Does The Client Have A Right To Be Angry?

I am redesigning, and developing a website for a construction company. The client told me to copy and paste the text from his previous site into the design. When I uploaded the site, the client was angry about the misspellings, and grammar errors in the copy (which he wrote). He wants me to fix it, and wants a discount for his "trouble". Is he right at all?

Find a different client.

I agree with .Nick, find a new client. In the mean time say very clearly that you did what you were told and if he wants them fixed it will be extra.

you can fix it - you really should, since you should take pride in your work and want to showcase it to potential future clients and don't want them seeing mistakes and assuming you're at fault for them, but don't discount him.

tell him you'll fix it - unless it means completely re-writing the copy.

next time, before you begin, be clear with your client what you're responsible for: if the client is providing content, you're only responsible for implementing as supplied; of if you're providing content creation services, then proofreading/QA is included.

At first hand, I would be clear on my responsibilities as a designer/developer. I would tell the client that I will not be held responsible for content (if provided by the client ofcourse). Afterwards, I would check the content before posting it on the new site and remind the client about my responsibilities mention whether or not I've found any errors. Unless the content requires a minor correction, I would not fix it automatically. Should the client require me to do so, I will charge accordingly. However, due to the fact you have not made it clear in the beginning, I do not see why you should not fix it anyways. You will be showing other clients this site afterall. An angry client is bad for business. There are better ways to settle such a situation without ending it in a useless dispute.

Originally Posted by derek lapp you can fix it - you really should, since you should take pride in your work and want to showcase it to potential future clients and don't want them seeing mistakes and assuming you're at fault for them, but don't discount him. tell him you'll fix it - unless it means completely re-writing the copy. next time, before you begin, be clear with your client what you're responsible for: if the client is providing content, you're only responsible for implementing as supplied; of if you're providing content creation services, then proofreading/QA is included.

I agree with you. I would just chalk it up as something to look out for next time. There is no use in getting into an argument with a client and then him refusing to pay you for who knows how long. It is sometimes better just to avoid it, especially with a jackass like this.

i'm bored, so i'm chiming back in on this...

what dean said is right, knowing when to pick battles is a major like skill. it's incredibly crucial when trying to build a business. it's less of an issue once you're established, but when you're starting everything is a tight rope walk.

think of anytime you've had a bad experience somewhere; bad movie, bad restaurant, bad event, etc, in the future you'll avoid it, and possibly affiliated things because of your bad experience - and you'll tell people about it. think of it from this guy's perspective, he's (unknowingly) uneducated (for lack of a better word) and thinks proof reading / copy editing is just included - because if something's obviously wrong, why wouldn't you fix it? if you put your foot down and turn it into a big deal, it could really put him off, and it could harm potential growth. business can die just as fast as it can grow via word of mouth, so you have to mindful of how it could bit you in the ass next time.

edit

also, in my experience, always be prepared for something stupid like this. if your client never receives copy from his clients, he probably sees this as nothing big, i'ver had that experience personally with a good friend/client of mine. i took his old material, put it into a new design and he caught some mistakes and said "you should fix that" - i've learned to budget extra time for little crap like this, so it was no big deal for me, i didn't need to cause a fuss and put up a barrier between us.

Never-mind on closing the thread

why would anyone close it? no one's directing strict instructions at you, but a healthy conversation's evolved. look at your last line

I played a little bit dirty... Not the best business practice though

multiple things come to mind immediately when reading that, which actually justifies not only discussion on this topic in general (handling/educating clients), but now your very situation because this whole thing can unravel quite easily.

on the first part...

• billing for your time isn't playing dirty, it's business. you sunk time into the project, you billed for the time.
• billing for your time isn't dirty if you communicate with your clients. all time can be justified when a project is scoped correctly, and the scope is addressed through any communication with a client. the business owners have a lot more power than they think they do. when this was first brought up, you should have immediately stopped working on the job, addressed that proofing was not within the scope of the project, and had a discussion with your client bout how to proceed: if it's easy, tell them and just do it, point is you're bringing attention to the fact; if it's work, tell them there will be an additional charge... if they agree, keep going, if not stop. if they threaten not to pay, laugh. go ahead and not pay, the deadline will come and go and all you've really lost is some time, they've now lost the ability to chase down business leads effectively. business make money, they can afford this charge. additionally, you should be tracking time so you can back up that you didn't just make it up. see who caves first.

on the second point

• you just admitted you partook in shady business practices.... remember what i said about reputations?
• billing for your time isn't dirty, or shady or w/e, but not being up front about what you're billing for is.
• it seems like common sense that in developing a website some time would be budgeted to quality assurance. when quoting, you should be anticipating putting time into checking over your work before you hand it off. even if you broke out some tasks on your invoice (design 35%, dev 60%, QA 5%) few would really contest it. however, in your specific case a task was specifically called out, and at this point it becomes black or white - you will either consider this task as part of the original scope, or an addition. if you're quoting fixed costs, this should be anticipated, like i said. if you're going hourly, just include it on the invoice.

what i have a big problem with is your approach. you're billing for it, but not recording it. now, there's at least one thing for sure on this project isn't legit... where is the line on what is and isn't? you probably got away with this one because it's small, but where does it stop? (see what i mean about suspecting now?) next job, will there be multiple bogus charges? you've justified it once now. what if they're bigger and someone digs into it and it's exposed? then what do you do?

why on earth would you close this topic? i'm not trying to embarrass you, this is what learning is. what's going to happen next time? will you just do it again and hope no one notices, or will you address things when they happen? what if this thread was around before you started this job, so when this situation happened you had an idea of how to handle it?

also, less of a concern (legally, or w/e) but what are you thinking admitting to this on a public forum? you can find almost anything with a google search. say you resolved it and leave it at that. go private if you want to indulge details. it says to me the same thing the padding does: you're ok disregarding rules. you broke 1, so why not another? why not break an NDA? shit can come back to haunt you when you'e not careful.

I meant he said verbally that he wanted a discount but he signed off on the final invoice which was maybe 2 weeks after he demanded the discount. I consider this a little "dirty" because I didn't include the discount on the entire project without him asking for it when he paid (which can also be assumed that he was satisfied). I didn't bill him at all for the grammar correction, as I don't charge per hour.