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A client meeting in a noisy cafe taught me a hard lesson about contracts
I was meeting a new client at a busy spot in Austin last month to talk about a website project. We were shouting over the coffee grinder and I agreed to a vague 'few tweaks' after launch without writing it down. Two weeks later, they wanted a complete redesign of three pages, calling it a 'tweak'. Now I make sure every single deliverable, even small changes, is listed in the contract before I start. Has anyone else had a project scope blow up from a casual chat?
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sean_torres716mo ago
Spot on about defining the terms, but a good contract absolutely can save you from fuzzy words. The trick is you have to put the work in upfront to make them clear. I learned to attach a full list of what each page includes, down to the number of photos and form fields. That way, "tweak" can only mean adjusting something that's already on that list, not adding new stuff. It turns a fight about what a word means into a simple check of the paper we both signed.
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oscarc536mo ago
Vague terms are a trap in any agreement. My apartment lease says the landlord will fix things in a "timely manner." Last winter my heat was out for three days because their idea of timely meant "after the weekend." You see it with gym memberships too, where "unlimited classes" has a tiny footnote about booking limits. It's all about who gets to define the word after you've already agreed.
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rosebarnes6mo ago
Vague terms are the real problem, not the noisy cafe. A contract can't save you if the words inside it are fuzzy. Why do we all agree to "tweaks" or "small changes" when we know they mean different things to everyone? The lesson is to define every word in that list. A "tweak" needs to be written as "one round of text edits, not to exceed fifty words." Otherwise, you're just setting yourself up for the same fight later.
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