dangers of outsourcing !

[findtim]

WELL, i'm sitting here, the clients on my back, the guy in china said when i hired him it could all be done by 4/5/12 ( tommorrow) and i haven't had any contact with him for 8 days !!!!

NOW, i'm in the ecomm program putting in the products not knowing if its going to be completed by the due date let alone at all.

WORSE, this is for my best client.

The programmer steered me down this ecom path and i can't go in and touch it as 1) i don't know the software and 2) he might then pull the pin 3) maybe he's dead?

the job will get done no matter what but by tommorrow? how F'n hard is it to send an email and say " tim, its all cool.... working on it..."

lessons learnt:

don't give important jobs to new outsources
lie about the deadline and make it a month shorter for them
OVER state your expectations of them
pay as little as possible upfront
create LONG detailed briefs of projects ( i thought i had and it was the longest brief i've ever done but they just don't understand sometimes)
GRILL them about thier english skills, misunderstandings just cost you sooo much time and everyone gets frustrated.

and probably a lot more ut i just wanted to vent some anger and also inform those who may be thinking of outsourcing overseas.

the bottom line is i think it will work out fine, and i will continue to do it as simply i just keep learning.

tim

 

[Ashman]

How did you go Tim, did your Chinese freelancer get back to you? I thought about outsourcing to China but decided to stay with the Indians, who seem to get the job done eventually.

 

[findtim]

FINALLY got an email yesterday, but only to tell me that he thinks he needs another 13 days to complete the job !

THATS the job that he promised me would only take 13 days.

now the client is ringing me saying "WHENNNNN" and the deadline has gone !

So I have him still working on the site but have decided to create a new subdomain and program it myself "in tandam" as i REALLY need it done by this monday morning..... so there goes my sunday off !

yes i should be at it right now but i needed a brain break.

i should have F'n dun it myself but i just wanted to use a wordpress system for the long term benefits.

i thought this guy KNEW it all back the front but its evident now that he doesn't.

this is going to take another set of FIGHTS before its done as he feels he has spent to much time on it and i feel "well mate.... you quoted not me..."

but i'm in a position now that if he dips out now what the F do i do? all a learnign experience.

anyway, i'll have my oscommerce version up by monday morning and that will keep the client happy then we will switch it over when the chinese guy is done.

i do not think chinese and indian are any different from a work ethic view, i think the language barrier is the major issue and YES maybe india is better at that.

i think this will become an interesting story so i'll continue to update the progression.

So, my sunday is going to be programming ! whihc is stupid because thats why i got into outsourcing !!! to nolonger do that !!!

and i will have completed by monday what this guy NOW says will take him another 13 days !!!!!!!

tim

 

[Ashman]

Just wondering why you would want to go from an oscommerce site to the wordpress site? Wouldn't the result for the client be the same?

Tim, one word mate backpackers!! or is that two words? That should get you fired-up (hyphens rock) even more.

 

[findtim]

Just wondering why you would want to go from an oscommerce site to the wordpress site? Wouldn't the result for the client be the same?

Tim, one word mate backpackers!! or is that two words? That should get you fired-up (hyphens rock) even more.

LOL, OSC to WP, well the OSC i use is MS2.2 and i don't like anything after that version so its getting old, un supported and potential security issues so i thought i'd take a LEAP and move to something more stable which i thought this was goign to be but now i'm finding what i was told could be achieved is apparently not.

i have trust issues.... i actually trust people !!!!

at this moment in time i am still convinced i am heading in the correct direction for the future of my ecom website building business i'm just having to go through the pain of getting it right.

so thus i'm gonna patch up a quick OSC and get the client off my back for a few weeks and then convert over ( i know the client VERYYYY well so i know they want it all done yesterday then sit on it before actually doing anything) [ they also no nothing about web and rely TOTALLY on me because we i have done many websites for them ]

live and learn !

tim

PS: if i can have content, blog and ecom all on the same admin its better for the client and less training the client time for me

 

[FirstPageResults]

Gotta say I'm suprised OSC is getting a run, I thought that was dead and buried years ago!

Magento didn't come into the equation?

 

[findtim]

Gotta say I'm suprised OSC is getting a run, I thought that was dead and buried years ago!

Magento didn't come into the equation?

Thats why i was swicthing to wp as osc is getting old. magneto or anything outside of wp i hadn't looked at as i'm now totally wp and wanted to spend the effort so my clients only have to deal with 1 admin, we're only looking at shops with less then 100 products.

the stupid thing is i put a VERY DETAILED brief in and the guy said no worries and gave me links to others he had done he wasn't the cheapest offer but seem to have the knowledge. + i know how to do everything i asked for in osc so i just didn't see that it was going to be a hassle.

SO, yesterday i started the osc version and its now functioning, today i'm adding products and styling ( whihc is just making it look like the current site as this is a subdomain ) and i'm done !

tim