Buckle up, fellas. This is gonna be long as HECK. So, intro: I hired u/ doesnt_catch_sarcasm to fix my site that went down a few days ago. He made a Reddit post advertising his services and I thought it was pretty serendipitous that he'd post. He seemed to have lots of great credentials.
This was the first message I sent:
first message: [link] this is a link to the dropbox i've uploaded the sql file and some other stuff. i was going to upload the dir home but it turned out to be like...637 mb??? wtf? is it supposed to be that huge? i downloaded it all from bluehost, you can check the entire bluehost backup by logging in to my site, my bluehost credentials are (here)! I switched to jagoanhosting.com and uploaded an sql file yesterday, which worked. to get to cpanel go to 'services' on the left hand sidebar, then click the one that's active, and on the bottom right corner there should be a button that says 'login to cpanel'. anyways yesterday yeah i uploaded the sql as a backup and everything was back to normal. but today while i was editing a post it said that the login credentials were okay but something was wrong and when i tried to get back on the site it just said 'can't connect to server'. just send me an invoice to my paypal email (paypal here) and i'll pay you, i've been trying to fix this all night and it's 5:30 now and i haven't slept and i'm really really stressed because it's hard editing a site while also being a full time mom to a newborn, and i have such limited coding knowledge and i'd already tweaked everything and made it shiny and pretty and now i have to start from square one. :((((( just let me know if it seems like something you can do! sorry i'm so...out of it i'm just really sad right now :( i'm going to sleep, if you need anything please let me know ;-;
then he replied: Actually not that much, within about $50 to $100. I'm easy to work with. :) I can fix this lickety-split, no problem! :) Let's talk!
first red flag
I messaged him on Paypal and he asked me to make a down payment. So I sent him $50 for friends and family. All subsequent payments were made with F&F.
[8/24/17, 9:59:43 AM] Ebi: hey ****! i'm sorry for being so demanding in my message on reddit, i was really frazzled
[8/24/17, 9:59:55 AM] Ebi: itsokay!! did you receive the $50 i sent over?
[8/24/17, 10:00:48 AM] NB: I haven't even checked, i was in bed, got up to check messages like I always do, and saw you here
[8/24/17, 10:00:58 AM] NB: Ill make sure now though
[8/24/17, 10:01:40 AM] Ebi: aww don't worry! it's no big deal. i sent it right to the payment request so it should be in your paypal :) if not just let me know!
[8/24/17, 10:01:53 AM] NB: Oh goodness
[8/24/17, 10:02:13 AM] NB: Paypal put it on hold for 21 days
[8/24/17, 10:02:24 AM] Ebi: oh no.......
[8/24/17, 10:02:41 AM] Ebi: how about i send it as friends and family and then you refund that $50?
[8/24/17, 10:02:50 AM] Ebi: i think if i use friends and family it'll be immediate :)
[8/24/17, 10:02:59 AM] NB: Think so?
[8/24/17, 10:03:11 AM] NB: worth a shot i suppose
[8/24/17, 10:03:19 AM] Ebi: yeah, usually when i send with f&f it always lands in paypal ready to use, let me try :)
[8/24/17, 10:03:27 AM] NB: Aaah
[8/24/17, 10:03:40 AM] NB: Paypal is such a pain sometimes :(
[8/24/17, 10:03:55 AM] NB: Ok I'll refund now
[8/24/17, 10:04:51 AM] NB: All set
If the freelancer you're hiring isn't comfortable with accepting payments that have Buyers Protection, just don't work with them.
[8/24/17, 9:47:06 PM] Ebi: idk that seemed really crazy to me like i had no idea should i increase my data storage on my hosting?
[8/24/17, 9:48:17 PM] NB: I didn't get into why I needed funds yesterday, but I have n ill child. He's due to see his specialist in about 90 minutes, and I had hoped I'd make it and be able to pay for the specialist. I'm obviously not going to make it. Given the amount of work needing to be done, theres' most likely another $125 - $150 left after the deposit you sent. (Note: so $50+150=maybe $200 at most).
