Hi everyone, Unfortunately, my school holidays have practically gone down to waste waiting for one vBulletin design, to be both designed and coded. I'm not the type that likes to spend all the school holidays sitting in front of the computer, I like to go out, but I'm also not the type to waste my time waiting for things to be done, especially when it's the holidays. First of all, it was designed by Michael Novikov, a member at TalkFreelance. I have no complaints though. Michael done the job on time and exceeded my expectations. Shortly after receiving the PSD for the design, I began to seek a coder. He had recommended a coder from vBSkins.com, but at that time he was not online. Michael said that he would be online within a few hours. I didn't have time to wait, so I proceeded to making a post at TalkFreelance looking for a coder for the design. I specifically mentioned that I'd like to hire a coder to start coding the design right now, and not leave it till a few days. I also specifically mentioned that it was urgent and that I was looking to pay $100-$250 to get it coded, an amount I believe would be more than enough for QUALITY coding. Ok, now straight to the story and the frustration: I ended up hiring Matt from FreshCoders.com, obviously there is a typo on the site, unfortunately is spelt wrong, but I ignored that. People make mistakes sometimes. He seemed very knowledgeable at the start and looked like he knew what he was doing. He was also recommended to me by UKMatt (a member here) and a few other people. I also had someone reply to my thread saying that Matt was a good choice and one of the "best". Matt told me it would be done by Wednesday, the LATEST. Here is a chat log to prove it: He wanted a down payment of 50%, but I went out of my way and just sent the full amount as I wanted to get this done as soon as possible. And I wouldn't want him to slack off the work because he hasn't received "full payment" yet, not that it's likely, but it can happen. I sent full payment, so that shouldn't be an excuse for him to slack off on the coding and instead to make it a priority. This was all on Friday, when I was looking for a coder and found Matt. 2 days later, basically no updates whatsoever, nothing on what he has done and what still needs to be done. He just told me not to worry and that the coding WILL be done. Me being me, I didn't worry much, since I thought I had hired the "best" coder. After all, it's his responsibility as the coder to update me, and not me as the customer to remind him. Wednesday comes, he is not able to send me the completed design as Gmail had "problems". He could've gone out of his way and uploaded the ZIP file of the design to one of his websites and linked me to it as I believe he does own a few websites. We are in different time zones so it's a bit hard to get in contact with Matt. I have to stay up until 6:00 AM in the morning just to be able to talk to him. It's the holidays, that's no problem, but it's getting close to school and I CAN'T keep doing that. This is what I get for all the waiting, for going out of my way and sending the payment in full, and for trying to be patient: http://www.pimpmywalk.com Username: demo Password: demo As you can see, upon visiting, there are ALREADY problems with the skin. Things are out of place and it looks NOWHERE near like the design originally done by Michael Novikov: http://www.pimpmywalk.com/forum.gif Look at the spacing, the alignment, the sidebar content, the tutorials category (which is supposed to be split like TalkFreelance's marketplace), ask yourself, does it look anywhere NEAR like the design made by Michael? I'm afraid not. He said he is working on things and trying to find "mods" for the sidebar. That's not what I'm concerned about, what I'm concerned about is that he said it would be done at wednesday the LATEST, I waited and tried not to disturb him, and look what I get in return? A poorly coded design, with problems everywhere, and looking nowhere near like what Michael had originally designed it to look like. I mean, just compare the original design to the outcome, you'll know EXACTLY what I mean. I really can't say I'm impressed at all by Matt's work attitude. I mean, I sent full payment, there is no reason to slack off and get off schedule. I'm not sure if I'm entitled to a refund right now, but since I paid $200 for the coding, I believe I am ATLEAST entitled to some QUALITY coding, don't you guys think? I am going to try and work with Matt for a few more days on this simply because I really need to get this done and I'm not looking to waste anymore time on this. This is just a little warning for anyone who is considering hiring Matt. It is not meant to defame him or his company, but to provide you, a potential customer, with my experience working with FreshCoders. If you've managed to read up until here, I thank you for your concern about this issue, and am sorry to have made the complaint so long. Well.. nothing I can do now, except say "wow.. what a waste of my holidays"..
If you expect quality, custom coding to put together a non-standard layout for vBulletin, $200 is chicken feed. For a quality coder that's not even 4 hours work. Now, I do side with you on the fact that he should have delivered when he promised, OR provided adequate communication to explain any delays.
I'm always willing to pay more, as long as things get done right. I only stated that my budget was $100-$250 because that's what I've been quoted from many quality vB coders. If it's going to cost me more, then so be it, I will pay MORE, just get the damn thing done right, that's all I care about.
In response, I'd say things come up, such as friends who have serious operations and I kind of felt out of my way to visit him, My biggest problem is not being able to say no to friends (Thanks Jonathan ) Anyway, I'm sorry about the time delay and I'm sorry I haven't got it done but when I've being in I've worked as hard as I can. In all honesty, it wasn't really incomplete, it was just the left hand side and I need to work on the homepage, but I didn't deliever on time so his claims are true. I told him if it isn't completed for tonight he can have his money back. I did communicate with him to tell him that it wouldn't finished he said that he would give me 12 hours 2 hours before he posts this? I aren't bothered, It wasn't MattUK it was UKMatt from SitePoint.com MarkB, From your comments your obviously not a coder. Regards.
Kudos for posting in the thread. Since you have obviously started the work then I personaly would give the benefit of the doubt and simply come to a new agreement on the completion date.
Two days 'late' and already blowing the whistle with public accusations isn't really nice, Skribblez. I don't think many of us here care either, this could have been resolved in a 1000 other ways, much better than this. Your lack of preparation seems to be part of this too. Last minute stuff is destined to go wrong.
I didn't post this to try and defame him and to make public accusations. I posted merely to share my experience and to ask for people's thoughts and advice. This is the first time I've had a problem working with someone to get a design coded..