a moral question
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- 27 Responses
- ninjasavant0
You're probably about to get 9 hours worth of revisions at least.
- CALLES0
pick at it for 9 hours and maybe something new comes up?
- CALLES0
pick at it for 9 hours and maybe something new comes up?
- Rand0
I'm probably an idiot, but I'd only charge for 1 or 2 hours. One if it's an ongoing client
- But you quoted 10 hours? That's 10 times more than it actually took. Client may not believe future "guestimates".seeessess
- if I estimate time I usually tell them if it takes a shorter time the bill will be less than the estimateRand
- but I don't give a fuck what anybody else doesRand
- you're not an idiot, you're the only honest person here Rand. no wonder designers have that reputation...jimbojones
- u r an honest manheena
- ghandolf0
When you take your car to a mechanic, and 'the Book' calls for 10 hrs to repair & replace that radiator.... you're charged for 10 hrs no matter what it takes to do the job.
Oh.. you're probably not a mechanic are you?
As you were....
- formed0
I never charge new projects by the hour, for this reason. For ongoing changes, hourly works fine as you are comfortable with each other and the fee structure.
Look carefully at other things like communication time, etc., to make sure you don't give too much away.
If you aren't, I'd put things together in a nice presentation to make it look more thorough, which you could also use for the future.
I'd be very careful about setting the bar low. You might be excited as hell you got it done so quickly, but next time might not be so great. This is why I avoid the hourly, sometimes things take longer, sometimes not, you never know with design.
- Salarrue0
Even if you solve one project in 1 hour this time you have to charge for the creative solution, because if they know about it they will dump on you a lot of projects to be done in a hour time frame...
- Salarrue0
It is the experience and knowledge what you have to charge, we are not machines.
- huh? more experience, more $$$/hour, all is cooljimbojones
- it is the ideal non?Salarrue
- it's reality, just charge more every year. fuck them if it's too much and they ask their nephews.jimbojones
- randommail0
Don't plant a seed of doubt in their mind.
Charge exactly what they agreed to.
- comicsans0
The client accepted your quote was fair for the job, your estimating sucks, use some of the time to work on that!. Otherwise you are setting a bad precedent and they will quibble every other quote and project you do for them. Also, sad but true, the client's perception of the value will be partly or wholly determined by what they paid.
- boobs0
I don't give clients an estimate of how long it will take me to do a project. I give them a price for their project, and I tell them when I will deliver it.
How much work I have to put into it is my concern.
- VectorMasked0
c.
get paid for the 10 hrs. maybe 9. but not 8.
if you lower the hours and the oveall costs, sure you might (juts might) make them temporarily happy and get another job from them.
BUT to be honest it can also affect you as they from now on, will expect you will be meeting their deadlines quickly and that you will normally lower the price for them, and so when the days comes that the estimated time for a project is like 20 hrs, and you actually do spend the entire budgeted time or even go overbudget, they will not like it and will demand an explanation with a nice discount.
- CGN0
Just curious what type of work it was? Illustration, web..?
- VectorMasked0
I rented a car a few days ago and returned it several hours before my time ran out. I didn't expect them to give me a nice discount coz of it.
Now... designers get fucked more frequently by the clients than the other way around. Also they always ask for discounts and... we on the other hand, just ask to try to get as close as possible to the schedule, hours and budget... and still lose quite often.
- cannonball19780
get what you can, when you can.
- airey0
met it 3/4 of the way. charge 'em for 7 hours and they've saved money on the budget. no doubt a different job will go the other way so swings and roundabouts.
- jamble0
I'd charge them for 10 hours then spend the 9 hours wondering how the hell I'd got my quoting of timescales so far wrong to avoid this in the future.
That's quite a significant difference there and perhaps something you might want to review.
You may get brownie points for honesty if you charge them for the real time it took but you may also find them asking the question about why you misjudged the quote so much and also may find them questioning any future quotes.
- era4040
Tell the client it's under budget. Bill for what you think is right, dude, and spend the remaining 9hrs getting more work, doing something challenging, or doing something that makes you happy and sleep easily at night.
- sikma0
the client signed off on 10 hours?
then get paid 10 hours