<p>I guess it just depends on how important client retention is to you. If you are charging a LOT, somebody is inevitably going to come in cheaper than you. Price gouging is such a sleazy business practice.</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 23, 2012 9:27 AM, "Fred Jones" <<a href="mailto:fredthejonester@gmail.com">fredthejonester@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
OK the subject is exaggerated--that was just to get your attention. :)<br>
<br>
I recently spoke with a client who told me his woes about how he had<br>
to wrestle a site away from unscrupulous site builders who built and<br>
hosted it and charged exorbitant fees for any change to their<br>
(hard-coded HTML) site. He was looking for assistance with his new<br>
rebuild in Drupal. According to what he claims, I think his<br>
organization was gouged previously.<br>
<br>
Now I have a client myself who has no understanding whatsoever about<br>
what I do. When they ask for a change (and I even ran a training<br>
session with them (twice) to tell them how to do little things<br>
themselves, but anyway they like to ask me) they ask how much time it<br>
will take and what's the price. Usually I say it looks like a half<br>
hour job and so I will charge you for a half hour. I don't want to<br>
discuss rates here, but let's just say my rate is 100 Yen per hour. So<br>
I charge them 50 Yen.<br>
<br>
But I realize now that if I would say two or even four hours, I am<br>
fairly certain they wouldn't flinch, and even if they did, I could<br>
whip out a few big words and explain why it's complicated and they<br>
would accept that. They would then pay me four hours for a half hour<br>
of work. So what I could do, to be honest, is to say, "This will cost<br>
400 Yen" and not mention that it's a half hour job. They don't really<br>
care about the time--just the price.<br>
<br>
I'm sure others have such clients.<br>
<br>
I'm wondering what others think about this. On the one hand, it may be<br>
unscrupulous, because no one (not even Lullabot) takes 800 Yen per<br>
hour. On the other hand, however, they are willing to pay 400 Yen for<br>
this job and the business majors would say "don't leave money on the<br>
table." Wouldn't' they?<br>
<br>
Fred<br>
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</blockquote></div>