How did the site get that way to begin with? Did their webmaster(s)/developer(s) quit or something? Obviously you already know the dilemma you're in so you've got the battle 1/2 won already. Personally (and there's some who would disagree) I don't think it's worth wasting time on a mess like the one you're describing. We have a term for that here... it's called "spaghetti code" and more often than not it's just not worth fixing.
If it were my decision I'd simply be honest and up front with them. Tell them the best solution (and cheapest solution) for them is for you to redo the site in ColdFusion. Why charge them to fix something that's broken and then charge them again to redo it in ColdFusion? Yes, they obviously want to be back online and working asap but *you* weren't the one who caused the problem to begin with. You can sympathies with them for the situation they're in but that doesn't mean you have to share their pain (or fix anything for free). Try to get them a quick/basic ColdFusion solution with the bare minimum of features working as quickly as possible so their business doesn't suffer too much and keep going from there. Obviously this answer is assuming that you have a pretty quick turn around time and that this application isn't something that's going to take MONTHS just to roll out the door. It's a tough call to make (especially without more details) but that's my 2 cents. -Novak ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mosh Teitelbaum" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 5:59 PM Subject: RE: Advise Needed > When you draft the contract, have them pay a portion up front, and another > portion after approval of the fixed site (but before moving it to > production). This way, they're already well into the project financially > and it would make them think twice about backing out given the amount of > money they've already given you. > > -- > Mosh Teitelbaum > evoch, LLC > Tel: (301) 625-9191 > Fax: (301) 933-3651 > Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > WWW: http://www.evoch.com/ > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: chad [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Wednesday, October 16, 2002 11:24 PM > > To: CF-Talk > > Subject: Advise Needed > > > > > > We were approached by a company to refresh their web site. It currently > > is a mess of PHP, CGI, and perl. Basically it does not work. It pulls > > a 500 error everytime something is added to the basket. > > > > They want us to quote moving the site since they cannot get anyone to > > fix their current web site. I am really afraid of moving the site to > > one of our servers since we don't have one that is PHP/Perl. > > > > I am afraid we will spend more time fixing the old site then it is worth > > and once we got it running they would bail out on the CF refresh we > > quoted them. > > > > I would rather leave the site at the current provider, fix the site so > > it at least works, then start developing the CF refresh. > > > > Then comes my fear that once we get the site running they will never > > want to do the CF refresh we quoted them. > > > > I suppose we will have to invest in a lawyer to draw up a contract that > > says we will fix the current site and they WILL contract use to do the > > CF refresh. > > > > Any other ideas on how to approach this situation? I don't want to get > > burned. > > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=4 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists&body=lists/cf_talk FAQ: http://www.thenetprofits.co.uk/coldfusion/faq Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm
