HELP-Been RippeD oFF fOR Creating Website

Take the site down, but tell them that is because of some technical problems that only money can fix.

Some guys here are turning this BHW forum into some kind of social advice and charity kindoff stuff n....
Come on man if u believe you have done everything as per the contract and if u r right then just do it...Your kids , family comes first before anything else right?

Just create some problems to the created site, such as missing file, bad css layout. They will eventually ask you to fix. And you have chance to stated your point about half of the payment. That the most polite version when dealing with someone not ethically in biz.

noermanto in my opinion gave the best advice. They paid you half the money so take down half the site. Make it look as though things are missing such as pics or text. Tell them you can't fix it until they pay you what's owed.

Many are saying to take it down and be done with but I know it's hard to do that to a family member and you don't want to alienate yourself. On the other hand, he owes you money so is he alienated? Don't know.

With that said, this is business and don't be a doormat. You're being taken advantage of so man up and act like it's a business. If you can't do that then don't complain. Just accept it as a loss and move on.

Don't worry about the fact that they've already paid you half, you've already fulfilled your obligation for that payment by desiginig concepts etc and time you've spent on the project.

Take the site down... I've done that a couple of times and each time got paid the remaining amount. It'll be cheaper for them to pay you than get someone else to re-design it.

If the site really isn't doing as well as hoped, they might just think sod it... but at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that they're not benefiting from your hard work.

After this learn from this lesson, when it comes to work and money... never do favours for family or friends.

you know myself i'm very often also a buyer and also not always paying full amount but not because someone scammed me but because i got a product i didnt asked for.Just last time i asked for a web hitbot with adminpage and paid 400$ and what i get was a tool where he wanted to send me via cmd command url,hits,rate .I thought it was a joke and told him i'm not going to pay for it and he didnt understood it as the hitbot was working maybe properly but i didnt asked for such a poor hitbot and expecially not for 400$.I took somebody else a nice russian Dr who is programing a lot for me and he did it within 2 days.
I dont want to say you product sucks in any way but you mentioned he wasnt happy.Maybe you should ask first why try to fix it and if there is something like not on first place at google try to explain him first.
If this dont help say you are not agreeing to give away your product for such a low payment and that he should choose to pay you in full or you will take the site down.Remember to kill his access first.
But maybe it was just a business idea from him which didnt worked so he is trying to cut the loss.

I completely agree with most of the guys here. I only take half upfront and half upon completion. They don't get the files until I get paid. I install the site for them or hand over the final copy of the completed site for them to put it on their servers at that time.

Sure, special cases and such are awesome and happen all the time but people need to uphold their end and you as a businessman, made the transaction and did the work and now, you have to continue to act as a businessman and protect yourself from being victimized and taken advantage of. They pay, they get the site, the don't , it goes on lockdown. Can't take pitty on their situation while they are clearly not giving any concern nor interest to your's other than a good laugh because you got punked until you step up and take what is your's.

Take it down. If they try that, its violating your agreement. Thatd be the same thing as if you took half the money and did only half the website, and refused to do anything else. Theyll pay you once you show them youre serious.

Put a down for maintenance on the front page with no links. Should get your money in a few days.

You've thought about it and just can't bring yourself to do it?????

Let me see if I understand you correctly young man:

You have completed the services you promised and have been paid only half of what they promised...Is that correct?

With that said, you would rather opt to not take the site down until they pay, because you are concerned with what other friends and family will think of you????

Sorry, but that is very misguided convoluted thinking. Your customer agreed to pay you. You have the power to see that he does, but you choose not to use that power.

OK...My suggestion is to let the matter go, and you go back to work for someone else. It is quite evident that you are showing the inability or unwillingness to insist that the people you deal with, deal with you fairly as you do with them. That is a one way street to failure.

Good luck!

If your conscience is bothering you about taking the site down because you were paid half the money,....take down the half you think has not been paid for .......
I'm just saying......

Seriously though, man, if you have a contract or something saying when they will pay the rest, and they haven't paid, there is only one recourse...Small Claims Court!

just forward the domain to his competitor until he pays you the rest.

Your peers have spoken brother.

WealthWinner said:

Ive thought about it, but i cant bring myself to do it. Im friends of the other family members and don't want to fall out with the as a result of this, but on the other hand, not getting the money for xmas when they know im relying on it isn't sitting too well with me either.

Ive had to chase the money from day one.

Best of it is, when i sent an email asking for the money, they were more interested in asking why, after 2 months, they were not showing on first page of google for keywords such as buggy, and pram....

i tried explainin about seo...but i don't think they understand the seo is something totally different from the website design part

Click to expand...

Well this is one of those examples of friendship not mixing with business. It's all good until it's not, and then you have a situation that might affect a friendship.

It sounds like you're dealing with a brick and mortar business so having a website or not isn't going to kill their business. Since you don't want to just take the site down because they are friends, then just change it to a free version of providing them a website.
Tell them that's the website you can give them for free. If they like the other website better then they need to pay you.



If they ask again about their position in the serps. Just explain the way you get on google is by passing the website around all over the internet. It's like fliers or mailers. The website is the flyer, (or mailer, or commercial), but you still have to pass them out. The more it's advertised the better it will place in google.

A lot of people don't get it when you talk about backlinking, but they can understand the idea of advertising. They just think the website itself is the advertising, but if the website is intended to promote a store then it's really just the advertisement. You still need to distribute it. Advertising is actually the creation AND distribution of an advertisement.

If they plan to actually sell on the website itself as well as promote the store, then the website isn't even the advertisement. It's just an extension of the store and again it will need to be advertised. If they want the website you made then they need to pay for it. Then if they also want you to advertise the website for them they'll need to pay for that as well.

If they don't like that then you're more than happy to give them that freebie webpage, if they don't want to pay for hosting either then just toss it onto a free hosting service and you'll be done with it. You will have done them a favor so there shouldn't be any hard feelings.

Cheers for the advice people....

Ive actually been on this site for quite a while, my original screename was scotland, but im locked out of my account, so i know a few people on here who have done similar transactions, and everyone says the same.....TAKE THE SITE DOWN!!.

I don't think id be as bothered, but i put over 250 products on it, and anyone who has done a shopping cart website knows, it is time consuming, and thats not to mention all the support they have asked for...

Anyway....ive had a good idea. The site stays up...but ive removed the checkout page, so anyone trying to buy....cannot. If im questioned about what is wrong with the site, i will just say that shopperpress has been updated, and when this happens, the checkout page is removed, and i have to do it again....this part is actually TRUE

Of course, i'll be too busy to get to it, but im more than confident that i could fix it should some funds come my way

Lesson learned!!

I've just been screwed by a company over Christmas as well.

What his company names, Wealthwinner? If he still refuses to pay I'll Scrapebox a Boycott on his companies for you.

Dont be a pussy about it. pretending you are too busy etc will just raise tensions.
If you dont want to outright demand payment (which you absolutely should do) then speak to your friend 1st and explain how much time you have spent on it, then phone the person who commissioned the site and say an urgent security update has been released, and there is no way you are going to install it until you are paid in full, and have disabled the checkout page as a security precaution in the mean time.

Just put up a page stating it is offline until final payment for services is made.
That's the truth.
That will get you your $$$ fast.

That is why I make all my customers pay 100% up front.
I am not a bank or in the credit lending business.
It is not fair to my paid customers for me to waste time with dead beat customers.

Get some balls and do the right thing!!!

demand payment if they refuse take the site down.

Easy,

You'll find that once you take the site down he'll pay in under an hour.