Reclaiming monies for work done.....

[tkessex]

I started my own accoutancy and graphic/web design business at the beginning of August of this year, and discussed a project with a 'friend' of mine toward the end of that month. He required a website, to be run as a profitable entity, and wondered how much it would cost. I said that, based on the price of an 8-page project as per my website, I'd do it at a discount making the total cost £150. He was happy with that and an invoice was sent to him, signed and dated, naming the five pages he had made known to me at the time. The invoice also included a deadline for the project, based on the 4 week time limit placed on it by the client, which was 20/09/2007.

Now 7 weeks in and the project remains unfinished, the initial 5 pages having risen to 55, and I feel that I am entitled to reclaim monies relating to the additional work done above and beyond our original agreement. The terms laid out on my website say that for every 5 additional pages over the package limit (in this case 8) £85 is chargeable. By rights, as I made clear to the client, I could charge £765 but stated that I was happy to accept a payment in line with just the extra time spent on the job. This amounted to appoximately £400. A £100 payment was made by the client, along with a statement saying that no further monies would be forthcoming.

I contacted the client to say should they not pay for what has been done, I would remove the pages which haven't been financed from their server and seek compensation through the Small Claims Court. They immediately blocked my access to the server and replied with what I can only describe as an 'intimidatory' email. It was made clear in the aforementioned correspondence that they would 'rather pay a lawyer thousands than pay another penny to me'.

So where do I stand?

It should be said at this point that our original conversation took place via MSN Messenger and as such the claims of neither party can be fully substantiated. The 4 week limit placed on the project was denied by the client in his final email to me (after which he childishly blocked my address) but I do actually have proof of this in an earlier email. They have taken advantage of me throughout the job's entirety and it's not something I care to stand for.

The site itself is dedicated to virtual horseracing, offered by the likes of Raceclubs and Digiturf. It is something the client, and his partner, have recently spent in excess of £20,000 on and with that in mind I find it hard to understand their gripe over an additional £300.

When I started the project, I spent several hours putting together a design for the client. I showed it to him and he said 'yeah, it's nice, but we want this template'. He proceeded to show me a template from TemplateMonster which indicated the style he wanted, something he'd had since our first conversation and simply neglected to tell me about. Time wasted. I recreated the template, with some differences of course, and offered up to the client. 'No', they said 'we'll just buy this and you can do everything else for us'. I wasn't too happy with this if I'm honest, and altered the layout I had created to satisfy the client. Still, more time wasted. The client was, and remains, clueless about technology and despite asking me to set up the domain and hosting for him proceeded to do it regardless. Problems occurred when he decided he wanted a different domain and I spent time, at his request, trying to rectify issues with his registrar and hosting company. Not part of the agreement and more of my time wasted.

I can call upon many other instances of time being wasted due to the incompetence of the client, all of which served to cost me a fortune in additional time.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

[Nick Dyer]

It's a hard lesson to have to learn but it looks like you have been taken for a ride by your so called friend.
Remember, there is no such thing as a "friend" in business.

The bottom line is that you could try issuing a claim in the small claims court for the outstanding debt, although you have to be prepared to put some time and effort in to it.