T
target4obc
Guest
What is the name of your state? PA
In the spring/summer of 2002 I was asked by a local (large) car dealership to create a new web site for their business. They asked that it debut in August to coincide with the termination of hosting services for their previous (lackluster) site.
My specialty is Search Engine top placement. I pride myself on designs that work, display well on all browsers, and are pleasing to the end user.
I built requested site, to include 2003 automotive data, and a small used-car section which was agreed to be updated monthly for a specified fee per vehicle. All of this was certified by conversation but later confirmed by my delivery of an itemized invoice which they subsequently accepted. Cheapsters that they are, they did not want to pay a mere $8K in one sitting so they asked if they could make monthly payments on it for a year. I'm a nice guy - tho sometimes it hurts; I agreed to payments. Bear in mind that service began in end-June beginning-July 2002, invoice was completed and accepted as of December 2002, I received first payment against this work in January of 2003.
Payments were received erradically, despite my continued good service. Sold with this invoice were web hosting (1 year at $240/year with features specified online and subject to change per the TOS agreement posted on my hosting site), design of site, agreed continued monthly updates for used cars at a fixed rate, and Search Engine Optimization for a year.
Hosting and SEO expired in June-July 2003 (one year after hosting services began).
In June 2003, in a meeting with me the owner Gregg and his new assistant Dave indicated that they wanted to extend the hosting service for a year, I offered them an Invoice against such a request and they paid it. Gregg stated that Dave was "in charge fo the Internet from now on."
A week or so later, their system reached the maximum storage limit and we were unable to upgrade their site with new used car data for that reason. I contacted Dave (who had been put in charge of the web at the meeting mentioned above) and explained that he was out of disc space; he could have me delete a bunch of stuff (which I advised against; it was all there for a reason) or have me bump them to the next larger account to give them more space. Dave chose the latter. The price of the larger service is double the price of the middle size account which they formerly had had since our first association as hosting provider.
Dave made other changes to the association shortly after our meeting, asking that used cars be updated weekly and have a 24 hour turn around from photography to online update. I agreed to such at a slight increase in price per vehicle, Dave agreed to these terms also. The process for used cars was a mess, the dealer was never able to present us with a list of cars to be photographed and processed when we arrived at the lot, it was always a prolonged event waiting for them to come up with the data; and I've got a couple assistants on the clock during this time so I don't much appreciate it. It is just another indicator of the shoddy job they do up there at this dealership; disorganization is common.
By October, I had fully taken over the used car tasks, even to compiling my own list of cars to be processed (easy when you know how to use a computer as intended - they had always done it the manual way which was slow and inefficient and much resented as an assigned task by the sales guys who would rather be selling cars hence the commonplace delays in the old way of handling the task).
In the first week of October, I asked Dave if he was happy with the site and the used car areas. He said "I love it. I don't have to do a thing and it all gets done." I inquired, OK, the 2004 model year product is out, has been out. Would you like me to build your 2004 model pages?" He replied "Yes, how soon can we get on that?" I suggested that the next day my assistant could drop by the dealership to download the data (images and such) from the ford dealer web site using the fast connection which the dealership maintained. David agreed. My man Aaron showed up, spent most of the day obtaining the data using the dealership computers & connection and logged onto the Ford Dealer site using the dealer's own username and password.
Subsequently my assistant began massaging the data to make it usable on the web while I began doing research into the dealership's competitors to ensure a superior product compared to those competitors' sites. In total we have 30 hours into creating the 2004 model year pages for the dealership. I presented Dave with the rough draft of the piece in November, he liked it, but subsequently took it past his boss Gregg. Next Dave came on the phone and said he didn't like it and there was trouble and finally admitted that Gregg had asked one of the employees to build a new site for 2004.
Previously, I had had communication with the office manager indicating to her the terms by which I accept payments. Their payments had been late, erradically so, even to the extent of forgetting to pay me in May 2003. My terms are simple, first late-pay gets a warning, second gets a $50 fee for late processing and a third late-pay merits the account becoming due in full. Having gone thru three (or more) late payments, I opted to consider the bill due in full. On my next visit to the dealership to update used car pages, I presented a bill for both the November and December installments. They paid only the November installment.
He subsequently told me that that employee was likely to loose his drivers license and that if he did he would be of no use to the dealership and that MY design would then be needed. Dave asked me to 'just sit tight' and wait for the employee to loose his license and all would be OK. Well, the lad did not loose his license (as far as I know) and by middle of December it became appearant that they would not be working with me as a designer. That is all well and good, amateur work nets amateur results and my professional level of service will show in good time.
During my middle-of-December phone call with Dave, I indicated that the hosting was about to expire in the end of December (the new account cost twice what the old account cost and so what would have been 12 months at the lower rate worked out to 6 months at the higher rate. I notified Dave that he would need to pay for the next year's hosting in advance if he wanted the discount rate, otherwise, a quarterly (no-discount) rate is available; we require each quarters service to be pre-paid also.
