Hi guys, Just looking for a bit of advice: I stopped trading this month so I can concentrate on exam revision - however, I wanted to collect money from all outstanding bills. I have collected over half of the money owed to me, but I have some, erm, tricky customers. One guy just isnt responding to my emails over and invoice for £32.50 ($65 ish). The bill is for: Wordpress skin design/implementation = £7.50 Installation of Forum /Skin = £10 Editing of a PHP script bought from a company so that it fits their needs = £15 How can I stop them?? Or get my money?? We both live in the UK - just opposite ends of the country. Thanks.
No, he found me on scriptlance.com, and ever since then its like: 1.he asks, i provide 2.i bill, he pays etc etc over and over again. except on this last job, he stopped at phase 1. would it be lawful to shut down his site? or remove my editions?
Have you still got working access details to his website? Either way, you can't shut his website down or that would mean unprofessional attitude regardless of the client's attitude. If he hasn't paid for the services you listed above, then you can simply remove them from the site until he gets back to you. Only £32.50 is not the kind of amount I would rush removing my work from a client's site. I'd just give him more time to respond. Especially if you had a good business relationship with him in the past.
Yes...I can still log into his hosting account, and ive got a back door way into the application. i will wait another week, then email him again. should i send like a 'final demand'?
Wow, This sort of comment would guarantee that nobody uses your services - or does so at your own risk. Now, back to your original point, depending on the timeframe and previous relationship determines your course of action. It just may be that the person is taking a short vacation.
yeh...sorry, should have explained it a little better. I think I will leave it a bit, and will post again if the situation changes.
It's a shame to be a deadbeat of less than 100 bucks. I got a client owing my other company $800, and I agreed to reduce it to $450. he kept on lying to me that he sent the check some day ago and then asked me to pick it up (WTF!!). Turn out he was selling his restaurant! Well, I filed small claim and he didn't show up a few times. Now I am having the Sheriff dept arresting him. He will not have any chance to defend himself on the court in this case. Therefore, he will be responsible for the $750 original balance + interest + $500 for arresting him. What a big loser!
Unless you really need the money, I would just keep sending them invoices since the amount is so small. Although, if you still have ftp access I would probably also log in and remove any work that you created.
A shame that the client is putting himself in a stupid position for that insignificant amount of money. And yes, I'd keep sending emails if I were not in urgent need of funds.
do you even have a contract signed with this guy or is it via word of mouth, do you have evidence of communication ect. its probly going to be ahrd to take action...
I have saved all my communication plus i know where he lives etc from WHOIS domain lookup. But, would him asking me to do a job count as a contract? He replied to my first invoice (which is about 8 weeks ago btw) saying that i would have the funds in fortnights time (6 weeks ago). hmm...why cant people just be fair?
It looks like your relationship with him has gone down at some point and you should probably have a feeling why considering that you know the client well. Are you seeing updates on his website? Any changes at all since your last direct contact with him? Is he well?
We've had clients on our own servers not pay us for weeks on end. We shut their sites down and they tend to pay up quickly.
I told him that I was stopping trading... he stopped emailing afterwards. He also hired someone to manage his site for him, I know he was having problems paying them aswell. No other changes have been made to the site. God...I wish id encoded it or something so he couldnt use it! Grrrr.... 1EightT...i would if i could, but it would be unlawful of me.
We only do that with clients that are hosted on our own servers that don't pay for hosting and or other services so we are in a unique place. Best of luck to you. I would try sending him a final invoice and see if he pays up. It's unfortunate, but your options are fairly limited at this point.
Better don't. You wouldn't need to go through unnecessary trouble for cheap money. Now that you're saying that he has hired someone else to work on his website, then it might be you to be put at loss here. I'd move on, and let him decide what kind of client he wants to be to you. Reminds me that advance payments are necessary.
No....the person 'runs' it for them....no designing involved. The other person worked for him at the same time as me. True....I suppose I trusted him too much.