I work in the graphic design department at my University. This guy comes in one day from Project Volunteer and he's a REALLY nice guy and all, and so I go about explaining to him how the proceedures work, how he had to pay through an IRB (Internal Request Buy or something. It's how the Univ. pays for things through other departments.) And so, I took his order. Now, my boss made it very clear to me that I was NOT to EVER track down missing IRB's. That was the client's job. So, a week later when the thing hadn't come back, I didn't think anything of it, even though the banner I was to make was due in two weeks.
Two weeks passed, and the IRB was still nowhere to be found. Then I got a call from this guy, who was screaming and IRATE because I didn't have his order done. He didn't even let me get a word in that I was not responsible for the IRB's, and that he would have to call my boss. He finally hung up on me, and called who he was supposed to call. I found out later that he'd not even put the IRB through. He was holding on to it, and said, basically, "I won't pay for it until I get it." Well, this was a bit of a problem; see, we don't start work on orders until we get approval of funds, which means I needed that IRB to go through the system and come back to me before I could start it. I'd made that clear to him the first day I talked to him. Needless to say, his order wasn't ever completed. ::sigh:: I still feel bad, even though it wasn't my fault.
I also have customers that come in, wanting me to spit out an order for them in ten or twenty minutes.
It takes three days for the IRB to go through, I tell them, but to no avail. They storm out of the room angrily, calling names I care not to repeat!