I find that technical people, developers/hackers etc. can often be incredibly annoying when they do this. Many also have a tendency to call other developers idiots or constantly talk about their skills. It's really not a great way to make people think highly of you, either professionally or socially.
Thanks for all the advice guys. I'm not from California or even the US, so I wasn't sure about my legal options here. But I've done a little reading and the advice here has helped a lot. It's amazing how solitary you can feel doing this sort of thing! Thanks to all.
I paid him more than 2000 dollars of the fee already unfortunately. I've learnt a lot from this, specifically that even really good coders (or any professional) can be very good at what they do but still be completely unreasonable and willing to screw you.
He's not a really good coder, really good programmers don't work for peanuts. Good programmers in America make anywhere from 6k to 10k a month, what exactly do you think you're going to get for 2k?
For the price you're offering, you won't find any good programmers that'll work for you, you'll only find hacks who think they can and are more than willing to take your money while learning.
If you think you can spend 2k to have some monkey write some code for you that you're going to sell and make a ton of money with, you're sadly mistaken. If you think your idea is with 90% and he'll do all the work for 10% and 2k, you're also sadly mistaken and very like to be taken, as you clearly have.
If you think you have an idea that's worth anything, you need to find a good programmer and bring him on as a full partner, he'll be the one doing most of the work and offering anything less will be insulting and unlikely to work out for you. He needs to be as vested in the success of the endeavor as you or it'll likely fail.
If you just want your idea implemented by a contractor and you keep all ownership and a reasonable estimate is that it's two months of work, then you're looking at 10k to 15k to get it done right by a competent programmer, not 2k. You'll get what you pay for.
No, it's not typical for programmers as a whole, but it's typical of his specialty, which is quantitative market analysis. He quit to do a Web 2.0 startup for a lot more money.
I doubt he's a really good coder. A really good coder would rather get the job done and get paid quickly rather than bitching and whining and making a big mess for months on end. And if the challenge was way above his skill level he'd say so instead of dragging the project for several months.
I think the comment above is the best path you have now. Get another coder, the development costs so far have been lost. And now pay him every time he/she delivers on a repository (always have the source code with you).
Having a one year project and having no source code for what you paid for is unreasonable for a key asset of your company.
I'm inclined to agree with most of what I've seen posted here - you probably got an unprofessional programmer who has just enough skill to get in over his head. He realized it's more work than he thought it would be, and thinks that it's your responsibility to pay him more.
Your best bet at this point is going to be to start over. Get yourself a good hacker; I bet there are a few around here looking for short-term gigs - I am, for one. If you have a decent written spec, it should be no problem for any decent programmer to give you a reasonably accurate timeline and meet the milestones. As others have said, pay by the milestone, and make sure you get the source code.
I'm a reverse engineer, but I usually work with C/C++ and .NET stuff (PE-COFF, ELF, and Mach-O). I've never done Java Swing.
I imagine it's plausible given how easy most .NET projects are to disassemble. If you contact me at my email address at (alnayyir #at# gmail dot com) I could discuss the matter further with you.
It may be emotionally hard to cut your losses, but it may be economically sound.
There's a concept in economics called "sunk costs". You can't recover your investment, so whatever your choice, the money's gone. The only choice you have at this point is: do you continue or do you stop?
Since it looks like you have to pay more for continuing (and maybe even more after that) you should contrast that to the costs of starting over. It may be better to stop and try again if that's cheaper. It feels terrible, but it can be the best choice.
You must consider the opportunity cost as well - imagine yourself three months from now. You could be three months away from this mess, well towards making your $2000 back (or better), well into a new project or the same thing with a new developer and an improved contract.
Or, you could still be arguing with this guy over code you don't have, a product he hasn't finished, and a price that's still rising (it's not going to go down), and even at best you wont trust the program or have anyone to maintain it.
Yes, many of us have felt this way. Be smart, draw a line under this and start again with a new coder. In a years time you'll look back and be glad you did. In an alternate universe you won't and it will make you miserable.
I'm very tempted to get the lawyers involved, but that will be expensive, take a long time and might not be worth it.
Sounds like you have a similar problem, at least Im not the only one.
I waived any late fees ( I didn't even mention them) and offered him bonuses if he finished within a certain date (he didnt but hes still demanding them).
Its amazing how angry he gets when I ask in the politest way possible that he show me some progress, even when he's 6 months late!
You don't need a lawyer for small claims court. You just pay the small fee(something like 20 bucks) and you get to present your case in front of a judge. And the small claims court case really won't take that much time. Chances are, you'll be presenting your case within 3-4 weeks.
I would give your guy the ultimatum right now. If your experience is anything like mine, it'll be faster for you to hire a replacement(who'll be paid upon completion) to finish the site from scratch, than it'll take your current guy to finish.
You might be able to get a debt collection agency involved. I don't think debt collectors charge a lot in up front fees, and they probably work fast.
