+1 If they are a great company they may do a bit of work and arrive at the conclusion that they aren't the right fit, it is solely up to them to decide if they want to waive any fee (for goodwill, in hopes that you say "those guys are great, we will go back to them"). If you go to your doctor and he says "your heart is screwed, go see a cardiologist", do you still pay him? regards, - Graham -----Original Message----- From: TechNet [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Burcham Sent: Monday, April 12, 2010 3:20 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [TN] Contract PCB Design Services T&C If your contractor has invested time (=money) in your company's product, then you should pay for that time. You chose them and you are choosing to take what they have done and pass it on to someone else. If they have not defaulted on what they have provided, pay them, do the right thing. Barbara Burcham [log in to unmask] pcb Trace Design On Mon, Apr 12, 2010 at 8:11 AM, Croslin, Robert <[log in to unmask] > wrote: > Dear Technetters, > > In my company's desire to save costs, the decision was made to lay off > our own PCB designer and contract PCB design services to external design > firms. So far, it's working, but not as well as we had hoped. The > engineering staff realizes that when you dump an amazingly capable > designer willing to work all-nighters and weekends without even being > asked, something is lost, but Sr. Management does not. > > 1. I'm being asked to provide a set of standard terms and conditions for > such arrangements. Do any of you who use or provide contract PCB design > services have a standard agreement you use? > > 2. Next, if when using a contract house and you discover they're not the > right ones for that particular design for some reason, and mutually > choose to move it to a more specialized firm, do you simply not pay > anything to the original firm, even though they did build libraries and > do placement and original routing, or do you negotiate a fee for time > spent to date? > > I contend that these are services similar to what you receive at a > doctor or dentist who "practice" their arts using learned skills and > that it's simply not an exact science. Am I wrong here? > > Bob Croslin > The Nielsen Company > > ______________________________________________________________________ > This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. > For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] > ______________________________________________________________________ > > --------------------------------------------------- > Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 > To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in > the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet > To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to > [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) > To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to > [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest > Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives > Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at > [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 > ----------------------------------------------------- > ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 ----------------------------------------------------- ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please contact helpdesk at x2960 or [log in to unmask] ______________________________________________________________________ --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------