Plagiarism

I've received several emails today, all from dad; either directly to me, copied in, or forwarded emails from the website developers. After looking through the emails I note that all of my wonderful ideas, have now become his wonderful ideas, plagiarism I tell ya!

Considering this factor, it only leads me to believe more upon my thoughts yesterday and that is I'm a total female genius for him to be stealing all my ideas. With this in mind, I shall in future write all my ideas down, rather than telling him over the phone and have them copyrighted to me.

Men, really, where do they get off ever thinking they can surpass the female mind?

Anyway back to work, we have received the illustrated drawings today, so far, only two out of three have come through, so unless number three appears and blows our socks off, we shall be going with the slightly amended illustration...... number one.

Dad has given the web developers the details of what we want our new mascot to do and how we are going to incorporate it within the website, now it's down to them to get it sorted out. Can't wait to see something soon, just not sure at this stage how soon, soon is. I have a feeling things are moving along faster than we think. We are into the second week now, but I'm not really sure when or if things with the development has started, or if the developers are just sorting out the logo, layout and mascot at this stage. Although this work is being out sourced, so they could be doing other things. Plus we are having a domain issue at the moment, but that is currently being sorted out by the developers for us.

Dad is still stating the new incorporated look is all down to him, but I beg to differ. Should dad continue with this attitude, I shall have to tell him I quit and then we shall see how good the ideas keep flowing then.

Mother will be of no help to him what so ever. She doesn't understand anything beyond the use of the TV remote, the microwave or the telephone. This does not include a mobile phone as she never has this switched on, how she thinks people can contact her, I shall never no. Dad's other dependants/my siblings aren't as intelligent as me so again no help will be gained from asking them anything. He could ask my brother's girlfriend but she comes from up north so not point talking to her as dad can't understand a word she says. As for friends, he doesnt have any. So far as I know he can't find anyone to like him.

Talking of which you will all be pleased to know his neighbour has passed her exam. She should be able to get her warrant card in June. This will enable her to section people under the mental health act. What a day that will be. Balloons, drinks, foods, festive music and celebrations will be heard throughout the village as dad is carted off to the local looney bin!

Don't worry, this wont jeopardise anything to do with dealgrabba as I shall have total control over the website, management system and bank accounts by then.........

I'm a genius!

That's right I'm a genius. There are various reasons why I have come to this conclusion, mainly just because of the fact I'm female, however the following will explain more.

I have finally got my head round all the stuff dad sent me over the last few days. Now I have a better understanding of how linking works against your website ranking among other things. I rang dad with the amazing news only for him to tell me, to get on with it and write all the links out and send it to him to view. More work for me, so that's what I have been doing today, writing out all the links, keywords and meta tag stuff, so exciting it nearly made me want to pee myself!

The next reason I'm a total genius is because we have to come up with new ideas on how the website is to look and what logo and mascot we are now going to use, as the old ones have been scrapped!

Dad has been pondering for days, so too has the web developer. Once I got a few minutes spare on Friday afternoon I decided to put my brain cells into action to solve this problem. Within seconds my brain was filled with lots of inspirational thoughts, which led me to sort out yet another one of dad's problems.

Again I rang dad with my wonderful ideas and gave him my detailed thoughts on it all. I truly believe he is so proud to have such a wonderful, intelligent, dedicated and brilliant daughter, that as soon as the website is bringing in money, I shall receive a rather large pay cheque! He doesn't know how lucky he is. Anyhow, dad passed all this information onto the website developer and he too thinks my ideas are excellent.

In light of this situation instead of being Customer service as dad keeps implying, I shall now only be referred to as Managing Director SEO Genius!

Should he not wish to call me by this title, then I shall have no alternative but to cease use of all fingertips and computers and resume to my normal way of life, before I took this workload on.......

Not sure what the web developer is doing today, come to think about it, not sure what dad is doing either, probably another day where I seem to be the only one doing any work!

A weekend of R & R

I feel this week has been incredibly long. Not sure if it's all the early mornings in a row I've had to tolerate, or all the extra working hours I've put in this week, whatever the case, I'm knackered and so glad it's the weekend.

The other half is working this weekend and I know he will be up and out early. We have a spare room and I asked him, would he like to sleep in there tonight so not to wake me in the morning, to which he replied no, but he's more than happy for me too. I'm not going to give up my half of the bed for anyone, so looks like I'm going to be woken up at silly O'clock again!

