Here’s a tip for anyone hiring a freelancer; don’t part with any money until you get solid evidence that progress has been made on your project.
After recently completing a project with one freelancer, I’ve just had to fire another. Why? Well, to begin with, all seemed well. Although he didn’t have much feedback, what he did have was very good and the bid he tendered for my project seemed to be good value being neither the cheapest nor the most expensive.
The programmer communicated well during the bidding and initial stages of the project. His grasp of English suggested that it was his first language and being able to communicate easily is a huge benefit to any project. He asked questions about the requirements and was able to offer suggestions for improvements.
It wasn’t until well into the project schedule that cracks started to appear…
First, there was a sudden lack of email updates even though I’d stressed that I preferred to keep in regular contact if only to confirm that the project was still progressing as planned, then came the excuses about computers blowing up, being forced to use Internet cafes and other personal problems.
I can appreciate that the unexpected can happen, but in my opinion, it’s unprofessional to let personal matters dominate a working relationship and to leave the customer wondering about the state of their project. After all, I was depending upon him to complete the project and he wasn’t aware of what the effect of it not being completed on time was.
Things then came to a bit of a head when he emailed to say that the work was complete, that he would package up his work and email it in the morning. The ‘next morning’ stretched on for more than a week and eventually a reply came suggesting that his email had gotten lost in the ether some how. I suggested he upload the work and then email a link to me to download. He agreed it was a good idea, but that he needed reassurance so I submitted payment for his work into escrow.
More than a week went by without any contact so I raise a dispute and got my escrow payment refunded.
Next time, I will want to see actual progress!
Technorati Tags: Freelance, ScriptLance, time wasters, project management
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