[mrtksn]

I see such behavior from time to time but feels off-taste IMHO. It's almost as if would be more professional if they worked with the Italian mafia to coerce for payment(not that I approve such thing).

If contract broken, sue them. Why throwing a scene?

[petit_robert]

>If contract broken, sue them. Why throwing a scene?

Haha! tell me about it.

A client of mine ended his contract in 2010, pretending he did not use my software anymore. He had the source because I had to compile on site for technical reasons.

A disgruntled employed called to tell me and my associate he was still using it. It took me 3 years to find a proof, lawsuit started in 2014, the expertise began in 2016 and ended in 2021. I have a first trial hearing scheduled Feb, 12 2026. Expect 6 to 12 months before a decision, and of course, an appeal after that.

The guy had stocked up 5 million dollars net when I stopped him with the lawsuit [0], he is using the money to pay well known lawyers to delay the procedure every which way.

I'm out largely over 100 000 euros in court, expertise and lawyer fees, plus the countless hours spent responding to the endless, senseless dribble their lawyers produce.

As far as I'm concerned, my services are now hosted by me, and failure to pay shuts down the service, it's in the TOS.

[0 : he subcontracted for a big entity. I would never had gotten that contract myself, lacking the thief's network; said big entity never replied to our mails about our software]

[mrtksn]

Shutting down services upon payment issues is much more different than getting into laud public dispute.

Also, there's always some number of problem clients out there, never good idea to stray away from civility. There are problem merchants too, which is much more socially acceptable to shame publicly.

[petit_robert]

I meant to add that I don't advertise it and just invalidate the account. Omitted it for brevity.

There is also the long time friend you do a site for, with an agreed upon price. And he forgets to renew the bank transfer every year... for months.

[yieldcrv]

because social shaming is faster and cheaper than the legal system

and doesn’t involve physical violence like the mafia

[mrtksn]

I guess its something you can do if you don't care about your reputation and you need the money now, this is because It's very uncomfortable to work with people who throw a scene just like that.

We haven't heard the other side of the argument, have we? Maybe it's not as simple as services delivered payment withheld.

[yieldcrv]

I’ve taken risks like that, bucking “reputation” scare tactics, and people respected me more

I’ve seen a lot of things like that flip over the last 2 decades

Where the abuser doesn’t tend to be able to control reputation across an industry, so they can be called out

A freelance software developer wouldn't be affected by that, YMMV