Do Not Trust Anders Haig, FMyClone, MinimStudio, Srednatonmi
Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by $haz in General
So you can see that I have been away for a while, haven’t had much time to update here since I have been involved with many different projects that I am trying to start up.
One of my projects involved a website kind of like Fmylife, which I approached Anders Haig for, the creator of FMyClone. I wanted to purchase his script as well as make additional mods and customizations to it. I told him which customizations I needed and he got back to me with a quote asking me to pay half up front.
Now his quote was quite a ridiculous amount, about $1000. But Anders Haig seemed like a trustful guy by the way he was talking to me so I thought why not, he seems legit. Boy was I wrong.
Anders was suppose to get the script to me in 10 days, but when those 10 days came the script was not even half way complete. I told him all the changes he had to make on the script and was trying my best to be patient. 10 more days went by… then 10 more… and he asks me to look at the current script (he claimed he worked on it a little more) and tell him what to change. Well funny thing, there was still a great amount of stuff missing from the script that I had asked for earlier.
So Anders emails me telling me that he is sorry and that he has some troubles going on in his household. I try to understand the best I can since I have been down that road before. He was also suppose to design the website, so a couple weeks back he emails me telling me that if I find another designer he will knock off $200 from the total price. I kind of wanted him to design the site since he knew it the best so I asked him if he could offer me the same discount if I waited for him.
Some how, which I do not even understand, that angered him and he “took it as an insult to him and his family.” Yeah I know, I have no idea whats going on in his mind right there. After that he said he did not want to work with me anymore and that he would refund me the money.
Right after he said that he blocked me on AIM and didn’t respond to any of the emails I sent him. I even apologized since I think he misunderstood what I was saying about the discount. Anyhow, I said it was ok for him to refund me and that I would be waiting for a refund. And guess what? The refund never came nor did he ever contact me again. I feel like he’s a little troubled child since he has been ignoring me non stop.
I even took the liberty of referring a few readers of mine to him since they were looking for a similar script. Anders responded to them of course, but after a while he got sick of the questions they were asking and called them “idiots who can’t speak English correctly.” Real professional huh? Anyone who isn’t completely fluent in English stay away from him, he might insult you for not speaking it correctly.
Anyway I proceeded with a paypal dispute which he also ignored and did not respond to. I later escalated that to a claim which I eventually won yesterday. Yeah it feels good winning, but too bad paypal told me that Andres Haig had insufficient funds in his account so I didn’t get a penny back. That basically means he has no money in his account, which pissed me off even more since he has his own company and what not. I tried contacting him about this and he finally responded saying “Don’t you know how paypal works? The refund is completely up to them now, I have no control over it.”
Andres is trying to fool me into thinking he cant just go into paypal, deposit back my money, and refund it. He keeps saying that it’s now up to paypal, which obviously it’s not since he is the one who has my money. Anyway he’s back to ignoring me now and I’m trying to now take legal action against him. $500 might not be worth the money, but after the way this guy treated this whole situation, I’m more displeased with his attitude than the money. So anyone who is wondering about Andres Haig, he owns Fmyclone.com, as well as Minim Studio, and goes by Srednatonmi on AIM and email. Here are all the emails he uses as well as other contact info:
srednatonmi@gmail.com
info@fmyclone.com
proexploit@gmail.com
http://andershaig.emurse.com/
http://andershaig.com
http://minimstudio.com/
http://fmyclone.com
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/anders-haig/12/584/81b
I hope he tries his best to resolve this (I’m sure after this he won’t though). I have sent him countless emails asking him to unblock me and actually discuss with me, but like a little girl he refuses to. So I thought I would make sure no one else has the same problem as I have had with him.
What can you learn from my mistake and what is the point of this post besides me calling out this scammer? Well, the main thing I would advise is not to pay anyone up front for a job. If they will only do it up front, then you should make small installments and not big ones like I did. I hope you guys learn from my mistakes. Back to the drawing board with me as I unveil my new projects, catch up with all of you soon!
Popularity: 6% [?]
$haz
18. Aug, 2009
Update: It seems Anders Haig had prior problems with the law. http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/15462191.html
I feel very foolish for not doing and extensive search on him before I agreed to hire him. Another lesson learned!
Marcus
20. Sep, 2009
wow same thing happened to me!!
Marcel
19. Oct, 2009
Thanks for this article!
After a few e-mails I wrote with Anders Haig, I had a bad feeling and googled his name. I’m glad that I’m always trying to be careful.
Rome
19. Nov, 2009
I WISH I would have read this post BEFORE paying him
The guy just scammed me out of $50 for creating blogs.
Someone needs to teach him a lesson or he’ll keep scamming people out of their hard earned money.
Did you end up taking legal action?
$haz
20. Nov, 2009
Nah, $500 wasn’t enough to go legally. I hope it works out for you.
Jeanne Lewitts
14. Dec, 2009
I have worked with Anders for about 2 years and have had nothing but very positive experiences. He is thorough, trust-worthy and produces work that exceeds my expectations. I send him referrals on a regular basis because of the fact that he has been an outstanding business professional.
It is forums such as this one that caste an unwarranted negative gossip bubble on someone which can be very harmful to people. Ignoramuses like you people should stop trying to sabotage others whom work hard and are well respected business professionals.
Steven
06. Feb, 2010
Actually I am sure the above post is most propably from Anders himslef. I wish I had actually read this before accepting his services which as experienced by the posters above, he failed to deliver.
Whilst I do not doubt hat Jeannne recevies a good service it is evident that this is not the case for a lot of his clients.
He stole my money and got very abusive when I asked for an update.
My advice is simple, STAY AWAY.
Anon
09. Feb, 2010
Hm, found this site while google searching the name Anders Haig.
I worked with him for a client (not me hiring him) on odesk.com and he was flexible with the work that I was doing for him, and paid me a slight bonus when the work involved went over time, so in all he was very fair.
From what little I do know of him, he seems to be an individual web developer working for himself (the concept of Minim group notwithstanding). As such, I don’t find it hard to believe that a job between him and another individual client went sour, in my experience all projects have wrinkles that you didn’t forsee when you’re doing independent contracting, and even negotiating simple things like deadlines and overages can’t always be resolved favorably for both sides.
Obviously if you really can’t finish some work that you’ve legally contracted for, the only real way to turn that into a legitimate exchange is to negotiate a refund. Maybe that was what Anders should have done, or maybe there are more extenuating circumstances of the deal that $haz hasn’t mentioned. I reserve my opinion on that.
This “testimonial” so to speak, hasn’t turned me away from working with Anders, but it has reminded me that I should cover my ass (e.g. half up front, give a sample of the work you’ve done instead of the actual work, or do work for a site that has some measure of guarantee, which I suppose is one benefit of odesk). So thanks for that reminder.
Maybe I’ll come back and post an update, though I doubt my experience will be the exception that proves the rule.
not Jeanne Lewitts
24. Aug, 2010
I found this amusing: Google “Jeanne Lewitts” and the only hit that comes up is this web page. Curious, indeed.