WebDesigner goes AWOL - What to do?

you could also raise your security clearance to super user without affecting his rights, if not, you could also create a new user with a Super User security level and log on as that user

That’s another good way to go and probably better. I just tested the approach on a local Evo 1.0.3 install (with phpmyadmin) and it worked fine.

MattC

I am with wshawn, a contract is the best thing to have for both parties.
If the client is late, state that delays will cost them extra or that if
you get new clients, their work will go to the end of the queue.

Place also some statements that will protect the client in a case like this
one and make payment fees payable 50% at the beginning and 50% upon delivery.
That way there are no incentives in any of the parties to depart early.

I am always amazed at the quality of responses on good forums, it maintains my faith in people. Thank you all.

’It might well be that this guy is not intentionally screwing you over here - it could as simple as avoiding you out of embarrassment for not completing tasks on schedule. To buy time he goes into periods of radio silence...It happens...There is a chance that this will all resolve itself in good order. So, I always think being civil with communication is the best, most professional course. You can escalate your displeasure one step at a time.’

This stands out as the ultimate of all recommendations. As I have already said I like the gentleman and even after this hiccup I would still want to work with him, and I am hoping that it is a period of radio silence as you have described. The work he has produced so far is of good quality and he has added very good suggestions for the future proposals to my site.

So after much thought I have decided on my next course of action. You may have already realised that the gentleman I am referring to is an active member on this forum, and I do not want to embarrass him personally by revealing his identity or the domain name of my site. My next step is to forward the link of this post to his email address early next week, and hope we can both move forward together.

The $64m question now is, will he still want to work with me if we can get beyond this stage amicably?

Kind Regards.

Frustrated (not as much)

I think you are well within your rights to do so. Basically you are wanting to do is some gentle prodding to get expected results. Its sounds like you do not need to bash on him on the back with a wooden club - but wet spaghetti might be just as effective...

It’s not me is it?

I would *strongly* recommend downloading as much as you can before contacting the developer (if you haven’t already). It can’t hurt and might save your butt in the long run.

Well, at least living a 1-hour drive from anything remotely resembling civilization lets me out

But the best advice here for anyone having his site developed is to make sure you have access to the domain control panel as well as the MODx manager. You may not know what to do with it yourself, but if your developer has a bus fall on him you’ll need to be able to at least let someone else have access.

Do you have his phone number?
Maybe talking to him live might help.