February 23, 201214 yr I'll sum up the gist of it quickly... I had someone contact me in order to get me to do them a website, and I went round there and he gave me a basic description of what he wanted and said he 'didn't really care that much what it looks' and 'I just want something on the web really...' He didn't want to sign a contract with me because it would mean extra work, and I only wanted £400 for the job and it was to be quick so I decided to not contract this job ( which was obviously a bad idea ). So he pays me £300 in cash talking my price down because he was paying me up front. So I do him a website, upload it, send him a link and he contacts me and says he doesn't like it and can I make a few changes... Fair enough, that's normal so I make the changes and contact him again. Some more changes are requested. At this point I'm thinking 'He said he just wanted something up there...' So this time I create a mock for him to look at and he likes it but he wants a few changes. I update the mock and create the website - upload it, send him a link asking him what he thinks and he emails me back saying it's VERY BAD and asks me to 'return the money'. I'm not a brilliant web designer but he had seen some of my previous work, he did pay me very little for my work and now I'm in a situation where I've pretty much done the job three times, working long enough to equal working for about £2 an hour and he's saying he wants it all back? What do I do? Does he have a leg to stand on? I can't help but think now that one of the reason he didn't want a contract is so that he could squeeze as much work as he could out of me
February 23, 201214 yr You're both as stupid as each other. Nothing you can do now is going to be of much benefit to either party. Chalk this up as a lesson learnt. Personally I wouldn't refund any money. Is your business registered or are you registered as a freelancer? If you can sho the work was done then you might be able to avoid the small claims. More importantly... Get a bloody contract next time!
February 23, 201214 yr Author You're both as stupid as each other. Nothing you can do now is going to be of much benefit to either party. Chalk this up as a lesson learnt. Personally I wouldn't refund any money. Is your business registered or are you registered as a freelancer? If you can sho the work was done then you might be able to avoid the small claims. More importantly... Get a bloody contract next time! Yes I do feel stupid. No I'm not registered as a business, I was just a person doing a website for somebody and I wasn't registered as a freelancer.
February 23, 201214 yr Provided the 'client' agrees to the return his/her website to its original condition devoid of your work then a partial refund may be order. Annoying for both but fair, work done and all that. However if they refuse to pull down your work themselves (or have changed the access codes so you can't either )then the client can go take a flying.. if they are using it then they pay for it. Copyright law is pretty clear on that point. Finally if you paid for the hosting & domain registration and still retain total control, then put big banner across the home page saying the domain is up for sale. Refund all but the hosting & registration fee, remove the clients contact details better still put in a competitors and see what happens.
March 20, 201214 yr What to do... 1. Email client saying you can no longer provide additional work on the website. 2. Offer a 50% refund to client through Wire Transfer only. ( record the transaction for legal reasons ) 3. If you have purchased the domain , create a new registrar account and migrate domain send him details. You have learn't the most important rule about web design , this industry has to be professional , legal and compliant otherwise you will get pushed around by these " know it all business people "
April 2, 201214 yr Also keep an eye out for what website he puts up after you refund him. Make sure it isn't yours with a few changes.
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