Charged a client $50 to fix a typo that took me 2 hours to find

I had a client who wanted me to change ONE word in their website footer from 'about' to 'about us'. Simple, right? Turns out the theme they picked had that word hardcoded in like 14 different PHP files and I had to dig through every single one. Then I realized the changes broke the mobile menu because of some caching plugin. After 2 hours of swearing I finally just used a find-and-replace plugin and it worked in 10 seconds. Felt like a total idiot but also kinda proud I didn't just give up. Has anyone else spent way too long on a tiny edit that should have taken 5 minutes?

3 comments

3 Comments

martinez.paul5d ago

lol that "am I even qualified to turn on a computer" line hits too close to home. I swear every time I have one of those days I start questioning life choices like maybe I should've just become a plumber or something. But the worst part is when you finally find the fix and it's so stupid simple you want to punch yourself in the face. Like you spent 2 hours rebuilding a wheel and the answer was literally a checkbox or a plugin you already had installed. It makes you wonder how many hours of our lives we've collectively wasted on tiny bullshit like this lmao.

alex8205d ago

Man that sounds brutal. I've definitely been there where what should be a 5 minute fix turns into an hour of me staring at code wondering if I'm even qualified to turn on a computer.

parker_hall55d ago

Man that's the worst when you finally find the easy fix after fighting it for hours.