Client doesn't want to pay a project because I used a code generator

Question

The whole situation seems bullshit to me, but I want a second opinion because it's going too far.

A bit of context... I'm a freelancer, I write in VBA or c#. 75% of the projects are microprojects in Excel.

In the years I built my own library and a code generator. The code generator writes some semi-standard class and methods. Stuff that has a structure but often needs manual adjustment for the final version. In order to have modular code where I can manually modify some parts and still regenerate other parts without losing the changes, the generator uses tags to wrap each "part" and when I deliver the work I don't delete them.

The client was genuinely happy after I deliver the project (all the set phrases, "now we'll do this other ..." etc.). Some days later I receive an email where he asks what these <Sometag> lines were. I replied with the truth. Tags used by a code generator to find specific parts of the code. He was interested in VBA so I thought that an insightful explanation was appreciated.

A week later I send him the invoice and the next day he replied that since I've not actually written the work the price agreed was no longer valid. Now he wants to pay less than half of the agreed price. (???)

But the worksheet still does what it's supposed to do. The code generator is mine. I wrote every line and there are hundreds of hours of work in it.

What should I do? Is it unfair to use such a tool? Does the client have any point? On this project, there are 9.5k lines of code approx. 3k from my library, approx. 4k from the generator and the remaining handwritten. I agree that this is not a very descriptive code, but it's neither so bad code IMO. In the contract, (but also via email and voice call) we never agreed or even spoken on anything about the form of code. He told me that he and his employees tried to do something like this and the result was not working.

My biggest concern in pushing back too hard is that he could write a negative review on Google MyBusiness. I've never been in a situation like this and I don't want my reputation be compromised for a relatively small project. The compensation involved isn't high enough to warrant legal action either.

Answer 1

Collection Agency. He is not a client but a problem, and those "clients" basically are not worth your effort. Invoice, proceed this to a collection agency ASAP to get rid of it mentally. He has no point. How you do something is YOUR decision, not his.

Answer 2

What should I do? Do you think it's unfair to use such a tool?

If I were you, I'd explain to the client how using the code generator you crafted allows you to deliver great, but inexpensive, solutions that meet customers' needs. And I'd point out that the solution provided clearly meets this client's needs, given how happy they were initially.

I might offer to tear up the invoice if the client doesn't want the solution at the current price, and promises in writing to discard it and lose their license to use it. That's a particularly effective remedy if you expect that the client would need maintenance from you at some point down the road. You don't want to keep servicing an unhappy client.

Does the client have any point?

No, the client doesn't have a valid point. Since the client got what they contracted for, they should pay the agreed-upon price. It shouldn't matter how the code came to be constructed.

That said, you might avoid future problems if you discuss your process with future clients before signing the contract.

the generator uses tags to wrap each "part" and when I deliver the work I don't delete them.

You might want to reconsider the "don't delete them" part.

My biggest concern for a "hard" solution is that he writes a negative review. I've never been in a situation like this and I don't want my reputation be compromised for a relatively small project.

You get to decide how much a potential negative review is worth to you.

Answer 3

Tell the client that if the project was written from scratch, it would have taken much longer, had more bugs, and never be delivered on time. Now, how would he like to pay? Credit card or Check?

And, that's your last communication with him. The contract was to produce a solution to a problem he had, within a budget and a timescale. You did that - your mistake was being courteous enough to explain your process.

You don't need clients like this. If you have a contract, go for small claims court, and get paid. If you don't, then you may have to write this off - next time get a contract (note: if you write it off, make sure that your attorney tells the client that they do not have any license to use the software you wrote for them)

Answer 4

For some reason people have this notion that only marginal costs are real, not capital costs. You see this attitude everywhere from pharmaceuticals to retention and recruitment. It’s a strange attitude, but a common one.

And it is consistently wrong.

Have a lawyer friend? Legal action could simply be a demand letter.

Answer 5

As a Freelancer you don't give any wiggle room to these sorts of thing. Keep it short and professional and demand payment. Don't get into a discourse over it. Just re-send the invoice with a short note that it's already been negotiated, you have fulfilled your side and expect payment, and if they just flat refuse to pay you for the work done, please let you know.

Then give it some time, if no payment within a reasonable timeframe, then you can look at what steps to take.

Don't get frustrated and don't jump in guns blazing, do this first before anything else. Many people try to dodge paying, you get used to it as a freelancer.

Answer 6

If he thinks you've "cheated", perhaps rather than a "code generator", a better description would be that you "compiled from a custom description language" or "compiled from a graphical tool". When you use an electric plane or a CNC machine, you hardly call it a "woodwork generator".

Is his real grievance perhaps that you haven't turned over the real source code for future maintenance? It's possible the client is just being unreasonable, but a much more credible (and reasonable) commercial concern could be that you have tied the work to your proprietary tool, without letting the client have the tool for maintenance.

A good analogy would be if the client asked you to design a combustion engine, but rather than using metric standard bolts and threads, you used some obscure system entirely of your own devising which makes it prohibitively expensive to maintain the engine in future without the client referring back to you.

