Need Review : Client is bullying me

Sorry to hear you're going through this. I won't comment on design or stack, as key here is the fact that the client has reviewed and approved it. If you have written proof for that, the client has no grounds for a case and if they seriously want to go for it, you don't need to worry about it.

It seems like the relationship is burned anyway so you could turn the case around and send your invoice and invoice reminders based on that approval and you don't even need to be shy about adding a dunning charge or interest on the invoice sum if they reject payment (IANAL so check your legal options first). There are even companies that buy your account receivables and take over collection as a business model...

I agree with everything @digitalbreed said. The client relationship is burned. You won't get more work, not do you want it, from this person or their friends.

A lot of people to"threaten legal action" without any real understanding of the law. Until you get a letter on a, legitimate, lawyers letterhead I'd consider it empty threats and bullying. In fact, I'd suggest people who actually take legal action are generally calmer and make statements like "if we cannot come to agreement as stated in the contract I'll be forced to pursue legal action".

My suggestion is "once the outstanding bill is settled I'll be happy to discuss additional work, and may even be able to discount the rates, but I cannot do anything further while I haven't been paid for the work thus far".

Depending on your location/jurisdiction it may be relatively cheap to take out the person to small claims court. I've certainly had people "threaten to sue" but as soon as I've filed a small claims case they pay up and go away.

@digitalbreed @Lakebed_io @jkristobans Thank you for the suggestions. So I've received the full payment already. It's been a month. He's threatening me to reverse the payment and file a case on me.

I believed he got pissed because said no to work for free. Client requested multiple iteration on the website's approved design and that's when 70% of the website was already coded. I agreed to do the revisions in the name of client satisfaction, tried to trade few features with new iterations and did good enough extra work too. But client's expectation and demand kept on changing or growing. Like now client is saying that I didn't gave him an SEO panel (cms to modify everything on the website). It's a custom website and all I promised him in the contract was ability to post blog posts and collect contact form submission. I communicated all these thing during my sales call and they agreed but now they are denying everything. After so many revisions and time they paid me $50 extra only and now they are claiming that I overcharged and delivered a shit website.

BTW the client is from US and I'm from Delhi. client says he has a legal connects in Delhi and he'll come after me. In India there's this notion that US/UK people respect other's effort and pay well for it. But this guy completely broke this notion, at least for me.

Guys please drop a website review here. It'll be helpful for me to show concerned people that this is not a shit website. It's a decent website for $1550, designed and developed from scratch.