On an entirely different subject from my last thread, I have another issue regarding legalities/business issues…
I completed a website for a client a couple of weeks ago, all has been paid in full but they were strict with not wanting to pay for site maintenance or updates… so thats fair enough, we were both satisifed with the deal…end of story…or so I thought…
I received an email asking me to include an additional page to the website with perhaps about 5 hours work of content to complete…they dont want to pay for it…they are saying that isn’t it just part of their website, they said they wanted to include this section all along, but i know for a fact that they didnt, they still see that I owe them this inclusion - to me the deal is done and dusted…im classing it as a site update… am I right in making this ruling? Where do you draw the line? Legally, what’s you’re take on it?
The contract stated no maintenance, updates or anything but they are taking a sneaky angle on it and are now saying they forgot to mention this addition one minute then another saying well we always said it etc…so what do you think? They were notoriously difficult throughout the project, etc… I’m just not keen on getting involved anymore!
If they signed off that the site was complete and made the final payment then the site as at that time is complete and anything after that is additional work.
yeah, thats what I was thinkin also…still an ongoing mission :confused2
Just out of curiousity… if the website was completed and published…but the balance of payment was pending and they also came with further updates to the site and would not payout until they were completed,…What’s the best approach with something like this?
This is an easy one. If just depends on the relationship you have with this client and what it means to you.
If you think that they are a good client, can bring additional revenue in the future, are nice to work with, or otherwise have LONG-TERM VALUE for you then you should explain to them in incredibly clear written language that you don’t owe them the work but will be wiling to do it. Send them a full invoice for the work but apply a 100% discount. Make it clear that this is an exception and be sure to use clear language in future contracts. Do the work, consider it a marketing expense, and move on.
If you don’t think that this client has long term value, and they will always be an annoyance, then you probably shouldn’t do the work. Or, if you want to be a bit more graceful towards them you can offer a massive discount against your hourly rate. Ask them to sign a new contract with your hourly rate made clear, and write in that they get, say, a 50% discount for the first 5 hours. They can take or leave it.
Then again, if you’ve just ‘had enough’ then walk away.
As for your question ‘what’s the best approach to deal with this’ I would say ‘quickly’. Just make a decision, and see this project through to the end in whatever way seems fit. Because the only real strategy for this situation is avoidance. If it’s already happened, the only winning strategy is to quickly sort it out, take your loss if any along with a reminder not to do this again, and move on to better clients!!!
