Am i in the wrong?

Originally Posted by 2ndT It was never agreed that the $40 was a non-refundable deposit. Give him his money back.

Tell me, what is the point of a fully refundable deposit? Also, it isnt his (the clients) money, the client paid him for work that the worker did and doesnt want it, its not the clients money. The better sentence would be

It was never agreed on that you would get paid for what you did if he went back on his word, give him your money back

Originally Posted by Village Idiot Tell me, what is the point of a fully refundable deposit?

I'll get my deposit back for the house I'm renting. What's the point? It's a sum of money which the landlord can keep if things go wrong. During the normal course of action, if (or when) I terminate the tenancy just because I no longer want to live there, I get the deposit back.

I fail to see why a designer's deposit should be any different, unless the contract says otherwise. Note that I'm talking about a deposit, and not about labour charges.

Unless I misread, there was no deposit between the topic start and the client. Just two payments one for the product and one for the time spent creating the product.

Originally Posted by Salathe I'll get my deposit back for the house I'm renting. What's the point? It's a sum of money which the landlord can keep if things go wrong. During the normal course of action, if (or when) I terminate the tenancy just because I no longer want to live there, I get the deposit back. I fail to see why a designer's deposit should be any different, unless the contract says otherwise. Note that I'm talking about a deposit, and not about labour charges. Unless I misread, there was no deposit between the topic start and the client. Just two payments one for the product and one for the time spent creating the product.

Where do you live? Because if i were to terminate the tenancy of a house or apartment around here i do not get my deposit back. i would be breaking the agreement and contract.

The guy agreed to buy the site, gave craddock 40$ for the site and said he will pay another 40$ for changes, craddock did all the work and then the guy backed out, craddock should keep the 40$ for the work he did.

Originally Posted by james.david Where do you live? Because if i were to terminate the tenancy of a house or apartment around here i do not get my deposit back. i would be breaking the agreement and contract. The guy agreed to buy the site, gave craddock 40$ for the site and said he will pay another 40$ for changes, craddock did all the work and then the guy backed out, craddock should keep the 40$ for the work he did.

Totally Agreed. Keep the $40, offer the client the original site "without changes" and see what he says. He may or may not want it. But in any case that he does not want it, you should still keep the $40, period.

Metaphorically speaking,
It's like taking your car in to the garage, asking for window tints, paid the money first for that. Then ask for gold wiper blades, and say you'll pay when thats done. When its done, the customer says, i dont want it anymore, give me my money back. The mechanics will turn around and say, "hell no!, you pay for what you requested."

In your case, the customer requested for changes, you did them, you should not give him anything anyway until he's paid for that. He cannot simply say, "no, i dont want it, give my money back and i will be on my way". Simply doesnt work like that.

Originally Posted by Village Idiot Tell me, what is the point of a fully refundable deposit?

Tell me, what is the point about arguing with someone over $40??

Can't possibly be about the money. If it is, you're charging too little for your time.

Can't be about the principle. There is no "principle" in having one party go away unhappy.

Again: if you run projects like a successful business instead of like a hobby, it seems clear the right path to take. Successful businesses do everything they can to make a customer happy, even if they know they're going to lose the customer in the end. You do it because even if you lose the customer, you don't want the customer talking bad about you to their buddies, creating a cloud over your future business prospects. If freelancing is just a hobby, you'll still have your day job.