What happened, the clause usually involved, and change-order wording you can adapt \u2014 organized by the kind of agency work it applies to.
The client moves up their launch date by three weeks and expects the same design timeline to compress with it, at the original price.
The proposal scoped a marketing site. Midway through, the client asks for a member login area — a different kind of project that was never discussed or priced.
The design retainer covers ongoing site updates. The client asks for an in-depth competitive design audit of five competitor sites, expecting it included.
A new marketing VP joins mid-project and wants the five-page site expanded into a full rebrand — bigger than what the client originally signed off on.
The site launched as scoped. The client asks for a live chat widget from a specific vendor to be integrated — never discussed before launch.
The client changes their target audience mid-project, invalidating design work already built for the original audience, and expects a rebuild at no extra cost.
The engagement priced a finished design delivered as production assets. The client asks for the full editable source files — never part of what was quoted.
The client asks the design team to update their old site — built and hosted by a previous, unrelated agency — while the new site is still in progress.
The client signed off on a brand direction in writing. Weeks later they ask to see a completely different concept explored "just to compare."
The design engagement covered visual design and handoff. The client assumes analytics tracking is included and asks for it to be configured before launch.
The client emails Saturday morning needing an urgent homepage banner change before a Monday launch — the agreement never addressed weekend or after-hours work.
The engagement included one CMS training session at handoff. The client's team keeps requesting additional sessions for new hires as they join.
The client asks the design team to confirm the new site's cookie banner and privacy language are legally compliant with GDPR — a legal judgment, not a design task.
The new site launched with fresh content as scoped. The client asks for several years of old blog posts from the previous site to be migrated over and reformatted.
Design was approved by the original point of contact. Two new stakeholders are added to the account and each wants a fresh round of feedback on work already signed off.
The contract caps revisions at two rounds. The client asks for a third "quick pass" on the homepage — and frames it as too small to count.
The site shipped and the contract closed. Two months later, small design-tweak requests start arriving by email as if the engagement never ended.
The approved design was delivered as Figma files and exported web assets. The client separately asks for the same design rebuilt as print-ready PDFs.
The design proposal assumed the client would supply final copy. Deadline approaches with no copy delivered, and the client asks the design team to just write it.
The client, itself an agency reselling the work to their own end client, asks to strip the agency's credit and present the design as entirely their own with no attribution rights discussed.
The client wants launch moved up by a month, expecting the same sprint plan to compress at no additional cost.
The SOW scoped a checkout flow with card payments. The client asks for a saved-payment-methods feature — never discussed, never priced.
The dev retainer covers bug fixes and small feature work. The client asks for a deep technical audit of a competitor's site performance and architecture.
A new engineering leader joins the client side mid-build and wants to replace the agreed tech stack — a scope and cost change the original SOW never priced.
The application launched as scoped. The client asks for a new CRM integration to be built post-launch — never discussed or estimated beforehand.
The client changes their core business model mid-build, invalidating a chunk of already-built functionality, and expects it reworked at no extra cost.
The engagement was priced as a hosted, managed build. The client asks for full source code and repo ownership — a different deal than what was signed.
The client asks the dev team to troubleshoot a separate, unrelated internal tool built by a different vendor while the actual build is in progress.
The client signed off on an architecture and feature approach in writing. Deep into the build, they ask for an entirely different approach explored in parallel.
The SOW covered application functionality. The client asks for detailed event tracking and conversion analytics to be wired in — never scoped or estimated.
The build shipped and the contract closed. Small bug-fix and "can you just check this" requests keep arriving with no support agreement in place.
The client asks the dev team to confirm the payment flow is fully PCI-DSS compliant — a formal compliance certification, not a development task.
A production bug surfaces Saturday night and the client expects an immediate fix — the agreement never addressed after-hours support or on-call terms.
The engagement included one technical handoff session for the client's engineering team. New engineers keep joining and each wants their own walkthrough.
The SOW assumed the client would write end-user help content. With launch approaching and no docs delivered, the client asks the dev team to write them.
The new application launched with a fresh database as scoped. The client asks for years of historical records from the old system to be migrated in.
The build was approved by the original technical contact. A new stakeholder joins the client team and wants their own review before anything ships.
Two rounds of bug-fix/QA revisions were scoped and closed out. The client opens a third round of tickets — none of them are new bugs, all of them are new preferences.
A responsive web app was delivered and approved. The client separately asks for the same functionality rebuilt as a native mobile app.
The client, an agency reselling development services, asks to remove all code comments and attribution and present the build as their own in-house work.
The retainer scoped organic SEO and blog content. The client asks the team to start running and managing paid search ads — a different channel, never discussed.
The client wants a quarter's worth of content produced in half the time for an unplanned campaign, at the original retainer price.
The SEO retainer covers the client's own site optimization. The client asks for a deep competitive analysis across five rival domains, expecting it included.
A new marketing leader joins mid-retainer and wants to expand a scoped local-SEO engagement into a full national content and PR strategy.
The SEO campaign launched as scoped. The client asks for a marketing automation tool to be connected to track SEO leads — never discussed beforehand.
The retainer delivers monthly reports and content. The client asks for the agency's internal keyword research files and process documentation — never part of the deal.
The client asks the SEO team to investigate why a sister brand's completely separate website — never part of the engagement — is losing traffic.
The client signed off on a campaign content strategy in writing. With content already in production, they ask for a completely different concept to be developed as a comparison.
The client rebrands mid-retainer, invalidating the keyword strategy and content already built around the old brand name and positioning.
The SEO retainer ended and the account was formally offboarded. The client keeps forwarding keyword and competitor questions by email as if the retainer were still active.
The retainer includes a standard monthly report. The client asks for a live, custom analytics dashboard built and maintained — never scoped or priced.
A negative press mention breaks Saturday and the client wants immediate reputation-management content live — the retainer never addressed weekend or crisis-response work.
The retainer included one strategy walkthrough session at kickoff. The client's marketing team keeps requesting repeat sessions as staff turns over.
The SEO engagement started fresh with new tracking. The client asks for years of historical analytics data from a legacy platform to be imported and reconciled.
The SEO strategy was approved by the original marketing lead. New stakeholders join the account and each wants to revisit the strategy from scratch.
Two rounds of edits on the quarter's blog content were included and closed out. The client's new marketing hire asks for a full third pass on tone.
The content retainer assumed the client would supply technical product details. The client instead expects the writer to invent authoritative product specifics from scratch.
The client asks the content team to confirm health-related blog claims are FDA compliant — a regulatory legal judgment, not a content task.
A set of blog articles was delivered and published. The client separately asks for the same material repackaged as a video script series.
The client, a reseller of SEO services, asks for reports rebranded entirely under their own name with no mention of the agency doing the work — never discussed in the retainer.