Question

This is crazy!  I have a website design client and we are in month eight.This is crazy! I have a website design client and we are in month eight. I've been waiting for four months for just pictures from this client. I have sent numerous emails and try different angles to move him along. What would you do at this point to finish this project? 

Answer 1

Send invoice marked as "stand by time" $995

Answer 2

To be honest I would send an email saying it was maybe time to just end the project. That if things don't move along quickly you will have to just stop the project. Did you give them timescales of when to get certain items to you? Have they given you anything at all? Alternatively I would finish the design with mock images and content and give them a training video showing them how to swap it out for their own content. Tell them at this stage you can't keep going on with the timescale the way it is

Answer 3

We typically only make new sites for our SEO clients or offer new sites for new seo clients, but i do like using getting paid via by milestones made - put a clause that all digital assets are due before the project starts with timelines for the client as well. It can be a juggle sometimes for sure. I'm sure you have been paid something right? Wait till you hear from them and move on untill so

Comments

@leftover Yes. we always get 50% up front. We did have milestones in contract but no penalty to force them to pay.  

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@haven it's hard to do that sometimes, we tend to try to not penalize clients due to human nature. Personally I woudl lay low, sometimes get another person to email or call. that can surprisingly jolt a client to action.  

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@haven No work = no money lost.  

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@eightieth depending on who's doing the work - if @haven is doing the work - then you have schedule blocks of time devoted to projects. I think you get what I'm saying. When you get a client that's not contributing and you're neck deep in current projects and then the client does a data dump on you and expects things down in 48 hours - it then can funny fast. but you're right for the most part

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@leftover That’s a good point about the data dump. That happens frequently.  

Answer 4

One of a hundred reasons i stoppped web design, rather have a hot needle up my peehole

Comments

@haven Chrest no you wouldn't lol

Answer 5

You can send this guy to speed things up.  

Answer 6

What does your contract state will happen if the Client delays on media?  

Answer 7

Gotta have a clause in your contract where you have the right to bill the final total after a certain amount of time. Or this will continue to happen.  

Comments

@eulaheulalee I agree!  

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@haven we run into this a lot. We custom design all of our projects. We do 50% up front, 25% after design is done. (All assets due now) and if project commenced after a certain time frame from here we have the right to bill the card on file. (We require clients to provide this. ) websites are a two way street. Then the 25% prior to going live. In your situation I’d call them and be like hey look this project is obviously not a priority for you and that’s OK but I have completed all the work at my end except the assets you provided me so I would like to retain my end of the deal. If they are a good client they will understand and send you the final payment. Or I can go sideways and you never get paid but at this point the monies pretty much a Hail Mary.  

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You're just going to piss someone off doing this. Nobody is going be comfortable paying for work that wasn't rendered, regardless of where the holdup was. If you're doing 50% up front, but haven't even finished the design and they're not getting back to you, then you have a massive net gain already. That's the reason payments are broken up like that, so you don't lose your ass. Telling them because they didn't get back to you that you're going to bill them for the rest of the project is just silly, and unethical.  

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@eightieth true

Answer 8

Been there done that bought the damn t-shirt

Answer 9

Send him a thank you letter for sending the pictures and express how happy you are he is so brave to promote his products / services with almost naked young girls. Also ask for a confirmation all of the girls are older than 21. On a serious note: You should have details about these kind of situations in your contract.  

Answer 10

After 2 months, I request final payment. That usually lights a fire.  

Answer 11

Ah Relatable

Answer 12

Wow, you've a lot more patience than me! I get annoyed if I'm not getting the info I need within days, never mind months.  

Answer 13

Go take the pics haha

Answer 14

Charge them for delaying, and make sure you put that in your contract as well!  

Answer 15

Bill them for a photo shoot and send out a legit photog to do a proper job in a timely manner.  

Comments

This is good advice only if you want to not get paid to finish the website, but also pay for a photo shoot you can’t use.  

