My first Bad Client review I was aware of that made me realise that was actually the second So about my first bad review I was aware of. This happened in December 2020. Please refer to "my Hero" post. A stranger reached out to me on WhatsApp and he was like; why are you not defending yourself you this woman. I was lost. Then the person explained further with some munched screen evidences of someone claiming that she gave me a sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira and I didn't deliver on her job on a Nairaland forum. Actually the person that called me out was someone I actually considered a friend and this wasn't the first or the second job we will be handling for her and we delivered and she was pleased. She was actually a client who later became a very good internet friend. You know we crossed that Client-Interior Decorator slide on so many levels. And I actually considered her a very good friend. This woman by the name of Alade (not her real name) first contacted me 2017 and that she has a building at Ikorodu and she would love me to help with some of our services. But during Covid-19 pandemic was when she actually came through with a service for us to actually handle for her. She gave us a budget job to help handle the furnishing of her two bedroom house after Imota in Ikorodu at a village called Odo Olosa. Odo olosa is actually like another two hours drive from Ikorodu. Yes, that far but she told us Ikorodu but I am not complaining. She said it was a matter of urgency. And it was very important we came through. I saw it as a challenge I was willing to take on. And I am so glad we eventually delivered because it was a hard nut to crack even after our workshop was actually shut down by Local Government officials for bridging the Covid-19 Lock down rules and we had to transfer the services to another furniture company due to the urgency of the job. But they couldn't also deliver and even wasn't able to refund for reasons best know to them. We actually had to wait till the lock down was eased and we were given the permission to reopen. Our carpentry team continued where we stopped. Sounds easy, but a lot of heartbreaks and shouting went into this. But thank God we delivered eventually and we did at the perfect time. We paid almost 10% of the total cost on delivery/transportation then cos the location was another journey from Ikorodu. But hey, I am not complaining because it was another experience I learnt from. So fast forward to what actually caused the bad review. This was actually the third or forth service we will be rendering to Mrs Alade. She said I should please help her with doing two wardrobes for her house at Ibadan, Oyo state. One a three door wardrobe and the other a two door wardrobe. I attached picture reference of what a three door and a two door wardrobe looks like to this post. Then she also wanted me to help with six fabrics curtain window Treatment which includes both outer and inner drapes with strong poles for a sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira ($500). I told her it's not possible given the increase in the prices of items in the market and high inflation rates. She even told me to help her deliver these items to Ibadan, Oyo state. I told her the best I could do for her was to collect the sum of N400,000 from her because she is my friend and that the price doesn't involve the cost of transportation to Ibadan. I advised her to do the job one after the other at that time till she can afford to do both. She said no she wants both done. So I advised her to up her budget. But she begged as a friend and told me to that her husband is broke due to the fact that they just acquired something important for their family and she is out of job. So I agreed to help her out of compassion. I told her I have a project then I am currently handling in Oshogbo that I bought extra poles for because I couldn't get the right measurements. I told her I wish there would be left overs that I would use for her because I consider her a friend but that even at that she still have to up her budget.   I also told her that since I am still coming back to Oshogbo from Lagos. I might use my car to help carry the unistalled furniture if I could I would and that my carpenter would help her install it at her house in Ibadan. She didn't make payments has promised and unfortunately for her, the poles were not even enough for the Oshogbo job and we had to get more for that project. She was supposed to pay early to work with my own timing. But she paid just 6 days to Christmas giving me the story that one of her husband's relatives was living in their house. That the relative and his family refused to leave and just left after they practically put up a fight. The timing wasn't even right with helping her with delivery. Funny enough, I later discovered that their house was even at the outskirt of Ibadan, on your way to Oyo state. Why they love far far distances I don't know but why she doesn't come out sincere was what baffled me. But we all know the times and increase plus inflation in prices were inevitable during Christmas seasons. Four days to Christmas. Me trying to help my friend sort some jobs out thinking in my head perhaps she was coming home to Nigeria and it was the period when naira crashed ridiculously. By the time my staffs went to get the job done they already spent more than half of the budget on curtain alone. It was way more than expected on just curtain fabrics with curtain accessories minus poles. I had to put a call across to her as a friend to explain things to her. And she was like I should just get the job done that sabi me I am a budget Interior Decorator. I was trying to explain to her that it's not my fault and that it's the market value and since October things have even gone way up. So she told me if I cannot make the budget work I should refund back the money. I was like, "friend but we have gotten the curtain and its has been sown". She said its not her problem and since I'm an Interior Decorator I should be able to use the curtain for any another Client. You selected a royal blue colour curtain; I replied. I doubt if I am able to find someone interested in it and moreover the timing is not just right. She hung up the phone on me. From that moment she changed. She then started with this emotional blackmails. She became a different person, she talks to rudely to me. I tried to be the calmer one until she started dragging my husband into the argument. She said some rude things about I and my home and I was shocked. One day she and I were chatting on whatsapp and she started insulting me and even dragged my husband to it. she was rude to my husband and that was it. You can insult me all you like but not my husband. What gave you that right?. I gave her a piece of my mind also and told her she was trying to use me that she was never truly a friend. It was then that my eyes open. She always tried to under price me all in the name of friendship. She also comes with one reason or the other why I should collect ridiculous budgets to fit her desires. And gives me promises of future/further patronages but not that I am stupid. I genuinely liked her and considered her one of my friends. Guess she was only my friend in other to rob me and use me for her own gains. How can you give me two hundred and fifty thousand and you still want me in Ibadan to help deliver 2 wardrobes and window treatments for 6 windows. The Negotiation even took place around October, 2019 and you paid me few days to Christmas. I even considered you because we were meant to be friends. She paid me only two hundred and Fifty thousand Naira ($500) as against Four Hundred Thousand I quoted for ($800). So, Before she went on all social media platforms trying to drag my name in the muds. She proposed to me that she would pay me an additional fifty thousand naira ($100) but that I must deliver to her house which is located at Oyo state. I told her that it cannot work. The truck to deliver to that location wouldn't even accept the fifty thousand and moreover the two hundred and fifty thousand naira cannot complete all that job required. One double door wardrobe and another three door wardrobe with imported HDF Board, Completely tailored Satin curtain with accessories for six windows, all standard measurements. All these you want me to perform a magic to complete or what. Next thing she went on a Nairaland forum and wrote that she she gave one Multicolour Decor a sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira and that me I was trying to runaway with her money and that I even blocked her on all social media platforms. Whereas she was the one going on all my business social media pages writing bad reviews about my me and my company. She kept giving bad impressions. She even wrote that I collected two hundred and fifty thousand naira and that me I disappeared ever since because she and I had a fall out. All these times, her husband already reached out to me. I and her husband already concluded on something but she is what you called a manipulative friend. I had to use my money to do both wardrobes for her and she collected it. My father said that was her aim.   A two door wardrobe  Lesson learnt- never will I never mix business with friendship. No more sympathetic or sentimental business deals, this one has bitten me hard in my butts.
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