Ive had this programmer banned from Odesk, but I wanted to save others the trouble. I used Odesk for the first time to find a web designer, and even though I was looking for someone in the U.S., I chose Chris Walker's bid. He is an American with a U.S. Phone number based in the Phillipines. Unfortunately, I let him talk me into paying outside of Odesk to avoid their fees, which meant I was unable to recoup my money. I dont think that mattered since he got banned from there after this project anyways.
The agreed price was $3K, which was fair for the project. Half was to be paid at the beginning, and half upon completion. The work wasnt very good, but Chris was fairly close to finishing the site. He had already finished most of the project and I had no reason to believe he was rip me off, since he had done most of the work on the site. I asked for a couple very minor, 5 minute type changes on the day I sent my last payment.
Instead, after he got the payment, he completely changed everything on the website, basically for no reason. At that point, he also began to stop answering phone calls and emails. If he had simply left the site as it was on the last day, I would have been able to get it finished without spending much more, but he made such a mess of it I had to hire a new programmer to start from scratch. I tried contacting him by phone and email multiple times to no avail, yet I saw that he continued to accept and solicit new projects on Odesk. Once I contacted them and let them know he instructed me to pay outside the system to avoid the fees, he was banned.
Finding good web programmers is hard enough. I dont want anyone else to drop $3k to this guy and have him walk and leave you with nothing. His website is www.customsiteshop.com and his phone number is 512-351-4502.
0 comments