[Mercy Design]

Hi there.
A friend of ours commissioned a large agency to brand his company & build his website for a large figure. The job was manage extremely unsatisfactorily and the client has now withheld payment and begun legal proceedings. In the meantime, the agency, who have all log-in details for the website have taken it upon themselves to write expletives all over the homepage. The client has no access to the site and this is having a disastrous effect on his business.
Does anyone know if there's anything we can do to access this site?

Thanks so much for your help.

Gemma

gemmagermains@mercyonline.co.uk

[MulaG]

Oh dear that sounds very nasty Did the agency set up the hosting? If so there isn't really anything you can do about it I'm afraid.

[Boss Hog]

Originally Posted by Mercy Design

the agency, who have all log-in details for the website have taken it upon themselves to write expletives all over the homepage.

Sounds pretty unprofessional whatever the situation, e-mail the company that provided the hosting asking them to take it down, although they will probably ask for a letter from the courts before they do.

Surely this is libelous if this is your clients domain and business name, make sure you get screen grabs etc of what they are doing and speak to a solicitor.

What's the domain so we can take a look and advise further, PM the URL if you prefer.

[Mercy Design]

Commercial Litigation Solicitors | Connell Associates Solicitors

there's the url for the company.

Boss- thanks for the screen grab advice- it's the simple things that one sometimes forgets!

Gemma
Mercy : Design Agency, Literature & Arts Collective : London / Liverpool : UK

[Boss Hog]

I notice the domain is registered to Connell Associates at their address via Fasthosts, so at least they seem to own it, do they have access to the domain via their Fasthosts control panel or did said company register it on their behalf?

You need to contact fasthosts get access to your domain account and then stop re-directing to the actual website that has been designed....wherever that may be hosted.

You can then just put up a holding page with contact information and website coming soon etc whilst they sort this mess out.

Hope that helps

[Mercy Design]

Boss, thank you so much, that's unbelievably helpful!
This situation is absolutely disgusting, especially considering the size of the company & their client list.
I'll keep you updated on how the situation pans out- its so unusual to hear of an agency behaving this way- makes a nice change from us all bitching about nightmare clients I suppose.

gem
Mercy : Design Agency, Literature & Arts Collective : London / Liverpool : UK

[Boss Hog]

Who was the agency?

[TheOnlinePrintCompany]

Yes name and shame them. We all want to know about bad businesses and this sounds like an absolutely disgraceful way of treating a customer.

[Minuteman Press]

Speachless. Shocking. Never seen anything like it.

I would certainly name and shame.

I hope things work out.

[Katedesign]

I'd phone Fasthosts tell them what's happened.

Appalling behaviour. I've known Webdesigners to pull sites off the web but not to behave so shabbily!