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I have a client (a friend of a friend of a friend) who came to me to build them a "simple" booking solution for their home cleaning business. Easy enough, I first thought.

Having taken a deposit based on my initial quote and contracts all signed, roll on exactly 8 months to where I find myself today.

It turns out, there is no cleaning business as the business will be totally reliant on the website. The original goalposts have now been moved to a completely different fucking country. The (now) required functionality has STILL yet to be finalised (I told client I'm not writing another line of code until EVERYTHING has been mapped out and made crystal clear), as every single face-to-face meeting / back and forth email turns into the client requesting hundreds more brilliant, essential features that make absolutely ZERO fucking sense. And now, to top it all off and push me into writing my first ever rant on here, I've just received an email from the client this morning saying "what I would like to have is like an online restaurant live booking system". WTF?!?!?

I work from home and have only my dog for company today, so please don't judge me. Just needed to let it all out.

Comments
  • 3
    Good luck. Seems no one say hi so...

    Welcome to devRant!
  • 1
    Time to dump back that deposit and not accept another one until you've got a finalized scope on paper
  • 0
    @ieuank That's where I'm at now, although thankfully the deposit has covered things like branding work and website mockups completed so far. Why can't clients just do as you tell them?!!?
  • 0
    Thanks @CozyPlanes! I quite like it on here.
  • 4
    In some startup course for non it people I attended, they suggested people to hire the developers for their project, but to alter the project scope, objective, etc, so they would 'not steal it for themselves'. Also suggested to spread it over some different devs. You may be the victim of this way to work
  • 3
    This is a very common issue. That's why on big projects I create very low detail estimate based upon an hourly rate and bill every month that I do work instead of billing at milestones...As long as they are paying the bills, does it matter if if they change things up?
  • 2
    Bill every month as @treighton mentioned. He might not realise how complicated these things can be and how important it is to know what you want. Help him decide on things. Explain the SDLC and why changing requirements at will will affect his project. Be firm.
  • 3
    clients are always right, that's why they never take no for an answer. there's an easy fix to that, anything beyond initial scope is subject to a new invoice, try it, and you'll figure sooner or later that they can actually think twice before asking stupid things or reconsider them. Worst case scenario, they still want but agree to pay. And bill frequently plus upfront payment. That's how you make clients respect your work. more money for you, less headaches

    TL;DR :dont say no, send an invoice, they'll reconsider
  • 0
    So long as he’s paying
  • 0
    @SSDD How did you reach this super old rant??? Imao
  • 1
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