[consulting] Proper Collections Procedure

[Michael Haggerty]

I have a question for other members of this list about how they handle
collections.

I have a complicated matter with a client and their delinquent invoices.
They are refusing to make payment on fairly large bill after they have
received a lot of custom code and already launched the site on their own
servers. The justification they cite is cost overruns in the development
process, most of which were for features not included in the original spec
but which they themselves requested. The overruns were within 15% of the
total project price.

I have tried dealing with them reasonably for several weeks and received
multiple payment promises that were broken. The bill is now quite a bit
overdue and it's taking a huge amount of time dealing with all the craziness
around their tab (they keep requesting further clarification about things
that were done months ago and it's eating up my team's time). They are
dealing with other Drupal shops at this point and there is no way for me to
cut off services. What really burns me is the site was for a third party who
has already paid them and the cost of development was less than 1/8 of what
the third party paid.

Anyone have any ideas? 

M