Hi guys,

 

After a bit of advice as I've not had to deal with a situation like this before (I know most of you have).

 

I've designed and built a website for the daughter of one of my wife's colleagues. I met with her, and all seemed fine. I knocked up a contract detailing what would be done (design, build), costs etc, she signed and I started.

 

Fast forward to know. The site is up and running but she's refusing to pay. Apparently, she made it very clear (she didn't) that the site would rank for various terms (they haven't been specified, nor how highly the required ranking) so we're kind of stuck. I think she just expects a site to rank for various non-branded terms, which may sometimes be the case, but not always.

 

I'm leaving the site up for now, as it should start ranking for terms other than the site name soon, but it is taking longer tha I have previously experienced.

 

I've never had a problem getting sites to rank for terms before, but this does seem to be taking longer than usual. Its a locally popular term, but nothing that shouldn't be achievable with just onsite stuff (as opposed to backlinks etc).

 

The site is here, so if you take a look and see anywhere I might be able to improve I'd appreciate it.

 

Its been up for about a month, and doesn't even rank 1 for the site domain name, which again, I've not experienced before.

 

Be great if any of you could help me out!

 

Thanks

Was ranking for the terms ever in the contract she signed? If not then she has no right to ask for it to.

So long as you fulfilled all terms of the contract as was signed by both parties, then you're entitled to financial compensation for the work undertaken.

 

First mistake was putting the site live before payment, second mistake was leaving it there. Take it down until payment has been made and funds are clear in your account.

Hi Mike,

 

Thanks for the response.

 

I think under the surface, she may just have changed her mind on the who website thing, and is looking for reasons not to pay. No SEO services were mentioned in the initial website proposal, or the contract. Everything (and a little bit more) stipulated in the contract has been fulfilled.

 

She has actually said that she doesn't care if the website comes down as it is "absolutely worthless" (yes, she's very charming!) because its not ranking yet. I did take a deposit before the project started, but if I take it down a) its not going to rank and I've no chance of getting money out of her!

 

I'm still waiting for Google to pull its finger out and rank it (its built with SEO in mind but no link building has been carried out). I've submitted a sitemap and checked Webmaster tools, no major issues detected.

 

There is still a large chunk of money to be paid, and I don't want to lose it!

Send a Letter before Action and watch her cave in.

Send a Letter before Action and watch her cave in.

 

...and make sure it's a recorded delivery.

I wouldn't usually hesitate in doing this - but as I said, her mother works quite closely with my wife and could make things quite awkward for her (which I don't want!)

Or better still, get your solicitor to send it.

Not your problem i'm afraid. You've carried out the work to which you were hired thus you should take what action is needed to guarantee you get compensated for such.

There's every chance that's why your client is being like this, thinking she has the upper hand.

 

Drop a polite email reminding her the work has been complete and payment is required. If she continues to ignore this, then follow up with a letter.

Remember to be polite and truthful at all times.

We've had several e-mail exchanges, initially I informed her that all the work had been completed. She then informed me that it wasn't ranking so she wouldn't pay. I referred her to the contract but she didn't seem to get it. Again, I think its just something that she expected, possibly due to her lack of knowledge?

 

I've since tried pinning her down on exactly what she is expecting. Trying to get specific keywords that she wants to rank for, and where she feels she should be ranking. She's been quite rude about it all, suggesting that I';m the web designer, and should therefore know and shouldn't need to be spoon-fed! (Her business, she should know what she wants to rank for, right??)

 

This is why I think she no longer wants the site. She won't give a specific answer as to what she wants. If she said "I was expecting A, B and C, (even though she hadn't paid) and it was achieved, she wouldn't have any further excuses, but by not telling me what she wants, I can't meet her requirements!

Does your contract make any mention of SEO which she could have misinterpreted?

Does your contract make any mention of SEO which she could have misinterpreted?

 

Nope - first thing I checked.

 

No mention of SEO, search, Google etc...

 

And she signed.

Solicitor time. She'll likely pay up when she receives the letter, otherwise the court will recover your costs.

Seems a perfectly decent enough site. I agree with the others, a polite email saying that the contracted work was carried out, the site is complete and as per the contract, payment is due. I would end the email by saying something along the lines of "if payment isn't received, I would unfortunately have to seek legal recourse". And as other have said, take the site down.

At the moment its ranking #1 on google for the domain name, if that helps.

Edited October 29, 201213 yr by kree8or

Yeah, she'll have to do something because you can just flip a switch, turn her site off and she's screwed.

Unfortunately that would be a waste of your time and you'd get no money.

Hello,

 

If you are not ready to send a letter to her than quietly do some SEO work if you want to save the relation of your wife and her mother's than.

what you say guy??

he is not ready to do send any legal letter than this is the way to get money from her.

 

Alan

Hello,

 

If you are not ready to send a letter to her than quietly do some SEO work if you want to save the relation of your wife and her mother's than.

what you say guy??

he is not ready to do send any legal letter than this is the way to get money from her.

 

Alan

 

No no no no no!

In effect here you're saying "Do more work for free, it might help her rank". Which is a terrible idea.

You've done the work, send her official recorded delivery letter.

I feel like a free holiday, you reckon she will be ok with me taking a weekend break then refusing to pay because the bed sheets weren't warm enough? Seems highly unlikely.....but you get the point!

 

At the very least, password the site, put up a "site disabled" page or anything, just do not let her continue to trade on that site without payment. IF you have fulfilled your part of the contract to the letter, then you have nothing to be concerned about.

why is the site still online?

Its important to remember she is the one making the situation difficult between her mother and your wife, not you!

 

Oh, and its worth reminding her, that if you take her to small claims court and she loses (which she will), she will then have to pay your court fees as well as your original invoice!

Edited October 30, 201213 yr by neil0wen

Its important to remember she is the one making the situation difficult between her mother and your wife, not you!

 

Oh, and its worth reminding her, that if you take her to small claims court and she loses (which she will), she will then have to pay your court fees as well as your original invoice!

 

If she can afford it....... You have to remember that IF she can prove she cannot pay then it will either be settles via a small payment plan, OR in severe cases, actually be written off as a CCJ.

Doing development work for friends or family is always a big risk , If I was you I would walk away from the development and focus on the next project. You would have to take her to a small claims court which is going to cost you money either way.

 

Basic SEO should be implemented on any build but in your next contract highlight what is included and what isn't. For all new contracts we take on we specify the facts about SEO and what to expect. On your project proposal get them to approve it in writing or email so a month later they aint complaining.

 

From experience I did some work for an actual web developer which was odd but it turned out he was never happy with anything , basically he tried to copy what we provided without paying but what he didn't realise is everything was watermarked and written in PHP so impossible to replicate. We got the deposit and decided to terminate the contract before we wasted more time on this individual.

Edited November 5, 201213 yr by Sinero Web Design

IF she can prove she cannot pay

 

Then she'd have to prove that she could pay when she signed the contract but now cannot due to factors she was unaware of when she signed, or you can make a criminal case for fraud.

 

 

Then she'd have to prove that she could pay when she signed the contract but now cannot due to factors she was unaware of when she signed, or you can make a criminal case for fraud.

 

You could go either way with that tbh. You could argue that the company should credit check a potential client before agreeing to the project.

This is in NO way a reflection of my attitude towards clients such as this (But I have a friend who did take these measures in the past), but keep the site up and running....but alter it to completely ruin her company brand.

 

I don't do 'signed' contracts, instead I give them my terms and request 50% before starting work, then final 50% before site goes live.

 

Never had any problems like this.

 

It also helps in 'sensitive' situations like this or working with friends, etc.

 

Hope you get it sorted.