Oh and the clocks change this weekend, so not only do I suffer from lack of zzz's, but now I'm going to lose a valuable hour too.

Dad has sorted out the hosting today for the website. Although the colour scheme is now in place, a decision has yet to be made on the mascot, logo and layout. Dad and I had a brief chat about it today, but still no outcome has been reached. As to what, if any development has taken place so far, we are unsure.

Probably going bring joy to my dad's life this weekend and visit him and mother. Firstly I shall disappoint him with the presents I brought back from Amsterdam, he wanted duty free fags, instead he's got a pair of clogs and a fridge magnet. Then I shall going on to delight him with my holiday snaps all 60 of them. We will then move onto website discussion, which could go on for hours, thank the lord my mother has a good wine selection.

Let's hope we have some nice weather and I get chance to get out in the sun for a bit over the weekend, would be nice to do something with the garden, even if it's only to tidy it up a bit. I'd like to get my hanging baskets and pots done, but it's too early in the year for that yet, we have the April showers to come before any glimmer or hope of sunshine.

Dad has finally got his money back from the skater boys, god knows what took them so long, but at least our business with them is finally ceased. Next time you see a skater boy going down the road, don't be tempted to think they could be the next Bill Gates like I so foolishly did, instead throw a stick under their wheels and take delight instead.

Back to the blank page

The site is having a total re vamp. After some emails bouncing back and forth today, it has been agreed to change the colours to orange, black, green and white, rather than, black, green and white. I think we may also have a bit of grey in there somewhere. We are also getting rid of the mascot, logo and cards. He has convinced dad that it looks too much like a gambling website, so we are going to make it look more of a gaming website.

So we're back to the drawing board on ideas for the mascot and logo, no doubt the overall look of the site layout will also change.

Obviously the cost of this is now going to go up, as he now has to get an illustrator to do the logo and mascot, and the site itself has to be designed too. Not sure how much if any, this will delay things as I imagine they will still be able to get on with what they need to do in the mean time, while these things are being formed.

How the logo or mascot is going to look is anyone guess, but they seem extremely helpful and are full of ideas, which is more than what could be said for the previous company.

I have been going through the stuff dad sent me, very helpful in parts, very confusing in other. I have now joined up with wordpress so I can blog on there too, not everyone is going to use blogspot, and it's worth trying to reach as many people as possible, or as my dad says, I can bore more people to death. Should you already be a member of word press and wish to use this instead, then go to www.dealgrabba.wordpress.com

Still unsure what dad is doing within is little world, but I'm now having to put lists together and yet again do more researching. How exciting my life is, I used to spend any spare time I had watching soaps, films, reading or spend time chatting with friends or relaxing at home with family, now I spend what little time I have, staring at a computer screen reading stuff I barely understand and then having to read it again to get my head round it.

I love the way some people out there talk or write about subjects you have no idea about what so ever, use all this fancy terminology and live you more confused and dumbfounded than ever. Why can't they talk or write about subjects in a way non computer geeks or SEO expects can understand in plain English, this would make my life so much easier and pose less stress on the few little brain cells I have left...

Colours

The guys who are doing the website for us are making a start on the layout of the site and colour scheme. We told them we weren't happy with the website's previous layout or colours and they agreed it needed to change, so today we've been presented with colour schemes again......

The logo and mascot are also being re done, but I don't think much, if anything is going to change about them.

I haven't spoken to the web guys about the website as dad has dealt with them so far. However I have now be told I'm to be included in all further mails, which means we shall be back to arguing again over colours when we see the first draft. However in saying this, dad and I did agree today on a colour scheme we both preferred, which made a refreshing change!

I think they could also be doing something with the pre-launch page, or holding page as they call it, as well as looking into the clock functionality. They seem very focused on getting this right, so let's hope they do.

They have been more than helpful so far and they like to communicate a lot which I really hope is their working ethos. They seem to take the time to explain things even if dad doesn't really understand what they are talking about. Not only do emails go back and forth, but also calls. We never had this from the previous company.

I'm going through some of the information that dad sent me the other day. Trying to work through it as I'm doing it, that way I shall have a much better understanding of it all, rather than reading through a load of pages all at once and overloading my poor brain. The information supplied actually means I am learning something new, which makes a change. So much stuff on SEO repeats itself; this is giving me more information and tools to help me along the way, which could potentially make my life a little easier in the long run.

