Ughhh I hate difficult customers.

@Fungirlmmm I am not religious,but absolute wisdom is stated in the words,"Treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated".Immaculate.

@KaysHealingPath Thats awful. Ill say a prayer for her to have a change in heart. People feel too entitled these days. :(

@pedrohedgerow I agree, both from a religious and a genuine morale standpoint. If more people handled life that way we would have more harmony.

@helenS It depends on how you market it, I think. If it's something that becomes available after launch, and that you market as a (paid) update, it shouldn't be just a feature-switch imo.

If it's just different "editions" of the program, then it's well established in the industry (think of even things like Windows, the only practical difference between Home, Pro, Enterprise editions is probably the set of compiler constants it's built with).

@Elessar For example I have a module that writes dunning letters. It's sold separately but it's already in the program.

@helenS Yeah, well, I assume your customers know they can get it when they buy the main program, right?

What I would find unethical is, for instance, if you tell them that you need to work on it, charge them on the working time, and then eventually deliver a feature switch. Which would still be legal, technically, but if a supplier of mine did a similar thing and I found out, chances are that I personally would replace this supplier.

@KaysHealingPath should have some extra clauses then. Like arbitration, cost of legal expenses and such then.

Ever seen an estimate from a major auto repair business? Good example really.

@DeWayfarer lawyer is drafting up a lien. He said once it’s in place I can take them to small claims court at least now they can’t sell/ refinance until we go to court
Even without a signed contract it’s still considered a verbal contract because there is evidence that they agreed to pay the amounts stipulated

@DeWayfarer and after the review of the initial contract, and final invoice she actually owed us 11k
So even if we lose she’s going to have to pay. Either us or a lawyer but she will have to pay someone.

It would suit her best to settle this debt.

@Elessar it’s not “just” $5k
It’s more like over $8500
Small claims court isn’t even expensive in IL and I’m not going to let her try and fuck is over because we’re a small minority based company

She needs to pay for services rendered, or else anybody would keep doing this to us

@KaysHealingPath I thought they paid the initial amount due, but not the extras? Anyway, if it's feasible go for it. I don't disagree with you, and certainly I'm not a fan of seeing these people get away with this sort of conduct; I just wouldn't engage in a lengthy process that could ultimately cost (not only financially, but also in terms of time) more than what you're losing already. What kind of product/service is it, if I may ask? And you have no leverage on this customer, like refusing to provide after-sale customer service until they pay?

@Elessar we’re in the home remodeling business. We’ve invested time and money into her home and we’re upside down on the total.
The initial estimate was 45k
She the. Began making changes and adding additional work with the agreement that she’d pay the extras but is now refusing to pay the extras
She hasn’t fully paid the 45k yet either
It’s over $5k in extras plus a $3k balance on the initial estimate and is also taking an additional 500 off for the final cleaning.

We send a final cleaning once all balances are paid. But a final cleaning is not included in this contract because from the beginning she said she didn’t want it

@zonavar68 yes
Includes clauses for extras and text messages where we tell them how much extra their request will be