Scam Story — Nicky Mares

I was hired for a straightforward case of web design; this person approved of the work; she discussed ongoing maintenance and requested that I upload the site and supplied the account info in order for me to do so. The agreement to maintain the site was made on my part only in exchange for the unused disk space on the server, and free of charge; basically an act of good will and the best intentions on my part; she also requested to pay half at that point, half after upload; here is when things got interesting. Although my policy is work first, pay later, upload last; on the assumption that I would be maintaining the site I foolishly thought I could trust the her.

This person never paid half first but I went ahead and uploaded the site. Agh. A few days later she informed me that the site was “funky†and had reverted seemingly by itself to its previous state, which was a generic template that she had made using the template builder provided with the web host. Hmm. This time she made a $50 payment, which was 1/2 of the ‘half first’ or 1/4 of the total payment; requesting me to again upload the site, and informing of the new password to the account, which had inexplicably been changed. Ok-? In an effort to be helpful I stated the obvious in asking this person whether she had used the template builder, which still had the old copy of the template stored, which the client denied as if being accused of something.

It was only a few days later when no further payment or instructions appeared from the client that I realized what was happening. Ms. Menage had waited for me to upload the site, then promptly changed the password to shut me out. The client then stupidly attempted to use the template builder to modify the new website, inadvertently reinstating the old one by mistake. I sent a two-page email, which went unanswered, patiently explaining the differences between the template editor and alternative means to edit the site, something I had contacted her about two weeks earlier, requesting to set a time when we could put our heads together to implement a customized solution; a request that also had gone unanswered. I then wrote another two emails over the course of two days patiently explaining my position in our agreement, all the things I had done and were willing to do for the benefit of her website, and explaining that the agreed upon fee for the site was more than $50.

After a few days this person responded. This time I had apparently crossed the line and been irrevocably disrespectful in some way with my ’smart comments’; and no further pay would be forthcoming.

Sadly, it is apparent that THIS CLIENT NEVER INTENDED TO PAY ME. It is unfortunate that so many take advantage of the internet’s open market system to cheat and connive their way through the system. Thank you for taking the time to listen.

The work done for this project may be seen at http://nickysworld.net.