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RentACoder nightmare

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Zeeble

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A project of mine went into arbitration in May this year after the coder had made insufficient progress.

It dragged on for absolutely months. I was forfeited twice, and twice a senior arbitrator admitted that a mistake had been made and that the arbitration should be reopened.

RentACoder says in it's contract that if a dispute arises, they test the deliverables to decide what percentage of the project had been completed.
During a period of 5 months, no testing on the deliverables had taken place and Rafeek Kulkarni (the arbitrator) had not even got the point of finalising what the deliverables should be. I was disguisted.

Then, about 1 week ago I had computer problems. My computer went bust and it took three days to fix during which time I was required to respond to the arbitration. I responded, but as it turned out I was a few hours late in responding.

RentACoder immediately used this as an excuse to have me forfeit the arbitration for a breach of the contract, which they claimed would delay the arbitration (the contract says that you have 3 days to reply). I had no way of notifying RentACoder of the problems.
All of the money was sent to the coder and I didn't get a single penny back even though the coder had completed only a small amount.

What really annoyed me was the fact that RentACoder would not be flexible at all in terms of my lateness, they said that it was against the contract and therefore I had forfeited. However, I had responded on Thursday Sep 14, 2006 6:03:25 PM Rafeek then responded on Friday Sep 15, 2006 9:30:59 AM 15 hours later! Yet they have the audacity to say that I held the arbitration up.
At one point during the arbitration it actually took Rafeek more than 7 days to reply to a comment made, yet I wasn't allowed an extensions of less than a day due to unforseen circumstances thus loosing me over $300.

To sum up:
An arbitration with NO PROGRESS lasting 5 months.
A loss of $300 due to a slight delay which was explained.
Numerous mistakes on behalf of RentACoder (self admitted)
Arbitrators taking more than 7 days to reply.
Copy and paste answers with no real understanding of the situation.


If you want to avoid all of the above, DO NOT USE RENTACODER.

I have reported them to BBB and SquareTrade, although I doubt I will get any money back. I just wanted to make people beware that their arbitration system is useless and wastes a lot of time.

RentACoder actually said that my arbitration lasted for a record amount of time, and at one point Ian Ipolitto had to step in to say that Rafeek had forfeited me wrongly and to reopen the arbitration.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Yah.. I am sorry you had to go through that but that wasn't the first post about bad things when dealing with RentACoder.

I suggest Namepros or try GetAFreelancer..

- Steve
 
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is there anything in the contract that states the maximum length of time an arbitration can take or the maximum time they are allowed to take to respond?
 
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filth@flexiwebhost said:
is there anything in the contract that states the maximum length of time an arbitration can take or the maximum time they are allowed to take to respond?


Thanks for the responses, rep will be left.

They don't have anything in their contract about how long they have to reply or how long an arbitration should take.

In my view, a highly unethical company to deal with.

It seems as though they rely solely in copy and paste answers to save on time and money and then try to get the arbitration over with before having to do any testing which will cost them money.
 
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I used them once in the past, and the quality of product was deplorable. But I decided not to go to arbritration due to lack of time and energy, which I'm always certain they favor the wrong party :td: Oh well, guess time to look elsewhere...
 
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I too had a very bad experience with rent a coder. Look elsewhere.
Never use them is my advice.
 
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Thanks for the replies.

Do you know if there are any consumer organisations in the US who can help me? For example in the UK we have Trading Standards.
 
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I did some digging for you.

To answer your question where to turn to file a complaint you could send an email to this address: [email protected] and explain your situation and ask them what you could do about this dilemma.

Or call the Attorney General’s office toll-free by dialing 1-800-451-1525, or, if outside the state or if in the Richmond area, by dialing (804) 786-2116.

Complaints about general businesses that do NOT operate in Virginia:

You should contact the Attorney General’s Office in the state where the Company’s headquarters are located for information about where to file a complaint in that state. To quickly locate the web site of another Attorney General, simply log on to the National Association of Attorneys General web site by clicking here: National Association of Attorneys General web site , Choose the state you wish and then click on the underlined name of the Attorney General to go directly to the web site for that Attorney General’s Office.

And of course BBB was already a good start to report this issue.
 
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Thank you very much. I've submitted complaints to BBB and SquareTrade. I will submit complaints to the organisations that you've provided me with tonight.

It's not so much about the $300 that I've lost anymore, but about making sure this doesn't happen again. RentACoder are a nightmare to deal with and someone needs to ensure that they change the way that they deal with customers.

Damion said:
I did some digging for you.

To answer your question where to turn to file a complaint you could send an email to this address: [email protected] and explain your situation and ask them what you could do about this dilemma.

