They were scamming PayPal with your help, not surprised they scammed you.

I never pay someone using the family/friend option on PayPal unless I'm really using it to send money to family. If they're worried about the 3% or whatever PayPal takes they should have asked for 3% more money to begin with.

I sometimes don't know people are like that until its too late, in those cases I send them the extra few dollars and pay normally, and never do business with them again.

It goes both ways.. I've been shafted more times than I care to count when it comes to getting paid once the work is done. In fact, no one here on this site has paid up as agreed when I have accepted work from them and completed it.

They were my best bud until the work was done and then I could not even get them to respond to any correspondence. So needless to say, I tend to shy away from anyone on this site asking for help or for any work to be done.

For some reason, most just don't realize the amount of time and effort that goes into creating something like this.. http://billstelling.com/forum.php

I usually ask for nothing until the work is done and so far most have paid me as promised.

Nice work Bill! I love the slider. Very unique!

Thanks Richie.. It's DBtech's slider, just redone to suite the clients needs. Just finished on the 4.2.3 conversion for the style as it was causing issues from being started on a 4.1.9 site. I completely rebuilt it on a clean default vb style. The header was a pain to mod, Getting the z-index sorted was the biggest headache..

Going to start redoing his themes based on the light and dark versions I just redid.. This is pretty much how it will look once I have it all done. The header and footer that is.. http://os-evolve.com/?styleid=6 That is from the original 4.1.9 style before I rebuilt the masters this week.

Wait lemme guess: It's this guy I describe right here, correct?

He's not blocking anyone, he is "unlicensed" now. Therefore can't do PMs. Also can't use vBorg to rip anyone else off.

That's also true.

If somebody accepted my deal to do a custom job, I will refer them to other vbulletin coders who I have done business with.
The more times you do business, the more trusted of a buyer/seller you become.
If they've never done business with anybody yet, then perhaps take a look at their post count/ see how much contribution they've done/how active they are in the community.

Before allowing anybody else to start doing the work I request, I first negotiate a minimum price. Whether or not I pay extra is up to me. However if I ask for extra suggestions mid way, then it's only fair that I pay more especially if they ask. If I refuse, they do not need to do any extra suggestions.

In any case, if somebody requests to do a job and you do it, but they no longer respond. You should probably sell that product on your website. Link to it in your signature, that you're selling mods on your website.
As the product developer, you should never release the product/give the buyer the product before receiving some (if not all) of the payment.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I've been cheated out of $650 on here before by an "ex computer programmer" from the 80's who had retired (was in his 70's) and he refused to pay after I told him that I would not take out all the {session} variables from his templates else it would break his site. I was fired because someone was uneducated and then they refused to pay and I was the one providing services not receiving them and despite only letting down one client, ever, I admit to it instead of hiding it.

Moral of the story? It does not matter who you are or where, this can happen in all walks of life and can also be a two-way street. I would highly recommend checking their profile, references, and other before even considering hiring them... I also advised someone not long ago to give any new coder something small at first, test out the "waters" basically as it were to ensure it will be a mutually beneficial relationship that stands the test of time instead of morals, ethics, or patience for that matter.

Okay now its time for a movie with the wife, I've been procrastinating because I feel like its going to be a chick-flick tonight and all I want to see are guns, bullets, martial arts and/or some humor! RAWR!

Beautiful words. But it would be nice if every time this community to do something against the scammers.
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Bottom line is the site nor staff get involved in disputes/transactions between members.