>It does seem like something they could pay a web guy a few bucks to diagnose and fix, though. If they knew it would only be a few bucks from "a web guy" they

>It does seem like something they could pay a web guy a few bucks to diagnose and fix, though. If they knew it would only be a few bucks from "a web guy" they would likely be able to fix it themselves. I think it's seldom (never?) I'd actually want to go this route [partial payments along a project helps reduce how much I have at risk], but if I were considering such... rather than a blank page, perhaps a display that said something like "A database error occurred. Please contact developer of this site." That might help the site owner read the subtext ("Payment is way past due.") and not make visitors wonder, "Why isn't my Google working on your site today?"