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Comment by mrkmcknz | Hacker News Reader

What 'freelance' developer would build a site, host it and put it live without one payment.

This was my first thought as well. This is a good reason why you need to take down payments.

There probably isn't a freelancer out there that hasn't wanted to do what this guy has done to a deadbeat client. I just don't see how going this route benefits you in any way though. Now everyone involved looks like a jerk.

Downpayments aren't often enough. I've had friends whose clients never paid the last installment and the owner has changed the access credentials. It's a difficult path - what can you do when the site is live and you can't get access anymore, and the client won't pay the last installment before it's live?

first and foremost you can host the site yourself which gives you unfettered access and secondly don't ever give admin credentials to a site that wasn't fully paid for???

Not all site jobs are self-hosted, for example site upgrade projects.

right in which case I'm assuming you'd remove your work and leave the original version instead of pulling down work which wasn't yours.

My point was: I have seen clients receive work, change the password on their site and not pay for it. In relation to the topic, it is not possible for the developer to remove the work so whether it is ethical to denounce the client publicly otherwise is the dilemma (personally I would not do this and send a debt collector, but then again you're not always in the same country). So what do you do, put a bad review on Yelp?

You could try to recover the costs legally. In the UK we have a swift procedure which could make it a legal matter with payment due immediately or a plan to clear balance arranged.

It is a very difficult situation indeed.

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