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Resubmit fee policy after an invoice dispute, refund the $150 retainer or hold firm?
Had a mess last month with a small web maintenance contract in Cleveland. Client's site crashed and they blamed my fix from 3 months prior. I disagreed but offered a discounted redo anyway. They refused to pay the second invoice until I also waived the resubmit fee in my agreement, which was $75. I said no, they got nasty, I ate the loss on the second invoice to avoid a review bomb. Now I'm torn: is my resubmit fee clause actually fair when the customer is upset, or should I just build that cost into the initial quote and drop the fee entirely? I like the protection, but it turned a $300 job into a $150 headache. Anyone else have a similar clause that backfired, or do you just eat mistakes and move on?
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taylor.brooke5d ago
So a web guy in Cleveland lost a client over $75 and now the internet has to weigh in? This whole thing is small potatoes. You already ate the second invoice, which was the real money, so the fee is kind of moot at this point. A resubmit fee is normal in this line of work, it covers your time when a client keeps changing their mind, and that's fair. The problem wasn't the clause, it was a client who blamed you for a crash three months later and then held your pay hostage. That's not a fee problem, that's a bad client problem. Building the cost into the quote just means you charge everyone more for the few who resubmit, which feels worse to me. Keep the fee, dump the client, and move on.
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