Upon being referred to Challenge Mortgage as company needing help, we were asked to perform an analysis of their "IT needs". To paraphrase the customer "I need to know what I got, and what needs to be done to get it working. I also need to know what to do when I add new machines"
Upon arriving at the customer's site, I was very nice and described the system as needing some tweaking, procedures, and documentation to get them up to speed. I spent about 90 minutes talking to the customer (the trip was an hour round-trip), understanding his needs and wants.
On leaving, I explained to the customer that I would send him a formal write-up of what he had, what it needed, and how he could grow it. I would also recommend dependable vendors who could perform the work and support it in the future. (The network had been badly mangled by horribly amateur work)
The customer was sent a complete five-page needs-analysis. I accompanied this with an invoice for $200 (at four hours, this is less than half my standard rate — a favor for a customer who obviously could not afford to pay full rate)
Upon the invoice passing due date, someone from our office called to talk to the customer about the past due bill. He flatly refused to acknowledge the validity of the invoice (despite the fact he happily called a recommended vendor and had them perform the exact work outlined).in fact he became quite verbally abusive both to them and to me, calling the work "bullshit", etc.
I warn anybody doing work with this company to sign a contract UP-FRONT agreeing to an hourly rate and to pay for time spent.
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