Okay, so I just got done working with bashhunter on a redesign of a site that I feel just lacked in many ways. I am satisfied with the service and have decided to hire him for another project as well.
- Turnaround time: he quoted me seven days but finished in six
- Price: my project contained more than the five pages quoted in his Venturist package as I had WooCommerce pages to worry about. He changed his quote from $400 to $500 near the end of the job. Unfortunately, I had only requested $400 from the original quote for the job, but he accepted the lower payment. At first I thought he was simply trying to get a bit more for his time, which would have been understandable from a hustle standpoint, but then I noticed that he had under-quoted me from the beginning. The addition of my extra pages would have pushed me closer to his Entrepreneur package, which means I actually got a very good deal based on his advertised pricing.
- Payment: payment is usually a problem for me since I can't use PayPal, but bashhunter was accommodating and accepted crypto instead. We mutually agreed upon a 1/4 deposit with the remaining payments occurring per milestone. In this case it was just three payments.
- Communication: communication was solid, though there wasn't need for a whole lot of it. I didn't want to babysit or micromanage the project because I don't think people are comfortable working like that, so I simply laid out my requirements in the initial email. He clarified with me whatever he needed to, I provided credentials, and he was pretty much on his way. I felt like he would have been receptive to more direction if I gave it and he was very accessible even given the time zone difference. Responses were generally quick.
- Plugins/themes: I provided my Oxygen Builder credentials, but he went with a different theme as I told him I would leave this type of thing up to his discretion. Unregistered WP Bakery was used for the project along with some other unregistered plugins. As it turns out, I already have license keys for some of them, so no big deal. To be fair, we didn't discuss plugins at all, and I again told him that he had pretty much free reign to make these sorts of decisions.
- Other: page speed needs some work, especially on mobile. This is something that I planned on optimizing myself anyway.
- Overall: 9/10
For the most part, the package that was represented was the package that was delivered. He came in faster than expected and at a price point which was fair. The work quality is definitely acceptable and he has left himself open for future assistance if I should run into any issues with the site, not that I plan on needing it. I would recommend the service to a friend.