Am I being unreasonable with this client?

Just move the domain to Godaddy, it's not THAT hard- try to avoid confrontations with clients if you can.

I refuse to work with sites on Godaddy. Customers are on their own. Too much non-standard propriety crap, and I'm not wasting my time. It's a horrible host.

I would just remove the site, and not back down.

"The balance due is $1,500. Please remit payment to unsuspend your site."

and if they pay

"Your site has been uploaded to the host you've requested.
If something does not work correctly, you'll need to contact Godaddy support."

Make it right on GoDaddy. Give best efforts. $1500 is not worth ruining your good name. Which can VERY easily happen if your Client chooses to.

Sure, you can hold his website hostage. And even more easily, he can hold your reputation hostage. Google search can be terribly unforgiving.

How long did it take to build your reputation? Because in a few of hours it can be destroyed. Taking years to rebuild.

- Rick Duris

I'll say it again but in a different way.

Take the high road. Always take the high road.

- Rick Duris

Will Godaddy charge to make it work and if so, is the client willing to pay for that?

Personally, I'd tell him all why you do not recommend Godaddy and that it will likely end up costing him more because of their proprietary stuff - regardless of who the webmaster is.

If he posts a negative review, then explain if you have to, that he chose to change your original agreement and go with an inferior hosting company with the incompatible coding after you had the site built...

So to the OP, is it you that cannot fathom out how to sort the technical issues, or is it Go Daddy that are not helping you to supply them with a new client?

What is it that the client has heard about GD that makes him so insistent on using them when they're already proving their ineptitude and clearly don't value his new business enough to (help) sort the issue out .

Does he really understand what he's letting himself in for , send him copies of the communications you have had with GD over this one issue, let him see how unhelpful they are being already (presuming they are from your words) , then ask him again whether he wants to put his business in their hands or leave it in 'yours' for maybe a reduced lets call it quits and live happily ever after amount outstanding.

If he still goes GD then he's an idiot and whilst I agree with Ricks moral stance, very few people listen to idiots, apart from other idiots.

Alternatively you could continue to sort it, he still owes you the money and insist on three personal (he makes the intro call with you present) recommendations as a thankyou

Better to spend a few hours setting up gdaddy shitty hosting than have a bad rep with the client. (even tho he is a client from hell)

No biggie. He's changed the original deal. Clients do that. You just need to recast a new agreement that reflects what you can or can't do under his new guidelines. As Aaron suggested, work up a new contract or fee agreement that outlines what you charge to handle this new deal and off you go.

That said, I don't know that I would spend forever and a day trying to get it to work on GoDaddy. These situations quickly turn in to a black hole of time. It's not just the money. I'm guessing you don't want to be tweaking GoDaddy's quirks for the rest of your life. Wendy also has a good suggestion: What is it about Godaddy they are so juiced about, and can you offer the same or better on another platform they would also like?

You have some good options listed above, but I will say with Go Daddy hosting, unless you have a very simple HTML site, you will never get your problems resolved correctly.

I have worked with clients that have used them in the past and the end result is they have server security so tight (mainly because they don't know what they are doing) that any type of script will not function like it was written.

And trying to get support to correct is useless.

Good luck if client insists on using them.

Godaddy is the worst hosting ever. I know hardly anyone who would say Godaddy is recommended hosting. Your client is misinformed. I've had simple blogs installed on Godaddy with nothing but problems and moved them to cpanel hosting and up in a flash. I'd try to convince him ... show him ... that people who know, don't use Godaddy hosting.

Make the site live on your hosting and demand he pay the balance.

Stand firm and tell him you cannot move the site to nodaddy. If he wants to change the contract, offer to do it at an hourly rate that is acceptable to you.

If he doesn't pay you for the work that you have done, let his reputation ride on letting it be known that he won't pay his bills. You might even be able to find someone on fiverr to walk outside his business with a sign

He has no complaint with which to damage your reputation as long as his site is up and running.

Sent him a link to this thread during your discussion.

Fulfill your contract as written.

Additional work or movement is a new agreement.

If you fulfill as written, and he refuses to pay you, small claims court is less than $200.

I am flexible with clients and do my best to help them. I have even given refunds where I didn't have to because someone wasn't happy.

But, changing the deal and threatening not to pay you? It's illegal. It's hostile. It is in bad faith. You do not have to lay down to these sorts of people.

I'd ask him which expert he heard it from that Godaddy is awesome hosting, and politely point out that he hired you to design his web site for 6 grand and if he trusted you to do all that, why isn't he trusting you on the hosting decision?

Explain to him that while Godaddy has a great name and reputation their hosting plans are really set up for basic sites, which he didn't hire you for. Ask him to at least consider moving to another hosting, perhaps Hostgator.

The key here is to take him back to why he hired you, if you do it right he'll realize he's being silly and stick with whatever you recommend.

