Client refusing to pay citing ‘substandard work’ - WWYD?

ARenter

I’ve been doing freelance graphic design for a while now. I picked up a new client earlier this year and have done about 8 jobs for him so far. To be frank, he’s been a massive PITA since day 1 (constantly phoning at random times, asking for free updates, pushy disrespectful tone etc etc.) – however after telling him that all contact should be via email I was willing to put up him as he does pay well and on time, and he’s well-connected in this industry.

However the last two contracts I completed for him he says aren’t good enough and he’s now refusing to pay (£600 in total), even though on one of them his colleague initially responded to me and said its fine. He basically called me and starts ranting about how I’m trying to 'shaft' him, do I know who he is blah blah blah. When he eventually calmed down I offered to take a second look within a week (owing to other commitments) however he demanded that the (unspecified) ‘problem’ be ‘corrected’ within 24 hours, which I said was not possible - I then reiterated that I expect to be paid for the work.

Since then, crickets (this was two weeks ago now).

Not sure whether it’s worth pursuing?

Tbh I've been on the fence about continuing with him for a while now, and part of me will be glad to get shot of him, and so I’m tempted just to write it off so that I don’t have to deal with him anymore. That said, I did do the work, and £600 is not nothing. However almost certainly he will refuse to cough up, so I’ll have to take him to Small Claims Court, which means months of extra admin/fees and I imagine he will still refuse to pay even if the court finds in my favour. Could he claim that I’ve broken the contract by delivering ‘shoddy goods’ (or whatever the legal term is), and that therefore he is justified in not paying?

Not sure whether it’s worth fighting this one, or just chalk it up to experience and walk on…??

Marcon

ARenter said:

I’ve been doing freelance graphic design for a while now. I picked up a new client earlier this year and have done about 8 jobs for him so far. To be frank, he’s been a massive PITA since day 1 (constantly phoning at random times, asking for free updates, pushy disrespectful tone etc etc.) – however after telling him that all contact should be via email I was willing to put up him as he does pay well and on time, and he’s well-connected in this industry.

However the last two contracts I completed for him he says aren’t good enough and he’s now refusing to pay (£600 in total), even though on one of them his colleague initially responded to me and said its fine. He basically called me and starts ranting about how I’m trying to 'shaft' him, do I know who he is blah blah blah. When he eventually calmed down I offered to take a second look within a week (owing to other commitments) however he demanded that the (unspecified) ‘problem’ be ‘corrected’ within 24 hours, which I said was not possible - I then reiterated that I expect to be paid for the work.

Since then, crickets (this was two weeks ago now).

Not sure whether it’s worth pursuing?

Tbh I've been on the fence about continuing with him for a while now, and part of me will be glad to get shot of him, and so I’m tempted just to write it off so that I don’t have to deal with him anymore. That said, I did do the work, and £600 is not nothing. However almost certainly he will refuse to cough up, so I’ll have to take him to Small Claims Court, which means months of extra admin/fees and I imagine he will still refuse to pay even if the court finds in my favour. Could he claim that I’ve broken the contract by delivering ‘shoddy goods’ (or whatever the legal term is), and that therefore he is justified in not paying?

Not sure whether it’s worth fighting this one, or just chalk it up to experience and walk on…??

Yes he could - and the real difficulty is how difficult it is to prove the point one way or another. Did you actually ask him to specify what exactly the problem was, or is it the old chestnut of 'just not good enough mumble mumble'? It's virtually impossible to deal with an issue if the client can't give you some indication of what they don't like.

Much as it will stick in your throat, I suspect chalking it up to experience and walking on is indeed likely to be the best bet. Possibly in future you ask for (at least part) payment in advance from future customers - and think about having some sort of arbitration clause in your contract so that if this happens again, there's a way forward to decide whether or not the work is up to standard.

lincroft1710

He can of course claim your work is not up to standard and therefore he shouldn't be expected to pay for it. Whether or not a judge would agree...........


I agree £600 is not nothing, but in the scheme of the things it is not a fortune. The vast majority of businesses have bad debts or deals which don't work out. My personal view would be just let it go and one less PITA to ruin your equilibrium.

retiredbanker1

Is there a regulatory body in your line of business that you could ask for a report on your work?
This could be used as part of your case should you take him to court (and add the cost to your claim).

Have you also done some background checks on this person - has he done this to other people - how did you contact him or did he contact you??

Brie

Well you could try to call his bluff and send a "letter before action" (I think that's the right term).  Basically say that you did X amount of work and expect to be paid £Y for it by DATE.  He might tell you to take a hike.  Or you might get some money.  Presumably everyone else in his world knows what a big PITA he is and so if he rants about you being a bigger pain they will take it with a grain of salt.  

TELLIT01

Ask him to return everything connected with the job and simply do nothing for him in the future.  Life is too short to put up with people being a PITA even if they are good payers.  Just keep an eye open to make sure they don't use your 'sub-standard work'.

penners324

It's not much extra time or effort to take him to court.
Use Money Claim Online.

It's the court service Online.

He'll get a ccj against him or his company. You can then get bailiffs involved. 

Ditzy_Mitzy

What was in the contract?  Pursuing the matter will be easier if there was a proper written specification for the design work.  It will also be useful if there is correspondence regarding the development of the design - these things, presumably, aren't done in isolation.  Anything that narrows it down will be beneficial for the OP, should a decision be made to do that.  Doing so on a purely subjective basis could be difficult.  

Marcon

penners324 said:

It's not much extra time or effort to take him to court.
Use Money Claim Online.

It's the court service Online.

He'll get a ccj against him or his company. You can then get bailiffs involved. 

You're overlooking one crucial fact: there's absolutely no guarantee of success, given the subjective nature of this sort of issue.

Vectis

It's a difficult one for other people to advise on because

a) We don't know what was asked for

b) We can't see what you delivered

If there's any chance the work you supplied didn't match what was asked, I'd simply walk away and not work with him again.

If it's clear-cut that you did it all ok- and you need to look at that objectively, no-one here can tell you - then take it to the Small Claims, or threaten to.

Unlikely I know, but if you do sort it out and decide to continue working with him then ask for money upfront in future.

ARenter

thanks for these helpful replies.

Let's say the client honestly feels that the work is not up to scratch (doubtful on that front tbh - I think he's just tying to get more work out of me for free tbh), could I not still charge say 1/2 or 1/3 the fee for the time I spent on it or something like that? 

I'm thinking I might go that route, hopefully negotiate something out of him (maybe with the threat of a small claim hovering in the background), then cut him off as soon as the money hits my account.