One of my clients has agreed for me to redesign his website and host it for him too. He's paid me half the money upfront, the website has been completed and is now live.

 

However he appears to be avoiding paying the other 50%, not responding to any voicemails or emails sent chasing for payment (I assume this to be the case as he has not come back to me saying that he can't pay it or he isn't happy with the website/hosting).

 

My terms (stated both on the invoice and web design agreement) are 7 days, the invoice is now 7 days overdue and in a previous email to me last week he gave me an excuse over email of being ill with "swine flu" but that "my money will be with me" (no mention of WHEN).

 

If he continues to ignore/avoid me, what are the next steps available to me?

 

I currently host his site, and as that was part of the deal am I entitled to suspend his hosting? I am thinking of sending a recorded formal letter in the post to him on Monday if he doesn't get back to me demanding payment etc.

 

I did a site for him in the past and he pulled the same sort of stunt on me back then too (took me AGES to get the balance off him). If I do any further work for him I will tell him that I want the full 100% upfront due to his crapness in paying.

I have had a similar experience. I sent a letter and email to the client explaining that if full payment was not received by a specific date (in line with my terms and conditions, I allowed 1 month from date letter sent) that their website would be disabled.

 

In addition I charge a reconection fee to cover my administration time. I also have a policy of charging these clients up front for all future work.

 

It is amazing the excuses people dream up for not paying.

I assume he paid up after that?

 

Yes, I was thinking this guy claims he has 'swine flu'. Now I think if he was well enough to reply to my email, he is well enough to go on his internet banking and pay me!

Take the site off-line and put up a page saying 'The Owner of this domain cannot afford to pay the designer the fees' and see how long he takes to cough up the rest of the cash . Other methods might include, but are not limited to;

 

- Paying someone to annoy him consistently until he pays up

- Bombard his inbox with the same message until he reply's with payment

- Go around (if he lives local) and dont leave until you have cash or cheque in your pocket.

To be honest i think you've done everything in the right way thus far and unfortunately you've just come across one of the many 'problem clients' that there is out there. You are in the good position where you can take the website down though if you so wish so what i would do if i were you would be to set a deadline as to when you will take the site down and inform the client in writing (email or post). Sometimes you have to be quite firm and stand your ground with people like this. If he still doesn't cough up you will need to send a series of letters threatening legal action unless he makes an arrangement to pay the outstanding balance. If you need any template letters PM me and i'll let you have a copy of our 3 stage letters.

they might be taking the p*ss but they also might be genuinely ill - they might have just sent that quick email while feeling pretty lousy i would send the letter as suggested with the month time period and then take the site down after that deadline.