How Far Should I Go With This?

16 replies
I have a real dilemma and don't know what to do. Honestly.

This is why I don't do web programming and design work anymore.

Here's the situation.

Customer hired me to do two simple coding changes for two of his pages.

1. Put a PayPal donation button on one page.

2. Put Adsense code on another.

Right...real simple? Should take 5 minutes?

Well, here's the problem.

He has the WORST hosting and publishing solution on the planet.

Essentially, it's a publisher that gives him a choice of themes and then
allows him to enter simple text and links into them.

NO scripts allowed
NO forms allowed

NOTHING.

So what I had to do was download the pages and manually insert the code
that the publisher wouldn't allow.

But...when you go to republish the site, what the publisher does is it takes
the theme, looks at the fields that you're allowed to type text and links
into and IGNORES EVERYTHING ELSE.

WTF?

So in order to keep the site the way it's supposed to be, you need to stop
using the publisher and use ftp, which thank God this hosting provider allows.

Problem is, the customer, even after including instructions on how to ftp
the files, which I sent to him, can't do this properly. After uploading, the
site was all messed up and I had to re-upload the files myself.

I have essentially told him to find another hosting solution as I did the job
I was asked to do.

How far do I go with this?

Do I keep doing his uploading for him each time he needs a change?

Do I somehow put together a fool proof document or even video to show
him how to upload files?

If I charged him my regular hourly fee for all the work I've done already,
he would have paid 6 times what he's paid me for this job.

So how far do I go with this? Where's the limit?

Oh, and in case you're wondering...NEVER go with Verizon as a hosting
solution.

NEVER!
  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

    Oh, and in case you're wondering...NEVER go with Verizon as a hosting solution.

    NEVER!
    I was wondering. (But have seen this said before, of course.) Thanks, Steven - good luck! :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author ankur sharma
    This situation is faced by every coder. There are few things here

    1) You can continue to spend few more hours, only to create good relations. This client can come back to you and may provide lot of extra work/clients.

    2) You can tell him, this is beyond my reach now. You have to pay me xx amount of extra dollars to fix the whole mess. I am in coding arena for quiet long time. I extend budget every now and then. Because i know for fact, if coder is asking for more money, he deserves it. So, inflating the budget is not a new thing.

    Either way you go, both are good ways. If client is bitch and do not want to give away any extra dollars. Then, you should cancel this project right now. Because, long term these sort of clients will keep coming back to you with more work and less reward.
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  • Profile picture of the author ankur sharma
    By the way, steven what about farmville? How many farms you have created? I bet you are following farmville for years now
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    • Profile picture of the author Scoop
      Does the publisher not even allow iframes? That would be one way of inserting the scripts/forms, although it sounds as if you have explored all options. If you have already gone the extra mile in trying to implement this I think advising the customer to switch hosts is the best thing you could do.

      Solutions that sell themselves as simple often end up causing far more problems because of their limitations.
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  • Profile picture of the author commercee
    I would mention to the client - if they plan to utilize Adsense and Paypal, obviously they want to take their site to the next level in making revenue. Then they should take steps to upgrade their hosting to support their website needs by absorbing the cost for better hosting features and site support. Saves time and money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    Sounds like you are nice guy Steven and you have gone over and above the call of duty to help your customer out.

    You didn't say whether they were a really good customer, but at the end of the day business is business, you are not a charity.

    Try and twist their arm to change their hosting, explaining what the problems are with it etc, if you haven't already, and offer your services for transfer etc for your usual fee, explaining that by changing hosting they will be saving money in the long run.

    This time, tell your customer you are prepared to take a loss on the work you have done for them (make them feel guilty) and tell your customer you will be more than happy to do the FTP work for them in future if they are unable to follow your instructions, but every time you do it will be XX $.

    Hope this gives you food for thought.
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Wagenheim
      Originally Posted by Tim3 View Post

      Sounds like you are nice guy Steven and you have gone over and above the call of duty to help your customer out.

      You didn't say whether they were a really good customer, but at the end of the day business is business, you are not a charity.

      Try and twist their arm to change their hosting, explaining what the problems are with it etc, if you haven't already, and offer your services for transfer etc for your usual fee, explaining that by changing hosting they will be saving money in the long run.

