Trying to avoid a "hostile takeover"..

Taking responsibility for a website designed by someone else

[dcisco]

Kind of in a quandry here and would like to know what others may have done, or would do if put in a similar situation as myself..

I am about to accept work from a new client who is not happy with the customer service he is getting from his current webmaster. The current designer is rumored to be difficult to work with and is known to hold, and sometimes act upon, grudges.

Personally, I think that the current designer has great skills - and suspect that this customer may be a PIA- but if I don't take this new work someone else will. I do not have any type of relationship with the current designer, so it wouldn't be a stab in the back or anything- but I would like to keep the transfer entirely professional. I have to contact the current webmaster to obtain passwords, etc.

Any advice? Is there a common "etiquette" that is observed when dealing with this situation in the professional webmaster world?

Many Thanks to all that reply,
cisco

[willybfriendly]

If you suspect the client is a PIA you might want to reconsider taking them on. In my experience some people are not worth the business they provide. It is hard to bill someone for the headaches they cause.

If you decice to accept the account, I have it as a standard part of my contract that the client provide passwords.

WBF

[southarkwright]

I agree, I would make the client get all the passwords and any information you'll require. Also you may want to find out if the client actually OWNS the site, if the last developer released rights to it. Verbal release will not hold up, make sure it’s a written release to the site. Otherwise if you start working on it, you may be looking at some legal issues.

[crosenblum]

Oh i would not go down that road.

Why make trouble for yourself.

OR better yet, tell them to obtain full ownership and control away from the webmaster, then 1-week, after that has been completed.

Re-visit, so that you will not be in the position of stabbing someone's back.

But don't guarantee you're compliance, and make sure what contract you'll have with them, so you don't put yourself in the exact same position.

Good luck!

[percentages]

>suspect that this customer may be a PIA

Don't take them. I have made that mistake in the past, several times (shame on me), but never again.

[sanity]

Could you not have the client request this information (you let them know what you need of course). After all they're the ones who had the relationship with the designer and you don't really know how that relationship ended, if there's money outstanding etc etc.

[Mark_A]

Suggestion .. take a look at the site of the other designer and try to see what their current focus is.

It may be that they have moved away from this kind of work and this may be the reason for the poor customer service the client is feeling.

A lot of people find that after effort this sector does not pay enough and if they have the skills they can end up becoming fulltime database administrators for some bank or other earning quite a lot more money than they used to doing design work for clients like this. Some even get more into hosting or selling hardware or networking solutions to the same kinds of people they used to do design work for.

If that is the case they probably *are* giving bad service and may expect to loose the client even if a PIA :-)

In situations like that I have obtained passwords from the previous designer directly after the client did not seem able to provide these .. the designer confirmed the client was a PIA .. which in some cases they were :-) in those cases I usually replace the sites anyhow rather than using the old site so I did not have the issue of who owns the old one.