Don't help other people (update 2).
This is a sad story and it isn't the first time that happens... I am not angry but instead I am sad and disappointed.
Some weeks ago I needed an artwork from an icon designer so I accepted a quotation from an European Icon Artist.
He said me that he needed some time because he needed to finish a big personal project (an icon tutorial web site).
After some weeks he said me that everything was finished but he had a lot of troubles with the final step, the payment processing. I am a developer so it was natural for me to offer my help (for free) and in a couple of days he had a fully working PayPal processing payment system and he started collecting money immediately.
I like the idea to exchange skills with other people, I am a developer so I can help you with some code, you are an artist so probably you can help me with some artworks.
Well ... what's the moral of the story?... he simply disappeared.
He doesn't reply anymore to my emails and he doesn't reply anymore to my chat messages.
That's all.
He is still working because he is regularly posting messages on his blog and I can see him online in iChat every day.
I had full access to his server (no more I think after this post) and I was tempted to just delete all the code I wrote for him... but I can't, there is something inside me that prevents me to do bad actions even if they are fully justified.
So that's all the bad action I can do, just a post on my blog.
You know who you are and you know that relationships with people need more correctness.
Update: After thought a bit more about this very annoying situation I decided to completely remove my code from his web site. That's the end of the story.
Update 2: The name of the icon artist is Sebastiaan de With and the website is http://www.iconresource.net/
Some weeks ago I needed an artwork from an icon designer so I accepted a quotation from an European Icon Artist.
He said me that he needed some time because he needed to finish a big personal project (an icon tutorial web site).
After some weeks he said me that everything was finished but he had a lot of troubles with the final step, the payment processing. I am a developer so it was natural for me to offer my help (for free) and in a couple of days he had a fully working PayPal processing payment system and he started collecting money immediately.
I like the idea to exchange skills with other people, I am a developer so I can help you with some code, you are an artist so probably you can help me with some artworks.
Well ... what's the moral of the story?... he simply disappeared.
He doesn't reply anymore to my emails and he doesn't reply anymore to my chat messages.
That's all.
He is still working because he is regularly posting messages on his blog and I can see him online in iChat every day.
I had full access to his server (no more I think after this post) and I was tempted to just delete all the code I wrote for him... but I can't, there is something inside me that prevents me to do bad actions even if they are fully justified.
So that's all the bad action I can do, just a post on my blog.
You know who you are and you know that relationships with people need more correctness.
Update: After thought a bit more about this very annoying situation I decided to completely remove my code from his web site. That's the end of the story.
Update 2: The name of the icon artist is Sebastiaan de With and the website is http://www.iconresource.net/
posted by Marco Bambini at
5:13 PM
19 Comments:
Good for you, man. He should really be ashamed of himself. If I were you I would have done a little more (or less). I would have obfuscated the code and had all future payments sent to some lucky guy in Pakistan. lol.
Seriously, if he's ripping you off, he's doing it to everyone else and should be stopped cold.
By
Anonymous, at 5:41 PM
That's justice. You did good!
By
Anonymous, at 6:58 PM
Sorry to hear this. Hope you will still help people even after this.
By
Trausti, at 4:38 PM
Yes Trausti I will obviously continue to offer me help, it simply my nature... I posted the story in my blog because I really felt the need to share this sad story.
By
Marco Bambini, at 4:51 PM
Oh my, I should have read this earlier. It could have saved me a lot of frustration!
I am just going through a similar experience in a project of mine that he accepted. His performance basically boils down to unacceptably long response times, unfulfilled promises and no output (except from a few photos of some hand-drawn sketches, covering perhaps a fifth of the project):
- In the project that was spanning 3 calendar months, there's now 2 weeks to the deadline, and I haven't received a single pixel for the application nor the website.
- It has been weeks between his emails (now a month since his last!) – he promised "at least 4 weekly updates". I too saw him on iChat from time to time, but he wouldn't reply!
