software@aaroncraig.com
maremma.mercutio@gmail.com
info@aaroncraig.com
http://www.aaroncraig.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/aacraig
http://www.myspace.com/m3rqto
http://www.facebook.com/s.php?k=100000080&id=625570029&sid=03c013a52feb91505b665934895b636a
Aaron Craig lives in Florence, Italy
Aaron responded to our ad on Guru.com
He “seemed” knowledgeable and very personable, so I screened him & hired him.
At first I got him to do some work on our Admin Database.
After he had worked on that for a couple of months, we discussed him doing another larger programming project for us.
Him & I signed a contract back in Oct. of 2007 detailing the payment plan for creating our application using PHP. We also gave him a $2,000 deposit and there was a deadline he chose himself for March of 2008.
We were to make another few payments after receiving the application once the application started to generate income.
Aaron didn’t start the project until Nov. 2007 I believe this was because it took us a couple of months to send the database outline back & forth & finalize it.
At first he responded back to all of my e-mails & I liked him a lot as a person.
The deadline of March 2008 came and went and he started to come up with a whole bunch of reasons why the application couldn’t be completed, including not having Internet service for 3 weeks. This went on & on & on & on.
I was very busy with a ton of things, so when I recently went back to look at all the e-mails that went back & forth between Aaron & I, I was amazed at how I let this slide, but Andy was also fixing problems that would crop up with the Admin DB, so I guess I didn’t realize the new application really wasn’t being worked on.
Aaron hadn’t created the original code for the Admin DB, so when he started working on it, he never informed me until one to three months later that it would have been more cost affective to just redo the entire thing from scratch.
We had already sunk $1,000 into the project, so my hands were tied, the application was more important.
What I did notice about the Admin DB was that there ALWAYS seemed to be problems with the areas he fixed. He of course blamed the previous programmer & I accepted that as fact, although knowing what I know now, I was probably working with someone who just wasn’t doing quality work.
Another problem I had with Aaron, is that I’d have to repeat myself over & over again over several weeks just to get these problems fixed. This didn’t happen once or twice, but many times.
Anyway, back to the larger application…
Once Aaron finally ahd something to show me, I started to look inside & I was shocked that a lot of the features hadn’t been installed, & what he had done had a TON of bugs in it. I didn’t like the layout or skin, but he told me there was nothing he could do with that, we could only change colors.
He had failed to ask me what kind of layout I would want prior to him installing it, so it was too late to change any of that. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy, but was hoping a graphic web designer could fix the problem.
This application is supposed to run a website for clients, so eventually Aaron told me we needed website templates to test the application on. That was around August of 2008, 5 months AFTER his deadline.
Aaron had already created his own mockup to test the application on.
I couldn’t find a graphic web designer I liked & I liked Aaron’s mockup template, so I just figured he’d be testing the sytem on that template.
All of a sudden after months & months of waiting & waiting & me not really liking the work I was seeing from a user’s standpoint, Aaron just stopped everything & said he couldn’t work on the application anymore until I had more templates to attach to the application.
I had told him I wanted to launch the system with a minimum of 5 templates, but logically he could have had the entire system functioning with his one template. He didn’t have to wait for me because he knew we would be attaching new templates every month, so there would have had to be an easy way for this to be done.
I later on found out there wasn’t. He hadn’t written up any clear documentation on how exactly the website coder was supposed to attach the templates to the system, he had only given my assistant some documents that detailed the entire application which of course the website coder didn’t need.
Needless to say, I was embarrassed a month ago when a new website coder gave me attitude about how we weren’t prepared with proper documentation. Aaron did manage to make it to a meeting to show him what to do, but later on this conflicted with what my understanding was, & the website coder took off.
Since I’m not an expert on managing a project like this, I didn’t know this had to be done. I had relied upon Aaron (the so called expert) to have everything ready, as he knew all the elements of what the application was supposed to do & who would be working on it.
Even back in August or September after speaking with Aaron on the phone, I still couldn’t understand why he had to just STOP the work until I had these 5 templates done. At this point I was starting to get suspicious, but I was in a bind. I had hired Aaron Craig to do this application, I was stalling clients who wanted it, & he “claimed” he was 90% done, yet it didn’t look 90% done to me. I had no idea what to do, except keep looking for graphic web designers I liked.
Suddenly in November of 2008 Aaron refused to continue working on the Admin DB application. There wasn’t a lot of work to do on it, but there were some things I needed added, & remember that many times he was supposed to fix a bug, he never really did fix it, so I was left with a weak Admin DB.
There was a balance owing to him for that work, but Aaron had never demanded that the balance be paid off in full.
I was always tried to bring the balance down every couple of months, or whenever he asked for a couple of hundred dollars.
Aaron clearly wasn’t concerned about the balance until one day he wrote to me about this other client he had who wasn’t paying him.
I was shocked that he wasn’t going to be working on the Admin DB any longer, I didn’t even understand why this was happening. He rest assured me he would still work on the larger application.
He tried to get me to hire another programmer to work on the Admin DB, & to also help him with the larger application.
I tried to find one, but couldn’t find anyone suitable either in price, code, reliability or communication skills.
I still couldn’t find graphic web designers, so time just kept passing me by.
