I found Johnny online while I was searching for a new webmaster. His typical arrangement is pay 50% at start and 50% at completion. Not a problem. I hired him for webdesign for a few projects without any major problems. Our first project together was around X-mas, and apparently there was a big storm in his town.instead of just telling me he couldn't meet our deadline for a new site launch, he dodged my calls for 2 weeks, making me feel like the jerk. I was patient and understanding and kept working with him. Project got done. Good work. Sent him more work. This time it was a simple template change for an existing site. A 15minute job from what I'm told. My instructions: "upload the new template exactly. Make no changes". What I received for over a month was a completely changed template. I thought it was MY communication that was failing so I tried over and over to explain in detail what I wanted. Eventually he admitted a better paying customer found my template too much like his own, and demanded I not be allowed to use the template I purchased legitimately from a 3rd party. It took over a month, maybe 2 for me to get this honest fact out of him. So, I re-assigned the deposit to cover a new site. I sent emails with itemized expectations, simplifying what I needed done... I went overboard with simplifying because of past problems with communication. What I got in return was a reply saying I was writing too much and it was too much of a bother for him to read it all. But how else could he get the job done right? Verbally, a lot had gotten lost in the past, so this was my only way to create a checklist for my expectations as the consumer. So, months removed, the project is not done. Because the deposit was made initially for the template change, paypal's refund timeframe has expired, and guess who refuses to give me my money back? Johnny.instead he calls me a "gem" and tells me he will be posting online how "I am"... What nerve. I am a paying customer, expecting competent work within a decent timeframe. If you want the same, do NOT use this man. You will pay, you will reach his home voicemail, and he will call you at HIS convenience. I do believe my only recourse at this time is to warn other, and possible initiate a civil suit to not necessarily get my deposit back, but to have the satisfaction he has to spend it to defend himself.in addition, once I became a nuisance, he froze 2 sites he had been hosting and to this day, refuses to give me the files. I paid him 1250 to build one of these sites... Flushed down the drain. The other site, thank God, got copied before his little tantrum. Its amazing how I'm the one financially hurt and he spins it so I'm the person in the wrong... Johnny: give me my deposit back and you can call me a gem all day long. You havent earned it and the "finished" site you claim to have done, was never seen by a human eye. Never shown any stages of progress to me, never given to me for suggestions or approval. How can a webmaster complete a site without any direction or details?? He can't! This guy owes me $350 for a deposit, $1250 for the site he's holding hostage OR sending me real files that my webmaster can use. My current webmaster teaches web design and he said the "files" sent to me are a joke and its garbage. Not the site I paid to have built. I've been wronged and I hope nobody else has to deal with this guy.
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