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I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

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Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#31

Post by thrower123 »

qnsi wrote: post #2

Amazing. It kind of sound unbelievable, but I don’t have that much experience working with big corporations. This should be read by everyone concerned about, how few people in a startup can beat big corporations

$18000 is the kind of petty cash that a lot of departments have lying around in their budgets at the end of a quarter. Especially if the budgeting process is of the use-it-or-lose-it variety, there can be a push to buy things that are unnecessary at the end of quarters or fiscal years.

I've been involved in more than one project where a company bought a largish subscription license for a product, and never got anybody lined up to actually deploy it before the licensing ran out - I assume whoever was in charge of that initiative got laid off or took a new job and it fell through the cracks.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#32

Post by axlee »

pornel wrote: post #14
jamesb93 wrote: post #6

So much waste - I'm not saying he didn't earn his money but how is it possible for a company to run cash positive when it wastes like that?

Large companies operate on a completely different scale of money. If this was a page for a product that's going to make a million dollars, this expense was still a rounding error.

But why are they so stingy with salaries, then?

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#34

Post by jbverschoor »

He didn't charge 18K. He got lucky while he did not keep his promise of his quote.

He kept his mouth shut, even though he knew he needed to have a difficult talk about assets and time reserved etc. Instead of that, he waited for weeks before he nervousy crafted an invoice full of mistakes because he was probably editting and re-editing because he knew he was doing something wrong, but had a conflicted mind because he felt entitled to get paid a daily rate instead of fixed price like he agreed. He then sent the email safely from home miles away.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#35

Post by irrational »

protomyth wrote: post #7
noir_lord wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big corporations are batshit. One division will be counting paperclips and another dropping $50k on a machine no one needs to do their job. It entirely comes down to management in each place.

Be on a project where you billed over a 100 hours for some aspect of it that they decide to cancel. It is amazing how group decisions can blow so much. Now, I do not mean experiments and throwing the artifacts of that experimenting. That makes perfect sense. Its when they have a need for something that is part of their current business and they just don't execute properly to the point of cancellation.

I work for a Fortune 100 company. I've seen $5+ million spent on some software that was abandoned a year later, and nobody loses their job! It happens frequently enough that everyone is basically blase about it.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#36

Post by IkmoIkmo »

I've got similar experiences working for corporate clients, but it was legal work, not tech stuff. It was a bit more complex than the equivalent of a static HTML, but something that anyone with an IQ of > 90 could learn in less than half a year.

There were days when I'd charge clients $15k... for a day's work. This wouldn't have been possible if I worked on-site. But I was essentially completing $15k of contracted work in a single day, which was sold as a fixed-fee in return for a legal report. The type of work that should cost maybe $200 in total.

Corporations get kind of crazy, there's extreme focus on some areas (mainly, those with KPIs and KPI owners attached), and extreme nonchalance on others. They're so big that there's just lots of insane things like this that slip through.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#37

Post by AchieveLife »

duxup wrote: post #18

I know someone working as a contractor for a big company. 1 year contract. 6 months have gone by and they've done ... nothing. Their boss keeps saying "Don't worry we'll get to you, we're just swamped right now, you're good." They're already talking about extending the contract.

That's why I offer a retainer package. Get paid for just being available when needed and work a non-conflicting contract elsewhere.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#38

Post by vokep »

jbob2000 wrote: post #15

Pfft that's nothing. We just had a contractor charge us $50k to setup a simple HTTP proxy. I looked at the code; it's a .NET starter app with our endpoints in it that route to other endpoints. $50k and it probably took them 2 hours, which was probably mostly just packages downloading.

Reading stuff like this makes me wonder if I'm not missing out, having a salaried job. :/

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#39

Post by irrational »

holler wrote: post #25
jbob2000 wrote: post #15

Pfft that's nothing. We just had a contractor charge us $50k to setup a simple HTTP proxy. I looked at the code; it's a .NET starter app with our endpoints in it that route to other endpoints. $50k and it probably took them 2 hours, which was probably mostly just packages downloading.

did you pay it? that's crazy!

He didn't, but I'm sure his non-technical business boss did.

Re: I Charged $18k for a Static HTML Page

#40

Post by bluGill »

wjnc wrote: post #26
rocky1138 wrote: post #10

This is how corporate works. They have budgets for things. The money doesn't come out of the pocket of the person who cuts the cheque. You send in an invoice and it gets paid. If it doesn't, the company is insolvent or they are at risk to lawsuits which will cost them more than your paltry $18000. But they don't even think about the lawsuit part. Bill comes in, cheque goes out.

Can you give my boss the 101? He has me methodically checking invoices against tenders. I would actually argue the other way. As our consultants rely on our return business, they would quickly solve any problem with the invoice even if not to the letter correct. We have bargaining power and they don't want to bite the hand that feeds them.

Depends on how burned your boss has been. For a while finance departments just paid invoices without question. It was a lot cheaper than what we have now. Then someone in finance did an audit of a routine invoice (a random thing to show a junior how it could be done if requested) and discovered the "services rendered" on the invoice was just sending an invoice - no other work was being done. Now the company spends a lot of money to carefully verify every invoice is for real work done. It might cost more money in the long run but it doesn't feed fraud.

The above might be an urban legend, but it is still a good story.

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