Breach of contract issue?

[GinaB]

I paid a website company to build an ecommerce site. He offered me a couple solutions one being that I pay X dollars up front and they will get 5% of my sales for 3 years. With the 3 years the contract included no monthly hosting, management of site, search engine optimization, Advertizing campaign, email and gateway setup. <br />
Since the economy has been bad, sales on my site have been maybe 1-2 sales per month, which is not generating anycommision for him. He is now stating that I need to start paying him monthly hosting fee's at 99.00 per month or if I don't then I owe him XX amount of money and he'll shut the site down. But we signed a contract that states no monthly fee's regardless if the site makes money or not. And on top of that they never did the other items they promised in the contract. Is this a Breach of COntract? DO I need a lawyer?<br />
Contract Option states Cost for Website and above items (SEO, advertising, email etc) XXX.xx. SiteMaster will receive 15% of each sale until $XXX.xx commission is met after the $XXX.xx commission has been met then a percentage drops to 5%. The percentage contract option covers monthly hosting and management costs as well. With this option your only up front cost is $XXX.xx, no monthly fee's ; contract period 3 years.<br />

 

[CraigR]

The contract isn't breached until he shuts you down. He can threaten to shut you down all he wants.

Sometimes it helps to have a lawyer write a letter on their letterhead that explains your position to the other party. This will cost you a little bit but might get him to stop making threats and promise not to cut you off before three years.

However, you should have a contingency plan for the end of three years because he's going to pull your plug as soon as he can.

The other benefit of visiting a lawyer is to make sure you're reading your contract right.

 

[armychick_2001]

Once he shuts you down, he will be in breach. Be sure you have hard copies of everything before he shuts you down.

Technically, he is in breach already, since he was supposed to perform other services and has not done this. Did you contract any dates for these services? Perhaps sales would have been better, had he fulfilled his part of the bargain.

You will definitely need a lawyer, hopefully one with e-retail experience.

Should you want another website with similar services, I highly recommend this one