We’ve decided to change our approach. No more partial payments. Why? Especially when we don’t control the server for the product or service they order.
Imagine this: You’re asked to troubleshoot software, edit scripts, or perhaps move a website to a different server. It’s hard enough without server access, but what if you finish the task and then don’t get paid?
Sadly, this isn’t a hypothetical situation. We’ve been down this road more times than we’d like to admit. But the latest incident? It was the last straw, and the reason behind our new policy.
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Unpaid App Development and Website Migration Services
It seems we were too trusting. We believed our relationship with this particular client, who ended up not paying, was rock-solid. He had been a longstanding customer, having ordered many services from us in the past.
Unfortunately, our trust was betrayed. The fees for creating the trading application and the complete migration of the website to a new domain and server remained unpaid.
Let’s delve into the story.
A Longstanding Customer
As mentioned earlier, this client had been with us for a significant time. We’d had numerous video calls with him, discussing his needs.
We always prioritize our clients’ privacy. This means we never pry too deeply into their business affairs. From what we could tell, it seemed he was in the forex trading business.
At one point, he approached our DEVanoda development team to create an app and to transfer all the content from his old website to a new domain. We didn’t delve into personal questions, like why he wanted to switch domains.
However, it was somewhat puzzling. His old domain was attracting a massive amount of traffic. Although we had our suspicions, we chose to overlook them at that time.
Starting Forex Trading App and Migration Projects
After several days of discussion, we agreed to build an app as per the client’s request. He also wanted us to migrate his old website, which had hundreds of thousands of members.
The agreed-upon fee at the time was IDR 80,000,000 (eighty million rupiahs). The client initially tried to negotiate a lower price, but we couldn’t reduce it any further.
The forex app he requested was quite complex. It wasn’t your run-of-the-mill application. We had to develop several programs to make the app function as he desired.
We worked on these projects for three months. He provided a 50% down payment, about IDR 40,000,000, as per our agreement, to initiate the projects.
Request for a Server Test
This is where we let our guard down. After transferring the website and fixing all the links and redirects, he asked us to test the newly developed application on his server.
His given reason was that he wanted to test the server’s capacity. Not a strong justification, but since he was a long-time client, we obliged.
After uploading all the files to his server, he asked for a day to review the work. With no other options, we agreed.
Inactive Contact and Changed Server Password
The next day, we tried contacting the client again. Our WhatsApp messages showed only a single checkmark, meaning they were not yet received.
After waiting until evening and also trying to call his mobile number, it became clear that the number was no longer active.
Suspicious, we tried to log into the client’s server, only to find that the password had been changed.
We gave him the benefit of the doubt and waited for his response, refraining from jumping to conclusions about potential fraud. However, after two weeks with no reply, we concluded that we had been scammed.
To this day, our WhatsApp messages still show only a single checkmark. It appears he has abandoned his old number and uninstalled his old WhatsApp account as well.
Conclusion
Inconclusive Police Report
The financial setback from this incident is estimated to exceed IDR 40,000,000 (forty million rupiahs). We lodged a complaint with the police. Dishearteningly, the individual remains elusive.
Although we are familiar with the client’s name and appearance, this data hasn’t been adequate to trace him. The address he used for previous orders seems fabricated.
Tracking Efforts via the Developed Application
With no substantial leads from the police, we embarked on tracing this individual through the app we initially developed for him.
In addition, we tried to trace him through the newly migrated website domain. However, both avenues came up empty.
It looks like he might have engaged another developer to alter the app’s identity and design since we couldn’t spot it on the Playstore. The new website domain URL, as of now, is inactive, suggesting he might have transitioned to yet another domain name.
Valuable Lessons
Even though we felt a close bond with this client, his unexpected actions were a rude awakening. We should remain cautious, particularly when operations involve moving files to another server or related tasks.
In response, our revamped policy against accepting partial payments or deposits is our strategy to prevent a recurrence of such unfortunate episodes.