Fitnesssf took down their Facebook pages.
Website Impounded
91–100 of 156 posts
Re: Website Impounded
#92Freelancers and agencies: consider having all work prepaid. Your fears may say that clients won't go for it, but they are going for it with other agencies/consultants, and in other professions this is a mainstream way of doing business. Government and huge corporate sales might not go for it, but you should be adding a 0 to the end of your price quotes to them as compensation.
That wouldn't work for me as a client: I've dealt wit scummy freelancers, too. You could consider going through an agency- one that offers the ability to (1) escrow money, (2) keep a written record of agreements, and (3) provide mediation. There are costs to this, but, at least until you trust each other, they may be the way to go.
I have everyone prepay me for Rails development. I think the reason it's not an issue is that they've worked with bad freelancers, and people that drop the ball, flake out, stop answering emails.
They don't want that so bad that they will prepay me because they believe I'm not going to do that to them, they really want me to do their project, and so prepayment is a non-issue.
Edit: I haven't asked for $30,000 in advance before; more like 20 hour blocks of time, or thirds of projects paid in advance
Re: Website Impounded
#93Ouch - this seems like an overly emotional approach to an obviously worrying problem, and I do sympathise with the guy - I imagine if I were in the same position then this would make me feel good, for about 6 hours.
Then I'd realise that I was possibly being a dick and just a blank page with "Please contact accounts@host" as kibibu said would have done (and not pissed anyone off too bad).
Re: Website Impounded
#94Re: Website Impounded
#95I don't see the problem with this. People deserve to be paid for the work they do, and time they expend, which is irreplaceable. If you take your car to the shop and can't pay for the work to be done, they put a mechanic's lien on it, and impound the car until the work is paid for. This is no different from that method, which is totally legal. Similarly, I've met software developers who set timebombs in custom softwa…
If you don't pay the mechanic, the mechanic doesn't get to put a sign out front saying "BOB DOESN'T PAY HIS BILLS. HE'S IMMORAL!"
Actually, I see this quite often at shops all over. One posted the full name and amount of unpaid bills on their very large outdoor sign. Others post pictures of bounced checks. If the mechanic is the shop owner, he can do what he wants with his property.
And as far as I'm concerned, this applies to the web, too. If the web designer still owns the domain and server, go ahead and deface it to their hearts' content. If the client owns that stuff, however, the unpaid designer should just take back their work and let the client deal with the blank website.
Re: Website Impounded
#96That web designer turned a contract issue into a potential tortious interference issue -- against him.
Thankfully, he's in Europe, so there's really no way that'd affect him.
I think it's a brilliant move on his part; it'll likely cost the customer at least some business, and I love seeing deadbeats humiliated.
Re: Website Impounded
#97Freelancers and agencies: consider having all work prepaid. Your fears may say that clients won't go for it, but they are going for it with other agencies/consultants, and in other professions this is a mainstream way of doing business. Government and huge corporate sales might not go for it, but you should be adding a 0 to the end of your price quotes to them as compensation.
That wouldn't work for me as a client: I've dealt wit scummy freelancers, too. You could consider going through an agency- one that offers the ability to (1) escrow money, (2) keep a written record of agreements, and (3) provide mediation. There are costs to this, but, at least until you trust each other, they may be the way to go.
We actually do all 3 of these things at matchist (http://matchist.com/talent). Not because we only deal with scummy clients or developers, but because it makes both sides feel comfortable and then they can simply concentrate on the project at hand, instead of worrying about somebody running off with the money.
Re: Website Impounded
#98Checkout http://www.zencash.com to help avoid this issue.
Re: Website Impounded
#99I don't see the problem with this. People deserve to be paid for the work they do, and time they expend, which is irreplaceable. If you take your car to the shop and can't pay for the work to be done, they put a mechanic's lien on it, and impound the car until the work is paid for. This is no different from that method, which is totally legal. Similarly, I've met software developers who set timebombs in custom softwa…
> If you take your car to the shop and can't pay for the work to be done, they put a mechanic's lien on it, and impound the car until the work is paid for. This is no different from that method, which is totally legal. The former is legal because it is specifically authorized by law. For example, here in Washington mechanic's liens are specifically authorized and regulated in the Revised Code of Washington chapter 60…
Who owns the website? If I asked somebody to do a little work and fix up my existing website, I wouldn't expect them to hold it hostage in a billing dispute. But if they built the whole thing, I don't think I'm entitled to any of it until I pay.
Re: Website Impounded
#100I don't see the problem with this. People deserve to be paid for the work they do, and time they expend, which is irreplaceable. If you take your car to the shop and can't pay for the work to be done, they put a mechanic's lien on it, and impound the car until the work is paid for. This is no different from that method, which is totally legal. Similarly, I've met software developers who set timebombs in custom softwa…
> Similarly, I've met software developers who set timebombs in custom software they write for companies, with an easy to install patch that gets released when that company pays it's bill.
Not paying your bills is not legal, and the designer has a legal option.
Putting a timebomb in the software is also not legal, and probably a criminal offence in some places.