Dropped by a 'friend' after getting the go ahead

Cianos

Hey,
Just wanted to post this up to see what peoples thoughts were on it.

Someone I know for a good few years now asked me to do a website for them for a small business they were setting up. We exchanged quite a few facebook messages, I did some research for them, travelled to meet them in person etc. Probably about 5-10 hours of my time had already gone in to it. I was going to be charging her for the site, but at a significantly discounted rate as we were mates.

She gave it the go ahead anyway, and I was messaging her asking her a few more questions before I went and hired a designer to begin work on the site.

I didn't hear back from her for a couple of weeks after sending the last couple of messages, I just presumed she was too busy to give it the proper time.

Then yesterday I get a phone call from her fiancé who I also know, to say that she is very disappointed that she hasn't heard from me! That her uncle is a web designer and he has offered to do it instead. He said that she had sent me emails and FB messages and hadn't heard back.

This is just out and out lies - I rechecked the Facebook thread and I had sent the last two messages with no reply. I had invited her to share a Google document, which she then invited to another email address, so obviously she had accessed it.

What would others do in my position? A friend said I should send her a bill for the hours that I've put in already.

maxer68

Not worth the hassle and put it down to a learning experience.

If they're like that now, their business won't succeed.

krissovo

Send a invoice for your time and expenses, stress in the invoice the discounted rate and see how you get on.

Kinetic^

Facebook is a point of contact, not a format I'd be comfortable with discussing specifications of a large ongoing project.

Cianos

A worry is that since we're in the same circle of friends I don't want her telling people that I was poor at keeping in contact, which can harm my own business image.

Facebook is a point of contact, not a format I'd be comfortable with discussing specifications of a large ongoing project.

Yeah we didn't discuss the details of the project on facebook, just a few aspects, arranging to meet etc. I took it to email (and to the google doc) where I wrote up information from my research etc.

Kinetic^

If you're in the same circle of friends then you need to sit down with her and talk it out, regardless of whether you're moving forward with the project or not.

DubTony

Call me old fashioned, but I fail to see what's wrong with communicating by phone.

Duckjob

I learned the painful way to always look for a deposit payment at the start of a project - Gets them invested in the project and shows they're not messing around, and at the same time reduces your exposure to the risk of them changing their mind.

Axwell

If you were messaging via facebook is there not a thread of the previous conversations, since the last update facebook saves conversations you have with people in the messages section? If you had that then I would print it out and send it to her and the fiancé to show you had been contcting them and also mention the fact you had gone to a meeting with her.

To be honest though there isnt much you can do and I would chalk it down to a lesson learned on your own part aprt from sending the previous conversations to show you had been in contact and the lack of communication was on the other end. You shouldnt treat friends any differently than clients or they will just abuse the fact you are friends and not take it as a serious client/costumer relationship. You wouldnt communicate with a client via facebook so it was a bad start doing that. I would have emailed/phoned them the same as anyone else but gave the discount at the end.

Cianos

Axwell wrote: »

If you were messaging via facebook is there not a thread of the previous conversations, since the last update facebook saves conversations you have with people in the messages section? If you had that then I would print it out and send it to her and the fiancé to show you had been contcting them and also mention the fact you had gone to a meeting with her.

To be honest though there isnt much you can do and I would chalk it down to a lesson learned on your own part aprt from sending the previous conversations to show you had been in contact and the lack of communication was on the other end. You shouldnt treat friends any differently than clients or they will just abuse the fact you are friends and not take it as a serious client/costumer relationship. You wouldnt communicate with a client via facebook so it was a bad start doing that. I would have emailed/phoned them the same as anyone else but gave the discount at the end.

Yes, I have the full conversation thread in my Facebook account and can see quite clearly that I sent the last two messages in which I ask her a few questions.

Yeah, I do realise there isn't much I can do, my only real concern is making sure she doesn't tell people that I am bad at keeping in contact as this could really effect word of mouth business that I get.

I tried to take it off Facebook a couple of times by sending her my email address and asking her to mail me but the conversation remained via Facebook. I'll definitely be more firm about this in the future though.

PCPhoto

DubTony wrote: »

Call me old fashioned, but I fail to see what's wrong with communicating by phone.

from experience people forget phone conversations....but if its saved in text and both people can see the conversation .... it must have happend !!

(seen many people in court under oath swear they never had such a conversation ...and hey presto ... printouts presented...and memory floods back)

SQ2

Did you try taking a screen grab of the conversation? (shift & print Screen) ctrl & v to paste into an email