Problems with customers

Question

Freelance

The story is probably as old as the world.
I took the project, the contract was not drawn up, only signatures under the TK without notarization. The TK states “I received such and such an amount in advance, from the total value of the project such and such”, everything happened in their office in Ukraine

We started the design, on our own initiative, we offered the client a choice of what according to the specification + a slightly more beautiful option, but in a completely different color scheme, the customer liked our option, then we worked with it, but it was clear that the design already differed from that written in the specification. After some time, the customer disappeared, but appeared rather quickly, explained that he was still a little busy, asked to temporarily “mothball” the project, and went to a meeting. After some time, the customer contacted us, my man said, he will deal with the project, then discuss everything with him. At that time, we were actually waiting for the final approval of the design by the customer. We met with a person, a new person, he wants everything in his own way, we warned that there would be many edits, it would be necessary to increase the budget, and then a small incident happened. A lot of time has passed since the start of the project, during this time we changed the prices, there was confusion, when indicating the possible amounts of the budget increase, we took the new prices as the basis, and not the old ones, the client did not say anything, but then he called and casually specified the amount, we of course named the erroneous amount recorded in the calculation files, it didn’t occur to anyone at that moment to recheck the numbers, a little later they contacted the customer’s person, clarified why there was no answer and all that, to simplify, they told us that we were trying to cash in on them and all that, of course we immediately checked everything, apologized , offered a discount, but in general they did not convince, at first glance it grew up peacefully. And then, a couple of days later, the customer, a person who saw the layouts with his own eyes, approved the edits, in fact, the person who saw all this happening before his eyes declares, “I didn’t see anything except for one picture, you did nothing, I demand the return of the deposit. Even apart from intermediate sketches, prototypes and color schemes, at that time we had three almost finished layouts. Their firm is a law firm, I'm embarrassed by the fact that they have a TK with signatures, and the TK was not rewritten after the changes were made, so the correspondence is not complete. I know about such situations that reach the court only in theory, I would like to know the realities of what the customer can do in this situation.

Answer 1

The fact that the firm is "lawyer" does not mean anything. Now there are a dime a dozen such firms, they don’t know how to do anything except register an individual entrepreneur ...
If the TOR does not say that you must return the money if the customer refuses to approve the layout, then why would you return them ?!
For pre-trial proceedings, it is quite possible to print out the correspondence (as an option, assure it from a notary), where it will be clear that you worked, and the customer mostly mowed.
You will probably sue at your place of residence, why would they know the magistrate of your site?! They intimidated by the court, you smile in response, “Yes, please!” - their ardor here can diminish. I tried it myself.
Apart from the need to occasionally appear in it, the court is not such a problem (unless we are talking about politics and officials, of course).
From a moral point of view: if the customer turned out to be adequate, then he would not see his money; and the customer, showing signs of cattle, gets the money back. Somehow unfair.
From the point of view of the future: my subjective opinion, we need more clarity, organization. Judging by the style of presentation and the number of errors in the text, perhaps this is not enough for you. Immediately I apologize for such statements, just sharing an observation.

Answer 2

I would sue if they did.

Answer 3

Inattention to documents = such troubles. Always.
Try to explain to the person that if someone hires a lawyer, this does not guarantee him victory in court. A person pays a lawyer for time and knowledge. In this case, the same. The customer pays for your time as a specialist and for your knowledge. No one guarantees him that the site will be made, since in the development of sites a lot depends on the Customer. And if he is an evil pinocchio to himself, then these are his problems, not yours.
As a rule, the above is written in the contract, but in your case there is no contract, so try to verbally agree. Explain your position so that he understands. He claims that he “didn’t see anything” – which means he’s lying. Moreover, he is lying knowing about it and the fact that you know that he is lying. Show again the thumbnails - 3 ready-made ones, all the files that were created for it, etc.
If the terms of reference are not specified in the terms of reference, then it is better. It will be possible to say in court - and what are we - we do not refuse, let him provide the necessary information for work.
In extreme cases - return the deposit, but forget about it - you will earn more.

Answer 4

Give money. And try to look at it as getting experience with such an unpleasant customer.
Spraying on litigation will come to you sideways professionally and materially, because such "law firms" have their own people in all instances (the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the court) and you will not be able to compete with them.

Answer 5

If I understood you correctly, then you should have an e-mail correspondence ... Why not proof of the modified TOR, the performance and demonstration of work?