I paid for a job that was never completed. Any help?

Unfortunately my first experience hiring a freelancer through this forum was a bad one.

I asked for someone to build a list of 2000 forums that was related to my niche.

I specified that the list should be split up in sub lists sorted by forum type. One list for phpBB and one for Vbullitin etc. The lists should be complete so that someone else could always take over and ignore the forum types already gathered.

For a start I paid for 500. A list with 220 forums was returned. The list was mixed with several forum types and there where several duplicates. The list was incomplete and some links where wrong. Also the list was delivered several weeks after the agreed deadline.

The freelancer refuse to finish the job and has offered me half my money back.

The work if useless to me and I wonder if anyone can put some pressure on this member. Chances are that others will loose money and get disappointed too.

I know from the "Freelance Rules" thread that I am on my own. I just wonder if there is anything I can do.

add him to the shitlist on the forum.
also, i can do his job for you if you want, i can program a software that can gather the forum links for you. so you can gather as many as you want in any niche you want, whenever you want...

I have had stuff similar to this happen before. Go dispute the whole process with paypal and attempt to get the money back. Badmouth them on forums if they are still actively looking for clients. Good luck!