The Blackmailed Logo

I love working on my current story about the mob - it's been a manuscript I've been working on and evolving since high school. Literally! And in its current form, it's growing into something that I am truly proud of and excited to create.

I just didn't expect to have a tiny part of it come to the life in the form of real world blackmail.

Say, What?

Yes, although Marcus Statler currently resides inside the fictional walls of my writing, some of his blackmail has leaked out into the real world. For, when I recently hit up Fiverr.com to commission some work, I came away with a big giant headache (which wasn't listed in the gig!)

I'll Take That With A Side Of...

All I wanted was a snazzy 'Mrs A' freelance logo for the beginning videos I want to do this summer. I thought that my logo for 'The Creative Insider' was perfect for my newsletter videos, but that I should work to make some of my freelance videos stand out as their own brand. And I already go by 'Mrs. A' so much, that I might as well capitalize on that.

Bring The Gigster In

So I hired Monster_Desgnz from Fiverr.com because I liked what she had to offer. I reached out first, via email, explained what I needed, she said she'd be delighted to help, and we started the back and forth dance of re-designing and refining the logo. Since the gig originally mentioned 3 versions I felt that would suit my needs so that I could have the file on a textured background, a white background and also a transparent background.

Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

So when we got to a point where I thought the refining wasn't going to get any better (after a few 'what do you want' type questions, I was feeling this was at a plateau) I thought it could possibly be something that could later be animated to look a bit better. I got one file, which was the textured one you see above. I was then told:

"thanks for responding...i will give you all file formats that you want...but first you should give me 5+ ratting and a tremendouse review its a humble request...i will design your logo again as you want,, thank you"

You Have To Pass The Bill To Find Out What's In It

I explained I couldn't do that:

"I want to stand behind a 5* review that is honest. I haven't seen all of what I ordered so I don't know what to rate your work at yet. I hope that makes sense? I cannot rate something I haven't seen yet. You have been more than gracious and flexible with me and the craziness going on at my day job so I have been pleased with your professionalism. I just want to be able to honestly say to other authors that my rating was true because I had the full knowledge of your work to rate it so highly. A new author has already inquired about how she can get a logo with a transparent background for a website I'm working on for her and I want to show her what all that entails but first I need the order completed as she's having trouble getting what I mean."

And of course, we went around the mountain again.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

"its ok no problem so now what you want me to do?"

Now what do I want her to do? I had to get up and leave the room for a while because I was at my wits end and didn't want to take it out on the computer. I began doubting my sanity and needed a break. When I returned, I kept my cool:

"I need 3D logo to be as is without the 'your fun freelancer' at the bottom of all three versions. I like the textured version that you showed me. And I need it on a white background. The third I need it as a transparent background. So that all three simply say "Mrs. A" like you have in the current version. Remove 'your fun freelancer' from any version. Sorry that I didn't explain that clearly already."

Then I flung the backpack off of me and collapsed onto the couch. Certainly, it shouldn't be this hard to get a logo made, yes? Unfortunately, how I structured my reply was very confusing to her...

Here, Let's Start Over. My Name Is...

"can please attache logos that you want me to redesign?"

Should I have not used 'as is'? She wants me to attache...as in attach? Or as in a literal attache? Is this Fiverr slang? (LOL, ok, I couldn't help myself there.) I strapped on my mountain gear that I'd just disgustedly thrown into the corner and picked up my walking stick...and hiked around the mountain with her...again...

"The mrs1234.jpeg file was the last one you delivered. That is on a textured background. That form is fine if the tagline is removed. Then, using that same style, just change it to a white background for the second file and then make it transparent for the third file. I didn't think I was allowed to modify any logo except the last one as all previous ones had needed revisions. Sorry I didn't specify which one we were talking about. I assumed the last one was the only one."

I am not on Fiverr a lot, but if I had revised this thing 8 times already, was she really willing to go back to the first rough draft and start over? Once you revise the revision, you stay on the most recent revision as the one that's 'almost right'...right?

Time To Say Goodbye

"its ok no problem...my first priorty is to satisfy my customer...i dont want to hurt any one...so dont you worry i will design your logo as you want and i will deliver soon.. thank you"

I appreciated this because I didn't want to hurt anyone either. All I wanted was a logo and I didn't expect this amount of hand-holding without dinner at least! And, in a few more days time, I did get the three files I had paid for. The two you see above are the white and the textured. (Obviously, the transparent is the same as the white, so it's not included.) Now, to me, the white and transparent don't have the 3D look of the textured, but at this point, I'm done. I'm not picking up that mountain gear again and walking another step in this process. I might as well turn to cutting shapes out of construction paper, which would be less stressful! (Hey, if it made 'Southpark' a lot of money, maybe it's not such a bad idea.)

By The Way, Dear Buyer...

"hi dear buyer... check these out now...please dont forget to give me 5+ ratting and a tremendous review... thank you"

What to say? Should one give a one star review and slam the person? Should one leave it mediocre and try to be nice? Should I not leave a review at all? Or should I be facetious and try to play with the mis-spelling of rating and ask how I should 'rat' her??

It's not the world's most horrible logo and it's not like I had to sue her to get it. It was also just a $15 investment. Now that I dig a bit further, I find the tiny spot on her profile where it says she has been a member since March 2016, which is not immediately visible in the initial search I did when I started this process. So I could have done more homework.

I have filled out a customer support ticket on this and am now waiting to hear back from Fiverr about this officially. It's not about getting a refund in the end but about trying to clean up her ethics and keep others from being caught up in this stuff. Life is too short!

But what ratting...er...rating would YOU give?