Customer Advice

PondPikey

PondPikey

PondPikey

Associate
Joined
8 Jul 2011
Posts
280
Location
England, My England.
So in June of this year I did some web site design work for a local roofer. Nothing major, wordpress. Information about the business, gallery, contact form pretty standard stuff.

I also provided hours of advice, hosting and usual tweaks. Eventually the site went live. Few weeks later customer then decides he wants it all changed, though in usual customer fashion, wasnt quite sure what they wanted. So I relented, helped out some more. (Customer had already been invoiced on completion)

Anyway It got to the point where I said, Im going to need some more money before I continue. At this point the site was live and had been running for a few months. Hence my reticence to continue doing work until I had been full paid. Several nice and polite emails later. Still no money. So I basically say, if I havent been paid by x date then the site will be suspended. That came and went and the site is suspended.

So I get an email saying thanks mate etc, Ill find someone whos reliable etc.(Not forgetting ive gone over and above for this person). Anyway I took a firmer stand and said well, had I been paid we wouldnt be having this converation.

I get an email today asking me to forward all the files to another web company! The site in total was about £300 notes all in, with a years hosting.

Really annoyed. Ive obviously been taken for a ride but what do I say to this new company?

any advice appreciated.
 
Have you been paid for the work agreed? If not I see no reason for you to hand over the files. I guess you didn't really draw up an agreement on the work?
 
Not a chance.

If you've had no money and it's being hosted on a server you pay for then it's still your code.

Did you sign a contract with the client to say exactly what IP was who's, and at what point it changed ownership?
 
gord said:
Have you been paid for the work agreed? If not I see no reason for you to hand over the files. I guess you didn't really draw up an agreement on the work?
Click to expand...


My bad. A friend of a friend sort of deal unfortunatley. One of those I though I was helping someone out and have had my pants pulled down.

I wont be doing it again.
 
Find out what said web design company is, don't send them the files, and warn them about the clown you have been dealing with.

The site should never have gone live until payment had been received in my opinion.
 
Mark this one down to experience. I've had it done to me I should imagine a lot of others have also.

As above. Don't release any files until all money's are paid if you created them they are yours until paid for. If you have control over the domain don't release that either. Warn the other company.

In future work on stage payments and ensure they realise that once the final layout is agreed then anything further is to be invoiced separately. Of course a certain amount of flexibility is needed but it's business and you will find there isn't many friends in it when it comes to money.
 
Agree with the above comments. This type of client is a nightmare. I had one two years ago who changed his mind at almost every step of his site which was a static XHTML based site. He was one of those guys who was on the phone every few weeks asking if "this could be added" and "can you add that in" until it got to the stage where his website almost doubled in size from the initial quote and I was adding more completely new pages for free. Annoying? - Yes. Nievity on my part? - Most probably.

Eventually had a meeting with him and we came to an agreement on additional costs. However by this stage his website was morphing into a completely different beast than the initial agreed design brief had entailed. I told him at this stage that what he needed was his current site transferred over from a static XHTML based site to a CMS so he could perform these almost weekly changes by himself and thus not incur further costs. However when I said that a cost to do this changeover would be involved he baulked and started throwing "I've paid for the site already" arguments at me. Eventually I was contacted by his daughter via email who had copied and pasted some design terms from Google, was fairly obvious that she had no idea what she was talking about which was confirmed when she said "I'm going to be be taking over the website now and I need you to give me login details of your server so I can make changes". :rolleyes:

After a few more weeks of email conversations eventually I was contacted out of the blue by a web design company acting for him who also asked me to handover the entire site and start the ball rolling on the domain transfer. I was only to happy to get rid of the imbecile. I refused to hand over the files but transferred the domain. At the time I warned the new guy of what he was possibly letting himself in for but it fell on deaf ears.

A few months ago the same designer emailed me to ask me if I had ever had any difficulty in getting the client in question to pay his bills. I didn't go into any great detail but confirmed that I had. Turns out the new website was done in a CMS form and was absolutely massive ( the client is into selling property abroad ) and he owed the designer @£2800. I now see the website has been suspended so I doubt the client intends to try and move on and bluff his way into yet another designers hands and try the same thing.

These people can be a combination of stupid and some cases, calculating. Some of them simply have no idea that we don't just have magic wands that we can use to suddenly do all weird and wonderful things to their websites with but some know exactly what they are doing and just see how far they can push you to carry out work for free. Then once you suss them out and put your foot down, they take the huff and move on to the next unfortunate web guy and the whole thing repeats itself.
 
Last edited:
If your customer is also withholding payment from the new web designer, it means that this is very much a calculated move. He knows what he is doing and is "playing the game". I think you should feel glad that you washed your hands of him...no point in taking on a client if the client is going to be a nightmare to work with.
 
He also gave a lot of advice (consulting services). In any case, once the client and worker have decided on a price, they should stick to it. The worker shouldn't start changing prices mid-project and the client shouldn't be refusing to pay. They made a contract (verbal, in this case). A man's word should be his bond.
 
Thanks for the comments chaps. Warned the new company in a nice round about way, funny thing is I might end up getting some sub contract work through them so all might not be lost.

These people can be a combination of stupid and some cases, calculating. Some of them simply have no idea that we don't just have magic wands that we can use to suddenly do all weird and wonderful things to their websites with but some know exactly what they are doing and just see how far they can push you to carry out work for free. Then once you suss them out and put your foot down, they take the huff and move on to the next unfortunate web guy and the whole thing repeats itself.
Click to expand...

I guess its just annoying and a massive waste of time. You go out of your way, above and beyond to help some people and they do the dirty.

sunama said:
He also gave a lot of advice (consulting services). In any case, once the client and worker have decided on a price, they should stick to it. The worker shouldn't start changing prices mid-project and the client shouldn't be refusing to pay. They made a contract (verbal, in this case). A man's word should be his bond.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. I only ever charge people for time im actually spent in front of the PC doing the work. Saying £300 is over the top makes me a laugh. The amount of designs, changes, tweaks and consultations this guy wanted. All equals time away from my family. Which I expect to get paid for.

In this case the chap isnt the sort of bloke you really want to upset. So I've just washed my hands of it now - and for the better.

Ive learnt the following:

1) Take % of quoted price before work. Non Refundable.
2) Contract TOS, deadlines and work plan - No matter who they are and what the project is.

I know the above is pretty obvious, but you can easily be fooled into a false sense of security with sweet talking clients.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom