Ripped off

[rapido]

Just out of curiosity how many of us have been ripped off?
I got ripped once, buy a guy who wanted a mod_mime archive script for his phpBB.

It was only $20 but it was the cheek of him to ask for support with it all the way till it worked perfect and then disappeared.

[tdadigital]

Similar story here also, except we weren’t ripped off without being paid, just a large pain in the backside. This lady wanted us to install these “free” scripts in her website, which we did, but made it very clear in our proposal that we were not going to be responsible for debugging any mistakes or revisions she may want for the price we quoted.

Well of course when we finished, she was unhappy and expected us to correct all the mistakes that accompanied these “free” scripts. Basically over the course of three days and dozens of e-mails and hours of Yahoo Messenger IMs, she finally gave in and admitted that “Nothing In Life Is Free”!

[FXWIZPRO]

Just out of curiosity how many of us have been ripped off?
I got ripped once, buy a guy who wanted a mod_mime archive script for his phpBB.

It was only $20 but it was the cheek of him to ask for support with it all the way till it worked perfect and then disappeared.

I have had some problems in this area, one time last year a fellow, asked for a mock up in FLASH, once provided; he disappears with the SWF file, then later posts a project for an FLA file to fix the SWF file he took without awarding the project, what was somewhat funny was that he was complaining about how the SWF file did not work correctly,

I posted a message letting him know that the SWF file did not work correctly because of a security program that was embedded inside the SWF file, ( in case someone takes the SWF file without paying for it) he promptly disappeared again and I have not seen him around since then) probably under a different name now.

The sad part about this is that I don’t feel comfortable spending time embedding extra security in a mockup just so that I wont be ripped off, so I generally don’t provide them any longer unless the webmaster is serious about what they want and not just wanting to have all kinds of nice examples provided free of charge.

Part of this problem is that most webmasters just do not realize that this is work, you don’t just wave a magic wand and come up with great programming, it takes time effort and experience, in order to provide a good service, I don’t know how many times I have seen projects posted with the title

(Really simple if you know what you are doing)
(Fast and simple fix if you know how)
(Quick and simple for the right programmer)

If it were really that simple to program databases and they really understood what they were asking would they be posting how easy the project is?

I guess we all know that there is a problem with communication among programmers and webmasters, that is just a fact, I guess that is why you see so many projects posted that ask for many different services for a very small budget.

While we are on this topic, I have also noticed how some webmasters don’t seem to realize that pooling several different services in one project is not really an acceptable practice, you see it all the time in posted projects, you are likely to see a project that describes what the webmaster wants then at the bottom they ask for a password script to be added that is really a membership management script to be included in the project and then they have a maximum budget of $20.

I don’t mind doing a little extra work to get the job and make some money, but really I wish that it could be better understood that asking for extra services to be included in the project is not an acceptable practice to many programmers and while we all realize that this is part of the job, it would be nice to work in an environment where everyone was more informed about standard practices.

I personally commend the staff for creating this forum it will go a long way in helping webmasters and programmers communicate more effectively while providing the right atmosphere for growth and understanding among scriptlance users.

[rapido]

I never provide mark ups.

I'm not going to do 2 hours work, on the off chance that I might get a job for $20.

I might link to a demo of an existing script, I have that the client wants but that's easy to link to.

[goldprog]

I got ripped off about 2 months ago. The sum was 200$. Someone asked me to write a full detailed comment about improving a dating site and making it unique! I made aboute 10 pages with small font and told her to pay before I release it. She agreed and paid me in PayPal, but after I sent my work she reversed the payment 24 hours later. I contacted PayPal and they said she paid me from a hacked account or something like that :( I will NEVER use PayPal again!!!

[rapido]

I've had paypal problems too many times to count.

[webflash]

Hello Friends,
i am a freelancer too ;
i have been Ripped off many times ;
so i sugest before starting of the work , tell client to deposit money in escrow . or take some advance ;

so many fraud client available in market; even they deposit the money in escrow , and teiing they will release it whrn u submit the work, and after submission of full work, they cancel the project ;
i have few info abt that client so be aware ;

i ma not sure whether it is illigal to post thrir names .. but i want to aware all freelancers abt thoes clients;

so be alert,, work after u egt $$$ advance ,

and i notice , many freelancer work in chap,
i request do not waiste your creativity in less Budget; be rigid!!

let me know if similar things happens to you

[GopherWT]

While we are on this topic, I have also noticed how some webmasters don’t seem to realize that pooling several different services in one project is not really an acceptable practice, you see it all the time in posted projects, you are likely to see a project that describes what the webmaster wants then at the bottom they ask for a password script to be added that is really a membership management script to be included in the project and then they have a maximum budget of $20.


Heh, I imagine this could be annoying for many of the smaller developers. When I am preparing a project, I make a point of keeping it to one major category of work - gfx design and web design are fine together, but a more complex db-based programming project would be a separate task later. If the same person can do both and bids on both, great, but I figured that by putting tasks of completely different types in one project had two main problems. First, you might get a provider who's good at one type but not so good at the other, and second, many providers that might do an excellent job on one or the other might not bid at all! ANYTHING that deters legitimate bidders is bad, since the number of auto-bidders is constant, so your ratio of real to antomatic bids goes up. (to me, if a provider didn't read the description before bidding then their bid is NOT a real bid, EVEN if they are the best people in the system! Of course, most of the "best" are really heartbroken over not getting my piddling little projects, I'm sure. :o

Gopher

[0fusiongraffix0]

hehe, I was heartbroken when I GOT your project :P, Didnt think I would get it. :D

On a serious note, I beleive that there are tooo many programmers being ripped off, and at a certain extent, so are webmasters. When webmasters select a programmer and the programmer runs off with any upfront payment, and then there are programmers being ripped off with webmasters running off with their work. I dont like to create mockups but at the end of the day, it could help to create one to give you a little extra chance of getting the project.

I beleive that anyhow, and yes it does help, as long as the webmaster is legit, and so far most of the webmasters I have created mockups for have been legit.

Well thats all I have to say :D

[volf44]

It was my first project. A young lady choosed my bid though it was up of others and even budget. I over bid due of some incorrect project requirements, these I told she.

A "webmaster", it was she's first project too, asked me to finish on one day earlier and escowed a half. I did and did as bid. For the time, I got: she never read attachment file where the main requirements were, never or may not carefully read the bid and tailored pm, didn't understand my email replies.
She insitently asked me to do optional requirements, for example, build a db of live 20000 ftp servers over the entire internet. I insitently asked she escrow second payment half. She did it, but didn't complete. I wrote and send shell scripts that she wanted, not a db, of course.
Finally, two weeks later, she told me, your email is virus infected, work is incomplete, she is late with this project and want money back. I returned that incompleted half and set feedback to 1. She set to 8 and wrote "... will use he later"! No way.
So, spent time alot, damage brain - try to jump over self head to satisfy that person. Cheers.