Opinions please
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Did you sign a contract to do the work? Not that it matters, but you could get away with it whether you do or don't. However, you would be in a bind since I'm sure they're more willing to pursue it legally than you are. Also, if they were telling the truth, you'll find yourself out of future contracts. If you're not done finishing it, remove some of last week's content and tell them you have to put it on hold until you get paid because something else that pays came up. Then ask Chris to delete all these questions and answers. :)
"Religion is assurance in numbers." - Bassam Abdul-Baki
-
I think its a tricky situation. If you have a proper contract that says they will pay you weekly and they dont then I think you can consider the contract void and do what you like but I have no idea of the legal issues of this where you are. I would be inclined to just walk away and consider it a lesson. If you cant get the money you are owed there is nothing really to be acheived by undoing all your work. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear
Josh Gray wrote:
If you have a proper contract that says they will pay you weekly
There are references to pay in emails, but the contract was supposed to be signed last weekend. The owner has just donated a kidney to his wife (this at least I know for a fact to be true) and so although he's released from hospital now he's tied up at the hospital with her and there are complications. I guess I consider myself a fairly accomodating person and don't wish to hound someone in such a position - and if I don't get paid then that's my lesson for being accomodating. But, if that's the case, I don't see why I should let them keep work they've not paid for. Still, 60 hours or so is not worth finding myself in court for, so you might be right about walking away.
A mum and loving it!
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Megan Forbes wrote:
would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up
Unethical, hell no. Legal, who knows? :-D I would check your contract's fine print. I would think that work would be contingent on pay. I've been in a similar situation before (with a desktop app though) and since there was no real way of me getting the code back I sent already, I just refused to do more work. Really, if they can't pay you, then they are not professional people. They can make excuses all day long, but it doesn't change the they're stupid and/or liars. And, if they screw you over once, they're willing to do it twice if you let them. Jeremy Falcon
-
Josh Gray wrote:
If you have a proper contract that says they will pay you weekly
There are references to pay in emails, but the contract was supposed to be signed last weekend. The owner has just donated a kidney to his wife (this at least I know for a fact to be true) and so although he's released from hospital now he's tied up at the hospital with her and there are complications. I guess I consider myself a fairly accomodating person and don't wish to hound someone in such a position - and if I don't get paid then that's my lesson for being accomodating. But, if that's the case, I don't see why I should let them keep work they've not paid for. Still, 60 hours or so is not worth finding myself in court for, so you might be right about walking away.
A mum and loving it!
Megan Forbes wrote:
The owner has just donated a kidney to his wife
I would proably cut them some slack in this case but this is a personal issue for him and his family and should not impact your finances. Im guessing this is a small business. It is his responsibility to ensure that his staff and contracters get paid regardless of his personal situation. In your situation I would not release any work to a client without a good contract in place. Good luck with the working from home plan, I hope you find some better clients. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Megan Forbes wrote:
would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in?
Man, that would be risky beyong belief. They could bust you for vandalizing their website. More likely, they would call it hacking and in today's environment, people are much more likely to throw the book at you if there's even an hint of something like that. If you sell a tangible object in the real world and the other party ends up not paying, that doesn't give you the right to go into their house and take it back. You need to go through the proper channels to force the payment to be made, or the goods returned. This is no different.
0 bottles of beer on the wall, 0 bottles of beer, you take 1 down, pass it around, 4294967295 bottles of beer on the wall. Awasu 2.2.2 [^]: A free RSS/Atom feed reader with support for Code Project.
