303
votes
Accepted
Client wants to reduce hourly rate at the start of a new project
First, if you worked 53 hours, you need to bill for 53. The client is getting the value of 10 extra hours, and you're giving it away for nothing? Don't do that any more.
Second, "budget problems" ...
- 46k
252
votes
Accepted
At delivery time, client criticises the lack of some features that weren't written on my quote. How to react?
This is simple, get payment on what was contracted before doing any more. If they want EFGHIJKL then give them a quote on it. This is the professional way to do things.
If you do EFG before getting ...
- 224k
234
votes
Accepted
Angry email from customer insisting he didn't get a refund
First thing to do is double check and make certain that you issued the refund on your end. You say that his account says he has been refunded, but also go and find the actual bank transaction to be ...
- 30.1k
212
votes
I'm being blamed for not responding to an email from a client that was directly addressed to coworker
Ask your boss: "How do you want me to respond to e-mails when I am only CC'd?".
I do not think you did anything wrong, but you can reach a more effective solution to the real problem by putting all ...
- 5,697
192
votes
Accepted
What to do when during a meeting client's people start to (physically) fight with each other?
Unless you are a supervisor of someone involved (which you are not), your role is to provide physical security (which it is not), or someone is at risk of severe personal harm (discretionary):
DO NOT ...
- 60.6k
160
votes
How might I avoid significantly overestimating the time required to deliver a potential client's software project?
I estimated this would take one month,
At this point into your text I was fully prepared to tell you how ridiculously short that timeframe is to develop an app on your own that does this. But it ...
- 146k
152
votes
How do we improve the relationship with a client software team that performs poorly and is becoming less collaborative?
Please don't mislead yourself, you are nothing more than an external contractor to the company. You are NOT part of the company, so there is no legal or moral reason to grant you anything more than ...
- 1,409
142
votes
How to deal with a client who has little idea what his employees are doing?
If John asks you to go and deal with something for Alice, when you succeed you don't just walk away and assume Alice will tell John, especially if you're going to be invoicing for that item separately....
- 153k
139
votes
Should I report it to my manager that the client's security didn't help (eg show me around) like my instructions said they would?
There are two things to be mentioned here:
Definitely report this, but do not appear to be finger-pointing at someone. Report the incident as it happened without blaming anyone. You can say something ...
- 73.8k
124
votes
Is this fraud? And if so, to what extent am I responsible?
I am not a lawyer, but... the common understanding of "fraud" is obtaining money or other advantages dishonestly by deception. If the client has made it clear that pen testing is an ...
- 9,044
112
votes
Forced by client to remove security feature, now client blames me for data theft
You highlighted the security concerns. Everyone was aware of what would happen. You have a paper trail.
Also, most importantly, your boss will have your back. So, relax and print the documents right ...
- 2,095
109
votes
How to gain motivation to do "boring" work?
If work was supposed to be fun, it wouldn't be called work.
I'm sorry to tell you this, but welcome to the rest of your life.
You might find a work that you enjoy MOST of the time, but you very ...
- 5,433
99
votes
Is this fraud? And if so, to what extent am I responsible?
Have I done anything fraudulent so far?
A good lawyer could argue "no", but you have in fact uttered a fraudulent document, knowing it will be used in a fraudulent manner by the director. ...
- 19.5k
96
votes
Previous client wants details about a past project from my previous company
Send an email to the client and CC'd to your old employer, stating that you don't work for the old employer anymore, that according to the old company's guidelines you retained no relevant information,...
- 170k
85
votes
Client wants me to interact with their end-customer, but through client's company email
But I feel that this arrangement of interacting in a role of "their
developer" through their email (perhaps allowing their customer to
assume I am an employee) may be unprofessional and ...
- 387k
84
votes
Accepted
Dealing with delayed payments for my work
we do not have any contract or anything written down on paper
This is not just the context, it's part of the problem.
Don't get me wrong, not every favor you do a friend should be documented. But ...
- 19.8k
73
votes
Is this fraud? And if so, to what extent am I responsible?
The client came back and asked to see evidence of the pen testing that had taken place. The director simply responded with "this is a question for our technical manager, [my name], I'll set up a ...
- 20.1k
69
votes
Client wants to reduce hourly rate at the start of a new project
I can renegotiate but this situation does not give me much security in
the future. What would you do? How can I say in a professional way
that I do not accept the proposal?
I would refuse to ...
- 85k
68
votes
How do we improve the relationship with a client software team that performs poorly and is becoming less collaborative?
This is normal. The client doesn't have a good development team, so they contract some of the work to you. Their development team realise that you are a threat to their jobs so they have no incentive ...
- 10.6k
66
votes
Accepted
Client is ending the contract with my company, gave me an unusual offer to work for them directly
Given my company doesn't mind dual employment and if I do decide to take it up, would it still be legal for an H1B to work in this arrangement?
Most likely this is illegal unless the client does the ...
- 128k
61
votes
Accepted
New employer asked me to work contrary to our agreement. I am not sure what to do
It appears this company is telling the developers they recruit, as well as their clients, what they wanna hear. They promise remote work for the former, and on-premise presence to the latter, betting ...
- 666
57
votes
Accepted
Is this multi-company employment relationship a usual practice?
Yes, this is very standard. But realize that you won't have as many privileges with company B if you're working for a contracting company.
In some companies, contractors are seen as outsiders and ...
- 59.3k
55
votes
How might I avoid significantly overestimating the time required to deliver a potential client's software project?
1 month is about 150 hours, so you've estimated twice what another developer estimated. That is within the normal margin of error for software projects.
Unless you both independently develop this ...
- 3,465
52
votes
Accepted
How to discuss potentially dropping a Client I (and others) have a moral objection to
What's the best way of discussing this without singling out the team
member that raised the original objection?
Just communicate your own feelings and indicate that some team members have similar ...
- 387k
51
votes
Accepted
Ethical dilemma: I work at a consultancy. How to handle a client's request to moonlight directly for them, for equity? Weirder context inside
So, should I tell my boss, even though Bill will tell him in a few days anyway?
No.
...if I tell my boss, then I'm screwing Bill.
Yes, you would be.
If I don't tell my boss, I'm (in a very ...
- 59.4k
50
votes
How to gain motivation to do "boring" work?
There is the (in)famous motivational "fish video" (youtube and other sources) that shows fish market employees enjoying themselves on the job. The point being, if people can enjoy that physically ...
- 160k
46
votes
I'm being blamed for not responding to an email from a client that was directly addressed to coworker
Every time there's a misunderstanding between what you expect as an employee and what your employer expects, treat it as an opportunity to discuss how the workflow can be improved so that this ...
- 2,336
44
votes
At delivery time, client criticises the lack of some features that weren't written on my quote. How to react?
I have been a freelance developer for 30+ years. This is a situation I encountered on a number of occasions. However, most of the time it is not that hard to prevent or mitigate.
First, make sure ...
- 511
43
votes
Accepted
Is creating a professional Facebook account considered suspicious?
I'd say it's unlikely to be suspicious. Even assuming you have both of them publicly visible (the people I know who have two accounts, will hide their private one to force business contacts to the ...
- 35.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible