I hereby fire you.

Fellow blackhatters,
I have a story for you and my efforts to share this story are in hopes that it can help educate some of you further. I started a web designing company a couple years ago as I start to see bigger projects come in I have started to outsource every project. I am as you would say, a managing director. I do not get my hands dirty and this allows me to make much more money as I can successfully take on more projects. I normally have a policy to share 25% of my projects when I outsource them, keeping 3/4 for management. Recently I had a large project and I decided to contact a company I have previously worked with. This project had a two week deadline and I needed to create it within a hurry.

Long story short, I gave a company over a week to produce such results. They lacked communication, and ultimately my name was on the line if they didn't produce the results. There was a lot at stake. I hired another company two days before the product deadline. They produced the results I requested, talked with me via skype in perfect english and over exceeded my expectations.

So then what should I do with the other company? Try to get my money back (1/2 up front .....) ? Well, I know one thing is for sure. Paypal will help me battle but really, all I want to do is fire them. Here is that letter:

" Your company used to be very good with developing systems for me in the past. However, this time around I have not felt like the dedication of your company has been up to par. This project is overdue and I have not seen one thing from the system. Three days ago I contracted another firm and they have already produced the results that I required. This is something that given more than a week your company could not produce me anything. Luckily, I contracted this other company as if I relied on your company I could not produce the desired results within the allotted time frame. I therefore request the initial deposit back for this project as it was late, I see no results, and another company has produced this within two days of work for me.

The earlier updates I sent in was said to throw off your construction of this program yet again the other firm I have worked with has had no difficulty in altering changes we required for this project.

I do not wish you to continue to work on this project and I hereby fire you from such duties. Please contact me in regards to this for instructions on refunding my money.



Sincerely,
Executive Closer"

So, with that said, feel free to add your 2cents but I know this information is valuable as this could have ended a lot different. If I got greedy and did not want to hire another company I would have failed. When you outsource you must always be watching your interests. You need to strategically cover all aspects and pay up when you require. The bottom line is results all while trying to keep your profits high. I know if i failed to produce such results that it could easily have cost me $20k+ in alternative business with current client.

-EC

The letter seems perfectly acceptable. You should also be entitled to a refund depending on your arrangement with them.

Respect for firing them like a boss.

If this ever happened to me, I would have talked a lot of shit, would have been angry, would have NEVER EVER work with them again, but in the end, it all boils down to the manner you fire them.
And that letter is awesome in doing just that.

Honest, straightforward, TRUE, and not offencive.

They got what they deserved (0), and I would look into getting further compensation. The last part depends on your mood.

Of course they have to issue a refund.

Best of luck with this. Its very inspirational seeing someone doing propper business.

That was too much talking I would have simply sent them this

Fair play, you wasnt an idiot about it, just put them straight. Nice one

Getwhatchuwant- TROLOLOL yeah, that's one way to go about it!

I'm telling you it's hard to outsource web design work. I tried outsourcing to India and Phillipines, to try and take advantage of the currency conversion. Well they were charging what American's were charging for the same work. I put a listing on Freelancer.com and got 20 bids, and I found one guy from Pakistan who does good work and a good price so I'm using him.

Never have I seen such a group of slow delivery, can't deliver when they promise groups of workers as web designers. If you tell me you can deliver the product in 7 days, then why can't you? If I tell my client I will deliver in 7 days you better believe I'm going to withhold sleep if I have to to honor my word. Im my businesses, if I break my word, just one time, I lose a client(I'm not talking just web design) Maybe it's my fault for hustling so hard I work constantly so it could be just me. Great thread btw

transam: Thats why you are a good business man. I can never imagine breaking my word. After all, someone trusted you with a job and you agreed. And not doing that job?

You have to be a fucking scumbag. I can not express enough how I despise people who don't keep deadlines and don't stay in contact about it.

You got one shot, and missing it in such a low life way is f*cking disrespectful to every single entrepreneur.

raven123 said:

transam: Thats why you are a good business man. I can never imagine breaking my word. After all, someone trusted you with a job and you agreed. And not doing that job?

You have to be a fucking scumbag. I can not express enough how I despise people who don't keep deadlines and don't stay in contact about it.

You got one shot, and missing it in such a low life way is f*cking disrespectful to every single entrepreneur.

Click to expand...

Sadly I have run accross that a few times already on this very forum.

I am all about getter done but apparently not everyone is.

raven123 said:

transam: Thats why you are a good business man. I can never imagine breaking my word. After all, someone trusted you with a job and you agreed. And not doing that job?

You have to be a fucking scumbag. I can not express enough how I despise people who don't keep deadlines and don't stay in contact about it.

You got one shot, and missing it in such a low life way is f*cking disrespectful to every single entrepreneur.

Click to expand...

Your sir are a gentleman and a scholar

transam7410 said:

Never have I seen such a group of slow delivery, can't deliver when they promise groups of workers as web designers. If you tell me you can deliver the product in 7 days, then why can't you? If I tell my client I will deliver in 7 days you better believe I'm going to withhold sleep if I have to to honor my word. Im my businesses, if I break my word, just one time, I lose a client(I'm not talking just web design) Maybe it's my fault for hustling so hard I work constantly so it could be just me. Great thread btw

Click to expand...

A good rule is to always cover your end. If you need something done in 30 days tell the designer it needs to be done in 15 days. You never want your actual deadline to be known to the designer as you should always expect them to overshoot it and be late.

As an entrepreneur you need to be on top of your game and time management is just another aspect. You are absolutely correct that it will make you look bad and you will lose clients. ALWAYS give room for the developers to mess up. I am lucky I found a super team of developers in India that produce great stuff on time but I still give them a buffer.

:captain:The captain makes it happen

I think you have been really professional about the way you wrote them the letter. I'd give +1 to you.