I Had To Fire A Client Today.

My story and some ways to recognize bad clients.

One of the best things about working for yourself is that you have the freedom to work how and for whom you choose. Sort of.

Though I generally have enough work to keep me busy, this winter I’ve been a bit slow. So when I got an email from a former colleague asking me to do a website for them I wasn’t really in a position to say “no”.

The colleague is an interesting fellow. He does sales for various manufacturers and is very outgoing and personable. However, over the time we worked together I came to learn that he was more of the “greasy” sales type. He’d say or do anything to get the deal. I also know he had a bit of a hard time paying his bills.

Like I said, I needed the money so I met with him to discuss the project. The meeting went well. The client had purchased a Wordpress theme that he liked and had most of his content put together. This should be an easy job, I told him. About 10 hours of work to setup his theme with some customizations and input all his content.

During the meeting the client kept asking me how busy I was and if I was interested in more work. More work? Sure I’m interested. Then he asked me if we could use this project as a test case and if it went well there’d be a much larger opportunity for me.

Tip#1 If they dangle a bigger job to try and get their project done for free, they are going to probably screw you.

I politely told him that if he brought me a bigger deal I would be happy to look at it but this needed to be a paid project. The client said OK.

After we agreed on a price and timetable, I sent him a very detailed services agreement. I asked the client to pay me a deposit in advance equal to 50% of the total project cost. He gave me a cheque at the end of the meeting.

The project was a go.

Tip#2: If they don’t want to sign a standard services agreement they’re going to try to probably screw you.

A few days went by and the client sent me some of things I’d asked for in terms of content but I hadn’t gotten any response on my services agreement.

I wasn’t going to work for this guy without it, so after a few emails back and forth I got a response from the client saying that they’d be happy to sign the agreement if I removed a few clauses. For example:

• The one that says I can withhold project files and access in the case of non-payment
• The one says I can charge extra for material changes

Obviously the clients request for changes to the agreement did not sit well with me. I should have walked away at this point. I didn’t because I needed the money. Fuck.

So I pushed back and told him that I couldn’t make the changes to the agreement he wanted and if he wanted me to work for him he was going to have to sign it as is. Which he reluctantly did.

The work went quickly. The client made some minimal changes to his original request which I was more than happy to provide without altering the cost.

The site went live.

As part of the project, I had agreed to provide an hour of training on Wordpress. I scheduled the training session with the client for a few days after the site went live. He initially cancelled and then we rescheduled for another day the following week. In my reschedule email, I asked if the client was able to bring a cheque for the remaining balance as per our services agreement. He said he would.

Tip#3 If the Client says they’ll bring a cheque and doesn’t, they’re going to probably screw you.

When I showed up for the training session, the client told me he had forgotten his cheques at home but would send me an electronic transfer that day instead. We went ahead with the training session.

I want to say here that both I and the client were very happy with the way this site looked and functioned. Though I didn’t design the theme we used, there was a fair bit of customization and I was proud of my work. The client told me he loved how it looked and even commented that he liked the way I had added links to some content outside the site…that I went the extra mile.

If one of my clients needs some extra time to pay my bill, all they need to do is tell me. The worst thing they can do is not say anything and make promises they have no intention of keeping. Suffice to say, I did not recieve the electronic transfer as promised.

The next day, I sent a quick reminder email:

Hey ****,

I never received your transfer. Did you send it? Let me know.

TW

This client lives on his iPhone so I was sure that he had at least seen my message but there was no response.

So today I sent this message:

Hi ****,

I haven’t heard back from you regarding the outstanding balance for your website. As we agreed, the balance was due when the site went live.

I’ve temporarily suspended the site and your access.

Please let me know if you’re able to make a payment today. I can accept Interac email money transfer or you can pay via credit card by clicking on the “Pay Now” button on the invoice.

No hard feelings. It’s just business.

Thanks

TW

Tip #3: If the client gets indignant instead of just paying, they’re going to screw you.

It’s worth noting here the outstanding amount was a very small figure. I wasn’t demanding thousands of dollars. Just the client fulfill the terms of our agreement now that the work had been delivered.

Within 30 minutes of my suspension email I get this response:

Fuck sakes Tom that is ridiculous. Forward me the entire site immediately as this is part of the contract. I own all assets and the site.

Tom, contract says I have 15 days to pay post invoice which is from completion of the contract which included training which happened this week.

This is not how you do business Tom. Your short sited, we are having conversations with some major clients on web development but after this posturing it makes no sense.

Get the site up now. You will get payment when I get back to the office tonight.

You blew it big time.

In the time it took for the client to type this email, they could’ve paid the invoice. He’s still trying to use the possibility of more work to coerce me into letting him benefit from my work without paying for it. He also now says that he has 15 days to pay even though he had promised me a payment twice and hasn’t followed through and the agreement says otherwise.

So I respond:

****,

I’m sorry it has come to this. You said you would bring me a cheque Tuesday. Then you said you’d send me an electronic transfer that day. I followed up with you yesterday and didn’t get a response. To be blunt, I don’t trust you so the site stays off until I get payment.

The agreement (which you signed and I’ve attached) says that the payment is due within 15 days of the invoice being issued. It was issued on January 14th. The work was completed on January 23rd. I’m well within my rights here.

The credit card payment option on my invoices works well from any mobile device. If you’d like the site turned back on immediately, I suggest you make a payment of $*****.

If I can’t get a prompt payment from ******* on a small deal like this one, what would happen on any larger opportunities where I might have significant out of pocket expenses? I’m okay not pursuing any further deals. I’m sure you understand.

Conclusion:

I have very little hope that this client will ultimately pay his bill. It doesn’t really matter at this point. I just need to take it as a learning experience.

There were a number of red flags on this project that I didn’t heed. In retrospect, I would have been better off to spend my time looking for a better client instead of taking the “easy” money.

Do you have a bad client story? Feel free to share it.