Hey DP I hired an indian programmer to custom program me a Joomla plugin. The deal was 50% advance and 50% on delivery. They started work on the plugin and near delivery date contacted me and told, he needs to pay his workers and asked me to transfer the rest of the money and he will deliver earlier. Then he was offline for a couple of days and after that no contact. Now he accuses me of ruining his work and will not finish the project. Does anyone know anything that could be done (besides asking for refund) to ask for the money back. I mean legal action in India using some local Law firm?
If you plan on sueing him, you will rack up legal charges far more then what you paid the programmer. Think of the cost of lawyers at around $100/hr at average, and much more if it's international. If you paid via PayPal, then you can request a refund (it seems like they will rule in your favor if the story above is how it happened). If you paid with a CC, start a chargeback. If you didn't do any of that, then just think of it as a lesson learned and cut your losses. Next time, be sure you know the person you are hiring has done this before, and other people can vouch for them.
How did you pay for the transaction and was their a contract? Suing may cost more than you want to pay, but you could look into a debt collection law firm in India who will work with you if the programmer refuses to refund your money. Try to work with the programmer to get things resolved first, and then let them know in a professional manner that if they are not willing to complete the work you paid for you will do what is necessary to collect the balance.
Yes it would always be best if the programmers could finish the work started. Legal action will likely be way too costly and even if you win how well can they enforce that they pay you back the money. Paypal has buyer protection so i would contact them or your credit card company if you paid that way.
indian programmers are noobs and they only know about how to fool innocent ppl,i have seen many indi noobs on freelancer. even they don't know how to install window, but on every new project they give first bid. lol sorry 4 my bad english, coz its our native language.
The project took much more time than paypal allows to do chargebacks. The programmer is not answering any of my Emails and i already have lost hope towards this project ever being finished.
One problem in this statement.... Paypal don't offer protection over anything that isn't posted and that is taken from the conversation that i havejust had with Alison in their customer services.... Sorry to bring bad news guys...
I had a legal problem in India and contacted a lawyer there but he advised that even if I won the law suit that collecting on it is almost impossible. The standard remedies like garnisheeing banks accounts and wages etc are not in place. Unless the money is very large, your best plan is to write it off.