The lovely girl from Key 103 (Manchester) is still in contact with me over the marketing we could potentially do with them. Really good at her job, gives a friendly call without the feeling of being hounded. Shame there aren't more people in this line of business like her.

Nothing else to report at this stage, Not sure what dad is doing, probably sat on his arse in front on the computer looking busy, doing nothing as my mother would say!

Colours

I'm back

I have returned from my lovely weekend away with the girls in Amsterdam, oh what a weekend!

Looking over the two days my dad wrote the blog for me, I see he has nothing but lovely, kind, caring and good words to say about his hard working dedicated daughter, something never change!

Being a dam virgin, I only had other people's word on the place, which in turn created images in my head of what I thought it was going to be like.

We arrived at night and once we had dumped our belongings in the hotel, which was right next to the train station, it was off out for the evening. First to the grasshopper for a drinky poo's then a stroll around the red light district.

As soon as I entered the grasshopper, a young lad stumbled out and past out on the floor. He had come from the downstairs coffee shop, "the weed must be good if it has that effect on you, I joked with a friend"

The red light district wasn't like I expected, for a start it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. The girls in the windows were much prettier than I thought, nothing like the old hags you see over here! Turns out though, not all is what it seems, and most of the girls are really men that have had a sex change. Explains at lot!

The cobbled streets, bridges and canals take on a much different feel at night, much like walking round Glastonbury festival. Anyone who has ever been to the festival knows you can walk all night and never get bored of what to see or do.

Plenty of sex shops, seed shops, sex shows, strip shows, bars and souvenir shops to be had, along with black men hanging around whispering out drugs on offer. Plus of course the drunken men eyeing up the window girls and shouting at them, how the women don't go out and deck them one, I'll never know.

By day Amsterdam took on a different feel. Complete madness! We walked miles on the Saturday, went to a park, couple of bars, a coffee shop or two, had a lovely pizza for dinner and had wonderful weather to top it off. Dam square is great to people watching, I spotted Darth Vader, Batman and Death roaming around.

Referring to the madness Amsterdam takes on by day is the traffic. Trying to cross the road in Amsterdam is like playing frogger, bikes, trams, cars, bikes, trams, people, and that was just one road of many, which we had to do on several occasions. I couldn't believe my eyes when I seen a multi storey car park just for push bikes, unreal the amount that you see everywhere. They don't care where they ride, happy to go on the pavements and then expect you to get out of the way. Pedestrians are second class citizen over there.

We seen so much is such little time, that I plan to go back again sometime soon for another mini adventure. There were three of us this time around; however other friends are coming for the ride next time!

I have posted some pictures below for all to see, however should you feel you would only be wasting valuable life time then click away at the end of the text.

In the mean time, dad has emailed me some info that I have to look through, he wanted me to take work with me to the Dam, however I politely said no, it will have to wait. Not much else work wise for me to do at the moment as I need the site to start before I can do a thing.

Sunday morning. About to be evicted from Dutch soil!

The writer of this blog will arrive back into the UK today after her extravagant weekend jaunt to Amsterdam where no doubt she will subject you to reading what a wonderful time was had by all.

Meantime, an issue more important than weekend breaks...the website.

Discussions at this stage suggest its development at being around 4 weeks. (Raises an eyebrow with some dis-belief). Following on from this will be a further two weeks worth of testing in an attempt to ensure whatever glitches are in the system are extracted. So in theory, Six weeks from now the website could be in place and running...... I wonder what the world's record is for holding one's breath??? Anyone know???

With hindsight (thanks to the previous escapades) and putting my doubts aside, the guys who have now taken this on do at least project an air of knowledge in both what it is the site demands as well as a level of expertise which to-date has been sadly missing.

Now with the best will in the world things could still go wrong, there are probably still going to be areas which spring up to cause concern but for the moment it's a time of entrusting the development to these guys whilst keeping fingers crossed things run smoothly. (Is there a world's record for fingers crossing???)

The first port of call for them (so they advise) is to work on the clock counter, followed quickly by the bidding system. The problems with both these aspects are the users method of internet connection. It would seem (much to my surprise) that dial up Modems are still prolific and it's this method is going to present the site with its biggest problem.

