Does anyone know what's going on in the Phillipines? - Communication downs?

IM nice guy,

It's either that internet connection issue is only happening to your programmer or he's only making some excuses. Some of our Help Desk Associates are from the Philippines and we're not having problems with them (yet).

Yup, I've heard that story before. A thousand times...

Im from the Philippines and there are several ISP here so Im not sure if connection is really down. But if he really wanted to communicate with you there's always a way.

Thanks guys, yeah, I think he's a bit of a self destructive git, I just don't understand his behaviour at all, as I had given him a second chance, and apparently he has no other source of income right now, and he has been working with me since April 40 hours a week...

So I don't get it. His loss I guess, just annoying for now....

@IM nice guy: The net connection has been not good for the past days or this week. If he is using usb modem for broadband - then yes his answer is justified.

If he is using broadband (landline) have not heard any issues about it. But I doubt he will be using usb modem as for his net connection since he is a programmer and he needs faster connection to do the work.

As the saying goes, if there is a will there is a way. If he wants to stick with this job, he will do all means to get things done if not then he has lots of reasons not to.

IM Nice Guy,

It does sound fishy.

I live in the Philippines and have managed programmers and other types outsourcers here.

There are a couple issues potentially at play here.

Yes, Internet can be a problem. Just yesterday we lost power three times, and we live in a nice part of Davao City. I got about half the work done that I normally accomplish in a day. When I went to a coffee shop to get back at it, their Internet was down as well. This sort of thing can happen city-wide from time to time.

That being said, a week is a pretty long time. And, while this is an amazing country with amazing people, the reality is a lot of workers aren't going to go the extra mile to help or communicate with you if there's a problem (e.g., electricity failure, Internet failure).

Secondly, getting the run-around from overseas workers is pretty common as well, even if you've had positive experiences with the same worker in the past. Culturally, there's just a very different mindset regarding work.

Anyway, I don't know what you're working on. But if it's essential that progress continues to move forward, you might consider a programmer from Eastern Europe or somewhere in the West. Philippines can be hit or miss in the tech department.

Hope that was of SOME use. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!

Yeah your programmer is most likely making excuses, try to communicate with him and ask him what's really going on..

I'm from Philippines and these are all I can say about this:

1) Internet connection may not be really down and his just making excuses.

2) The longest period I have experienced with no internet connection is 5 days, and this is a wired connection.

3) If he's using a wireless connection, what he said maybe true. If he's living in the northern part of the Philippines where weather is not good now, it may take longer than that period to have no connection.

4) If he's using a wired connection and it is for his established and registered business, the ISP will fixed it in maximum of three days.

5) If he's using a wired connection but it is for residential only (which is of high chance), fixing his problem could take a week.

Hi IM Nice Guy,

Well, that's mostly the main problem a lot of work at home freelancers encounter time and again, not just here in the Philippines, but also in other developing countries. They have residential DSL connections, though most work at home freelancers here use USB dongles from cellular network providers, so their Internet connections use cellular coverage...

We also have homebased/work at home subcontractors across the Philippines (a lot of them) and in other developing countries (well, mostly in India and Singapore). Many of them are based here in Metro Manila, the national capital region of the country, and a lot of them reside in the capital and main cities of Metro Manila. Here in the capital and main cities of Metro Manila, you get better DSL connectivity, better cellular coverage and wider access to other services, especially if you have business and corporate accounts with prominent local service providers here, though the main advantage is we encounter fewer power cut offs (around an hour to three hours max per month here in Quezon City), unlike in other provincial cities here outside Metro Manila, most of which encounter around fifteen to twenty hours, on average, per month of power cut offs, and thirty to fifty hours per month in times of heavy rains and typhoons (from June to September, though this can stretch to November). So:

If the freelancer you hired is based in a provincial city outside Metro Manila and uses a USB dongle or even a DSL or cable service for Internet connectivity, then he could most likely be telling the truth, since some provinces outside Metro Manila has been having heavy rains for more than two weeks now (not continuous enough to cause massive flooding though, but this affects the services of the ISPs and power stations in those provinces). Though of course, a freelancer should be professional and creative enough to formulate a solution for notifying you about his situation, like asking someone he knows (trusted friend, relative, etc.) in Metro Manila (it would be quite difficult to even imagine he doesn't know someone who's currently somewhere in Metro Manila at any given time) to contact you. Have you tried calling him on his mobile phone?

I dont think it matters if it is true or not. You have an internet business and work is not progressing. You therefore need to manage that by having alternatives to getting the work completed. Every hour of delay is an hour lost for income. If you value your time at decent rates then this soon adds up to a sizeable sum!

Hello Nick,

When all else fail, you got to initiate your Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Just like what our fellow above me told, you need to progress on that task. It's way better to get the job done a little bit delayed than waiting forever for your your without knowing if he'll still contact you or not.

Try all means to contact him though. Send him a notification email that if you didn't receive a response until ______, you have no option but to find another contractor since this is all about business. Just let him know nicely and he'll, for sure, understand where you're coming from.