I'm continually fascinated by these comments (there's one on every story like this) that try to second-guess the decision based on no actual information. Doesn't it seem likely that the person who did this is in a better position to judge the potential consequences than you?
Unless OP is right on the threshold of being hard up for work, it makes no real difference to his dealflow, and it has a nonzero probability that it will shame somebody into paying.
> Doesn't it seem likely that the person who did this is in a better position to judge the potential consequences than you?
In fact, no. If there is a dispute and you forego the legal option you might get your ass handed to you. Things like this blow up in the face of the party doing them as often as they lead to some kind of settlement.
The damage to the client could outweigh the amount owed (assuming there is one) very rapidly.
> Unless OP is right on the threshold of being hard up for work, it makes no real difference to his dealflow, and it has a nonzero probability that it will shame somebody into paying.
It also has a non-zero probability of him/her being sued for (substantial) damages.
> But will this increase the web designer's chances to get paid? I don't think so.
Why wouldn't it? If the store owner doesn't let emotion cloud his judgement, he should figure out very quickly that it would be better to pay up rather then face further negative publicity.
> it would probably not further the career of the web designer either.
It should have about zero negative effect on the career of the designer, and may have a positive effect. Any company that has been in business long enough has been screwed before, and most people would root for the little guy in this scenario.
> If the store owner doesn't let emotion cloud his judgement, he should figure out very quickly that it would be better to pay up rather then face further negative publicity.
Disputes like this should be handled where they belong, in small claims court, not by damaging (possibly irreparably) one parties reputation.
If I were the store owner (which I'm not, and I'd have paid that bill if the work were done as agreed upon) and we'd be in a dispute over something and you'd pull a stunt like this then I would most certainly rake you over the coals.
This is a dis-proportionate response in the eyes of many, quite possibly in the eyes of the judge handling the case which could lead to all kinds of misery for the designer. One thing you don't do in a dispute is to hand your opponent ammunition.
Truth is a valid defense in any libel or slander case.
If someone who owes you doesn't pay you, you are well within your rights to tell people about it.
What probably happened is a small business wanted a website, so the web designer designs the website and buys them a domain name. The deliverables are a finished website along with a domain name and hosting.
If the client doesn't pay, then they own neither the domain name, the hosting, nor the design, and the web designer can do whatever the hell he wants with all three.
> But will this increase the web designer's chances to get paid?
The customer has a choice: pay for the product he had developed and approved of, or look for another web developer to do it over again.
Finding a new web developer will be tricky given this situation (who wants to work for someone that has a reputation not to pay up?) and would take a lot of time before a new site is delivered.
About 10 years ago, I started working in for a small metal fabrication company who had their website done just before I joined. The boss never paid the developers' final invoice, and one day they did something similar: they replaced the front page of the website with a message saying saying something like "those people do not pay their bills".
Although I knew nothing about web development, I did have a good general IT knowledge, and used FTP before, so my boss, who paid for the hosting account, dug the details up, I logged in and realised they only renamed the index.html page and uploaded a new one. Within minutes the FTP login details were changed and the situation reverted.
I truly think there was a way for the developers to get paid before they pulled this trick, but not after. To me, although I wasn't happy with my boss not paying his bills, what they did felt wrong.
Fast forward to present day, and I'm a full-time freelance web developer. In the last 7 years of me being one, I had only two customers who didn't pay their final invoices. I could have done something like that, or could have even hinted that I am able to do this, but didn't, for two reasons:
1. I pride myself in my professionalism. This is unprofessional to me and I will not stoop down to this level.
2. In the last three or four years, I didn't have to look for work at all, it all came to me via current or past customers. Therefore, my reputation is the most important asset I have, and I want all my customers, even the ones who didn't pay in full, to have nothing negative to say about me.
Eventually, both customers paid in full, without me having to even make a hint of threat, so I do believe I handled things correctly.
One thing I did learn is to put two clauses in my contracts:
1. That the code will be hosted on my server, and will only be released to clients' server(s) once a full payment has been made.
2. That the code is my property, regardless of the server it hosted on, until full payment has been made.
The second is to cover the possibility of me releasing the code before the full payments. Even then, if I ever get to the stage where I feel that I need to take a similar action, I would rather delete the files (or some files) from the customer's server and not post anything defamatory about the customer on their website. But I find it hard to believe I will ever even go that far.
I agree that defacing is not the best way to go about this, but taking down the site and/or holding your own work hostage until a payment is made seems fair to me.
> it would probably not further the career of the web designer either.
It would mean people who are inclined to try to stiff developers would give this person a miss, meaning they have more time to focus on paying customers. Sounds like a great career boost, imo.
It's only a quick whois search away. With the name & city, the designer's website is easy to find. It's a Flash-only website (second clue about the designer).
whois nycfreshmarket.com
Onemine
710 West End Ave 3d
New York City, ny 10025
US
Unless OP is right on the threshold of being hard up for work, it makes no real difference to his dealflow, and it has a nonzero probability that it will shame somebody into paying.