Or call the Attorney General’s office toll-free by dialing 1-800-451-1525, or, if outside the state or if in the Richmond area, by dialing (804) 786-2116.

Complaints about general businesses that do NOT operate in Virginia:

You should contact the Attorney General’s Office in the state where the Company’s headquarters are located for information about where to file a complaint in that state. To quickly locate the web site of another Attorney General, simply log on to the National Association of Attorneys General web site by clicking here: National Association of Attorneys General web site , Choose the state you wish and then click on the underlined name of the Attorney General to go directly to the web site for that Attorney General’s Office.

And of course BBB was already a good start to report this issue.
 
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I agree, I had a similar issue so i can feel your pain ;)
 
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Zeeble said:
A project of mine went into arbitration in May this year after the coder had made insufficient progress.
I have found this project via google: PHP and MySQL Development

We have worked successfully before. I've solved Emergency - 2 small problems

My 80-day arbitration has ended today. Sometimes arbitrator (Rafeek Kulkarni) was not fast in his responses.
But I'm still confident: RentACoder's arbitration protects me from buyers with bad intentions.

I have found an interesting research: Rentacoder.com – How Coders win arbitrations !
 
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TakeReal.com said:
I have found this project via google: PHP and MySQL Development

We have worked successfully before. I've solved Emergency - 2 small problems

My 80-day arbitration has ended today. Sometimes arbitrator (Rafeek Kulkarni) was not fast in his responses.
But I'm still confident: RentACoder's arbitration protects me from buyers with bad intentions.

I have found an interesting research: Rentacoder.com – How Coders win arbitrations !

Thank you for saying that we have succesfully worked together before.

I am not confident that RentACoder can protect in anything which requires any testing at all which is not a graphical or non hard coding testing was I do not believe it is their intention to do so as it takes a long time.

And 80 day arbitration is terrible, it shouldn't take that long. They take a long time to reply, and when they do it is a "copy and paste" answer which hasn't been thought out and 50% of the time (in my experience) bears almost no relation to the comment that it is supposed to be responding to.
 
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I sent a message to the BBB detaling my problems and this is the response from RentACoder;

"Mr. Behr agreed to respond in 3 business day or forfeit the arbitration. And that is what happened. We lived up to the contract, and Mr. Behr must do so as well.

Mr. Behr's situation is similar to an althalete who competes in a long jump competition. Every althalete agrees in advance that he will not jump over the line (or he will forfeit). Mr. Behr is like an athalete who crossed the line, and then complained that the judges were biased against him, the sun was in his eyes, and that he was so much better than the other competitors but wasn't given a fair chance. In the end a "forfeit" means exactly what it means...that nothing else matters and the arbitration is over.

BBB, please verify Mr. Behr's contract per the site link and confirm that per Mr. Behr's own words he did not reply in time. His legal contract was fufilled as he agreed and he has no legitimate issue here.

-----------------------
Further it has come to my attention that Mr. Behr has posted libelous statements concering this arbitration on the internet. My UK solicitor informs me that the law in the UK is even more strict against this type of fraud than in the U.S.. Mr. Behr is hereby notified to expect papers from that solicitor shortly."

I find their response totally insulting, but apart from that, isn't a libelous comment defined as the following:
In English and American law, and systems based on them, libel and slander are two forms of defamation (or defamation of character), which is the tort or delict of making a false statement of fact that injures someone's reputation.

I have not made any false statements, and I shall be informing them that I welcome any legal action.

This is a further warning not to do business with a highly unethical business (in my eyes, from what I have experienced).
 
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to be honest if it went to court here in the UK it would probably be thrown out, although they did not have in the contract regarding the maximum time they have to respond the contract would I assume be deemed to be unfair and they were unfairly taking their time.
 
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filth@flexiwebhost said:
to be honest if it went to court here in the UK it would probably be thrown out, although they did not have in the contract regarding the maximum time they have to respond the contract would I assume be deemed to be unfair and they were unfairly taking their time.

I just think that they are being totally unethical, and are trying to bully me into withdrawing the information that I have posted for the benefit of others on this forum.

I have no doubt that they will request that forum staff remove this thread, however I sincerely hope that it remains here as a warning.

I will fight to get my money back so that I can show I have won my case, and once that has happened I will make several press releases to different sources in order to make sure that this story travels.

At the moment they are witholding certain information to do with the arbitration which documents their mistakes and which are stated by Ian Ippolito (CEO of Exhedra). I suspect that they shall claim that it has been "deleted" and is "unrecoverable" so that they do not need to address the issue.

