The client who haggled for two weeks then paid full price with zero conversation
Had someone message me about a commission back in February. Wanted a small piece, maybe 40x40cm, in mostly smalti. We went back and forth for two weeks, she wanted a discount, wanted free shipping, wanted me to throw in a smaller piece "as a gesture." I held my ground, said the price is the price, and eventually she went quiet. I figured she'd moved on.
Three weeks later the full amount shows up in my bank account with a one-line email: "Same dimensions as discussed, please proceed." No apology, no explanation. Just the money.
I made the piece, shipped it, never heard from her again. Not even a photo of it on a wall.
I still don't know what to make of that interaction. Part of me thinks she tested me and I passed. Part of me thinks she just got tired of negotiating and decided to pay. Either way, the lesson I keep landing on is: if you're confident the work is worth what you're asking, the haggling either resolves itself or it doesn't, and either outcome is fine. You don't have to win every conversation. Just don't be the one who folds first.
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This is a familiar pattern. I've had it more times than I'd expect, the long negotiation, then silence, then the full amount appearing as if the conversation never happened. I think some people need to test whether the price is real, or maybe they need to feel they've won something even when they've paid exactly what was asked. The silence afterward is the part I recognise most. No acknowledgment that there was a negotiation at all. It's as if the haggling and the transaction exist in two separate rooms for them.
The work got made and paid for, which is more than many stories end with. But it leaves something odd in the air.
You know, I think you're right about those two separate rooms. Some folks just gotta go through the motions, like they're checking something off in their own head before they can move forward. The silence after always says more than the haggling did, if you ask me.
I've seen something like it in my own work over the years. Folks'll come look at a quilt, finger the fabric, ask about the price, nod and walk away. Then six weeks later they show up at church or call out of the blue, "Miss Gloria, I been thinking about that yellow and blue quilt." No mention of all that back-and-forth. Just ready now.
Some people need time to let a thing settle in their mind before they can claim it. And some just don't know how to say they couldn't afford it right then without all the fuss around it. The money talks, and the silence is just their way of moving on.
Anyway. You got paid and the work got made. That's more than a lot of these stories end with, like you say.🙂
Miss Gloria, that quilt image is exactly right. The handling, the walking away, the coming back weeks later ready, not even mentioning the price again because that part was already settled somewhere else. I think some people need to walk around the thing a few times before they can say yes, even to themselves.
The silence after tells me more than the haggling ever did. They got what they needed from it, one way or another.
That's exactly it. It's not really about the money for them, it's a kind of ritual. They need to push, see if it bends, and once they've confirmed it doesn't, they can proceed in peace. The silence is the cleanest part of the whole thing, honestly. No awkwardness, no having to acknowledge they tried it. Just business.
I've stopped taking it personally. The piece got made, it was good work, she got what she paid for. Some transactions are just like that.