[webproducers] Re: We're so cool you should work for free! (WILL SOMEBODY SHOOT ME NOW!)

Great, more horror stories. It's disgusting.

--- Kari <kari@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> | About the only thing that kept me from slitting my wrists
> was
> | the fact that early-on in the process, I got them to sign an
> | agreement that prevented them from using any of my ideas or
> | design concepts for their web site just in case they were
> | fucking around.
> 
> The government can be just as bad. The State of Washington -
> in particular
> the Dept of Health is terrible with IT contractors. They had
> me wipe my
> slate clean to take on an emergency project (I subcontracted
> through a
> horrible agency I hadn't worked through before) -- after
> turning down other
> contracts to do this, cancelled a vacation, even upgrading my
> laptop for
> this "rush job" the person in charge took a job with another
> agency and they
> scrapped it, about 3 weeks into the job. There was no "kill
> fee" written
> into the contract. Then to add insult to injury, the agency I
> subscontracted
> for had overbilled the agency and got caught -- stopped
> payment on my last
> check of almost $3,000.00 (we didn't know this until week
> after it had been
> deposited and mostly spent). So then I had no last paycheck
> and no job lined
> up. They caught her overbilling because I honestly reported my
> hours to both
> sources as I was instructed to do in my contract. (I had no
> idea this other
> company was overbilling). Even though the State found her in
> error and not
> me -- I was the one who suffered the financial hardship.
> 
> When I produced websites for Access WA government state web
> sites they
> pulled a few slick and no doubt illegal moves. I had an IT
> contract vendor
> number that I applied for the contract with and worked under.
> It took them 5
> months for me to get my first check. During the process of
> finding out why
> it was taking so long I found out that they placed my contract
> through
> another vendor. (because they could pay me less through their
> contract). I
> didn't want to make a huge deal out of it because the money
> was good and I
> didn't want to lose the contract completely. However, nobody
> bothered to
> tell me when the company failed to renew their contract with
> the state. The
> agency that produces Websites for the state does not receive
> funding -- they
> receive their money through the individual agencies they
> produced Web sites
> for (through the public relations budget). Individual state
> agencies were
> not required to go through this other state agency for web
> production. After
> they stopped contracting with the company I was contracting
> through that
> pretty much put them on the Web they accepted "competitive"
> bids from other
> state agency employee's running Web design businesses on their
> own. This
> would include an employee who make PR decisions for the
> state's second
> largest agency! I didn't even bother to continue with my bid
> when I saw
> that. I also didn't want to wait 5 months for a paycheck
> again.
> 
> I can be blatantly honest about this here and now because I
> would not
> contract with the State of Washington under any circumstances
> after what I
> have experienced and learned from others with similar
> experiences. However
> that does not detract from the importance of the fact that I
> did not cover
> myself contractually. Yes the bad check and I can collect on
> but I should
> have covered myself contractually better. Nothing in the
> contracts said they
> could do what they did but nothing said they couldn't either.
> 
> Kari
> 
> 
>
__________________________________________________________________________
> To unsubscribe send a blank message with unsubscribe in the
> subject to webproducers-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> To access our webform (instead of sending e-mail) for popular
> commands including subscribe, unsubscribe, digest, and
> vacation  visit  www.WebProducers.org. You can also access the
> list archive at the website.
> 
> Questions and comments are welcome just e-mail me,
morry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


=====
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.arifeldman.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free
http://sbc.yahoo.com
__________________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe send a blank message with unsubscribe in the subject to 
webproducers-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

To access our webform (instead of sending e-mail) for popular commands 
including subscribe, unsubscribe, digest, and vacation  visit  
www.WebProducers.org. You can also access the list archive at the website.

Questions and comments are welcome just e-mail me, morry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Other related posts: