What to do?

[Shadera]

I am trying to keep from having to post a bad BOI thread, but I am losing my patience with this person.

Here's a general background and timeline.

Person advertises that they do websites, so I contact them and they agree to do one for me. We agree on a price, $900, and I pay them that day. That was September 16th, 2008.

Cash is tight, so I tell them it'll be a while before I can get the site set up for them to work. They say no problem, let them know when I have it set up. I was not able to set up a site until December 17th. After some arguing back and forth about what he needed to access the parts he needed and telling me he wasn't gonna bump paying customers out of the way to do my site, I finally got him where he needed to be. January 13th, he got full access to my site, which I am not comfortable with but had to do if I want my site done.

So far a mockup page has been done with some items I sent copied and pasted on, but there's a long way to go still. I don't get updates unless I ask for them, and when I periodically check up on the database no new work has been done though I'm always told that a lot of work is on its way whenever I ask. I have to prod this person to get work out of them.

I sent an email last month telling them I've tried to be patient but I feel like I'm being treated with quite a bit of disrespect given the fact that I did pay this person to do the work and they are dragging their feet. They paid a few months of my hosting bill ($20-30?) which was nice of them but seriously. It doesn't make up for the attitude I've gotten at other times. And that was only after I mentioned I was leaning toward a BOI post.

I'm no web guru, but I've set up a few sites of my own. Could he not have used the months in between the time he was paid in full for his services and the time I got the site set up to actually work on the site? I'd already given him the okay on the graphics and he had the info he needed to rough it out but it seems like he waited until January to start anything. If this were just a friend doing me a favor I wouldn't be irritated, but I paid this guy nine hundred bucks and have nothing to show for it. Yet he had the gall to email me the other day asking about the price on an animal I have for sale, as if I'd give him a deep discount.

What would you guys do? I've had other guys that are doing reptile sites for small breeders say they'd have been done long ago for that amount of money. I am at the point where I'm about to just ask for my money back and find someone else to do the darn site. Am I unjustified? I don't want anyone else to have to go through this.

[Uroboros]

I'm doing the site for our local herp society, I rented some space from godaddy for $15 for 3 months, I set up the mock there and we are refining before we set it live.

It would help to know what kind of work is being done. Is it php or straight HTML? What kind of services did you request?

[Shadera]

Just to make sure it's not misunderstood, I'm not unhappy with the quality of the work done so far. The graphics could be a bit better but I'd just like to have the site done. (Example, there's a fairy that's so dark you can't see that she has wings, or the snakes have been cutout poorly and don't have a drop shadow/glow on them) It's just the amount of time things are taking. the promises that more will be done that night, then a week later nothing's been touched. That's happened several times now.

I'm not the first to have issues with this person I found out after I contracted him, but I won't pull the other person into this. If they want to post they're welcome to, but if not that's okay as well.

[DAND]

I am trying to keep from having to post a bad BOI thread, but I am losing my patience with this person.

Here's a general background and timeline.

Person advertises that they do websites, so I contact them and they agree to do one for me. We agree on a price, $900, and I pay them that day. That was September 16th, 2008.

Cash is tight, so I tell them it'll be a while before I can get the site set up for them to work. They say no problem, let them know when I have it set up. I was not able to set up a site until December 17th. After some arguing back and forth about what he needed to access the parts he needed and telling me he wasn't gonna bump paying customers out of the way to do my site, I finally got him where he needed to be. January 13th, he got full access to my site, which I am not comfortable with but had to do if I want my site done.

So far a mockup page has been done with some items I sent copied and pasted on, but there's a long way to go still. I don't get updates unless I ask for them, and when I periodically check up on the database no new work has been done though I'm always told that a lot of work is on its way whenever I ask. I have to prod this person to get work out of them.

I sent an email last month telling them I've tried to be patient but I feel like I'm being treated with quite a bit of disrespect given the fact that I did pay this person to do the work and they are dragging their feet. They paid a few months of my hosting bill ($20-30?) which was nice of them but seriously. It doesn't make up for the attitude I've gotten at other times. And that was only after I mentioned I was leaning toward a BOI post.

I'm no web guru, but I've set up a few sites of my own. Could he not have used the months in between the time he was paid in full for his services and the time I got the site set up to actually work on the site? I'd already given him the okay on the graphics and he had the info he needed to rough it out but it seems like he waited until January to start anything. If this were just a friend doing me a favor I wouldn't be irritated, but I paid this guy nine hundred bucks and have nothing to show for it. Yet he had the gall to email me the other day asking about the price on an animal I have for sale, as if I'd give him a deep discount.

What would you guys do? I've had other guys that are doing reptile sites for small breeders say they'd have been done long ago for that amount of money. I am at the point where I'm about to just ask for my money back and find someone else to do the darn site. Am I unjustified? I don't want anyone else to have to go through this.

If you are not happy with what is being done then he should make it right. What jumped out at me was the bolded/underlined part of your post. I would think that paying $900 would put you in the category of a "paying customer". It shouldn't take the hint or threat of the BOI for this person to get off their butt and do the work they were paid for.

I would inform this person that you want the agreed upon work completed by a certain date or an immediate refund of your money.

[John E Dove]

I would agree with Mr. Gruning, you are a paying customer and if he is not providing the service you have already paid for get your money back and move on to someone more reliable.
As for what I do, my wife has a long list of letters attached to her name after her computer science degree. She is also the Web Mistress and head IT Tech for a local college so I let her do our work and buy server space from a colleague of hers.

[Shadera]

I appreciate the responses. I think what this whole experience has taught me is to next time just get off my butt and do it myself. :yesnod:

[Mooing Tricycle]

Or at least research your web designer! Sorry youre having such a rough time of things....

[Tiger Lilly]

Don't we have a section here where we can post consumer reviews? Isn't that section supposed to be out BOI for everything else not reptile related? Please post him there (if that's within the rules) so the rest of us know who to steer clear of.