Clients stonewalling / not paying after written promises and contracts. Is there a formal place to report clients or businesses who steal work and attempt to stiff small design agencies/individuals?

A client recently took a screen-capped proof of a file I was working on near its final form (shown only for display purposes and at 1/4 its official resolution), and is likely going to be passing it off as their own work next week at a conference. The enlarged pixelation will be hilarious, but it's a hollow victory after a LONG personal step-by-step 'over the shoulder' design phone call and 8+ hours of work.

They purposefully instructed me to make revisions on a copy that did not contain my official watermark. This wasn't red-flagging to me as I was only passing off partial screen-shots of the work to rapidly give them feedback. The files were never formally shared. At a down-graded 1/4 resolution, this massive image does not look professional enough in my opinion - but it was still enough for them to stop responding to my emails/calls. Is this common? I've never had someone ghost me on an official design project after working hard with me to get it finished. This cost them time and energy, even if I was doing the actual design work.

Is there any formal place to lodge complaints like this and make sure other designers know not to take jobs that aren't pre-paid with an org. like this?

Thanks.

Great design resource

100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People (Voices That Matter) Submitted February 03, 2017 at 06:48AM by Artesian http://ift.tt/2kYpRv3