Incomplete contract, client won't pay
Out of context: Reply #5
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- mbr0
Thanks for the advice, it makes sense.
Here's what happened, in short:
I made several animations of walk throughs (of his condos) that were to be used for online marketing. At one point, he was really concerned with the download times, I assured him that they would be as low as possible, and they were significantly lower than what we discussed before the contract was signed. So, at the last meeting, he said that he 'would not pay if he couldn't use it'. So I did several tests and deomstrated that the longest download for any of the 30 or so animations would be 1 minute on a 56k, and almost instantaneous on a broadband. Well within reason, I believe, for such a specific target audience. There were also about 25 still images that one could view for each floor plan . All said and done, I worked for about 75% less than what I should have been, this was an important project for me (for future work, not to mention his promises of more work for him).
That was it. I believe that he was trying to use the download time as a way out, but when I demonstarted that it could be done, he didn't care (this was the same point in time when he realized the screwed the project up and couldn't get funding - he spent $400k clearing the land, blasting, etc., all to discover he couldn't get the loans to build).
He even 'encouraged' me to work with his son, continually 'advising ' me to start a business with the guy (who knew nothing of what I needed him to do, shit, I had to teach him illustrator so he could trace some plans!!).
That's about it. But I the gloves are off. It is time to pursue things more aggressively. I really can't stand to think that he thinks he can get away with this, after I worked for 70 hrs a week for 5 months!!
It's much more than 10k.
Any ideas where to get a letter? I'll be looking for laywers on Monday, but anything would help in the meantime.