Last week i came across couple of weird situation that in my books is considered sort of abuse & fraud.

1st situation

I replied to a post on another forum in Switzerland which requested someone to urgently fix a CMS based website for CHF XXX / hour, i got in contact with the person who posted & arranged a meeting which i couldn't do but i did call & apologized & offered to fix the site remotely.

After i finished fixing the site, i contacted the person again & he said that he won't be paying the amount previously agreed as he wanted to have training too which i didn't offer in the first place, end of NO PAYMENT.

2ND situation

I replied to a job offer which was advertised here, i got reply back by email to arrange a phone interview on certain date, i had the interview & discussed several aspects of my C.V, job role, salary, ...etc, then i were invited to visit the office of the company in another canton to get to know the team & get along with them (I got NDA to sign too).

I went on the date of the visit, had discussion with the owner of the company who was so nice person, we had some chat about several aspects of my work experience & he was so interested in my qualifications, he then had to leave for the rest of the day & told me to stay with the team to solve some technical problems with several applications.

I spent the day, worked alongside the tech person, did a good job (the Techy wasn't aware of the problem & didn't know really what i were doing) & he was so impressed by my work.

End of the day, they said that they will contact me with all details & start date the next day.

Next day i received email saying that they won't be processing my application, Hell, what application??

I seriously don't know what is going on??, but 2 times in 1 week was really so much to put me down

Sounds like you have been shafted big time. Sorry to hear it.

I know jobs are scarce at the moment but any employer worth their salt is not going to expect someone to work for free.

Why not try sending company 2 in your example an invoice for your services? It sounds like you fixed a problem. Try it and see what happens (but don't hold your breath....)

I'm a little tired and grumpy right now, but regarding job nr. 1 the following thought crossed my mind: Do you have the possibility to un-fix the CMS to the precise status quo ante? No contract no salary no work owed.

Believe it or not, i can't do that, not that i can't but it's not ethical for me to do so (even if the person did me bad).

The point is why they engage me in a job that they won't pay for, if they ask me to do it for free, i might have agreed on free will

I don't know the details of this job and if exactly the same happened to me I can't say that I'd go the confrontational route because I can be rather forgiving at times. However consider that you felt strong enough about it to create a thread here.

Well i am forgiving them about what happened (I'm just happy to success in my work all the time) & i posted this here cause i wanted to share the experience with people around here to know what might happen sometimes.

I just don't understand the mentality of such employers thinking they can get away with such acts.

With regards to scenario 1, you had a verbal contract, he broke it and has to be or is liable for damages... A nice strongly worded letter should do the trick including the invoice and if you have it a transcript of the conversation in which he gave you access to his stuff for you to fix etc

Scenario 2 I'm a tad confused with, perhaps contacting the guy you worked with to find out what the situation is/was, perhaps there was some mix up...

I emailed the owner of the company demanding to understand what went wrong or what is the situation but never heard back from anybody from this company again

You sound like a thoroughly decent bloke!

I have had a horrendous time last year with a company who 'stole' my services & completely understand your anger at this happening twice in a week!

I think this a growing problem here in Switzerland & could get worse as the job situation is so bad, it is really a very considerate thing to do to post descriptions of these situations up here as it may go some way to stop this happening in the future to others.

I don't think its just Switzerland... its a growing trend all over, I've heard stories from friends living in London which are just as bad if not worse.

@ OP: E-Mails are easy to ignore, don't let the *******s get away with it without having to have some kahoonas and face you, call them. Remain polite and business-like, which I have no doubt you will and ask.

In London I had a few interviews where they would ask me to fix things in the interview or ask for technical advice before having a contract. I always said no. No contract no work.

i agree its not just in CH, i got friends all over DE getting shafted left, right, center! 1 poor chap had an extended remix of a 6 month internship with the promise of a perm position, but got shafted in the end.

Thanks everyone for so much advice which is always expected from all of you.

I decided to just get over it & get the ball rolling again for the future.

For now, i think i will just reward myself with a new watch to cheer me up, nothing is better for me than new movements on the wrist

Sorry but I didn't say it was happening just in Switzerland. My point in saying it is a 'growing' problem here is that it in my experience employers here are usually very honest & in 8 years of working here something like this has only happened to me recently.

