Saturday 25 April 2015

Midnight oil

It's almost 430am here and I can't sleep. I have to be up early to tidy up, check out, and drive back to merseyside. I really don't need this right now.

What's Bugging me is the disconnection of my website. The more I think about it, the more I think it's way out of line. The guy's main business is tinting vehicle windows. So here's an analogy: I take my car to him, and he tints the windows in exchange for money. I am impressed by the work, and at some point, I contact him to let him know I will soon be getting another car, and that I will pay him double to tint the windows in this new car too. Time passes, and I don't get around to getting the new car. Then one day I come home to find he's been to my address, and removed the tinting from my windows. Actually, he leaves me with no windows at all.

It's possible of course that some technical issue has occurred, and since there has been no contact, he's unaware of it.

Clearly I need to get in touch with him and find out what's going on.

... Sent email, apologising, explaining and enquiring. Now I wait. Goodnight.
driving lessons in North Wirral? learn to drive in Hoylake? driving instructor in Birkenhead?

2 comments:

Jim Bliss said...

Paul, this guy is WAY out of order (assuming it is a deliberate thing - it may not be). It's beyond "unprofessional" and may even be legally actionable (though it certainly wouldn't be worth your time and effort to pursue through the courts).

And I'm speaking from the perspective of a freelance web developer who has had clients do much worse things than promise me further work that never materialises. Hell, half my clients are guilty of that! Yes, it's frustrating, but to lash out at their business and livelihood? That's fricking insane. And almost certainly against the law.

I'd give the guy the benefit of the doubt - maybe the web-server went down at the same time he came down with a serious illness meaning he's not been able to address the problem yet (I'm just thinking of hypothetical "non malicious" explanations that might explain what has happened - and which would make you feel like a bit of an arse if you steam-rollered in with accusations before hearing his side of the story).

But if it turns out this was a malicious response to not getting a project from you...? Then I'd make a point of moving your site to a different web host and not giving this lunatic another cent.

Paul said...

I got a reply next day.

"Hi Paul

No problem. I think there was an issue with the server, I've reset it now and it should be working.

Cheers"

I do often go off on one. I dont enjoy conflict, so things tend to fester unresolved and come out in bad ways. Then it often turns out that I've made an idiot of myself. This time I recognised the pattern.

I'd envisaged strident letters from solicitors, and self righteous emails besmirching his parentage.

Writing it down here helped. What you've read wasn't what I originally wrote. It got rewrote several times, and in the process it got toned down a lot. I was then able to send a mail that didn't contain any anger.

Was it deliberate? Who knows? Web design is not his main business, and since I'd not contacted him, he might have been unaware of a problem. Or he could just have done it as a way of getting me to communicate. Which I should have done anyway.

Anyway, site is back up. Content written. Just need to go take some photos of moodily lit pupils in shiny car or some such and I can send it all across.

At some point, I'd written a page about instructor training, and it somehow (alcohol may have played a part) ended up in a location page that isn't accessible directly from my website, but can be found by certain searches, and so I've ended up with at least one instructor training enquiry from it. Today I got another. With an ex-pupil also giving it serious consideration, what I have planned might take off fairly quickly. One thing I did was set up a gmail account under a different name, and I sent off a few enquiries to local schools in relation to instructor training. One of the larger local schools does not train instructors itself. It sends people off to some place 30 miles away, but if I can get the owner's trust, (and we've always got on well together) she might well send a lot of people my way.

I will post about it in some detail soon I think.