I'm Devastated. Need Your Help - Fast..

I'm feel sorry for you Specially the part where you trusted this guy, and shared secrets with him. Why do people act like this? Really sad.

mergethegreat said:

You didn't mention if he live anywhere near you or if he's even in the same country as you. I have been a freelancer for a few years and your situation is a tough one but here is what I would do in your shoes:

1) If paid by a credit card then I would do a charge back
If paid by paypal I would complain to paypal that I did not receive my product. If you claim a physical product was supposed to be mailed to you (like a cd with the website files on it) their is a good chance for you to get your money back unless you sent the money as a service or paid an invoice. If this is the case then it may be a bit harder.

2) If the first didn't work then I would complain to whatever freelancing site you hired him from and file a dispute with them if possible.

3) If neither resolved the issue then try sweet talking him into a modest website with n over sized budget to get his mouth watering. Inform him that you have been burned in the past when you tried to get a website done for your company and that you have several businesses that all need websites. Also that they will have similar if not bigger budgets with relatively the same amount of work but for you to trust him he has to agree to work on a milestone basis. The first 25% will be paid when 25% of the work is finished. If he goes for this be sure to let him know who you really are when he has completed 25% of the project.

4) Make sure to give him a horrible, and I mean horrible 3-10 paragraph review but in a professional way so that you look like an angry person that was just trying to get things done and not some angry kid just posting stuff.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I hope 1 or 2 work for you but either way 4 is a must.

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I completely agree that you should do a chargeback on your card or dispute with any payment processor you've used. He signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so even if you did get your money back, he can't tell anyone about the project. Sorry you're going through this, sounds pretty crappy. Guess you can't trust anyone on the net.

iowaguy86 said:

He signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement, so even if you did get your money back, he can't tell anyone about the project.

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That NDA is worth a puddle of warm piss. Completely unenforceable. Stupid people can post stupid things like hiring an attorney and suing someone and getting a judgement and, and, and... and at the end of their diatribe they will still be a stupid person offering stupid advise that can only result in stupid consequences.

Retardation is infectious, and it must be killed at it's source, lest it spread and infect the whole world.

Continuing to retain the delusional belief in the NDA's power only amplifies the importance of the secret/information he is trying to protect. The only thing the OP can do is hope the thief doesn't have the vision to appreciate it's value (if it really has any, which is another question) and/or that the thief lacks the ability to implement the idea, i.e. execution.

Assuming that the idea is worth anything, the only thing for the OP to do is put the focus on the money, center the conversation on how important it is, and move forward on the project. Worst case scenario is that the thief actually has some "oomph" and is attempting to implement the idea himself. Rather than standing around crying, wringing hands, flopping down onto the floor and writhing around wailing and crying, and/or (worse) giving credence to well-intentioned but simple-minded advice from people that don't know squat about squat, the OP needs to get himself back into gear and get moving forward.

If the idea was worth $1K, it's worth $2K, and if it's worth $2K it should make that back and more within a fairly short time. The longer the OP screws around and wastes time, the less likely that possible future income earning potential becomes, as he loses motivation & focus, and gives the thief a head start.

One advantage is that it's not the thieves' idea. He stole it. It's harder to get up in the morning in order to spend the day trying to execute the idea that you stole from someone else, vs. getting up in the morning trying to make your own inspiration a reality.