Where do you draw the line?

[s0lar]

I designed and built a cluster and related application for a businessman I met at a conference in the State's a while back. This was scoped, completed and I was paid via Paypal.

1. This guy doesnt seem to see the fact that I was paid as a "sign off". He phones me at the most irregular hours with no regard to timezone etc. on my cellphone. This really piss's me off as I am working towards a deadline at my job and sleep is not what I have much of. The system has been working for ever but general maintenance issue's have arisen like disk space, network anomaly related problem etc. I have not entered into a maintenance contract or the like as he see's it as "implementation" problems. Nor do I actually want to as I have more than enough on my plate as it is.

2. I asked him repeatedly via conversation as well as email to pay me by other means. With Paypal I cant get the funds back into the country into my bank account. He refused and said he only uses Paypal. He then has the balls to ask me do architect another system for him and pay me via Paypal. I mean WTF?

This was a freelance job more to establish a relationship with some technical guys in my industry than a financial one. I dont want to burn bridge's with this guy and his team.

Anybody with more than "freelance" pointers on how to handle this?

 

[guest2013-1]

Do you need the money?

If not, get a well-drawn contract together (for maintenance) make your price 900 ZAR per hour. Tell him that the initial job that was scoped and completed were paid for and you can't afford to still make changes to a system that has been working for "x months"

The issues that has come to light was fixed and/or not part of the original scope and their technical team should have insured enough capacity on disk drives yadayadayadayadayada

Then give him the quote on the new system, double your hourly price of 900 ZAR for maintenance and then tell him how many hours it will take to complete.

Then quote the full price.

You'll either be making a killing, or never hear from him again.

Business "contacts" like this is not worth it in the long run

 

[Kaufies]

Well said, Acid.

I can't believe he is too stubborn to look at alternative methods of payment

 

[rurapente]

probably convenient cause he's setup on paypal already.

u need someone to "convert" the money for u. i have a bank account in an EU country that paypal supports but dont have the means here to pay u out the calculated sum. That way you could transfer example 100EUR to my EU account and I give you today's rate in ZAR for it less any commission nonsense.

im sure if you look around you'll find someone who has the means to do it now and is looking to convert some currency without the middleman. Of course it has to be someone u trust cause when u transfer it to their paypal they could just run away with it.

 

[rurapente]

Sorry just want to add - someone posted a merchant service here on myBB that allows paypal transactions AND allows ZA companies to sign up.

What caught my interest is thast you get a "debit" card, i think Visa branded from them which they told me they will ship to ZA and is fully usable by any merchant here.

i.e you could setup a merchant account with them, get paypal payments from this oke and then use the card they give you to spend/draw out ZAR here. Of course again ,research and care must be taken.

 

[s0lar]

First up thanks for the excellent input.

AcidRaZor, perfect dont know why I didnt think of that Lesson learnt the hard way. There is no book for this, one of those experience things. I am going to put this in writing and mail it first thing in the morning, if I have to be woken up at 2am it might as well be worth it!

The paypal thing, I think he stands something to gain by paying me with it. I think its not an unreasonable request for me selling a service to request the method of payment. What he might gain I dont know. According to him his accountant "feels uncomfortable" paying directly into my account, taking money out the country. blah blah!

rurapente, I will check through the forums for something otherwise I just spend it as time goes on, on random stuff from the net.

 

[MyWorld]

On his defence, PayPal is one of the safest ways to handle money over the internet and I can see his reluctance to do it any other way, however he should also be aware that PayPal is not supported in SA and should accommodate you or find another person for the job.

 

[guest2013-1]

On his defence, PayPal is one of the safest ways to handle money over the internet and I can see his reluctance to do it any other way, however he should also be aware that PayPal is not supported in SA and should accommodate you or find another person for the job.

Agreed, a lot of scammers require payment upfront and then just disappear.