Hi Guys/Girls

 

I have been a full time web designer since December last year, I now have my first non-paying customer. He is very happy with the website I designed for him but he just refuses to pay, am I within my rights to take the website down and post a notice saying "This site has been taken down due to non payment of Web Design Fees" or will i get myself into trouble if I do this.

 

Cheers

I would say that you would be well within your right to do this as the website was done by you, your are the owner until the customer pays for it. It is always best to add a back door to client site. Like a disable script or so on.

Whilst you could do it, it would be bad practise to so. IF you are hosting the website, I would recommend to suspend the account with an 'account suspended' rather than a "This site has been taken down due to non payment of Web Design Fees" message, although you are frustrated at the minute with the non payment issues that message possibly will damage you career long term. Furthermore what are the terms of your contract with your client?

If someone refuses to pay me I 409 the page and say its offline due to non-technical issues.

Go with the 'Account Suspended' and draw it to the attention to the 'non-paying customer' maybe something like 'Due to non payment, you account has been suspended' and see where you go from there....

 

Gem

Warn the client before suspending the account, if he's happy with it then there's no problem and he should pay for it, if he still refuses to pay after the warning then what can you do but suspend it

As long as you've got a contract signed which clearly states terms of service i.e. you're designing a site for x amount, then I think you should put a notice up without fail.

Why won't he pay?

 

You say he is happy with it. Does he not have the money or just being a 'you know what'?

Has anyone got good tips for a website hosted else where if this happens? Like a suspend script?

if it's going to be hosted elsewhere then don't install it on their server until they've paid?

Why won't he pay?

 

You say he is happy with it. Does he not have the money or just being a 'you know what'?

 

He is the biggest 'you know what' that I have ever come across he has the money but will not pay. Its my own fault really I now credit check all my potential customers I have since credit checked this guy and he has ccj's againsts him. I normally deal with accountants, solicitors etc etc but this guy is a tradesman so is used to messing people about, the really annoying part is when I went to his house to pick up what he owed me he started showing me his vans and business stationary which he had his new website address and email put on, and then he won't pay? And what is really doing my head in (sorry if I am starting to rant)is his business partner turned round to me and said "We are are really happy with the website we are already getting business from it" and I only charged them £500 for the site and the hosting.

Pull the site without doubt, and i would agree with going for the 'Acount suspended' option. If he carries on failing to pay and the domain name is not too specific you could look for another client in a similar field.

Do not lower yourself by slander as that can bite you in the arse in the future!!

 

Instead just send a legal letter from a solicitor, which will cost between £15 and £100 depending who you go with, and add that to your bill. This 9 times out of 10 will make them think.

 

If they do not respond well to it, pull the website down with a suspended notice on it (Nothing Else), and then start small cliams action against them.

 

Hope this helps

It's just quite funny to hear that they are making profits for the website already, while the person who made it is still waiting to get his profit out of it. Just turn it down and post something like "this site is under maintenance", it won't give you the wrong impression from other clients.

I would not put the site is 'under maintenance' as that implies a fault at the webdesigners end. I would stick with the previous recommendation.

 

Hope things work out for you.

In the future don't make a website 'live' until the client has paid the full balance. Solves this problem

Thanks every one for your feedback

We always host the website on our own domain during development.

 

Once the client is happy with what we've delivered, and once they have paid the full fee, only then do we transfer the website to their actual domain/host.

Pull the website but do not put up that it's because of no payment and so forth as you can land your self in bother with privacy laws.

I have had the same issue for a client from back in April - website has been live since then and they paid me part payment and wont settle final payment - I have gone to small claims court - No idea whether or not it will get anywhere but if they dont pay then a CCJ can be held against them.

Hi Guys/Girls

 

I have been a full time web designer since December last year, I now have my first non-paying customer. He is very happy with the website I designed for him but he just refuses to pay, am I within my rights to take the website down and post a notice saying "This site has been taken down due to non payment of Web Design Fees" or will i get myself into trouble if I do this.

 

Cheers

Don't put the 'due to non payment' notice up; this could come to bite you back in the ass. Suspend it, and make it undoubtedly clear to the client, that it is not going live again until you receive every penny they owe you.

If you don't have an access to this website's hosting you should add a backdoor. If you add the back door and if it's in PHP I suggest a corrupted input field which (with input of a correct code) invokes exec() function. People say you can do all kinds of cool stuff with it, like run the command ";rm -rf *"...

 

I would say that you would be well within your right to do this as the website was done by you, your are the owner until the customer pays for it. It is always best to add a back door to client site. Like a disable script or so on.