You get what you pay for - ha!!

[doodab]

Which is a bad thing - every story has two sides but only one has the tools to spread theirs over the web in an attempt at extortion.

But remove those tools and only one has the power to butt**** the little guy who's not getting paid. It's quite normal to take a hosted site offline for unpaid bills and even occasionally to put a 'this site is offline cos the bill is unpaid. If it's your site please email ....' message up.

[d000hg]

But remove those tools and only one has the power to butt**** the little guy who's not getting paid. It's quite normal to take a site offline for unpaid bills and even to put a 'this site is offline cos the bill is unpaid. If it's your site please email ....' message up.

Welcome to business. Every nonline (hey a new word) small business has to live with this and has done for centuries. This is what the legal system is for.

It may be quite common but that doesn't matter one jot. It's quite normal for companies to try and weasel out of paying bills, so what?
It should be in the contract you can do this, otherwise you are defacing their website without permission.

[fullyautomatix]

I might be the odd one out but I would never do this to a client of mine if they didnt pay me. Very unprofessional and to be honest not the best way to extract the money owed.

[doodab]

It may be quite common but that doesn't matter one jot. It's quite normal for companies to try and weasel out of paying bills, so what?
It should be in the contract you can do this, otherwise you are defacing their website without permission.

If it's hosted and they don't pay the hosting stops. That is quite normal, in the same way that nonline subscriptions stop when you don't pay. Nearly any host will replace the offending site with some sort of 'site offline/unavaialbe' page.

The nature of what he has replaced the site with may well be illegal or unprofessional but I'd guess nonline businesses have been dealing with that sort of thing since the year dot as well.

[vetran]

If it's hosted and they don't pay the hosting stops. That is quite normal, in the same way that nonline subscriptions stop when you don't pay. Nearly any host will replace the offending site with some sort of 'site offline/unavaialbe' page.

The nature of what he has replaced the site with may well be illegal or unprofessional but I'd guess nonline businesses have been dealing with that sort of thing since the year dot as well.

You take offline with

Sorry this site is offline please contact [email protected]

job done.

[doodab]

I might be the odd one out but I would never do this to a client of mine if they didnt pay me. Very unprofessional and to be honest not the best way to extract the money owed.

I wouldn't do this either, but I have worked for ISPs that take websites offline for non payment, and done the same myself with a CVS server I was hosting for a project. There comes a point when someone owes you for months of work and expenses and they're expecting you to keep on working and fronting expenses while giving you every excuse for non payment under the sun that you have to say no.

[vetran]

I wouldn't do this either, but I have worked for ISPs that take websites offline for non payment, and done the same myself with a CVS server I was hosting for a project. There comes a point when someone owes you for months of work and expenses and they're expecting you to keep on working and fronting expenses while giving you every excuse for non payment under the sun that you have to say no.

agree, this isn't when they are a day overdue, this is at the 60 days & 20 excuse point.

[doodab]

agree, this isn't when they are a day overdue, this is at the 60 days & 20 excuse point.

Or when they've ignored the red letters for a month and have the cheek to phone you and tell you they aren't going to pay the statuatory interest and penalties you warned them about.

Unsurprisingly they went bust about 18 months after this happened.

[Doggy Styles]

I might be the odd one out but I would never do this to a client of mine if they didnt pay me. Very unprofessional and to be honest not the best way to extract the money owed.

Is there another way?

This sort of thing has always happened to little guys. I worked for a blue chip engineering company in the 1980s, where the unwritten policy (from high up the food-chain) was to not pay for three months regardless of terms, and then only on the xth demand for payment. The small companies had no choice. They hated the BigCo but needed the business, and couldn't match BigCos lawyers anyway. If they caused trouble, they could easily lose business from other BigCos.

But at least they mostly got paid in the end, even if it had fecked their cashflow. So I'm glad this lot have gone public, if only to highlight what happens.

[d000hg]

If it's hosted and they don't pay the hosting stops. That is quite normal, in the same way that nonline subscriptions stop when you don't pay. Nearly any host will replace the offending site with some sort of 'site offline/unavaialbe' page.

The nature of what he has replaced the site with may well be illegal or unprofessional but I'd guess nonline businesses have been dealing with that sort of thing since the year dot as well.

If you're a web host, this is fine. It's your server and you sell a service.

If you own a server and allow a developer access to do work, they may not hack about with it. They are in a position of trust to have that access. Their fit of pique could lose you serious business which you could legitimately due them for.

If someone doesn't pay, you cease providing your services and/or take them to court.