Agent dropping Rate

[SandyDown]

I hope you didn't kill him too quickly.

Nope - just found another contract and walked away

[TheBigYinJames]

In my previous contract the PM actually was a contractor himself and saw it was his duty to squeeze every last penny of the budget to look good in his permie programme manager's eyes!!

I hope you didn't kill him too quickly.

[SandyDown]

Got phoned about a role on Friday from an Agent, said I was interested and agreed the rate. This morning another Agent from same company phoned and said, the client had changed their budget and reduced the rate by 10%. WTF!!. I stuck to my inital rate but no dice

You need to considered
1- What is the rate - and how much is 10% actually is?
2- How long is the contract for - if long term and chances of renewal then I'd say take it, at renewal you can re-negotiate
3- Is the company a good name on your CV
4- Are there opportunities to X-Train and gain new skills
5- Do you find the project interesting and really want to take part of it?
6- How's the team and your PM?

I do think it may be likely that the client reduced the budget, or it could be that they never agreed such rate with the agency. True the agreement of the budget is normally prior to advertising the post, but may be they had a budget for XXX for contractors for that project the rest of the year, so if they had several contractors, they may need to balance the rate…. Also don’t forget companies are aware of the market situation and they also play the game. In my previous contract the PM actually was a contractor himself and saw it was his duty to squeeze every last penny of the budget to look good in his permie programme manager's eyes!!

[rootsnall]

This is true, agent gazundering was rife. The agent would get verbal agreement from client and contractor, then some other agent (sometimes in the same agency) would phone up the manager and say "let me price beat you - if you've accepted a client, I guarantee I can get you someone similar for £30 a day less, signed off today". Then the original agent gets a call and is forced to try to get the original contractor to go cheaper to undercut.

The fact that in this case it was another agent from the same company is very suspect that this may indeed be what has happened.

The S3 bunch were the champion gazunderers as expected, often gazundering each other

[TheBigYinJames]

In the dotcom crash slump the desperate agents were haggling the rates down like this all the time. I remember one job being 400 a day at 9am in the morning and down below 300 later that day as all the agents rang the client offering people at a lower rate to try and get in there.

This is true, agent gazundering was rife. The agent would get verbal agreement from client and contractor, then some other agent (sometimes in the same agency) would phone up the manager and say "let me price beat you - if you've accepted a client, I guarantee I can get you someone similar for £30 a day less, signed off today". Then the original agent gets a call and is forced to try to get the original contractor to go cheaper to undercut.

The fact that in this case it was another agent from the same company is very suspect that this may indeed be what has happened.

[rootsnall]

In the dotcom crash slump the desperate agents were haggling the rates down like this all the time. I remember one job being 400 a day at 9am in the morning and down below 300 later that day as all the agents rang the client offering people at a lower rate to try and get in there.

[TheBigYinJames]

Got phoned about a role on Friday from an Agent, said I was interested and agreed the rate. This morning another Agent from same company phoned and said, the client had changed their budget and reduced the rate by 10%. WTF!!. I stuck to my inital rate but no dice

Sounds unlikely, budgets usually have to be agreed ages in advance of a purchase order being rasied and an agent sought. The idea of some manager's pre-agreed budget being cut in real time, in between a contract offer and a sign-off is a bit slim. but you never know in this climate.

Sounds more like the agent trying to cut you to the bone, or one of his mates "I bet I can get him cheaper".

What can you realistcially do except walk away?

[Diestl]

Got phoned about a role on Friday from an Agent, said I was interested and agreed the rate. This morning another Agent from same company phoned and said, the client had changed their budget and reduced the rate by 10%. WTF!!. I stuck to my inital rate but no dice