As usual, a written contract could have prevented some of this issue. But another takeaway that "TrustNo1" provides is that just because they're in the same business as you doesn't make them as honest as you are:
When I was first starting out I sent my resume to about 20-30 local design "firms" (or so i thought). Many of them turned out to be individual freelancers and I didn't really expect to get any work from them. One day a guy called me up asking if i had experience in "macromedia director." I was delighted at the opportunity to use my experience with "director" to earn a quick buck. this guy continued telling me that if i did a good job he would be giving me other work. He told me all about how he had been doing freelance work for several years and that he could give me pointers and advice. His big tip that he gave me on the phone was "Never Do Any Work without a contract!".
The project I was to do was simple: take a flash movie he had and play it with director. (don't ask me why since he could have just exported it as a flash projector) He was putting it on a cd and also needed an autoexec batch file put on there. Great I said and we agreed on a $ figure. The next day I got my files from him and put it together in director then sent him a copy back. That was the last I heard from him. Unfortunately he really meant what he said about not doing work without a contract because he never paid and didn't seem to ever have intention of paying... moral of the story: ALWAYS HAVE A CONTRACT and... DON'T TRUST OTHER WEB DEVELOPERS!
The good thing about this story was that the amount he was going to pay me was only like $100 so i didn't lose out on a large amount of money...
I don't know that I'm going to stop trusting other Web developers, but the reminder to always get a written contract is a good one. We all want to think that people won't rip us off - and sometimes it may be that they don't think they are ripping you off. But it still happens, and clear, written agreements help prevent bad feelings later.
