Reply to: Rejecting a contract after checks

[cherhill]

Have some self-respect. If the contract is good enough to accept via email it should be good enough to be honoured regardless of what else comes up. Otherwise OP should have not accepted it in the first place.

What utter tosh. I have been contracting for years and have been screwed over by both agents and clients during that time. So all this honour your contract etc is all very naive.

Do what is best for number 1.

[northernladuk]

Getting offy because you decline an offer is nuts.

Tescos 'offer' to sell me cornflakes every time I go in there by having them on their shelves. They dont chase me out of the store and ban me because I decline to take them up on it, do they?

And you wouldn't get one on in a reverse situation? You'd have a client/agent hating post ready before you finished reading the rejection

And they Tesco example has to be the worst one I've ever seen. Your grasp on business is just ridiculous.

[BHicks]

I'm potentially looking at a similar situation, but my approach is that any acceptance of an offer is stated (in writing) as being subject to contract.

Put simply, until both parties have signed on the line there is no legal obligation. The agency emails etc repeatedly proclaim some very similar boilerplate along those lines.

[Tightfit]

Getting offy because you decline an offer is nuts.

Tescos 'offer' to sell me cornflakes every time I go in there by having them on their shelves. They dont chase me out of the store and ban me because I decline to take them up on it, do they?

Ah - so thats why Tesco's Share price dropped so dramatically this year then.

[Eirikur]

2) If you had spent considerable time and money getting everything together and getting to the checkout, and then Tesco said "we're not selling to you because the bloke behind you has more in his trolley and we'll make more money that way", would you be continuing to shop at Tesco or would you shop elsewhere?

Funny enough in my current gig this is exactly what happened in a B2B situation, with a party we selected to win a £2M bid after the RFP process. They pulled out for exactly that reason

[TheFaQQer]

Getting offy because you decline an offer is nuts.

Tescos 'offer' to sell me cornflakes every time I go in there by having them on their shelves. They dont chase me out of the store and ban me because I decline to take them up on it, do they?

Your analogy falls down in two areas.

1) Tesco's aren't offering to sell you cornflakes - they are inviting you to make them an offer to buy the cornflakes, which they are then at liberty to accept or reject. (See Fisher v Bell and/or Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v Boots Cash Chemists)

2) If you had spent considerable time and money getting everything together and getting to the checkout, and then Tesco said "we're not selling to you because the bloke behind you has more in his trolley and we'll make more money that way", would you be continuing to shop at Tesco or would you shop elsewhere?

[jmo21]

Getting offy because you decline an offer is nuts.

Tescos 'offer' to sell me cornflakes every time I go in there by having them on their shelves. They dont chase me out of the store and ban me because I decline to take them up on it, do they?

You are the customer in the Tesco scenario, so quite different.

I avoid pulling out of contracts like this, as the area I work in is much smaller.

[BlasterBates]

Even if the client is so desperate and only have 1 potential contractor lined up, there is no guarantee that backing out from an accepted offer not contract will faze them, most likely they will just move on cursing their luck. Even if the person hiring is offended by this, there are so many hiring managers and PMs in every large co that they don't even know of each others existence let alone sharing a "black list" of contractors. So please drop the scaremongering.

well then again..

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...ractors-3.html

So yeah agreed who knows about the case, but it's not a good idea to p*ss off the PM too much.

[psychocandy]

Even if the client is so desperate and only have 1 potential contractor lined up, there is no guarantee that backing out from an accepted offer not contract will faze them, most likely they will just move on cursing their luck. Even if the person hiring is offended by this, there are so many hiring managers and PMs in every large co that they don't even know of each others existence let alone sharing a "black list" of contractors. So please drop the scaremongering.

Getting offy because you decline an offer is nuts.

Tescos 'offer' to sell me cornflakes every time I go in there by having them on their shelves. They dont chase me out of the store and ban me because I decline to take them up on it, do they?

[sal]

If you reject a contract you accepted and you p*ss off the PM, the agency will work with you but the client might not.

If this is a major IB client you might depend on in the future, I wouldn't do this. That's not to say it will happen, but it might. It depends on the PM.

I would advise going through with your contract, otherwise you'll be closing down future opportunities.

It also works the other way round if a client p*sses off a contractor he probably won't go back.

If it's a little company in the backend of beyond who cares but not a major co.

If you accept change your mind and then reject quickly i.e. the PM can just get the next candidate everything will be fine I dare say he won't care but if they have to go through another round of interviews, they will be mightily p*eed off.

Even if the client is so desperate and only have 1 potential contractor lined up, there is no guarantee that backing out from an accepted offer not contract will faze them, most likely they will just move on cursing their luck. Even if the person hiring is offended by this, there are so many hiring managers and PMs in every large co that they don't even know of each others existence let alone sharing a "black list" of contractors. So please drop the scaremongering.

[BlasterBates]

If you reject a contract you accepted and you p*ss off the PM, the agency will work with you but the client might not.

If this is a major IB client you might depend on in the future, I wouldn't do this. That's not to say it will happen, but it might. It depends on the PM.

I would advise going through with your contract, to avoid closing down future opportunities.

Build up rep. and contacts. It's not like being perm where you can rub your hands with glee if you get a good offer and just sit there for 10 years you need to get new contracts every few months, or possibly face rate cuts.

[psychocandy]

Yep. Stuff them. Do whats best for yourself without a doubt.

How many people have had gigs pulled at the last minute? I know I have. Waited 3 weeks for one to start while on the bench. Made the mistake of turning down other interviews in the meantime. 3pm friday afternoon before monday- sorry no longer required.

Would do without a moments hesitation.

[ladymuck]

I've pulled out of a contract on a Thursday afternoon when I was expected to start on the Monday. Simply got a better offer doing something way more interesting. I hadn't signed the contract as it was still with the solicitor but an agreement to start on Monday, all being well, had been discussed.

How you inform the agency / client depends on what sort of relationship you want to have with them in the future. Embarrassingly for me, the agency turned out to be the same for both clients (Capita) but they didn't even notice although I spotted it was the same team doing the referencing...

If you think you'll want to work for that specific client again in the future, say something sensible direct to the hiring manager if you can. If you don't really care, then give the agency some waffle and let them handle it.

As others have said, it's your business and you should do what you think is best for the long term future of your company.

[bluedrop]

Thanks for your inputs everyone.

I didnt sign the contract. Background checks are yet to start. The agent sent the paperwork for the checks. I just replied to the agent's email that im ok with the rate and duration.

[SueEllen]

Always say I accept subject to the contract being reviewed and the T&Cs being acceptable. State it verbally and in writing.

Then if you get another contract just say those T&Cs were better and you wouldn't have needed to do any negotiation to sort them out.