Too Many Cooks
We are currently working on a development project for Imax Insurance and we are providing template design, content management, hosting, and template integration for a component provided by Ipipeline.
We initially quoted doing the development of the financial feeds they wanted, but Imax was convinced by a viscious sales person at Ipipeline that they were the only ones who could provide the content they needed.
We modified our quotation accordingly to just take the services provided by Ipipeline, wrap templates around it, and we would not be responsible for its (ipipeline)Â function or modifications.
The product is called AnnuityPipe Suite and cost Imax $1,295.00 for the license, and an additional $275 per month.
The sales person promised Tom Thomas (Imax) the moon and that this Anuitypipe suite could and would perform all of the functions he needed.
Quitely, in the background, we are putting together web templates, getting signed acceptance of the template design, and have uploaded our seo friendly content management system, and have done the integration necessary for the third party application.
Here is where the problem starts. Tom Thomas has discovered that the Annuitypipe will not display an annuity calculator, nor will it display the top 5 annuities in a feed on the website. Tom is now withholding payment untill we fix the flaw in the third party application that we had nothing to do with. We can not make him understand that we only quoted time to learn how to implement the system and not that we were going to make modifications or guarantee its performance.
What we have discovered is that the sales person that promised him the moon is no longer employed with IPipeline and Ipipeline will not honor the promises made by their long gone salesperson. Tom’s only recourse now is to try to beat us into submission so that we will fix his bad business decision.
Fortunately, our contract reads that all litigation will be handled in Hopkins County, so he will have to come here when we sue him for payment 
I am currently turning down websites like this, and I would caution all developers to seriously scrutinize any potential projects that come together like this one.
