Tyler, review how your handling development work for your business and the contradictory statements that arise because of it, it's indicators your a client from hell and here's hoping you find your way out of these types of cycles.
Let's break this down,
I need this doing asap please - before the weekend if possible
Don't set up an unrealistic timetable from the start without an upfront statement of willingness to pay extra for this and ..
- reason a small deadline is I don't want to have to keep chasing for the work to be completed!
don't leave out an actual legitmate reason for expidited service. This is a tough one to be consice about without context: Lack of planning is not an emergency on the part of others and creating a false sense of urgency does not help clients or the developer. If there is frustration because of stalls or lack of comm's or hate for email there are other options for project managment. Follow-ups for works-in-progess is important(level of involvment,i.e. chasing) ,but yes low response times from devs is frustrating however don't feign suprise when it's proportional to the level of pay&planning.
I have been told that this is very easy and straight forward to do - so shouldn't take that long in terms of hours!
Easy and straight forward is not direclty proportional to time invested. This should be apparent by the level of unwillingness ,of the person opining, for them to do this work. If it's so easy why don't they just do it for free?
It's is also a cheap negotatiating tactic that automatically limits the number of professionals willing to engage with a prospect; as that's entering dealings with a dismissive statement of not valuing thier service or thier professional determination of pay.
2 day rush job is because in the past someone has said yes to do it, then I am constantly chasing for the work to be done - took about 4 days for a small peace of work!! I am flexible on the time - just dont take the piss.
That someone is not others, when constantly 'chasing for work to be done' that shows starting expectations are wrong. Set realisitc goals with realisitc pay and get a contract. If that seems too costly remember to factor in the business cost of doing this all over again via payed time loss.
4 days of work - pay a day rate x4 ? pay for 96 billable hours?. Or was the pay for the time it took and the turn around time was 4 days(i.e. delivered)?
If by some far chance you did pay for 96 hours you need to just hire a local agency or hire a consultant to get you and your ship in order. because wtf.
When posting a rush job it's rolling the dice that someone: has open times,sees your post,agrees to some predetermined random number,etc,etc this is not healthy business managment.
Devs are running businesses, which mean clients get into a queue/schedule for service, asking for expedited service is asking the hired dev to put off any other scheduled customers . Be wary of anyone overly willing to bump other customers at the drop of a hat without cost , they will do it again when another client is more 'urgent'.