- At several occasions he promised to send me work the same evening or the day after. This was never the case. The last time he did it was the last time I heard from him, now more than 4 weeks ago.
- The first time he was silent for 2 weeks, I wrote him that I could not work this way. He apologised and asked me to "lend him my trust". I didn't hesitate to let him continue (should have listened to my wife!), but pointed out that I would hate this to happen again because I would be left in a position where I would have to look for another designer with too little time to go. (Yes, you guessed it!)
- I have spent hours speculating whether he has received my emails, if something has happened to him, writing him emails in despair, checking his blog looking for signs of life. But I now discovered that he has been twitting away (even about a "pissed client" – could be me), but he doesn't even bother to reply to my – believe it or not – still constructive emails.
- He has not only shown total lack of business ethics – he has breached his own contract (which, by the way, took him 2 weeks to send me – I should have seen it coming!) He hasn't even had the decency to get back to me and suggest a solution. Currently, it looks like he has simply taken the money and run away!
So, here I am, 2½ months later, a €1,000 retainer poorer, lots and lots and lots of frustrations, lots of wasted time and lots of aggravations "richer" – in the exact situation I didn't want to be in. This is the most lousy and frustrating client experience I have ever had!
Cheers,
Joachim
By
J Bondo, at 4:52 PM
Hey I'm working with Seb on another project.
A couple of weeks ago he simply dropped off the map, however the explanation can be found in his Twitter stream: http://twitter.com/cocoia
Hes clearly having some major issues with his ISP, as for his blog the last post on blog.cocoia.com is dated April 28.
I don't want to make any excuses as Im not Seb but it seems to me that there could be reasons to his dropping off the face of the planet. In the twitter stream (where most of his messages are sent from the iPhone client Hahlo) he does mention that clients think he is ripping them off or words to that affect.
I'd be the first to take it out on a scammer but I think its worse to accuse someone when that isn't the case.
(dw I'm not having a go, as I would be really angry if I lost money. But I think there are generally problems on his end - theres a contact section of my site if you want to get in touch)
By
Danny, at 10:20 PM
Ok, so he's got time to post to Twitter through his iPhone, but never thought of using it to send some emails to pissed off clients?
Ok, maybe he doesn't want to use his iPhone for that? Ok, ever heard of an Internet cafe?
What a joke. That is absolutely no way to run a business. I know I'll definitely never use his services.
By
Anonymous, at 10:40 PM
Danny: Yes, I now read his twitter feed too, and he has been moving and was offline for 10 days. But that doesn't explain the 2-3 weeks of silence before that.
And like Marco, I saw him several times on iChat, but he didn't bother to answer me. And he hasn't bothered to answer any of my emails the last 4 weeks! And prior to that there was always some kind of excuse; first he was at a concert and didn't get back to me for days, then it was his email server, but most of the times there hasn't been any word at all...
And why couldn't he have told me in advance that he would be moving, so I didn't have to spend time sleuthing around to find out what was happening? I have spent hours not coding, but speculating and writing new timelines, because we were getting behind schedule. You can't run a business like that! I should bill him for my time!
Instead he got money from me, and I haven't received one single piece of graphics for the app. He is supposed to deliver a range of complicated graphics for the app (not just an icon) as well as graphic layout and icons for my website - in 2 weeks. And I haven't seen anything!
I have asked him at several occasions in the beginning if he thought he could meet the deadline, and every time he said yes. I gave him several opportunities to get out of the project because I felt it was going slow. When I called him recently - on the number in the vcard he sent me - it wasn't even his number.
When Apple announced the deadline for the Design Awards, I was lucky enough to catch him on iChat, and I asked him if he thought he could make the deadline on 15 May instead of 1 June - just for the application, he would still have another 2 weeks for the website then. He agreed enthusiastically and said it would be fun. Yeah, right!
