Tell the local autorities that they are using your copyright material without permission, therefore they're breaking copyright law. It's an offence in most countries and will involve confiscation of evidences (servers or computers). It's easier if the foreign country has an embassy in your country.
Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
11–20 of 40 posts
Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#12Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#13Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#14Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#15This worked for me once a long time (10+ years) ago. Collect emails as evident and stop working. Send them a email and tell them I send all the emails correspondent to a collection agency. The last email got me the full $4k invoice paid in full in one week after weeks of delay. In the future, setup project in milestone phases, next phases won't start until payment received. AND written in the statement of Works/Contr…
I wrote a very angry email saying I intended to sell the debt to a collection agency, to ensure they paid in full, even if I never saw any of the money myself. They replied on the very same day, we negotiated, and I recovered about half the money I was owed by the end of the week.
On the other hand, forget shaming them publicly - you open yourself up to accusations of libel - or empty threats of legal action - you simply don't have the resources. The same goes for sabotaging or erasing your code. But debt collection is a very real option.
Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#16This doesn't help you now, but next time get a deposit of two-months estimated work up front. If they don't want to pay the deposit, don't work with them. Now, if you do two months of work and they happen to not pay you, you stop all work, take the deposit, and you lost nothing. If they want to start work again, charge another 2 month deposit up front and scold them for wasting your time.
Time to scold you (sorry)...why the hell did you do 9 months of work without getting paid? What are you thinking?! You have inadvertently taught this company to never pay you, ever. You are now (and most likely always will be) the guys they get free work from.
You might have to cut your losses and move on.
Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#17Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#18Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#19Write a Twitter bot and make anyone that mentions that company aware of their tactics.
Re: Ask HN: Handling an international non-paying client
#20I guess you could call it a threat of 'focused shaming'.
The amount due was a relatively small amount. A collection agency might work better for larger amounts.