Help with quote

This is why I prefer to get paid by the hour... What I'd do is give a price for 2 or 3 design options followed by 2 or 3 rounds of amends, specify the numbers exactly and say to your client, if you don't get it right by the third design or the third amend you'll have to pay.
If things go back and forth too much it's the client's fault for not briefing properly or not thinking through the project so they are wasting your time so they've got to pay.

That's my mantra..........bill by the hour, bill by the hour. 😉

I give 'ballpark' quotes, and always refer clients to the terms and conditions on my website.
Don't be afraid to walk away if you feel you're going to get stiffed, or end up working for $5 an hour......it ain't worth it!

Whilst billing by the hour avoids this situation it's not unusual (particularly for 'direct' clients rather than when freelancing for larger agencies) for a quote to be required - especially with new clients when you've not yet established the trust between client and designer. I usually allow for one round of what I estimate to be reasonable alterations within my quote and then include a line stating that 'client alterations over and above the quoted amount will be charged at £XX per hour' (this has the added effect of focussing the client's mind and avoiding the 'could we just try . . .' type alts that clients can sometimes ask for if you promise unlimited amends).

If a design is rejected outright you have a choice which may come down to how confident you are in the quality of the first design and whether you feel that you did all you could to correctly interpret the original brief. If you feel you've fallen at all short on either of these it's sometimes better to take the hit and submit a new design without charging for alts. If you feel the client has moved the goalposts, remind them that the alts will cost however much and then invoice the additional hours. The route you choose may also be influenced by whether you foresee an ongoing relationship with the client with more work to come in future.

It depends on the brief – for something like the situation that this thread started with I would probably have tried to persuade the client to pay for two (or even three) initial designs to be submitted in order to give them a choice and to increase the chances of having one accepted. I'd be tempted to tell the client that I'm confident that the designs would not be rejected as a result of them not being up to standard and that, although a degree of alterations is covered in the quote, a full redesign may incur extra costs. If the brief was given verbally by the client I'd also be tempted to type it out and submit it back to the client, asking them to confirm that my interpretation of what they are after is correct.

I'm sure some others may disagree with this (and they may well be right) but it's worked for me so far and follows the policies of some of the agencies I worked for before going freelance.

Hi,

thank you all for your response, especially Opus, that was very thorough and very helpful. thank's.

I think I'll amend my terms and it will avoid this situation in the future.

Cheers.

Mike