How many coders have been ripped by not taking a deposit? So many times I have put in looooong hours for people and the people just disappear on me.
Once, I've been ripped. For big projects, I always require 20% or 50% of the payment. If the person is someone I really trust then I first complete the job and then request the payment and provide the product.
I think if you are taking up some freelance jobs which is worth more than $500 , you can deliver your job to the buyers part by part and take the payment as you deliver the pieces , that way working with freelance companies are much safer , working as freelance programmers or web designers is becoming more and more risky as number of scammers who just hire a freelance programmer and then after the work is delivered do not pay at all or pay partially ,etc.
You can password protect your stuff and deliver. Like putting your codes or app in winrar and set a password. After the customer has paid you can give the pass key to them..
That is not the issue. The issue is how clients turn cold-feet or simply cancel their order after you have put in hours of work.
Well.. it's a bit difficult to control. This is what I do to protect myself: 1) Embed a backdoor module to my apps. I'll have full access until my payment is made. 2) Get client's information and contact details. Including but not limited to emails, office/personal phone, address, website etc. In this business reputation is most important. So try not to be seen as too fussy by asking too much requirements from the client. Do it psychologically smart..
The problem with this logic is that you have alredy invested the time. It isn't really about the revenge of not giving the client the goods, it is more of you just lost days or weeks of time without pay. In other words, you just worked all of that time for free. If you have employees to pay, well that is money out of your family's mouths that you have to pay your workers.