unethical?

RDM said:
Because rather than say "I don't want to do the work" you quote high in the hopes they find someone else. That seems to be dishonest to me.
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It's not at all dishonest, it's standard practice in many markets. Lots of freelancers I know do this with very dull or monotonous jobs that aren't overly difficult, but that prevents them from doing a job they'd rather be doing. The extra cost is there to make it worthwhile enough for them to take the dull job over a more interesting but lesser paid job.

It's a free market, the onus is on the client to price check.
 
FoxEye said:
If I was on the receiving end, I still wouldn't consider it dishonest. The onus is on me to know (or to find out) how much is reasonable for the work I want done. And to set my budget accordingly.

If I choose to accept a higher quote for any reason (local contractor, lack of time to find alternatives, etc), that's my problem.
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Rhodri said:
It's not at all dishonest, it's standard practice in many markets. Lots of freelancers I know do this with very dull or monotonous jobs that aren't overly difficult, but that prevents them from doing a job they'd rather be doing. The extra cost is there to make it worthwhile enough for them to take the dull job over a more interesting but lesser paid job.

It's a free market, the onus is on the client to price check.
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As I said, I disagree. The fact that it is standard practice is pretty much irrelevant, it is deliberately misleading a client and therefore, in my eyes, unethical.
 
RDM said:
As I said, I disagree. The fact that it is standard practice is pretty much irrelevant, it is deliberately misleading a client and therefore, in my eyes, unethical.
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How is it misleading? you pay different prices for the same job in all industries, take car servicing, my local trusted garage charges £120 for exactly the same job that the main dealer will charge just over £200 for.. fixed price for a fixed job, there's nothing mis-leading about that - take it or leave it!
 
RDM said:
Because rather than saying "No thanks, I don't want that job" you go in with a high price expecting them to go elsewhere. How is that not deliberately misleading the client?
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Because you're quoting how much it will cost them to get you to do the job. Clients often have different rates associated to them depending on how easy they are to work for, if they're a repeat client etc. and types of work are often priced the same way.

That's why as a client you get several quotes - so you can pick the best one for you.
 
Rhodri said:
Because you're quoting how much it will cost them to get you to do the job. Clients often have different rates associated to them depending on how easy they are to work for, if they're a repeat client etc. and types of work are often priced the same way.
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The difference is that you are deliberately quoting a high price because you do not want the work rather than saying "I can't do that job". It isn't being honest with the customer, so I would say that it is unethical.
 
RDM said:
The difference is that you are deliberately quoting a high price because you do not want the work rather than saying "I can't do that job". It isn't being honest with the customer, so I would say that it is unethical.
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But you can do the work - it's simply a job or person you'd rather not work for. This is reflected in the higher price, which is enough of an incentive to get you to take on work you would not have otherwise done, so it's up to the client if they feel that's a fair price or not.

Nothing about that is unethical, it's simply common sense that an annoying job or client is priced higher in a free market.
 
Its not unethical for my company.

We have a charge for "Project Management" on top of development and testing charges. This can can be anything related to handling the customer such as time spent corresponding with them to finalise specifications, etc. Dependant on our experiences with the customer, we bump up the project management costs if they've proven to be quite troublesome and also testing fees if we know the customer keeps sending stuff back to us even when its produced within specification.

Remember they have to pay for your time, you charge according to how much time you think to spend with them and factor in any contingencies on top of that. Its standard practice to charge a lot if you think its a hassle, if the customer accepts it then its good that you are getting money for your trouble.
 
Its common in tradesmans circles to overprice a job if you dont want it.

That way if the client says yes its worth doing, if the client says no then you got your way.

Is see no problem..
 
RDM said:
The difference is that you are deliberately quoting a high price because you do not want the work rather than saying "I can't do that job". It isn't being honest with the customer, so I would say that it is unethical.
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I dont know why you are going round in circles with this argument as your opinion is entirely wrong.

Nobody is misleading anybody.

If you ask me how much it would cost for me to paint your front room, me specifically, nobody else, on a week day I would say, that will cost you £2k.

One I dont want to do it, two I've got better things to be doing with my time, Three, I could be missing the chance to close out an account that makes me 2k commission.

But 2k is the point at which I would say, fair enough, Ill paint your front room.

A handyman will paint your front room for £150.

I dont give a **** what a handy man will charge you, you want me specifically and nobody else to paint your front room, thats what I want paying to do it.

Its not dishonest, its not misleading, if you agree to pay it thats your problem.
 
As a taxi driver I do this all the time


Someone asks me to do an airport run at 4 am and it gets quoted under my usual rate per mile as its an easy straight forward run


Someone asks me to do a short run into the city at rush hour they need to be prepared for a quote thats double my usual rate as its. Pita


Also varies depending on who it for too


Decent regulars ask me to quote a Job I price it reasonably

If a punter I don't like asks for. Quote I lump a bit on
 
For me it depends on whether they're a regular client, or a new client. If it's a regular client, it seems unfair to bump your prices for no apparent reason as they may be tied into working with you. If it's a new client, then quote them what you want - if they didn't like it, they'd go elsewhere.
 
RDM said:
I am going to disagree with you, despite it being common practice you are basically being dishonest with your customer, which I would say is always unethical.
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I don't see it as dishonest. What the mark-up/over-charging equates to is the additional cost of getting the business (or you as the business) to do something you don't really want to do - if you want then think of it as basically you building in your opportunity cost. The higher price is simply what it takes to get you to do a job you don't want/need and factors in what you think the extra hassle or what you might lose out on will cost you - maybe it means putting another job to the side to complete this one or maybe it's simply inconvenient as you can't take the holiday you wanted. There's not anything inherently dishonest or misleading about it, you're only stating the cost of doing business with you in particular so if the customer wants you to do it then they might be willing to pay that premium for getting you, if they aren't then they are free to choose another company to do the same job.

The above will depend to a certain extent on what other companies in the market do and if there is any competition - if you've got an effective monopoly or the client is effectively locked into dealing with you and you renege on a previous deal then questions about ethics become a higher priority but assuming there is choice it's not unethical from my point of view.
 
RDM said:
Because rather than saying "No thanks, I don't want that job" you go in with a high price expecting them to go elsewhere. How is that not deliberately misleading the client?
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Because its the price you are willing to do the job - how is it misleading them if you then accept the job for that price? You find the job boring or the client difficult to deal with so you quote them a higher price... if they accept then they've paid the price they needed to pay to get you to do the work as you'd not have done it otherwise.
 
Charging a higher price is common where I work too, a theatre/event company.
We often sub-hire extra kit where we receive discount from the other companies in the industry, thinking we'd outprice ourselves by adding x% onto the price we pay (above the usual profit margin) can still be cheaper for the customer going direct to our competitor.
 
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