Going Solo (from the corporate beast) #5 – A Valuable Lesson Learned

Posted on August 12, 2010 by 8bitjeff

I knew it was going to happen some time, but I didn’t think it would be so soon. I don’t want to give out too many details, but I just want to say that getting taken by a  client is no fun. I guess everyone must go through this, and I am sure most clients have been taken by developers at one time or another so I don’t claim this to be a unique problem that only happened to me. In fact, because I always put 100% into every job no matter the size (or now that I understand it better, the likelihood I will be paid), I might have done this to myself.

I got this project through a 3rd party and I went for it because I was not working on any other paying gigs at the time. There was no set deadline, no contract, and no formal documentation of any kind…you see, I’m THAT kind of idiot. I simply trusted that once I completed the described work I would be paid the quoted amount. Also, since it was through a 3rd party and the first party was also a third party, I am sure I if I ever do get paid it will be from Kevin Bacon. Anyway, to make a long story short, I was told last Thursday at 4:00 PM that I needed a decent alpha by the next morning. I pulled an “all-nighter” to deliver it, and then was told to get a beta by Monday morning. I was planning to work over the weekend when a relative was put in intensive care and I needed to take my mom there to visit. So, we flew to our destination and I camped out in the hospital, working on the project for two days straight. I was able to deliver a really nice beta by Sunday night, but then I found out I had been had. It turns out that the client decided to go with someone else before he even saw my finished product.

Anyway, the third party, who got me the gig, is really embarrassed and we are going to bill for the work I completed, but honestly, I know it was simply a lost 40+ hours that I will not get back. I will chalk it up to experience and maybe finish the project as an engine for sale.

So, I learned that it is really easy to get excited about a project, no matter the size, and also learned to never start something without a contract in place. I know, I know, that last one makes me look really really stupid, and I have now been educated on the full consequences of this stupidity.

(update: This is Steve.  I embedded an “oldie–but-a-goodie” youtube video about vendors vs. clients… sorry for the the trouble Jeff)

(Update2: Nice find, that was brilliant, Steve. Simply brilliant)

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  • bas_alicante

    Sounds to me like a case of too many people in between you and the client. More than a case of “being screwed over by the client”.

    Each party added to the chain breaks up communications exponentially. Try to work directly with the client, or if you have to deal with a third party, make sure it's someone who really is involved in the project and not just looking for a percentage.

    But I guess you just figured that out by yourself :-)

    Sorry to hear about your relative. Take care, mate

  • http://www.8bitrocket.com 8bitjeff

    Hey bas! Thanks for the advice and the kind words. I take everything as a learning experience now-a-days. You you don't live and take some chances you can't learn the hard lessons I guess.

  • http://twitter.com/GamingYourWay Squize / nGFX

    That's a sickener mate, but as you've said, it's part and parcel of the job now. At least you've got it out of the way early.
    Not having a contract isn't really a huge red flag, I've done so many gigs without one. What sets off warning signals for me is when there's no timescale attached to it. In real life things are never done when they're ready, there's always someone with a stop watch hovering over you.

    Tick that one off the list of ways to be screwed over as a freelancer, it could have been so much worse mate.
    What doesn't kill you and all that :)

  • http://www.directorygold.com egdcltd

    Even having contracts doesn't always guarantee you won't get screwed over, it just tends to mean you have better legal recourse afterwards. Assuming you can actually afford to go down that route.

    I can't think of any way of totally avoiding this type of situation (that's experience from business in general, rather than specific to programming). It's annoying (well, okay, much worse than that), but sometimes you've just got to eat the loss. Or dump it into the hands of debt collectors in the hope that you might get something after all.

    Have you looked at the various 'lancer sites? It can be difficult competing on them, especially when new to them, but at least you have some degree of protection.

  • Glowing Eye Games

    The contract doesn't mean much (especially for relatively small projects where lawyer time is more costly than the project itself).

    However, a relatively complete set of requirements is a must and its important to find out more about the people you are working with (whether you hire someone or whether you are hired by someone).

    As someone who hires folk, some of my contractors ask for partial payment up front before starting, which is an option if you don't know the person you are working with. Obviously has someone who is hiring, in that case I try to find out more about their track record. If that's not possible then I have to decide whether to have a punt or not. This has burned me once, but the other 90% have worked out very well.

    Sometimes you just get landed with a horrible work partner, and unfortunately that's part of life too.

  • Badger

    I think the world has gone a little nuts now that the digital age has reached such high penetration. People expect freebies or worse large amounts of work to be done for nothing. When freelancing on a recent set of engineering drawings I spent around 20 hours and only got paid about $8/hr (and I'm one of the fastest CAD guys I know). I sympathise and know that feeling all too well :)

  • 8bitrocket

    Honestly the worst “tech” pay is for writing a technical book. Literally, $.25-$.50 (cents) an hour…if that. Not to mention the support time and effort afterwards.

  • http://www.8bitrocket.com 8bitjeff

    It seems that the time-line and requirements were a bigger problem than the contract. That's really good to know as I was starting to get a little anxious about requiring a contract before I start. In any case, thanks for the help guys.

  • paul

    Sorry to hear that but i think our conclusion is wrong :-)

    Ive never been ripped off without having a contract, but i have lost over £20K under contract, with no recourse … by that logic i should only work without a contract :-)

    The truth is it's all about the client, do the research, its actually pretty easy to find out who has a good or bad reputation, and of course as mentioned below, make sure your have a one to one relationship with the client or agent (in worst case)

    Sorry to hear though ..

  • Badger

    This is ridiculous.. I hope that more royalties come in. I think one issue with tech pay is clients most often don't know how long it takes. Considering all of the selfless and very well written material you've contributed to the Flash gaming world I think that you have been grossly undervalued.

  • frosty

    this is for you: http://clientsfromhell.net/

  • AcetheSuperVillain

    That's precisely the kind of thing that has put me into this “do everything myself” attitude. No piece of artwork I've ever made for anyone else has ever seen the light of day. Nothing gets done unless I do it myself. My faith in humanity is shot. That's why I'm bent on enslaving it.

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