Put simply, a page refreshing via a broadband connection occurs in a split second whereas Dial-up is painfully slow. Their idea is to try and allow users with Dial up connections to actively take part. Me.....ever the cynic believes this is highly unlikely but for now will go along with whatever suggestions they have in this area.

I am also unsure at this stage if it's their plan to allow people to take part using hand helds such as PDM's and of course relevant mobiles. I guess it would be nice to think so but if not, at least the automatic bid function will be in place for times when individuals can't be at their pc....

Hopefully over the next few weeks and using this blog, we will be able to inform everyone of the progress being made....(again I begin to wonder about that world's holding one's breath record!).

Thankfully, if not today then at least tomorrow, normal service will be resumed on the blog though I suspect you will at first be bored to death having to read about her latest escapades in Amsterdam......What can I say? I guess it will be a little like those times you're invited round to a friends for what you think is a dinner party, only to find out the 8mm projector is all set up on the dining room table and you're there to suffer two hours of "Wish you were here" Holiday snaps..... Good luck is all I can say.

Left in the lurch

If I already didn't have enough to do I now find myself having to take over my daughter's blog for a few days while she takes time out to wander around the City of Amsterdam.

I use the daughter term loosely as the blood tests I've recently had done, have yet to be proved conclusive.

Quite what the poor Dutch population have done to merit her arrival in their midst over a quiet, exceptionally sun filled few days, is beyond me!! I guess it's a bit like inflicting the Ebola virus over a weekend and expecting them to survive. But hey! I am sure given this short, sharp lesson the dutch will in future, treat her like British Beef by never again allowing her to darken their doorstep. In fact I suspect the next time she ever tries to enter the country, Bells will ring, Sirens will screech and laser beams of light will fill the heavens warding off all manner of evil spirits.

Yes, I am certain her passport will be microchipped accordingly in that never again will she be allowed back onto Dutch soil.......Not even to view Tulips.....

Of course on a more serious note, I am left asking myself, what possible reason is there for me to take over this blog?

Now my daughter may not be the brightest light bulb in Woolworth's (Yes, before you comment, I am aware Woolworth no longer exists) surely even she is aware, technology as it is today, stretches far and wide, certainly wide enough that if broadband has reached Manchester then it is sure to have reached the flat, mountainless terrains of Holland. Hence, given she has a laptop, is it not therefore reasonable for me to assume she could have taken this with her?

Would you, her followers not have enjoyed a few snapshots of Amsterdam's better known district or maybe a pic or two taken while she hung off the side of a canal boat? Yes, though she may not agree I feel this is an opportunity missed for her followers and all because of this selfish need to enjoy herself.

I know for a fact she will frequent the occasional cafe over there and I am sure said cafes, among other things will have wi-fi hotspots, so again, what possible excuse can she have for not taking a few minutes out of her busy schedule of relaxing in order to write a few well versed lines of her blog?

But of course it's the female species we are dealing with here and just who could possibly know how their minds operate? Definitely in no logical manner that's for sure.

Well whatever the case let's just hope she comes back refreshed (Errrr Like she was ever exhausted) when at least then I might then reasonably expect her to provide a little more input and effort.....and of course let us also hope she is not remiss enough to have forgotten MY duty free!!!!

Ah yes....The blog and the website......Yes well...as you can see...writing is not really my forte and it seems already I have run out of time. I will try to update you some more tomorrow and can only hope my efforts do not lose my daughter too many of her followers. Then again, with that attitude of hers she has only herself to blame.

Not from the south but the north!

We now have a web developer in place. Yippeee! We have decided to go with the guys from the North, yes that's right, north, not south!

I'm really starting to wonder if my dad is losing the plot. He thought for some reason, these guys were from the south, Brighton, how wrong could he be, when he found out today they are from the north, Yorkshire! Couldn't be much further apart really. How could he get it so wrong?

Tomorrow we should get the breakdown of timescales, costing, tests and research undertaken. After that, it will be go, go, go again, let's just hope we have a better time and experience with these guys, otherwise I think dad and I will lose the will to live!

We decided to go with the guys rather than the female as we didn't like the terms of contract and we felt unsure if she would be able to do the clock counter, where as these guys seem to convince us that they are more capable.