You may have had no underhand intention in using your custom tool and it was simply a device to improve your productivity, but it is not unusual that tool-generated code is more complex or less idiomatic than hand-crafted code.

The client may well take the view that unless you make the generating tool available to him, then whatever time you saved creating the code with this tool, is going to cost him in future in lock-in costs for maintenance, or the cost of rewriting the application from scratch when he wants someone else to modify it. Is it possible that this is the real nature of the grievance?

Answer 7

No, the customer does not have a point, and no, you haven't done anything wrong. You delivered the product the customer requested at the price that the customer thought was reasonable. How you accomplished creating the product is utterly irrelevant.

What you could do to smooth the customer over is explain that all software is developed using tools... compilers, libraries, code generators, etc. All tools to make creating software more efficient, just as a carpenter who does home remodeling has tools that makes his work more efficient. The fact that you use tools has already been factored in the price you quoted the customer. If you did not use a code generator, you'd have to charge more to cover the increased cost.

Answer 8

Keep it short and honest....

The price I quoted included using the code generator. Had I not used the code generator I would have had to charge more for the project. If there is something not satisfactory with the result let me know and we can discuss a resolution.

Also consider the possibility that he has a legitimate beef with generated code. For instance, perhaps the code is not easy to change.

Answer 9

As the client (and knowing how software development works), I would want to be able to hand your delivery to another company next year, and let that company make changes or additions, at a normal price.

So if what you deliver makes that unusually hard, then the customer has a point. If it is not much harder because of your tools then no. And that you used tools to develop more efficiently is not a reason not to pay.

But what really matters is what the contract says. If you delivered what the contract says, the client needs to pay.

Answer 10

There seems to be a lack of communication at the start. If the customer wanted an easily editable base code to change to his choosing, and to learn a bit of VB for himself, then he and you were both in ignorance of each other's intentions.

Some code generators give very verbose and illegible code, so i don't know why people comment without even seeing the code, or the work request... if he said "because i am designing my own code / project integrated with your work" for example... We don't know the sum agreed and the volume of work. He may have signed the agreement and price based on coding his own work manually, i.e. he expected more work done and a manual result. Personally I would warn a client the details of a code generator if he is a junior programmer without much money who need editable code.

There are too many variables and unknowns in this question to write off the client as a faceless mischievous entity, we dont even have a transcript of the complaint reason, or the code request. What was the number of lines and the price? 100 or 10000? I was surprised that nobody considers if the client has a human side to tell or if he has emotions or is a junior individual or a group, else this is a one sided judgement.

Answer 11

I will not attempt a direct answer at the question since you already have plenty of good advice here (personally I see a client grabbing at any reason they can think of to not paying. Had it not been the code generator, he'd find some other excuse).

My advice for the future, however, is, to employ a "Free trial for 30 days, then you have to enter a license key to continue to use" scheme in your code products.
By 30 days I, of course, mean "The time it takes to get paid", not exactly 30 days.

Now, if the client complains... they have no point!
You get a full-functioning trial to do user-acceptance testing on and verify fit for duty.
When, if, you pay up, the contract obliges me to give you a license key... which I will, of course.
You don't pay up and try to shill me?! Hope you enjoyed seeing how useful my application is to you, how much you could benefit from it... had you only paid.

If you can, technically, I would say go one step further and, when the trial is over and no license has been provided, wait, say 3 days, and then trigger a complete uninstall/delete of your product's code from target machine.
You don't want the client reverse-engineering their way to a valid license and not paying you what you're owed.

Just make sure your lawyer makes all this legal in the contract.
You know, "legalise" to "The coded product is the sole property of ToninCorp, up to the point where agreed-upon compensation has been delivered by the client to ToninCorp, at which point ownership of product transfers automatically to the client.
This does not entitle the client to maintenance services by ToninCorp without further compensation".

I'm sorry you got swindled. It's shit and it happens to each of us, even the most guarded ones.
Get what you're owed at all costs.
One bad review is bad, true. Getting a name for being a push-over is a career-ender!
There's a reason the mob doesn't let anyone off the hook, even if they stole a stick of gum! If you get the name of someone that can be bullied and taken advantage of... those will be the only clients coming your way.
It's a spiral of career demise.
Just don't!

Answer 12

This question is unanswerable

Why? Because we haven't seen the contract. If we don't know what the contract was (names redacted of course), we cannot possibly know whether you met its requirements.

For example:

1. What was the maintenance agreement?

2. What access to the code was agreed upon?

3. What free support over what period of time did you offer?

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If you fulfilled the contract to the letter, then they are bound to pay. If you didn't then you must provide that extra service or expect them to pay less.

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He told me that he and his employees tried to do something like this and the result was not working

You don't say whether this should work, or whether you have tried to support them in getting it to work. If new code written by the customer is supposed to work according to the terms of the contract, and it doesn't because of a fault in your code, or lack of documentation, then you need to fix it. If you merely provided the code as a package to be used purely as-is, then they have no right to complain that they can't modify it. They can however complain if it doesn't do the job specified.