At the end of last year I had some issues with a client. It was decided we would end our client/designer “relationship.” During the project I delivered to the client 3 wireframes and 3 concept designs with revisions. After a wireframe was decided upon and design concepts created the client changed their mind about the direction of the design and wanted new wireframes and concept designs which were not within the scope of the original contract. This is when we decided to end our “relationship.”
Within all my signed contracts I have a clause for non-refundable deposit, which is 30% of the project costs. I do this so if I do wireframes and concept designs and then the client changes their mind, I don’t get screwed for free work… or so I thought. I have been using Google Checkout for my payments mostly because it was free for an introductory time period. The client was none too happy when they requested the deposit back and I referred them to the signed contract. They then threatened small claims court and I said “Go ahead, we have the signed contract and I have the work I did to back it up.” When they realized that wasn’t going to get their deposit back, they initiated a dispute through Google Checkout. Google contacted me asking for my side of things so I sent a copy of the signed contract plus the wireframes and concept designs. Four months later, Google decided in favor of the client and $1000+ was withdrawn from my checking account.
It would seem to me that Google doesn’t give a rat’s ass about signed agreements or work delivered and I got screwed well and good. There doesn’t seem to be a way for me to dispute their decision and at this point my only recourse is small claims court and my blog. As I’m sure happens in most cases like this I just want to be rid of this awful client (which is why we parted ways in the first place) and be done with it. However, I will never be using Google Checkout again for online payments. As a matter of fact, I don’t know that I’ll ever accept online payments again for services if this is what I can expect for support from the payment collection provider. I’m sure it will be an inconvenience for some clients but I will not take the risk again of doing work for nothing, those days stopped for me long ago.
My name’s Jen; I’m a cynical, sarcastic, ex-drummer who is fond of dark humor. I've held way too many factory & retail jobs but finally found my calling one Christmas holiday in a dark, musty basement. I am now a CSS & XHTML web standards looney and can be found daily—when I’m not at my Mac—at the local fair-trade coffee shop buying an iced-soy mocha no matter the temperature.
I am also the owner of Pop Stalin Design specializing in CSS & XHTML web design as well as custom WordPress themes.
Wow, that’s really terrible. I am quite surprised that Google Checkout decided in their favor, since (at least to me) you should have clearly won because of the signed contract alone.
I’m sure there’s really nothing to say to make it better, but the phrases that come to mind are “you live and you learn”, and “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.
As far as payment services go, I’ve never used Google Checkout. Instead what I prefer is PayPal. For how long I’ve been using it it’s been good for me, so if you haven’t taken a look at it already, you might want to see if it could be a solution to you. (It’s Free also)
Good luck on everything, and I hope your future clients (and current ones) don’t stray from the path of honesty and respect.
(P.S., How’s your Mac doing? Is it alive once more?
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Hey Michael-
Yeah, I thought what I provided would be enough to see that the client was trying to get out of the terms of the signed contract. Apparently I was mistaken.
As far as the Mac is concerned, I’m typing this reply from her. She’s running Leopard and I finally got all my programs reinstalled. We’re both happy as a clam!
That really sucks. There was an article on Freelanceswitch.com a few months back about PayPal doing this I was hoping that Google checkout might be a better service but I guess not. I guess I’ll have to review my payment policies as well.
Yeah, I think when you have online payment services geared more towards goods than services, you’ll have these issues. It’s a shame there isn’t a service available for people who trade in services instead of tangible goods.
Sorry to read that, Jen. What an arse of a client!