Lunatic Cringe

About a month ago, a client of mine told me a story. He had hired a designer from a networking group to create a new logo and put together a brochure for his business. The designer quoted him $300 for the job. Well, my client thought that was a great price, but knowing how these things go, he budgeted $600 in his mind, because he was sure it would take longer. Now, this was brilliant on my client's part - since he figured it would cost double, if the project ran over, he would be prepared and he was fine with paying $600 for the work. So after missing a few soft deadlines, the designer presents him with the finished logo and brochure (there may have been a few revisions, but that's typical). My client was pleased and awaited the invoice. I have to say - I love this client, because he's a small businessman and pays promptly and is more than fair. When the invoice arrived, he was floored, it wasn't twice the quote, it wasn't 3 times the quotes, it was almost 5 times the amount of the quote! Needless to say, my client wasn't happy. He expressed his concern to the designer and the designer couldn't understand why my client was upset. My client paid the bill and will never use that designer again, plus he'll tell this story to others - all lost opportunities for the designer. So, if you are the designer, how do you handle this? My suggestion, PICK UP THE PHONE!!!! You should know how long the project will take. You should know when you are nearing the billing amount that is equal to what you quoted. You should have the balls to say - "Look, due to x,y,z, this project will exceed the original quote by $x amount." The client should then be able to pay for what you did and receive the work in progress to that point or give the blessing to continue on, knowing that he'll be paying more than he was quoted. And at this point, he should receive a new quote that is accurate. There are my 2 cents, what are your thoughts?