Client from hell + death threats...

Hey Everyone,

My partner and I landed an unstable client. He is EXTREMELY aggressive. Please help me out. Here is the story as best as I can tell it in the state I am in:

The guy helps people with gambling challenges. He charges between 1k to 5k and supposedly has a 90% closing rate.

We charged him 3k for doing some marketing work for him. If we didn't get results within 3 months, we agreed to give him the 3k back. Well, he refused to follow some of our advice (asking for referrals, etc.) and he slowed things down to a crawl.

I took a great deal of time to write copy for him, as well as set up other things. After a month, he said that he wouldn't be hiring people to do his SEO, as he was supposed to. Well, I spent considerable time building a good online presence for him, and without SEO to bring people in, his website would have been like a restaurant in the desert, with no roads leading to it.

In other words, I would probably have been forced to give him the 3K back, after he removes my sales copy, etc. So I was obliged to do the SEO for him. (I know my handle is SEOBeginner, but I am pretty good, he got a few top 1 rankings and I have other similar success stories.)

Since that (and other bonus things I did for him - at no cost - took time, I asked for a 1 month extension.) He ended up giving it to us.

Now, there are several things he hasn't been doing (including asking clients if they saw his website or YouTube videos, etc.) so we get credit for the work we did (20% of the profits.) Now he agreed to do it. It is in the agreement (that he refused to sign). My partner told me something that led me to understand that the agreement was signed. I didn't sign it either. That's a LONG, very complex story.

He has gotten leads from our efforts, but has not closed ONE person... or so he says.

Fast forward to today. The first date limit (Nov. 8th) has come and gone. He agreed in writing, as well as verbally that the date limit is Dec. 8th. Now he wants his money NOW, and he refuses to wait 'till December. He knows many loan sharks, and, I assume, goons. He threatened to send 3rd party collectors to my place, as well as my partner's place.

And before things started going wrong, he said at a meeting, ''If someone rips me off, they had better not start their car tomorrow morning.''

Recently, my partner wasn't putting up with his threats and said, ''I know how you work. If I don't pay you back in 48 hours then I shouldn't start my car tomorrow?''

Today the client said to me, ''I can't put a bomb under XYZ's car because he doesn't have one. But there are other ways to (...).'' I forget what he said next, as I was in shock.

Then his last call he said that I was in the same boat as my partner, and he was going to take the appropriate actions. I did NOTHING wrong. His assistant thinks he has psychological problems.

Now, my word is gold. The check will be in his mailbox on the 8th of Dec. I told him that several times, and he believed me the first times. Now he doesn't believe me. I think he is dangerous and unpredictable and I am afraid for myself and my girlfriend.

I will find the money for December, but I can't really pay before.

He may be bluffing, because he made the same threats two weeks ago to my partner, and nothing happened. He was in a great mood with all of us for a day, and now it is war all over again.

I am young and inexperienced with this type of stuff. What should I do?

Thanks.

SEOBeginner

P.S. By the way, I have several e-mails from him where he thanks me for the work I did, and that he likes it. So it's not like he is not impressed with the work quality.