Defamatory website - not a good idea. Have you tried the emotional and personal approach?
Writing her a letter explaining how you did an amazing job of her website, really went the extra mile so she and her customers would have the best possible experience, etc. etc. (which is true, otherwise you wouldn't be in this situation now) and how you are hurting (financially, emotionally, unable to feed kids, etc.) by her unwillingness to pay. How you had really hoped this would be a long term business relationship as you enjoyed working, you saw great potential for developing her website to be something amazing, etc. etc.... and how her unwillingness to pay means it wont now happen. Also, have you asked yourself why she is refusing to pay? If it is because she doesn't have the money then suggest an instalment plan. If its because she is unhappy with the work then offer to improve it if she will pay half of what is outstanding as a goodwill measure, and so on. As a goodwill measure you could consider offering her the 30% you took away. You have built it anyway and its probably not much good to you sitting on your hard disk. If you dont feel this approach is appropriate then perhaps a friend could write on your behalf e.g." ... are you aware of how much my friend Phil is hurting because he spent a heap of time on a project for you and needs the money....." Clearly the hard-line business approach isn't working, so maybe a softer emotional approach might. We often ignore the fact that business is people and people everywhere have similar needs. Its very easy to remove the human factor from business dealings when sometimes an approach that demonstrates vulnerability reaps results. I speak from experience. I have a small business client who owed me a considerable amount and when I asked why he wouldn't pay I heard all about how difficult it was for him, how his business had collapsed, how his partner had left him..... and how he intended to turn his business around once he felt stronger, etc. We worked out a monthly amount he could afford. He also needed some more work done to help him turn it around which I agreed to. The good news is that he is almost back on his feet and I am very confident of being paid, and he has also promised something extra. The other good news is that his monthly repayments have been a nice source of steady income and allowed me to develop a whole new e-learning product which is already generating income. Sometime small businesses need to be very flexible - thats our strength. I hope you manage to re-connect with your customer and you both find satisfaction. As another poster mentioned, please let us know the outcome -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