It sounds like you are really thinking about just forgetting about it. That might be a good idea, getting your app or money may not be worth the money.
But before you do, check to see if there are any fast and efficient things you can do to collect. Small claims court might work out. Would a lawyer be willing to take your case for a large percentage of the money, and no payment upfront? It might not work, but it will at least give you a chance to get your app without putting in a significant amount of time.
I found an ebook with tips for collecting business debts, so the ebook will probably have a lot of information you can use. http://www.viacorp.com/DebtBook.html
Edit: I just realized looking through the book that you can petition a court, this might include small claims court, to send the case to arbitration. Arbitration has a lot of downsides for the consumer. The results heavily favor the plaintiff, and the defendant usually pays the fees if found guilty. But all of that is good here.
I appreciate that I can't write code, he has a skill I don't have. But I hired him to do it, he agreed a price, but hes now almost a year late and despite me offering him bonuses, 10% of the profits, hes still holding me to ransom and wanting more.
If I hire someone to build a house they don't get insulted when I offer them 10% of future rental yields. How can it be insulting to offer a percentage which wasn't even in the initial agreement?
A programmer views "a year late" as, makeing him do more work than he was contacted to do. House construction doesn't work that way. You hand over a detail plan diagram and the contructor develops exactly that. One doesn't break down half the house after it's 80% done to build it a different way and check how it looks. Though that happens frequently in software development.
Most probably than not, this programmer can work a year more on this project and still not "finish" it in real sence. Specially if there was no specific finishing point mentioned in the agreement.
Software rarely gets finished. All these might be the programmer's point of view, just wanted to mention.
To add to this: I recently finished a small contract that I took on for the sake of family (don't do this, by the way). As a general rule I don't take contracts from people who don't know how to program, for the following reasons:
- They don't know how to write a specification. It's like asking a non-architect to draw you blueprints to a house. You end up with things like "there should be an arch here that's... um... about this tall".
- They don't actually know what they want 80% of the time. They will tell you (and you will document if you're smart) how they want it built, and when they see exactly that they will turn around and want it another way.
- They have absolutely no appreciation for how much work you're actually putting in. "But it's just a button on a page!". It's often insulting to work with people like this.
The spec for my contract changed constantly, and in the end took twice as long as I had anticipated.
If I hire someone to build a house they don't get insulted when I offer them 10% of future rental yields. How can it be insulting to offer a percentage which wasn't even in the initial agreement?
Maybe you're thinking about it in the wrong way. If you were to commission somebody to create a painting, you wouldn't paint over his or her name, scribble your own over it, and try to take credit for the work, would you? Even if you bought an unsigned piece of artwork for investment, you wouldn't go around telling people you created it, would you?
Sometimes it all boils down to something as simple as respect or attribution. If this desktop app is the next big thing, the coder probably just wants to at the very least make sure that he gets some kind of acknowledgment for his work. For some, acknowledgment can be as simple as ensuring nobody rips off their code and reverse-engineers it, and stamps a different name on it. For others, it is about monetary compensation.
I don't know what this dude's deal is, but of all the factors in your little moneymaking scheme, having the ability to write working code is probably the most valuable. 10 percent doesn't seem like a very equitable exchange.
I appreciate that coding software is an iterative process.
But this software was planned out very clearly, there were some minor changes, but nothing big.
Im not sure why 10 percent doesn't seem like a good deal for him, he quoted me 2500 dollars, which is all he should get. Out of desperation and a desire to get the project moving and actually get some results, I offered him 10 percent when it was several months late.
Your biggest problem is that having offered him a stake in the project, you've created a situation in which he now has a reasonable right to control over the way the source code is deployed. I'd assume your programmer set up server authentication to get visibility into the number of sales. If I was working in return for a percentage of sales I would expect a way to independently verify sales figures as well.
That is really going to limit your flexibility down the road, so it is probably easier to just develop from scratch. Perhaps you should let him know you're disappointed with how things have worked out and are thinking about getting something simpler developed by someone else. Be honest and don't come across as personally critical and the discussion may push him to finish things, or break him of the mindset that you are trying to take advantage of him.
I outsource design work on a per-project basis, by the way, and like to ask people to let me know how long they take completing the work, especially since most of the time it involves iterating a couple of times. This approach lets me figure out what their hourly take-home is when all is said and done. If it ends up being too low, I like to increase it a bit more to build good relationships. Having reliable go-to people who can take care of problems on short-notice at a low cost is a lot more valuable than losing $20 here and there over individual projects.
This approach lets me figure out what their hourly take-home is when all is said and done.
What, precisely, is your "job title"?
Very very few can truly afford to "outsource" design. When you start adding metrics, time worked, etc. it's hubris. Your post started off OK but ended up badly.
When you use the words "take-home" in the same sentence as the word "hourly", you're violating some serious syntax.
