I'd find out what the issue is first, and see if it's an easy "Oh sure, just do this!"
If it smells like something business related, then just try and be diplomatic. Also - even though she is the "primary contact" I would immediately if not sooner get a secondary line of defense with this company. Just because she is a primary contact, doesn't mean you cant have a dialogue with a supervisor, or upper management, or especially someone in the billing department. I'm sure this woman doesn't sign your checks. Always, always back your contact up. Don't leave your "money" in the hands of what appears to me to be, from your description, a simple lower echelon employee. On Mon, Dec 12, 2011 at 10:29 AM, Dakota Burns <[email protected]>wrote: > > Hi - > > As an independent consultant (CF Dev, IT Consulting), I don't have a lot of > people nearby to bounce ideas off, so thought I'd post here. > > I have this client that paid X amount of dollars last year. Earlier this > year they hired a "trainee" to learn the ropes on-the-job and query me for > paid advice when needed. My income from this client went down 50% as a > result of the new hire, which is fine in a way because the client is a Non > Profit -- albeit a million+ dollar funded NPO that can afford all the > latest hardware. > > The new employee / trainee, whom is now my primary contact, sent me an > email from her "business address" asking for personal computer help. Said > she cannot afford to pay me but would return the favor if she could. I > don't want to sound heartless, but -- I am running a business, and since > she sent from her business address, I question the validity a bit. My > primary concern is that she's my primary contact, and she's a constant > complainer of other vendors she's come in contact with, so ... need to > handle this lightly. Will likely ask her what the problem is and tell her > if I know the answer I'd be happy to share, but if I need to research > Google for more than a few minutes -- that's something she should be doing. > > Any of you ever experienced primary-contacts from your clients that for > some reason believe they should get free support? (I've had other similar > situations, though most expect to pay.) > > Dakota > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:344412 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
