Nicole London of Outback Productions has had a falling out with her webmaster Danny Wallace over the handling of her company’s website, outbackxxx.net
[We’ve contacted Wallace for his side of the story but he didn’t return calls.]
London said she had approached and talked to Wallace, who does sites for several other companies, a few months ago about doing hers.
London: One of the agreements was that Outback would purchase the host computer that the site would be run off of.
On 6/26/03 a check in the amount of 1780.29 was written to Best Buys for the host computer. The specs on the computer were previously faxed over. I have copies of those. Wallace then picked the check up from my accountant because he was going to keep the computer at his place in Thousand Oaks. This way he would not have to come to LA to work on the site. Then, in exchange for him doing the site, he would keep the computer at his place and he could use it for himself.
Well at this point I thought that he was someone that I trusted and did not think at all that anything could go wrong. Well it did. After a few conversations about the site, I was told that it would be done, up and running. Then the calls stopped being returned and I heard a few excuses. I got to the point where all I wanted was our site up. He finally called me after a week of no return calls, and gave an excuse again, then told me he would e-mail me the pages that he had finished. Well 12 hours later I received via e-mail 2 pages one of which was a scanned picture of one of our ads from a magazine (AVN) the other was a page that said Outback.
When I asked him when it would be up he said that I needed a server. So I then asked, well, what is a Host computer, Isn’t that the server? He said no. Well now I am learning that a host computer is the server. I then said “I’ll get a server”. Which I have. So I tried calling him over, and over again with no return call. Finally we decided to get the computer back, and, in the meantime, Outback hired a new web guy who I have to say is the best. Our site is well on the way of going up, some of the pages are already there.
My contract director and editor then went to the residence of Danny Wallace after a argument with him the day prior, with him telling us that he is not giving the computer back, that it’s his. They showed up with two police officers in Thousand Oaks, and the place where Mr. Wallace says he does not live. They knocked on the door and Mr. Wallace answered in his PJ’S. Because we did not have a warrant, and he refused to give the computer back, the peace officers said the next step is court.
He doesn’t want to hand back the computer, and at this point I don’t want the thing either. Mr. Wallace I found out, thought he was being smart and never handed in the receipt to my accountant after the computer was picked up. He says that the computer was pre-payment for work on the web site. Lie. There is no work performed. Hell I know how to scan in pictures.
I have in Outback’s file, an original check written to Best Buys, specs faxed to Outback on the Host Computer, and yes a receipt from Best Buys. It’s amazing when you walk into a store and explain the situation what their computers print out for you. Besides that, my new web guy came from the store.
Mr. Wallace was going to make 20% per month off of the revenue generated by the web site (his loss).
The other thing that he’s saying is that the computer was his payment for the design of the site. Not. I have on more then a few occasions written checks to the ass as payment for work that he has performed for Outback Productions. I will bring those to court, along with his invoices, if needs be. I hear stories all of the time about people being fucked (no pun intended) by their web masters and it sucks. All I’m trying to do is get Outback off the ground, and I think that people like this should stop taking advantage of people and companies.