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Hi Megan, I'm with Taka--I think it would possibly be illegal, and would certainly not show you in a very professional light if you were to replace their old site on top of the one you have provided. If I were you, I'd take the current lack of pay on the chin, be clear to the client that you are still waiting for pay, and be sure to ask them if they are happy with your work (i.e. show them that you are not hacked off with them...) If they ask for further work from you, and heck, they're bound to, because you'll have done a good job first time round, and they'll always think of something else they want done, simply say that you are still waiting for pay... Negotiate the details of the further work, but just don't actually deliver any of it until the hard cash hits your pocket! I recently had a client break a fixed term supply contract with my company, leaving me out of pocket. Seeing as they were a national organisation and my company is a one-man band, I thought I'd just have to lump it, but I was mad as hell. I could have left them knowing exactly what I thought of them and their so-called resource planning, and burned my bridges. But, spelling out my position in a carefully worded (i.e. firm, but not rude) letter to the boss's boss's boss, and highlighting that the client were in material breach of contract gave me some leverage, and we were able to settle amicably. And I was able to recover some of the money I would otherwise have lost. I have used that experience as a learning opportunity--I'll be checking my future contracts just that little but closely from now on! Try and look at your current position as a learning experience. Now you have the hindsight that clients don't always pay up on time, how can you mitigate that potential problem? Hope that helps, JOn
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
No, if they don't pay, they don't own your code. You're not looking to hurt them, simply to retract the services they have not paid for. And the longer it takes, the less likely they are to pay IMO. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Megan, Don't borrow trouble. First, you don't know if they are going to pay you or not, so conduct yourself professionally. For the sake of your blood pressure, let's assume they will. Just politely ask yor contact when you should expect payment. If it doesn't work out, then you are only out xx dollars - lesson learned. What you don't want to do is lower yourself to their level (though I admit it is tempting). If it does work out, you have a reference for life. Lawyers - unless you are talking many many thousands of dollars, you are trading one thief for another. Don't waste your time. Contracts: get it in writing, writing, writing. As far as them being victims of fraud, I would suspect they might have insurance for just such an event as this. Hope it works out, and please post back what happens. Charlie Gilley Will program for food... Whoever said children were cheaper by the dozen... lied. My son's PDA is an M249 SAW.
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
If you aren't willing to drive over face to face then the rest of this reply is false. If you don't want to drive over then just leave things as they are and have a phone call. Worst case outcome is you learned a tough lesson. Well once again my view is different from everyone else's. Where I come from if you agree to pay for a car and don't they take it back. The legal of it is you have something you didn't pay for. Where I come from if you have a house and are not making the payments they'll take it back. Pretty easy to follow the vein I'm in right? Good. Now let's talk about your situation. I'd restore the site the way it was. Then I'd drive over and talk to your client in person (have a friend wait outside within hearing distance). Tell them you are nervous and because of that you pulled the site and put it back the way it was. Ask them what they would like you to do. If they ask you to restore it honor their request but I'd leave an invoice for the full price and have them sign it. Easy enough. My guess is that if they are rats they already have a full copy of the site anyways. Lesson to you would be to register a domain on a server somewhere and make your sites on that server as subdomains. http://site1.meganforbes.com http://site2.meganforbes.com and so on. Protect your code you owe it to yourself. That's my advice. If my instincts are correct you just did work for free and those are the lessons we all get to learn. It sucks but it's true. - Rex
"You have an arrow in your butt!" - Fiona:cool: Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog [ ^ ] now. People who don't understand how awesome Firefox is have never used CPhog[^]CPhog. The act of using CPhog (Firefox)[^] alone doesn't make Firefox cool. It opens your eyes to the possibilities and then you start looking for other things like CPh
-
If you aren't willing to drive over face to face then the rest of this reply is false. If you don't want to drive over then just leave things as they are and have a phone call. Worst case outcome is you learned a tough lesson. Well once again my view is different from everyone else's. Where I come from if you agree to pay for a car and don't they take it back. The legal of it is you have something you didn't pay for. Where I come from if you have a house and are not making the payments they'll take it back. Pretty easy to follow the vein I'm in right? Good. Now let's talk about your situation. I'd restore the site the way it was. Then I'd drive over and talk to your client in person (have a friend wait outside within hearing distance). Tell them you are nervous and because of that you pulled the site and put it back the way it was. Ask them what they would like you to do. If they ask you to restore it honor their request but I'd leave an invoice for the full price and have them sign it. Easy enough. My guess is that if they are rats they already have a full copy of the site anyways. Lesson to you would be to register a domain on a server somewhere and make your sites on that server as subdomains. http://site1.meganforbes.com http://site2.meganforbes.com and so on. Protect your code you owe it to yourself. That's my advice. If my instincts are correct you just did work for free and those are the lessons we all get to learn. It sucks but it's true. - Rex
"You have an arrow in your butt!" - Fiona:cool: Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog [ ^ ] now. People who don't understand how awesome Firefox is have never used CPhog[^]CPhog. The act of using CPhog (Firefox)[^] alone doesn't make Firefox cool. It opens your eyes to the possibilities and then you start looking for other things like CPh
code-frog wrote:
Well once again my view is different from everyone else's.
