I know a company that did this. They found a big client, and did a small project at breakeven. Result: the client was impressed, so now one of their biggest clients is paying breakeven rates; factor in the cost of flying an account person out to the client's headquarters, dropping everything when they change their minds about something, etc., and it's a big drag on growth.

Whenever I heard about this, I fantasized about being VP of marketing at basically any big company. Being on the other side of that transaction is surely a lot of fun.