The Ugly: Sometimes Shit Just Doesn’t Work Right

I woke up in a great mood. I felt well-rested (rarity). I bopped along through my morning routine knowing full well that I had a day full of shit that must be done. It’s Tuesday…so not only is there client work (probably a good 12 hours of it and here I am blogging at noon…) and some stuff that we needed to do that couldn’t wait. (Some of that is already done and wasn’t really a big deal. When you work from home, you learn to make it…well, work.)

So, how did I go from virtual bliss to a raging dragon? Well…since you asked… 

First, Wrike Ate My Goddamn Client Data

I started using Wrike sometime last week. I was tired of using a paper to-do list. I hate the look of both Asana and Trello (although I used Asana on and off for like…the last two years). I wanted something that I liked. I mean, Jesus Christ on a cracker, I work so much that I should have some tools I really look forward to using.

After the initial losing of time to setting up Wrike (unavoidable for any project management tool if you don’t like doing the fancy imports and hoping your data doesn’t get fucked up…if you even have your data ready to be imported to begin with – I didn’t…), I really liked it.

Also found out I could have forms that presented externally to clients. And I could have one for every client, if I wanted. I opted to set-up two separate forms for two separate clients. These are great clients who email me. A lot. Theoretically, the forms take the data given by the client when they hit submit, auto-populate it into a task with a due date, and put it onto my calendar. I mean, seriously, who the fuck wouldn’t love that?

I didn’t give a shit about the price tag other than they want a year up front. $49 a month for their smallest package. Take that and multiply it by 12…and that’s a nice chunk of change. I hoped to talk with them about a month by month.

And then…I had a sinking feeling. One of those two clients told me yesterday they were going to submit an order. An order I never saw. I sent out an email (individually) to each client and said “don’t use the form. I think it’s broken.” My phone rang and it the OTHER client asking if I received their order (one I didn’t expect)…because they used the form. It was an EOB (end of business) order for tomorrow. I had nothing for them on my list. Thankfully, he had a submission receipt from the Wrike form. He forwarded that to me and it’s now on my GODDAMN PAPER TO-DO LIST because technology fucking sucks sometimes.

The other client emailed me back right after I got off the phone…and he said he tried to use the form but it wouldn’t work. He thought he did something wrong. No. He’s not wrong. Wrike was wrong.

That started my attitude problem.

Zoho Clenched It

Fine. Whatever. I already use some of Zoho’s tools. Let me just go and use their project management tool. It integrates (obviously) with what I already use. So, should be easy as pie (and it’s half the price MONTHLY compared to Wrike). I sign up. I go through the set-up process (which is very short since my profile is used on other tools). I try to set-up my first project and I hit save….and the timer just keeps spinning. It was like staring into a fucking black hole.

I used their live chat and was essentially told it must be on my end and their developers will have to look at my account and figure out why my projects won’t save. They’ll get back to me via email. I very nicely said a version of, “Look, I have shit to do today. I came here because Wrike fucked me over on two projects. I already use some of your tools – stop fucking with me and fix your shit.”

I sent a screenshot. I closed it out. I tried to reopen it later thinking well maybe it was a glitch. No. Still won’t save my fucking projects. So this evening their tech support is supposed to call me (because I don’t have time to do it now) to try and figure out what the fuck is wrong with it.

So, I’m just gonna sit here and be mad, uncaffeinated, and bitchy for a little bit. I have a paper masterlist, but I’m pissed about using it. And I only have like…30 minutes before I have to leave the house (again).

I’m obviously working tonight…