Do you charge a client for email and chat communication as a freelancer? [closed]

Posted by skyork on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by skyork
Published on 2012-06-26T20:17:05Z Indexed on 2012/06/26 21:24 UTC
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freelancing

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client-relations

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time-management

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outsourcing

For a project that is billed by hours, should a freelancer charge the client for the amount of time he/she spends on email/chat correspondence?

For example, the client sends an email to the the freelancer, outlining the requirements. Should the freelancer charge the client for the time during which he/she reads the email and writes a reply. The same goes for chat conversations for clarifying the requirements.

In particular, if the freelancer's English is not very good, so that he/she spends extra time on understanding what the client wants and explaining him/herself (e.g. copying and pasting into Google Translate), should such time be charged to the client too?

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