When it comes to the occult, unfortunately it is not a thriving or profitable one on the surface; most occult seekers and people looking for help in practicing or buying services from mages offering their services for hire, are living in a world filled with pain and misery in general. Poverty, psychological and mental issues plague them, as my years of experience in engaging with them (sorrily enough) has taught me and as I have noticed. They either beg for help and request services be performed for less than the given amount or attempt to harass the service-giver. That is or can be, to say the least, annoying. I offered my services for a brief moment in an empathetic sense, telling buyers that they could pay after the service was done. I have since then, of course, turned this around entirely. Things to keep in mind for both parties are:

. There are NEVER any guarantees that requested service or spell will be successful; this accounts for all things in general, not just magick. You can wake up tomorrow & your car won’t start, where it just did fine yesterday. All the mechanics in town check it out and they’re baffled. Done. There is NEVER, (again), any guarantee for success. Nor will there ever be.
. Doing the work takes a good chunk of time, energy & money; when a spell caster charges you up front, it is because the work needs to be done and that costs all of the aforementioned; think about it: Candles, offerings, incense, oils etc. All of these things need to be used to attempt to get results.
. Be respectful if approaching a seller; ask around if you are looking for one, check to see if the source is reliable, whether the occult vendor has any proof of his work that can be screened or compared, does he “know his stuff?”. Pictures, videos, etc.
. Keep in mind that due to all of the above, there is a slim chance that you, if you haven’t gotten what you wanted, will not get your money back. So slim chance of a refund. It is all “part of the deal”. 
. Brush up on the basics, so that you have an idea of what performing magick looks like; no real research is needed, but you need to know at least the very basics on what you are requesting, in the same way that you need to know the basics of a car before taking it to the shop for modifications…unless you want to be deceived without knowing it.
. There are, sorry to say, a LOT of con artists out there; people that pretend to deal in the arts and only wanting to scam people. This is one of the biggest reasons people tend to not want to get involved in purchasing occult services. Be very picky about whom you choose to work with.
. Pay via an appropriate medium, so that in the worse case scenario you have something to hold onto and a chance of getting your cash back. PayPal is a perfect example.
. Don’t judge the book by its cover; in simple words, don’t judge an occult seller by how successful he is or what he does in his private life. The notion that if a seller does crazy stuff or is unsuccessful in his life & that therefore, his methods are ineffective is an ignorant one to say the least.
. Lastly, be honest with yourself and take responsibility for your own actions; if you’re miserable, do your best to keep calm, cool and maintain your composure. Ranting or flipping out only puts you in a bad light.

Blessed Be.