Up-front rate agreement

[Anubis]

Yes - always do. I give agency a ballpark figure and say I can't give solid quote for work yet because I don't know the full details such as location, working hours, in-depth project details.

Same principle with any freelancer; a builder gives you an estimate over the phone from brief customer description, comes over and finds out what the real cost will be (could be more, could be less).

[kingcook]

I'm sure we've all done this: seen some ad for a gig on a website, got in contact with the agency, agency asks us what our rate is, and we've said £x/day based on the small job spec advertised.

Has anyone had any luck with saying that they need to have a chat/interview with the client first before deciding on the daily rate?

This can apply to either "market rates" or "range £x to £y".