Complaint Review: Brian Pham

Brian Pham applied to a post I had for development work on March 23 of last year (2018).  He sounded knowledgeable, and quoted me $300 initially to fix what he thought was wrong with an app build I had been working on.  After the initial $300 invoice, he sent me a series of 7 invoices, all of which he gave no warning of and just dropped them in my email inbox.

After the third unexpected one (for $1200), I was fed up and asked him to agree to that last $1200 as the fixed price to get the app published.  He agreed (I have the email correspondence to prove it, and it was clear).  I told him I would pay it if he let me give him the first half down, and hold on to the other half to insure he'd complete the project, which was the app published (not submitted, but published).  No more than a week later, he started sending me small invoices and telling me it was coming out of the balance due, but he needed the money then.

He had sophisticated excuses for why they didn't apply to our agreement, usually trying to keep the explanation in tech lingo.  He began holding the project hostage until I paid his stupid little invoices, against my own word that I wouldn't pay him the other half until the app was published.  At this point, July 16, he still hasn't provided so much as a test build or screenshot that would indicate he's even working on it.

I spoke with some of his other so-called "past clients" today, which he unwisely still has on his website, and they corroborated my experience - he's unprofessional, dishonest, negligent, unscrupulous, and an arrogant to boot, especially once he has your money sunk in a project.  In light of this, I terminated our working relationship today, and hearing this, he tried to invoice me for an additional $1500.  Again, with nothing sent and everything owed on his side.

I hope to make sure no one else goes through what I did with John.  Do yourself a favor and avoid working with him at all costs