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Appreciation post: The $100 'good faith' deposit that saved me from a nightmare job
A potential client for a website redesign balked at my standard contract and asked to work on a 'handshake deal' instead. I insisted on a small, non-refundable deposit before starting any work, and they ghosted me immediately after I sent the invoice. Has anyone else found that asking for a token payment upfront is the fastest way to filter out bad clients?
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pat_harris5mo ago
Seems like a pretty low bar for a nightmare.
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jennyfisher5mo ago
Learned that lesson the hard way after wasting a week on "just a quick mockup" for a friend of a friend. My hundred dollar test is basically a jerk tax, and I'm happy to let them not pay it.
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rose_perry125mo ago
That hundred bucks also works as a great filter for people who don't value your time at all. They'll argue about the fee but expect endless free revisions. It saves you from a much bigger headache later.
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webb.hannah2mo ago
My sister actually does this with her freelance graphic design work and it weeds out like 90% of the difficult people before she even starts. It's wild how the same people who fight you on a small upfront fee are the ones who will message you at 10pm with "one tiny change" that takes three hours. I see this pattern everywhere now, not just in paid work. Somebody who argues about splitting a $12 bill evenly or complains about a suggested tip is probably going to be exhausting in other ways too. Money boundaries just seem to expose people's general attitude toward respecting other people's time and effort. It's like a shortcut to knowing who's worth dealing with before you waste weeks finding out the hard way.
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