Hope this will be useful for someone...

Recently we were asked to design an e-commerce website (not all but the e-commerce part and design). We've done, and the client did approve the work. However we did not hear from them since then (I confirm that they are alive). Eventually I've got tired emailing, faxing and waiting and decided to try another method ("Public shame" as I called it).

I have created a simple web page with our view of the issue (~1 hour) and put it on-line. Since the client's name was SemiCentral.com I registered the domain name www.semicentral-warning.com ($8.95 for the domain name at GoDaddy, hosted on our server so the hosting is free). Note that the name of the client's site appears as a full word on the domain name -- this is important for better ranking on search engines.

I have submitted the site to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN -- free) plus dozens smaller search engines automatically via TrafficBlazer ($19.95). Together with a couple of basic SEO techniques I expect the site to get ranked quite high when searching for "SemiCentral" and hopefully a couple of client's business domain terms, too.

After the site appears in search engines I am going to let the client know of this site and suggest that they follow the instructions on the site for their own good.

I will post any updates in this thread...

Any comments?

Why did you do that? What for?
__________________
Real estate website design. Real estate software. Real estate management software.

Professional website development for $390.00!

he made a design for a site, and the client didnt payed, pretended he is dead.

why not just sell the debt to a debt recovery company?

Yeah, I've got some comments...you're either lying or a complete dumbass (I suspect the latter).

You spent money on TrafficBlazer when you didn't need to, you created a site that relies on people searching for the company name (which very rarely occurs unless the company has done a good job of promoting its own name, which is highly unlikely) and you're *****ing on a webmaster board that does not represent your client's target market.

Either sue him or pull your code off for non-payment. It's that simple.

Before starting any project designers normally get a non refundable deposit from the customer to cover initial costs. If the project is expensive it's quite normal to agree mid point payments until the project is completed.

Getting a deposit up front has saved me on more than one occasion!

I dont care what every one thinks. Thats awsome, your my hero!

OK, I am fairly new here, was actually coming to the site make a post about a birthday greeting i just received.

Anyhow, to each is own, that is just the way it is, but, you did ask for an opinion, so IMHO

I have had my company for almost 10 years now, our marketing department and sales department has been alive for 15. What does this have to do with this post? experience.

You are running a business my friend, and one of the hard lessons of business, is, sometimes you lose. What can you do about it? not much really, as any business man knows that time is money, so the more time you spend ranting about this nonpaying client, the more money he has actually cost you.

There are many ways of making sure you dont get burned.
Get a deposit on the work, do any development on a development server. Any templates, make them into 800x600 jpgs so that client can view it that way, rather than having the ability to right click, save all, say thank you very much

Now ok, fine, damage is done, you have lost your money, that is the life of business, but how professional have you made yourself look by going out and doing what you have done? This is business my friend, not personal. You cut your loss and move on.

Where is your client located? I have several clients that disappeared for quite some time, but it was not by their doing, there was some seriously bad weather over there. (Side Note) as a developer, you should always stay on top of world weather, nothing worse then sending out a whole bunch of b***h mail to find out that the customer has gone through a flood, hurricane or the like.

Either way, ya , you lost the money, but you can reuse the template on another site, just switch up some images, or, package it up and sell it.

thats all

no flaming ok?

I sympathise with your issue. When we are in the same situation (this is only after many phone calls, emails etc) simply take the site offline and replace the homepage with a holding page.

The holding page can state that the site has exceeded its bandwidth limit. The client will then contact you to inform you of their issue - you explain about the non payment and demand payment.

This is a very aggressive tactic but we find it gets payments from reluctant clients.

I have to say I have agree with a previous post by teclive . At this point you are simply doing what my friends and I call stepping over dollars to pick up pennies. Rather then spending all that time trying to collect from that one non-paying client you should be working on getting new clients. It sounds like you have spent a lot of time on this.

I used to get upset by things like this myself, but in the end you are the only one that loses. They can get another domain, host, etc. The best thing to do is in the future is get a deposit then only turn over the pages or files after they have paid.
vbmenu_register("postmenu_273401", true);

Thank you, finally, someone who agrees with me,thedreamaster , i was starting to think that we were going to have to start up and 'ethics and morals' thread.

I am sure, well, I am hoping, by now you have moved on and you are not losing sleep over this any more. I came here because you were upset with getting 'ripped off' but at the same time you were upset about this client losing you money, you went and spent more money on them.Hmm, I dunno, could just be me, and thedreamaster but..that makes no sense.

How can one be angree about losing money then turn around and spend money on the same source that already lost them funds.

I wonder, now that you have caused yourself more loss over this, and have actually put yourself on the same level, if not lower than the client, do you plan on registering another domain? say........badbusinessethics.com


Teclive
your friendly neighbourhood custom web developer

Hi, I'm new to this blog.

Question: were you threatened with a libel suit?

I have a similar problem with a deadbeat client in Chicago who contracted me for graphic design services and will not pay up. She says, however, that her boyfriend put a check in the mail which is a fabrication. I created a web page detailing my experience with her and to warn future clients. If it's all true, can I be sued successfully?

