Hi There -
While I didn't hire Patrick Garman to host my site, I did hire him (through a recommendation from a friend who worked with him) to develop a website for me on Feb 17th. From the beginning I felt the way he wanted to be paid (Western Union) seemed a bit strange. However, he came with recommendations, so I put that aside. Shortly after sending him an initial deposit, he told me he would be commencing work on my site.
For the next two months, it was very difficult to communicate with him. He only provided a Google Voice number which seem to always route to voicemail, and he would take up to 6 days to respond to emails. Sensing that I might need to project manage a bit, I required that we set up two progress report phone calls per week. This didn't last long, as he failed to call me, didn't answer, or made excuses and rescheduled.
On March 31st I sent him the first of two termination letters:Hi Patrick -
I'm writing because, at this point, I feel I'm going to need to terminate our working relationship and fine someone else to do the development.
As you know, I had a rough experience working with my previous developer, which set me back three months. It's now been a month since I sent you our initial payment, and I haven't seen any work done on the site.
Overall, I feel it's been difficult to stay in contact with you, and I don't have a sense for what work is being done, so it's hard for me to justify continuing this project.
If something drastic was to change, I'd be open to finishing the project out, but at this point it might just be best for you to refund me, and we'll just say no harm, no fowl.
Thanks,
Dan For the first time, I got a prompt response from him, which stated:
Hello Daniel,
I'm sorry about the (not so) open line of communication between us about the project. I know you had issues with that and many other things previously in getting the job done. I had completely forgot yesterday was Thursday and we had our call scheduled -- again sorry I missed it. I'm not home right now but before we do terminate everything I'd like to get what I have done online and then we could arrange a call for tomorrow afternoon when I am available to talk on the phone and I can show you what I've got. I'd really like to keep working with you and will be sure to be more open with communication. The problem is that my phone isn't a real phone -- it's just Google voice routed through Gmail. Unfortunately unless I am at the computer that means I don't get my calls.
Again really sorry about all this -- I know what you went through before and really did not mean to make you feel like that was happening again.
Thanks,
Patrick Garman Willing to understand that "life happens," I agreed (on April 5th) to give him a final go at the project, with a firm deadline of April 14th. I simply let him know that I needed the project up and running by then, as I was working against a deadline. He agreed to that deadline.
April 8th was the last time I spoke with him, this time it was on the phone. He seemed confident he'd meet the deadline, and we left it at that. However, April 14th rolled around, and the website was not delivered. I tried emailing him a few times, and calling him… and finally sent him a final termination notice:
Hi Patrick -
After four phone calls, and two emails, I've not heard back from you. You also missed the deadline of April 14th launch. At this point, I'm terminating the project.
I'll expect a full refund within 24 hours of this email. Please send the refund to my Paypal account, hello@danieldelaney.com
Sorry this didn't work out.
Thanks,
Dan Since that email, I've sent around 5 more emails, and called around 10 times, leaving voicemails each time. He has not responded to me at all, and seems to be forwarding my calls directly to voicemail. Also, at this point, I've brought on my lawyer who's going to help me recoup the money that I paid him, for work he never delivered.
I'm not trying to encourage others to NOT work with Patrick, because he seems like a nice person. However, I think it's important to post this so others might proceed with a bit of caution, and don't find themselves in the same mess I'm in.
Of course, if someone has additional content information for him, I'd love to get in touch and try and recoup my payments.
Thanks for listening,
Dan |
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