I shall invite RentACoder to post here in order to disprove what I have said, but again, I suspect that they shall decline because contrary to what they have said, I have not been libelous and I have slandered their name in anyway. I have stated what has happened, and also voiced some of my opinions, however, I have not misrepresented any of the facts.
 
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Quite a development Colin.
Good luck!
 
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good luck - hope you get your money back!
 
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Thanks.

I just cannot believe the audacity of this company. They claim to protect buyers, yet they do just the opposite.
 
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Zeeble (a.k.a. Colin, Colin Behr),

Libel is the making of a false statement that unjustly injures the reputation of another party. A statement can be false because of information provided incorrectly, or because of information deliberately omitted to make it give the incorrect impression.

There are so many libelous statements here that it would take hours to point them all out. I will limit myself to the top 4:

1) Deliberately Omitted information:
The gist of this thread is that you are complaining that RAC held you to a 3 day response deadline for responding and forfeited you when you didn't. Ignoring the fact that this is what RAC said it would do in your contract (and what you agreed to)...you completely omitted the fact that RAC actually DID grant you such an extension. You deliberately neglected to include the fact that the incident you referred to was actually the SECOND time you didn't respond in 3 days (not the FIRST time). And you deliberately neglected to include the fact that RAC granted you an extension past the 3 days, per the following:

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Tuesday Jul 4, 2006 2:54:44 AM (Arbitration Response Id: 383,278)
From: Rafeek Kulkarni (RAC) (Arbitrator) (Is counted in arb. stats)
To: nelliehardy2003 --Colin Behr (buyer),bgeorge (coder)
Colin
By not responding with the information requested, you are now in default of your Buyer contract which states: Buyer agrees to be prompt in corresponding with Seller and Exhedra, including final acceptance of 'Work Complete'. Should a Buyer not respond to Exhedra arbitration communication in 3 days, they will forfeit arbitration (at Exhedra's sole discretion). Should a Buyer respond in 3 days but (in Exhedra's sole determination) attempt to stall the arbitration by inadequately addressing one or more issues, then they may also be ruled in forfeit of the arbitration (at Exhedra's sole discretion). Should a Buyer not fully comply with Exhedra requests to either certify Work Complete or produce a flaw list within 5 business days, they will forfeit the arbitration at Exhedra's discretion.

The fairest arbitration decisions occur when both sides fully present their version of events. For that reason only, it is site policy to grant one (but ONLY ONE) extension...but only if that party responded previously to us. Since you have, I am granting that extension to you.

Please provide all the information previously requested in 3 business days so that arbitration can continue. Site policy does NOT allow for a 2nd extension, so if you do not reply (or do not provide everything previously requested in you reply) then I will be invoking the forfeiture clause in your contract and awarding arbitration to the other party. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

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So the reality of the situation is that you WERE given an extension, and at the time were warned that "Site policy does NOT allow for a 2nd extension". It was no surprise to you in anyway that when you repeated this a 2nd time, you were forfeited. Yet you deliberately omitted this incident from this thread, to give the reader the false impression that RAC was infexible. In fact, it was flexible and the true issue is that you are a repeat offender. This deliberate omission of information was intended purely to unfairly damage the reputation of Rent a Coder.

2) Deliberately misleading numbers: "However, I had responded on Thursday Sep 14, 2006 6:03:25 PM Rafeek then responded on Friday Sep 15, 2006 9:30:59 AM 15 hours later! Yet they have the audacity to say that I held the arbitration up."

The above implies that since RAC took 15 hours to respond to the arbitration, it held the arbitration up, and not you. In fact, using your own numbers, RAC took only 30 minutes to respond......not 15 hours as you incorrectly stated. Arbitrators can only respond when they are physically at work, during the hours of 9am-5pm. You posted after working hours on 5pm and received a response at 9:30am the next morning. That is a 30 minute reply time.

Yet you deliberately alleged 15 hours had passed and implied that RAC "held the arbitration up". This is a deliberately misleading statement. You claimed RAC "had the audicity" to claim you held the arbitration up. In fact the only audicity is yours for deliberately twisting the facts in this manner.

Again you are unjustly damaging the reputation of RAC.

3) Deliberately false statement: "What really annoyed me was the fact that RentACoder would not be flexible at all in terms of my lateness."
As described already in #1 RAC was indeed flexible in terms of your lateness. You simply chose to deliberately omit it. You were given a one time exception, and repeated the problem by not responding in your pre-agreed upon time twice.

Your statement is deliberately intended to unfairly damage the reputation of Rent a Coder.