Just as a footnote, being such a small network here in regard to working I totally agree with the OP wanting to move on rather than cause trouble unless as you say, he goes about it in a polite way.

I completely sympathise but if you turn it to say you would like to understand the local market better blah blah blah you can actually create a positive impression and as you've already stated, its a real old boys club here... Eitherway, only the op can decide how he feels about the situation and hes in the best position to judge...

(OP: I miss read your "movements on the wrist" must get my mind out of the gutter)

For the benefit of the OP and others who might find themselves in a similar situation you do have the option (new watch notwidthstanding) of the following:

Send a registered letter with an invoice for work done. If no reply follow up with a betreibung.
OR
Ask for a reference for the work done, especially in the second case where possibly the boss isn't aware of your contribution from "Techy" who maybe wants to mask your contribution. This might help your future job prospects as you have a fresh work related acitivity.

AND

Prepare a letter with a short offer/contract for services with your hourly rate on it. Then get this signed before you start and when you finish.
Ensure you have an authorized deputy for signature in case the instigator isn't around. Then you can still "undo" your work before leaving

AND

If you didn't sign an NDA, consider finding out the legal offices of the companies involved, and pointing out that you were allowed on the premises, access to the systems and permitted to perform unauthorized changes. This should be in violation of their IT policies. In addition you could mention you may copy the Swiss Data Protection Authorities that your access may have included access to controlled data on individuals which is regulated, and you were given access without a contractual limitation.

Then they'll quickly have to dispute and have to justify it to an external third party, and decide if you had contractually controlled access or not.

Admitting a contract and access and payment may suddenly become the lesser evil.

Hope this "helps".

1st situation:
Never start any sort of work to do with the web without payment first up front. I was forced into this policy by a number of different "clients". The worst being one in the USA, who spent at least 3 hours on the phone to me over 3 weeks. When I had what he wanted just right for him, he declared his credit card was "maxed out" and he "couldn't pay a dime".

2nd Situation:
Never believe a job offer until you have it in writing - and the contract signed. I was interview 3 times for a marketing job with a well-know part-works publisher in London, culminating in them telling me to hand my notice in at my present job so as to start asap and the contract was being drawn up.

I never heard anything more. When I phone after 2 weeks to speak to the marketing director who had interviewed me, I was told he had left...

Sh1t happenZ.

I have found this sort of of behaviour is not unusual and has happened to me on a number of occasions. I have a standard collection procedure:

1) Email a 'it must have slipped your mind to pay for this' letter first thing on a Monday

Wait three days

2) Email a 'I'm disappointed not to have received an answer to email 1' letter first thing on Thursday

Wait two days

3) Last thing on Friday, send by registered letter 'I'm disappointed not to have received a an answer to my email 2' letter which is cc'd under your signature to something/someone that is very clearly a law firm

Wait until the day after delivery according to the tracking system

4) Telephone a director of the company at work explaining that you have had no response to 1-3 unless the person you are collecting from is a director of the company in which case you want to contact another director of the company or if there is only one director, call their spouse at home and say that you are having trouble contacting them

Wait two days

5) Turn up in person at their offices with a very stoney face in front of their collegues. They normally know immediately why you are there and cave immediately. If not, ask them for the cash (and know where the nearest bank/ATM is if they claim they don't have any) in front of their collegues.

I would say that the percentage of clients who pay up at each step is:

1 : 10%
2 : 20%
3 : 40%
4 : 20%
5 : 10%

The trick, if possible, is of course not to get to this stage in the first place. Based on 20 years in the freelance software business, I have only once had an invoice paid on time including payments in advance. Most are paid a few days up to a month late. Generally, the bigger the company, the more late the payment will be. 5-10% end up going through the above process. Anyone who gets to stage 4 will never want you to work for them again. You probably won't want to anyway. Your mileage may vary.

I think that calling the spouse at home crosses the line. If someone called my home to speak to my spouse for a work related matter, I would be pretty pi$$ed off.

That is of course the point. The only time I would ever do this is if it is a one man band and they have been dodging emails, letters and phone calls. This step is about trying to get a higher authority to tell them to pay up.