Guys I have a question regarding small claims court.
As I'm sure 99% of you know, I own my own business designing websites. My issue involves a client refusing to pay for a website that I have been working on since January of 2007. I am not going to post the business name, obviously so I'm going to be as specific as I can.
Basically we made a verbal agreement (I will NEVER do that again) that I would design a website for him in exchange for him doing some work at my house. My policy in website design that I relay to all of my clients is that the "design" of the site is the most imporantant aspect of the site and I won't move forward adding information until I get the greenlight from them to do so. I design my sites to where each page looks the same (ie. the buttons are in the same place, etc. just like SR.com) so really there is no need to move forward adding textual information until my client is satisfied with the look of the site. I explained this to this client as I normally do. I have absolutely no problem tweaking a design over and over until the client is 100% satisfied and that was the case with this guy. I sent him a design I came up with on my own because he said he didn't have a particular look he was hoping to go for so he gave me artisitic license to come up with something. I made a design, sent him an email and unfortunately although I have his reply, it doesn't show what he is replying to so I don't know if this will hold up as evidence or not.
Once I got his approval, I duplicated the look into 11 pages, specific to the ones he told me to make and I spent the time copying over images, cleaning them up and adding all the information he had provided for me to add to the pages. I didn't hear from him for a while and when I did contact him he said he wanted to change the look. I honestly believe it was his wife who wanted a different look, but that's a whole different story. I didn't object, but instead proceeded on a new design based on suggestions from his wife and himself.. I even had a picture to use as a model because he had a friend of his come up with a design. I created the design and again was told that they liked the look of the site so I began creating more pages.
Basically I created a 15 page site and every page contains information, except for his frequently asked questions page.. but I wasn't given information from him so I couldn't just make up something to put on there.. he knew that.
My website CLEARLY lists my prices based on the number of pages created for a site... a 15 page site costs $1500.... with hosting it runs just under $2000.
He said he would only pay me $700.
I asked him why and he said that's all he felt he owed me because he talked to some other website people and they said a 6 page website wouldn't cost more than that. That's the point.. a 6 page website is priced at $450 on my site...but he has a 15 page site that I pulled up on my laptop in front of him today. Not to mention 11 pages of a site I wouldn't have created if he hadn't given me the thumbs up so we're talking closer to $3000 with all the work I put into it.
He even offered me $2000 during the process to cover what I had done, but I told him not to worry about it because I took him at his word that he would handle his end of the bargain. He never did ANYTHING on his part.. he did drive out to my house one time. I met with him at his house atleast 4 times to go over the site.
I have a folder containing 1641 files of images, html pages, etc that I made on his site because it was tweaked over and over and over on his request. I have time stamps on all of the files that show when they were modified, etc. I have all of his pages up on my server and can prove that at the time of the "dispute" there were 15 functional pages up.
Basically I can't accept $700 for the amount of work I did and he is refusing to pay a dime more so I would like to take him to small claims court to recoup my money.
I am seeking advice as to whether or not you think I have a "leg to stand on" so to speak and I am "LEGALLY IGNORANT" when it comes to law stuff. I have piles of evidence all documented... he has nothing to go by other than saying he doesn't feel the site is worth more than $700. A portfolio of all my sites is listed on my website so he had over a year to browse through my site to see my work.
Thanks for ANY advice you guys can give me and I'm so sorry this is so long-winded, but I wanted to make sure I gave you as much information as possible.
Please feel free to comment and ask any questions and I'll answer what I can.