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Hahah ok Adam. Obviously it was a joke.  The photo shoot would obviously have to be agreed upon in advance and really should have been built into the original proposal anyway. Thanks for playing though. ✌

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Puffin Daddy ❤️

Answer 16

Not for this case, but might help you for the future. I now have om the agreement that the full payment shall be paid before we start working. How ever we always start first, and send the invoice within a day or two. We have not had problems after doing that. We send the retainer invoice when the site is launched. Then once every year.  

Answer 17

I'm also dealing with that issue but only for 3 months. I have even offered to buy the images for him. grrrrr

Answer 18

I know this model isn’t as popular but these types of awkward scenarios are exactly why I bill hourly (including for emails) and not per project. I invoice at the end of each month with whatever hours I’ve worked. If a project gets stalled, I don’t care because I didn’t spend any of my time on it anyway. In this scenario, I would be able to just tell the client I’m taking him off my schedule and to let me know when he’s ready to resume. In your scenario, I guess a similar message with a heads up that you need to bill for partial payment might do the trick.  

Answer 19

Do you charge an annual retainer? I tell my clients the annual date starts the day they sign the contact. This, in most cases, lights a fire under them to get live ASAP. In addition to that, if your initial payment setup was done in a way that you’re getting paid for the step of the project upfront, then no money lost.  

Answer 20

I add milestones in my contract and fine print that says the client must participate in providing all required materials in reasonable time. Heavily document all ur attempts and eventually just invoice them for final milestone if it goes beyond a year. Try to finish as much as possible and document your work time without them and put stock and filler text where it’s missing. Send them to collections after they ignore the final invoice. Thankspically the feet dragging is from not willing to pay in the end so u gotta be firm.  

Answer 21

I would just drop it and move on. No sense in wasting any more time on it.  

Answer 22

28 days after the first notice we have the right to cancel the whole project whilst billing you for the full amount of the total project cost. Amazing how fast those images get sent over!  

Answer 23

This is why I stopped web design

Answer 24

This happens a lot in web design. It is usually best to forget about it and stop all work. If they want to finish it they will eventually contact you and then you tell them "I have gotten to the point where I am just waiting on these files. I can't finish the site until I have the entirety of the content. I can have it finished in x days after I receive this content, but only if I receive all of it. "

Answer 25

This is from my terms and conditions regarding when final payment is due. Feel free to use. "This process is entirely in the clients own time and not part of the website build or design process. The project is finished when all functionality and design is finished regardless of how long any given client takes to actually learn how to use the site or provide content. "

Answer 26

Thats nothing, try waiting 18 months for a project to go ahead after winning the tender process. Thats what happens when you work with large organisations.  

Answer 27

Do you guys not put clauses in your contracts about this very thing? What do your terms outline you will do?  

Answer 28

This is the story of my life daily in PR re interview answers from clients. I send and re send the same emails 50 times

Comments

Hi, I make 1K/mo and I am from Russia. I wirte articles on tech. I write, people pay. THat's it. How much are u making? Do you want to work with me maybe? I will hook you up with customerdirectly who will pay after each article! You'll need to research tho a lot, but it's tech (not coding) and it's on the bleeding edge of the world.  

Answer 29

We switched to an upfront setup fee then a monthly fee that starts 30 days after they sign. The setup covers 100% of the cost of building the site, the monthly is the profit and we charge it as long as we have the site. We bill the monthly whether the site is done or not. I don't care if they don't send us creative, we make our money anyway. It's on them if they want to pay us monthly for an incomplete site.  

Answer 30

Get paid 100% up front then it’s their problem, not yours.  

Answer 31

I never have this problem. Because I totally manage all aspects. No waiting. It’s gets built, it looks awesome. They are happy, I get paid. PS they can be extra happy if they want to replace the images I used.  

Comments

@undertone I like your idea of just putting in temporary picture using stock images of images from the client’s GMB. I feel like if your contract specifies that the client has 10 business days to send you a list of changes needed to your draft of the website, and the client never sends any pictures to swap out, then really you should be free to send the final invoice at that point.