I started to notice that I had to e-mail Aaron several times because prior work he had done on the Admin DB wasn’t fully completed & he kept saying he wasn’t working on that anymore & I kept saying this isn’t new work, it’s what you did before that needs fixing or touching up. If you do a task, it better be completed properly even if you aren’t working on that project anymore.
Twice I noticed mistakes on this one simple task he had done, yet he kept stalling & wouldn’t fix it. One time it took me 1-2 weeks just to get him to fix one area.
Aaron eventually stopped responding back to e-mails in a quick & timely manner & I realize now that even back in August of 2008 he stood up my assistant when they were to have a meeting. Sometimes it would take multiple e-mails & 1-2 weeks to even get a response.
He seemed to always be working on his theatre or was off on a vacation.
Fast forward to late February 2009, I finally found some graphic web designers.
I was really excited now, we were FINALLY going to finish the application.
I wanted to have a meeting with Aaron, but he wasn’t returning my e-mails. I kept wasting money calling him over & over again (he’s an American living in Italy) & every time I did, he’d have problems with his phones. Once there was a blackout, the stories just go on & on with this guy.
The last straw was when we had second meeting scheduled for a Friday. This was the 2nd time my assistant & I had scheduled this one meeting with Aaron.
Aaron kept trying to schedule the meeting for early in the day, but neither of us could be there & Aaron knew this, he knew we weren’t around until after 2-3 pm EST.
We shouldn’t have to jump around his schedule, he’s the one who doesn’t live in North America.
Getting a time from him was terribly hard, but finally I got one from him.
The day of the meeting Aaron canceled via e-mail 30 minutes before the meeting & I was furious. I had run to my desk just to make the meeting.
To top everyting else off, the week before he had suddenly decided that maybe he should redo the entire application in Drupal since Drupal had come a long way since he started on the application & this way we could continue on with Phase II & III & it would be much easier to add on new features. He was only working on Phase I.
I wanted to know how long this was going to take to redo EVERYTHING & find all the Drupal modules, etc.
Aaron ignored my e-mail questions pertaining to how long this would take.
Then Aaron wanted to potentially hire his brother who lives in the States & was also a programmer & supposedly quiting his job.
You would think I’d get an answer on whether his brother was going to start the work with him, but almost a week later I had to chase again & asked, “so, is your brother going to do the work?” He was like, “I haven’t spoken to him yet.”
Aaron ignored my phone calls & voice mail messages too.
When it was obvious we were no longer important to Aaron & he was probably NEVER going to finish the application even if I had a million templates created, I had my legal guy send him a letter saying either you do the project like a professional & respond to all e-mails & meetings, or tell us you are no longer interested. We will part ways & you will refund us the $2,000 deposit.
When he responded back to my legal counsel’s letter, he lied about everything saying he always responded in a timely manner & made the meetings. (Amazing how quick he is to respond to a legal e-mail.)
Aaron blamed everything on me.
I was in total shock.
This guy who I thought was soooo nice turned out to be the biggest liar & very immature. We all know immature people don’t take responsibility for their mistakes, they blame everyone else. Really these weren’t mistakes, this was, in my opinion, a deliberate attempt to string us along so the work wouldn’t ever get done.
His work response back was that he’d either work with a new programmer I hired to get him up-to-speed, or he’d do the work himself, but ONLY if I put all the money in escrow which of course he knew I couldn’t do.
He tried to claim I wasn’t going to pay the money to him & I was shocked he would say such a thing.
I always pay my bills & I would NEVER hire someone to do a project like this & not pay. I had been putting away money this entire time.
I don’t rip people off, we are just a small company on a tight budget that’s all.
Large companies reneg on their invoices all the time, the size of the company doesn’t matter, what matters is whether the company is ethical & honest.
Aaron had agreed to a payment plan right from the very beginning & he signed a contract. He knew full well clients were waiting on this application (guess what, clients have money), but in the end I realized he had taken us for our money.
He never intended on finishing the application. He was trying to blame me for something that hadn’t even happened so he could get out of his responsibility AND not return our money.
After I read over his e-mail response I said there is no way in hell I can work with this guy or have him taint any new programmer who would come work with the company.
My legal counsel asked for the money back minus the money owed for the Admin DB work.
Aaron wrote him back asking him for a phone meeting.
My legal guy has since e-mailed him twice to set up a time & OF COURSE, you guessed it, Aaron Craig is ONCE AGAIN, not responding back to the e-mails.
Just before this all went down, my assistant tried to log into the application using the last logins I was given months ago, & he could barely log in, let alone see any test data in the application. I myself saw broken code all over the place. It’s a nightmare.
So, we just got ripped off $1,200 & lost 18 months of time not to mention how embarrassing it is to tell clients, “sorry, the application isn’t just slow to completion, it won’t be ready till god knows when.”
And now that I’m researching Aaron Craig online, it’s clear to see all he is doing is his theatre work in Italy.
So he says yes to working on our application & almost the entire time he was really doing his theatre work which I thought was just a hobby, but CLEARLY it isn’t. He told me he was a full time programmer.
I guess this is the type of person the Florence University of the Arts hires, as he was a “professor” there, but it looks like for NOT very long.
Michelle (who wants her $1,200 back to give to another programmer to do the work.)
