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Would you publicly call out an non-paying client?

7 points by jentulman ↗ HN
I just found this via twitter..

http://bsglogistics.co.uk/

Here a developer has suspended hosting and publicly called out a client for non payment of bills. Personally, whilst I might suspend a clients service, I don't feel that this kind of name and shame tactic would reflect well on me professionally.

Would you do the same?

11 comments

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asto
Yes I would call them out. People do these things because they believe the consequences are painless.

I wouldn't do what this guy has done though because I doubt clients publicise sites before they are live, so no one's going to see that notice anyway.

mrkmcknz
What 'freelance' developer would build a site, host it and put it live without one payment.
bjplink
This was my first thought as well. This is a good reason why you need to take down payments.

There probably isn't a freelancer out there that hasn't wanted to do what this guy has done to a deadbeat client. I just don't see how going this route benefits you in any way though. Now everyone involved looks like a jerk.

marquis
Downpayments aren't often enough. I've had friends whose clients never paid the last installment and the owner has changed the access credentials. It's a difficult path - what can you do when the site is live and you can't get access anymore, and the client won't pay the last installment before it's live?
JulianMiller520
first and foremost you can host the site yourself which gives you unfettered access and secondly don't ever give admin credentials to a site that wasn't fully paid for???
marquis
Not all site jobs are self-hosted, for example site upgrade projects.
JulianMiller520
right in which case I'm assuming you'd remove your work and leave the original version instead of pulling down work which wasn't yours.
marquis
My point was: I have seen clients receive work, change the password on their site and not pay for it. In relation to the topic, it is not possible for the developer to remove the work so whether it is ethical to denounce the client publicly otherwise is the dilemma (personally I would not do this and send a debt collector, but then again you're not always in the same country). So what do you do, put a bad review on Yelp?
mrkmcknz
You could try to recover the costs legally. In the UK we have a swift procedure which could make it a legal matter with payment due immediately or a plan to clear balance arranged.

It is a very difficult situation indeed.

damoncali
Ask yourself this: What good does it do you to publicly air this stuff? Take the site down if you must, but enraging your clients, even deadbeat clients, I would guess is bad for business overall. You have to leave them room to save face.
JoeAltmaier
Anything can be done gracefully. A simple announcement that due to failure to make payments, service is suspended. Kind of like those emails about Ken 'pursuing other opportunities'.