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75edf46a
Community Member

I got scammed for $650, because the Developer cannot deal with criticism?!

Hello, I requested a Twitter monitor, a program, which reposts tweets from twitter. 

The tweets should get reposted very quick.

 

This one egyptian developer accepted my job offer and told me, that he can make a very stable programm, with a very low reposting delay.

 

So I got convinced by his words and went with him, even though he wanted $650, but my job offer was only for $200.

 

After 2 weeks or so he was "done". The program had a big reposting delay and he hasnt explained me how to use it probably. 

 

The program was nowhere near the expectations that he gave me in the beginning, but it was okay, so I took it. (I just didnt wanted to deal with him anymore).

 

I gave him a 6 stars review (which really did piss him off).

 

Now, a few days later, I cannot use the program. Why? I have no clue.

 

I let another freelancer from here look over the code. He found serious errors and suggested that the code was manipulated by the developer.

 

What should I do?

 

I just want my money back.

4 REPLIES 4
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: “What should I do?”

 

There are many options.

 

You could hire someone to work with your existing body of source code. But it doesn’t sound like you are very impressed with it.

 

I suggest you hire new freelancers and provide them complete access to what you have now, but give them flexibility with regards to whether they use it, or how they use it.

 

If this is an important project to you, you may want to work with an independent project manager.

 

You may want to hire multiple freelancers to do exactly the same task, and then test the results each of them turn in, and only use the best product.

 

You should establish a place to store source code in a way that you have complete control over, and which developers can’t access. Learn about  code repositories. You may want an active repository used by developers as well as a private control repository place that you administer. If that is more complicated than you want to get into... just have developers provide you with source code periodically, and put in a private place. That guarantees you ability to restore functioning source code if anything goes awry.

michael_skaggs
Community Member


Jan S wrote:

The program was nowhere near the expectations that he gave me in the beginning, but it was okay, so I took it. (I just didnt wanted to deal with him anymore).

What should I do?

 

I just want my money back.


There's not really any getting your money back in this case. Hourly disputes are initiated by the client, but fixed-price disputes are initiated by the freelancer (see https://community.upwork.com/t5/Content-Corner/Facts-about-Disputes/td-p/258942). This is because hourly contracts can have the hours worked disputed, making it the client's prerogitave, while fixed price would be a dispute that payment wasn't released for a completed deliverable, thus giving the right of dispute to the freelancer.

 

By releasing the funds from escrow, you have, by the terms of the escrow, approved of the work done. This is why you're given 14 days from time of delivery to request changes if things are not up to spec. But you did not do this, and instead gave him money just to avoid having to deal with him.

 


I gave him a 6 stars review (which really did **** him off).


Six stars? Out of five?

 

But long story short, you're not likely to get your money back. There is the mediation option, but all that consists of is Upwork playing chaperone while you and the freelancer talk it out and try to come to a mutual conclusion.

 

If that fails, the final step is arbitration, which is binding upon both parties. However, that requires a $291 payment by both you and the freelancer. And the only way you get that $291 back is if the freelancer doesn't pay and the decision defaults to you. If they do pay and the arbitration is filed, you're out $291 no matter what.

re: "Six stars? Out of five?"

 

He means six stars out of 30.

 

Which means he simply clicked "one star" out of five in all six categories rather than attempting to actually evaluate the freelancer in each named category. Which is what clients are asked to do.

 

This is why the original poster is blaming himself for the Twitter reposting script not working. The original poster is suggesting that after he left punitive feedback (or "criticism"), the programmer went back and sabotaged the source code so that it wouldn't work.

 

That is one of the reasons I suggested that the original poster learn more about code repositories and figure out a way to store his source code in a safe, sequestered place.

 

The original poster isn't certain that this happened, because he didn't have any sort of source code management in place. But he asked somebody else to look at the source code, and that person thought that maybe the source code had been "manipulated." The original poster feels that the source code worked okay before, but isn't working well now. The original poster is sincerely trying to figure out both what happened, and what to do next.

 

re: "There's not really any getting your money back in this case.... But long story short, you're not likely to get your money back..."

 

Yes, I completely agree.

 

Moreover: Getting any money back has nothing to do with successfully accomplishing the original poster's stated goal of having a functioning Twitter repositing script which is stable and has a very low reposting delay.

petra_r
Community Member


Jan S wrote:

 

I just want my money back.


Theoretically, you are able to dispute within 30 days of having funded the last milestone.

However, from what you said, I would hazard a guess that it would likely be more hassle than it's worth.

 


What should I do?


See if your new freelancer can fix the code.

 


Preston H wrote:

 

This is why the original poster is blaming himself for the Twitter reposting script not working.


The OP is not "blaming himself (or herself)" at all. I wish you would not spin those figments of your imagination into your posts. The OP (rightly or wrongly, but clearly) blames the freelancer who was hired.

 

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