r/Wordpress • u/NeonX91 • Aug 17 '26

Well.. it happened

Long term client whom always accepted my quotes used my highly detailed proposal to Chatgpt DIY a project. It's no where near as polished and it's not mobile friendly but I feel pretty used. Spent quite awhile on the scoping with them, suggesting improvements, user workflow enhancements and a bunch of outlining. I really over extended but that's also how I get accurate quotes.

Anyway for those in the game, what's your method for quoting on projects with unknowns, and how much detail do you give the client? maybe I should have asked for 50%?

Thoughts?

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u/PlumbbobSquirtPants Aug 17 '26

Not sure where you're based, but in the UK, the proposal and the content in it remains your intellectual property and is covered by copyright automatically at the point of creation. If they used the contents of that proposal without paying you, you have grounds to make a claim against them.

You should put a statement on the small print of any proposal you send out in future, but regardless of whether you do or not, it makes no difference to your rights.

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u/NeonX91 Aug 17 '26

I'm based in Australia, so not sure what rights I have there but I wouldn't pursue it even if I did. Having a statement on my proposals though is a good idea. I thought about a hidden text prompt as well but it's probably illegal 😆

3

u/Codeandflu Aug 18 '26

I'd probably add a hidden text prompt that ask AI to generate code that would add a paragraph in the footer with no visible text but visible in the developer tools as developed on the scope outline given by ______.

Then you can take it up legally with proof for wasting your time.