Problems with Web Developer

[duncan9021]

Hello,

I messaged on here the other day regarding problems with my web developer ( they are freelancers from people per hour ).

I will give you a summary of what has happened and their most recent email to myself. Basically i signed a contract and paid them the 50% deposit ( £1000) for a social networking site to be done. A week later i ( stupidly ) asked them if i can once the site was complete pay £600 and then for the next 4 months pay £100 a month as i had to use £400 of the funding money for a new house. They asked me to pay the £600 right there and then just as "security" in case i didn't pay them once the site was completed. So i paid them the further £600 and in total £1600 with a further £100 a month once site was complete.

So everything was going fine until i started to notice minor incomplete issues on the site, i asked them when they would get them sorted and they would either say "working on it" or just ignore me completely. Some of these issues were very basic errors for example i couldnt change my sex on the site from female to male.

It was 3weeks some of these issues i had been asking about so i thought to save myself £400 ( and seen as i had lost complete confidence in them to finish the site ) i told them i would finish the site themselves, they agreed but i had to pay a £50 charge for them to move the site over to my web hosting. This was all agreed by email.

However after this was agreed i then noticed not only more incomplete things on the site, i also noticed the major flaws on the website system itself so basically the site would need a whole new re-design. As the site was already meant to be finished by 1/10/15 with all these new found incomplete aspects and the major flaws in the system i decided to email and ask for a full refund. Never heard anything back so this morning i threatened action ( posting on social media etc ) against them if i didnt hear anything by 5oClock today, and they came back with this :

"
Good morning Gary

Any course of action you take which results in any loss of earning for ***** will result in legal action for lost of said earnings, you have requested that you undertaken the remaining workload, we have the all the emails as well as calls logs to state that you wanted the system handed over, it's simple, you part paid for a service, you requested we had over the site as it was (knowing it was not ready) when you worked out that you couldn't do the required workload yourself you asked for a refund, you never asked can we not finish the task in hand at this point, no you worked out you couldn't handle it and jumped right on a full refund, you cannot do this.

I have contacted my legal team a few days ago (Hench no contact) and they have review all the information I have passed them and your demands are un-called for and it is our guess that your home life has played a major part in your request for a refund, due to the way and the manner on to which you have requested a hand over and then a full refund we have been advised to take this matter to the courts.

I would like to say that you have now threaten our business which has now been recorded, should at any stage anything shedding a bad on ***** we will chasing for full lose of earnings to the full extend of the law, matters like this are not taken lightly.

Many thanks for your time"

Are they right ? all i am thinking is i have paid £1600 for a not even half finished site riddled with errors that will need a complete re-design, and given their rate for sorting things i would be waiting by next year for the site to be completed ( their contract stated 1/10/15 for finish date ) hence why I don't want them to complete it.

sorry for the long email lol can someone advise please ?

 

[The Resolver]

Did you enter into a development contract?

Assuming not then it will depend on implied terms for quality and work to be done.

So far as the threat by them as to social media postings, you are entitled to post reasonable comment and statements of fact. They would have to prove defamation (untruths or truths published maliciously) to be able to succeed in a claim against you. I suggest you respond to make it clear that you will only post truthful statements and fair comment and that they cannot deny you that basic right nor sue for any damage that results.

Did you use the PPH internal complaint handling service?

 

[duncan9021]

Yes i have a contract with them. The site as per their contract was meant to be finished for 1/10/15 - after 3 weeks ago.

And thats great thanks for the advice regarding the social media thing.

What is PPH internal complaints ?

 

[The Resolver]

You said they were from PeoplePerHour so I assume you are a member and used PPH to find them. PPH have Terms that offer a form of dispute resolution. Last I looked it was pretty poor. They asked me to design an improved system which I did but I think they did not implement.

 

[duncan9021]

yes i found them on peopleperhour however again looking back now rather stupidly i decided to do it outwith PPH as they said i would money and they would be more relaxed in terms of payments etc

 

[Alan]

I do think that is a danger of PPH, as people think they are going to get quality work for peanuts and it can end in tears.

I don't know the specification of your requirements, but personally when we used to build websites, if your budget was only £2,000 for a social media site, we would not even considered talking about it.

I can't comment on the legal aspects of your issues and I don't think we have all the facts.

 

[ethical PR]

It sounds like you have got yourself in a bit of a mess. If you are using a site like PPH always go through them to correspond about work and make payment with suppliers as this offers you some protection if things go wrong. As you have found out, trying to save a few pounds by dealing directly with a supplier can be a false economy.

I hope at least that you took up references with some recent customers.

As others have said that seems an incredibly low price for a fully functioning social media platform.

What sort of contract did you have with the designer. Did it specify exactly what they would do, to what milestones and by when?

When you decided to take over the site did you review the design and functionality to gain an understanding of what had been done so far and what was left to do?

Did you have a discussion with the designer about exactly what they had done and what they felt was left to do, raising your concerns about lack of progress? Did you give the designer an opportunity to complete the work within a reasonable timescale?

You seem to have two issues how to get your site completed and what to do about your contract with the designer who developed the site.

If you don't have the skills to complete the site yourself and you don't want your original designer to complete the work your only alternative is to get two or three quotes from suitably experienced designers to complete the work. This time make sure you have a contract with milestones, activity and dates and that you take up references.

You could (after taking legal advice) look at suing the original designers but this very much depends what is in your contract and correspondence. A tough lesson but it might be less time consuming and costly to write it off and move on.

 

[IanG]

£1600 for a page on a social media site, or a complete social media site?

The latter would ring alarm bells for me.