Just Lost a Client I Never Had

TL;DR: I lost a client before starting their project due to miscommunication.

Edit: typo

Anyone ever deal with this before?

I recently “closed” a deal a few weeks back. A business reached out wanting to do a monthly film cadence with me and I sent them a proposal. They stated they wanted to move forward.

I sent over the contract signed on my end and stated I needed them to sign and pay the deposit before locking in the shoot date.

Days go by… nothing. Then I followed up again, this time stating since I still have not received the signed agreement nor have I received the deposit, we will need to reschedule. She responds hours later saying “thanks. We want to pay the invoice with a CC.” (My initial invoice was for ACH) - I assumed she read the email stating we were rescheduling. I sent an email stating I would send a fresh invoice with an option for credit card as a payment method and for them to send the date they want to reschedule on… she emailed me disappointed and stated the email was burried in the the email thread and she missed the email where I stated rescheduling. I apologized for any miscommunication and even offered a 15% discount on the first month and she declined and stated they will not be moving forward with me expressing a bad experience with how I handled this.

I’m frustrated because I was looking forward to working with them and the money… I need it. But damn, I didn’t think I was being too strict here or was I?

Anyways, I’m bummed I just lost this client I never had… was right there at the finish line and of course something had to screw up the entire thing….