Duped Service from Ben Wilkins
 

I was duped by member Ben Wilkins earlier this week.

I had requested a Pay To Post mod for my forum and placed an advert on another forum. Ben Wilkins contacted me to tell me he had written such a mod and i could use it for $50.00. I pointed him to the current mod available on this forum by Calorie but he claimed his was better.

After letting him install it and giving it a quick test i was happy. Today though i thought id download Calorie's free mod to see what differences they had because i found a bug with the mod but i was shocked to see that the code was identicle. I then searched on this forum to see if this guy had any history here and saw that none of his mods were at all complex so when i saw him on MSN i questioned him about it and as soon i mentioned that the code was identicle he signed off.

I emailed him to tell him that i dont appreciate being ripped off and had he told the truth in the first place i might have paid him to install it, although i had received a cheaper installation offer on this forum. I told him he either refunds my money or i will post about it on here. He hasnt refunded so here i am.

I did open a paypal dispute but they were not interested.

To ensure that no-one else gets duped by this guy he can be found at:

http://www.talkmods.com/

http://purlnetwork.com/index.php?page=ben

http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/member.php?u=113173

sitepoint addy.........that explains part of it..

Sorry to hear the guy took ya....

As much as I feel for you, he has done nothing illegal. He is allowed to charge one person for something, and give it to another for free if he likes. The morality of it though, that's another story...

Generally you would check all of that out BEFORE you pay for a script.

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/1...571821bhy4.jpg

Sorry you got took, but generally you will do your homework before investing such funds on any script. Often it is the case where it is copied code, or there is a lite version that does about the same for free. And then you get people like him who are just out to scam you.

Sorry to hear it, but you should really look into who you hire (he is 15). Can't expect much...What is that supposed to mean? MANY members here are also SitePoint members. It has a far better reputation than this site.

absolutely...I do lots of business there and have had nothing but positive experiences...although I'm careful who I do business with ;)

I think you missed the point. He never coded this, he simply took a free mod from another member, claimed it was his and sold it as his. This is copyright theft and as such is illegal ;)

I do blame myself a little, i should have done more research before i agreed and we all learn from our mistakes :)

This thread is not about sitepoint, please do not stray off topic.

What's actually stopping vb.org putting a sticky topic with a list of "proven" rippers in the buy/sell services forum for the paid services? My guess is if such a area can be implemented and .org reap the benfits then a list of known scammers should be published so people know who to avoid.

It's not vbulletin.org's job to make sure you hire good people. This is your job.

That's my opinion on this.

I wish we had iTrader here. So we could read feedback on coders. Coder could also post feedback on whether or not the person who hired paid in full or not.

I just got taken by another coder, too...fortunately it was only for $20.

Please let me get this straight? Did you posted here on vBulletin.org and did you get in contact with this guy on vBulletin.org? If not, then vBulletin.org is not the place to complain. You will need to complain where the contact was made or the transaction took place.

If you think that he is selling copyrighted work of others, then please contact the author (calorie) and help her to stop people selling her work.

Yes, you are correct........I apologized in the thread that you removed. Thanks for the notice.

This is the only post i am going to make..

I had contact from him on SITEPOINT not vbulletin. He asked for a pay to post mod, and i found one and installed it. I did not say i coded it. I said i used it on my forum. Not made it.

Sorry ansuk! I misunderstood.

I have to be honest though, if noobs like Ben can make money installing other peoples hacks I might try it out as a full time job!

But you knew you got it for "FREE" from here, so why did you not just send him a link to download the hack from vB.org for himself. And explain it was a free hack.

You also say he asked for a "pay to post" mod, the mod was not yours to charge him anything. And you should have explained it may be a "free hack", but you would charge to install it for him. But it seems you played along and let him think you created it!

Pretty lame excuse that.

It seems to me that both sides have now posted their points and since it's clear that this was not even the result of a service request here, then this really has nothing more to do with vb.org. Therefore this is being closed before it deteriorates into an argument.