Clients that don't pay?

Yeah bro, just let him relax for 3-4 days. Dont call him. You both know what's up. By the looks of it, he is just trying to mess with you and teach you a lesson.

"I'll think about what I should do with you" - he clearly wants to send you a message by throwing that out like that just to leave you thinking.

Give him time, don't push him and see what happens. Dont let him think you are hungry for the cash.My guess is he will pay you, at his terms though.. You broke yours and not delivered, he is doing it back at you now.
 


OP,

1. You suck for not responding to your client for 10 days.

2. You suck for doing the web dev work on their server and not yours.

Try to reach an agreement with him, or chalk it up to a lesson learned.
 
ChinaSearchAds said:
Do a scam site for the business. Outrank him. Pass on the leads to a competitor.
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That's exactly what I'd do.

Does it solve anything?
Nope. You're going to spend more money and time to do this but IMO there are few things in life sweeter than revenge. And getting to right above or right under his company in the SERPs with a ripoff report or even an entire domain dedicated to about how shitty of a company he has will be oh so sweet revenge.

I'd use a personally owned domain so you can blackmail him with it.

"Oh, you don't like that domain being there? Let me see what your bill is to me...looks like your outstanding bill was $2,000 + $1,000 of my wasted time ranking this site. You can send me $3,000 now and I'll transfer the domain to you."

Fuck 'em. He can pay your fine or he can spend 10x that amount hiring some SEO company to clean the first page of Google.

Sorry for the rant, I just really hate clients...as you can probably tell.
 
If the client was a nightmare from the beginning, what gave you the feeling you should both work with him and then proceed to leave him in the dark? If you argued with him the first day, it would've been best to just cut ties and move on from the beginning.
 
turbolapp said:
Tell him:
1. sorry.
2here's why: blah blah.
3.Then say, that's not an excuse just a reason so you don't feel like I was ignoring you
4. to make it up to you I'm going to do this (do a bonus whatever)
5. I expect to be totally done with this draft on this date. (and don't fuck that up this time)

^^appeases the client completely.
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Exactly!

I have fallen on the sword MANY Times with clients. Most of the time when I "explain what lead to my lack of communication" they totally understand and love you even more for being honest with them.
 
If you registered his name just in case your probably knew you were doing a shit job, move on, learn from it
 
This is why you make sure that to domain is registered to YOU and you alone. Once the client pays in full, THEN you give them the password to the account. If they want the password beforehand, tough shit. That's like asking to have the key before you buy the house and the home owner just handing it over to you. Not smart. THAT is where you fucked up. A client doesn't have to be informed every 5 seconds about the status of their site. If they have any questions or get antsy, they can call you. Just make sure and point that out when you start and they'll have no excuse for bitching about you not contacting them.
 
I see a lot of people mention that not having anything in writing is retarded, i'm new at this (only a dozen clients or so), but never signed anything and never had any client request a contract... First client was actually a lawyer and even he didn't ask for anything in writing.

Is it standard practice with you guys? You ALWAYS sign a contract? It's not a turn off?

This is why you make sure that to domain is registered to YOU and you alone. Once the client pays in full, THEN you give them the password to the account. If they want the password beforehand, tough shit. That's like asking to have the key before you buy the house and the home owner just handing it over to you. Not smart. THAT is where you fucked up. A client doesn't have to be informed every 5 seconds about the status of their site. If they have any questions or get antsy, they can call you. Just make sure and point that out when you start and they'll have no excuse for bitching about you not contacting them.
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Good advice, thank you

If you registered his name just in case your probably knew you were doing a shit job, move on, learn from it
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Registered domain the same night I found out the FTP password got changed
 
Last year had a contract with a client for a website plus first round SEO for a total of $3,600. As usual for me 1/3 rd down, second payment at a defined 50% point, last third on completion with 10 additional hours fine tuning included. Any other SEO would be a separate package.

Received $1,200 down and client approved first draft (have emails from him stating he loved it) Midway point, more love and the second $1,200 payment. Took about 6 hours to get to the final stage. Now client doesn't want to meet. Stops returning emails and phone calls. I drop in on him and suddenly he doesn't like the design. He literally says "I'm just not feeling it" I ask him what he's not feeling. He can't explain it. I tell him even though he has on multiple occasions approved and stated his joy with the design and functionality anything can be fixed to his liking. Just let me know what he would like to change. He still says he can't explain it.

Bottom line the guy pays $2,400 dollars and never gets the website. He is still using his Web 0.01 style website with HTML that looks like it was written in crayon. I modify the site I created for another customer in about 10 hours and sell for $2,000.

As long as I live I will never figure some people out.
 
conv3rsion said:
2k = nothing you can really do. 5k = nothing you can really do. >10k and now maybe you are going to court.
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What are you talking about?


YouFail.jpg
 
Just a quick update:

haters gonna hate/
bizousoft got paid/


did exactly what you guys said. Sent a very apologetic letter, explained that I will do extra work to make up for the mess up. Gave him plenty of time to think about it.

Picked me' check today

Pretty happy about it, breaaaap!
 
bizousoft said:
Just a quick update:

haters gonna hate/
bizousoft got paid/


did exactly what you guys said. Sent a very apologetic letter, explained that I will do extra work to make up for the mess up. Gave him plenty of time to think about it.

Picked me' check today

Pretty happy about it, breaaaap!
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Good for you. It's much easier to accept responsibility than it is to fight.
 
When I take projects I take a deposit, work up to that amount in hours then ask for another milestone payment. That way you're always paid before you do the work and they don't have to trust you with larger sums of money.... because very few do.

P.S. Never give them full advantage, you gave them the almost full project and hadn't been paid yet. Dumb on your part. Just take this as a lesson learned and NEVER do it again.
 
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