      This time, tell your customer you are prepared to take a loss on the work you have done for them (make them feel guilty) and tell your customer you will be more than happy to do the FTP work for them in future if they are unable to follow your instructions, but every time you do it will be XX $.

      Hope this gives you food for thought.
      I have done the ftp for them this time...twice in fact.

      The work is essentially done. He only needed two pages coded. If he has
      any extra work in the future, I will simply turn it down...no need to even
      think about that one.

      This is a one time customer. No long relationship here. I don't normally do
      this work anyway. I did it for a friend of mine who recommended me to this
      person. Otherwise, it would have never come about. I don't advertise my
      web work. I'm a marketer. I don't do this shtick anymore. It's not worth it
      and this is one of the main reasons why. People have crappy hosting
      solutions and then expect YOU to somehow deal with them.

      Nuts to that!

      If I wanted to put up with this crap, I would have never become a marketer
      in the first place.

      TIP: Service providers...find an alternate source of income. I'll leave it at
      that.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tim3
        Originally Posted by Steven Wagenheim View Post

        I have done the ftp for them this time...twice in fact.

        The work is essentially done. He only needed two pages coded. If he has
        any extra work in the future, I will simply turn it down...no need to even
        think about that one.

        This is a one time customer. No long relationship here. I don't normally do
        this work anyway. I did it for a friend of mine who recommended me to this
        person. Otherwise, it would have never come about. I don't advertise my
        web work. I'm a marketer. I don't do this shtick anymore. It's not worth it
        and this is one of the main reasons why. People have crappy hosting
        solutions and then expect YOU to somehow deal with them.

        Nuts to that!

        If I wanted to put up with this crap, I would have never become a marketer
        in the first place.

        TIP: Service providers...find an alternate source of income. I'll leave it at
        that.


        Yes, give people half an inch and they take a yard.

        Sometimes friends can drop you in doo, doo.

        In view of what you said above, send the guy a bill for your FTP work, perhaps with a discount off your normal rate and see if he pay's it.

        You have been more than fair.
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  • Profile picture of the author ganesh
    I am really sorry for your situation but I think any programmer or developer would have faced a similar situation at least once in his career. If your client is in a listening mood then you should try to convince him about your situation and make him willing to pay more.
    Something similar happened to me once and I was lucky enough to have an understanding client who agreed to my suggestions and also willingly paid me the extra that I asked for. Anyway I completed the work for no profit and no loss.
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  • Profile picture of the author ankur sharma
    If its one time job, get out of it. You already done a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author Oneal Degrassi
    You did your job - turn around and run the other way!

    Or, charge him every time he needs a change done and he will eventually figure out that it is less expensive to change hosts.
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  • Profile picture of the author CBP
    How long is a piece of string?

    As a designer, I have that boundary of saying "I'm not suitable to do this kind of job" even if I know it's easy or won't take me that long. The only thing I look at is how many times will this customer come back to me if I know there'll be some hick ups along the way.

    He might think the job that you are doing for him still covers the amount of money he paid you.
    If you believe that it will create alot of frustration, you just have to put your foot down and be honest that you don't want to go ahead. Of course in the nicest possible way.

    Unless he is paying you $30-$100 an hour that's fine. If he's paying you off in one payment, you should clearly tell him what you will ONLY do for him for that kind of money.

    Set yourself some boundaries at least you are not choking to death from never ending drama.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary King
    Cut your losses and run Steven.

    Do so politely but if you've done your deal, move on. You can (and do) always over deliver, but at some point, you'll do nothing but spiral into a smoking hole in the ground and never get back to business.

    Gary
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  • Profile picture of the author Regional Warrior
    Here you go Steven

    Hope this helps in some way , just give this to him , who knows it may help:rolleyes:

    Jason


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  • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
    Steven, as a freelance web developer myself for over 10 years I can say this.

    Its the responsibility of the client to ensure a stable environment/development platform that allows you to perform the requested work. Failure to ensure this is NOT your problem. Hosting is NOT the responsibility of the designer. If you have completed the task as agreed, then you are entitled to mark the job as completed and issue an invoice.

    You must however relay this issue to the client and have them understand that you cannot perform any further work until this issue is resolved, OR they find another and more suitable host.

    Worst case scenario. You wash your hands of it. Issue a refund and perform a roll back.
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