Beware Of Unethical Website Designers

By Author: nicksmith
Total Articles: 991
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I recently began working with a company who was having a very negative experience with their current (now their past) website designer. The designer had built this website over 5 years ago (which is very old for a website). However, the site needed constant updates so, regardless, there was a regular relationship with the developer and my client.

Over time, the website designer became less and less responsive to my clients needs but continued to charge them a retainer on a monthly basis. It got to the point where my client would have to call the developer 6 or 7 times over 2 weeks before they received a response. At one point my client went to the developer’s office and found they were no long in business, and the client was now just paying their fees to an individual.

After this revelation, my clients wanted to move their sites to a new host. Now, industry standard says that the website belongs to the person who paid for it. If a client of mine asked me for the files to a website that they paid to have built, I would not hesitate in handing them over. Unfortunately, ...
... 5 years ago, my client did not read their contract carefully and it stated that the client would “pay a fee” to move the website from the current developer. It did neglect to say how much that fee would be.

When my clients inquired about the switch, the developer charged them $30,000 to get the files to the website. The website was very complex and a redesign would be more costly. Bring in lawyers would probably also prove to be more costly, so with no other choice, my clients paid to gain access to a website that technically already owned.

The lesson here is that whenever you sign any contract with a web designer, be very clear about who has the copyright to the website. More times then not it is the client – as I said that is the industry standard, but be aware that there are designers out there will poor ethics.

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