Did the client forget the original intentions, or were the original intentions just not communicated properly?

Language is an imprecise thing, and sometimes we don't convey our exact meaning properly. Take this recent exchange that was recorded in Clients from Hell.

Client: “I need a new website, the one I have is crap. I paid some cheap designer to do it for $200.”

When the bidder went to price his/her services for this client, the bidder obviously used this valuable pricing intelligence to determine (1) if it was worthwhile to bid on this project, and (2) how much to bid. Perhaps the bidder had standard rates, or perhaps not. The bidder determined that it was worthwhile to bid his/her services to this client and submitted a $1,200 bid.

This was not the winning bid. Do you think the winning bid was $1,000? $750? Go to Clients from Hell to find out the winning bid price.

Did the client forget what he/she said in the first place? I don't think so. Personally, I think that the client thought that $200 would get a cheap and worthless website, but that you only had to spend a little more to get a high-quality website.

Oh well...it could have been worse. Some of the stories on the Clients From Hell website are about clients who actually give the contracts to someone, and then refuse to pay. At least this bidder only lost the estimation costs - a normal part of doing business.