I need some advice. My wepage is more or less being held ransom by my webmaster because of her knowledge of html. If I need to make a change of any kind I need to wait a week plus for anything to get done. Now, she wants to charge me an up-front fee for any changes before they are done. I can’t even put on any links because I have to check with her first. How tuff is it to use html and if I was able to learn it how can I get my web page away from her?
First off, I’m so sorry you’ve gotten into this position and I have to say that I’m not entirely surprised: while the vast majority of web designers and webmasters are upstanding and ethical professionals, yours is not the first story I have heard of a web consultant holding a site hostage.
The most important question to ask is whether you own your domain or not. This can be ascertained by going to http://www.whois.net/ and checking your domain information record. The key field is “Administrative”. For example, a check of dailycamera.com shows that the administrative contact is The E. W. Scripps Company, which makes sense since it’s a newspaper owned by that company.
If your domain is clearly owned by you, you’re in good shape. You can contact the web hosting company and tell them that you want to switch it over to a new account and simply shut the old one down and take possession of the Web site without even interacting with this troublesome webmaster.
If not, then you have a legal problem. Dig through your old email and ensure that you have some sort of written record that she registered the domain on your behalf and that payment of one of the invoices she sent you included “domain registration” or similar as a line item. Those could prove critical. Email her and tell her you need her to properly update the domain record to reflect that you’re the owner. If she refuses, I’d consider calling a lawyer.
It is possible that you don’t have a domain set up and that what you have is a small web site that lives on comcast.com or similar. It might look like http://www.comcast.com/~somebizname or similar. This is also a bit tricky because it’ll depend on who owns the account within which the site is set up. If that’s you, easy, just change the password. If it’s her, well, again, you’re going to need to ask her to make a “snapshot” or “archive” of the site, set up a new account, and unpack the archive there. Your web hosting company can doubtless assist with this. Want to switch to another hosting company? Here are a list of some budget hosting options that might prove beneficial.
Finally, HTML isn’t incredibly difficult to learn, but if the page is complex or has a sophisticated layout or featureset, it can indeed be quite tricky to work with and the slightest missed ‘/’ or ‘<‘ could easily break the entire layout and leave your pages looking very strange indeed.
Having talked about all of these alternatives, I suggest that your very best first step is to sit down and talk with your webmaster, express all of your concerns and frustrations, and ask her to propose a mutually acceptable solution. If you can’t find agreement, then it’s a perfectly reasonable moment to state that you are going to start looking for someone else to help you with your site development and that “of course” you know you can count on her help with the transition.
Good luck.
If you own the domains and have a website creator who hosts on a server that they pay for, who now will not let me move my sites to another server of theirs or another host company, what options do I have?
The hosting company says that I have no standing and only with her username/password or verbal approval will they move my sites to my server. They won’t even fix the email passwords after their server crashed, now that it is back up and running.
Is it legal for a hosting company to stand their ground on this issue?
Any advice?
The hosting company has a relationship with your website developer, not you. I would say that you need to work it out with her or contact a lawyer. Good luck!
Late to the party, but I still feel like typing………..
I find myself in a country where most “Company IT Heads” don’t know (i’m not kidding) what domain name is….Will take donkey years to train them do common Post…….I nearly forgot, Company President can’t differentiate between Username and Pass
……Sorry, I have to reveal it………That country is called Ghana.
my webdesigner/developer will not give me the codes he developed for me. I paid most of the cost and he has not completed the project. He delays everything and has not done what he promised. Now, I want to transition the site but he is not cooperating. He is completely silent. What to do? I feel like he is holding my site hostage and wasting a lot of my time. If I get it all done from scratch, how do I get my money plus all the delays paid back?
i have a similar story i have a website that my webdesigner refuses to give me the details for, i asked him to upgrade it 8 months ago and got no reply so six weeks ago i went to another designer to get a new website he needs the domain details to transfer to another host but 4 weeks ago my previous webdesigner decided to upgrade it without informing me but now he wont give me the details untill i pay him for the work hes already done, what can i do?
Mara, I’m not sure what you read, but I stand by what I wrote: small business people often get their Web sites developed by enterpreneurs while they themselves have zero clue about how it all works. All they know is that their webmaster does magic things and the page updates.
If that communication channel breaks down, you have a recipe for problems: the web developer can then hold onto the site, charge the same monthly maintenance fee and not actually make any desired changes. Meanwhile, the customer just wants to get their data files, contact software, etc., and move on to the next host.
While the webmaster / designer might be “doing them a favor by not letting them muck up their site”, it needs to be based on clear communication and an understanding that the customer – not the developer – is the ultimate owner of the information.
And that extra cup of coffee? Just click on the “buying you a cup of coffee” link, Mara, with my thanks. 🙂
OMG, Dave…you’re kidding, right? Your advice is normally so dead on! Where you having an off day when you answered this woman? Did you not only read her post, but in between the lines?
Is it unethical for a Web Designer to know HTML? LOL! Is it the Web Designer’s fault that the client clearly doesn’t???
The client in this case clearly doesn’t know the first thing about HTML, a web page, or how to even contact her hosting company. Seems to me her Designer is doing her a favor by not allowing said client to muck up the client’s site.
Really Dave. I think someone needs to buy you an EXTRA cup of coffee, so you can wake up before answering another question like this.
there can be couple of reasons – no time for fixing the damage from such edits or it’s just attempt to prevent the damage. I feel in heaven when client can manage routine work by himself, i believe any webmaster feels the same. It’s faster to write 3 php pages that teach someone how to insert html link into footer. Hardly webmaster tried to benefit from this situation – I can’t imagine someone can charge a fortune for changing html.
