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Some guy is trying to screw me on a job, what would you do?

A

Alienwho

Diamond Member
So i've been developing a few websites for this guy from New Zealand. I actually met him at my workplace, but he decided my company would charge him too much and make too big of a deal for a website that he wanted, so we got to talking and I agreed to make the site for him.

Skipping the details, I went out to lunch with him several times, and everytime we'd go out to lunch he'd be pleased with the progress and give me $100 bonus for doing a good job and meeting the time/criteria demands he gave me.

Anyway after our first lunch, we agreed on compensation of about $2000 for my work + a vacation to New Zealand on him. He's in the condo building business so I would have stayed at one of his condo's and what not. One of the websites I was making for him was for his condo's.

Anyway, I did all the work, made the websites to near completion, bought the domains, bought hosting space, etc. I was nearly done with the websites and only needed some content from him. So now this guy slowly drops off the face of the earth. He doesn't return my calls/emails/IM's. It looks like suddenly he's not interested in any of the websites or anything anymore, so now he's ignoring me.

I'm not sure what I can do. He's in New Zealand and still owes me $2000, not to mention the vacation. I got $400 from him from the lunches we had. He can't just decide hey, I don't want a website any longer so I'm not going to pay for the work that I already agreed on. This guy is super wealthy and seems pretty ethical. I also met numerous partners of him and had lunch with all of them and they're a good bunch. He doesn't refuse to pay me, he just simply ignores me. It's not like he screwed me and ran away, I have all of his personal phone numbers/addresses, not to mention I regularly see one of his partners here at work who is doing something else for my company. I just don't know what to do.
 
It was all verbal. And everytime at lunch he'd give me $100 and say, "just so you know i'm not joking".

I find it hard to question a guy and throw out the words "contract" when he trained me that everytime I see him, I get $100.

Not to mention even if I did have a contract with him, not sure how I'd go around enforcing that seeing as how he's on the otherside of the world.
 
I don't see a whole lot of options for you.

Is there someone who works and/or sees him on a regular basis that you could call and work with?

Just remember that if he never responds to you after repeated attempts, don't let all of that hard work go for naught. Just change all of the positive desriptions of his condos on the website to negatives, make upon some fake testimonials of disgruntled customers, and make sure the site is registered with Google.

Then, send him the link.
 
Ummm, OK. I'm sure he got wealthy by shelling out boni to every client that did work for him. This had "I'm going to take you for everything" written all over it. I'm sorry it happened. But as a business owner (assuming that when you say "my company" in the OP that means it's yours) you should have known better.

I'm sure he's grateful for his $400 website.
 
Originally posted by: QED
I don't see a whole lot of options for you.

Is there someone who works and/or sees him on a regular basis that you could call and work with?

Just remember that if he never responds to you after repeated attempts, don't let all of that hard work go for naught. Just change all of the positive desriptions of his condos on the website to negatives, make upon some fake testimonials of disgruntled customers, and make sure the site is registered with Google.

Then, send him the link.
Click to expand...

winnar!
 
Originally posted by: Modular
Ummm, OK. I'm sure he got wealthy by shelling out boni to every client that did work for him. This had "I'm going to take you for everything" written all over it. I'm sorry it happened. But as a business owner (assuming that when you say "my company" in the OP that means it's yours) you should have known better.

I'm sure he's grateful for his $400 website.
Click to expand...
Well that's the thing, he's not even using the website. If he was I could easily F him royally. Everything is in my name and all my passwords. I was waiting to push the website live because I still needed just a little bit more content from him. I mean this guy gave me all sorts of hardcopy's and floorplans and stuff for his condo's, there was just another specific one I was waiting on. Well i waited...and waited...and waited...and it just kind of stopped.

Maybe I should just look at it as a $400 payoff and about $100 worth of free food for the 13 hours of work I put into his sites.
 
So let me see if I understand this.

You took a potential client away from your employer so you could profit on the deal by moonlighting and doing the job directly with this client. Now the client is screwing you, just like he (and you) screwed your employer and you are suprised??
 
Originally posted by: D1gger
So let me see if I understand this.

You took a potential client away from your employer so you could profit on the deal by moonlighting and doing the job directly with this client. Now the client is screwing you, just like he (and you) screwed your employer and you are suprised??
Click to expand...

Well not really. My company specifically makes a certain kind of software used by websites to generate reports. When he was referred to us, he was under the impression that we were a regular web design studio. My company told him that yes it is possible for us to do that for you, however we specialize in this software that comes with our standard package (something not even relevant to what he wanted) and my company is used to making deals in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Infact one of the managers in the office mentioned my name on the downlow to this guy before he left. There wasn't any disservice being done to my company.
 
