

Ask HN: How to deal with an unhappy (possibly delusional) client? - anonymouse82

I've recently had issue with a client who decided to cancel a contract just as things were coming together.<p>They've since refused to pay for any of the work done, and my contract has left me in a bad position only entitling me to the deposit which was small.<p>I've followed up with a letter from a lawyer, but they responded in kind saying that if we go to court they will file a counter claim for loss of earnings due to my failure to deliver anything of value.<p>This is of course total rubbish, since they cancelled the project before the deadline and they caused all the delays in the project (failure to produce a working API, and graphic design work took 2 months longer than it should have).<p>How would you handle this? The client is going to stick to his guns, and continue to spread his story till we take it to court. My lawyers have advised me we would probably win, but the time and money investment would be significant (more than the outstanding debt).<p>I can happily accept the monetary loss, but the possibility of this guy spreading bad word about me around London is unacceptable and he's certainly the type to do so. Any advice?
======
Peroni
You say he will _continue to spread his story..._ and _the possibility of this
guy spreading bad word about me around London..._ yet you haven't given any
context as to why he cancelled or what the original issue was.

~~~
anonymouse82
The issue is odd. The original context is that the app was delayed
significantly. This was largely due to their API not being ready or
functional, or in some cases fit for purpose (Facebook login was somehow
supposed to work via Basic Auth on all http requests to their servers -
security nightmare).

I was originally promised that 2 weeks after accepting the contract all the
resources I needed to build the app would be ready (graphics, API, etc). This
never happened, it was dragged out for a couple of months before I started to
see the resources I needed to build the app. However in that time I built
several prototypes using different mobile platforms, implemented what I could
given the resources available to me, and generally prepared the framework for
the app - all the stuff a good developer should be doing while waiting for
graphics and APIs.

3 months in they decided to pull out, no warning, no complaints about issues.
All they told me was that the app wasn't 'fit for purpose' and that it wasn't
high enough quality and that the look and feel was wrong. The look and feel
was designed by them! They also claimed that I had delayed the project and
failed to deliver on time which is total nonsense of course.

I believe there was a lot of excuses from their team, the company is very
loosely coupled, with just a director, a developer who has stake in the
company but is not full time committed to it, and a graphic designer on
contract. I strongly believe the coder claimed his API was complete (I was
told that it was complete by their director - but know that the API was
incapable of handling login, search, messaging, various other essential
features of the app). I think their director chose to believe his coder over
me and so all the blame for the delayed app was suddenly placed upon me.

Being blamed for my own mistakes I can understand and will happily accept.
Being blamed for other peoples incompetence isn't acceptable!

~~~
Peroni
Fair enough, these things happen. With that context, I can't imagine they
would actively try and tarnish your reputation. It was a cancelled project. It
happens. If the cost of legally pursuing your losses outweighs the end result
then chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on.

Also, it might be worth reviewing your contract terms so that things like the
delivery date for resources is pre-agreed before anything is set in stone.

~~~
anonymouse82
Yes, I've since had a lawyer create a better contract for me.

Definitely need to look at how to better communicate with such clients,
handling expectations and getting everybody on the same page is the hardest
thing about contracting if you ask me.