As you know, I'm off tomorrow for the weekend, so father will be blogging instead. Looking forward to the break away, no kids, men, cooking or cleaning, just lots of shopping, drinking, sightseeing and walking!

When I return, no doubt it will be back to the grindstone. A woman's work is never done, no rest for the wicked........

Waiting......

Still no news! The south west guy is not going to do it, It only took him a week to come to this conclusion though, why it took him this long, I don't no. Makes you wonder how he copes with a decision over his tea each night, mind boggles, so we are now down to two.

The female with a brain, has a horrid terms of business contract, which we would want changed if we were to go with her. If she wasn't prepared to do this, then it would end there.

The guy from the south seems to think we should say if we are going with him first, before he can give us a quote and a time scale. Really, what person in their right mind would say they would give them the job, without first finding out the costs involved? It could rack up to god knows what figure, really, stupid man!

We have put this to him and are now waiting for him to reply. I don't understand why he can't just give us a quote and then we can move forward to the next stage. This whole process seems to be dragging along at the pace of a stoned snail, I wish said snail would slowly move over a trail of amfets and then get things zooming along to the point the ball can start rolling again so to speak on the build of the site.

I'm jetting off in a few days time, so I'm going to leave you in the hands of my father for the weekend. God only knows what madness and lies he will unleash upon you, but may the force be with you, of course you can always choose to ignore him, like we all do and not tune in until Monday when I shall be back!

Females are wonderful species!

We are still awaiting quotes to come back. The guy in the south came back with some questions and a chat about a few things, mentioned he would be building the front end and his colleague would be doing the back end, but still no quote has come, so we are unsure when that will arrive.

The guy from the south west hasn't come back at all, not sure what is taking him so long, but if he doesn't pull his finger out soon, we won't be bothering with him.

We have however heard back from a female developer. She has the ability to read, be prompt with emails, logical and has done more than the two guys so far.

She came back with her spec of requirements for the site, a timescale, price and let us know what each part will be programmed in. Came to a 27 page spec, so was impressed. More than what we ever got from the skater boys.

We have found that the female developer does seem to have a different opinion to the guy in the south, regarding certain aspects of the site. Dad has emailed her some further questions and some points that she has missed out, nothing to important and probably easy to over look after reading through 87 pages!

So we are still waiting, waiting for how long, I'm unsure, just hope it isn't much longer.......

Wide berth!

Friday the 13th. I'm sure if we were still dealing with the skater boys we would be in for a day of hell!

However we don't and everything has been hunky dory in my little world. Shame the same can't be said for dad. His heating has packed up on him and is having a funny five minutes. Sometimes it works other times it doesn't, plus this affects the hot water, or should I say lack of it. lol

He also has the pleasure of the grandchildren this weekend. He will love every minute of the screams, shouting, crying and of course the temper tantrums and paddies. Dad will see this as some form of bad deed in a former life and will wonder what indeed, he did, to have to endure three days of what he will only see as torture on the ears!

Dad has finally finished updating the spec, he sent the updated version to both potentials and both will get back to us on Monday. Dad also sent it to me to read, what a joy that was! All 87 pages of it!

The other company who came back with the stupid quote and the non ability to read, are still trying their best, bless them. We are unaware if they too are skater boys & girls; however they are acting like them, so we're giving them a wide berth!

Not much more to report really. Going to watch comic relief tonight and of course corrie, will they or won't they make it to the altar, that's the big question!

Quote, quotes and more quotes

We are starting to get the quotes come back, from people we have emailed our spec too over the last few days. The two we have received already, lead me to believe they too, could be like the skater boys!

They haven't gone through the spec properly, so they don't have any understanding of the full website requirements or the functionality and just come back with a stupidly priced quote and a PDF file full of crap.

We do however have two people who could turn out to be suitable. Both can read both are taking their time to go through it, so that's a bonus if nothing else. One is based in the southwest, the other in the south. Both are freelance and claim to have years of experience, so we shall have to wait until tomorrow afternoon, to get their quotes and see.

We have decided to change the colours of the site now. We are going to go with a space blue as I call it on the outer rim and a different blue as the main body. We plan to change the text colour and the logo text too. The rest will stay as it is, well at least for now anyway.....

Our contract is finished!

It's over; we no longer do business with the skater boys!

After dad sent his email to them Friday, he got an email back today, saying they will end the contract with us, reimbursing all monies paid out to them so far. Dad can walk away with all his money, but will have to start all over again.

