howtofightwagetheft

Well, luckily, there wasn't much company policy. They honestly didn't have you sign much of anything. Also, because they weren't holding to their end of things, I figured anything like that would be invalid as I hadn't technically finished the job. So for example, I still had copies of all of their code which they had told me to delete after "firing" me but I didn't because the job wasn't technically finished until I got paid, or at least that was my rationale. I'm not sure how legal that would hold up.

That said, I did a back search into the code logs (we used git) which shows you ever line written by anybody. I sized up who had done the most commits and luckily he had left his personal email address in there. Sometimes projects get built as first side projects before you create a domain name and email addresses, so there's a good chance of that. Also, a lot of developers don't always configure their repositories to push with the right identity, so you'll see 3 different "users" who are all the same person in one repository.

Anyways I emailed him and warned him of the impeding IRS and DOL investigations as a professional courtesy that they might contact him. He said good send them my way, then proceeded to describe an almost identical situation when I hadn't told him hardly anything. He said he was about to sue them but he had their github account in his name so he just turned it off. That forced them to settle up with him.

I offered to buy him a beer or star wars tickets (this was last year). He was honestly an amazing sanity check in this process for me.

I can, and I'm feeling a bit reticent to do so. I'm not sure why to be honest. Maybe it's having played it really safe with details in things like emails etc over the last year?

However, what I will say is that in the next 24 hours, I'll be posting a scathing review of the company on glassdoor.com. So if you're looking at a consulting gig, go on there first and you'll likely see a similar story if it's this company. I'm also fairly certain they are not hiring right now.

This is one of the things I wish I had done actually. I didn't ask for more than I was owed because I wanted to be fair. But one of my friends who is about the most fair person I know said "well you put in all the extra time researching it, so you should have asked for another thousand I'd say".

However, the courts did give me an additional amount based on interest from last year.

You're welcome, thanks for the question! I think the key is you know it's going to make you nervous, so you just do your best to make it simple so your structure / method helps you out. It was such a great feeling saying "aw fuck it" and grabbing the red folder, I can't even begin to describe it.

I haven't, as I have an on-going gig that is much better, but next round of consulting I'll give it a go. That's a great tip thank you.