Sup peoples, I have a question that's been buggin me.

Say, a potential client comes up and asks for a site design with several pages. So you accept the job, and spend several weeks with him/her designing it to him/her needs.

So when it is all finished, does him/her have an obligation to pay up? Or does him/her have the right to "decide" on if they want it or not?

I ask because twice already Ive had people decide they didnt want it, after lots of work. They seemed to be happy with the product too... It hardly seems right...

And if they decide they dont want it, do I have a right to be angry?


Thx

well i wouldn't say you had the right to be angry. what i've always done was to write up a contract that way you dont get screwed and they dont get screwed :stickout

You can take some advance payment for the work and then start the work. Clear upon the payment terms before submitting the work. Get the payment part by part. In that case you won't lose much if they decide not to go ahead with the site.

Yeah usually for me, I ask for a percentage as downpayment upon approval of the design.

I do get mad when things like these happen, but sadly they do happen, and most of the time you can't do much except to get angry.

Damn looks like Im SOL.

The guy held a poll in his forums about whether to keep the design or not, so that he can pay me, and yet he still ignores me. This is starting to turn into a screwing-me-out-of-money deal. :mad: :mad:

I collect 20% to start, if they don't like the design they can screw off and lose 20% but I doubt they will leave their money wo they will have to take the design. You collect the 80% when the project is finished.

I say NEVER start any work unless the person you are dealing with has made some sort of down payment. It is the professional way to handle things, so problems like this don't arise.

I also suggest you read this article: http://www.creativepublic.com/visitors_area/getyourmoney_vis.html

Definitely get some cash upfront, we did one site which turned out to be a hell of a lot more work than expected, it got to a point where we had to do what they wanted because we had done too much work on the site to walk away with no cash.
The woman wanted stupid changes everyday and then the next day she would change her mind again and want it back the way it was.
I would never again do a site without a deposit.

The guy held a poll in his forums about whether to keep the design or not, so that he can pay me, and yet he still ignores me. Man, now THAT'S really pushing it. It's always a good idea to set a time limit on the contract too. I remember in the early days of web dev, my clients would take months to get things just right and waiting for content etc. If you have a time limit, you can then charge extra per day that it's overdue. (Only if it's their fault of course ;) )