[8/24/17, 9:48:44 PM] NB: I'd be willing to finish it up for $100 if you wouldn't mind taking care of that so i can get him to his specialist.
[8/24/17, 9:48:54 PM] NB: I know it's an odd request, so if you're not comfortable, I DO understand [8/24/17, 9:49:06 PM] Ebi: okay! let me see what i can do :)
[8/24/17, 9:50:06 PM] Ebi: what was your paypal email again?
[8/24/17, 9:50:27 PM] NB: ****[email protected]
[8/24/17, 9:50:32 PM] NB: I apologize for asking you to do that
[8/24/17, 9:50:34 PM] NB: :(
[8/24/17, 9:50:43 PM] Ebi: i have $60 in my paypal right now it's all i have from the money i've made freelancing but i'll send all that over to you, would it help? some of my clients haven't paid yet
After that I sent him $60. So I've paid $50+$60 to him by this point, $10 over the initial $100 he quoted me. I felt okay with this because I thought my site was going to get fixed.
[8/24/17, 10:05:57 PM] Ebi: i don't have the money to pay for a larger disk :/ but if you can get the new install working that in itself would help a lot
[8/24/17, 10:06:06 PM] NB: What about your old posts?
[8/24/17, 10:06:07 PM] Ebi: i can just start over, it's not a huge deal
[8/24/17, 10:06:21 PM] NB: Ooooh, Ebi... I can't leave you like that.
[8/24/17, 10:06:25 PM] Ebi: and i'll pay the $40 too asap, don't worry about that
[8/24/17, 10:06:28 PM] NB: Even if you couldn't pay, I couldn't just do that to you :(
[8/24/17, 10:06:56 PM] Ebi: haha it's okay ****! seriously, even if you weren't helping me out i'd still send you money :) you've helped me out so much!
[8/24/17, 10:07:16 PM] Ebi: idk how to make the 783 mb work on a 100mb disk, that's the main issue
[8/24/17, 10:08:19 PM] NB: Take linode for instance.. that would have you up and running in 5 minutes, and would cost you literally $5 to start, and you'd have $25 worth of credit in your account, so you'd be good for about 3 months for $5, and have a MUCH better experience
So after that I paid him to set up a Linode server since I personally don't have a credit or debit card (I'm not located in the USA). That was another $28.
[8/24/17, 10:53:33 PM] NB: As you can see it's the same IP address that I told you it would be
[8/24/17, 10:53:34 PM] NB: :)
[8/24/17, 10:53:40 PM] NB: Anyway, I'll be back in about 90 minutes or so
[8/24/17, 10:53:57 PM] NB: If you're not up, I'll make sure WordPress is up and running for you when you do wake up!
[8/24/17, 10:54:10 PM] NB: Thank you again Ebi - it's so nice to work with you - I hope very much we get to talk some more
[8/25/17, 7:12:58 AM] Ebi: ohhhhh okay
would it be possible to restore the sql database with this instead? since the disk space is larger?
[8/25/17, 7:13:13 AM] Ebi: or if i did it myself would it be possible? :o
[8/25/17, 7:15:55 AM] NB: Hey there
[8/25/17, 7:16:10 AM] NB: I'm having issues with my son, so I might not be up very late over here. It's 8:15pm now.
[8/25/17, 7:16:19 AM] NB: Let me know if you're up anytime soon, ok?
[8/25/17, 7:16:53 AM] NB: We certainly have a few things to discuss ;)
At this point I wanted to know if I could restore the database myself. Plus I wanted to connect my domain to the linode server that he set up. He said that it cost him $40.
[8/25/17, 7:23:42 AM] NB: so pointing [domain] at the linode server, it nailed me for $40
[8/25/17, 7:24:17 AM] Ebi: gotcha, so i need to pay you back for that
[8/25/17, 7:24:17 AM] NB: I don't expect you to pay for it, but I was hoping we could work something out at least, because I was due to use that money at the pharmacy for my son's prescription, and well... I couldn't.
