Loss due to delayed contract start date.

[DimPrawn]

Okay, lets spin it another way.

You feel diddled out of £1200. Fair enough.

You are in demand and other offers were on the table. Good for you.

I'd bide my time there, and assuming a renewal comes up, I'd slap £20/day on my rate at renewal to cover the £1200 you lost.

That way, you get the money back by adding a surcharge (rate increase) for future work. I know the client pays this and not the agency, but the agency is never gonna cough up £1200, so this way you win in the end.

[ratewhore]

Can't help but think you're creating a load of tulip for a minimal reason. I'm on the same rate and I had to wait a couple of weeks through not fault of my own but, jesus, 2 days is feck-all. You still turned over nearly £2K for the week.

Can I assume then that you will be taking no days off during this contract, or, assuming you extend (which I would say you may be putting at risk) taking no time off until the end?

Btw, I'm not supporting the agent, they're all cnuts anyway...

[ASB]

I think the OP should look up "Force Majeure".

Basically loss cannot be recovered if the circumstances leading up to it were beyond the reasonable control of either party.

It seems as though this may be the case. The agent was not in a position to force the rapid turnaround of refererences etc.

I would imagine that the contract may well also have had a specific clause relating to whether these were produced in a timely fashion.

[Denny]

So you slag off all the other responses and then agree with them.

How odd.

What's odd is that you're incapable of seeing what I was criticising. The tone of most of these posts was patronising and rude and therefore uncalled for.

Just because the basic message about the legal situation was the same, that doens't mean I have to agree with your kick in the shin approach to giving advice.

[malvolio]

Aww come on - I'm always patronising and rude, it's what Malvolio does. Sometimes, others agree it's the appropriate response...

[Mindomoo]

Can't comment on the others but I know I'm not.

I run a proper business with 'employees' (sorry I know you'll find the idea of employing others alien). I just happen to therefore have to deal with contracts from both sides of the fence and get p'd off with the prevailing attitude that agents or in other terms your customers only screw you and that you are the innocent individual.

As this post proves the guy in question has learnt a lesson that contracting is volatile and that its a harsh world out there. Obviously if he's under 30 his adult life has been under the protection of the Nanny State so he won't remember the good old days where people who took risks got rewards.

oi. some of us are under 30 and have not nor do expect to be nannied