I understand that I can't give too many details on the specs of the ask, but wondering if any Former Students have advice for this current student...
I have a product me and a fellow Ag have been developing. We have hired out a product development company who has designed and will soon be prototyping the product. The design is great, and better than expected. Now given we have accepted a design, they have put together a quote to prototype the product. The quote is for $62,000...When we signed the contract for the design, it was agreed that the terms of agreement was that they had an estimated completed date of 60 days, and the estimated completion of prototype was within 90 days....and today is day 160 and they just finished the design, and the estimated end date of the prototype is 90 days from now! They have been difficult to communicate with, and on various accounts we have had to push back decision making calls because they or their team was out of town.
This is a credible company that we do want to continue working with given the fact that they have designed our product and are heavily invested. I am interested to know from Ags with greater experience than me as a student, if I should bite the bullet and conceive that it's a natural part of any project with unexpected trial and errors.....or if I should stand my ground and negotiate hard that they haven't met timeline expectations and have been difficult to communicate with... I don't want to be an overly entitled young man barking at product engineering professionals...but I don't want to get taken advantage of...
Advice? Thanks and Gig'em!
I have a product me and a fellow Ag have been developing. We have hired out a product development company who has designed and will soon be prototyping the product. The design is great, and better than expected. Now given we have accepted a design, they have put together a quote to prototype the product. The quote is for $62,000...When we signed the contract for the design, it was agreed that the terms of agreement was that they had an estimated completed date of 60 days, and the estimated completion of prototype was within 90 days....and today is day 160 and they just finished the design, and the estimated end date of the prototype is 90 days from now! They have been difficult to communicate with, and on various accounts we have had to push back decision making calls because they or their team was out of town.
This is a credible company that we do want to continue working with given the fact that they have designed our product and are heavily invested. I am interested to know from Ags with greater experience than me as a student, if I should bite the bullet and conceive that it's a natural part of any project with unexpected trial and errors.....or if I should stand my ground and negotiate hard that they haven't met timeline expectations and have been difficult to communicate with... I don't want to be an overly entitled young man barking at product engineering professionals...but I don't want to get taken advantage of...
Advice? Thanks and Gig'em!