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Nicole -> Client Meetings (2/24/2005 21:06:10)
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I’d like your opinions on what you’d have done in this situation that happened to me yesterday.
I did a website for my employer some years ago, I was paid separately to my income and there was no contract. I continued to maintain the site after leaving my employment there, and started my own web design business. I wrote a very detailed contract dealing with every aspect of the web design business I could think of, it was a generic contract which I alter slightly to fit with different clients. I asked them to sign the contract which they refused to do, so I managed to have them sign a maintenance agreement. That maintenance agreement mentions points within the contract, so I gave them a blank copy of the contract so they can refer to it if need be. (i.e. the maintenance agreement might say “….as per section 17 of the contract”…, they’d be able to look up what section 17 was)
That contract mentions that I’ll be paid to attend any meeting or to visit the client’s premises. Except for meetings during the course of designing a site or immediately following site completion which are free.
The client contacts me late last year asking if I could attend some meetings as they’d like the website redesigned. I attend the meetings and bill the client as part of my maintenance invoices, they pay those invoices, following those 2 meetings I submit a quote which they agree to and we sign the redesign contract yesterday (the same contract almost, that they refused to sign this time last year).
During yesterday’s contract signing I was questioned, well not really questioned but “told” I shouldn’t have billed them for meetings dealing with redesigning the site, that it should either be considered free or rolled into my quote. I allowed the client to be right, so I said to her that I’ll take her advice on board, but I did also manage to put my viewpoint across which is:
That I had an existing client contact me and want to attend a few meetings. I would never charge, or try and back charge a new client i was trying to sell my services to.
So maybe I should’ve rolled these charges into my quote, but I don’t do quotes that way, I itemize my quotes so the client can see exactly what I’m doing for them, and also as a safeguard designed to reduce scope creep.
So, if an existing client contacts you to attend a meeting would you charge them for it? If not, would you roll it into your quote or do you attend meetings for free?
It’s no big deal really, the contract was signed, but I would like to know if my business ethics are a bit off skew?
Nicole
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