Skater boys keep all the work they have done so far, but we of cause still keep the domain names and all the rights. We are unsure why they have been so easy, could it be they know their in the wrong for messing us around, they no they can't do they work asked of them, or dad is so much of a pain in the arse, they wanted rid? Whatever their reasons it's fine with us.

Yes it is a pain in the arse to start all over again, but hopefully second time around things will be a little easier for us. We have more of an insight into how things work now, not loads, but more than we had before.

Although we we're happy with the website design before, we are thinking of making some changes and hopefully with a good web designer we can have a better graphically produced website. Chrome showed the colours up to be nice and bright, however explorer and Firefox were a little too dull.

Dad has already thought of changing the colour scheme, I would really like to change the logo font, I hate it, hopefully with a new designer we can convince dad to change it.

In the meantime it's back to the drawing board. Dad is making changes to the spec, making sure everything is up to date and includes every last detail we can possibly think of. We know there will be things forgotten, but I doubt it will be much.

Dad has been in touch with a few website companies who deal with design and development via email today and is awaiting a response. I have contacted a few but only heard back from one, saying his workload is to high at the moment to take anymore work on at present. Most of them don't seem to both at all.

If any of my readers happen to be looking for more work in this area, or no of someone that is, please feel free to contact me!

Very frustrating when you are back to square one all over again. However it isn't a total loss. We have everything in place now, which we didn't have before. Emails, terms of conditions, registration of the company, VAT, All the text information, products, marketing info, Google, Paypal and analytics, the list is endless. All we have to do now is find the right person to do the job well and correctly and hopefully everything will run smoothly second time around.

I will make sure that I attend every meeting with dad this time to make sure they aren't the sister company to the skater boys.lol!

In the meantime, I doubt I shall be blogging as much as before as I think thinks will be a little slow to begin with, but I shall endevour to keep you informed every step of the way........

Relaxing weekend

I haven't got up to much this weekend. Mainly shopping, eating and drinking lots of wine. Skating on ice is on later, so I will have a nice hot bath, bit of a pampering and then cosy up on the sofa probably with a nice glass of vino!

Dad tried to contact skater boy on Friday afternoon, but to no avail. He rang to speak to the director, but again to no avail. He isn't happy with the fact he hasn't had any updates, nor can he see anything done on the website.

He has emailed skater boy again, informing him of the breach of contract, so let's see if he does anything about it on Monday, or will just get the normal response of being ignored. I can't see them getting it done by the time they have estimated.

Oh well, nothing more to report until Monday, until then........

Threatened with a pre launch page!

Dad got an email this morning from skater boy No2, saying the pre launch page will be ready to go live on Monday of next week.

We checked the pre launch page to see what changes, if any had been made and low and behold, things had changed. You register as normal, but instead of being able to refer a friend, you have to complete the registration process by click the link in the new email set up first. Once clicked, registration is successfully and then you can go on to refer friend/friends.

We still need them to move the refer a friend button to the right page, as its currently on the wrong one, reset the numbers and sort out the new emails. Once that is done we are ready to go live. Friday is the day I have in mine though, not Monday!

Nothing has changed on the website and we haven't had any updates, could mean one of two things, one they haven't done anything, or two they are working on something that's going to take a few days, once it's done, it will go onto the website for us to see.

So glad the weekend is here, been a long one.........

Catch up for new readers

Building a website is no easy task. We started the project back in late September. The thoughts went into motion and a 65 page spec was created. Research was then undertaken to find a suitable web developer and designer. Time was taken until we thought we had found the right company.

With a 65 page spec, yes, you may feel this is long, however it is very detailed, allowing anyone to understand each page, it features and functionality. I have spoken to other people, who also have specs this long, if not longer to deal with. A real must for a developer to do their job well!

In December 2008, we handed the project over to the company, who told us that after looking over the spec, they knew they could do it. They informed us after Christmas (about 3 weeks) we would get the pre launch page and 3 months later we would get the finished website and management system.

January, February and now we're in March. We have no pre launch page and are still a long way off from a website.

We have supported them all the way, done updates for them, emailed them info when required, but still they haven't produced a thing. We have smashed our heads against walls, dented tables, bitten finger nails and are now going slightly bald in places.

