[BenSky]

How many times has a client come to you and asked for a quote on a big ecommerce site, you quote them realistically, and fairly most probably a few grand.. Very resonable. The client is then in shock, "oh i didn't expect it to be that much".. ok then you think thats expensive, get a quote off an agency.
This has happened to me four times in the past 2 weeks, what is it with people thinking that it costs £10 to build a massive website?

[RaelRode]

People don't want to pay for the services they ask for. You can't walk into McDonalds and pay 10p for a Large Bic Mac meal with a chocolate muffin aswell. People think its a rip-off when prices go up and up but they have no idea whats involved in the making of the site.

[pedge]

I remember one of my clients thought it was a matter of pushing some buttons to create his artwork (print) so one day when he was in, I said I'd make the changes while he was with me. By the time he was ready to leave he was saying "I didn't think it would take that long, I thought it'd be done in 5 minutes - now I know why you charge for artwork and don't include it in the quoted print price".

Now he knows (and appreciates) what goes into his work so there's no longer any debate in the artwork pricing...

[skyrocket]

Originally Posted by pedge

Now he knows (and appreciates) what goes into his work so there's no longer any debate in the artwork pricing...

as a pink floyd nut you'll know that we don't need no education but one thing's for sure - our clients do. being fair to them the clients have probably never ventured into the realms of the interweb and it's probably all a load of geek jargon & nonsense to them. i often end up relating things to the 'real' world for them as they can grasp what is involved to landscape a garden or paint the whole of their house inside & out.

[John Good]

In switzerland, many people work with hour rates and provide to the client a bill with the time they spent on every aspect of the project :

some serious agencies even use time tracking software, and show the timesheets to the client.

this becomes really interesting when you go on corrections. you know, the client changes his mind on what he gave you a t first, but won't pay for the change as it's quite nothing.

With that system the client knows where his money goes and knows what he has paid for.

I use myTime on Macintosh, it's quite good.
I don't give the resut time sheet to the client, but it helps me to see that I often spend twice the time I think.

[pedge]

Originally Posted by John Good

I use myTime on Macintosh, it's quite good.
I don't give the resut time sheet to the client, but it helps me to see that I often spend twice the time I think.

I agree - I never show my timesheet as the client can backward plan it and work out your hourly rate. Some of my clients are charged on different scales, but you could guarantee that whatever rate they're on, they'll say its too high (even if it were 10p)...