Rant: wasted $500 on a freelance partner who ghosted after 2 weeks

I hired a freelance strategist for a big pitch we had coming up (a retail client in Chicago). Paid her half upfront, $500, and she sent one decent deck then stopped replying to my emails and calls. I ended up pulling a 48-hour all-nighter with my team to redo the whole thing from scratch. Has anyone else gotten burned by a contractor you vetted through recommendations?

2 comments

2 Comments

milaprice15d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy paid a guy $700 for a logo and website mockup. Same thing. Ghosted after one email. Last I heard the guy moved to Austin and started selling kombucha. It's like there's no accountability with these gigs. That's why I only pay after delivery now. No exceptions.

norag6615d ago

$500 is actually cheap for a strategist, that's your first red flag right there. I mean, good strategists charge like $150 an hour minimum, so half up front for a whole deck should have been a warning. I always break payments into smaller chunks now, like $100 per milestone with clear deadlines. It's annoying to track but at least you're not out the full amount if they bail. Also, next time ask for three past client references and actually call them. That one step would have saved you the headache. Sorry you had to pull that all nighter, those really suck.

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