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RIPPED OFF by oDesk worker. My lessons and thoughts. (14)

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Just a WARNING for those of you considering using the "server guru" referred to in this thread (http://stmforum.com/forum/showthread...-your-revenues!). If you don't know much about server stuff you have the potential for getting taken for a ride like I did. I think he caught on early that I have no idea wtf I'm doing when it comes to server setup; I trusted him to bill me "fairly" and after not paying close attention for 2 weeks I was shocked to see an oDesk bill of $2100.00, Yes, $2100 FUCKING dollars (he charges $50/hour) to set up 1 CPV Lab server with nginx, and to set up another separate server with cpanel/whm for hosting my dynamic content. This does not include hosting fees btw! For the second server I was billed over $1000 to set up a simple server with Apache 2, and to transfer my email account from my old server. This is all shit that I could have done in less than an hour, or had Liquid Web or another hosting company do for free. He miraculously billed the maximum billable hours every week. Perfect timing I guess……

Anyhow, as hard as it is, I've decided to bite the bullet and take this one up the ass and move on. Even though I could easily call AMEX and have them charge back these invoices, He had access to my login credentials for a few weeks and I have stuff running on this server and I have a feeling that disputing these charges will cost me more in retribution than whatever amount I feel I was ripped off for. I guess it's time to hit up Tyler @ Beyond Hosting and move my shit ASAP.....

What are the lessons I learned from this?

- This is entirely my fault for being a dumbass and believing that someone who stood to benefit from me financially was actually going to be 100% honest with me.
- Watch every penny that goes in and out like a fucking HAWK. I have this problem outside of internet marketing as well; being too lax with money... Sometimes I forget that's not a very good idea when everyone around you is trying to take it from you.
- Don't do business with Russians. Ok just kidding here. But seriously, this experience was only eclipsed by the Russian movers I hired a couple of months ago who took my entire apartment full of furniture and held it hostage in the moving truck until I paid 3x more than they quoted me originally. In all seriousness, I think by now I've excluded myself from doing business with people from every ethnicity, including my own lol. FML, it's getting to the point where I need to sleep with my eyes open.
- This is the last time I ever hire somebody on an hourly basis, and if I do in the future I will manage those mofos like Saddam Hussein.

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Wow that's awful, sorry about that
Everytime i got an expert referred by "friends", he screwed me in some way. I finally started to decide for myself who outsource tasks to

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Fixed price agreement. Solution fixed. Good employes for one time tasks will go for it if you pay them reasonably. Odesk hours are fucked, personally I haven't spent a dime on pay by hour.

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Yeah, I was just about to suggest that always go with fixed price UNLESS you are absolutely sure about the person (meaning you have history with him/her) and even still, set max hours they can spend. Another thing is, which doesn't apply in this case, that many not so tech savvy people get still ripped off because they have no idea how much time the things they want to get done actually take.

I've had good experiences with oDesk per hour billing.

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You get what you pay for with this oDesk garbage. You could've hired someone respectable at $100/hr who would've done an honest job.

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You could have set maximium weekly hours on odesk so this would not happen.

Everytime when I hire someone on oDesk I stipulate a maximium price I'm willing to pay and put the limit hours to get that price, that way I don't get billed more than I'm willing to pay.

For example if this guy charges 50$/hour and you want to pay up to 400$ on that service you should put maximium of 8 weekly hours so you dont get burned.

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I think you dont make money by being in profits but by controlling costs too. The lesson should not be for you related to these scamsters but for him that he should not fool people like he did to you.

Go after him. Its a matter of couple of emails..........when reputation of oDesk and the person would come at stake they would start to mjen themselves.

My suggestion---dont let it go.....report it to oDesk, leave feedback........do whatever you can....but dont let this incident go.

Sometimes its matter of few emails and we feel lazy....dont do that

thanks

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Odesk is a great place to run up a premium bill while some dude in a Venezuelan hut scratches his balls all day and laughs with his friends.

The others have said it already, but I will too: always go with fixed prices.

And where possible, divide your projects in to milestones. I doubt that's relevant with server work, but it is for everything else.

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What does everyone recommend for outsourcing instead of oDesk or similar services?

Are there any good places to get content-writers from Latin-America/South-America for instance?

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Exactly what i'm doing! sorry to hear about this man... people are fuckers! any dogs on odesk..? much more reliable...

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Sorry to hear this. I have a server guy I have been working for years. He is excellent and he only charges $15 an hour. Does an awesome job and always over delivers. Let me know if you want his details.

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For content-writers I'd go with college students in America. They're relatively cheap, and their command of the language is much better than someone from Latin America or the Philippines.

They're not going to be on freelance websites. I found some through Craigslist mainly.

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I have hired him too. It looks like he is earning alot right now...

I am already at $1725 for two servers. The problem is that I know how to deal with server stuff, but I needed him for AWS. He work is ok and he knows AWS, but setting up servers (nginx, MySQL, reporting) and securing it would cost me about 10 hours. Of course not everything would be perfect, but I would need much less time for it. Lesson learned, never hire again somebody on a hourly basis if you don't know the guy.

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Hey guys, thanks again for your offers to help out, they are much appreciated. At this time I'm a bit too jaded to trust a 3rd party to handle my servers, and I've decided to go with a dedicated setup @ Beyond Hosting.

Yeah I was in the same boat as you. I can get stuff going on my own if I deploy a server @ Liquid Web or some other hosting company, but AWS is a completely different animal for non IT people. The only reason I moved it over there was because of his recommendation. Now that I look back I'm kind of glad I started using the whole S3/Cloudfront system, as it's very convenient for hosting content, but as far as my tracking server goes I think I've had it with AWS. The problem is, by the time I factor in management fees (for him or anybody else) of at least a 3-4 hours a month spread out over the course of a year, it far surpasses the cost for a fully managed R310, or heck, even an R610 @ Beyond Hosting. The problem with our guy Vlad is that every time you ask him to do something you don't know how much he's padding the hours, and that bothers me a shitload..... I'd rather pay a premium somewhere else and get full management and a great setup all rolled into one price.

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