This is interesting reading guys. I am a consultant and find that I actively check out clients before I will do work for them. This is becoming an issue. I liked the mention of using the escrow service but think that it would add problems. I ask for 50% of labor and 100% of hardware costs and with a few bad jobs think that this is a safe way of weeding them out.
What other than money can create problems with clients? I fired a client because they were priating software. They learned quickly and are getting back on track. What could cause stress to the consulting relationship? On 5/23/05, Michael Giagnocavo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >> You might be perfectly right in naming him but what if he files a > >> lawsuit over that? You will spend time and money getting the frivilous > >> lawsuit dismissed and even get a judgement against him. If you can't > >> collect for the last invoice, why add to the total uncollectible amount? > > > >The only thing wrong with that is that if he cannot pay his invoices he > >can't > >pay for a lawsuit. Which he has little chance of winning anyway. Chances > >are > >rather that he does not want a light shone on this situation. > > Well, I have had with clients with lots of money (a Casino, a National > Association, for instance), and I've found that some people would prefer to > steal the source code, lie about things, and yes, file lawsuits, instead of > giving in and paying. Once, I even had one client threaten to sue and demand > money because they didn't understand the difference between changing DNS > servers and a Registrar Transfer. > > Bottom line, some people are jerks who will do anything to feel like they've > beaten you or won something, even if it costs them more. I worked with > someone who wanted to file suit for $200, when it was quite clear our costs > would be in the $$$$s. Some people are just trying to keep their job by > appeasing idiot bosses, or perhaps to look good (hey, we saved 40% of our > dev budget by not paying anyone!). > > As someone else mentioned, you _can_ consider the money as an investment in > education :\. > > That said, so long you have a solid case, you shouldn't worry about posting > things in public. The Asterisk community surely would like to know about > this, as it'll only be a bit of time before someone else gets screwed by > them too. > > Have you thought about replying to one of his messages with a simple email > (not a warning), something along the lines of "Hey XXX, I see you're looking > for consultants to do this. I thought we were working together on this? All > you have to do is clear out your pending invoice with me and we can move > forward.". That could be less problematic than "Careful list, this guy's a > scammer!" > > -Michael > > > _______________________________________________ > Asterisk-Biz mailing list > Asterisk-Biz@lists.digium.com > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz > -- <sig> Andrew Latham - AKA: LATHAMA (lay-th-ham-eh) WWW: http://lathama.com Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - [EMAIL PROTECTED] If any of the above are down we have bigger problems than my email! </sig> _______________________________________________ Asterisk-Biz mailing list Asterisk-Biz@lists.digium.com http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-biz