have any freelance consultants ever "resigned" from a project because of poor quality work from other contributors?

[hatwoman]

I can't be too specific here...but I took a contract to oversee the finalisation of a project - mainly the writing of a report. 4 core sections were meant to be written by 4 other consultants - appointed before I came on board. One has dropped out. 2 are producing poor quality work.(despite considerable levels of guidance from me - which I know from past experience would produce decent results if I was working with basic good raw material). The 4th consultant is ok. I've got serious doubts as to whether much at all can be salvaged. Obviously I know I need to put my concerns on the table...but how bad would it be to just hold my hands up and say, look - I can't do this...?

I'm a consultant and probably wouldn't walk away because it gives the others the opportunity to blame you for the poor quality of the work if the project goes tits up - it's happened to me before .

Can you speak to the client regarding your concerns and suggest potential solutions eg terminate the contracts of the poor quality consultants and arrange for the sections to be finalised by someone decent?

thanks pushmepullyou. I have no idea what those solutions might be...but you're right that that's what I need to think about. Reading between the lines I think they knew they were up shit creek anyway, which is why they got me in...