2 Scenarios, 2 Design Firms: Fictitious Names, Real Situations

Scenario #1

We have a client who is a design firm. We’ll call them Apple Design. They have several of their client sites hosted on our server, and we’ve done the development work to support their designs. One of those clients, whom we’ll call Stuff Store, moved from Apple Design to another design firm. This design firm is owned by employees who used to work at Apple Design. We’ll call the second design firm Beta Design.

Beta Design contacted us, asking for access to Stuff Store’s website now that they’re the account of record. They cited permission from Stuff Store. Beta Design also asked that we tell them everything that had been done on the site for Stuff Store since they had last worked on the account, which they had done as employees of Apple Design.

We can’t give access to our server to Beta Design or Stuff Store. We also can’t give the information to Beta Design or Stuff Store about work that’s been done at any point.

Scenario #2

We worked as the developers on a project with Beta Design, completely unrelated to Stuff Store or Apple Design. Towards the end of the project, the URL owner, Education Agency, wanted us to put the site live, while Beta Design did not because final payment had not been received from the design firm they were subcontracted through, Creative Corner Design.

We can’t put the site live, despite the fact that Education Agency, the URL owner, had paid Creative Corner Design, despite the fact that we had been paid, and despite the fact that the work was completely done.

Why Not?
In both of these cases, the answer is exactly the same. The site owner was not our client. The design firm was. If the design firm’s name is on our contract, and the design firm is paying our invoices, the design firm is who our legal obligation is to.

In the first case, Apple Design is our client, in the second case Beta Design is our client. We can encourage either design firm to do what we think they should do, but ultimately, our legal obligation is to whomever paid our invoices.

The message here is to make sure you’re okay with how your contracts for these services are set up, whether you’re a design firm collaborating with another service provider, or you’re the end client.

I’m not a lawyer, so I don’t know the fine points of the law, or how these would end up if they became cases and went to court. In the second case, the issue got resolved, everyone got paid, and the site went live. In the first case, that’s still pending resolution, but I’m confident Stuff Store will ultimately be taken good care of as Apple Design and our firm will ensure that happens, regardless of the circumstances.

As you saw in one of my other blogs, Austin is a big city…I mean a small town. My experience with Apple Design is that they are committed to acting with integrity even when it’s not to their immediate monetary advantage. They value their reputation in the marketplace, as do we.