[balinor]

I have held my tongue on the subject of Jon L and PHP Site Solutions for a long time. I think that given the current situation, is time to share my experiences.

I have worked with Jon L on a few different projects. When he is 'on' he is pretty thorough and things get done in a timely manner. It is when he is 'off' that the problems start. I don't know what causes these sudden disappearances, but this is not the first time this has happened.

About 6 months ago, Jon L was hired by 3 of my clients to do various projects. Deposits were sent - some work was completed, but not much. A week went by - nothing. Then two - still nothing. No communication whatsoever despite numerous e-mails. I was finally forced to threaten him to get him to refund the client's money and fix the remaining issues on the work he did complete. This reflected poorly on me, as I had recommended him for this work in the first place. He also had the audacity to try to charge one of my clients extra for fixing things that should have worked correctly from the beginning. Needless to say, they didn't pay. Funny how he is always so prompt with sending his invoices, often before the work is complete even.

Fast forward a few months. A client contacted me regarding some work Jon L had done in the past on her site. While the mod he created initially appeared to be working, upon further testing it was discovered that there was a serious flaw in the program logic. We contacted Jon L who assured us he would 'get right on it'. A week went by. Then two. Still no action. During this time he had also disappeared from the forum, resulting in numerous e-mails/PMs to me asking me where he was. When he did return from wherever it is he goes, excuses like 'overbooked', 'never got that email', 'email was filed incorrectly' were once again used freely (as they always seem to be with Jon L). Finally, he did some work on it, but the issue remained. That was 2 months ago. Finally, I was forced to hire another developer to clean up the mess last week - which cost me a good chunk of change, as it is always labor-intensive to debug someone else's work. I need to eat that expense, as I'm not going to bill the client for work that should have been done correctly to begin with. And still, to this day, not a peep from him. No apology, not even one of his typical excuses.

It has now been 6 weeks since Jon L made his last appearance on the forums, or to my knowledge, the last time he communicated with anyone. As mentioned above, he is plenty active on the rest of the web, and has managed to find the time to make edits to his site. To me, this is a blatant slap in the face to each and every one of his clients, and proof that he no longer cares about the X-Cart community.

As I'm sure you all know, running a business is sometimes a 24/7 endeavor, particularly if your business is related to the internet. A developer who creates add-ons that are vital to the operation of an e-commerce site needs to be available on a daily basis to address issues that come up. I know I am never without either computer access or my blackberry, as you never know when someone will have an urgent issue. The fact that Jon L has so completely abandoned his clients without so much as a simple note on his web site says to me that he cannot be trusted. I don't care how urgent his 'personal issues' are, it is his responsibility as a business owner to have an emergency plan in place for just such circumstances. He could have easily had someone put up a note on his site or post in the forums to say that he was going to be away for a while and suggested other developers who could take over his projects. It would have taken 5 minutes of his precious time, and would have gone a long way to diffusing this situation. The fact that his site is still live and taking orders is completely irresponsible on his part, and infuriating to those of us who he is blatantly ignoring.

I don't think his intention was ever to 'rip people off', but his poor customer support and lack of communication has pretty much done just that. I strongly suggest that you DO NOT do business with Jon L/PHP Site Solutions. Even if he comes back and offers all of the apologies and excuses in the world, there is always the risk this exact same situation will be repeated. Do you really want to risk having XCSEO or any of his other mods stop functioning the next time you upgrade your store and then not have any support to fix it?

Now as to what to 'do' about him - there really aren't many options. I am hesitant to delete his posts, as there is some relevant information in them that may help people who are stuck without his support. I have added some pretty clear statements at the top of each of his threads recommending to stay away. Until he closes his site though, it sounds like we will be getting a lot more posts here regarding his mods. I'd suggest that if you have not received something you paid for, contact your credit card company and start the chargeback process. If you paid via Google Checkout or Paypal, file a dispute. Contact his hosting company/datacenter as mentioned above and complain.

I know many of you are livid with the situation, as you should be. Even though it is tempting to start name calling and bashing, please try to refrain from that, as it doesn't do anyone any good. Trust me, there are plenty of names I have called him in the last few weeks, but keep it to yourself. Do what you need to do to move on, and if he does come back, don't trust that anything will change.