Law and Order: Blue Sky Designs

So yesterday I had a detective show TV moment. I had a client, back in May, who contacted me about needing a web site and needing it in 5 days. I accepted the job and completed it. I always ask for half up front, half upon completion. He sent me a check for less than half with the signed contract and I didn't say anything because I knew I was going to be finished in 5 days and would get the other half within the week.

Uh huh.

So I finish the $6,000 site, bill him for the remainder, and he suddenly decides he doesn't need one of the components he had asked for (one that cost $1000). I emailed him back and said sorry, you asked for it, you got it, you have to pay for it. And never heard back from him. So I waited a couple of weeks and yesterday I finally got mad about not receiving my final $4,200 and called him. His phone number had changed to a long distance number. So I called that number and it's been disconnected. Begin to see where I'm going with this?

So, I took the web site down, got the address he had given me for his office downtown and drove over there. My detective show TV moment came when I pulled up to the office and noticed there was no second story. His suite was listed as #204.

Sigh.

So I go in, feeling like the perp had given me the slip, and went into another office on that floor and asked if the address on my invoice was a legitimate address. She looked at me and said, "We don't have a second floor."

Uh-huh. Noticed that. What else can you tell me, maam?

But she did see the name of the company and managed to remember that it went under a different name and it was at the end of the hall, but he wasn't there today. Aha! An assumed name! I'm not surprised. I'm thinking, because I am in a detective TV show at the moment, that somewhere, a dirty bathroom window is banging shut as he slips away into an alley filled with drug addicts using secondhand needles and bums swilling cheap wine from plastic milk jugs.

I walk the long hall to the end office and push at the door but it was locked. If this had truly been a detective show I would have used my martial arts training and kicked down the door, but are you crazy, I'm a web designer for crying out loud, so I slid my business card under the door with a very stern "Call me immediately" note scrawled on the back. But then, because I don't pack heat and actually cannot kill a man with my thumb, I added, "I would appreciate it."

If I were a TV show, I would be canceled.

I left the building, squinting in the afternoon sun, and noticed my parking meter had run out. I felt no regret. Because that's the way I roll.