iMuttaguru Raman S Scam, Poor Communication, Did not send product, constant delays, untrustworthy Internet

I had the unfortunate incident with working with an IT company called iMuttaguru and hope that everyone will avoid them at all costs. They are shady, unreliable and scammed me money and I learned my lesson from dealing with companies that contact you via a freelance service and then ask to deal with you outside via skype and paypal.

About the Project:

I put up a project on freelancer and they bidded on my project. Because I had many bidders I interviewed them all via private message and thought that Raman S aka Raman Srivastava was the best fit for the project. Therefore I selected them winner for the bid and Raman asked me to talk with him on Skype.

He explained to me that his company does not accept projects under $500 but because his bid at $300 was accepted that he would go ahead and do the project only if it was outside of freelancer. I agreed and we decided to do a 50/50 payment where I would pay $150 in the beginning of the project and $150 when the project was over.

This is where the h**l began.

I asked when he could send me my project and he said after a week. So I waited a week and no reply so I contacted him on Skype and said that he had a problem with his family that is why the project was delayed (if anybody has worked with shady IT companies in India you will most likely have heard similar "excuses").

So he said the project would take another week so again I patiently waited but still nothing ever happened. Again I contacted on Skype and he assured that he would be sending it in a couple hours and required the other 50% payment which I sent because I was in a huge rush and wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. But to my surprise I didn't receive anything.

I sent many emails over the course of several days asking about it and received no replies and even tried contacting on Skype but my messages were all ignored. Not knowing what to do, I disputed the payment on paypal but it was rejected because the item was a digital good and could not be disputed.

I feel very foolish that I dealt with this shady company outside of freelancer. The warning signs were there:

1. Asking to go outside of freelancer (they also have an account on elance)
2. Asking for payment through paypal
3. talking in skype instead of freelancer's private message system

So I lost $300 and quite disappointed and warn everybody about them and they should be avoided at all costs. Please save your money and energy with more trustworthy companies.