all. Asking is she's dyslexic might be rude though. Don't mention it unless she brings it up in which case ask her if could get a friend to help her write her emails.

[fiercereaper.livejournal.com]

That just looks really, *really* lazy. That's not dyslexia, that's chatspeak, or a grand lack of the English language, which I doubt since she has ample opportunity online to read it.

Unless you really need the cash, you could give her an ultimatum about communicating better and being more patient.

[kiriska.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I really don't know what to think of it. This is what prompted me to think it was dyslexia though: "i dont have word hun...i cant...sorry i cant spell ._. i CANT help it..."

The cashflow HAS been very helpful to me, but the problem, I guess, is that I really can't decide whether it's worth the trouble since I tend to stress over these things a lot. D;

[fiercereaper.livejournal.com]

I don't know...dyslexics can misspell a lot, but it's generally heavily phoneticized. The words I see messed up there aren't done phonetically, they're just misspelled. Oner and Ose for "one", Ut, for "out", instead of say, "owt". And again, there's always spellcheckers.

One of my college instructors was dyslexic as well, and while every note from him was the "What Did Gary Actually Mean Game", his spelling was bang on.

[cissa.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm dyslexic (and a crappy typist too) and can still manage to communicate using normal English.

I would not venture to guess what s/he means by the quoted text; it's certainly not anything i can understand.

I guess I think that if communication with a client is a serious problem- for whatever reason- that is someone I don't really need to deal with. Or someone I will charge extra for dealing with, for the hassle. :)

[spiffystuff.livejournal.com]

Eh, well, I wouldn't say "confront" her about it, but there's nothing wrong with politely inquiring if there's any way she could make her emails more clear, such as proof-reading them once or twice, or even asking a friend to type O-o That is pretty illegible. It's so illegible that I wouldn't be surprised if she did have some kind of writing problem.

[thrivis.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with the folks that would give her the ultimatum of clean up the spelling/grammar or you'll go elsewhere for business.

She owes you AT LEAST proper communication in a transaction, and she's not respecting you enough to do even that. If anyone is rude, it is her for not communicating properly, and refusing to write legibly when asked to. Since when did it become such a chore to proof read your email before sending it; to type in complete sentences? O_o;;;

Spell check alone isn't enough to make her emails any more intelligible. That's bad. She needs to talk clearly if she expects to continue doing business with anyone.

[lilenth.livejournal.com]

That is not dyslexia, while there are several variations of dyslexia, anyone with it usually has a consistent errors. Also not every writing difficulty is dyslexia, that's simply one of the better known ones. To be honest I wouldn't ask her, because to be frank, learning disability or not? That's just laziness being displayed in her writing.

The vast majority of people with specific learning difficulties will actually let others know or will exhaustively spellcheck because they know how frustrating it is to be unable to understand someone.

[lozpie.livejournal.com]

she's hard to understand, but she seems sweet. if you dont want to cancel you could try repeating what you think she's saying and ask her to confirm if that's what she means.

[runoratsu.livejournal.com]

How about asking her to send 'voicemail' or perhaps - if you have the time - skype with her...?

Jojo

[billythecad.livejournal.com]

I think I have the same problem she does, as in my computer doesn't have Microsoft Word, which most people automatically think when they hear 'spell check.' However, you can show her this site, http://www.spellcheck.net/ which is the same thing and free. As far as everything else... Really, it's up to you whether or not you want to keep her business. In my very humble opinion, if her spelling continues to be so god-awful after you refer her to spellcheck.net, drop her. I've been in your position where the income is very useful, but if you're stressing yourself out so much over one client, that client isn't worth it.

on Dyslexia.

[fyremane.livejournal.com]

there are 128 common forms of dyslexia, and over 400 uncommon forms,.

I personally have one of the common forms, mine is output dyslexia, this is why i tend to use spellchecks when I can. but even thayt sample of her writting i find painfull to read.

[iguanaartgirl.livejournal.com]

I have a couple of friends who have issues with spelling and such because of dyslexia or whatnot. They have issues with spelling, but this girl just seems to have issues with sentense structure and overall word composition, which (to my understanding) isn't a factor with dyslexia. It seems to me like English may just not be her first language, whether or not she's actually IN another country.

Do it!

[number-ix-demyx.livejournal.com]

Do it! When people request art and I can't tell what the hell they're saying even after I tell them "I don't understand what you're saying", I tell them to fuck off and learn English because it's not my job to make sense of what garbled sentences they spew out.

Worse comes to worse, you can always have a "moron tax". I used to have that for people who refused to type in recognizable English. I also had an "asshole tax" for people who were rude and pissed me off.