I had a client reach out to me to build a website for a company they’re starting.

The email was well-written and I was considering doing it—but then I read the last sentence.

“I think it’s appropriate for you to do it for free since I took the time to reach out to you”

What a prick 😐

I expect you to pay me for reading this long rant... I currently charge $20 per rant with $2 interest per day not paid... Clocks ticking!

Anyways: Who in their right mind would think this??

What a legit reason.
They were so right.
You should do it for free!

They did the honor of reaching you out, why on earth you're not considering?

Hahaha. I actually did a website for free for one of my best (support contract) clients. It looked great, they were happy and I got a load of business of the back of it too (plus I increased the hosting charge slightly).

You might want to consider doing it if it isn't too complicated.

@CodeKill eh it was to develop the code for their whole company. They’re pretty much saying “do all the work, but I’ll get paid”

"let me just check if my landlord will take your email as rent" - fuck off.

I'd email back an inflated day rate and tell them you think it's appropriate that they pay you for your time like the rest of the world.

Or do it and leave a js and server-side bomb in there to random the site after a month... "You've reached the end of your free trial of my services, to continue using them please set up a payment method here"

@jamescodesthing oooh I like the free trial idea 👌

@king just let the site run for a month then leave a subscription page on the site for them to fucking pay you 😂

It's what WYSIWYG providers do nowadays.

Also inflate that price to about 150% because they deserve the dickhead charge adding on.

@masterdoctor @king That's fair enough, I believe you should (try to) work with clients that aren't dicks.
I guess the difference here is that I offered to do the website for free (rather than being commanded to do so), to retain the client and in fact the founders are great, friendly people. I knew I would get plenty of work from doing it and their contract now accounts for around a quarter of my income.