I'm not bitter.

Well, I got the word on one of my estimates. The job was to recreate a report consisting almost entirely of financial reports and sales graphs. Despite the fact that I've worked for this client for several years, they have proven almost impervious to any kind of education I've provided about the process, techniques, and cost of graphic design work. In practice this means they have some unrealistic expectations.

Bottom line: I quoted them $1700; they had a quote from somebody else for $150. That is not a typo.

I wrote their general manager this evening as follows:

Dear [name],

I value your business, but I'm afraid I can't consider re-quoting the ops report.

It looks to me as if whoever created that 19 pages of financial/statistical tables and graphs gave you an extreme low-ball quote. There's no way I can get anywhere near matching it.

I hope that, regardless of the 90+ percent difference between the figure you're looking for and the figure I quoted, we'll be able to work together on future projects.

If I've lost this guy on price, it's business well lost. At his price I'd be better off working at Wal-Mart for minimum wage.