You have ocntected him how long has he been avoiding you? If anything ask the partner who is at your workplace whats going on...Maybe he's sick or something..
 
Just chalk it up as a life lesson. A verbal contract is only worth the paper it's written on. I'd try to persue it a little more, but i would try not to lose any sleep over it or go around breaking any thumbs.
 
Originally posted by: Modular
Ummm, OK. I'm sure he got wealthy by shelling out boni to every client that did work for him. This had "I'm going to take you for everything" written all over it. I'm sorry it happened. But as a business owner (assuming that when you say "my company" in the OP that means it's yours) you should have known better.
Click to expand...

I took that to mean the company he works for.

I'm sure he's grateful for his $400 website.
Click to expand...

Which he doesn't own because he didn't have a contract with the OP. It's nice how that works both ways.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Modular
Ummm, OK. I'm sure he got wealthy by shelling out boni to every client that did work for him. This had "I'm going to take you for everything" written all over it. I'm sorry it happened. But as a business owner (assuming that when you say "my company" in the OP that means it's yours) you should have known better.
Click to expand...

I took that to mean the company he works for.

I'm sure he's grateful for his $400 website.
Click to expand...

Which he doesn't own because he didn't have a contract with the OP. It's nice how that works both ways.
Click to expand...

Yea, that's only if the OP decides to sue this guy - how will he do that if he doesn't even live in the same country? Next time charge hourly with an agreement and keep everything on your private servers until you launch.
 
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Originally posted by: Modular
Ummm, OK. I'm sure he got wealthy by shelling out boni to every client that did work for him. This had "I'm going to take you for everything" written all over it. I'm sorry it happened. But as a business owner (assuming that when you say "my company" in the OP that means it's yours) you should have known better.

I'm sure he's grateful for his $400 website.
Click to expand...
Well that's the thing, he's not even using the website. If he was I could easily F him royally. Everything is in my name and all my passwords. I was waiting to push the website live because I still needed just a little bit more content from him. I mean this guy gave me all sorts of hardcopy's and floorplans and stuff for his condo's, there was just another specific one I was waiting on. Well i waited...and waited...and waited...and it just kind of stopped.

Maybe I should just look at it as a $400 payoff and about $100 worth of free food for the 13 hours of work I put into his sites.
Click to expand...

You were gonna get $2k plus a vacation for 13 hours of work? Yowza.
 
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Originally posted by: D1gger
So let me see if I understand this.

You took a potential client away from your employer so you could profit on the deal by moonlighting and doing the job directly with this client. Now the client is screwing you, just like he (and you) screwed your employer and you are suprised??
Click to expand...

Well not really. My company specifically makes a certain kind of software used by websites to generate reports. When he was referred to us, he was under the impression that we were a regular web design studio. My company told him that yes it is possible for us to do that for you, however we specialize in this software that comes with our standard package (something not even relevant to what he wanted) and my company is used to making deals in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Infact one of the managers in the office mentioned my name on the downlow to this guy before he left. There wasn't any disservice being done to my company.
Click to expand...

How long has it been since you've had contact with him?
 
Maybe the guy just took a vacation for a few weeks or one of his projects got really jacked up and he hasn't had the time to deal with the website. Call his office or partners and see whats up.
 
Originally posted by: mugs
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Originally posted by: D1gger
So let me see if I understand this.

You took a potential client away from your employer so you could profit on the deal by moonlighting and doing the job directly with this client. Now the client is screwing you, just like he (and you) screwed your employer and you are suprised??
Click to expand...

Well not really. My company specifically makes a certain kind of software used by websites to generate reports. When he was referred to us, he was under the impression that we were a regular web design studio. My company told him that yes it is possible for us to do that for you, however we specialize in this software that comes with our standard package (something not even relevant to what he wanted) and my company is used to making deals in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Infact one of the managers in the office mentioned my name on the downlow to this guy before he left. There wasn't any disservice being done to my company.
Click to expand...

How long has it been since you've had contact with him?
Click to expand...
It's been about 6 weeks. 2 weeks ago I talked with his partner at work and he said he hasn't been able to get in contact with him either, but since then I've seen him on IM numerous times and everytime I send him one he just closes the window (or so GAIM tells me), and there is no excuse to not email me back after 6 weeks and numerous emails on my part.
 
Originally posted by: doze
Maybe the guy just took a vacation for a few weeks or one of his projects got really jacked up and he hasn't had the time to deal with the website. Call his office or partners and see whats up.
Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking.

Weell, OP, at least you own the website.
 
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