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I thought the 'no phone calls' rule was a bunch of nonsense until a client in Portland burned me
Back when I was starting out doing freelance design around 2016, I had this hard rule that everything goes through email so I have a paper trail. I thought clients who insisted on phone calls were just old school or trying to avoid putting stuff in writing. Then I took on this branding gig for a small coffee shop in Portland. The owner, real friendly guy, always wanted to chat on the phone instead of typing things out. I figured sure, whatever, and we talked through the whole project verbally. After I sent the final files, he claimed we agreed on three color variations and a full menu redesign, which I never said yes to. I had no proof either way because nothing was written down. He ended up refusing to pay the last $800 invoice and I had to eat the cost. Now I tell every new client that all changes and approvals have to come through email, no exceptions. Has anyone else had a client use phone calls to add scope without a trace?
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gavin_mason3113h ago
$800 is a lot to eat and I get why you're mad, but I'd push back on blaming the phone itself. A phone call didn't cost you that money. You not sending a quick recap email after each call did. You could've talked on the phone all day with that guy and still been covered if you'd just typed up "hey, to confirm what we talked about, here's what's in scope" and hit send. It's two minutes of work. The paper trail is the thing that saves you, not the format. Plenty of people run whole businesses on calls and verbal handshakes and do fine because they still put a summary in writing after. Banning calls just makes you look hard to work with, especially with older clients who can talk faster than they type. The rule you actually want is "everything gets confirmed in writing," not "no calls.
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