Frustration is an understatement as to how we feel. We email, they ignore us, we give them detailed instructions, they screw it up, we draw pretty pictures of how we want things to look and they screw it up. They give us completion dates, then change them, they set up our emails address and sort our domain out, then ask us, do we have any email address and what is our domain. Are they stupid, do they less of a memory than a goldfish?

We don't know what to do for the best anymore. Take up Valium or go website developer hunting and I'm not going to use paint balls!

I have never dealt with a company who don't care about their clients, the quality of work they produce, or the service they provide. Even the Director couldn't give a dam about the reputation of his company. They don't seem to care that within the last 20 days theyhave only manage 2 days work and even then it is incorrect. Never have they produced anything that worked first time, nor have they been consistent with anything.

Should any of my readers decide that one day, a website could be for them, think wisely before you do. Web developers in my eyes are no better than cowboy builders. Now I'm not saying all web developers, nor am I saying all builders are cowboys. With all the best research in the world, you never know what you could be letting yourself in for, until the project is finished. Could be heaven or it could be hell......

Pre launch page is ready

Dad received an email today, saying the pre launch page is ready. I then got a call from dad, saying it was ready. Ready my arse......

Nothing has changed, nor has it for the past two weeks, so why could they possibly think it was ready. They know what is outstanding, so have they not tested to make sure it is ready, or just passed it on to us for the sheer hell of it?

Then there's the website. A new feature has been added today. Why we don't know, has it been asked for? Yes, but for it to be in the database, not on the website. They have taken a day to do this wonderful feature. What a waste of a day, when they could have done what was asked in the same time. More delays now!

Why, why, why oh why can't they read the spec and work it out for themselves what they should be doing, check their work when they think they have finished, reply to updates rather than forwarding them to us claiming work has been done, when it clearly hasn't.

Dad will not get his pre launch page tomorrow as requested and I'm dam sure he won't get his website on the 31st of March either.

Breach of contract

Still no news from the skater boys confirming when we see the finished pre launch page, or confirmation on it being 28 days or 32 days, for the website completion.

Dad has come to the end of his tether!

He has sort legal advice and this afternoon they came back to him. It would seem skater boys have breached their contract and are being unreasonable about time scales. To be quoted an estimated 3 weeks for a pre launch page and to still be waiting some 11 weeks later is ridiculous, but then we didn't need the Legal people to tell us that.

Dad has emailed skater boys and requested the pre launch page to be completed by the 4th of March and for the website to be completed by the 31st of March 2009. He has also had to write to the skater boys, with the same information and send it recorded delivery.

Once this has been received we have to wait for them to reply, should they choose not to, further steps will then be taken. Dad has been informed, should it get to court procedures then he will get all of his money back, plus all his cost paid for.

This isn't something dad wants to do, but it has got to the point, if he doesn't do something, we may never get a website, or lose every penny put into this project.

As we knew dad isn't the only person to suffer this experience with web design companies. It would seem this has been happening a lot and web companies aren't getting away with it so lightly anymore. The justice system is working in favour of the client for a change and not the company!

As of yet, we have heard nothing from the skater boys. We may hear something tomorrow; then again we may not, who knows.

A relaxing sunday

Today, I've done nothing, got up, went to the Tesco early, car park was empty, so I could park as close as I could, without having to walk too far. Got inside, lovely and peaceful, got what I needed and headed to the checkout. They couldn't serve me until 10am, so I had to stand at the checkout for two minutes waiting for the clock to chime.

Once 10am came, beeps could be heard up and down; children appeared from nowhere, screaming and shouting, parents seemed oblivious, too busy catching up with friends, and blocking anyone from passing as their trolleys took up all the space available to pass. I paid and hurried to the safety of the car and headed home.

Grumpy came for dinner today, as mum is away visiting he mother/my nan. No sooner had he turned up but so too, did my two good friends. They popped in on their way home for a quick coffee and chat. One of my friends made the fatal mistake of asking my dad how the site was going. An hour later, I think he wished he never came round, let alone asked! lol

We have done a few tests on the site over the weekend. Something's are working, something's still don't and somehow, something's work worse now, than they ever did before!

Dad has written an update to the web developer letting him know the list of problems found; hopefully these will get rectified before he moves onto something else. Monday tomorrow, weekends go too quickly and before you know it, your back to the grind stone again.....