Is it time to drop this client?

A guy was sitting behind me in a café a while back. He was sitting behind me, someone needed a pen, I gave it to them, and somehow he struck up conversation with me. Started asking me about what I did, I mentioned WordPress dev and website design, and said he has something I might be able to help with.

2 hours later, after sitting next to me uncomfortably close, breaching personal space, taking my full name + number + website, etc. he told me about a Zoom meeting that week with another consultant/developer he had, I’d be welcome to join to learn more. I obliged. And more info, it was just weird as in saying this shit like “it was meant to be” and he could just “feel my energy” and knew we would work good together. Honestly, felt like one of those energy vampire narcissistic types.

Of course, I sat through the 2 hour meeting later that week, getting paid nothing while the other developer (who was organizing/running it), was charging him $2k.

I ended up blowing off this client for about a month until he started reaching back out multiple times. His ideas are too convoluted, he can’t focus on what needs to be done, etc. But on this second go, we agreed on a one page landing page. I work on a few sections, we hop on a Zoom call, we end up spending 1 hour 30 minutes on editing the copy on one section…

Thanksgiving Eve he’s trying to launch, I just gave up because there honestly wasn’t enough time, hit me at 8pm with saying he needs the blog setup, WooCommerce, etc.

I’m about 20 hours deep total, there’s no contract, no payment (although tracked time, probably 8 hours @ $60/hour billable). This whole thing was just different because I met him in a cafe as opposed to my usual methods and onboarding.

I ignored him Thanksgiving weekend, he texts me back saying he “thought he’d let me enjoy Thanksgiving” before taking the next steps.

I’m just done and ready to cut my losses. I’m sure I could tell him we need to setup a contract and get paid so far, but I don’t think I even want to. All the work so far is done on my servers. AITA if I ghost him?

2 Comments
  1. If he agrees to pay you, give him what you made, and be done with him. It will only get worse with such client.

    I have a simple rule when it comes to small projects (up to two days of work) – I require full payment in advance. If the client doesn’t agree, fine, one job lost. For anything longer than two days, I require contract, and part of the payment upfront, the rest according to schedule we agree on in the contract. I don’t deliver any code until final payment is made.

    With regular clients, I don’t have to be so strict, if I continue to work with someone for years, trust is built.

    I am working as WP freelancer for 15 years now, and about 12 years ago I was cheated by the client, and since that I have these few simple rules,and I never had any issues with any clients, and I maybe lost 2 jobs because potential clients didn’t agree to my terms.

    You can either set stricter rules for working with clients, or work through some job markets, like Codeable, and relyon their protection. Better to loose some jobs, than loose any sleep and stress out because some people are just dicks.

  2. I wouldn’t ghost him; just too unprofessional. Rather, explain to him (could be in an email) that the project has expanded beyond what you understood the initial scope to be, and you don’t have enough time to devote to it. Tell him you are not charging for the 20 hours you have spent on the project, and give him a referral to another developer who might be a better fit (or at least a lead to go about finding another dev).

 

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