> The only goal of a company that has billable hours is to rack up billable hours.
This is only true if the contract doesn't have a maximum budget. Often, the goal is actually to reduce billable hours because there is a maximum amount that can be spent (cost-wise) and you need to make sure you have enough hours left to actually finish the job on time.
Well in this exact case; the agency quite successfully structured things so that the billable hours were grown significantly beyond what was originally contracted...
Yes, definitely. I just wanted to point out that you should really include maximum amounts in job-based contracts. A professional should be able to accurately guess how many hours it will take.
This is only true if the contract doesn't have a maximum budget. Often, the goal is actually to reduce billable hours because there is a maximum amount that can be spent (cost-wise) and you need to make sure you have enough hours left to actually finish the job on time.