Complaint Review: Understanding Search Engines/ U-S-E.me

I was seeking a computer programmer back in May when I was contacted by owner Jon Romano through an online ad I'd posted on craigslist. In order to begin the project, Jon requested a lot of personal details and information about my project. This was to allow him to view my current site and access personal account information to determine the cost & time for completing a website from scratch. After I gave him this information, he purchased my business name without my permission(web domain for $15.00) before I approved to enter a contract or do business with him. I felt obligated & compelled to get him to do the work because this domain name was part of my branding model. 2 days later we agreed to do business together, payment, and completion deadlines.

Jon stated he would be completing all the work from design to programming. He failed to keep me informed of the completion of the project. He refused to take my calls and only responded to concerns & request by email. He sent me a contract that outlined the business between us but failed to send me an updated copy when I questioned certain. I made all of my payments for this entire project prior to it actually being finished. Jon required that I do this, due to him having to do the work and the possibility of him not getting paid for it. The project was suppose to be completed in August but he failed to do so.

When asked about the completion and him not having it done he constantly put me off saying his programmer was working on it. I had no idea someone else was working on my project until a month in, at that time I questioned this and he assured me that my idea/information was safe. I later found out he had outsourced my project to Aslog technologies. Jon was sending me updates he'd get from this companys developers and forward them on to me to review then I'd reply to him in which he'd forward my changes/approvals to them. When I found out and questioned this he got upset and told me that my project was costing him more money than what I had paid so I should be happy he was doing it.

After he failed to meet the 1st deadline, he set another one 2 weeks out and this continued for 2 additional months (October 2010). I paid him in full to design & program what I had outlined at the onset of our contract and he constantly refused to do the work outlined. Stating multiple times that he was doing me a favor by even quoting me what I paid because its worth so much more. We argued about ending the project on Oct 15th because Jon stated he could not do anymore work without additional payment. At this time only 80% of the site was complete.

I told him I could not pay anymore and to stop programming immediately, but he didn't. He continued to do work and told me he was not going to release the rest of the site or the web domain name until he came up with "a random amount" and would let me know at a later date how much more I was going to owe him. I contacted my hosting server to remove him from account as a FTP user, this prevented him from adding & removing files and temporary disabled my website from public view.