Vent: My first freelance gig went up in smoke because of a handshake deal

I took on a landscaping job for a guy in Aurora last spring. A big retaining wall project, $4,500 total. We shook hands on it, nothing in writing. I was dumb, thought it was fine. Halfway through he changed the design, wanted more curves and taller blocks. I said okay, no extra charge, just wanted to keep him happy. But when I finished, he paid me $2,000 and said that was the original deal. I had no contract to fight back. Now I always write up a quick agreement, even for small jobs. Has anyone else gotten burned by a handshake agreement like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

ward.anna5d ago

Kind of disagree with you here. You said okay to changing the design mid job with no extra charge, that was your first mistake. A handshake deal isn't great but you also gave away free work when things got complicated. You could have said "sure but that adds $500 to the price" and gotten a verbal yes or no right then. The real issue is you didn't want to rock the boat and it cost you. A piece of paper helps but standing your ground matters just as much.

amy_martin5d agoMost Upvoted

Exactly. Paper means nothing if you're scared to enforce it.

ivan_harris5d ago

Wait you're seriously telling me he just said okay to changing the whole design mid job with zero extra charge? That's wild. I know people mess up but that's like handing someone your wallet and hoping they give it back. A handshake deal is already shaky enough but throwing in free revisions on top of it is basically asking to get taken advantage of. You're right that a simple "that'll be $500 more" would have avoided this whole mess. Honestly baffles me how many freelancers just freeze up instead of saying a number out loud.