The only problem with sabotaging your own work is that then the customer really does have a reason not to pay you.
There are no easy answers to this. Like Berend, I used the disputes tribunal to reclaim a sum of over $1000. I had to give a little to get what I did. The adjudicator said that he saw a lot of IT deals in his tribunal. Because I kept my head and refrained from doing anything inflammatory my claim sailed through. The people who have to deal with unpaid customers the most must be tradies, especially those who work on large construction projects funded by derivatives of derivatives of hedge funds. When it all falls over and they don't get paid for 6 months work, they have to strip the site and abandon it. So I think IT developers are relatively lucky. I protect myself by doing work in steps of no more than $1000 in value. On completion of each step I require payment. This works well because it keeps the other party on track. They have to look at the site as it progresses and remain engaged. You can base your level of engagement on how good a customer is fiscally. I tend to focus more on the customers that are prompt with their payments and leave the others to wallow. Sort of like the customer doesn't get their Fries until they've paid for the MacBurger. I don't like asking for money up front. I think that is all wrong. I never pay my plumber up front or my phone bill, and, when I was employed by other people I never got paid in advance. I do pay for my groceries up front but I get it as a finished product. If someone pays up front it destroys the motivation-to-get-the-job-done-and-get- paid factor which is what drives me. I had one client who didn't pay but I have decided to just suck it up. In retrospect he was kind of vague and flighty and fitted into the this-site-will-fail category and I used code that I was developing in conjunction with another site which was more than adequately paid for and kind of covered it. All businesses have to deal with and write off bad debt. It's a fact of life. On Mar 1, 7:25 am, Harvey Kane <[email protected]> wrote: > Karl wrote: > > You mention options such as "...revert the site to how it was..." which > > implies that even though you don't host the site, you at least have ftp > > access to the server? > > > If that is the case, a method I found highly effective with a 'repeat > > offender' a few years back... > > I have definitely considered this, but with this particular job I have > only been involved to make some small tweaks to an existing site, > managed by someone else. By breaking the site in this manner, I would be > causing grief for the other web developer and putting them in an awkward > spot (not to mention wasting the developer's time when the client goes > to them directly to fix the 'problem'). > > The site wasn't indexed in Google before I started my work, so I don't > think it's unreasonable to return the site to this state if the bill > isnt going to be paid. But it's definitely a nasty thing to have to do. > I have always had a good personal relationship with people, and this > kind of thing has never been my style. > > Berend de Boer wrote: > > BTW: how's Ireland? > > My first week in Dublin has been fun, but unreasonably expensive (hence > me losing my sense of humour for clients not paying on time). Got a few > quotes for car insurance yesterday, the one we didn't go with was 2400 > Euro (NZD$6000) per year to insure a 4000 Euro car. The newspapers here > are more depressing than at home - everyone hates the government with a > passion I haven't experieced before, and the whole country is depressed > with job losses everywhere. People are constantly mistaking me for an > Australian (I sound nothing like an Australian), and can't understand > what I'm doing over here. (for those who don't know me, I moved the > family to Ireland earlier this week, we will be living here for a while > and running the NZ business remotely). > > The Irish PHP meetup is a little different. I went along to the Dublin > Meetup on Wednesday, which is essentially a bunch of geeks meeting at a > pub to sink a few guinesses, talk about anything and everything, > inluding a few occasional mentions of PHP. A thoroughly enjoyable event, > although they were quite receptive to the idea of a more formal meetup > involving a projector and a presentation like we do in Auckland. > > Harvey. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
