Chose the cheap retainer over the big retainer, got burned in Tulsa

Signed a $500 monthly retainer with a new agency because they promised 20 blog posts. My usual guy wanted $1,200 for the same work, so I went cheap. They sent 3 posts in the first month, all 400 words of filler, then ghosted my emails for 2 weeks. I finally checked their portfolio and half the links were dead. Had to pay my usual guy double to rewrite everything before a client audit. Has anyone else taken the low bid and instantly regretted it?

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1 Comment

the_faith12d ago

Skipping the part where you vet them for red flags is the real lesson here. Low price is one thing, but dead links in a portfolio is a huge warning sign you could have spotted before signing anything. I get it though, when you're staring at a $700 difference each month it's hard not to talk yourself into it. Now you're stuck paying the cost of two agencies plus your own stress and time, which probably adds up to way more than that $1,200 would have been. Hopefully this is the kind of burned once, twice shy thing that sticks with you.