How to treat a client delaying a payment ?

[lordspace]

Hi all,

I've done some programming last year and the client owes me 400 euros.
What would you do in order to make him pay ?
I've been waiting for a year for that money and he is delaying and delaying.

One of the options is to release the code I made as open source and make it better and thus become a competitor of his product.

any suggestions ?

[chicgeek]

Moved to legal issues, because I think it has come to that.

[John Scott]

Small claims court?

[South]

Aside from suing him I don't know what you can do. Collection companies will hound the money out of him for a percentage.

For future reference, you might want to code future projects with a 30 day expiration and only give them the key that makes it permanent after full payment is made (like trail software). It's more work but it protects you.

[lordspace]

Thanks for the replies.

The problem is that we are in different countries and he's got only a p.o. box.

Here is the situation: He paid part of the money, but not the final payment.
He thinks he owns the code and the copyrights.

He should not have so much rights on the code because when you pay a mortgage and you don't pay the final payment the house is not yours.
The same should be with software.

Slavi

[3ncryptabl3_lick]

Always stay one step behind the payments. That way when you're finished the work, they pay you the final payment and you release the product. Go the other way around, and you'll find yourself in this very position more often than not.

[edjay]

Hey Slavi !

It is a legal requirement for a Post Office to disclose the identity and contact details of the "owner" of a POBox if so requested.