Scribbles

The bane of my existence nowadays is the web project I’ve outsourced to India.  These contractors on the other end of the world are driving me insane.  While I can’t possibly be the only person with gripes about projects like these, I keep reading about the success stories of Friedman’s flat world and 4-hour work weeks when all I’m left with is a 4-hour headache and the desire to flatten some of these bozos.

For example, this recent Businessweek article waxes over the elegant efficiencies of mom and pop shops that leverage cheap global talent to get things done.  It even cites and quotes one of the biggest contract assistance sites out there, eLance.  Well, I hired my contractors through eLance, who boasted a 98% satisfaction rating, over 126 positive reviews, and $214k worth of project earnings.  Guess what?  They don’t even read email carefully.  The so called project manager never involves himself in understanding the real business requirements of my commercial website nor stays abreast of the project status.  He’s just the middle man who over-promises (agreed to everything) to get the sale and then forwards communications back and forth between me and who knows who.  The only time he showed any real fire was arguing with me over the definition of “great progress.”

My new website is now 2 weeks behind the original schedule with no end in sight.  My scary thought of the day is if and when they complete my project, dare I leave a scathing review?  Would they be able to disrupt my business through some backdoor method they managed to sneak in?  Who’s going to stand up for me now, or even then?