Not everyone. We agree this time. Of course, as to not ruin your reputation, I won't tell anybody. ;P Jeremy Falcon
-
code-frog wrote:
Well once again my view is different from everyone else's.
Not everyone. We agree this time. Of course, as to not ruin your reputation, I won't tell anybody. ;P Jeremy Falcon
That was funny. I did modify it a tad bit. I think if she's not comfortable driving over there then she needs to leave things alone and chalk it up to a lesson learned. The hard parts of business *must* be done face to face and if you are not comfortable with that and there are some very good reasons for not being comfortable I think common sense says to prepare to move on.
"You have an arrow in your butt!" - Fiona:cool:
Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog [ ^ ] now.People who don't understand how awesome Firefox is have never used CPhog[^]CPhog. The act of using CPhog (Firefox)[^] alone doesn't make Firefox cool. It opens your eyes to the possibilities and then you start looking for other things like CPhog (Firefox)[^] and your eyes are suddenly open to all sorts of useful things all through Firefox. - (Self Quote)
-
No, if they don't pay, they don't own your code. You're not looking to hurt them, simply to retract the services they have not paid for. And the longer it takes, the less likely they are to pay IMO. Christian Graus - Microsoft MVP - C++ Metal Musings - Rex and my new metal blog
Christian Graus wrote:
No, if they don't pay, they don't own your code. You're not looking to hurt them, simply to retract the services they have not paid for.
Agreed. When applied to others items in life, it's easy to see. Since there is no contract, I'm not sure of the legalities, but I'm sure of what's right - they don't own it. If I promise to pay soemone for Windows, but I don't. I doubt many here would accept that. This case is no different.
Christian Graus wrote:
And the longer it takes, the less likely they are to pay IMO.
So true. Jeremy Falcon
-
That was funny. I did modify it a tad bit. I think if she's not comfortable driving over there then she needs to leave things alone and chalk it up to a lesson learned. The hard parts of business *must* be done face to face and if you are not comfortable with that and there are some very good reasons for not being comfortable I think common sense says to prepare to move on.
"You have an arrow in your butt!" - Fiona:cool:
Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog [ ^ ] now.People who don't understand how awesome Firefox is have never used CPhog[^]CPhog. The act of using CPhog (Firefox)[^] alone doesn't make Firefox cool. It opens your eyes to the possibilities and then you start looking for other things like CPhog (Firefox)[^] and your eyes are suddenly open to all sorts of useful things all through Firefox. - (Self Quote)
Yes, but that's why we have semi-automatic weapons. They give you flak, give them no slack! Yeah, I'm in a mood. :laugh: Been coding too long, should be watching a movie or something productive like that. Jeremy Falcon
-
That was funny. I did modify it a tad bit. I think if she's not comfortable driving over there then she needs to leave things alone and chalk it up to a lesson learned. The hard parts of business *must* be done face to face and if you are not comfortable with that and there are some very good reasons for not being comfortable I think common sense says to prepare to move on.
"You have an arrow in your butt!" - Fiona:cool:
Welcome to CP in your language. Post the unicode version in My CP Blog [ ^ ] now.People who don't understand how awesome Firefox is have never used CPhog[^]CPhog. The act of using CPhog (Firefox)[^] alone doesn't make Firefox cool. It opens your eyes to the possibilities and then you start looking for other things like CPhog (Firefox)[^] and your eyes are suddenly open to all sorts of useful things all through Firefox. - (Self Quote)
Lol, I'm still talking to him - I'm merely considering what to do *if* it all ends up going wrong. Not being paid your first cheque is not normally a good sign. I'm an advance planner.
