Rich Sadowsky agreed to perform certain programming tasks as a consultant for Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), beginning in March 2008. In July 2008, HRI severed all relations with Mr. Sadowsky due to lack of performance on his part.
During the months he consulted for HRI, Mr. Sadowsky invoiced the company for several thousand dollars to familiarize himself with the PHP framework Symfony, on the pathway to developing the requested products. At his request, HRI overnighted two payments to him, with his assurance that he would repay HRI for the shipping. Regarding deliverables, Mr. Sadowsky repeatedly promised various products "the next day" or within a few days. No product was delivered, and no repayment for the shipping was received, despite two past-due notices related to these expenses.
Ultimately, HRI hired a process server to deliver papers to Mr. Sadowsky directing him to stop all work related to the agreement and telling him that no further payments would be made. By that time, weeks had passed since his first projected product completion date, and we had not received any programming products associated with the agreement, not even in draft form. Mr. Sadowsky has not responded to our requests that he (1) return the money HRI paid him for familiarizing himself with Symfony since we received no product, and (2) reimburse us for extra shipping expenses incurred on his behalf.
Given this experience, we were very surprised to see that Mr. Sadowsky listed Horizon Research as one of his clients on his c.v. We are weighing our legal options, but in any event thought it would be helpful for others contemplating using his services to know about our experience.