Same situation with web dev. I place a small image on the site hotlinked to my server now. When they don't pay and change the password on me thinking they can trick me.. I blow it up large and wait for them to call me.

Keith my friend,

I am sorry to hear this has happened. But I do like all four of your ideas. In addition I am thinking that some possible contract modifications on your part might be in order. Something to the effect of that no license is granted to the customer for the work until payment has been completed in full to CaseySoftware. You could even go as far as issuing license for your work - a license being an official email sent after the payment has been made. Hmmm. I am thinking now that expiring software might also be in order. Give them a solution that works for 30 days. Once payment has been made they get a full key. The more I drink of this coffee the more ideas I am getting.

If this is company of a decent number of people you might also try contact anybody else you can get your hands on. I don't waste any time going to the top, and Accounts Payable is a good department to start in also. I am sure this happened with a smaller company so it is probably not an option.

Next time you send them a reminder about the the payment send them a reminder about this posting too.

To you from me in OKC. Have a great week all,
P
http://thecustomerserviceblog.com - alive and well
See you on the cat5

This is indeed a bothersome liability of being in business for yourself. When I owned my own software company I dealt with this a few times. We primarily built web-based software solutions, so we gradually adopted a policy requesting (if not requiring in some cases) that we also host the site for the application. In this way we had the power to "turn off the lights" for non-payment, which was often sufficient to back up our demands.

Businesses who screw over customers get a lot of press, but we rarely hear about the other side. It is unfortunately all too common. Best wishes as you press them about this.

I don't know if it is true since as a contractor I haven't had many commercial customers but I always felt thankful when I was on a government subcontract that the money was reliable. Do you find too that you don't have to worry about the government paying?

Incorporated since 1991, I have run into this problem a number of times.

My best answer to this issue is to provide software and services with a disclaimer and copyright notice indicating the software / service is not the property of the purchaser unless payment in full has been made. Usually in an about box somewhere.

This only changes when payment has been received.

Also, it may be helpful to you to post a deadbeats list on your site, and on a community site, indicating both the invidual and the name of the firm in question. That way, others do not discover the same as you have, and you may be forewarned in dealing with firms or people that others have had difficulties with. I suggest that this may be different than blogging about them - just put their name and corporate name and address on the list and leave it there, with perhaps a dollar amount indicated. Similar to posting of bounced checks, this approach has a legal basis and does not cause harm to the company in question which various blogged statements may at some point be claimed to do.

A warning notice of impending addition to this list should be sufficient to garner payment.

Hope this Helps!

Larry

I would send them an email stating pay up or I will give the software to every competitor in the same field FOC.

Charge a support only fee that they don’t have to pay if they don’t want support. Get your software installed everywhere you can and make some new contacts in the process.

If they have not paid (within the stated or a reasonable amount of time i.e. 90 days) the contract is broken, the code is yours, get back the value of your time another way.