About 2 years ago, I was hired by the owner of Local Coffee and Tea, also known as Local Coffee + Tea, named Michael Duranko. I'm a web designer and he asked me to work with a graphic designer he had hired so I could convert their design into a website for Local Coffee and Tea.

I met with Michael Duranko and his designer and also worked with them for a couple months over the phone and through email, so we could get the Local Coffee and Tea website, designed, tweaked and ready to launch. Once the Local Coffee and Tea website was finally ready to launch, and I had fulfilled my part of the bargain, Michael Duranko owed me $800 for the work I did on his website. I sent him an invoice and have never received payment.

In the next few months, I called Michael Duranko and sent him emails, but he never responded. Then one day, he responded to one of my emails and said he was short on money since he was opening new local coffee and tea shops, and he would send me a partial payment soon. Well, 2 years later, and I’m still out $800. Apparently, Michael Duranko has money to open new local coffee and tea shops, but doesn’t have money to pay the people who do work for him. They help the environment, but they don’t seem to care too much about the hard working people who rely on honest clients to pay them.

I’m been doing freelance web design for 11 years and Michael Duranko is the first client who hasn’t paid me. If you take a look at the Local Coffee and Tea website, it’s not the one I designed, but apparently he paid that designer, because they’re still listed as a contact. I will never do work with Local Coffee and Tea again and wish I had known what type of person Michael Duranko is before I worked on the Local Coffee and Tea website.

I guess the best way to summarize is I had a very negative experience with Michael Duranko and Local Coffee and Tea and it’s very frustrating to see someone who is so dishonest in business.