Lost a $3,200 retainer from a client in Austin because of one stupid email typo

I was in a coffee shop in Nashville last Tuesday, firing off a contract renewal email to a client I'd worked with for 2 years. Typo in the dollar amount - wrote $3,200 instead of $3,300. They signed it, then when I asked about the difference, they said 'that's what you quoted, tough luck.' I spent 3 days going back and forth but had to eat the $100. Anyone else get burned by a small error like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionamurphy16d ago

Oh man, that stings big time. I had a similar thing happen back in 2019 with a client in Denver. I was rushing through a quote for a website project and accidentally left out a zero on the hourly rate, so instead of $85 an hour I wrote $8.50. They caught it right away but played dumb for a week while I tried to fix it. By the time I realized what I did, they had already sent out the signed contract and I had to honor it. I ended up doing about 40 hours of work for like $340 when it should have been over 3 grand. I still get a little sick thinking about it when I drive by that coffee shop where I typed it up. It's amazing how one little number slip can totally screw you over when you're trying to be professional.

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wade_anderson16d ago

Geez, that’s rough. I used to think that clients were always the good guys and you just had to take the hit when you messed up, but this changes my view completely. Someone knowingly letting you dig yourself deeper while you scramble to fix it is just cold blooded. It’s not like that coffee shop haunts you just because of the mistake, it’s because they saw the slip and decided to profit off it instead of being decent. You learned a hard lesson, but they showed their true colors too.

shanes6616d agoOG Member

Fionamurphy, the part that gets me is how they played dumb for a week. That wasn't an honest mistake on their end, they knew exactly what they were doing. It's one thing to make a typo yourself but another when someone else knowingly takes advantage of it. That's just dirty business.