Hi Cindy. I have the benefit of seeing your domain name, so I checked on your site, and you’re right. It needs some updates. Not the least of which is it needs some contact information: how can you drive business through your site if there’s no way for a visitor to get ahold of you? 🙁
I did a whois database lookup on the domain name through the InterNIC
http://www.internic.net/whois.html
and found this:
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS1.EMEDIA-GROUP.NET
So I would call GoDaddy and ask them to help you out. It’s possible that emedia-group.net was the company that originally registered the domain for you? Good luck.
Years ago we had a guy develop a website for us. He is no longer “anywhere” to be found. We need to make changes to our site but have no idea how to get onto the site to do that? Can you give me any advice?
Thanks!
I think it is wrong for a web designer/developer to hold a client’s website hostage per se but from personal experience I do think a certain element of control has to be retained by the webmaster.
I’ve built sites for clients who hands up tell me they haven’t got a clue what to do etc and want me to look after all updates – granted 99% of the time, I get the updates done the same day. Along the way though I do show them how many of the simpler things can be done but do warn them that if they bust the layout and takes me time to fix it I will charge for that time.
I have one client who also pays me a monthly hosting fee who is a terrible payer, after invoicing I always have to send 4 or 5 reminders. She eventually asked if she could pay one lump sum yearly as she found it easy to forget monthly payments (I thought invoices might remind her of this…) so I agreed and last time I invoiced her for the full year. Guess what?.. still no payment and I’m onto reminder three already…
It’s not always the webmaster who’s the villain it’s the client!
Anyway I’ve smothered her site with my Google Ads for now until she pays up. I am next considering going to her bar with a load of friends, running up a large tab and making her wait three months before I pay.
Besides, without reigning most clients in a bit their sites would end up covered in animated .gifs, scrolling marquees, background music, dead links ooh maybe even a nice fancy flash intro page… :O)
Steve.
I have read people say that they will give their client the username and password and let them take over the site. But I do not want to let the people that have stabbed me in the back take over the site I have created for them. It was my work and they have gone behind my back and have someone else who thinks she is simply going to step in and take over my job. I made the site, did the research, etc….. AM I REALLY supposed to just GIVE IT AWAY?? I purchased the site in my name and there is nothing in writing saying it was on anyone’s behalf and we never even discussed him having any ownership of it. I was under the impression I was providing him a monthly service and I could terminate that if I so desired as could he. If he had even told me that he had someone else he wanted to do it, and had some class about it I might have worked this out better. But he was sneaky and lied and I am not giving away my work to people like that. Am I in the wrong? He is getting a lawyer but I feel I am in the right. What do you and your readers make of this situation?
Yes, Dave, even though I love your advice most of the time, I have to wonder why you automatically go along with the guy who sent in the question, and act as if the web site designer is a criminal of some kind.
Just as is the case with Raytracer and Michael above, I can’t afford to make changes, edits, and revises on a web site without getting paid for it. And just like these two guys I’m happy to give the customer the information necessary to work on the site himself..and will even give him some “technical support” on how to get started…but chances are he’s never going to be able to figure it out.
As for his complaint that his webmaster has the audacity to charge him up-front for this work…well…have you considered that maybe she’s had trouble getting this customer to pay for work in the past…and now she knows that the only way to get paid is to make him pay upfront?
My advice to that complainer: Buy some books about web site design, purchase some software…spend weeks or months learning what you need to know…and then have fun.
I’m guessing that this guy is a deadbeat.
I too take issue with this answer. I am a freelance web designer who has been in this situation before. Most of my clients hire me because they want a website for their business but they have no idea how to proceed. I am very clear how I bill out for my services and what can be expected after the site goes live. If they want to take over maintenance, I have NO PROBLEM with that. However, if they mess it up beyond repair and want me to fix it, then I absolutely must bill out for that time since that was not part of the original contract. I also offer quarterly maintenance plans for my customers that offer a total of 3 hours of my time per quarter for $79. That way, then can feel free to ask me to add links, change some sentences around, post some images, etc. This also provides me with a steady stream of income and I don’t feel like I am giving away my work for free. This has worked out very well for both parties. The original question sounds like there is a communication issue between both parties or the web developer did not do a good enough job explaining the billing process.
Good advice Dave. I would add one more thing to it.
In the event you find yourself having to switch webmasters, one option is to look for someone who can provide a website which is more user maintainable than the traditional write-your-own-HTML and upload via FTP to some file directory structure you don’t understand, praying it all works. There are plenty of web platforms these days that offer users the ability to easily edit text on the website, upload pictures, or even change how the various site is organized.
One such platform is Microsoft SharePoint. I plan on kicking off a part-time business doing this very thing for small businesses and individuals, but I’m certainly not the only one out there–do a google search on SharePoint websites and have your pick!
Good luck to the original poster on resuming control of your site!
Dave,
I totally disagree with you on this. I, myself is a freelance webmaster as well.I have dealt with customer like this hundreds of time. This kind of customers always want to change thing on the website but do not know how to change. So they asked me to chang eit for them? am I going to charge them? Heck yes, I am because that costs my time to do it. If they want to do it, that is fine with me. DO it but if they mess up HTML, that is entirely their fault.
Now, going back to this poster, if he wants to change th content of his website and if he sure know how to do it, simply just ask the webmaster the username, password and FTP info of the website. She/HE will be happy to give it to you, because you own it. Once she/he gives that info to you, you are now making change to your web site on your own.
BUT if she/he denies not giving you the username/password, then you need to contact your hosting company and have them change it for you because you pay for the host.
Just my 2 cents.