CMSTheme Excellent Designer, but no delivery

[sanchopanza]

You've probably seen the work of Ramil Alcibar, it really is quite excellent, I wanted his work to adorn the frontpage of my site, to give it the flash and grace that I lack in designing skills. So although I didn't quite feel comfortable with pligg, on the 21st I decided to make the plunge, signed with MidPhase and paid for a CMSTheme thru Paypal. Now I know it's close to the holiday season, people are out celebrating, having a good time. Time is of a premium, and I have no doubt that Ramil is quite busy, his site ranks pretty high on Alexa. But it's the 2nd today and he hasn't produced anything for me. Nada. Zero. Zip Zilch.
Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I know he's produced sites in 48 hours. So what gives with me?

[skins4webs]

Well sometimes It can take longer then expected.. He has a good reputation so I would not worry about this to much..

Just try to keep getting in contact with him.

[bbrian017]

yeah he's also busy making my template so this could be the issue. So he's got a lot of work on his plate and like you mentioned it's a busy time of the year.

Also maybe you should be more worried about this rather then a 9.8.8 template?

http://forums.pligg.com/50945-post40.html

Cheers

[sanchopanza]

Originally Posted by bbrian017

yeah he's also busy making my template so this could be the issue. So he's got a lot of work on his plate and like you mentioned it's a busy time of the year.

Also maybe you should be more worried about this rather then a 9.8.8 template?

http://forums.pligg.com/50945-post40.html

Cheers

So what is a reasonable amount of time to wait do you think?

[bbrian017]

Well I would say all the time you waited so far should be forgotten except today. Remember people have families (x-mas, new years) and I was told buy cms himself that he was on vacation. I would say wait another week or 2 and then you an complain

Is he not returning your e-mail at all?

[pliggedit]

Originally Posted by sanchopanza

You've probably seen the work of Ramil Alcibar, it really is quite excellent, I wanted his work to adorn the front page of my site, to give it the flash and grace that I lack in designing skills. So although I didn't quite feel comfortable with pligg, on the 21st I decided to make the plunge, signed with MidPhase and paid for a CMSTheme thru Paypal. Now I know it's close to the holiday season, people are out celebrating, having a good time. Time is of a premium, and I have no doubt that Ramil is quite busy, his site ranks pretty high on Alexa. But it's the 2nd today and he hasn't produced anything for me. Nada. Zero. Zip Zilch.
Maybe I'm the odd one out, but I know he's produced sites in 48 hours. So what gives with me?

Hi sancho,

I have experience with professional development companies and centre's throughout the world on a daily basis handling pretty large projects, we also however use individuals for some specific work on projects. You say you have paid CMSTheme already for the work you required, but you did not give any information on what details you provided Ramil with.


1. Have you detailed your project to Ramil already so he knows exactly what you require design and feature wise also do you know if he began work when payment was made. Often referred to as a project development plan or as a scoping period?

2. Did Ramil give you a project completion date / delivery date for the work you paid for?

3. Has Ramil been in contact with you since payment was made on the 21st?

4. NEVER pay the full amount upfront, professionals are normally more than happy to work on target system normally four 25% payments. If they don't meet targets they lose cash, individual developers are normally more than happy to work this way also.

First payment at Planning stage, second at Start of development, third at testing stage of project and fourth after you take ownership of the project.

If you are still dissatisfied in a day or two's time with lack of replies from CMSTheme or the lack of anything you can see having been done to your project ie actual working proof not an image snap, you can contest your payment with Paypal and get your money back

Hope you answer some of my points and the advice helps you, in my view Ramil should have been in constant contact with you throughout the project, if he has taken time off for the festive period he should have notified you of dates he would not be working and should not have taken payment at the time he did.

Basic courtesy is missing here as far as i can see. I would as always give benefit of doubt until i received a full explanation from Ramil however, somthing may have happened that has to take priority, family illness etc.

Hope it all works out m8

[sanchopanza]

Originally Posted by pliggedit

Hi sancho,

I have experience with professional development companies and centre's throughout the world on a daily basis handling pretty large projects, we also however use individuals for some specific work on projects. You say you have paid CMSTheme already for the work you required, but you did not give any information on what details you provided Ramil with.