Thanks,
Joy

Originally Posted by joyalexander

Hi, I'm new to this blog.

Question: were you threatened with a libel suit?

I have a similar problem with a deadbeat client in Chicago who contracted me for graphic design services and will not pay up. She says, however, that her boyfriend put a check in the mail which is a fabrication. I created a web page detailing my experience with her and to warn future clients. If it's all true, can I be sued successfully?

Thanks,
Joy

if you were to cause her business loss of money, then ,yes, if she really wanted to, she could sue, she can lay a civil suit on you. I would not worry about that too much, if she is not paying her bills then its unlikely she will put out money for an attorney. You really should not create web pages like that though, its not mature and you are messing with peoples livelihoods. I mean ya, ok, she messed with your too, but our job as developers is not to see who can screw who over more when it comes to payment.

Straight and simple, you should have a contract before you start work, and the client should not be given any files until final payment is received.
In teh 'web law' those files she has if she has them, still belong to you until final payment is reecieved, so in truth, if she went off and made loads of money, your graphics being part of that, you could sue for money because the property she is using belongs to you. unless of course you signed a release to give her ownership of the 'products'

I understand that developers or designers get upset when they lose money, we all do, but, its also part of business and its called 'cutting your losses'

if we all did business 'properly' with full contracts and release forms, this would make a large impact on the amount of times people find themselves in this situation.

I would take the web page down, you are not going to prove anything with it, and really, unless you are blackhatting or spamming the engines, who is going to search for it or find it?

You have no right to interfere with their 'workings' nor do they. A loss is a loss, and unless you plan on getting an attorney to deal with your loss, i would back off gracefully and tip your hat.

If you are so pissed off you cant sleep at night, there are other means of dealing with it, contact their local business bureau, things of that sort.

but NOBODY has the right to purposesly bring on any kind of harm to another human being or company.

See this is all part of my problem, you all complain that this 'wicked' person ripped you off, yet, stand back and take a look at what you are doing. You are actually being worse than them. Dont throw stones from a glass house my friend, it makes for alot of bandaids.

wipe your hands and take the loss, or, get an attorney and sue.......whats that? you dont want to put out the money for an attorney to deal with the problem correctly? worried about getting sued yourself? hmm, guess maybe you should not have put that web page up then eh?



just my two cents, could be wrong, could be right, but hey, atleast its moral

I dont mean to sound like a hard a_s my friend, just business

It is clear that you have invested quite some money and your time because you want to recover your fees. But I doubt this will yield some result for you unless you are sure that the person is not a fraud. You could have tried with a debt recovery company.

.
.
If you were hard-core I'd suggest a baseball bat -

They have a way of getting peoples attention

But, chances are, that you're not (hard-core)

If that's the case, here's an opinion :

Get their info (goto WhoIS if you have to) and find their HOME TOWN ADDRESS

Take out a 4column inch square ad in the local News Paper with a warning
about how people need to watch out for this person

Place the ad in 14 point BLACK CAP - USE RED TRIM AROUND THE AD

For the louse few bucks it will cost you, they'll have to face their own community
over cheating a defensless marketer out of their food money

If you'e as good as you indicate, I'm willing to bet you can do a great write-up on it

File a complant on them with the Local BBB

Call the ATTOURNEY GENERAL for their STATE, and place a complaint,
ask the AG to help you get RESTITUTION for your LABOR AND TIME

Turn them in for INTERNET FRAUD to the FBI

IF all else fails, get three 30 gallon aluminum barrels of BUDWISER and take them
to the local MOTORCYCLE GANG and GIVE THEM TO THE GANG

Tell them it's FREE

Drink a few beers with them, you'll be surprised how nice they are to you.........

Wait till two of the barrels are empty

Point this person out to the Motorcycle guys, and tell them what they did to you....

Whatever you do - DON'T FORGET THE TAPS FOR THE BARRELS !!!

You can add the cost of the ad and the beer on to the price of what they owe you....



Just joking about the beer part and the Motorcycle Gang
but the Attourney General and the FBI is a GOOD IDEA

BP
.
.

should we not weigh the cost of the options to the amount of the original loss?

i mean, if you bought something for 10 bux, and it was broken, but say, it will cost you $50 to take it back to the store...is it really worth getting a new one? you have now spent $40.00 past the original cost.

weigh the pros and cons, and obviously cost to loss

I'm with teclive on this one. Don't waste too much time cryingover your spilt milk. What's done is done...there are some losses in business! Move on and work on getting new clients!

Christie

Alexavrutin's tactic seems to have worked. The web site's now gone,
but searching for semicentral.com fees finds this thread. I am doing some of my own webhost server setup and email and sites, and also electronics, so I was checking on semicentral.com's history.


Now with 1&1 web hosting it's possible to do this tactic with a $5.99 outlay. I agree with other replies that a policy of cash in advance is best though.