19
2010
The case of the non paying estate agent
An article by 
Recently, a web designer who had been commissioned to design a website for a client and never got paid, hijacked the client’s website and left the following note on it:
Leslie Estate Agents failed to pay for this site
During February 2010 Leslie Estate Agents placed an order for a website. Despite numerous promises to make payment by Thursday we have not seen a cent. Now, I would never tell you that Leslie is a liar, because that would be poor of me to make accusations like that, but I will ask if you believe he is totally honest?
It is rumoured that Leslie drives a beautiful big 4×4 vehicle, but he cannot afford to pay for services rendered by my company. I have spoken to both Khanyi and Leslie at Leslie Estate Agents. It is my opinion that they are not being honest when I get told that Leslie is not in the office. I know that I have more chance of being the first male to fall pregnant than receiving a return phone call.
He has told me that I will be paid on Thursday about 4 times, I guess he never specified which Thursday. Until I receive the outstanding amount I will be telling people to look at this web site. Because of Leslie and numerous others of his ilk, I am no longer interested in helping empowerment companies to achieve results from the web unless they pay up front.
You may consider this a racist statement but the facts are that I have spent more time chasing funds from empowerment companies than the jobs were worth. One in twenty three empowerment companies paid timeously. Maybe this notice will shame Leslie into paying his bill but I somehow doubt it.
I think this is shameful and disgraceful for a number of reasons, the most important one of which is that it does nothing to build the designer-client trust. As things stand, South African businesses are scared of going online, or at least investing a substantial amount of money into it, because it is mostly a medium they do not understand. Their only option is to outsource the work necessary, as well as the strategy behind it, and hope for the best. Knowing that a designer can “hijack” a website like this at anytime, and put up negative information isn’t going to get businesses beating down anyone’s door.
Also, this could be just one side of the story. Maybe the designer did not deliver on his promises? Maybe the design was not up to scratch, and the client asked for revisions? Maybe the designer was late delivering the work? Maybe there were errors to be fixed and revisions to be made? Obviously, the estate agent does not have the know how to turn this into a two way dialogue.
It’s tempting to call up the estate agent and tell him to link the designer’s name on each page of a website (once it’s up) to a blog post or page outlining these antics. With a bit of Google love, the designer could be hurt professionally, and substantially.
But the real issues are more subtle. The designer did not, in fact, get paid, and that is wrong. Had he been slightly smart about this whole thing, he could have easily earned our sympathy. A simple page with a screenshot of the design, and a short note saying something like “Website is almost ready, and about to go live as soon as last paperwork between client and designer is finalised” would have done wonders to build the integrity of the designer, and would have ensured he got paid promptly.
And lastly…I think a good rule of thumb for online professionals is to never put anything online that they wouldn’t be proud to put their name on. The designer in question has not signed his name. Not that it won’t come out. We already know that the company is based in Nelspruit, that the domain was registered by Melanie McLaren but the web designer is a male…wait….anyone remember the Guy McLaren fiasco of a while back? Wonder if there is a link?
(Btw, if you want a list of reputable web professionals, make sure to download the free Directory of SAfrica’s Web Experts)
I'm not going to speculate as to whether the guy's reason for this was just or not. My only curiosity has to do with the client and what they'll do about the hijacking, whether they actually can do anything about it?
I'm more in favor of the web designer in this case to be honest. For one thing, your statement of 'hijacked the client's website' is incorrect. It only becomes their website once they pay for it. Plain and simple.
I do agree with some of your points – it could be that the designer simply didn't deliver the proper product, but I think in most of these cases the user thinks he/she can get away with murder, simply because once the site is finished you have no other use for all that work (it only carries value for the client) and secondly because it's usually the web designer going up against an entire company.
This sort of thing might have the proper effect – teaching businesses that they can't simply screw web designers around and expect no repercussions.
I just think it shows little foresight. Would you ever hire this guy, if you knew who he was? Even if you knew you were *certainly* going to pay him? What if you had a legitimate dispute and this is how he reacted….hmmmm…..
I'm not advocating doing nothing, just doing something that inspires more confidence in the ethics of the designer.
Not much, I don't think. At least not without a huge battle. The domain isn't even registered in the client's name, which I think is VERY sneaky…
I did a whois and the owner was Lowveld Explorer. Is that not the company that owns the real estate gig?
I had a really good laugh when I saw this stuck up on the “clients” website. I just think the developer missed an opportunity for a bit of
infamy marketing…
On a more serious note though I think it does highlight the problem we have in South Africa. Quite a few web service providers position themselves as once off product suppliers rather than business partners.
i.e. the view is that the website is something you sell once rather than a part of your business and there is a reason why you have a good partner managing it.
If you are treated (and paid) as a partner then you wouldn't have these kind of situations and when cash-flow problems do arise, you would have a mature and responsible relationship where guys can ackonwledge there is a problem and address it rather than it sinking to this level.