Email from a new client today:
"We may change our mind on the survey do we lose any of our money if we do that? I don??t believe any works been done at this point."
We have had a signed contract and retainer fee for two weeks.?ÿ The contract estimated 6 to 8 weeks.?ÿ We have had several email and telephone conversations with this new client.
I am fully prepared to cancel the contract and refund the retainer fee 100% if that is her wish.?ÿ But before I respond to her email I wanted to come here to receive your thoughts and ruminations.
I'd personally refund it, but perhaps less any amount of work done to date or disbursements incurred like airfares and tooling-up.
On the other hand, if you'd turned down other work because you had this one, and now you don't have either ... Lots of construction contracts have words in favour of the contractor, effectively insuring them against loss of profit, should the project get canned by the client.
I'd charge for any time spent toward preparing and gathering information and your personal time involved in considering the presentation of your numbers to do the project.
The most important thing to consider is "did you drop or pass on any other projects to make time in your schedule for this project?"
Let's face it things like this happen but the client needs to understand that you do have some time invested in it and at a minimum 1 hour of admin time would be in order.
Unless it is a hardship situation, I would bill for the time you've spent in preparation, if it's at least an hour. Any less than that, I'd probably just let it go and give a full refund.
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What everyone else said. ?????ÿ
This has happened a couple of times to me; I explained to them that, basically, I'm selling them my time.
- How much time did you spend on research, to come up with your fee?
- How much time did you spend putting together your proposal and sending it out?
- Did you spend anytime getting data ready for the fieldwork?
It all adds up...
What everyone else said applies but I would temper it with the quality of my relationship with that client.
Licensed Land Surveyor
Finger Lakes Region, Upstate New York
Thanks everyone. ?ÿBy the way, regarding last week??s post in the solo thread on my stress level with regard to cash flow has once again been relieved. ?ÿThis morning another new client dropped off a big fat retainer fee for another new job.?ÿ