Should I work with this guy?
Moderator: General Moderators
-
SpiderMonkey
- Forum Commoner
- Posts: 85
- Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 4:48 am
Should I work with this guy?
OK, so a friend of mine has got himself a potential contract to do a fairly big dynamicly driven site. He is using Joomla to do the main part of it but wants my php skills in order to handle some stuff thats outside joomlas capabilities (collecting and analysing data on site usage and so on). However, since I spoke to him hes been putting me under a lot of pressure and giving me conflicting information.
For a start, at one point he said he was going to pay me £4000 over two months (although straight after this he reminded me some of my share in the project would have to be reinvested in web servers and such...), which has now turned into £600 over two weeks. He is also being quite vague about exactly he wants me to do on the site, whilst at the same time reminding me of the legal obligations I'd have if I entered a contract with him and the fact he would pursue it if I failed to do what I'd said.
At the moment my gut instinct is to simply walk away from this. I have the feeling I'm being played by this guy to provide underpriced coding services whilst he pockets most of the cash from the website. Problem is I have Aspergers syndrome and I'm aware that can make me quite guliable.
What do you think I should do?
For a start, at one point he said he was going to pay me £4000 over two months (although straight after this he reminded me some of my share in the project would have to be reinvested in web servers and such...), which has now turned into £600 over two weeks. He is also being quite vague about exactly he wants me to do on the site, whilst at the same time reminding me of the legal obligations I'd have if I entered a contract with him and the fact he would pursue it if I failed to do what I'd said.
At the moment my gut instinct is to simply walk away from this. I have the feeling I'm being played by this guy to provide underpriced coding services whilst he pockets most of the cash from the website. Problem is I have Aspergers syndrome and I'm aware that can make me quite guliable.
What do you think I should do?
This guy sounds like a very shady person, stay away from him. If he ever comes to you with a small job offer, go for it, you won't lose much since it'd be very small job - that way you can get an indication whether this guy is a good guy or not.
Don't forget to be careful with him and read the future contract at least 3 times. After reading it, think what is missing there and make sure to put it in the contract
Don't forget to be careful with him and read the future contract at least 3 times. After reading it, think what is missing there and make sure to put it in the contract
I would walk away if someone threatened legal proceedings before I'd even seen a contract. Sounds like a right tit to me.whilst at the same time reminding me of the legal obligations I'd have if I entered a contract with him and the fact he would pursue it if I failed to do what I'd said.
If you're going to go for it you need to insist on a complete contract that you both sign, preferably witnessed by the client too. You also need to draw up a specification with as much detail as is humanly possible in it. This should also be signed by you, the other person, and the client. If your partner or the client starts demanding things that are outside of the scope of the agreed spec you can then refer them to what they agreed and renegotiate payment based on the new spec... which should be signed by all parties, and the cycle begins anew.
-
jsilver608
- Forum Newbie
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Wed Oct 25, 2006 4:34 pm
- Kieran Huggins
- DevNet Master
- Posts: 3635
- Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:14 pm
- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Contact:
- Chris Corbyn
- Breakbeat Nuttzer
- Posts: 13098
- Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
Walk away... it sounds hairy to me. You won't regret walking away from it, but if you got into something that turned out to be a complete arse-ache you'd be totally kicking yourself. When somebody's fumbling around with figures and you need paying it's never a good sign. What's with the legal threats up-front too? Dodgy if you ask me... let somebody else deal with that crap.
- Kieran Huggins
- DevNet Master
- Posts: 3635
- Joined: Wed Dec 06, 2006 4:14 pm
- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Contact:
- Chris Corbyn
- Breakbeat Nuttzer
- Posts: 13098
- Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2004 7:57 am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
Doh!