Ripped off by PHP expert?

Anon

I recently had a php guy from India look at my login/auth script. Without looking at the script, he said he could fix it for 150 bucks. After 4 days, he returned the script to me, claiming he encountered several problems and what not and said he was going to have to use sessions to truly logout a user. Me, being unable to figure out the login problem, agreed to let him work on it.

Anyway, to make a long story short, he said he spent more time on it than expected and wants me to pay him 250.

When I looked over the code, I compared it to the previous code and there is only one line of code that is different...

The line is...

<?php session_register("login");

That's it. That is the only line of code(that I can find) that is different. He put that line on every page related to my website and the login where it requires you to be logged in.

Now, I will pay the guy his money even though I feel really ripped off since I agreed. The point is that he claims he spent many extra hours configuring an .ini file on the server and what not. Being a newbie, I can't help but feel he is b.s.ing me and only said all this to get me to pay him more. Something like a mechanic who claims to have done all this work, but really just changed a spark plug.

My question is, do you feel he did more for me than I can see visually? Do you think he really configured some other php file that I don't know about?

Thanks for understanding my plight,
James Gumm

Anon

It's possible he may have done something else. A lot of systems have multiple included files and are more complex than they look to naked eye. Just give me $50 and I'll take a look and let you know what he did to it (j/k, hehe =) ). Next time you might want to ask your freelancer for a list of sites he has done, with code for those sites to verify he is for real.

Anon

I think that it is distgusting.....if he wants the money he should be able to give you a complete beakdown of EXACTLY what he did.

If he can't do that.......I wouldn't give him a cracker!~

Why did he change the php.ini file......who's server is the script being run on? He didn't change his own ini file did he?......Hell, that would take all of about 20 seconds to do anyway.

rgds,
scott d~

Anon

Sounds like you're being BS'ed, squire. Give him a slap. Or maybe talk to Trading Standards in India.

/Mike

Anon

Demand a document explaining exactly what he did to fix the problem.

Don't pay him more than the original 150.

He agreed to fix the problem for 150.
If he later finds out he can't do it for 150, thats HIS problem.

What really bites my botty is that if you had posted your problem in this forum,
some 20 people would have fixed it for you for free!

Anon

Well, consulting fees are a tricky business...

If the guy spent two hours just analyzing your original code to see why it didn't work to begin with, he hasn't changed one line of code, but has he worked? I don't think it took him long to implement the final resolution, but $250 is only about 4 hours of consulting time to begin with.

Before you decide if it was worth the $250, don't look at it like "he only added one line of code"; rather, look at it like "how many hours of headache did it save me" or "how many hours would it have taken me to figure it out." The vaulue placed on a service is not measured by how much work it was for the person providing the service, but by how much work it saved the person receiving the service.

If this project was for a business, you should compare the $250 to the amount of additional revenue you gain by having the consultant solve the problem faster than you could have done yourself. I am guessing that if you hired someone to solve the problem, you already spent substantial time trying to solve the problem yourself and came to the conclusion that your time is more prudently spent elsewhere.

You should consider now whether that assertion is still valid.

Just my $0.02; I could be wrong...

-- Rich Rijnders
-- Irvine, CA US