I really need to rant today...I'm having issues with SOME programmers. The reason I highlight the word SOME is because I don't want this to reflect on the all programmers out there, because I know there can be very difficult customers. Anyway, I'm having issues where projected completion times not being met. Now I understand that a day or two or even a week or two can be added to any project, because stuff happens, I can live with that. But how long is too long? How can you tell if the project will ever be completed? If something turns out to take an extra month or two, is that reasonable? How long would you wait before you terminate a project? What can you do if you have already fronted money through paypal? What if you are no longer getting a response back of any kind??? Is it reasonable to ask for updates every few days? Every day? Or is that excessive? From a few programmers I feel like I'm bugging them when I ask for updates, and then they seem to take it as an excuse to ignore me. Is it appropriate for a programmer or a webmaster to site specific personal issues as reason to not complete work, kind of as a guilt trip. Lastly, what do you do if all you are hearing is excuse after excuse? I'd like to hear from programmers and from webmasters. Thanks.
Depending on the requirements and the knowledge/experience of the coders I'm guessing a week or so but don't bet on it because i don't know the specific project details. As for me, i've had projects that I completed a few days after the deadline but that was when a client changed some of the specs during the coding of the system so it was all good.
How can you tell if the project will ever be completed? If there is extremely little or no work being done. - Or no contact. If something turns out to take an extra month or two, is that reasonable? Depending on how big the project is it can vary. If it's large project which is expected to take around half a year or more to complete it can be reasonable. How long would you wait before you terminate a project? If no contact is made for a substantial amount of time. What can you do if you have already fronted money through paypal? Open a dispute. - Non-physical goods always win What if you are no longer getting a response back of any kind??? I would open a dispute on paypal Is it reasonable to ask for updates every few days? Every day? Or is that excessive? If your speaking about an update on the current progress it again still depends on the size of the project. I prefer to give an update on the work at the end of each day(where some progress was made). You shouldn't really be asking for it, the coder should be showing you his progress every so often.