How many times have you heard this expression?
How can things go so wrong, so quickly? And why is it that some people simply go on, without a care in the world?
What could have been?
A beautiful relationship, with the perfect client, a long term, mutually beneficial agreement, and it went horribly wrong..and this is how it happened.
A client, lets call him client X, had a need for a very specific piece of work.
A service provider had the required skills within their company.
A very good understanding was reached and everyone was all smiles and happy.
But, as we all know, often the best intentions get misread. Accusations fly, high and very low, so low that Client X starts to think - "WTF??". What am involved in here. Millions of Rands later, and all the client sees is a terrible trail of troubles - more accusations, blame, zero responsibility from the SP, and the cycle continues to degrade like an organic compost heap..very slowly, everything starts to decompose...
So, to break it down. Functional specs were vague, instructions were sometimes unclear, and the scope of the product changed often. As is the nature of the beast, scope change is accepted as part of a development cycle, and both sides needed to give way, and often.
And then the final straw. The deal maker gets the short end of the stick. Because the SP cannot manage his business effectively. The Client is pissed off, and wants nothing to do with the SP any longer, but due to circumstances, they need to get to certain agreed upon milestones.
The SP have been making a decent profit. But now that the client has downscaled his requirements, the SP sits with a massive overhead, a business that is no longer sustainable. And the deal maker get the smack in the head. Commission payments are withheld indefinitely, starting another round of a viscous cycle. And the integrity of the deal maker is at stake. The SP walks away, with not a care in the world!
Is it fair to withhold an agents commission when business takes a downturn?
No! but shit happens..and we move on..another day another place another time
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