I recently declined work from a client that I'd been billing $150/hr for design engineering + fabrication of prototypes for rapid-deployable renewable energy products for the military. I was initially approached by them when they got a 7-figure contract to deliver hardware in about 4 months and realized they were berkeleyed w/o someone who'd done it before.
I provided my regular boilerplate contract but the owner of the company (an attorney) insisted on using his, which had a 6-month "use it or lose it" clause - in my favor. I did about 70 hours of work over the first couple months, then they disappeared into the morass of vendor management and forgot to call.
When the 6 months date was looming I emailed and left voicemails for the engineering manager that their contract was about to come due, and if they had about 30 hours of work I could see fit to let the term run on a bit as a kind gesture.
No reply. I email again. No reply.
10 days after the contract expires I get a call from an old colleague who works there asking about whether I'd consider extending their term. I asked that he relay to the engineering manager that I'd tried repeatedly to do just that, and that inserting a friend and colleague with no part in the discussion into the matter as a human shield was not cool. Also, I sent an invoice for the balance of the contract.
She called a week later - and conferences my friend + former colleague into the call! I was prepared to discuss the matter with an open mind until she suggested "I'd hoped we'd have a longer relationship".
I offered that I was following the precise terms of the contract they gave me, and that my adherence to the contract thus far as well as the work I'd done had been meet with nothing but the highest approval. I also told her directly that involving my friend and former colleague in her negotiation was unfair to him, and in fact sealed my decision to bill the balance of hours.
So a couple months elapse and I get a call. They've dicked around with a design for a simple product for months, and need a prototype for a trade show - ready to ship - in less than 72 hours.
I spent 2 days I had off my day job designing the parts, sourcing materials and having them overnighted in, machining the parts, building out the prototype, painting it, and delivering it.
A few weeks later they call wanting 3 more assemblies which I qoute, and negotiate to make from less expensive materials - again on a crazy deadline. On a verbal PO I rush order materials and block in time for the work, As I'm getting started I get a cryptic voicemail asking for a "hold on the parts" .
I try for 2 days to reach the guy, and when I do he asks me to suspend work, then we have an odd and unclear conversation about what it was I was doing, and how they'd like me to start over but with their design.
And I realized I make enough at my day gig (contract instrument designer-fabricator for NIH) that I need the time more than I need their money and crazy-deadline horsesh1t.
And for the first time in my life quit a $150/hr job.
