[mikester]

So, 'discounted' means that my partner decided that a long term relationship with these guys was worth keeping. He offered to discount the job by 2 hours. Considering the way these guys have responded to us after the job was done I am NOT inclined to keep them as a customer but like I said - friends of a friend (my partner).

I'm not okay with this but don't want to risk my friendship over this one off job for some extra fun money.

I'll let it go and just not pursue any more work through this avenue and share with him my lessons learned here.

Lessons learned:

1) Always work with a contract.
2) Always work with a contract.

I let those two slide here since it was just a 1 off job for extra money, still my time is what I was charging for - time away from my kids and such and blabity blah blah.

3) Always bid the job, not the hours.
4) Always secure a retainer.
5) I'm not interested in giving my time away for free.

Anything else I'm missing here? Good advice too guys - thanks.