

Ask HN: Dealing with client squeezing in extra scopes? - notastartup

So I&#x27;m dealing with a client who is now adding more things to do than was budgeted for under the original document. There&#x27;s so many hidden &quot;but this should work like this which I didn&#x27;t mention in the original scope&quot;, that I cannot actually continue working on this job. I told them X amount of budgeted hours was spent on implementing the extra stuff on top of the original scope. I&#x27;m going to have to charge another X hours for me to complete.<p>Did I do the right thing? I got a little bit angry but this seems to be the case when you work with people who seem to treat software like hiring sweatshop labor workers.
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lutusp
Just explain that you and he have a contract, your price was based on what was
agreed in the contract, and you should be allowed to fulfill the original,
mutually agreed contract. Then, if the customer wants more, negotiate a new
contract.

If you don't do this, you risk moving into the verbal contract domain, and, as
Sam Goldwyn famously said, verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they're
written on.

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pjungwir
I know lots of engineers who, when the customer asks for more, get angry. I do
it myself! But I try to treat it as an opportunity. Smile and say, "I'd be
happy to add these items to the project. It will cost an additional $x and y
days." It's especially hard when it's a flood of tiny changes, so in that case
you might have to group a bunch together to help demonstrate that it's a
significant addition to the original scope. Just try to have a positive
attitude about it, that of course you can do what the client wants, and you're
happy for the extra business!

~~~
notastartup
yes I did exactly that. I felt angry but didn't express it in any way, these
were tiny changes and lots of them, so I said it flatly, these will take time
and will cost X hours.

If he comes back saying "bet I could do this faster", I would tell them good
luck. If he insists I do it for free, I would tell them it would force me to
cut corners and would hurt me and the project in the long run.

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brudgers
Changes in scope are normal in any project based business, and the agreements
between all parties should reflect that reality.

Getting mad wasn't the right thing. Sending an invoice after the fact is kind
of the right thing. The right thing is to send a proposal for the additional
work when additional work is requested and to lay out a formal process for
changing the scope in your initial contract. .

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fsk
That's the risk of fixed-price contracts.

Some clients will withhold final payment until you do lots of extra things.
Following the sunk cost fallacy, having put a certain amount of time into the
project, you'll do more so you can get paid. In most cases, the client knows
it's impractical for you to sue them. You either have to do the extra work for
free, or write off the time you already spent as a loss.

Another risk I noticed with fixed-price contracts is that the client almost
always doesn't have a proper spec. If I help them write a proper spec, then
they can post it on the freelance sites and hire someone cheaper to implement
it. If you start a fixed-price contract without a proper spec, you wind up
with the problem you're having.

Now, I just flat-out refuse fixed-price contracts.

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logn
I go with flat-priced projects as much as possible. I break the project into
milestones, each one priced and paid separately. If there's extra scope added
but not a ton, I don't mind because I've already priced this in. If things get
excessive, I can point to the milestone and show that we didn't plan for it.

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gus_massa
Not sure that this is the same case, but the articles is interesting and in
the comments there are some discussion about feature creep: “How to charge
clients: flat fee vs. hourly rate?”
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909101](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909101)

------
relaunched
You are a professional, watch this video, and act like one.

Mike Monteiro - fuck you, pay me
[http://vimeo.com/22053820](http://vimeo.com/22053820)

