Ben Donley worked as a subcontractor for my Web Design business for 2 years with little issue. I even retouched his wedding photos free of charge as a thank you for being so great to work with).
He was paid $600 (full price) to create a content management system for my client on Feb 8 via PayPal. The day before the project deadline, Ben informed me that he was unable to do any work on this project (had quite a few sob stories about customers not paying him so he was unable to pay his subcontractors in China). So I was forced to hire another company to take over the job and allowed Ben to keep the $600 as a credit for future work (felt bad because he sounded like he was having financial hardships).
We had been doing business together for 2 years, so I did not doubt his integrity at the time. I then sent him another content management system job for a big client which would have used the $600 credit. However, after several weeks of him supposedly working on the project and the day before its due date I had yet to receive any files and Ben quit returning my emails and phone calls. The last email I received from him was on 4/21/08.
I have tried to collect through PayPal, but the payment passed their 45 day deadline for disputing (since I had believed his sob stories and let him hold the money as a credit).
I have since had to hire another company to finish both unfinished jobs which cost me more than twice the price and were all delivered to my clients more than a month late because of Bens absence.
Ben Donley is not to be trusted. Had he truly needed the money I would have given it to him. However his lies and underhanded ways not only left me in debt on my projects but also gave my business a bad name as I was contracted to complete both jobs at a date approved by Ben and ended up delivering both more than 1 month late.
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