Vent: client asked me to "just start" before the contract was signed, so I walked | Client Red Flags - Freelance Forum - The Community for Independent Professionals
Vent: client asked me to "just start" before the contract was signed, so I walked
I drove 45 minutes to a client's office near Riverside last Tuesday for what I thought was a final planning meeting on a $6,400 website project. Halfway through, the owner said we were behind and asked me to start building that afternoon, even though his partner had not signed the contract or paid the deposit. I told him I do not start work without a signed deal and the 30 percent deposit, and he laughed and said "everyone else just jumps in." I packed up my laptop and left, and sure enough, the deposit never came and he stopped answering emails within two weeks. The weird part is the red flag showed up earlier when he took four days to answer a simple scope question and blamed his inbox. Has anyone else had a client push to skip the paperwork and then vanish when you held the line?