First of all - Thanks in advance to anyone who responds...any help or thoughts at this point are welcome.
Here is the situation:
My boyfriend occasionally builds websites for people, for a low fee, in his spare time.
He never builds more than one a year, and the fee is always less than $500, so he has never gotten a Fed. Tax ID# or business identification...
In January, a small business owner who creates custom t-shirts contacted him to build a small site for them. He asked what she wanted (to see if it was within his time and means) and she stated that she just wanted a simple site where people could see some of the designs, and that her copy could be present. At the beginning, she did not want a shopping cart or other "extras". He informed her that his rate was $100 per navigational page. I.e. The home page cost $100 and the contact me page cost $100 and the inventory page cost $100. He made it clear that he did this as a spare hobby, and that he already had a full time job, with occasional overtime, so he would not be able to have it completed immediately, but he would start working on it that day.
He started work on the site immediately and made some huge progress, but right away she was very difficult to deal with and wanted more, more, more added on. -- 5 months later, she had decided she wanted full high res. inventory images, but she had none, so my boyfriend went over and got samples from her, and took over 100 images with his own digital camera. He then cropped and color corrected each inventory image. She then decided that she wanted them in other colors, so he took even more pictures. Then she wanted models on her page, so he tapped a friend, and had a photo shoot with the images. Then she wanted a shopping cart, etc. Finally, as the site was nearing completion (and he had spent about 60 man-hours on it), he reminded her that it would be $500 in total, as she had agreed to $100 per page.
Shortly thereafter, she sent him an e-mail that said that he "clearly didn't care about her site" out of the blue, with no real cause. She claimed that "she wanted all materials sent to her, and she would remit payment after she recieved them.
We were both shocked, but he sent her an e-mail stating that per her wishes, he would burn all images on a disc, pack up the samples, and send them to her.
Everything was sent with trackable US Mail, so we know the date she recieved the items. He sent an e-mail saying, "I know per my tracking number that you have recieved everything. An invoice is included, please remit payment". She said that as soon as she "verified" that everything was on the disc, that she would send a check.
5 weeks passed.
My boyfriend e-mailed her this week saying that if she did not send payment, he would be forced to take down her site until he was paid. He stated that if she did not contact him or send payment by Friday that he would file a claim in small claims court.
No response, so he took it down.
Now, at midnight, we got an e-mail from her that says, "If you plan to take me to small claims court, I will counter sue you for all the lost sales I would have had for the site not being up since I originally spoke to you about creating it in January. I will not be paying, etc."
I have these questions:
A) Were we justified in temporarily removing the site until payment is made?
B) Will her counter-claim hold any water?
C) What is the justifiable amount we could be facing in her counter claim?
If I'm missing anything, or you have questions, just post, and I'll check this tomorrow. It's midnight, so I'm a bit tired..,..
Thanks so much, guys.
-Tina
Here is the situation:
My boyfriend occasionally builds websites for people, for a low fee, in his spare time.
He never builds more than one a year, and the fee is always less than $500, so he has never gotten a Fed. Tax ID# or business identification...
In January, a small business owner who creates custom t-shirts contacted him to build a small site for them. He asked what she wanted (to see if it was within his time and means) and she stated that she just wanted a simple site where people could see some of the designs, and that her copy could be present. At the beginning, she did not want a shopping cart or other "extras". He informed her that his rate was $100 per navigational page. I.e. The home page cost $100 and the contact me page cost $100 and the inventory page cost $100. He made it clear that he did this as a spare hobby, and that he already had a full time job, with occasional overtime, so he would not be able to have it completed immediately, but he would start working on it that day.
He started work on the site immediately and made some huge progress, but right away she was very difficult to deal with and wanted more, more, more added on. -- 5 months later, she had decided she wanted full high res. inventory images, but she had none, so my boyfriend went over and got samples from her, and took over 100 images with his own digital camera. He then cropped and color corrected each inventory image. She then decided that she wanted them in other colors, so he took even more pictures. Then she wanted models on her page, so he tapped a friend, and had a photo shoot with the images. Then she wanted a shopping cart, etc. Finally, as the site was nearing completion (and he had spent about 60 man-hours on it), he reminded her that it would be $500 in total, as she had agreed to $100 per page.
Shortly thereafter, she sent him an e-mail that said that he "clearly didn't care about her site" out of the blue, with no real cause. She claimed that "she wanted all materials sent to her, and she would remit payment after she recieved them.
We were both shocked, but he sent her an e-mail stating that per her wishes, he would burn all images on a disc, pack up the samples, and send them to her.
Everything was sent with trackable US Mail, so we know the date she recieved the items. He sent an e-mail saying, "I know per my tracking number that you have recieved everything. An invoice is included, please remit payment". She said that as soon as she "verified" that everything was on the disc, that she would send a check.
5 weeks passed.
My boyfriend e-mailed her this week saying that if she did not send payment, he would be forced to take down her site until he was paid. He stated that if she did not contact him or send payment by Friday that he would file a claim in small claims court.
No response, so he took it down.
Now, at midnight, we got an e-mail from her that says, "If you plan to take me to small claims court, I will counter sue you for all the lost sales I would have had for the site not being up since I originally spoke to you about creating it in January. I will not be paying, etc."
I have these questions:
A) Were we justified in temporarily removing the site until payment is made?
B) Will her counter-claim hold any water?
C) What is the justifiable amount we could be facing in her counter claim?
If I'm missing anything, or you have questions, just post, and I'll check this tomorrow. It's midnight, so I'm a bit tired..,..
Thanks so much, guys.
-Tina
