How to deal with unscrupulous customers?

Question

Freelance

Salute to all!
The situation is terrible, but real.
Developed a website, hosted a customer who didn’t just scam, but overturned, caught up and overturned again, and for all that, they are very good friends.
The bottom line is that I won’t get money for the work done, there’s no way, it doesn’t even make sense to sue, since I’ve already spent so much time on development, it will also take time to go to courts.
What to do, how to be? I don’t know already (I
created, or rather transferred the site to my old domain, now there are 2 such sites, whose blacklisted search engines are also not clear

Answer 1

Two years ago, in the city of N, it was necessary to look in the search results for 1 request (and this request coincided with the name of the local company - the name of the brand), and so in the first place - not in the region, but in Russia, this key was a review about this company the size of sheet of A4 format, the content of the review is five tons of slop, in general, do not wash.
This practice is very effective even when knocking out money. To clean up a reputation in our time is an expensive pleasure.
The Internet is a place where they write not with a pencil, but with ink - and there are people who buy ink in buckets.
I sincerely sympathize with you - if there are no options at all, and the desire for retribution is unbearable, then go ahead, only through VPN and from a cafe with free Internet.

Answer 2

I suggest you just forget it.
And, by the way, forget about those wise men who call names sucker.
With or without a contract, IMHO, there is no difference - an oral contract and the presence of work performed should be sufficient for the court. (in Israel, I don't know about Russia/CIS)
But in any case, litigation is time and nerves.
I've had this happen once in 6 years. To hell with them, ruined their karma.

Answer 3

The service provided costs nothing! .
Solution: understand and forgive.
For the future: You admitted the possibility of deceiving you. If you do not want to be deceived in the future - take the money in advance and be a bore, negotiate everything to the smallest detail, because. in such a case, you will be a bore with money and no unpaid obligations. Or, you can always be that great guy with extra money/time and a good soul.

Answer 4

If there are still accesses, then roll back the changes to the working (this is important) state, and not just break it. If the site is new, then simply replace it with the "Blocked for non-payment" stub.
Tell all his friends, mother, colleagues that he threw. Arrange drunken fights at every party and ruin the holiday for everyone. Find out where he lives and put up a hundred leaflets with his mug "Debtor Lives Here".
Lots of options. What are you willing to go for. Ultimately, spit in his face and move on with your life.

Answer 5

Although the answer is already there, I'll write it anyway.
15 days of work (according to the contract template) is that a lot of money? Is it worth going to court?
If you want to kill time. You need a lawyer for civil lawsuits.
Is there any correspondence left? This is the basis that the work was carried out and the contract was in a simple oral form.
Who registered domain names? You can try to take it away in court, after the promotion of the business. In this scenario, you can demand more money.
In the Republic of Kazakhstan is there an analogue like in Russia FIPS ? In short, register intellectual property for yourself.

All property rights to the created intellectual property under this agreement belong to the Customer

There is no contract, which means that the intellectual property has not been transferred.
As not a lawyer, I can advise you to write a letter demanding payment for the work performed, but after registering the source code. And it is necessary to write to those who receive money from this. Friends somehow had that they did not want to pay for the work, they wrote a requirement to the customer of the customer, those who were going to use the "labor". After 3 months the money came.
PS: When they write "All rights reserved" at the end of the site, I almost laugh, rarely anyone understands what needs to be done for this.

Answer 6

to understand and to forgive. and continue to work without advance payment

Answer 7

Everyone who writes "forget" is right. Here the problem is trust and it is scary that acquaintances were connected with this. But the advance must always be taken. And it doesn’t cost anything to place anything on the customer’s server until you have 100% for the service, or a contract for the provision of services.
And if you want justice, then start a chain of lawsuits. Statements, correspondence, raise all the slag. Do not forget to make a pre-trial claim in order to increase the chances of a court decision if the customer does not respond to it. Of course, it is better to do all this after consulting with a lawyer or directly with him.
If the resource is up to 50,000 according to your estimate and agreement, then you should not even mess with it. Spend many times more to bring the process to the end + time (of course, in case of victory, they will reimburse, but ....).
Just draw conclusions for the future and forget (good lesson). Well, do not forget to shout a little into the pillow, only for complacency and the release of negative energy.

Answer 8

The site can be transferred to the customer's hosting only after the final payment