Programmers are not to be messed with!

This programmer’s client refused to pay after getting their work.

She had a smart idea to tackle it, and all of the resources right at her fingertips.

Let’s check out what happened.

I was told this belongs here. They got what they asked for lol

“Here’s 33% of your website. You’re welcome.”

I had a trophy-wife-client who had a frozen yoghurt business paid for by her husband.

They contacted me and asked me to design and build a new website for her business.

Everything was smooth…

I gave them a quote and they asked if they could pay in three instalments.

After we all agreed to the terms, I had written approval and I received my 33% deposit, I got cracking.

We had regular check-ins and they were happy with the progress until one day they just went quiet.

They were already behind on the second payment and I was growing impatient.

She was almost through with the project.

I was done with the site and just needed final approval and payment before launching it but I couldn’t get hold of either of them.

I eventually got hold of the lady at her day job after weeks of being ghosted.

She calmly told me that they found someone cheaper and that they won’t be paying the remaining 66% even though the project was complete and all their feedback was addressed.

They made the most unreasonable demand.

She told me that I could just give her 33% the files and move on with my life.

I made it clear that websites don’t really work if you only upload 33% of the files, sarcastically, at which point she hung up the phone.

I still had their ftp details for their brand domain that housed their current (old) website, so I decided to take revenge.

She got smart!

I created a page with an animated, fake loading bar that was stuck at 33%.

Underneath the loading bar was the message: “This company does not pay their suppliers. They decided to pay only a third of the price so now they have only a third of a website.”

I went as far as to download the website files, split it up in roughly three portions (file size), and upload a zip folder containing a third of the files to the ftp folder.

She was very clever!

This way I actually gave them the 33% they paid for and I could show the file size to prove it.

I also permanently deleted the old site’s files from the folder so they couldn’t restore from a backup.

Not that they’d have a clue how to do that.

They threatened to sue me, I’m still waiting 😉

They got what they deserved!

They could have stayed true to their commitment to avoid the embarrassment!

Let’s check out what folks on Reddit think about this story.

This person has a step by step guide to get a better revenge.

This person shares a personal story.

This person has an important question.

This person has a fact to state!

This person thinks the couple is absurd.

She worked so hard for their website!

The least they could have done was communicate the issue.

If you liked that story, check out this post about an oblivious CEO who tells a web developer to “act his wage”… and it results in 30% of the workforce being laid off.