6 months ago I was doing some freelance work for my self.
Did a job for a client, a very fair price, explained to him nothing was guaranteed with SEO, no ranks are fixed, explained that my services were only short term i.e. 2 months max consulting, and these ranks I would achieve would only last for a short time, long term seo would cost more ect ect…
What I needed from his end was weekly updates of fresh content ect ect…
So basically I finish the job, send him what I have done, proof of work, proof that his keywords are listed.
Now 5 months later he sends me a email saying he wants a 50% re fund, because ranks have dropped…
I check his site he updated it like once in 2 months.
What do you do in a situation like this he paid via paypal, I doubt he can make a claim, its a grey area…
Basically this is why I work for a big company now I don’t have to deal with this same **** to a similar extent.
It’s pretty clear cut… you gave the service you offered, you honoured your contractual obligations and you explained to him that he would need to maintain his website to ensure his rank remained, he has no case whatsoever for any kind of refund (unless you are responsible for the continued maintenance of his website). Just explain to him that you fulfilled your job and it’s his own fault for not being responsible with what you gave him.
Yea, I think you’ll be ok. If he tries to start a despute through Paypal you might want to gather all the emails you have between you and him. I’ve heard that Paypal are pretty bad about siding with the buyer.
Paypal limit the amount of time for disputing payments. If the payment was made five months ago then the opportunity to dispute it is probably well and truly past.
Why would results only last a short time?
Any SEO that I do usually lasts a long time. Years and years without site updating content.
If ratings drop is is usually because your competitors are doing you one better or that you are doing something that Google thinks is not as good as what you had.
Oh… and there is always the case with google tightening up in areas that where you are pushing the limits.
I would think it is a matter of only guaranteeing the results for a short time. You can’t really say what will happen after a few weeks as it depends on what the other sites do in response.
Well this guy was annoying the crap out of me sending me tons of emails to all my different accounts, added me to Facebook on various accounts, added me msn on different accounts, just soo annoying so I just sent him his part re fund to stop annoying me…
Then you’re doing SEO for incredibly uncompetitive niches.
If ratings drop is is usually because your competitors are doing you one better or that you are doing something that Google thinks is not as good as what you had.
If you stop doing SEO (in any somewhat competitive field) then your competitors are always going to be doing you one better.
I also grew tired of working for a boss and then for clients. There’s a third path, it is working for yourself and work in PPC, CPM and CPA (affiliates) ads. That way you don’t have to deal with customers or bosses. You have to deal with your sites’ members if you make multi-users websites in order to have user-generated content (which works well to increase your overall traffic)
I personnally would have ignored such a past client who had no case for a refund, blocked him in various social sites and blocked his email too (add a filter so that his email goes directly in the trash or as spam): problem solved.
On your end I don’t think there is a fault because you have been clear to him from the start that it is not a guarantee and it will be having result changes overtime. I guess this is basically the problem that clients who are no that oriented with SEO usually have because they expect instant results and that if it worked on other sites, it will surely work for them as well.
You can explain to him aome things about maintaining SEO for the site though to keep the rankings from falling out. Offer your service if he wants to or suggest someone to help him with the job.
It could be high competition. If other sites are getting constant updates and his client is rarely updating the site, that simply is one problem not on the SEO contractors obligation.
