When is a programmer just taking to long?

[Network23]

I looked long and hard for someone to make some modifications to phpmotion.
I looked at Craigslist, found companys that had junk for examples, one company who sounded good I found just outsourced it to India. No thanks padding an extra $2000.
I wound up deciding to go with scriptlance, I posted the project, out of all the bids I picked a programmer with over 70, 10 star reviews, they wern't small low cost stuff, but hundreds and thousands of dollar projects.
I picked him, he wanted to do a 40/40/20, 40% to start, 40% at the 50% mark, and the 20% on completion, I had no problem with that, he was well reviewed.
Everything went fine, I gave him the bid on 3/16, I paid right away, he started a few days later, all was looking good, he changed the video player and was online, he communicated with me, on 4/6 he asked for the 50% mark payment, it was looking good, it was going as I wanted the site to look and start to function.
That is when communication really ended, a couple weeks would go past, and I would email him on what the status is... He would say I have some stuff coming up this weekend, and I wouldn't hear anything, I would let a week and a half go or 2 weeks, and I would have to ask again.
I had been very patient, last month on 5/28 he said one part of it was 98% complete, I sent an email about a month ago telling him I am concerned, he isnt communicating with me... I am also loosing free advertising through a friend which has to do with the site I am working on.... I sent him another email, no response..
Today I sent a text to ask him what is going on, no response.
I feel my only option at this point is to find another programmer, ask him for a refund of the difference... This was a $2000 project, he is owed $400 on completion, if someone can do it in $400 great... If they want $600-1000 I will ask him for the refunded difference, or take him to small claims court.
I wanted to hire an American, out of all the bids, they were all overseas, I lost my old tech support jobs to India, he was in California like I am, I got screwed I think.
So we are coming up on 4 months, he hasn't even gotten to the OpenX integration and I feel there is no end in sight and he isn't responding to emails or logging into Yahoo. I think I have been fair but hit my limit.
There was no reason to doubt his work, hundreds and thousands of dollar projects, 70+ reviews and all were 10 stars, I am not sure why I fell through the cracks.
One of his excuses was the flu for a week... OK I can understand that, his next excuse was a divorce, again, I can understand that, I have had my bad days, but I just want my damn site done.
I am open to comments, questions and criticism, his bid was 14 days, avg was 30-45 days, max 60.
I am saddened, he has me by the balls.

[Network23]

I called him: His voice mail isn't set up. I couldn't leave a message.

[maborakprogrammer]

loading...........


sorry for you my friend:
1.- NEVER release partial payments. programmer who want partial payment and the project is not completed 100% is a SCAMMER. simple.
2.- Create 100% Escrow and ONLY release when the project is completed 100%.


connection closed.

[esolz]

Feel poor about you my friend
You should not release any amount until you think you are 100% satisfied. Thats the good thing about escrow, the coder is also safe and you too

Try to make good the losses and contact SL contact to help you (if they can)
You paid them using escrow right ? or atleast using SL. Then they might be able to help you

[jtraher]

Originally Posted by Network23

I looked long and hard for someone to make some modifications to phpmotion.
I looked at Craigslist, found companys that had junk for examples, one company who sounded good I found just outsourced it to India. No thanks padding an extra $2000.
I wound up deciding to go with scriptlance, I posted the project, out of all the bids I picked a programmer with over 70, 10 star reviews, they wern't small low cost stuff, but hundreds and thousands of dollar projects.
I picked him, he wanted to do a 40/40/20, 40% to start, 40% at the 50% mark, and the 20% on completion, I had no problem with that, he was well reviewed.
Everything went fine, I gave him the bid on 3/16, I paid right away, he started a few days later, all was looking good, he changed the video player and was online, he communicated with me, on 4/6 he asked for the 50% mark payment, it was looking good, it was going as I wanted the site to look and start to function.
That is when communication really ended, a couple weeks would go past, and I would email him on what the status is... He would say I have some stuff coming up this weekend, and I wouldn't hear anything, I would let a week and a half go or 2 weeks, and I would have to ask again.
I had been very patient, last month on 5/28 he said one part of it was 98% complete, I sent an email about a month ago telling him I am concerned, he isnt communicating with me... I am also loosing free advertising through a friend which has to do with the site I am working on.... I sent him another email, no response..
Today I sent a text to ask him what is going on, no response.
I feel my only option at this point is to find another programmer, ask him for a refund of the difference... This was a $2000 project, he is owed $400 on completion, if someone can do it in $400 great... If they want $600-1000 I will ask him for the refunded difference, or take him to small claims court.
I wanted to hire an American, out of all the bids, they were all overseas, I lost my old tech support jobs to India, he was in California like I am, I got screwed I think.
So we are coming up on 4 months, he hasn't even gotten to the OpenX integration and I feel there is no end in sight and he isn't responding to emails or logging into Yahoo. I think I have been fair but hit my limit.
There was no reason to doubt his work, hundreds and thousands of dollar projects, 70+ reviews and all were 10 stars, I am not sure why I fell through the cracks.
One of his excuses was the flu for a week... OK I can understand that, his next excuse was a divorce, again, I can understand that, I have had my bad days, but I just want my damn site done.
I am open to comments, questions and criticism, his bid was 14 days, avg was 30-45 days, max 60.
I am saddened, he has me by the balls.

Take him to court. He is not delivering goods as promised.

[esolz]

Originally Posted by jtraher

Take him to court. He is not delivering goods as promised.

If it was always so easy to do so, we would have filled a lot of them against many webmasters (from other freelancing sites too) to pay

[tiby]

Originally Posted by maborakprogrammer

loading...........


sorry for you my friend:
1.- NEVER release partial payments. programmer who want partial payment and the project is not completed 100% is a SCAMMER. simple.
2.- Create 100% Escrow and ONLY release when the project is completed 100%.


connection closed.

Not necessarily. As a programmer, it feels better if, after some work, the approximate equivalent is released from the total escrow fund. (for projects like yours with $2000 budget)

However, I partially agree with maborak: if it's the case of a big-budget project and you agree to release a part of the payment, try doing it only if the work done is equivalent to or more then partial payment. This way, even if you do get into a situation like this, you'll still be better off then you are now.