[mirakle]

Recently, I had a client who breached her contractual agreement by changing the password to her Yahoo Small Business account in an attempt to keep me from removing her site offline. At this point I chalk it up to a loss and don't feel like being bothered going after someone who lacks this much integrity - especially since she has already avoided the billing statements and contact phone calls. (I got my monies for site design, but this was the monthly mainenance agreement. Either way, she still has a fully functional site for the duration of FOREVER, while it bears notice that I maintain it when I *don't*.) I tried EVERYTHING to get into that account to remove my graphic work, to no avail. I wish I knew more about how hotlinking works so I can manipulate sites of clients like this.

Anyways... for future reference, how do I go about ensuring this does not happen. Generally I change all of my clients passwards to individual site *anyways* so that I am the only one with sole access. That way they don't get curious and go in moving files around, tear something up and expect for me to restore the site design. But in this case, because she set up her own Yahoo account, all she needed to do was go in, provide her CC# and change the password.

Is there another route to set up client's web host accounts so that I have sole access to the files and am able to shut the sites down when needed? (And WITHOUT me bearing the upfront cost of paying for their hosting services.)

[PointandStare]

Get proper clients that don't use yahoo site builder (jeeesshh!), with proper contracts and proper integrity.

Then get a reseller hosting account, set up your clients with separate accounts via your web host manager and never give them access to this.

Hosting costs are minimal (all our clients are hosted free) but if it's a burden to you simply add it to their bill.

[mirakle]

Thank you for your input. But just to clarify (and in my own defense) I don't use "Yahoo Site Builder" to build websites. This client wanted a site placed on their existing Yahoo server which also does hosting. I understand the need (technically) to go with larger hosting companies, but for clients who basically have nothing to promote and are just happy to see their name on a page, why bother? And the contract BTW was 7 pages thorough, *standard* and clear.

The reason this woman refused to pay the remainder of her contract is because she inititially said she wanted to display (ugly) african dresses online and never mentioned clients ordering them online until two weeks after her site was up and running. THEN called to blame me that she hadn't gotten any business and asks me to add PayPal to the site. Of course you won't get any response when customers have to download a darn order form, print it, check off all the items they want and mail it back to her house. I wasn't going to give my opinion and suggest doing it otherwise when she let me know she had a "prospering Ebay business and wasn't operating some store front out of a house". At that point, I watched her dig her own hole. I reminded her that she should have indicated to me from the initial consult that she wanted to sell these items and I would have built her an e-commerce site from the beginning. It was not feasible to add a jillion PayPal buttons all over the place after the fact. It would have been tacky. She was also upset that I didn't put a counter displayed on her site. WHO FRIGGIN USES COUNTERS ON SITES NOW A DAYS!? At much to my disdain, I put the counter on there and I'm guessing she was mad because only 23 people had visited her site in 3 months. I won't take responsibiltiy for that. People don't realize that when you want a website, then what? A marketing strategy is imparative before you even have a site done.

So as I mentioned, my needs and my *type* of clientel is changing so there is now a need to consider other hosting options. She is the LAST of this type of client and I just need a more feasible route to take from here.

Sorry for the rant and thanks again.

[freelancr]

If you have a contract then take her to the small claims court.

In the future, don't be so fucking stupid! If someone can get out of paying their bill by changing the password to THEIR hosting account, then why the fuck would anyone pay you ever?

[PointandStare]

One part of this job (designer/ developer) is to give your professional opinion as to why something is a bad idea and present alternatives.

Take the counter as an example.
Client - "I want a counter on my site"
You - "Why"
Client - "So i can see how many people have visited"
You - " Having a counter on your site is a very crude and unprofessional method of obtaining visitor statistics. I suggest using Google analytics ... ( GA demo etc ...)".