Forum Moderators: phranque
I did a good friend of mine a non-paid favor (he worked in sales) about a month ago by building two very small one page web sites on two separate domains for a company he used to work for. He still owns both domain names personally.
The company let him go today because he refused to transfer overseas, and has been contacting me non stop about getting the log in credentials to both domain names and web sites.
Basically, each domain has a video on them about why retail stores should purchase their widgets... and are rather important sites as far as they are concerned. They are linked from the company's main page.
To make matters more interesting, both domain names are 301'd to a folder on my test server.
I'm certainly not giving them login credentials to my test server, and I don't feel that I should be obligated to give them a darn thing as far as my friend's domain names are concerned.
What does everyone else think? This company has been a real pain in the neck to deal with. I consult (ecommerce) full time and when they saw a copy of my resume he mentioned that his boss threw it in the trash because I was "too expensive". He then proceeded to hire a pure rookie for pennies on the dollar. Normally this would be fine, but they seem to have a serious lack of respect for anyone and everything. The upper management has been just plain rude over this *favor* that I did for my friend (and them) and I highly regret sharing any of my bandwidth.
Normally I am very calm and professional but this particular issue has struck me personally. Not only did they fire my friend, who could sell anything, but they're also demanding from me something which isn't theirs.
1) his domain names
2) my content & design
Like I mentioned, this wasn't a paid job and I never heard as much as a thank you from them.
So... what should I do? Change the color scheme to hot pink? Link it to a porno?
My suggestion: remove any company-related content from the sites. Then the next time the company contacts you, tell them that your client is your friend not them, and they have to go through him for any changes.
I agree that the company should be going through him. Realistically, there is absolutely no reason for them to be contacting me but I see why they did it. They did not tell me that my friend had been let go. They are literally scrambling for the login/password details.
"2) Since your friend is no longer with the company, I'm not sure why your or he would want to keep anything on the sites promoting the company."
I only found out about this a couple of hours ago. These pages are very small and on my test server. I have five clients that I work with on a daily basis so this particular widget site that was completed within a few minutes has very little priority to me. They were initially "set and forget" pages since I have a ton of bandwidth to play with and their traffic volume is fairly insignificant.
"My suggestion: remove any company-related content from the sites. Then the next time the company contacts you, tell them that your client is your friend not them, and they have to go through him for any changes."
That is a solid suggestion and I thank you for your advice. They certainly should not be attempting to go through me for anything. Obviously, my friend is pretty PO'd about the situation.
I felt mis-treated earlier. He feels mis-treated now. Is it unfair for me to say that "karma is a *****" and take them down a peg?
I also mentioned that in good concience, I cannot hand out login credentials to the domain names of my clients. He owns the domain, not them.
Not more than ten minutes later, I receive an email from their Vice President stating this and that - even going so far as to say that he is on a tight schedule and doesn't have time for "good concience". Now he is demanding the info, LOL.
I knew that these guys were going to cause problems.
I receive an email from their Vice President ... to say that he is on a tight schedule and doesn't have time for "good concience".
Or at least reply along the lines of "Problems caused by your time mismanagement are not my responsibility."
Seriously though, just be firm that he is not your client and that you have nothing more to discuss with him. If he keeps bugging you, then reply back that as soon as he gives you logins and credit card numbers and other personal/proprietary information about HIS clients, then you might consider his request.
Oh, and you could also throw in that your corporate policy requires a court order to release any privileged client information, so your hands are tied.
What I see here is a company that is large enough that they have overseas offices, meaning they have money & a legal department. They also have a VP without a good concience. (Lack of a good moral compass at the top echelons of a company can mean the same permeates through the whole company.) And they have a strong desire for something that is - or would seem to be - in your possession.
If that's not a recipe for a legal "tussle," I'm not sure what is...
As this is, or at least should be, a company/ex-employee issue to which you have been dragged in, you may want to consider as a good faith measure restoring their sites. Yes, seems counterintuitive and may not bring personal satisfaction, but it could show that you don't wish be party to the problem (by being vindictive and removing the sites). If you do (re)remove the sites, do it only in response to a formal written request by your friend, whom you believe to be the rightful owner of such.
Take care, and the best to you. (And I'd be interested in keeping posted, too!)
:)
(Hey, it's LiA! I have just got to try kimchi one of these days!)
And yes, you are in a fairly good legal position. But if they have a huge legal department to throw at you just to bleed you dry...
I did respond to his email, and again took the high road. I am certainly treading very carefully as I already know what kind of person I'm dealing with... an evil prick.
Earlier this afternoon I had sent their webmaster all files used in both websites. I then removed the websites from my server as I no longer had any obligation to host them for my friend/client (per his request).
---
It turns out that both domain names are in fact registered under the VP's name. Again, I had nothing to do with this process. The login information to the registar is 100% this VP's responsibility. He is the technical contact and would have received the initial welcome email from his registrar. He's either:
A) Lazy or
B) Retarded.
I'm thinking a little bit of both. The only thing that I did was design two web pages and host them for free on my server (briefly).
I just sent him a lengthy email with step by step instructions on how to resolve the issue. Something *any* webmaster should be able to accomplish without needing anything from me now that they have the files... which was again, not my problem.
Maybe I should bill them for my time anyways as I have four e-commerce sites to grow, and very little free time to deal with such petty inquiries.
p.s. I'm not generally this angry, this guy is just rubbing me the wrong way!
[edited by: pbradish at 12:12 am (utc) on Nov. 21, 2007]
The domain names are now blank - and widget company has in their posession all of the html files, images, and videos.
The domains were registered under their company, and they are able to retreive their own login credentials through the registrar.
Basically, I want to be left out of the situation, but because they don't know any better and their webmaster seems incompetent, they keep trying to drag me back in.
I feel that the thread topic has changed quite a bit since I created it. It turns out that they do own and deserve their domain name login credentials... but I shouldn't be the one to sort out the tangled web that they weaved!
As for any further work required by them, make sure they understand that they will be paying for it. In advance. After a contract has been signed.
And your friend owes you at least a beer for misrepresenting himself as the owner and wasting your time as a result.
Come to think of it, he probably owes me one too for wasting my time on this! :)
You know, the poop-stirrer in me would like to point out that the creator of the sites owns the copyright... That is, in the absense of a document signing over rights. ;)
Not that I'm advocating a copyright fight - at this point, I'd wipe my hands of it and walk away. But, as a future reference FYI to any dear readers, it's something worth mentioning...
Widget X's VP BCC'd his Webmaster last night on our email conversation so I received a really nasty one from her this morning. I have a feeling that the VP was BCC'd on the webmaster's email as well... and that she is just trying to save some face at this point.
Excellent company. I'm glad that they threw my resume/portfolio in the trash.
I'm not even going to respond to her. There's no sense in beating a dead horse at this point.
