I'm feeling a little ripped off - lesson learnt from doing business with friends.

IMO you are not overreacting , business is business. Unless your "breaking the work in 2 parts" caused any additional effort on her part, as you say it did not, I feel the original agreement should stand.

First of all, if she really was a friend of yours..she wouldn't have done this. Second of all, unless breaking into parts, caused her to double her efforts.. you shouldn't pay a dime more than you agreed!
If she doesn't agree ask for a refund and try your project with somebody else.

I don't know about her final numbers but you DO owe her more. By your words above you secured her time for four days and then afterward changed it to two and then two at a later date. Thats not very respectful of your arrangement and her putting aside the time for you for four days. Can she rearrange and recoup the two days you cause her unemployment? Don't know - don;t know the nature of the job.

Whats more the way you worded that makes it sound like "you decided" without consulting or conversation. Doesn't sound very old friendly.

Again you changed her time schedule. I don't know the nature of the job but some people have things to do and will move other things they had to do to secure the time.

There are also many jobs that are easier and flow better and faster done together than starting and stopping. At any rate. You really should have decided to split it before not after making a different arrangement. Again I don't know about how she arrived at total pay for two days but again I don;t know neither have you indicated what the job was and that matters. If you made her waste two days (because she gave up other work for those days) then you very well might be responsible to pay it.

Dude the worst idea ever to have friends as business partner unless you feel comfortable enough to put everything in black and white with a lawyer. I was ripped off by my friend as well, at the time I was 19 and making some good money but didn't have enough experience and guts to write everything down so it was all gone. You got that too and that sucks but you are not doing anything wrong here, go ahead with it and make sure you can protect yourself and your assets.

The OP was NOT "ripped off" - read what he said. Except for Mike, did anyone thoroughly read the thread?

They had an agreement on time and price....HE changed the timing. He says "same amount of time" but it isn't. If she kept 4 consecutive days clear to work for him and he splits the days without her prior agreement - he's using MORE of her days.

It's too late for her to schedule something else for the last 2 days - and he didn't consider she might have other work or plans for later days in the week. If he didn't stick to the agreement - why should she? I realize it's touchy because it's a friend - but business is business.

If a client changed an agree upon time frame without getting my prior approval - I'd charge him double.

kay

I do not even understand why we are even talking about this crap....This is a MARKETING forum. Handle your employee/employer, Contractor/Subcontractor problems elsewhere

al

That's a tough one.

You did change the job, so you do need to probably pay for two jobs essentially.

It's a bit crap that they didn't revise the quote so you were aware of what you need to pay.

I'd chalk it up to experience and just ask them to be more clear next time so you don't get a surprise.

It depends how much notice you gave them too.

Always two sides to a story so I would say that if you discuss it you'll come to an agreeable outcome. Not worth losing a friendship over it, but at the same time it needs to be agreed upon so I would say both of you are in the wrong in this case.

Thanks everyone for your opinions - it really is good to see other perspectives.

To be fair, I gave a lot of notice about the change from 4 days straight to 2 days - like a few weeks, so this shouldn't really penalise me.

In any case, I resign to the fact that we are both guilty of probably not having a firm agreement in place. I should have asked for a revised quote (which I didn't) and she didn't outline that there would be any change in price. It's a shame and while I will just end up paying what she ends up charging me I do feel like I am being taken advantage of a little.

I would have honoured the original agreement as the work is still being done, however I respect everyone is different and perhaps she doesn't have the pipeline of work I do.

I can't deny it has left a bad taste in my mouth and I will probably be less inclined to help her out in future. My aim was to give her some work while she was starting out, but now I will just engage the people I usually get to do this work as they have a more efficient process and are clearer with their expectations.

I can chalk this one up to a lesson learnt, just a shame as I am basically paying double now for the same job which sucks.

Hi there
I completely understand your points, working with family or friends is the worse because probably your friendship with her wont be the same after this. I prefer to work with strangers and build trust on time that working with friends. You are not overacting, you are absolutely right. I have bad experience with this too in the past but I learned my lesson now.
Good Luck
Andres

working with friends is always a headache... I have people I have worked with that have become friends and that works well because they know the score... but friends that then become people you work with does not work ever!!!

sorry but..


