I agree with this. We get so many people that do not understand how long websites or custom web apps take to plan & create. Even after you have create the project you still have to test it thoughfully & then train people how to use it.

Last year I had a paintball comapny (skirmish) request me to go out to his business & help him work out a an online statergy for his business & show him some demos of what we could do. I drove for 1 hour each way to get there, as he told me he wanted a custom website design, custom logo design, some photography, a custom built system for his players to signup to touraments, keep score history, rankings etct.. a forum, photo gallery, video gallery, online bookings (with availabilty checker) & the list went on in the 20 page brief he sent me. I told him over the phone it was going to be quite a big job & asked if he had a budget for us to work with & he said he just wanted everything in his quote.

After discussing it with him for about 4 hours onsite with him I went back to the office & drew him up a very competive detailed quote and emailed it to him. He rang me two weeks later abusing me for trying to rip him off & told me he got another quote from someone else for $500. I wished him luck with that then got of the phone as soon as I could. Twelve months later & he still does not have a website.

With all that said, we are very lucky as most our clients are fantasic people to do business with & we really enjoy working with them ;)

Some people are stuck on the price vs. perception of what we wanted. We didn't want to start a debate on what is a fair price for outsourced work, nor did we want to have to go into extreme detail on what we requested exactly. the only point we tried to make is we felt we communicated clearly what we wanted and they agreed to the project. Once getting into the project, they realized they bid to low and wanted more money. it is difficult to make a valid opinion when the documentation is not available from both parties for you to review. Regardless of the he  said she said, they took our money and left us with nothing! that is unethical and not something we were not going to let stand.

We have used RAC before and felt it is a safer way to do business. It is defiantly not a guaranteed method of finding a great developer, but you won't get stuck holding the bag if the person or company you hire cannot complete your request. I think it would be great if DNN could add a developer review section to their site, for users to add developer profiles and reviews. This would help the community find and share their developer experiences (U.S. and Overseas). We have reviews when we purchase mods and skins, we should have them before we spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on a developer.  RAC does have reviews on their developers, but most of them delve in multiple codes and I would like to see reviews on developers who have worked specifically with Dot Net Nuke. DNN Guru is nice, but I think reviews are vital. The better success we have at putting out quality sites, the faster the DNN name will grow!

·         If all companies worked with trust and cooperation, you wouldn't need RAC. When the trust and cooperation break down, a consumer has no rights when the developer already has their money. RAC just levels the playing field and keeps all parties equal.

·         How can you call sharing your experience public bashing. Have you ever purchased anything online? Just about every major site you visit, you can share your experience or purchase with other users. We spend thousands outsourcing DNN work and there is not a central location to share our experience with that developer.

I think if the DNN site would add a review section for developers, it would cause more of them to work harder at support and customer service. There are module developers that I have stayed away from, because of the feedback from the community. Luckily this is happening on purchases made through the store. There is still an opportunity for improvement, as there is a ton of money being spent on outsourcing services.

This is not to say there is a major issue with support, there are a ton of developers in the community that go way above and beyond to provide excellent service. This would just be an opportunity to give credit where credit is due and warn other developers before they invest in utilizing services of a company.