When he came online again 2 days ago, he said on his twitter feed he would have to pacify hordes of clients who thought he was rotting in a gutter. Apparently I'm not in any of these hordes, because I haven't heard anything.
Danny, I'm glad you've had positive experiences with him, but his recent problems with his ISP doesn't even remotely explain or justify his behaviour. The problem is his complete lack of business moral.
Cheers,
Joachim
By
J Bondo, at 11:27 PM
Im fairly sure he was working through emailing all his clients.
Like I said Im not him but he hasnt had any negative comments before (the opposite in fact), if you wernt anonymous I would put you in touch with him when hes back online.
I know everyone likes to rinse a scammer, but seriously Seb isn't one. The guy isn't trying to take anyone's money for nothing in return.
Btw, "time to post to twitter", come on like 3 seconds, what point are you trying to make.
Argh, I dont want to this to turn into some kind of flame war. Scammers are crap, no-one likes them. But Seb isnt one and Im fairly sure you wouldnt like people thinking you were one. I dont see why everyone is suddenly ignoring the testimonials on his site.
By
Danny, at 11:34 PM
@jbondo
Sorry I posted before I saw your comment.
I understand your angry, Seb went down for me before the 10 days also, and he occasionally pops up on iChat only to be "idle" (I think its something to do with his girlfriend's mac).
I don't want to stand for everything as I can't possibly comment on your experiences as he may well be ignoring you and I wouldn't know.
All I know is his "business ethic" is excellent and this is the first negative comment I have ever seen. In fact, he was fireballed the other day.
As Ive said before no-one likes getting cheated out of money and I'm sure he'll at least give you your money back when hes back online if he misses deadlines.
But at the end of the day all I can stand up for is his character :/
By
Danny, at 11:40 PM
@danny
I'm sure Seb, as you call him, is a good and even honest person - with only good intentions. Really.
But his lack of business sense and responsibility has left me in an extremely bad situation. And I'm not talking about the money. And apparently, I'm not the only one felling like this.
By
J Bondo, at 11:49 PM
I can see him online everyday on ichat, he had simply banned my username so he appears to me as offline (I can see him online with another ichat account).
I can't really find out any excuse to this kind of behavior. He deliberately just chose to disappear after my help.
By
Marco Bambini, at 11:53 PM
He must have banned me too then. I didn't know.
He sure knows how to give his clients this cosy feeling of being well taken care of, doesn't he :-)
I guess I can save some time now, not having to look at my buddy list repeatedly to see if he's online...
By
J Bondo, at 12:01 AM
Hmmm I havn't seen him online for a while. Unless hes blocked me as well!
But if thats the case hes blocked everyone I know.
Seriously Marco I dont think hes been online. I may be wrong of course, but it would make sense that he would be twittering from twitterific if he had iChat rather than Hahlo.
By
Danny, at 12:12 AM
@danny
Nobody is questioning whether or not he's a 'good guy'. It's called running a business, not making friends. Those qualities just don't cut it when you're letting down clients. It's admirable that you're standing up for him, but you might want to reconsider what you're fighting for.
By
Anonymous, at 12:15 AM
Yeah all Im really fighting for is to ensure that you guys dont think hes doing it on purpose.
I cant stand up for his business practices (although these have been the only negative comments I am aware of).
By
Danny, at 12:32 AM
You have been a true trusting gentleman, but enough is enough. Sorry to hear this happened, Marco. (BH Canada)
By
Anonymous, at 5:25 PM
You can be proud of you for not doing him any harm, even if you had the chance to do so.
I really hope you didn't change your mind about helping other people because there are still many people who are honest and would deserve it ...
By
Mich, at 4:23 PM
I was going to leave the same comment as trausti when I first read this thread...but I knew it was unnecessary, as I am familiar with your nature. I am happy I was right ...and glad you have helped to enlighten others through what was initially a negative experience.
By
Anonymous, at 6:00 AM
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