previous web designer cowboy

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  • BaskerviIle

    I'm currently redesigning a website for a very small charity. Their last site was an atrocious Flash-based mess, I couldn't believe they were still using it.
    I've done them a simple new site using wordpress so they can update it all themselves, since the last guy never updated the site for them.

    Anyway, they are cutting that cowboy loose, but he's now saying:

    "
    You will need to get your new designer to provide me with various details (which he will be aware of) in order for me to arrange moving the site.

    There will be an administration charge of £50 plus VAT from my server company. There will also be a number of documents which I will need to send you; these need to be signed by xxxxxx. These are standard documents which authorise the moving of the site and are always required in such cases; they are intended to indemnify the companies which currently service and host the site from any problems arising from your request to move the site."

    Does this sound right? I've not heard of this before. The new site is hosted purely on wordpress so there won't be any hosting fees etc. We just want the current URL to point to the new wordpress site.

    any advice would be very helpful, cheers.

  • SeriousFreelancing0

    Put it back on him on how much he is a hassle.

  • abettertomorrow0

    lol, I've never heard of anything like that

    "indemnify the companies which currently service and host the site from any problems arising from your request to move the site"

    Changing the DNS settings is just going to point your URL to a different server somewhere, so there's really no way "moving" a site could create any problems for the host.

  • ian0

    Just saddle up and get the regulators on him. Dagnammit.

  • detritus0

    There's no reason to charge, most companies don't. Doesn't mean that a company can't, should they choose to. Someone's probably going to have to dig through the original contract, either with the developer or the host.

    They are certainly not 'standard documents, always required' and if they are needed to indemnify the incumbent, I'd suspect the incumbent frets about their own incompetence.

    Of course, writing a clause like that was probably just a way for the original designik to get a few sheckels out of the job.

    .

    I must admit, I didn't realise you could design WP sites that were hosted on .com — I thought they were all just template jobs.

  • 404NotFound0

    So you developed the new site on your own hosting service, and just need to point the domain to it?

    If so, their old designer is either very incompetent or just being a fuck.

  • isakosmo0

    i've also had issues from a previous 'designer' of a charity site i did some years ago, people don't want to let go and act like idiots.

    but the £50 charge is justified, i know i get charged by my hosting when i move domains out of my contro (£49 actually). Just ask him to forward you the invoice from the server company to check it's valid. Not sure about wordpress, they could be charging just for getting it out of their system. which is ridiculous i know.

  • d_rek0

    1) Sounds like a total cunt

    2) Sounds like he's pretty good at pulling the wool over people who don't know better. Lucky for you, we do.

    You should respond saying that there will be associated fees and dues for any signatures warranted and also he will be billed for the time it took to review legalese with your legal counsel. As a matter of fact you should just write up an invoice with a bunch of bogus fees and send it to them.

  • BaskerviIle0

    The new site is just hosted for free on wordpress, it's just a clean looking template, that I've made with pages so it's not a blog but a static site, hosted on xxxxx.wordpress.com. They have no money and are tiny. so I figured it's fine for what they want to have wordpress in their url, plus it avoid all the hassle of hosting for them in the future. But it would be best for their communications to have the official url, which will then forward to the wordpress site.

    isakosmo – what do you define as 'moving a domain' do you mean transferring ownership of the url? or hosting the same files on a different hosting company? because there will be no transfer of files in this case

  • isakosmo0

    sorry Baskerville just re-read my message and was just going off on a tangent unrelated to you so ignore what i said.

    He shouldn't be charging you for any of this, he's obviously trying to make a quick buck on the side (off a charity. nice one!). Feel free to e-mail me directly if you want. same happened to me, i got the charity to deal with it but people can be a pain with things like this.

  • vaxorcist0

    The Previous cowboy guy wrote a flash mess, he's probably getting legal advice from somewhere so he can protect his ass from angry former clients who thought he was a "flash god" and now find themselves having to hire YOU to fix the mess....

    ....clients may want to charge the cowboy for the mess, and/or YOU may have to bill client more than you would ordinarily because the flash mess can waste your time trying to find things like copy, phone numbers, email addresses and images inside all the crap flash randomness....

    Transferring domain and such is simple, $50 sometimes, but whatever....

  • bigtrick0

    transferring a domain involves typing in a couple of lines on a web page - less effort than it takes to send an email.

    he is full of shit and trying to make a last buck off of the charity's back. he should be ashamed.

    • transferring a domain requires finding a password or credit card sometimes.... some clients lose all that infovaxorcist