About a year ago, a family member referred someone he knew to me to do a website for him. So, we agreed on a price, I made the site. I didn’t insist on a paper contract, but did most of the negotiating via email as I like to have a written record of such things. I purchased a template for him out of my pocket and got a license of the CMS my employer makes for free, with the understanding that when I received my clients payment, I would pass some of that along to my employer.
He gave me his credit card number (which I then shredded) to setup a hosting account for him, which I did. The site was all but finished in June or July of last year; I’d have to check my records to be sure. There were a few last minute details about setting up his email and such, but I never got a response. Instead, emails came to me (as I’d setup for testing purposes.) And, given the number of emails, his site was doing pretty well for him. I believe he did some google adsense advertising.
But, despite my request for finishing things up, I never got a response. Odd. So I ended up sending an email in October requesting payment, and mentioning that I would be withholding emails until I received a payment. The client responded, dismissing most of the emails as “do it yourselfers” looking for help. This was odd, since I had a copy of all of these emails, and a lot of them were looking for quotes. Hmm. Well, not really my problem to help him close sales. Anyway, in said email he promised to make a payment “very soon”, after he’d done a few jobs.
I then heard nothing for months. I sent a few emails between then and April, with no response. I deactivated the CMS software he was using from my employer so he could no longer log in and update the site. I left one voicemail with him in March, although I don’t have the exact date — this is why I prefer emails, proof is nice.
I finally gave up in April. Since he hadn’t received any email from his site since October, I assumed that he had no use for the site anymore. Disappointing, but whatever — I considered small claims court, but decided it wasn’t worth my time. I gave up. That said, I’m not going to leave him with my hard work for nothing, and besides the site was still sending me emails every now and then, and I don’t want to receive those.
So, a few days ago, I deleted the site, and figured I’d never hear anything from it again. Lesson learned: Get a deposit, even for friends of family members.
To my surprise, I received an email from his host (I was still set as the admin account) letting me know that he had changed the password on it. Ok, that’s fine. He paid for that, it’s his. To go along with it, I sent him an email letting him know that I had sent him all of the passwords originally when the site was finished.
Some back and forth went on, where he demanded that I re-upload his site. Interesting. I maintained that I would do so as soon as I received a payment, and even gave him options to pay via Paypal to have it up ASAP. He threatened not to send me a cheque unless the site was uploaded before 3pm today. Well, I wasn’t really expecting to receive a cheque anyway, and I’m certainly not going to re-upload it (and do MORE free work) only to have him remove my FTP access immediately after. If I get a cheque, bonus — sure, I’ll go ahead and upload it. If not, no skin off my back — we’re in exactly the same situation we’re in now.
The tone of his emails is getting a bit obnoxious though, I don’t particularly like being told what to do by deadbeat clients. I’m pretty tempted to go to small claims court now. I let him know that if I didn’t receive a payment by April 30th, I’d take further action. We’ll see what that action is. It might be small claims, it might be re-addressing this post with names and contact information. It might be “take a nap”. I like naps.
But I don’t work for free.
Why don’t you talk to your family member about your deadbeat client aka their friend? Maybe they would intervene on your behalf.
Said family member took deadbeat client’s side without asking me for my side first. You know which family member this is. Are you surprised? :)
Sucks that this bonehead isn’t willing to pay up. If I were you, I’d print out those emails with the negotiations (I assume you still have them, cuz otherwise you’re fucked for getting paid) and mail them to HIM with a SASE and a note saying, “remember these? when you pay me, I will give you the work I did.”
Why not talk to your family member that you are even more closely related to and explain your situation and see if he might intervene on your behalf with his sibling? Or maybe just get an opinion. Surely, the alpha male of their family has some influence with younger family members when dealing with their deadbeat friends if you catch my drift…
Carol Ann hooked you up with a deadbeat? Man! Little sisters, eh?
Yea, even without contract paperwork and backing emails he doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on. By default the designer owns the design. The software is licensed to your company and the only thing he paid for was the hosting, which he has. Software (CMS) is to be paid for up front, (similar to hosting) and design is always the property of the designer even when paid for. Clients pay for a right to use the design, (exclusive or otherwise). Hey, I did learn something in school.
Procedures I use are 50% up front just to book a date for the project (which is one month in advance at the moment). I require a credit card on file for the remaining amount and any software/hosting purchases required for the project. It all gets spelled out in an emailed estimate with a giant “accept”, “decline” or “change” button thanks to Freshbooks.
Sometimes the use of family for this kind of work is a method of getting around procedures like this or to get the work completed faster. Some of my competition simply have “Not accepting new work” on their home page.