Burning bridges

aziz_92 · ‎02-17-2020

I've had this client for about 8 months now. She one of my lowest paying clients and it's funny how the less a clients pays you, the more of a cheapstake they are.

I had this conversation with her 3 months ago where she was changing the scope and i told her to quit it or i will. You can't eat your cake and have it too. Can't be paying a fixed price and then on top of that expect to change the scope as we go along. Anyways after a long back n forth, she apologized and we continued to work together (bad move on my part).

Well, fast forward to today and she does the exact same. Claiming that they are a "Startup" and therefore can't pay for every little thing. How unforseen changes happen and i should accomodate them.

So yea, I quit. Burned a bridge today and I don't regret it at all. From now on, if a client displays this behavior from the get go, I will drop them immedaitely.

My goal with this post is, i want to know, how do you guys deal with clients who change scope on fixed price projects? It's a lose / lose situation. You do it, and you lose your time (since you're not getting paid) and if you don't do it, client will be upset with you. I think just choosing to distance yourself after the time time it happens is the best option here.

data_divas · ‎02-17-2020

I think you made the right decision. You are top rated so you can remove any bad feedback from this client.

You may want to add something to all of your contracts that says something like, "Any work outside of the scope of this contract will be provided at an additional agreed upon cost and added milestone. This contract covers the following tasks" (then list what the tasks are).

Something like that so you can point to the agreed upon contract and then say you'd be happy to provide the additional work they need at whatever price you think is fair.

allergywriter · ‎02-19-2020

It must be going around.

At the end of January I fired a client I had been working with for more than 5 years.

He was always trying to be cheap and his business ethics didn't align with mine. That's what I finally told him in my good-bye letter.

Luckily he was not on this platform so he couldn't leave a bad review.

In order to halt project creep in my profession (writing) I always tell them the approximate number of words in the finished product and what it will cover. Then I tell them the number of rounds of copyedits that are free and what the hourly rate is once they exceed that number of edits.

Every time this dude tried to creep up the scope of the project, I reminded him what was included and what was not. I finally put him on a hourly rate and charged him for all edits.

When we first started working together we were on a call when he said "I'm just starting out, so I can't afford to pay much". I responded with "So how do you get that to work for you? When I am checking out at the grocery store and I tell the cashier my client is just starting out and can't pay me...I can't get her to reduce the cost of my food. Please tell me so I can do it because right now my grocery store and mortgage company don't seem to care. Becaus they don't care I can't reduce my rates"

aziz_92 · ‎02-19-2020

"So how do you get that to work for you? When I am checking out at the grocery store and I tell the cashier my client is just starting out and can't pay me...I can't get her to reduce the cost of my food. Please tell me so I can do it because right now my grocery store and mortgage company don't seem to care. Becaus they don't care I can't reduce my rates"

Haha, that's a good one. I am going to keep that in my pocket for the next time a client does that. Hopefully i never have to use it.

petra_r · ‎02-21-2020

Aziz U wrote:
I've had this client for about 8 months now. She one of my lowest paying clients and it's funny how the less a clients pays you, the more of a cheapstake they are.

That is something that never ceases to fascinate me. The more people pay for something, the more they look after it and the better they treat it. That holds true for clothes, cars, watches and freelancers.

I have clothes from the local market and bags I bought from a dodgy guy on the beach. I also have clothes from Versace and Armany and a Mulberry bag.

Guess what goes to the dry cleaners and what gets thrown in the mixed wash in the washing machine, and which bags lie on the floor and which is in its dust bag in the wardrobe?