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Comment by vaksel | Hacker News Reader

Simple...sue him.

Dude I'm in your exact situation...hired someone to do a project, and he is now a year late. I gave the guy concession after concession just to get him to finish...hell I cut about 70% of the features just to have him finish quicker. And told him...as long as he finish quickly I'd waive the late fees.

You can't work with these people...even after all my concessions the guy still gave me major attitude when I demanded that he hurry up or I'll sue him.

So Monday I'm getting the lawyers involved. Not sure about your situation, but I had my guy sign a contract that specified late fees. So its a little easier to sue him, since the late fees will more than cover lawyer fees. Of course since you have a smaller amount, you can try your luck at small claims court.

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> Simple...sue him.

I beg to differ. As an entrepreneur, this path would cost time and money. $2500 can't be such a big deal. Also, you'll never get support for the code by anybody else. As a programmer, I'd never work for anybody who sued a fellow programmer over disagreements (only possible case for excuse of this: trojan inside the code or backdoor.) You are part responsible because you hired the programmer,

Next time perhaps you should use a site like rentacoder, elance, or topcoder. And learn first how people use it, it is a tool to help you out, not a one-click solution.

So whats your solution to getting the programmer to finish a 1-2 month project that's a year late?

Don't. Restart from scratch. If you continue with this programmer, he'll never support your code anyway.

Thats what I'm saying. I'm not saying sue him to get him to finish, I'm saying sue him to recover the money.

You're assuming several things:

1. That he has money to pay. 2. That he will pay the money he's ordered to pay. 3. That he will pay that money in a timely fashion.

Bottom-line, this person is not going to give you a product that you're happy with and definitely not on the timeframe you need. Go ahead and file a small-claims case against the person but count the money gone.

There's lots of good advice on here about what to do, raise the cash again, hire a good programmer using the advice given above and below this and move on. Don't waste any more time pleading, threatening, or talking to this guy. Sue him and put it in the past, count the money gone. If you ever get any of it back, apply it to something different, server costs, etc.

Honestly? $2,500 is a very, very cheap price to pay for everything you've learned here. Learn from it and how to avoid this situation in the future (plan out all contingencies ON PAPER with the person ahead of time.)

Exactly.

Does your contract with engineer cover the very likely case of the project being delayed? I mean, most projects out there are subject to delays or budget overruns. Writing software is unpredictable business. If your contract does not make any provisions about this, that's very unfortunate but I'm sure you won't make the same mistake next time.

If your contract does cover it, then what you're entitled to is specified therein. Trying to reverse engineer the software so you can sidestep these provisions is very questionable, and would also expose you to litigation.

> Simple...sue him.

That's probably not going to help the OP achieve what he really wants, getting his software finished.

The programmer he hired agreed to do the work for about $8 / hour. Not sure a lawsuit can possibly make sense from an economic perspective since people that work for near minimum wage don't have a lot of extra cash to cough up for monetary damages.

Neither will waiting for the current guy to finish. If someone took his project seriously they'd be done in a couple of weeks, couple of months tops. What he needs to do is look back at his guy's performance in the last couple of months, and see if that level would be enough to get him over the finish line.

I'm very tempted to get the lawyers involved, but that will be expensive, take a long time and might not be worth it.

Sounds like you have a similar problem, at least Im not the only one.

I waived any late fees ( I didn't even mention them) and offered him bonuses if he finished within a certain date (he didnt but hes still demanding them).

Its amazing how angry he gets when I ask in the politest way possible that he show me some progress, even when he's 6 months late!

You don't need a lawyer for small claims court. You just pay the small fee(something like 20 bucks) and you get to present your case in front of a judge. And the small claims court case really won't take that much time. Chances are, you'll be presenting your case within 3-4 weeks.

I would give your guy the ultimatum right now. If your experience is anything like mine, it'll be faster for you to hire a replacement(who'll be paid upon completion) to finish the site from scratch, than it'll take your current guy to finish.

You might be able to get a debt collection agency involved. I don't think debt collectors charge a lot in up front fees, and they probably work fast.

It sounds like you are really thinking about just forgetting about it. That might be a good idea, getting your app or money may not be worth the money.

But before you do, check to see if there are any fast and efficient things you can do to collect. Small claims court might work out. Would a lawyer be willing to take your case for a large percentage of the money, and no payment upfront? It might not work, but it will at least give you a chance to get your app without putting in a significant amount of time.

I found an ebook with tips for collecting business debts, so the ebook will probably have a lot of information you can use. http://www.viacorp.com/DebtBook.html

Edit: I just realized looking through the book that you can petition a court, this might include small claims court, to send the case to arbitration. Arbitration has a lot of downsides for the consumer. The results heavily favor the plaintiff, and the defendant usually pays the fees if found guilty. But all of that is good here.

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