Heard a client say 'just ghost them for 2 weeks, they'll forget' and it hit me hard

I was grabbing coffee at a shared workspace in Austin last Tuesday and overheard a guy bragging to his friend about how he purposely ignores freelancers for 14 days after they deliver work. He said it 'knocks the urgency out of their follow-ups' and then he negotiates lower rates for being 'patient.' Has anyone else caught wind of clients using delay as a tactic to squeeze you on price?

3 comments

3 Comments

kelly.margaret11d ago

My cousin runs a small graphic design studio in Portland and she told me about a client who actually admitted to her that they use a "three strike rule" against freelancers. If you follow up twice and they ignore you, the third time they answer with a lower price offer because they figure you're desperate enough to take it. She started tracking response times as a red flag system now, like if a client takes over 72 hours to reply after she delivers work, she charges a 15% rush fee on the next invoice to preempt that behavior. It's a messed up game but some people are really treating it like a sport. The saddest part is that these tactics probably work on newer freelancers who don't have the leverage yet to walk away from a client.

colegarcia12d ago

Heard this exact story from a buddy who does web design. He had a client who kept pushing back payment deadlines every time he asked about it. After two months his friend finally said he needed the money and the client flat out told him he was waiting him out to see if he'd drop his rate. The project was already done and delivered too. Some people just treat freelancing like a negotiation game instead of a normal business transaction.

margaret55112d ago

Read an article in The Guardian a few months back about this "strategic ghosting" trend in corporate negotiations. Apparently there's whole LinkedIn threads where people brag about using silence as a bargaining chip, treating it like some kind of power move instead of just paying for work done. It's wild that folks think holding money hostage is a clever business strategy rather than just being a bad client. Makes you wonder how many people are following this advice without realizing it's just burning bridges.