A development company just charged me $3300 for a first call

[johanmichel]

I just had a 40 minute (first) consult with a US based (crypto) development company (I need development done for my ICO).

At the end of our phone call he said: I charge $5000 an hour and I had you on the line for 40 minutes, so that is $3300. I asked if he was joking, but he replied with “which part?” and that was the part in which I decided to hang up on him because I found this to be quite disgusting. He was completely serious and I expect a bill through his attorney.

No way on earth that I’m going to pay that bill. He never said upfront that he would charge me anything. If I knew this I wouldn’t have talked with him. But if I receive a mail from his attorney, which action do I need to take? Because their company is pretty big and they have well payed attorneys.

I started to wonder if this is standard for US companies (charging people for a phone call)? Crazy fucks.

[shunsaitakahashi]

They should have clarified their fees upfront before the start of the call. What they did is unethical.

You may be better off finding developers on your own from Github :-)

[ManaMan]

I just had a 40 minute (first) consult with a US based (crypto) development company (I need development done for my ICO).

At the end of our phone call he said: I charge $5000 an hour and I had you on the line for 40 minutes, so that is $3300. I asked if he was joking, but he replied with “which part?” and that was the part in which I decided to hang up on him because I found this to be quite disgusting. He was completely serious and I expect a bill through his attorney.

No way on earth that I’m going to pay that bill. He never said upfront that he would charge me anything. If I knew this I wouldn’t have talked with him. But if I receive a mail from his attorney, which action do I need to take? Because their company is pretty big and they have well payed attorneys.

I started to wonder if this is standard for US companies (charging people for a phone call)? Crazy fucks.

Maybe best is to talk with some person outside of this forum who is more knowledgeable about this topic and if you can really get sued. Honestly if you ask me I'd say screw him and don't bother. But I am not sure about the laws, specially since I don't live in the US. Don't take opinion of some random guys over the internet forum for granted.

[LeGaulois]

I just had a 40 minute (first) consult with a US based (crypto) development company (I need development done for my ICO).

At the end of our phone call he said: I charge $5000 an hour and I had you on the line for 40 minutes, so that is $3300. I asked if he was joking, but he replied with “which part?” and that was the part in which I decided to hang up on him because I found this to be quite disgusting. He was completely serious and I expect a bill through his attorney.

No way on earth that I’m going to pay that bill. He never said upfront that he would charge me anything. If I knew this I wouldn’t have talked with him. But if I receive a mail from his attorney, which action do I need to take? Because their company is pretty big and they have well payed attorneys.

I started to wonder if this is standard for US companies (charging people for a phone call)? Crazy fucks.

You asked for a service. The person is not running a charity project, and has to be paid (the rate charged is something else)
You surely knew it was a paid service, how did you know about the person? A website? Wasn't it mentioned on the website? No T&C or something like that?

It is a standard IF it is mentioned on a website that the company offers services (on phone, or etc..)
I did use such service not long ago, It was for advice for a company, I paid ~$40 for a 30 minutes call

[mi2018]

They cannot charge if there was no agreement set, and i believe you did not accept their agreement terms and conditions through phone conversation, because you would have accepted their cost ...so don't worry

[buwaytress]

He will most likely not sue you, if he does, just counter sue. At least one thing he failed to do: clarify at the start of phone call that you were on a billable call. You said you were surprised at the rate so that was also probably not displayed on the source of his phone number (was it?).

Even if he wanted to contest it legally, there's no way a proper judge would allow him to charge that ridiculous hourly rate. Even the top human rights lawyers in London charge their premiums of GBP 1k per hour. Crypto consultancy? The very best finance consultants charge in the hundreds.

[Patatas]

Since you mentioned all of it, what does it take to mention the name of the service ? It would alarm anyone willing to buy their services. **talk on a phone call. I'm sure even call centre scammers don't charge that much for a month in India.

He will most likely not sue you, if he does, just counter sue. At least one thing he failed to do: clarify at the start of phone call that you were on a billable call. You said you were surprised at the rate so that was also probably not displayed on the source of his phone number (was it?).

"Development company" - Charges for a call ? I don't know what sort of law does American Industrial Standards follow but it's very obvious for any retard to know how stupid it sounds to charge for a call.Lawyers are way smarter than that.I doubt the said service would even have the balls to take this any further.

[Tyrantt]

He will most likely not sue you, if he does, just counter sue. At least one thing he failed to do: clarify at the start of phone call that you were on a billable call.

First thing that came to my mind OP, he won't sue you because if you counter sue you'd win, no doubt.

What's the company name tho? Surely knowing the name would help someone else not get into the same situation.

Btw are you from US as well, johanmichel?

[bL4nkcode]

That's ridiculously high, $5000 for an hour call? Seriously? What kind of words do they talked and what kind of advices or whatsoever do they used that it cost for $5000?

Anyway maybe you can share the name of this company on this forum.

First thing that came to my mind OP, he won't sue you because if you counter sue you'd win, no doubt.

Exactly.

[hugeblack]

At the end of our phone call, he said: I charge $5000 an hour, and I had you on the line for 40 minutes, so that is $3300. I asked if he was joking, but he replied with “which part?” and that was the part in which I decided to hang up on him because I found this to be quite disgusting. He was completely serious, and I expect a bill through his attorney.

Have you agreed to a contract before making the call? Was the cost indirectly explained?
Advice sites rely on tokens, you buy it inside the site and automatically deducted when you make the call.

He never said upfront that he would charge me anything.