1. Have you detailed your project to Ramil already so he knows exactly what you require design and feature wise also do you know if he began work when payment was made. Often referred to as a project development plan or as a scoping period?

2. Did Ramil give you a project completion date / delivery date for the work you paid for?

3. Has Ramil been in contact with you since payment was made on the 21st?

4. NEVER pay the full amount upfront, professionals are normally more than happy to work on target system normally four 25% payments. If they don't meet targets they lose cash, individual developers are normally more than happy to work this way also.

First payment at Planning stage, second at Start of development, third at testing stage of project and fourth after you take ownership of the project.

If you are still dissatisfied in a day or two's time with lack of replies from CMSTheme or the lack of anything you can see having been done to your project ie actual working proof not an image snap, you can contest your payment with Paypal and get your money back

Hope you answer some of my points and the advice helps you, in my view Ramil should have been in constant contact with you throughout the project, if he has taken time off for the festive period he should have notified you of dates he would not be working and should not have taken payment at the time he did.

Basic courtesy is missing here as far as i can see. I would as always give benefit of doubt until i received a full explanation from Ramil however, somthing may have happened that hasn't to take priority, family illness etc.

Hope it all works out m8

This is the 2nd email I received from Ramil

Hi Andre,

You have contacted CMSTheme before about a Pligg template but for some reason we were not able to make a deal on designing a custom Pligg template for you.

Recently, I just released a non-exclusive Pligg template which is for sale. I thought that you might be interested on it. This template will be sold ONLY TO LIMITED NUMBER OF PEOPLE. This means that not everyone wanting this template can have this.

Demo:
Web CMSTheme / Published News
Web CMSTheme / Modify profile
Template License: CMSTheme.com Non-exclusive Theme Terms Of Use

The price of this Pligg template is only $115.

FREE Service Included
A purchase of this template will also get you:
1. Free new Pligg installation plus installation of this template.
2. Free template upgrade for every new Pligg version that comes out.
3. Free color customization.
4. Free text graphics change such as the text in Navigation, Categories, on header tabs, etc. However, graphics text on the sidebar such as Navigation, Quick Login, etc. can be replace with just pure text by using <h1>...</h1> tag instead of <h2>.

Please let me know if you are interested on buying it. Remember, it will be sold only to a limited number of people.

Thank you,
Ramil

I then asked him for a shade of blue similar to Microsoft or Google blue, also if possible to have a OLPC custom ad be placed where the Google ads would normally go. On the 23rd he said he had been sick and would be going on vacation until the 27th and asked if he could start then. I said no worries and have a good trip. On the 28th he contacted me saying that he had returned and would begin my project. So really it's been only 4-5 days. I was upset though that I hadn't heard from him so I asked if it was something I had done, to date he has not responded. If two weeks is a fair time from today, then I will contact him in 2 weeks.

Thanx for your help.

[cmstheme]

I'm very really sorry for this thing that had happened. For those who have paid me for the template starting December 20, I have not able to do your request such as color customizations, etc. thus I was not able to deliver the template you paid for.

The same thing happened for the early buyers of the template. All your emails asking for support/help about the template was not yet answered as of today except for very minor issues that was answered on 27th.

However, rest assured that I am constantly (but slowly) working on your template(s) starting January 3 (I've got home on Dec 27 & Jan 2). I will also answer for those who have ask support regarding the template.

@sanchopanza & @bbrian017
Thanks for the quick approval of the color changes just today A lot of thanks also for understanding my situation.

@bbrian017
I will work on your request today since it is possible I'm also waiting for your email with the current problems on your template so that I can include the fixes.

@pliggedit
Thanks for the very informative answer, it is really helpful

First payment at Planning stage, second at Start of development, third at testing stage of project and fourth after you take ownership of the project.

In this case, I asked the full payment because the template is already existent (there's already a demo). If they pay the full amount, I will send them the template unless they have other request such as color customizations.

You say you have paid CMSTheme already for the work you required, but you did not give any information on what details you provided Ramil with.

He have paid me for the template which is already existent. The work he required is a FREE SERVICE included with his purchase of my template.

[bbrian017]

Just work on 9.9.0 no need doing 2 templates for me. So don't worry about 9.9.8 lets look to the future and work on 9.9.0 right?