handing over site administratorship ???

[rhs]

Hi everyone,

I hope this is the right forum for a post concerning a subject like this.

I have a client whose site has been designed and maintained by me for about a year.

He has been a pain really,

a)asking to make changes because his decision changed every other day when the site was put together and already on-line. (this service was also taken free of cost)

b)Handig over images in RGB and CMYK/longer side 4500px/file size 8Mb which I had to bring down to RGB/longer side 150px/file size 20k (and convert to Grayscale when the image was black and white) - he hasn't paid anything extra for this

c) Making faces when it came to paying my charges. He still owes me some money.

d) He asked me to make a presentation CD which he never bothered to collect, and would love to have the files free of cost.
e) progamming forms etc - for free.

blah blah...lots of such things that I don't think I should be writing here and wasting space. The above should give you a fair ideas about what type of man/client he has been.

You may wonder why the hell did i do all the above - he just was giving a very rosy picture and told me he wanted to convert the site into a portal.

The site password at the moment is with me only.

Now, it time to renew the server space and domain name. When I called him up, he said that he would like to keep the site online if I make enough efforts to drive more traffic to the site (this service is expected free of me). And now that his daughter has learnt web design I should part with the site password.

I would appreciate any guidance in as far as the above situation is concerned. My question is
1) Am I supposed to hand over the password to him?
2)If yes, should I still remain the administrator for his site?
3)Or the best option would be to let him host his site whereever he likes and let his daughter/he be the new administrator?
4)Apart from the previous outstandings do I charge him anything extra for parting/handing over the site totally to him?
5)Do I need to take any signatures on any documents that would state that I shall no longer be responsible for his site, and that he has taken full control and full responsibility of the site from so and so date?

I shall be obliged, if you guys could enlighten/guide me on the above.

Regards

RHS

[se4b4ss]

at the very least, get what you're owed before any renewal or turnover takes place...

[mindlessLemming]

Numbers 3) and 5).
Get your cash, give him the password and tell him that you are officially wiping your hands of all involvement in the site due to increased external workload. When he comes running back to you because his daughter can't do something, he will find that all your prices have increased drastically and you now require half of the payment before any work is started, and the rest before it is uploaded to his site. He will also discover that you now charge $30-$40/hour for simple image manipulation work.

[Nightfire]

Before doing anything, I'd get the money owed you. The very second you give out your password, your clients daughter will probably start playing with the pages and try to 'clean them up a bit'. Now when someone who has only just started this profession does that, then you know that you've got more work ahead of you just to fix problems that you didn't create.

If you hand the password over, do whatmindlesslemming suggested, wipe your hands clean of it and if he comes crawling back to you, you charge him by the hour or day for 'emergency or recovery repairs'.

I'd also have an agreement for your client to sign once you hand the password over or get your money stating that if anything goes wrong after the password has been exchanged that it's not your responsibility

[jeskel]

well honestly, don't bother with such clients. Be as gentle and polite as possible and tell him that you think you will no longer be able to work with him. Regarding his behaviour, I am sure that working with his daughter will be like hell for you. Remember him that he owes you some money and then stop working with him. Next time, sign a contract clearly stating what you do and what you don't. Just my 2$.

[mordred]

I agree with what others have said above. And just to reassure you, as long as he still owes you money, and you can prove that by showing that you wrote a bill and you both had an agreement about the work involved, you should insist on getting your money! The issue becomes complicated though if you signed a contract with him that gives you the responsibility to admin the domain *for* him, but from your description, it doesn't sound likely that this happened.

Giving out the site password is *always* a bad idea, if you have to maintain the site still. Even when you have nice clients, it's almost inevitable that the client tries to do some work himself, and in the process of this screws up the whole site/application. If that would result in extra paid hours for you fine, but most of the time the client rather files a bug and puts the blame on you, and asks for fixes. So don't do this.

Get him to sign a paper that clearly states that along with the password, he takes on all responsibility for the site, and no bugfixes whatsoever shall be made, as it can't made sure they were your fault.