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Out of context: Reply #6
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- Horp0
Well hang on there. Whilst I agree you should bend over backwards to avoid giving them the money back, I think you need to labour the point to the client that they have decimated the production time that was originally agreed and there has to be some adjustments to accommodate that. You need to add some rush fees to cover the nights and weekend you now estimate you will need to work. They need to sign an agreement that states they will not attempt to deviate from the agreed project scope. This needs to state CLEARLY that the new deadline will be voided if they start changing things around, coming up with new ideas, asking for things to be different to what has been agreed. There needs to be penalty agreements in place to keep them in line - they need to know they are encroaching on other client's time and they need to be very respectful of your business and your other client's businesses. They need to agree a stepped kill fee from here on in, so that if this new, 10 day deadline proves impossible to meet, they have already agreed to pay you for the days you've done. For ten days I'd say that the fee needs to be divided up by ten, and the kill fee is however many days you've worked if/when they pull the plug.
That is also why its crucial to get a signed off document listing every possible aspect and detail of the project... because if this goes tits up they will try to blame you to avoid paying your kill fee, so you need a paper trail that shows you stuck to the plan, and they deviated and made the deadline unreachable.
Personally I would proceed with caution. Its never a good sign when a client thinks they can jump from 6-8 weeks down to ten days. Shows a total lack of understanding of what has been agreed.