#ClientManagement #Professionalism #OwnershipRights
Hey everyone! 👋 Have you ever had to deal with a difficult client who just can’t seem to understand boundaries? 🙄 Well, that’s exactly what happened with a client we recently fired at the design agency I work with. They’ve been causing a lot of drama since we let them go, and now they’re threatening us with damages.
Here’s the deal:
– We prorated their payment and refunded the remainder of the month
– We tried transferring ownership of their website and social media, but they refused to accept it
– We took down their online presence to protect ourselves
But now the question is, are we in the wrong for doing so? 🤔 They refused to take ownership, so do we still have the right to hold onto their digital assets?
What do you guys think? Any suggestions on how to handle this situation moving forward? Let’s discuss! 🗣️💬
They have a duty to mitigate harm which, if everything you said is true, they are clearly not upholding. Having said that, I obviously do not know what if any agreements were signed, and if you respected the notices required by your contracts/terms of agreement. If you did not respect that language, you may have “caused harm” in some legal capacity.
I do not believe you were in the wrong, provided everything you’ve said was true and you did provide *written notice* for each of these steps, which the customer then obviously ran over and ignored.
It’s possible they feel taking ownership back somehow tacitly resigns their rights to recourse and that’s why they aren’t. But as I said, they have a duty to mitigate which they are not upholding.
I think you’re fine here.
Check your state laws regarding abandoned funds. After some period, you send it to the state (treasurer, in my case), and they put the funds in escrow.
I would save copies of emails and take note of when phone calls were made and the outcomes of said conversations. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to blame everything on you. I would try two more times just so the courts can see that you in fact did try to give them their accounts. Ultimately, I think you want to have enough documentation to show the courts that you have gone above and beyond.