Advice for an old-hat newbie

[Rodent]

Some time ago, when freelancing as a C++/MFC programmer, I got really badly stuck on a Freelance Informer crossword and having only just managed to finish it, I am about to step back into contracting after a break of nearly 10 years. From reading other posts I see agents are still considered the warm, cuddly and helpful people they were ten years ago. I recall back then the two main bugbears seemed to be:

1) Agents who played you off against the client with calls to you such as "the client won't pay that rate, can you drop down a little?" and calls to the client such as "he'll take the contract but want X pounds an hour more" in order to maximise their margin. Solution was often to phone the client and discuss directly. This would annoy agents big time, especially when you pointed out that the clause they were citing that restricted you from doing this was actually in a contract that you had not yet agreed to or signed.

2) Trying to get you to do interviews for roles where you weren't really a good fit, often as rejectable 'padding' where a client wanted to select from at least three and they only had one suitable contractor available.

Obviously I'm browsing the board and catching up as best I can but I just wondered if our friends are still playing the same kind of games and are there any new ones I should particularly be looking out for?

Thanks.

[lukemg]

No.1 is still going strong, agent got me with that one on this contract even though they are on a fixed percent and they would end up getting less !!!
No.2 - not so much, I reckon there are a lot more numbers on both sides now and with the internet it's easy to get in touch with them, any non-specialised advert on jobserve reaps hundreds of replies (90% waste of time but plenty not).
Because they can pick and choose for many jobs, agents are picky about who they put forward, this might not be related just to technical ability but a combination of location, availability, keenness or the chance to skim a huge percent off the top (easier with newbies).