A mum and loving it!
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Thanks for the answers guys - pretty varied! As Taka & Christian (the only two in Australia who replied I think - and it's Australian law which would prevail) gave exact opposite answers I'm no closer to knowing whether I'll do this or not *should* it all go horribly wrong. I'm still in comm's with the chap though, so hopefully this situation will remain hypothetical. Thanks again!
A mum and loving it!
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
I think you are aon a sticky wicket, there have been similare cases where a contractor has not been paid so they removed their code and got sued, and lost. Of course if your terms and conditions states something like, 'the software remains the property of Megan, until full payment' you may get away with it. But all the customer will say is 'Megan made a complete mess of the code and we are in dispute with her, so we are withholding payment' I used to work for a company that never paid bills unless the bailifs were threatened, they got away with it!
"Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for - in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it." - Ellen Goodman
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Megan Forbes wrote:
However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
I'd do that right now so that if they lock you out, you've already taken care of it. One of their employees arresetd for fraud? Shya... right.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Megan Forbes wrote:
would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in
Do NOT do that (Taka's post is dead on).
Megan Forbes wrote:
they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account
It may seem outlandish, but one of my clients discovered, on returning from a business trip, that an employee had racked up $15,000 of charges on a company credit card, all personal purchases. And then denied it all. The employee is sitting in jail right now, apparently, the police got him for car theft. The embezzlement wasn't enough to put him in jail, but the district attorney, when my client called the police, said, "oh, I know that guy". I can see why employers want to check your police records.
Megan Forbes wrote:
With any luck they're completely above board.
What to do, IMO: Stop work immediately, with a friendly letter saying work will continue once payment for prior work is received. Also request that if they cannot make payment, that they restore the website to their original condition prior to your work. Send it certified, or whatever is the "yes, they signed that they got it" equivalent in AU. Call them daily asking for the status. Gentle harrassment works well. Start researching small claims court, or whatever is the "do it yourself" equivalent in AU. Forget a lawyer unless you're out tens of thousands of dollars. Start looking for other work. If it turns out they screwed you, well, I would say that's pretty unusual in this industry, as they can get a bad rep real quick. Marc Pensieve Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
-
I'm in a situation where I was looking for work to do from home, and found an employer looking for a web developer who wanted to work from home. They have two websites (online classifieds type sites) and in the last two weeks I've done a substantial amount of work on both. However, neither last weeks nor this weeks pay has reached my bank account (they offered weekly pay). On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board. However, should it turn out they have no intention of paying me, would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up, leaving their sites in the original state I found them in? Naturally I would keep backups of all the work should they then decide to pay for it.
A mum and loving it!
Megan Forbes wrote:
On Wednesday they apologised and said that someone who used to work for them has been arrested for fraud after emptying their business account and they hadn't realised until they discovered the fraud why their pay was taking so long to reach me. The story is almost so outlandish it seems believable. With any luck they're completely above board.
You should be able to confirm this easily enough. Arrest records should be public information, ask the company where he was arrested adn then call the police station for the area.
-
Megan Forbes wrote:
would it be illegal or even unethical for me to take the backups I took of their sites at the start and ftp them up
Unethical, hell no. Legal, who knows? :-D I would check your contract's fine print. I would think that work would be contingent on pay. I've been in a similar situation before (with a desktop app though) and since there was no real way of me getting the code back I sent already, I just refused to do more work. Really, if they can't pay you, then they are not professional people. They can make excuses all day long, but it doesn't change the they're stupid and/or liars. And, if they screw you over once, they're willing to do it twice if you let them. Jeremy Falcon
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, as they say... I probably would not 'undo' the work, but I would not do any MORE work. One time, I was working, not particularly quickly, but quick enough. The company asked me to work faster, so I did and did a lot of work on a project. That is when they decided not to pay. Always only turn over a level of work commensurate with current, ONGOING pay. If they 'stall out' you can 'stall out' too. Let them know you are awaiting back pay. I've seen better runs in my shorts! - Patches O'Houlihan