[8/27/17, 12:07:14 AM] NB: So... I'm not trying to make you pay more or anything - in fact, right now I wouldn't accept more money from you
[8/27/17, 12:07:39 AM] NB: But it's going to take a good 2-3... maybe more, of effort into getting it in there [8/27/17, 12:08:01 AM] NB: Make sense? (He says he wouldn't accept any more money...then a few lines down wants to charge me $60???).
[8/27/17, 12:10:56 AM] Ebi: oh no :((
[8/27/17, 12:11:05 AM] Ebi: by 2-3 do you mean hours??
[8/27/17, 12:11:08 AM] NB: Yes
[8/27/17, 12:11:27 AM] NB: I mean... ugh, I don't want to leave you hanging like this either. :(
[8/27/17, 12:11:55 AM] NB: I especially don't wish to see someone else do it for you, and maybe not do as a good a job, or charge you a lot of money
[8/27/17, 12:12:45 AM] NB: I can't not put that time on the books, my team will know of it
[8/27/17, 12:12:58 AM] NB: I'm trying to think here
[8/27/17, 12:13:55 AM] NB: If I charged you $60 for the job, that'd be like charging you between $15 and $25-ish per hour, depending on how many hours it ended up taking (At this point I've already paid $178. Another $60 would total to $228, so $28 over the original "updated" budget. If he has as much experience as he says he does (23 years apparently), shouldn't he be able to understand the problem by this time and charge one flat fee?).
[8/27/17, 12:14:21 AM] NB: That'd be the most I could charge you and not feel liek i was being a jerk, and it would be the least I could charge you without being accused of giving out freebies
[8/27/17, 12:14:23 AM] NB: :(
[8/27/17, 12:15:07 AM] NB: I'm trying to be helpful - you helped me out a bit the other day by trusting me before the site was installed
[8/27/17, 12:15:38 AM] NB: You'd said before that the old data wasn't that big of a deal... I'm guessing you changed your mind on that? (Note: didn't he say he thought it was a good idea to get the old data back??)
[8/27/17, 12:15:44 AM] NB: It's ok, just curious, that's all
[8/27/17, 12:29:21 AM] Ebi: i’m not sure what to say **** :( i know your time is really valuable but it’s way more than i was expecting to restore the site honestly… i know your situation is tough right now but mine is pretty difficult too :((
[8/27/17, 12:29:45 AM] Ebi: the old data is pretty important since i spent a lot of time working on it all so i was hoping i’d be able to keep it going
[8/27/17, 12:30:58 AM] Ebi: normally in this case i’d just ask for a refund and try to deal with the remains of what’s left but i don’t feel comfortable asking for one since you’re in a difficult place right now but i don’t think i can afford any more :/
At this point I was feeling disappointed because I had already spent 50+60+28+40 (178) for the website and wasn't getting anywhere. I simply wasn't willing to spend another $60 on guaranteed results, especially since I had initially been quoted $50-100. Instead I decided to try and fix my site again and lo and behold, it works fine--I got it up and running within 2 hours. Pretty good for a newbie, huh?
I asked for a refund since there were no results for $179, and he said he wasn't willing to give it to me. I don't feel comfortable paying for services that I haven't actually received and started a Paypal dispute + messaged him on Skype.
Honestly I don't care about getting the money back, it's the fact that he kept repeatedly asking for more money and saying he needed it for his son. One of my clients (I'm a freelance writer) also had the trouble of working with him and has apparently spent almost $1000 with him, also paid with friends and family. What surprises me is that he says he really needs money, but he also has other clients besides me--if that's the case, where is all that going?
Anyways, this is just a general warning on someone I had the displeasure to deal with. Make sure you never ever ever use Friends & Family with strangers that you don't know. $200 still isn't so bad--I feel worse for my friend who has $1000-ish in the hole. If you want his email/name/etc just let me know :)
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