Drawar

I've had to walk away from a project because the client was very poor at communicating, and there was too much scope creep going on. I couldn't handle that because the project was dragging along too much.

In almost five years working as an independent web designer, I've never had to walk away from a project in mid-stream. If I ever have ethical issues with the client, I would definitely quit a project. As for scope-creep, I've always been able to charge extra for feature that weren't in the original proposal. So far this has not been a problem. I try to make it so client would quit me for saying "No" too much before I have to quit over scope creep.

There is one thing that has brought me close to the edge before, though—a client who wants me to do a project wrong. I've had to deal with a few clients who brought me nasty home-made designs or had me lay out a site in some ridiculous way, etc. I think that's the worst it's gotten for me.

I have had one case of scope creep that was just ridiculous. The client was trying to make me modify functionality to a 3rd parties application. Basically they didn't do all of their initial homework prior to having the expensive software installed.

Aside from that if a client wants me to build something that is just down right atrocious, I'll walk. I have to keep in mind that not only does the project represent the client, it represents me as well and I have to draw the line somewhere.

Scope creep is definitely my pet peeve. There's another though: Dishonesty.

I've seen clients delay payment for weeks, then haggle saying they "weren't satisfied" (after weeks of silence). I just won't stand for it.

Yeah, I have been doing client work for 8 years now and have learnt many lessons along the way. Most of the time you can never judge a client that likes to “Scope creep” but your lucky if you can spot it right up front.

I also agree with wrttnwrd; payment becomes an issue sometimes.

Also not taking value in your work, the client most of the time has a very hard time seeing the value of what you do for them. So then cost becomes an issue, time frames become big issues as well.

I can't recall walking away from a project mid-stream, but there have been a few times where we've gotten a site live then said no when the client asked for changes. I agree with most of those above; it's mostly down to scope creep.

I think the best sites I've been involved with are the ones where the client has essentially left myself (or my team) to do as we please - working on the assumption that we know better then them what will be logical or work well. That's why they hire us as professionals after all.

I guess lack of respect in the skills we are offering is another big reason to walk away. If the client doesn't respect your opinion - why stay?

I would agree with everything said about scope creep, and also not having your work fully appreciated. I recently did a project that I was absolutely against doing - the client wanted an overly complex graphic design that would make future modifications expensive and difficult. I wanted to walk away, but this person had been a client for over 5 years, I felt I couldn't.

So after that I changed the way I work - it might sound a bit unreasonable but it works for me.

I don't do quotations and I don't do fixed price work. I simply charge an hourly rate with the full understanding from the client that scope creep can't happen because the scope is his budget. To make this more palatable I wrote an online work tracking system (that automatically produces invoices), that the client can use to control the spend.