Reply to: Is agent taking the mick.

[shelby68]

Sounds to me if the pimp is trying to find people who will work for a lower rate.

I'm half inclined to agree, I had an interview sorted a rate then the agency told me the rate has been dropped 50 quid a day by the client ...yea right. if I'm still interested.... no thanks

[unemployed]

Still no contact from pimp , Guess that`s that then.

[tim123]

You're both assuming I didn't also get the rail ticket refunded. .

I'm not assuming anything. I was responding to that which you wrote, hence my comment about not understanding the conversation.

tim

[Turion]

Personally, I wait until the first invoice is in the bank, then crack open a bottle of bubbly.

To be safe, hold off celebrating for 7 years, after which one should be free from tax investigation.

[threaded]

Were you starting the gig in the afternoon then?

Sudden Gig Cancellation (SGC) is another contracting risk. Clauses in the contract allow no notice cancellation of gigs for any reason if they have not already started. Another reason one should not celebrate until you are actually on site and working. Personally, even after I accept an offer, I do not cancel interviews and keep applying for gigs right up until I'm on site for this very reason - and the fact that something better may come up.

Personally, I wait until the first invoice is in the bank, then crack open a bottle of bubbly.

[malvolio]

Precisely, things just don't smell right. Doubt we'll get a staight answer though. Probably more abuse.

You're both assuming I didn't also get the rail ticket refunded. After all I had lost a week's potential billing.

I also refunded the car parking, but since they charge a £45 handling fee, that wasn't exactly a zero-sum transaction either.

As for the programme being cancellable, it wasn't: since it was a major corporate upgrade, it's still going on and will be for another year or so. What happened was a partner decided he wanted to be in charge so moved the ownership, deleted the original funding stream and put his own people in charge. Petty corporate politics at its best, nothing to do with good business practice.

[EternalOptimist]

Precisely, things just don't smell right. Doubt we'll get a staight answer though. Probably more abuse.

Abuse??, out of the door, turn right, two doors along.


silly bunt

[Turion]

I'm not fully understandng this discussion.

Train season tickets can be returned for a refund.

Ok, so you lose something, but nowhere near not the whole lot.

tim

Precisely, things just don't smell right. Doubt we'll get a staight answer though. Probably more abuse.

[tim123]

I'm not fully understandng this discussion.

Train season tickets can be returned for a refund.

Ok, so you lose something, but nowhere near not the whole lot.

tim

[Turion]

Balls. Quarterly ticket for a job scheduled to take around 9 months is not so stupid, bringing the daily cost down to around £50 a day for a 1st Class moderately long-distance commute into London.

What's a notice period then? The time it takes some contractors to smell the coffee, I assume.

And bizarre as it may seem, the £2k was paid for out of the hiring manager's budget as compensation for having to muck around a fellow professional. Strictly speaking, it was cost of sales lost by the client defaulting on a signed agreement. I'm not going to sue for lost business, I will claim out-of-pocket expenses when they were caused by the client's actions.

So I'm afraid we're looking at this from different ends of the spectrum. "Permie-thinking" rather implies a master-slave relationship. Well that's fine, but I generally work as the Master...

For a project that can be cancelled without notice, purchasing a quaterly ticket would still seem presumptuous. Anyway, the train company would reimburse an unused one, so why did you ask the client to pay?

[malvolio]

Agree, unless it the Orient Express . £2k of advance train tickets and parking for a contract seems a tad over the top, especially for a no notice contract. A bit permyish in some ways. A weekly ticket would be my limit.

My point was, that if they paid £2k of expenses, when they did not have to (unless reimbursement of such expenses was written in the contract), they maybe would have paid compensation for project cancellation as well.

Balls. Quarterly ticket for a job scheduled to take around 9 months is not so stupid, bringing the daily cost down to around £50 a day for a 1st Class moderately long-distance commute into London.

What's a notice period then? The time it takes some contractors to smell the coffee, I assume.

And bizarre as it may seem, the £2k was paid for out of the hiring manager's budget as compensation for having to muck around a fellow professional. Strictly speaking, it was cost of sales lost by the client defaulting on a signed agreement. I'm not going to sue for lost business, I will claim out-of-pocket expenses when they were caused by the client's actions.

So I'm afraid we're looking at this from different ends of the spectrum. "Permie-thinking" rather implies a master-slave relationship. Well that's fine, but I generally work as the Master...

[Turion]

Wow, I wouldn't have bought £2k's worth of train tickets before I'd even been on site to check the lie of the land. But I've always been the "glass half empty" type.

Turion, with your "compensation for notice period" idea - you're assuming (I think) that having x days notice period means x days' 9-to-5 bum-on-seat-style constant billing. If I know our Malvolio, that isn't his style (nor mine).

Agree, unless it the Orient Express . £2k of advance train tickets and parking for a contract seems a tad over the top, especially for a no notice contract. A bit permyish in some ways. A weekly ticket would be my limit.

My point was, that if they paid £2k of expenses, when they did not have to (unless reimbursement of such expenses was written in the contract), they maybe would have paid compensation for project cancellation as well.

[thunderlizard]

Wow, I wouldn't have bought £2k's worth of train tickets before I'd even been on site to check the lie of the land. But I've always been the "glass half empty" type.

Turion, with your "compensation for notice period" idea - you're assuming (I think) that having x days notice period means x days' 9-to-5 bum-on-seat-style constant billing. If I know our Malvolio, that isn't his style (nor mine).

[Turion]

Yes they did pay the invoice, they would have got sued if they hadn't anyway - I'm not losing close to £2k without an argument.

Yes, 5 working hours - I was going to start 8:30 Tuesday, they binned it at 11:30 on Monday. Also I'm not exactly a BoS coder or Helpdesk guy after all. The meeting was the previous Thursday, gig and rate settled, project defined and basic attack plan agreed on the Friday. Contract signed and faxed back on Monday morning. So I felt reasopnably safe to stop chasing other work...

Did you consider trying to get more compensation, say for 1 week or whatever the actual notice your contract had with the agent. I know fighting SGC could be difficult due to certain contract clauses, but maybe they would have been sympathetic, as they did pay your expenses? Hmme...client sympathy?, does that exist....

[malvolio]

Yes they did pay the invoice, they would have got sued if they hadn't anyway - I'm not losing close to £2k without an argument.

Yes, 5 working hours - I was going to start 8:30 Tuesday, they binned it at 11:30 on Monday. Also I'm not exactly a BoS coder or Helpdesk guy after all. The meeting was the previous Thursday, gig and rate settled, project defined and basic attack plan agreed on the Friday. Contract signed and faxed back on Monday morning. So I felt reasopnably safe to stop chasing other work...