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How do I tell this guy he needs to pay more?

I had a similar client to this when I first started with web design/development, to cut a long story short he basically ended up owing me about $250 for the hosting and domain name in the end I got so pissed off I just took down the whole site and sold his domain name on sedo.

Anyway what I learned from that is always draw up a contract stating exactly what you will do. When this is agreed demand a down-payment of between 20~50% - make sure they have paid this before you write a single line of code.

Also dude..no decent website can be worth $100 unless its a template that you will sell many times. You should really be charging at least $500 and thats just for a very basic static site.
 
maclover001 said:
He looks early-30s.

I'll reply to his email asking for the agreed upon price.
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How much is your time worth to you?

Is it worth having any further emails with this guy?
Is it worth fighting over $100?

Keep in mind, that the second you accept money from him, he "owns" you in a sense. If you accept payment from this guy and say "here's what I've built, never contact me again" he still may because he'll expect some kind of warranty on the work you've done since he paid for it.

I'd say you have two options
1) Tell him no, and to never contact you again. This way YOU still own the site and can do with it as you please.
2) Give him the site for free and tell him that is it without any warranty and you will offer no support on it what so ever.

But I think accepting payment from him at this point is just digging deeper into that can of worms.
 
dornoforpyros said:
How much is your time worth to you?

Is it worth having any further emails with this guy?
Is it worth fighting over $100?

Keep in mind, that the second you accept money from him, he "owns" you in a sense. If you accept payment from this guy and say "here's what I've built, never contact me again" he still may because he'll expect some kind of warranty on the work you've done since he paid for it.

I'd say you have two options
1) Tell him no, and to never contact you again. This way YOU still own the site and can do with it as you please.
2) Give him the site for free and tell him that is it without any warranty and you will offer no support on it what so ever.

But I think accepting payment from him at this point is just digging deeper into that can of worms.
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Go for path 1. Tell him were to go and give him nothing but a smile.
 
AppleMatt said:
I think you're too nice. You need to stop being nice.

AppleMatt
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I agree. To run a business, you have to have the ability to know when to say no. Running your business is a luxury and the hard part is not working on delivering your work, but dealing with people.

I have a condo that I rent. I actually lose money on it, because I was in it to gain equity rather than income. So while that's not a bad thing, I would like now to raise the rent but don't really feel like knowing what if that is justified, etc. So I need to do research and see what other people are renting their similar condos at and then make a decision. Backing up decisions is sometimes essential because it gives you confidence and helps you understand the reasons behind it. ;)

My two cents.
 
^ This is really your fault. You said you'd build a site for $100 and failed to outline terms and conditions. It sucks though that you never got your $100 but then again you never delivered a site from what I understand.
 
Well, very easy...

He asked you for a web site, you did it = $100

He asked you for something else = extra $100

And so on...

Let him know in advance that he has been asking for different sections that are individual projects themselves.

THEN you can bring him into your terms. Obviously the common sense says he is taking advantage but because you didn't set terms. On thing is you knowledge in doing somethjing and another new deal is marketing your talent.
 
jessica. said:
^ This is really your fault. You said you'd build a site for $100 and failed to outline terms and conditions. It sucks though that you never got your $100 but then again you never delivered a site from what I understand.
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?
You understand wrong, because he did deliver the site according to the original agreement in Starbucks. Both morally and legally (UK) he's entitled to the $100.

The subject of this discussion is that he subsequently agreed to add entire new features (i.e. not part of the original agreement) out of little more than goodwill, partly due to inexperience and partly in the hope it would secure him a good reference. The fault lies in the fact he was nice to someone who took advantage, not that he failed to outline 'terms and conditions' (as these were settled in Starbucks). I completely agree however that a written spec certainly would have helped him say no to 'scope creep' (although I wonder if he actually would have). There's an excellent post I quoted previously about this.

It's therefore not particularly fair to look at his May 15th behaviour with the benefit of May 29th glasses and say it's 'his fault' - on the 15th he couldn't possibly anticipate just how far the client was going to push it. He certainly didn't have to add the extras, and the client can't force him to*, he was just being nice - but it doesn't change the position stated above. Personally I think he shouldn't sell the work done for $100, because he'd undervalue himself.

AppleMatt
*I can't imagine that a Westernised legal system would allow variation of contract without some form of consideration, which the client did not provide.
 
me said:
I got nothin' :(
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jessica. said:
^ This is really your fault.
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He left because I finally told him I won't take crap anymore. I suppose if I had kept meeting his demands until he finally decided it was finished, then got me rolling on the $80 ( :rolleyes: ) Ad site, I could have pocketed $180.

This way, I can at least sell the site for a good $800-900 (?), and learn to deal with people properly.
 
maclover001 said:
He left because I finally told him I won't take crap anymore. I suppose if I had kept meeting his demands until he finally decided it was finished, then got me rolling on the $80 ( :rolleyes: ) Ad site, I could have pocketed $180.

This way, I can at least sell the site for a good $800-900 (?), and learn to deal with people properly.
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Either that, or debrand it and use it as an example page.
 
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