Empty Promises from my Coder, who is a nice guy so I feel bad to push it?

Well I've been trying to get a Digg like clone script up, and I hired a programmer

We spoke by phone and he was a very nice guy and knew his stuff so I was more than happy to let him take the job.

I finished the design (did all the html, and image work) and basically sent it over to him to code the backend to.

He quoted me about 40 hours, and $700 for the project. I paid half of it upfront since it was my first time working with him and I got burned hard once at RentaCoder so I was a bit reluctant to do the entire fee upfront.

Anyways....

It's been a month, and I haven't seen anything yet. We speak sometimes by MSN and by phone, but he's usually busy.

I realize he has a lot on his plate, and he's had some things in his personal life which take away from his personal life...

But the thing is, he usually promises me to show a beta, 2 weeks ago a beta would be done on wednsday, and then that following weekend. Nothing.

I then asked if I could see a beta this weekend, and he said yes. I needed to see something...a month is much too long for me to be staring at a flatfile

Ive been trying to contact him this weekend, yesterday I messaged him and got no replies. I assumed he was busy and finishing up the beta or something.

Well it's Sunday afternoon, and I can't find him. Tried phoning him, and no one was there so I left a message.

I have a magazine interview coming up and I really wanted to be able to show this, but unfortunately that doesn't look possible now...

What should I do? Any advice?

 

Learn a lesson?

He could easily be scamming you. Pay by Paypal next time or something (if you did this time, file a dispute in a couple days if nothing)

 

I did pay by paypal

The thing is the guy does good work, I've seen it...it's just taking way too long and I feel like I'm getting the run-around

 

i think SVZ doesn't care the money much, he want his project to be done ontime..

i really think there is nothing you can do right now, all you can do is keep call/msn him...sorry to hear that

 

Right on ahkip, money isn't the issue...

I just wanna see my site Lol it's like my baby.

The programmer is a really nice and amazing guy...I just worry that he has too much on his plate right now?

 

There are several clones of Digg available on the web for *free*. You can use it for now (or perhaps all the time). All you gotta do is, Google for "Digg clone".

 

I realize

I should say it's....Digg similar, the ones that I looked like are nothing like what i had designed

I should stress that this programmer is really nice...which is why I feel bad doing this, but I want to see my site done soon.

 

I concur. He is a really super guy. I really want to work with him. But I also have a project I am waiting for.

I cannot express enough how clean and smooth his sites in his portfolio run.

But I am having the same problem as SVZ.

 

I know how it is to be into your programmer's skin. He probably took many projects at once and now he can't handle the work. Been there, done that. What a hell it was!.. I suggest you try and talk to the guy, tell him that you're not going to pay the other half if he's not puting it on his priority list. Hopefully what he's done until now is worth the first half that you paid. Finding another good programmer to finish up the work for the remaining $350 shouldn't be that hard..

 

RentACoder might have burned you but its very safe in this kind of case...

- You would have put you project in Arbitration and simply won coz he did'nt uploaded work on dead-line.

- Incase he is not responding you or not replying you, you Still won and got your money back!

---- I am also a Coder on RAC and feel that buyers are very safe there -----

anyways... wish you get your job done ASAP

 

Oh I got work on RentaCoder years ago

What happened was the coder hacked some free software and just put some new images on it. I tried arbitration but because it was "done" I couldnt' do anything about it and they didn't care. The thing was a piece of crap and couldn't work unless you installed like 10 additional libraries.

 

I have been on both sides of the picture on this one... What I would do is this...

1. Contact your programmer and let him/her know you will be requesting a refund via PayPal
2. Request the refund.
3. Inform your programmer that you would be more than happy to pay him the entire amount once the project is done and only if it done by the new deadline.

Perhaps this will be enuf to wake him up. You never know...

From the sounds of it, you really like this guy, but it is not fair to you that you have to suffer just because you think he does good work... Business is business and time is money and with no money comes no business, so then where are YOU left standing?

Just my 2 cents...

 

After everything else fails and you are sure that you got ripped off, you should let him know that you will be starting lots of forum threads about this all over the internet. Maybe this will wake him up?

 

i hate programmers, 80% exaggerate delivery dates

i have a digg clone tho. i can send it over if u pm me. just the author of the post, coz i dont want to get swamped

 

I find it hard to believe a reputable programmer would take a 40 hr job for $700! That would be a big red flag for me. The minimum I would expect to pay from would be about $50/hr or $2,000 for that size project.

 

I was in the same boat a few months ago. I hired a programmer for $2k to do a job that he quoted me 1 1/2 months of work. It took him nearly 4 months to finish it and it was a terrible job. I'd push it, and if you get a bad result, back out before its too late.

 

Hmm. I've been that kind of programmer. In fact, right now I'm posting on DP while a client taps her foot impatiently.

I have to say that I have had clients who have withdrawn work. Because I was honestly overworked and wanted the client to come back to me someday, I was totally polite about it. However, the clients were very nice to me, too. They never tried to withdraw money that had already been used by me to cover hours of work. They never went online & badmouthed me. They just said, "sounds like you're really busy, we've got another guy, we'll get back to you later." And I said OK. And they did come back.

If your nice programmer is truly too busy and truly is a good guy, he will understand. Ask him for everything he's done thus far, and work out the money accordingly (if he did about as much work as you deposited money, then call it even). If he doesn't turn over the work, assume there is none, and get a refund politely.

Losing jobs is a good way for a developer to get the point.

-Tony

 

Well it's been another week and no contact.

I phoned him up and he said he was busy and would call me back in half an hour.

Well he didn't.

I'm starting to get really irritated as I feel like he's avoiding me, I'd like to be in the loop. I don't want to find out information through his other clients!!!!

 

I'm with SonicReducer, the hourly fee seems way too low. Something doesn't sound right.

Brian

 

Hire someone else and cut him off. I'm sure he'll understand.

Uh....do you guys live in the real world?