It angers me when I do something nice and out of my way for people, but they don’t appreciate it. Recently, I was doing some contracted work for a young girl. I wouldn’t consider her a friend, but I would. I was doing some beta reading for her. I always do this for free as long as one follows the terms and conditions. Ever since the beginning, she had problem, after problem, after problem when it came to following the terms and conditions. She was having some problems at home and such, so I thought maybe I could make things a little more at her convenience. It wouldn’t hurt me really.

I kept bending the terms and conditions for her. She broke the rules and I let it slide. She was having a hard time and I could understand. I’m a lawyer and I’ve seen people in her position. I knew that what she was going through was very hard and stressful and hurtful to her. She needed to really dedicate her time to her life and not her work online. I understood that. Which was why I was willing to work with her.

As time passed, it seemed like she wasn’t even trying to follow the terms and conditions. She repeatedly broke the same rules, even the easiest of them. One of the rules was to follow me on Twitter. I would follow them back. She repeatedly, knowingly, unfollowed me. Since she had a private account, she was also able to knowingly remove me as a follower. The first time, I can understand. After doing this multiple times, to the point where I have lost count, then we have a problem. I sent her multiple warnings and she would follow me again. A short time later, she would do the same thing again – unfollow me and have me unfollow her.

I also require monthly updates. They don’t have to be long or well written. They can be very short if that’s what the clients wish to do. The updates were simply to let me know how their writing was going maybe their writing schedule. They could tell me more or talk about whatever they wanted. My main, real desire for wanting the monthly updates was to know that they were still alive (active online) and to know how their writing was going.

With this young girl however, she would send out some monthly updates, skip a month or two. She was fairly good with the monthly updates. I think that I only had to send her a warning about this three or four times. that’s a few more then I allow, but as I mentioned above, I was trying to work at her convenience.

Only a few months ago, I found out that I was being lied to and used. The issues that she claimed to have going on in her life, were not going on. She had lied about the entire thing. She had also scammed another girl out of thousands of dollars. Not to mention, she was also defaming the characters of many people. Both of these are illegal. I’m not going to go into everything she’s done, but those are just two major examples.

Upon hearing of her lies, scams, and defaming of others, I was angered. I felt used, scammed, ripped off. I can’t even put into words how angry this made me. She acted as if we were friends and then come to find out, everything she told me was a lie. I did a lot to work with her and to help make working with my rules easier. I tried to work at her convenience. I just can’t get over that. I worked with her, when she was supposed to be working with me. Being used is just such a light word to use to explain how I feel.

I continued to work with her though. I enjoy my work and we had agreed to a contract. Yes, in the contract it does say that I can break it whenever I wish for whatever reason I wish – this is also in the terms and conditions. However, I decided against just breaking the contract. I try not to bring personal things into my business and work. So I wasn’t going to break the contract due to my personal feelings about her and her actions.

Today I was going through and checking on everyone’s status with the rules. I saw she had broken two rules, again. She was once again, not following me on Twitter nor had me following her back any longer. She also had not sent me a monthly update even though she has been active online. These are two rules that she has broken in a single month.

I had enough, I sent her an email about her contract being suspended. I’m not sure if I will break the contract. Right now, I’ll see what her response is. if I do break her contract, I’ve decided that her bill will be 2470 USD. I usually charge up to 3k USD. Yes, there is a fine that one has to pay if the contract is broken. She knows of this as well if she read the terms and conditions like she agreed to in the contract.

I’m sorry that she couldn’t be more appreciative of the way I tried to help her. I tried my best to work with her and make things to her convenience. I tried. I feel like she is just wasting my time. She has no interest in keeping the contract. So if she wants to break it, we can. I won’t wave the fine though. I do not work for free. I need to make a living too. I don’t mind doing work for free for people who appreciate it, but she doesn’t.