Unfortunately there was no contract. Although after the initial consultation he went away saying he will get things started and was happy for me to pay in installments. I payed the first installment of $300 a couple of days later. Total cost being $1200.00 all of which was payed in full by the 31st of May. Its now 19th July and we still only have one page 5 to show for it. And that page was only just done on the 16th July. My partner spoke with him last night asking him for our money back, he told that wasn't going to happen.

As far as I'm aware and from what I have seen from other web designers job completion time is 3-4 weeks for a basic webpage which is what ours should be.

Email i sent to him this morning -

Final payment made 31st May, which is almost 8 weeks, still not good enough! Even if it were the case that you were waiting for final payment which you never said you were, this is still far too long to wait for a basic web page design!

I've spoken to other web page designers and they (3 of them) have all told me it should take no longer than 3-4 weeks max for a 4-5 page web site.

Even after you have said you are still going ahead with the website I still don't see any other pages where's the rest of it, 14 weeks to build 1 page, really?! If each page will take 14weeks we wouldn't see the final completion until this time next year?

Remember this is our business you are playing with! We have a poorly formatted and gramatically in-accurtate web page advertising our business, this is not the professional image we want portrayed to potential customers!

We have an email from you telling us in the early stages that you're "steaming ahead" 31st May, after receiving our final $450 payment as well as "I will have a draft to show you guys this week" 01st of May.

So can you explain to me how then, even after our final payment and telling us you have a draft to show us that 8 weeks later we still only have one page?

And to top it all off, because you live on Cromwell St, you had the ease and ability to come and see us to keep us well updated and informed face to face.

And in reference to the phone conversation you had with Chloe last night asking you to give us our money back, again (18th July 17:10pm), your response to her "I can tell you right now, it's not going to happen" is not your call. We are not satisfied (and have pointed this out to you many times) with the extremely poor service you have provided us with.

So I should use "time is of the essence" phrase and give him the opportunity to complete the full website by the end of this week, failure to do so will be a cancellation/termination of the contract due to abject failure to deliver on time?

Should I also mention that I have been in legal consultation and tell him the consequences of him not honouring this new deadline? Or just keep it simple?

great thanks.

Thanks.