[thelist] Business/Payment Question........

[Erik Mattheis]

>again, not disagreeing on non-payers... i was only talking about
>those on 30-60 day terms...

Right ... seems the best solution is hindsight - to get things about 
payment in writing first .. I almost always make new clients sign a 
contract first ... the only exception being one recent one that 
contacted me exactly the same time I realized I'd been doing nothing 
but reading about 9/11 for a month and a half ... was to eager to 
please (still catching up! anyone need a Flash movie conected to a 
database?).


>Yeah, for non-payers, it's integral...  but i'm still trying to look at
>this as nothing more than a client has 30-60 day terms and she
>wanted the money now... if that *all* it is, pre-payment is worth a
>look...
>
>all this talk about holding *every* change hostage is unsettling
>given my scenario... given total non-payment as a scenario, it's a
>no-brainer...

Again, seems getting things in writing beforehand is the best 
solution ... but if that's not there and you can take down the site - 
I'd think that's the thing to do - and actually something that would 
be better to try before enforcing a contract by legal action.

>i dunno, i have a thing against deleting anything... for instance,
>charge again for the time to build them, but just use the same files,
>thereby allowing you to use the time to do real work...
>
>or put them in "archive" and pull them for a fee...

Right on ... this is just a $450 bill - most of the time I spent was 
unbilled, learning to use a new technology ... my "gentle" third 
reminder was to attach to an email saying I still haven't received 
payment an estimate which noted a "50% of development fees payable 
before commencement of project".

I trust clients until I have a reason not to. And think I'll 
eventually get paid for this thing ... disturbed me that his current 
site redirects to the current host's homepage.

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__________________________________________
- Erik Mattheis

(612) 377 2272
http://goZz.com/

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