> . I haven't heard of this being done but another option for bigger > jobs could be to have the payment transferred to a third party in trust so > that it is confirmed that the money will be there when payment is required > be that a lump sum or progress payments subject to the client releasing it. >
There are thousands of IT clients and developers using this all round the globe via telecommute. This is called an escrow service and the service provider charges around 10% for their service. Some of the sites include: escrow.com odesk.com elance.com and dozens more. While there is a certain element of safety, most of the clients screw the developers for what they can get. I've bidded on a number of jobs but each time the attitude of the clients put me off and I withdrew each time. It wasn't too great being able to view the history of some of the clients either. That really put me off. In the end I decided that if I can't negotiate with the clients sufficiently to determine if they are genuine then I may as well work for someone else. If you deliver consistently good work then you'll attract good clients and not have a problem. If you start to get shirty the moment someone hesitates about paying, or you have all these restrictive payment clauses then you'll put off the genuinely honest clients who don't dig all the bureaucracy and legalize that you put in their way. Ultimately you can't guarantee anything. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
