Scope Creep Examples — Web design
A request to fix something on a site the agency didn't build
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 engagement is designing a new site to replace the client's current one, which was built years ago by a different agency the client no longer works with. Mid-project, the client asks whether the team can "just quickly update the old site's pricing page" while the new one is being built — a live site the current team has never worked in, on a platform they didn't choose, that isn't part of the engagement at all.
Clause typically implicated
Clause typically implicated
Deliverables clause→ — Defines what's actually being built under this agreement — a different site, on a different platform, built by a different team, isn't in that list.
Suggested change-order wording
Suggested change-order wording (illustrative, not legal advice)
The current site isn't something our team has worked in, and it's built on a different platform than what we're building for you now — it's outside the scope of the new-site engagement. If it's urgent, I can either take a look and quote it as a separate one-off, or point you toward getting temporary support from whoever manages that platform. Which would be more helpful?
How this usually resolves
This one is less about pricing and more about unfamiliar-platform risk — quoting an hour to "just update a pricing page" on an unfamiliar CMS can turn into much more time once something breaks, so agencies often decline outright rather than take on the liability of touching a system they don't know.
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