Professionalism

Today while in the throes of finishing up a master, a friend reached out to me about doing a bit of restoration work for somebody else.  Always eager to help a friend, and gain a client, I said "sure" and then we were off.  The prospective client contacted me and asked about having some music from an old 78 cleaned up.  The material was severely degraded, but I took a little break from my work to see what I could do.  I cleaned up some of the crackles and pops, but the amplitude of the noise was far greater than the musical content; I did this within about 1 hour of receiving the  emails from the potential client.  I should let you know that there were two sides, or songs, in one file, each had major issues; I worked on one.  

So I did a test run at no cost.  It gave my ears a break and it would hopefully give this prospective client a bit more perspective as I tried to convey what I heard, did, and how more work to the file might bring a bit more of the musical content out.  I never asked for money, and again, took time out of my day to try to help.  After turning this around pretty darn fast, the prospective client never thanked me and asked where the 2nd side/song was.  I politely informed him that it would definitely take more work to get these cuts happening, but that I was actually booked for the day and if he would like to continue, it would have to be at my current rate for work like this; this is how I make my living.  There was no return email, and again, no thanks for the work, time and pointers.

A year ago, I probably would have sent another email to the prospective client expressing how incredibly rude they were, but that just makes things worse in the long run.  I certainly hope that this person finds a solution for their problem, and that the service he receives is comparable, if not better.