..what kind of friend is that?


live and learn, pay her and cut her off from your business and ur life.


i would at least

-Ike Paz

That's a pretty crappy situation.

Your friend won't be in business too long if they change the fees and doubles them for every project, things change that's inevitable but if you are open to a bit of change it always works out in the end.

Not cool man.

Business is business. Stick to what was originally agreed to. It shouldn't matter how the days are planned out. If you agreed to pay a certain amount for 4 days then that is what should happens regardless of how you decide to separate the days.

I never mix personal friends with business. Had bad experiences in past

- Robert Andrew

First of all, I feel it's her job to tell you the price would change in the new situation. You told her the new situation, she agreed and started the work, without mentioning the price would increase.

But I don't do business with friends.

Reading the first post it sounded as if you changed terms at the last mintue but seems that was not the case.

When you gave the notice - that is when she should have mentioned changing the price. Problem is, sounds like she did a good job and you are happy with the results.

I have done business with friends 3-4 times over the years and though it got rocky a few times, it worked pretty well. A friend may have more concern about the quality of work she does for you and that's a bonus.

If you want her to do more work - have a candid conversation about price, agreements and providing notice of changes. If she has a problem with the conversation - hire someone else. If she is new to freelancing, it's good to learn from you that unexpected price hikes won't be tolerated well by clients.

Thats how I read it and think thats how it went down based on his own words

He made the arrangement, she secured her time to do it, the arrangement was cemented in a deposit and then HE DECIDED )whether weeks later or before doesn't matter)to change the arrangement. I don't trust the OPs point of view. He seems to change the story to suit himself and get more pity posts to his perspective (which obviously what this thread is about). There was that and then he changed the reason he hired her from - he didn't have the time and it was too mundane to do himself to he was just trying to help her out as the main reason.

His description of the work gives me the impression he wasn't paying good money for the work either. Working for friends is as problematic as hiring a friend. Seems to be a pretty good chance that she has something to complain about doing business with friends too.

the problem with coming on a forum and ratting on your "old friend" is that you knew coming in you were only going to give your point of view with zero consideration of the other party being able to balance it out with their own side of the story. Then when you go back to your "friend" you'll be all goosed up that you are entirely in the right because you got backed by people who only heard and bought your side of the story.

If one of My old friends charged me like that I have the discussion with them and iron it out not rattle on about it on a forum with strangers. Even if it were not fair ( it is because he made the arrangement to secure 4 straight days) I'd be more likely to be concerned that maybe they were having a tough time.

Bu then the definition of friends these days has fallen on hard times.

OP, not to be blunt... but tell your friend to eat a plate of poop (lol).

I hate people who practice like this. If you're going to be a true professional, this isn't the kind of stuff you should be doing.

Maybe pay her, so that she doesn't bad mouth you and such, but leave a lasting impression on her. Make her work her fingers to the bone for that money.

Your task was enough complicated. When she started working she must be realized the pay isn't worth it. So this happened. No harm to pay extra especially she's your friend. Treat your freelancers as real employees, such problems will vanish.

It can go both ways...

Sounds you screwed up for making changes to the arrangement, but at the same time. That's a dick move from a supposed "friend" to charge 50% on top of the agreed price.

Lesson learned. Pay the extra cost, and drop the "friend".

This reminds me of a time when I had a friend renovate for us, and once the project was almost complete he wanted another $2000 more then we agreed on. Being friends we paid him and let it go, although I feel your pain its annoying for someone to change agreed upon prices at the last moment.

Doing business with relatives and or friends can always turn prickly. Your intentions were well though out as you explained the project needed done as well as the time needed for completion. What I will say on your part where you failed is your lack of communication on what you were willing to pay for parts 1 & 2, you left the door open for additional charges to be tacked on simply because of dividing the project into parts. I understand you mentioned initially 4 days would be the time commitment needed but you have to keep in mind while your friend was working on not 1 part but 2 their still needs to be some for of compensation simply because of the nature of the work and the level of commitment needed for completion.

What does that have to do with Internet marketing?