4 replies to this topic

[Peprmint]

My company was just hired by a company who asked that we redesign their site and take over their social media and bookmarking accounts.

Problem. They did not allow me to have access, prior to notifying their current company, in order for me to secure these sites.

Needless to say, the previous company changed all the passwords and will not give them access.

Has anyone ever had to deal with this? Can they do this?

Thank you for your help.

[Jill]

Has anyone ever had to deal with this? Can they do this?

Obviously they can if they did!

Other than contacting them directly which you should of course do, you're other recourse would be to take legal action.

[Peprmint]

Obviously they can if they did!

Other than contacting them directly which you should of course do, you're other recourse would be to take legal action.

Obviously! lol

I will of course be contacting them, but in the meantime, I was just wondering if there was a law prohibiting this.

I'm still putting the puzzle together, as they may have a "good reason" to be holding them.

Thanks anyway Jill. Have a nice day.

[mporgsoft]

Have you done a forgot password and see if the email addresses attched to the accounts are in control of the company or not?

Also, probably dig deeper and see if the company ever really owned the accounts or the hired company were using their own accounts to market for their client.

[Catz]

All too often companies do not know enough to keep control over their own site and now social networking content.

Many times designers (or those working on social networking for a company) register company websites/accounts under their personal name or account, leaving the companies in troublesome situations just like the one you described.

This is often done with domain name registration as well. This can really leave a company in a rut when they change employees/contractors handling their online marketing.

They did not allow me to have access, prior to notifying their current company, in order for me to secure these sites.

Lesson learned, they will certainly know better next time. Someone in the actual company needs their information related to the account to avoid these type issues. You can't just blindly trust that someone will be honest or do the right thing these days, always have a back-up plan just in case.

Perhaps they have been burned in the past and are holding the passwords to ensure they are paid for work they have done up to this point. Thats pretty dirty of them if they don't give it up once payment for services rendered has been received.

One good thing about the internet, you can post your experience with this company online, letting other potential clients know what they did and what to expect if they work with them in the future. They will know better from the start and make sure their information is included when the accounts are set up, so they can get access to change passwords on their own if they need to.