4) Misleading logic

You alleged the lack of response was due to a computer problem and this justisifed an exception for you. There's no way to know if you really had computer problems or not. In the arbitration, you alleged you were late becuase you didn't realize the deadline was EST and not GMT (even though EST was written on the deadline and the site tells you that all site deadlines are in EST. Perhaps both were true (and perhaps one or neither is).

Giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you really did have computer problems:
3a) You live in a country where internet access is ubiquitous. Most people have internet access at work or a friend. Even if you are unemployed and have no friends, there are still numerous internet cafes, libraries, etc. where you can access the internet...IF YOU WANT TO.
3b) You already knew from your contract, and the previous extension (described in #2) that if you didn't respond in 3 days you would not receive a 2nd extension.
3c) You still did not respond by the deadline.

You had the ability to respond but chose not to. You knew you would forfeit this 2nd time and not receive an extension and yet claimed RAC is at fault for this. This logic is deliberately misleading and intended only to unfairly damage the reputation of Rent a Coder.

4) Deliberately false statement: "It seems as though they rely solely on copy and paste answers to save on time and money"

There are SOME copy and paste things in your arbitration becuase they apply to all arbitrations (openings, closings, etc.). But they account for less than 10% of the content. "Solely" means 100%...and "solely" is not accurately. This is another statement that is completely false and only intended to unfairly damage the reputation of Rent a coder.

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Summary:
1) You agreed in your contract that you would respond in 3 days or forfeit
2) You did not do so. RAC gave you an exception but warned you that "site policy does not allow for a 2nd extension"
3) You again did not respond in 3 days. You were forfeited per the above and your contract.
4) If your computer was truly down you had other ways to respond, but chose not to use them.
 
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Thank you for you're reply.

I would like to point out the following:

The arbitration lasted months, my first lateness was more than 2 months prior to my knowledge. It is therefore rediculous that you describe it as entirely my fault considering that RAC made no real effort to make a move towards testing the deliverables throughout the entire arbitration.

My first lateness was whilst I was in Germany on holiday, by which point the arbitration had been going for some time. So the fact that there was a second lateness isn't really unnexpected considering that amount of time that the arbitration spans. The longer the arbitration, the more likely that something is going to happen.

The above implies that since RAC took 15 hours to respond to the arbitration, it held the arbitration up, and not you. In fact, using your own numbers, RAC took only 30 minutes to respond......not 15 hours as you incorrectly stated. Arbitrators can only respond when they are physically at work, during the hours of 9am-5pm. You posted after working hours on 5pm and received a response at 9:30am the next morning. That is a 30 minute reply time.

Thank you for you're totally twisted logic. My point was that I did not hold the arbitration up anyway as I was expected to respond out of hours anyway. Therefore it did take RAC to respond 15 hours regardless of whether that was in or out of working hours.

What I am particularly unhappy about is the fact that you are accusing me of misleading you.
That is untrue.
I replied late (hours, not days) as I assumed (I have already explained this to you) that my computer would a) be ready in time and b) I am not familiar with EST and go by GMT.
Also, I did not say that I thought it was GMT, I just assumed that I would be in time because I am not familiar with EST. Do not call me a liar.

Now, finally, you must have spent a while trawling through what I have said, but you have still not explained WHY it took so long to do even just talk about testing, and where there were so many mistakes made on your part. I doubt you will answer those questions..........

Here is the latest reply from RAC on BBB:

I explained in my first response that Mr. Behr forfeited for not responding in 3 days, and that per his contract it meant he forfeited. Mr. Behr himself has just confirmed in his last response that he did not respond in 3 days.

BBB, please confirm that the following quote is indeed located in Mr. Behr's contract by going to
http://www.rentacoder.com/RentACoder/SoftwareBuyers/SoftwareBuyerLegal.asp

"Buyer agrees to be prompt in corresponding with Seller and Exhedra...should a Buyer not respond to Exhedra arbitration communication in 3 days, they will forfeit arbitration."

After confirming, you have everything you need to confirm Mr. Behr's action as a nonsense complaint. Please then act appropriately for the situation after you confirm it. Thank you.

Great, I just lost $300 after a arbitration which wasted at least 5 days worth of man hours for me, which also went over more than 3 months, yet it's just a "nonsense complaint".

Utterly rediculous.
 
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*withdraws his product from RAC*

Bloody shocking.
 
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I totally agree that RentACoder is a nightmare, and the Arbitrage THING is waste of time and energy.

When I was giving arbitrage I was so frustrated that I just deleted my account ... open one at scriptlance.com it is free and the best!

Elance.com is not free but another great one.

