Choosing Beggar Won’t Pay For Website, Loses It When Developer Takes It Down 2026

You get stuff when you pay for it.

It’s how the world works. You have to fulfill your part of the deal or people won’t want to work with you anymore. However choosing beggars seem to think they are exempt from these criteria. Since they deserve to get everything they want for absolutely free. You see this individual wanted a website and asked a web developer to make him one.

They agreed upon a set amount that he will pay after it was done. Well, when the time came to pay for the already developed site, he decided to scam the developer. However, he must have forgotten that the website was still held by the developer hence he couldn’t make it active by himself.

Source: Reddit

How can anyone think that is a scam?

Aren’t you the one scamming him? It’s like a pot calling the kettle black.

I’ve heard of hard bargaining but that is basically asking for something for free.

I’ve never had to handle a commission before in my life, so forgive me for asking this.

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But how do you not see signs of this stuff coming? Is there little to no interaction before hand? I feel like most these beggers mentality would prominently display itself before hand.

Again, never dealt with these kinds of people personally. So I apologize if the question comes off rude. –ChaosInClarity

They didn’t agree with that beforehand did they?

In all seriousness I’m quite upset about this. Never using the website I found this client on again.

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EDIT: To answer everyone asking why I charged him such a low flat rate, it’s because it was an extremely simple website. To give you an idea, instead of asking me to implement cart and checkout, he just asked me to put his discord name on the page and instructions on how to add him to purchase. Stuff like that. It would have been even cheaper if he didn’t keep changing his mind about everything. –TimmyTurner3432

You don’t have $650 but have enough to hire a lawyer?

Why do I feel like he is going to scam the lawyer as well and ‘call it’ $80 after the case has been thrown out?

This is a lesson. Always demand payment up front. If someone isn’t willing to pay you in advance for your work, or at least in stages with milestones if it’s a big project, they aren’t worth your time.

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Yes, sometimes a potential client who refuses to pay up front would have paid you, but MOST of the time the result will be shit like this. It’s not worth the headaches, not worth the hassles, to deal with this shit and put up with drama like this, and you’ll end up wasting a ton of time and effort.

The solution is to just not start work until you get paid.

As a lawyer I constantly dealt with non-paying clients, and I hated it so much. The only clients who ever paid me were actually people with high credit scores, go figure. So I learned pretty quick that if you agree to work for someone without up front payment, you’re almost guaranteed to get fucked, and even if you do an amazing job and you win their case, they will usually still not pay you, because there is no urgency, no need. You’re simply too far down their list of priorities. That’s just how a lot of people are. –dekachin5

Some people just love cherry-picking.

This is why you ask for half payment beforehand.

That seems like something this guy would do, honestly.

That’s the only way to get back at the people who decide to use your hard work for free.

Definitely put the wrong amount of zeros in there.

We live and we learn.

Have you ever been in a similar situation? If so how did you deal with it? Comment down below and let us know.