I am an independent database developer who charges a certain hourly rate for my services.
I get my clients from two sources, from CL and from a development company that advertises on CL with a lower hourly rate than mine( 3X lower).
My question is, when I receive a client from the development company, am I obligated to provide my services to the client at the company’s lower advertised rate? The development company said I can simply multiply the project’s hours by 3 and charge the client for , but it’s difficult to pass off a 20 hour task as a 60 hour one.
I think it’s more ethical to be upfront about my hourly rate to the client, but I don’t want to be the one to tell the client that he’s not getting the low rate.
I pay a commission to the dev company of a percentage of the initial project. After that, the client is mine, so to speak, and the company is out of the picture for subsequent projects.
