RE: FN-FORUM: Forum Digest, Clients from Hell

date posted 30th January 2004 14:50

It's not always just the unreasonable or plain old obnoxious clients that
can cause problems.

We have a regular client who can be quite skilful in manipulating me into
making statements regarding timescales and costings that I am not really in
a position to commit to. He reminds me of a lawyer in many ways, leading the
conversation down seemingly innocent paths before tying me up in my own
words.

Before I know it I have agreed to include a complex and unspecified feature
free of charge!

I'm learning fast though. I used to be keen to show off my knowledge and
skills, now I try and keep my comments on technical issues very non specific
where he is concerned!

And then of course there is the ongoing problem of quoting in terms of man
hours. If you Quote 5 man days and through team work, deliver in 3 days, you
must have over charged. But if you quote 2 days and can't deliver the
project by the end of the week due to other commitments, your standards of
customer service are called into question.

And don't get me started on system testing!

Ron

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED] [EMAIL REMOVED] Behalf Of carla
boulton
Sent: 30 January 2004 15:07
To: FN-FORUM / [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: Re: FN-FORUM: Forum Digest, Clients from Hell