How about freelancers who never complete work but still get paid? it happened to me.
I Wasn't Paid
161–170 of 201 posts
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree with what you said, even though I luckily still hadn't any client like that. I think, though, that a good method is to ask for an advance and maybe payments as the work progresses. I guess bad clients never pay advances.
If they pay on PayPal or via their credit card, they can always do a chargeback.
Then don't take payment via credit card. Only accept cash transfers, cash, or bank cheques.
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I have an idea for a website. If you build v1.0 I'll pay you a whole thousand dollars and you might get equity if it works very well." If only all the assholes were so easily self-identifying. The real problems are the charming, smooth talking, dream clients offering cool projects, top dollar, and paying on time...until they don't and decide to start making your life hell because you're in so deep already. They're n…
I agree with what you said, even though I luckily still hadn't any client like that. I think, though, that a good method is to ask for an advance and maybe payments as the work progresses. I guess bad clients never pay advances.
Agreed, one should never start work with a new client without an advance. It doesn't need to be big, but get the client to put some skin in the game.
Also, regular progress payments are essential. You don't want to be in the hole 10k to someone when negotiating further work.
http://jamespmcgrath.com/progress-payments-based-on-mileston...
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#164Earlier quoted context omitted.
"I have an idea for a website. If you build v1.0 I'll pay you a whole thousand dollars and you might get equity if it works very well." If only all the assholes were so easily self-identifying. The real problems are the charming, smooth talking, dream clients offering cool projects, top dollar, and paying on time...until they don't and decide to start making your life hell because you're in so deep already. They're n…
"The real problems are the charming, smooth talking, dream clients offering cool projects, top dollar, and paying on time...until they don't and decide to start making your life hell because you're in so deep already. They're no dummies." I can completely relate. If only there were a place to keep track of clients and their payment history. Glassdoor meets credit reporting. Clients with no history get charged more an…
Sounds like you have an idea for a startup. :)
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#165I was involved in the case involving Carlos 'Storm' Martinez, who is an amazing post sound mixer and a stand-up guy. I am a little perturbed to see him mentioned on the site. The design of the site in question was good, no doubt, but it was also riddled with a stolen Neutraface2 font face and the HTML didn't validate. And there was no RoR backend; the whole site was hosted on a GoDaddy shared server. From my understa…
>and the HTML didn't validate Stupid as it is to go down the publicly naming route, what has the HTML validation status of the code got to do with anything? This is a measurement that only means something to guys who measure things - it has nothing to do with business generated, traffic, or the user experience of a website (the true yardsticks of good work).
If a site doesn't validate, it might not appear properly in some browsers, reducing your customers' experience of your site. In extreme cases, it might also mean that they can't (eg.) see your buy button, killing your sales.
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
"The real problems are the charming, smooth talking, dream clients offering cool projects, top dollar, and paying on time...until they don't and decide to start making your life hell because you're in so deep already. They're no dummies." I can completely relate. If only there were a place to keep track of clients and their payment history. Glassdoor meets credit reporting. Clients with no history get charged more an…
Agree 100%. The follow-on problem is that once you are owed a not-insignificant amount of money by one of these clowns, the temptation is to keep them happy and avoid conflict in the hopes you'll get paid out without having to resort to litigation. I once worked for a few months with someone before I watched him not pay one of our contractors for no reason. When I raised the issue, he asked me if I'd be willing to ta…
Yes, I've seen this happen at a couple of small businesses that I've been involved with. The trick is to have regular milestone payments, and if they miss them, work stops. (It'll annoy idiots like this to the point where they won't hire you, but that's kind of the point...)
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#167Similar situation, but closer to $9k. Filed a lawsuit in court - still waiting 3.5 years later (NYC). I suspect it'll take a long to collect even after a judgement. Yes, don't extend so much credit - lesson learned (the hard way). I consulted with a number of people debating whether or not to blog about this situation with the person's name. In the end I chose not to at that time, but realized later that this person…
Another middle ground would be to name and shame just to thing that are factually part of the public record: "I am suing John Smith in court for non-payment of $9k for work done 3.5 years ago". Don't go into fiery detail, keep it to the facts that are part of the court record. Of course, the hard part is keeping all the opinion stuff out of the blog posts around the fact-only one.
right... well, that's almost what I did. saying where it was, letting someone google my name in nyc and look for court records. i've only sued one person in nyc - it wouldn't be that hard.
But, publicizing on my blog, yeah. In some ways I think the moment's passed. If/when we ever get to court, I'll release the name then, unless there's some gag order (am I being too dramatic?)
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I had a project a couple years ago, just like this. Everything started off fine -- solid contract, good communication, etc. Payment was solid for the first few months, then it stopped. I was accused of putting together templates with no functionality behind them, and they demanded their money back. When I informed them where they could put their demands, so to speak, they threatened litigation. I had done the…
In retrospect, there were a few warning signs fairly early on Care to elaborate to teach the communtity?
Hindsight is 20/20, but typically any sign that they're weird and irrational (trail of angry developers/no business model), or that they'll try and screw you out of a fair payment (won't do commencement payments) are a red flag.
Even if you can't afford a lawyer, I would have something along the lines of terms and conditions, what happens on non-payment (usually work stops), etc. The "Fuck you, pay me" is a pretty good introduction to the field.
For web design you'll have milestone payments on commencement, initial design (with a couple of rounds of changes), conversion to HTML (with no changes) and installation on the site. Payment terms are 7 days, or as short as you can get away with. If they need more changes than agreed, or they change their mind, then they pay the balance and you requote for the new work. If they decide not to use your work, then they pay the balance. If they delay on any part of the work (eg. won't provide content for six months) then they pay the balance and you do the work later on. You get the idea, I'm sure.
If they balk at any of your conditions without a good reason, that's usually a sign that they'll be trouble and that you'll need to keep them on a tight leash and/or handle them with kid gloves.
On the flip side, if they're a good client, good payer and you're happy to work for them, then give them a lot of leeway. But the deadbeats get held to the letter of the agreement.
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#169Just build a kill switch into the code. If they don't pay, use it.
Re: I Wasn't Paid
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
>and the HTML didn't validate Stupid as it is to go down the publicly naming route, what has the HTML validation status of the code got to do with anything? This is a measurement that only means something to guys who measure things - it has nothing to do with business generated, traffic, or the user experience of a website (the true yardsticks of good work).
If a site doesn't validate, it might not appear properly in some browsers, reducing your customers' experience of your site. In extreme cases, it might also mean that they can't (eg.) see your buy button, killing your sales.
Validity is completely orthogonal to utility. It's trivial to craft a broken page with an invisible buy button that validates. I don't know of any major ecommerce site that validates.