There is nothing free these days you had to check first.
If a company is known and has not followed these basic rules, it certainly a Ponzi scheme.
do not be afraid as long as you do not recognize something, no one can ask you to pay

[Hamphser]

I just had a 40 minute (first) consult with a US based (crypto) development company (I need development done for my ICO).

At the end of our phone call he said: I charge $5000 an hour and I had you on the line for 40 minutes, so that is $3300. I asked if he was joking, but he replied with “which part?” and that was the part in which I decided to hang up on him because I found this to be quite disgusting. He was completely serious and I expect a bill through his attorney.

No way on earth that I’m going to pay that bill. He never said upfront that he would charge me anything. If I knew this I wouldn’t have talked with him. But if I receive a mail from his attorney, which action do I need to take? Because their company is pretty big and they have well payed attorneys.

I started to wonder if this is standard for US companies (charging people for a phone call)? Crazy fucks.

You do have some mistake on here. Havent you consider on the very first place that you are calling out a development company would really have a charge on the service that they gave it to you? Talking for about 40 minutes about developing consultation would really have a certain charge and just on callers common sense you will really able to know that this is not a charity work where you can just simply ask things then hang it up when you already done on knowing some piece of advice.

[milewilda]

That's ridiculously high, $5000 for an hour call? Seriously? What kind of words do they talked and what kind of advices or whatsoever do they used that it cost for $5000?

Anyway maybe you can share the name of this company on this forum.

First thing that came to my mind OP, he won't sue you because if you counter sue you'd win, no doubt.

Exactly.

Golden words which can make a guarantee to have a very successful project out of those advises. $5k for an hour call is really ridiculous and even I wont really pay up if they would tell me such thing,maybe in a few dollars as long he tell me in the beginning that this call do had a charge then i might consider and wont any have any problems with that but we are talking thousands on here.I cant think any services would really be just the same or as expensive as this one.

[pixie85]

You can't be charged for this. He'd have to say say it in the beginning of the conversation and ask you to confirm. Only then he would have a chance in court.
If he told you that at the end of the call you are not obliged to pay him. Also, the rates are ridiculous. Very good specialists, like defense lawyers wouldn't charge you half of what he wanted.

[Beerwizzard]

Why didn't you ask him about his proces before you made a call? Such services are not usually provided without any pre-payment. And who is that guy? If it is not some of the crypro influencers or the other highly experoenced guys then the price is really overrated.
By the way if he don't have a recording of your call then I doubt that it will be easy to prove that you've realy had a consultation.

[audaciousbeing]

I just had a 40 minute (first) consult with a US based (crypto) development company (I need development done for my ICO).

At the end of our phone call he said: I charge $5000 an hour and I had you on the line for 40 minutes, so that is $3300. I asked if he was joking, but he replied with “which part?” and that was the part in which I decided to hang up on him because I found this to be quite disgusting. He was completely serious and I expect a bill through his attorney.

No way on earth that I’m going to pay that bill. He never said upfront that he would charge me anything. If I knew this I wouldn’t have talked with him. But if I receive a mail from his attorney, which action do I need to take? Because their company is pretty big and they have well payed attorneys.

I started to wonder if this is standard for US companies (charging people for a phone call)? Crazy fucks.

$5000 per hours for what exactly? Even most of the well paid lawyers don't charge as much as that per hour. I feel there is some deceit here because he know that if he had told you the amount upfront, you wouldn't have gone through with it so he hid under the fact that you agree to 'anything' to exploit you. I think this is a lesson for everyone that before you say yes, ask for explicit information on what is being discussed here. I don't think you also need to hide the name of the firm since you are not lying for others to be weary of them.

If you can consult a lawyer its all good. You should not be allowed to be intimidated because they are big firms because such contract was entered into in bad faith and deceit was an undertone to it which I believe a good justice system should reject such exploitation.

[Zadicar]

Why didn't you ask him about his proces before you made a call? Such services are not usually provided without any pre-payment. And who is that guy? If it is not some of the crypro influencers or the other highly experoenced guys then the price is really overrated.
By the way if he don't have a recording of your call then I doubt that it will be easy to prove that you've realy had a consultation.

Even crypto influencers or highly experienced guys doesnt really have this kind of rate when it comes to advises or any consulatation.This is way too high for a 1 hour call and beside he didnt tell you in purpose because you might not able to listed or proceed if he to tell you in the very first place but showing of some proper etiquette then its would be really much formal to say those things in the start of the call so that the costumer wont really be surprised on the bill he had after such conversation.

[BitHodler]

I searched for every possible related company on the internet, but none of them charge these figures, so I am actually interested in hearing from OP what company it is that he had contact with.

It might also have been a company thinking that they could bank on another potentially multi million dollar ICO, and for that reason could justify asking these prices, but instead of thousands they haven't got anything.

I wouldn't be too worried about a bad ending. I however hate it when companies try to conduct unfair business where they adjust their prices based on the client they hope to do business with.

[Oilacris]

I searched for every possible related company on the internet, but none of them charge these figures, so I am actually interested in hearing from OP what company it is that he had contact with.

It might also have been a company thinking that they could bank on another potentially multi million dollar ICO, and for that reason could justify asking these prices, but instead of thousands they haven't got anything.

I wouldn't be too worried about a bad ending. I however hate it when companies try to conduct unfair business where they adjust their prices based on the client they hope to do business with.

Opportunist people in short where they do adjust prices and believing that those companies anytime are food to paid up such charge without any problems.I would really like to ask on what company hes talking on so that people on here would really able to make some comments about that company if they are legit ones or total fraud. Suing him back can be done if he do force to go with legal move regarding with your payment its clear that he do have a mistake on such transaction.