Advice on whether to do all clients requests, some off them or none at all?

Let me start off by saying I made alot of mistakes on my end taking on a project. Now I am in a position where I have a software development project that is a bit of a nightmare and suffering from mission creep.

Can you provide advice on what options I can take and what you think is the best course of action?

Background:
I took on a project to develop a WordPress theme that is a web application for a digital agency. I was to work with another person who I thought was an experienced developer but turned out to only have very limited knowledge of html and css. The verbal agreement was that the other dev (who works for the agency) would do all the html, css and animations (gsap javascript). My mistakes include (but are not limited to); agreeing to an accelerated project timeline (I said 12 weeks but they got me down to 4 weeks), fixed project price, thinking the other developer could do their part, agreeing to a project without making them clearly outline all their needs (animations, webgl integrations, etc).

It's now been 6 weeks and I have implemented the features outlined in the contract (5 templates, audio feature, custom posts, custom field integration).

The Problems:
- The client keeps adding on more todos, he considers them expansions/alterations of the features I agreed to do in the contract but these changes are significant time consuming changes.
- The dev's changes introduce bugs and errors.
- The dev is meant to maintain the project after I am finished but doesn't have the skills or experience to compile to project for deployment. I have needed to train him on how to use git, npm, webpack, vue.js, etc. He currently has a problem where he cannot compile the project in production mode, it's obviously something to do with his npm/node version because it works fine for me on 2 different computers and OS's. But the client and him think it's my project setup. Should I or am I obliged to fix this issue for him? If he can't fix it, the client can't maintain/deploy the project. Fixing it involves me sitting down with him and just debugging the problem and trying to find a solution. The client is under the impression the problem is my code or project setup.

What actions do I have available to me? Should I say no to performing tech support for the dev? Should I agree to do some of the changes the client wants? Should I say no to all of them?

What do I want to do:
At this point I want to leave them with the project as is. It's not nice but I believe I have implemented the features outlined in the contract. I realise I will receive a big reputation loss and possibly legal action. I invoiced the client in 2 instalments, so 50% after 2 weeks (client paid this) and another 50% 3 weeks after that (not yet paid). I am happy to loose the last installment and maybe that would provide some legal protection?

 

Two options really as you already know..
1. Stick it out.. We've all been there with projects that just haemmorage us financially, and potentially take away from other opportunities.. Your rep remains intact. But for future reference, alaways get requirements down in concrete terms, as specific as possible, any deviation, let them know there'll be an additional charge.

2. Bail on it. If it's not going to hurt you reputation wise, communicate clearly with the client and let them you want out as the requirements keep growing, and that's unfair on you. Chances are, you'll end up in a conflict situation, I've worked with ppl like this before and they feel entitled to bleed you dry.. Just depends on what the full repercussions will be. Make sure you are well aware of this. Here's a thought, if this person/group has been such a pain to work with, do you think its worthwhile sticking it out, would you work with them again. If the answer is no.. Bail. Keeping in mind what repercussions you may face. Make sure you fully outline what the initial brief entailed and what you delivered on. And what was added on all in writing.

Its a tough one.. Good luck.

 

Have you tried resuming work through google apps?

 

Thank you, by the way. You just gave me an easy way to improve the whole office. I had a problem. For each view in a resource, Google Analytics generates tables in which some of the full data is filtered by certain parameters, for example, by users (users:condition or by sessions (sessions:condition. Thus, it's impossible to get an objective view of users' actions without additional processing, i.e. analyzing raw data. Some data simply could not be integrated into other resources. I installed the application and did everything as instructed. Now all documents are safe and everything works.

 

Thank you, by the way. You just gave me an easy way to improve the whole office. I had a problem. For each view in a resource, Google Analytics generates tables in which some of the full data is filtered by certain parameters, for example, by users (users:condition or by sessions (sessions:condition. Thus, it's impossible to get an objective view of users' actions without additional processing, i.e. analyzing raw data. Some data simply could not be integrated into other resources. I installed the application hubspot to Google BigQuery on coupler.io and did everything as instructed. Now all documents are safe and everything works.