This gal may be good at what she does - I liked her website (savvy but not corporate, tongue-in-cheek but not flip) & the reviews here - but I found her to be abrupt & ungracious over the phone. She hung up on me, in fact. It was beyond weird. She didn?t sound happy to be talking to me from the moment she answered, but what took the conversation into the realm of the surreal was a question about price. I asked for a ballpark and she bristled. I understand project-based pricing (it?s exactly what I do for a living, for a consulting firm). But apparently, she doesn't understand that you can explain the ambiguities without sounding evasive, defensive or unprofessional. You just develop a little script. (Career Pricing Services dot com! ""Customers are very busy. If your sales pitch isn't user friendly, you're gone."") You say: ""Well, the price depends on the scope of the particular project (i.e., resume updates require less data gathering upfront than a total revamp) and the bells and whistles you ultimately choose (for example, we can create a classy no frills two-page resume or put together a complete presentation package with business cards, custom graphics, and so forth.) The price tends to range from X to X, but for now, just send me what you've got. I'll take a look, we can chat for another 10 minutes or so, and then I should be able to give you a better sense of the options."" Great! Done! Instead, I got ""Every project is different, I can't give you a range,"" and then when I gently pushed, she said ""Okay, I'm looking at two resumes right now, one is $50 and one is $420"" and then balked when I asked what kinds of things impact the range. When I finally said, ""You know, I have to tell you, I really love your website, but now I feel kind of funny about this,"" she said, ""I feel funny too, I have to go"" - and hung up. (Can you imagine if your mechanic responded like this every time you called for an estimate?!) Life's too short. Taking my business elsewhere...
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