Coders, Be careful who you work for!

Just a small pointless story for you coders, hope this doesn't happen to you.

After working with someone from this forum for months I had to take some time away from coding because of a serious illness in the family. I informed them of this, then after he became rude and began complaining I let them know this was unacceptable and that they would have to wait.

The main outstanding issue with their code was caused by an indicator I was asked to use by them and was fixing for free and I informed them I would need a while for testing.

after a couple more days I received this:
"The personal issues you are currently struggling with are unfortunate but none of my concern.
Your communication level is unacceptable and you are not keeping me informed as to any progress which you are making.
I can only assume that a deadline is in order.

I expect all of the EAs you have been paid for to be corrected and to work flawlessly by Thursday 5/19/2011 at noon.
At that time I will contact my credit card company and file a refusal to pay based on fraud. I have been a merchant for many years and can assure you that the monies will be refunded."



Hope you all put procedures in place to protect yourselves from people like this. I've coded for people on this forum for years and have never seen anything like it!

Ha! It must be in the air. A guy sent me a picture of 2 indicators that he said he need programmed. He even repeatedly told me that after I programmed the indicators he would tell me the rest of the plan for support EA's, scripts. I knew it was gonna go bad after I quoted 1 week for project on a Friday and he didnt pay me until Monday and was screaming when it wasnt done Friday. (until I reminded him that Mon-Fri is 4 Days!!)

It went downhill from there. I delivered the indis on time THEN he asked me why they didnt plot on the chart!? I had delivered 100% exactly what he ask for but he went into Jerk Mode. The worst client is an unclear one. This guy told me what he wanted, showed me what he wanted then got mad when I delivered it. (he wanted a on-chart indi to plot the pictured indi's data but said he wanted the 2 indi's)

Worst job I ever done. I actually wanted to test the Paypal resolution process but decided against it at the last minute since I still had his deposit. I returned the cash and am still kicking myself for dealing with someone that was so rude from the beginning. I should have know he was a 'never satisfied' type that usually works the profit out of a project with nitpicking.

Yep,

I can relate to your circumstances,

I work for myself in the construction industry and have lost tens of thousands of ZAR because I did not have a contract.

That is why I insist on a JBCC contract before I commence work which covers the client as well as myself.

Any extra work that the client wants, then a V.O (Variation Order) is signed by the client and passed on to me.

At the end of the day there is minimal disputes.

Maybe coders should look at something similar.

Regards

Your right Gvc,
I've not needed one for over 10 years but I think its about time I drew up a contract!

What is required in my opinion,

The client states in writing what he requires and signs off the document.

Anything new/additional that he requires is basically a new agreement (V.O) and is subject to additional charges as it does not form part of the original agreement.

Regards

That was my first refund in years of custom EA's. I've never had a problem because I clearly state what I'll deliver and when. Its never an issue because the burden of proof is usually on me. I make a promise and they pay half upfront. Since I'm the one that needs to be trusted to deliver (and I always do) there's no issues to fight about. I just ran into an idiot that didnt know how to ask for what he wanted and in spite of multiple confirmations on what I was going to deliver (and them sending PICTURES of what they wanted) the deal want bad - Having this idiot sign a document wouldn't have avoided anything. - Guess thats just the price of freelancing. (still wouldnt trade it for...)

5leepless,

I can easily relate to your story. It's one reason why I'm VERY careful about coding EAs for folk whom I've never met in person.

Another is the risk that clients may potentially seek compensation for trading losses than an EA has caused, even if the EA was following the client's instructions perfectly. People can get unreasonable, or even nasty, if there are large sums of money involved. Sure, you can include suitable legal disclaimers to deter people, but these don't pay for your legal defense if somebody does decide to pursue compensation. This is made more complex by the fact that legislation differs from country to country.

Should I agree to go ahead, I always charge on a time and materials basis; the golden rule is to never quote a fixed price for the whole job. Many clients have only a vague idea of what they want, at least to begin with, and time and materials is a good deterrent against the client asking for changes ad infinitum as his trading strategy continues to 'evolve'. Even if a seemingly bulletproof specification is signed off beforehand, it's almost always the case that clients forget at least some 'trivial' detail (a frequent one is "the EA needs to avoid trading during high impact news announcements" ....... and then they expect that coding and testing this will be a 10 minute task!).

Sure, there are good and understanding folk out there, who are willing to appreciate the extent of the processes needed to convert their trading ideas into code, but the bottom line is that you never know who you might be dealing with. Yours is a case in point.

I hope that you're able to resolve the situation. I wish you all the best.

David

a few months back i made the hard decision to stop coding for others due to an unusual situation......

//---

a few years ago someone pm'd me to write an ea, which i did for free as always..... a good while later someone else pm'd me to make some changes to an ea he paid several hundred dollars to have coded because he had lost touch with his coder...... the ea was no doubt the one i had written before......

//---

earlier this year after writing another ea, for free as always, and making a dozen changes i finally told the guy i was just to busy to make any more....... he was polite and said he understood.....

about a week later someone else pm'd me on another forum needing some changes to an ea he paid several hundred dollars to have coded recently....... he said his coder was too busy.......

i made the change and never told the guy it was the exact same ea i coded a week prior...... with exception of the property copyright and property link was changed.......

//----

it bummed me out to the point where i dreaded gettin pm's for coding help......... eventually it became clear i was not going to be able to get past it....... and have not yet........h

These storys really suck.
Finding a good coder who knows WTF he's doing is hard enought but then to burn the guy??? People are stupid.