I heard nothing from Dave.
(continued)
In the spring/summer of 2002 I was asked by a local (large) car dealership to create a new web site for their business. They asked that it debut in August to coincide with the termination of hosting services for their previous (lackluster) site.
My specialty is Search Engine top placement. I pride myself on designs that work, display well on all browsers, and are pleasing to the end user.
I built requested site, to include 2003 automotive data, and a small used-car section which was agreed to be updated monthly for a specified fee per vehicle. All of this was certified by conversation but later confirmed by my delivery of an itemized invoice which they subsequently accepted. Cheapsters that they are, they did not want to pay a mere $8K in one sitting so they asked if they could make monthly payments on it for a year. I'm a nice guy - tho sometimes it hurts; I agreed to payments. Bear in mind that service began in end-June beginning-July 2002, invoice was completed and accepted as of December 2002, I received first payment against this work in January of 2003.
Payments were received erradically, despite my continued good service. Sold with this invoice were web hosting (1 year at $240/year with features specified online and subject to change per the TOS agreement posted on my hosting site), design of site, agreed continued monthly updates for used cars at a fixed rate, and Search Engine Optimization for a year.
Hosting and SEO expired in June-July 2003 (one year after hosting services began).
In June 2003, in a meeting with me the owner Gregg and his new assistant Dave indicated that they wanted to extend the hosting service for a year, I offered them an Invoice against such a request and they paid it. Gregg stated that Dave was "in charge fo the Internet from now on."
A week or so later, their system reached the maximum storage limit and we were unable to upgrade their site with new used car data for that reason. I contacted Dave (who had been put in charge of the web at the meeting mentioned above) and explained that he was out of disc space; he could have me delete a bunch of stuff (which I advised against; it was all there for a reason) or have me bump them to the next larger account to give them more space. Dave chose the latter. The price of the larger service is double the price of the middle size account which they formerly had had since our first association as hosting provider.
Dave made other changes to the association shortly after our meeting, asking that used cars be updated weekly and have a 24 hour turn around from photography to online update. I agreed to such at a slight increase in price per vehicle, Dave agreed to these terms also. The process for used cars was a mess, the dealer was never able to present us with a list of cars to be photographed and processed when we arrived at the lot, it was always a prolonged event waiting for them to come up with the data; and I've got a couple assistants on the clock during this time so I don't much appreciate it. It is just another indicator of the shoddy job they do up there at this dealership; disorganization is common.
By October, I had fully taken over the used car tasks, even to compiling my own list of cars to be processed (easy when you know how to use a computer as intended - they had always done it the manual way which was slow and inefficient and much resented as an assigned task by the sales guys who would rather be selling cars hence the commonplace delays in the old way of handling the task).
In the first week of October, I asked Dave if he was happy with the site and the used car areas. He said "I love it. I don't have to do a thing and it all gets done." I inquired, OK, the 2004 model year product is out, has been out. Would you like me to build your 2004 model pages?" He replied "Yes, how soon can we get on that?" I suggested that the next day my assistant could drop by the dealership to download the data (images and such) from the ford dealer web site using the fast connection which the dealership maintained. David agreed. My man Aaron showed up, spent most of the day obtaining the data using the dealership computers & connection and logged onto the Ford Dealer site using the dealer's own username and password.
Subsequently my assistant began massaging the data to make it usable on the web while I began doing research into the dealership's competitors to ensure a superior product compared to those competitors' sites. In total we have 30 hours into creating the 2004 model year pages for the dealership. I presented Dave with the rough draft of the piece in November, he liked it, but subsequently took it past his boss Gregg. Next Dave came on the phone and said he didn't like it and there was trouble and finally admitted that Gregg had asked one of the employees to build a new site for 2004.
Previously, I had had communication with the office manager indicating to her the terms by which I accept payments. Their payments had been late, erradically so, even to the extent of forgetting to pay me in May 2003. My terms are simple, first late-pay gets a warning, second gets a $50 fee for late processing and a third late-pay merits the account becoming due in full. Having gone thru three (or more) late payments, I opted to consider the bill due in full. On my next visit to the dealership to update used car pages, I presented a bill for both the November and December installments. They paid only the November installment.
He subsequently told me that that employee was likely to loose his drivers license and that if he did he would be of no use to the dealership and that MY design would then be needed. Dave asked me to 'just sit tight' and wait for the employee to loose his license and all would be OK. Well, the lad did not loose his license (as far as I know) and by middle of December it became appearant that they would not be working with me as a designer. That is all well and good, amateur work nets amateur results and my professional level of service will show in good time.
During my middle-of-December phone call with Dave, I indicated that the hosting was about to expire in the end of December (the new account cost twice what the old account cost and so what would have been 12 months at the lower rate worked out to 6 months at the higher rate. I notified Dave that he would need to pay for the next year's hosting in advance if he wanted the discount rate, otherwise, a quarterly (no-discount) rate is available; we require each quarters service to be pre-paid also.
I heard nothing from Dave.
(continued)