[greaterweb]

I do empathize with this guys position but he is way out of line here. There is an implied risk in doing business, be it freelance or trough a traditional business.

Your first line of defense would be a solid contract and a fairly decent deposit. If you lead with a strong reputation clients will have no problem making the investment with you. If you lack the experience and reputation, maybe you shouldn't be getting involved in projects like this that leave you at risk.

Next would be proper project planning and _clear_ delivery milestones that have payments associated with them. It is not wise to put yourself in a situation where you lead with design and development and receive the bulk of payment when the project is complete. Without a clear project plan and deliverables scope creep can introduce itself and you can wind up eating the cost of additional work to satisfy the client. And even then you are still crossing your fingers the check will come before the next "quick update."

The problem I have with what the developer has done here is that he has abused his position to leverage a client's domain to support his view of the situation. We don't know the clients side and they are left without a voice here.

The developer may very well be the victim here but I've got to believe it was his business practices that made him vulnerable here.

[johnpowell]

Well, the client did go through the trouble of deleting their facebook pages that the site linked to.

So they did have a voice but took a knife to their own larynx instead of telling their side of the story.