FWD: Contractors of Questionable Ability

["Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

Name withheld upon request. This message is
a little old due to my vacation (hence the holiday
references), but the writer assures me that it's still
valid.

---------------------------------

Excuse my rant, but I have a strong need to vent right now.

Has anyone else had to deal with an outside party to do work that you
subsequently had to test and validate? Our company hired a multimedia
design place to build our website, and I am having massive reservations
about their abilities. Infuriating delays aside (over a week late in
delivering a test site), I have found that many of the errors are (IMHO)
a lack of basic HTML knowledge. I am getting the impression that this
company is trusting their site authoring tool a bit too much and are
unable to deliver a site that meets my standards and expectations. The
bosses want the site commissioned ASAP, yet for it to happen, I will
have to come into the office during the holiday break (something I DON'T
want to do).

A prime example of the "basic" errors I am finding are the "ALT" text
designations for images. If images display alternate text (I say IF,
because some don't), the popup reads "Picture". I asked the developers
to change the text to something more meaningful (like the section
heading) and it took me over 5 minutes to explain what the ALT text is.
A day later, the changes have not been implemented. I haven't tested one
quarter of the site and I am already at my wit's end; I have walked away
from my computer in frustration so many times this afternoon, I don't
know what to do. I am making my list (and checking it twice) of all
errors and I will submit it to the web developers, for correction over
the holiday break. The same list will go to upper management for their
edification.

Basically, I don't know what to do anymore. The more I test, the more
frustrated I become. I have covered my gluteus maximus as much as
possible, yet I feel as if it's my fault, or, at the very least, that I
will somehow be held responsible for this debacle. Management made the
decision to hire these people, yet I have had exclusive contact with the
multimedia company since this project started.

Thanks!