Totally screwed....

[SidekickWD]

Yep. And it's all my fault too!

I have been ears deep in a clients website, I covered my butt with a contract and what not at the start, but this guy has been such a hard client to deal with! Each and every day there is something to "change" "fix" "switch around" "changed my mind". And it happens at least once a day.

I've been hopping around like crazy trying to stay on top of what he wants that I never even realized the size of his site and the work into it had managed to double.

Until Now.

I feel exceptionally lame right now. So, there's not much I can do about it now, but those of you who freelance and have the experience, when you see a website is growing beyond the original plan, what do you say to your clients? How do you manage this?

Help?

[LeadMagnet]

What was the stated work in the contract? Is this beyond the scope of the contract?

[SidekickWD]

totally beyond. The site was to be 20 pages with contact forms, that nifty little accordion slide thing and logo.

[LeadMagnet]

Well, if that's the case then state that you were willing to do a little bit extra beyond the scope of the contract for free as a token of good will, but that the excess which has been added on to the project by all the changes has gone a bit too far and you can't afford to put so much time into the project. The previously agreed cash sum agreed upon for the project did not cover this work and as such you can't continue the way things are.

Options are to:
A) Re-draft a new contract which will take into account all the extra work needed.
B) Ammend the contract to add on the cost for the extra work and finish off the work as stated in the original contract.
C) End the contract straight away and send a bill to the client for work completed.

[zumojuice]

You should state that after a few sets of amends that you will be charging by an hourly rate. state this in the quote/contract - and state it again when your client goes over this...

[Toon]

We bill for work done and then get out of there, never worth the hassle with these kind of people

[PR Design]

I think Lead's advice is best.

[blueocto]

As said previously, it might be worth just letting the client know of your dilemma, and see what he says... it maybe that he can't afford the additional amends, in which case, it might be time to pull out.

[SidekickWD]

Thanks for the advice you all. I'm going to talk with him today an see what comes of it. Just this morning I opened an e-mail asking me to make "a few simple images for me to put on my brochure".

I'll let you all know how it goes.

I truly feel like an a** for letting it get this far without saying anything though. Ick.

[blueocto]

Don't worry about it, we've all been there and its too easy to get dragged into the enjoyment of doing the project, until you do suddenly realise, "shit" i feel totally taken advantage of now... and it is hard to remedy, I think its just how you go about it, that can hopefully produce a good ending.