Valid reason for employer to breach freelance contract
- by Costas
Please don't close this as offtopic. According to the FAQ I can post programming related questions.
I was working on a project and when it was half way completed (1 weeks work), the employer backs out and refuses to pay me.
Shortly before this he was being very rude. He was having problems configuring the server and he told me it was my fault and that I had to fix it. After I spent several hours trying to figure out the problem, it turned out to be his fault.
After this when I put the code on the server. He found 1 bug that I had missed. He freaked out, accused me of being a bad programmer and told me that the code was shit and that he couldn't use it. He said that if there is a bug in the code, that means the code is bad and he can't use it. He would have to throw the code away and hire someone else.
His kept reiterating his argument: "why should I pay for code that I can't use". And I kept telling him the code was fine and urged him to have another programmer give him a second opinion. But he would have none of that. He said he would compensate me for my troubles by paying me 250$. Then he changes his mind and lowers that to 200$. Then a third time he changes his mind and says he doesn't want to compensate me at all.
I'm left frustrated because besides being rude, he did not at any time tell me he was unhappy with the work that I was doing.
So my question is; Is the above a valid reason to back out of a verbal contract in your opinion?