Karl
 
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Colin Behr (a.k.a Zeeble),

That was quite a response. The logic is so thin, that it's a better rebuttal to what you've written above, than anything else that could be added.

Back to the point: The exception you're complaining about in a huff on this thread, was already given to you. You omitted that important fact when you posted here, to gain their sympathy. Had you told them the truth, they would have been questioning you and your motives, rather than giving you sympathy. You did this to unfairly damage the reputation of Rent a Coder. Doing this is a crime. You are going to be held accountable for that omission, as well as all the others.

RAC

SmithKarl,

You've made a negative claim about the arbitration process on Rent a Coder. And yet you won't identify yourself.

How do we know that you simply aren't a competitor that is taking free, anonomous potshots (especially since you are promoting competitors in your postings)? How do we know you did not lose arbitration fairly and simply have "sour grapes"?

I challenge you to post your Rent a Coder profile and/or id here, and once you do, I pledge that the arbitration details URL will be posted on this board for all to see.

Humans do make mistakes. So if you were really wronged, then RAC will apologize to you formally on this forum and correct the mistake. On the other hand, if you are not being completely truthful, then you need to agree to apologize for your untrue statements and retract them publicly on this board. There's nothing for you to lose if you're being truthful...right SmithKarl?

The only good reason to decline this, would be if you are being untruthful, SmithKarl. I am waiting for you to post your information so this can happen. You can also email the information to the facilitator at RAC and this process will move forward.

RAC
 
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Legal said:
Colin Behr (a.k.a Zeeble),

That was quite a response. The logic is so thin, that it's a better rebuttal to what you've written above, than anything else that could be added.

Back to the point: The exception you're complaining about in a huff on this thread, was already given to you. You omitted that important fact when you posted here, to gain their sympathy. Had you told them the truth, they would have been questioning you and your motives, rather than giving you sympathy. You did this to unfairly damage the reputation of Rent a Coder. Doing this is a crime. You are going to be held accountable for that omission, as well as all the others.

RAC

SmithKarl,

You've made a negative claim about the arbitration process on Rent a Coder. And yet you won't identify yourself.

How do we know that you simply aren't a competitor that is taking free, anonomous potshots (especially since you are promoting competitors in your postings)? How do we know you did not lose arbitration fairly and simply have "sour grapes"?

I challenge you to post your Rent a Coder profile and/or id here, and once you do, I pledge that the arbitration details URL will be posted on this board for all to see.

Humans do make mistakes. So if you were really wronged, then RAC will apologize to you formally on this forum and correct the mistake. On the other hand, if you are not being completely truthful, then you need to agree to apologize for your untrue statements and retract them publicly on this board. There's nothing for you to lose if you're being truthful...right SmithKarl?

The only good reason to decline this, would be if you are being untruthful, SmithKarl. I am waiting for you to post your information so this can happen. You can also email the information to the facilitator at RAC and this process will move forward.

RAC

You talk about others identifying themselves, but who are you?

All the facts are here to see...........!

As I have said to you before, I welcome any letters from you solicitor as I have done nothing wrong. You can threaten me as often as you like, however I will still continue to fight my case.

I would also like to point out that you have been very much unwilling to release the arbitration text to me, which in the UK actually contravenes the data protection act as it is data being held concerning myself, and therefore I have a right to view it.

You have not even responded to my post properly, as you have not addressed the issue that I have raised. Simply fobbed it off.

Again, during the whole arbitration, why were the deliverables NOT TESTED?!!!!!!!!! Will you please answer that.

What about the self admitted mistakes made by you?

Please post the full arbitration as it would be seen by anyone (free of comments) so that people can judge the situation for themselves.
 
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Well, i just got something to say - it takes software project management skills to work on RAC, so far, i've not encountered any serious problems with RAC after 80 project.

Some tips i like to share:

1. Make sure you award the project to people with at least 5 ratings (preferably 10, but not less than 9.6). The best jobs are done by coders with at least 30 ratings and having an average rating of at least 9.6.

2. Do not accept any bids, however low, if the coder does not have rating or does not meet point 1.

3. Do not award a project immediately after a formal bid is made. First, clarify the details of the project, and ask the coder to provide a detailed proposal on what he will deliver. If the coder refuses to share more info, he is probably a difficult person to deal with - look for another guy. Once you have sorted out the details, update the bid request and only then, confirm the project.

4. Do not be afraid to ask for arbitration the moment you smell a rat - if coder is not consistent in his reports, or keeps on giving excuses like, "sorry, i was away on the weekend" or "my computer is spoilt", etc, the moment the dateline has passed and no deliverable has been made, ask for arbitration to cancel the project.
 
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