Now Wash Your Hands (NWYH). A case study in bad business practice.

Whilst researching this article we came across the blog of a freelance flash developer. According to his blog he had been hired by a UK design Agency to create a very complex piece of flash quiz software. It seems that after working for a month on the project, through a combination of incompetent project management and dodgy client handling on the part of NWYH, not to mention a few mistakes on the part of the developer himself, NWYH ripped him off for by about $US 4000. We contacted the flash developer to find out more. This is what he had to say.

"Now Wash Your Hands had done some work for the BBC before hiring me to make a video quiz application for the Eastenders website. It was obvious from the start that the project was dodgy. There was none of the usual planning or preparation in place that a flash developer would usually see when entering into such a software build. The designs hadn't been done, the technical spec was weak and it was obvious that the only real interaction NWYH had had with the client was to sell them the concept in the first place.

I took the project on because of the profile of the end client. I was assured that I would be working as part of a strong team who would work together to bring it to a successful conclusion. Right from the start the only communication I received from Now Wash Your Hands was demanding and stressful. The deadlines were impossible, the budget tiny - all in all it's just a developer's worst nightmare. They asked me sign a contract which would have divulged me of all my rights to any of my work from the beginning, gagged me about talking about the project ever and generally was not in my interests to sign.

Sure enough as the project went on, and the deadline came under pressure, the whole thing started to look shaky. With absolutely no technical or project management support, NWYH began to blame me to their own client, the BBC who soon get fed up it. As a developer I was left totally out in the cold trying to hit an impossible goal with no support. Towards the end I told them more time would be needed. They freaked out completely, fired me and then refused to pay for an entire month's work from me."

We asked The Managing Director of Now Wash your hands, Neil Jeffries to comment and received this reply:

"I am a little lost how he had the cheek to ask for any money at all. We would have paid him if he had delivered a completed product. However if we ‘DO’ find a resource that is prepared to work over his existing code and we can recover the project with our client, we would have agreed to pay him something, but this will definitely not be the full amount as agreed."

No money was ever paid to the flash developer, leaving him in a difficult financial position, and (quite rightly in our opinion) very angry indeed.

Business Articles: http://www.internetionalmedia.com/Category/Business/

The blog post: blog.listingslab.com/2007/06/20/now-wash-your-hands-nwyh The software: www.listingslab.com/portfolio/eastenders

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