Reply by wseand

Larger companies are expected to give free estimates and I think this causes confusion when it comes to smaller companies. As in your case you might find that you loose business charging a potential customer for a design. Sometimes you have to go that extra mile to get the customers and expect that sometimes you will not get the job and loose the time. That being said, if a design is going to take more time than normal and is interrupting a current project I would charge them a nominal fee for the design. You would have to weigh the expected time loss to the design to the potential loss of the customer. As for the customer pulling out their own contract that does seem a bit out of the ordinary, I certainly don’t think I would accept their contract, seems a bit fishy. If they do call you and are willing to accept your terms than I would accept the job.

-- Bill - "Freedon flies in your heart like an Eagle" Audie Murphy