Ok I am going to look at this from the clients side for just a second and take another approach at this.. Not saying its RIGHT but this might be what they are thinking..

I just agreed to pay you $6,000.00 for a website, I owe you $1,500.00 so I am still out $4,500.00 so far. I originally agreed to have you host my website and I shouldn't be requesting this but I want it to be hosted on another host. Maybe I think Godaddy will be more reputable, maybe I think they will be around longer.. Who knows? I've got my reasons and at the end of the day I want what I want. And look at that.. you agreed to it.

You then attempt to move the site over to Godaddy per my request and suddenly the website doesn't work right. This throws up a RED FLAG in my mind. What if I put the website back on your hosting now to make sure it works right but in the future I HAVE TO move to another host... say because you close shop, etc..? Will I have a website that will not function correctly? It will be useless.. I am going to have a useless website.

So now I am at the point where I still owe you $1,500.00 - Why on earth would I pay for a website that in my mind is not functioning correctly? I want to make sure its compatible and works 110% before sealing the deal with a final payment.

-End of scenario

I'm not saying you aren't doing everything you can.. If I were you I would attempt to do what he requested since you already agreed to it and in the future write into your contracts that hosting will be at X and if you want to move it to X you will be responsible for A,B,C..

At the end of the day you just want them to be happy and to lose the headache..

Best of luck with this situation, I am sure it will work out.

You know what, isosales kind of has a good point...

We've all been doing this longer than our customers. We know there are plenty of good reasons not to use GoDaddy ... but our customers don't see that the way we do. They see a large, successful company with millions of customers. It's a tough sell to convince them that you, the little guy who makes $XX,XXX or $XXX,XXX per year provides a better, more reliable service than the company that makes $XXX,XXX,XXX per year.

The answer may be as simple as "GoDaddy doesn't support some of the technology we used on your site on their low-end plans, we would need to switch to a higher plan for this to work" - and maybe that's all it is and you're done.

What I have seen customers do is switch the hosting so it's out of your control before final payment, then never pay - and if you already uploaded the site elsewhere then you've lost your only bargaining chip. It's up to you to gauge whether or not that's the case here, or if your customer is truly just concerned about portability.

Would it work on a Godaddy dedicated server?

Maybe he's demanding an inadequate shared server for the site you built to his specifications.

It is crazy-making when this sort of stuff happens with a client. What I've always done is switch into "super-helpful" mode, and in this case show them in several different modalities how your hosting is better for them in the long run

- would it be too far-fetched or too much work possibly to make a screen-capture video, demonstrating and praising how well the website is working and how they made such a wise choice, giving benefits of what the website is going to do for them?

Example script: "You can see how smoothly your website is working, it gives just the right feel, it does this and this and that, and all of this is with the major asset of the hosting of our original agreement."

Notice that it doesn't say "my" hosting or "your" hosting, but "original agreement" hosting.

Taking it further would be to demonstrate it NOT working correctly perhaps in a subdomain on the godaddy hosting - nothing like show and tell.

Just an idea for you.

@Kpmedia

Thats where it got complicated. I agree with you, however. At the point the request wade made to move to another server, lines should have been drawn and implemented into a new, modified, agreement.

It depends on what the initial terms of your agreement were. Did you mention any restriction related to hosting? If not, your client may be right.

WhatDidOPdo.com? (Thanks, Brian McLeod )

No offense, but he paid you for a functional website. Not just something he can use on your hosting. You got paid $6k, and you won't work with godaddy support to make him happy? Call me crazy but if he's got a 6k budget for a website, I'm going to do all i can to keep this guy in LOVE with my services so I can hit him with a $1000+ month web marketing package.

so anyway to the OP< any chance of coming back and letting us know what you're doing? please

Maybe the client is worried about having it on your hosting. Some customers have gotten screwed by designers that have control over their sites and domains and he may know that. Offer to set it up on Hostgator or anyone else other than you that has cpanel and other than Godaddy.

That is a tough one to call Chris. I'm not sure what to add to this thread. hmmmm...

Firstly, go by what the contract says.

However, if its vague or a contract doesn't exist, then unless this is some outrageously advanced and large site, which I doubt it is for $6,000, if I was in your situation I would outsource making the site compatible and just give it to the client. Your reputation is worth more, but make sure the client understands you're going through extra trouble just to satisfy them. Make sure they'll be happy, and this is all they want, if you put the site up on GD for them.

Either call up a programmer you know, or auction the job off on a freelance site. I really doubt this will cost more than $100-500. Make sure you know the cost before approaching the client... as if you're looking at $10k you might just want to tell the client to shove it.

Well I agree with Rick but depends how you contract wrote, you can argue you should have an additional fees.

Anyway, I don't think contacting Godaddy support will cost much time and they should have some suggestions to solve your compatibility problems.

By the way are you outsourcing the work or do it on your own?