BE AWARE OF IPHONE DEVELOPER GARVE TECHNOLOGIES (see below)
Looking to develop an iPhone application, I requested a quote from the company mentioned above. I spent about 3 months looking for a development team that could do the job. My research is based on how long has the company being in business, what type of infrastructure they have, how many employees, do they have stocks in the market, and so forth. Well after those 3 months of research I found GARVE TECHNOLOGIES which at the time seemed very reputable and capable of finishing the project. After several conversations on the phone, email and Skype with CEO (CSO of the company), I granted the project to GARVE TECHNOLOGIES. CEO (CSO of the company) as he mention on several occasions, guaranteed more than 4 times during our long phone calls that the project was very possible to do and in the case that Apple rejected the project they were going to return 50% of the investment, all these written on the contract.
Well, the first payment was sent, and Research and Development for the iPhone app started on Feb 11. On Feb 17 I requested to return the money as no sign of anything or phone calls or emails was sent to me. Then on Feb 19, I get an email from one of the developers that the project has not started because one of the developers was working on another project. After many apologize the project research started on Feb 21st. Then on Feb 27, I get an email from CEO:
We have finished our feasibility study for the custom keyboard project. And developing the application is definitely feasible however there are couple of issues.
Please find the results below:
Implementation Approach:
1. Capture global event for showing keyboard and use it to show our custom keyboard over & above system-keyboard. (We can't suppress display of system-keyboard, but can hide it by showing our custom-keyboard above it)
2. Send keystrokes (related characters) to the target TextBox from custom-keyboard.
3. This will be WITHOUT using any third-party API, and using ONLY Apple's APIs & framework.
Issues:
1. We might not be able to understand the context, where the keyboard is being shown. i.e. if URL is being entered or common text is being entered. So we might not be able to show appropriate keyboard out of 3 different types of keyboards, we are planning.
1. Can we get context or what can be understood while trying to implement this solution, as checking feasibility for this is very efforts-intensive.
2. If it turns out that we can't get context, then we can keep some key on the keyboard itself to change the type of keyboard, if this is acceptable by the client
2. Though, chances are less, some applications might have suppressed this global event for keyboard-display, for any reason whatsoever. So such applications won't be able to display our custom-keyboard. This is most likely to happen with games, as games tend to over-ride normal behavior and UI.
Conclusion:
Basically, there are the two issues, one of which is depending upon our code (ability to code, using given API) which we think we will be able to successful overcome, and the second one is very rare possibility, but good to put in black & white so "ability to show context-sensitive keyboards" is something that might not be feasible, everything else is feasible.
After this email, he requested half of the money for the project, in total now $4200. I have to say, I should have known better but decided to continue the project because the outcome was going to be a very successful app and if it wasn’t approved, GARVE TECHNOLOGIES guaranteed that they will return 50% of the money. Then on March 10 I got the following email from CEO
Dear Alex
I apologize for the delayed response.
I finally have been able to strike the deal with my development head. The actual cost of this was going to $12000 which was brought down to $10000 but I have made a commitment for $8000 and that’s what it will be. But the thing that changes is its going to take longer than we anticipated. After receiving the response from Apple things have become more complicated. So it will take more time to deliver this project. We are anticipating by the mid of April we should have the application Live.
This is taking longer but the good thing is that we are moving in the right direction. We did the right thing getting a prior approval from Apple else the entire effort might have gone waste. I will give a final confirmation by tomorrow on the timeline for sure but still it should not cross mid April.
Sincere Regards
Shri
The emails continued with excuses after excuses
Hey Alex
The team has been working hard to get a work around to successfully execute this project but things have only been getting worse. With the new restrictions levied by Apple due to the legalities involved following are the challenges
1. New framework release of iOS, disables Automatic Keyboard Dismissal.
2. UIModalPresentationFormSheet behaviour is changed in new iOS release.
3. We are no more able to capture Show-Keyboard global-event, from other applications.
4. Listening to other application-events has become more difficult and complicated.
These changes in the policies have now posed very serious concerns in executing this project. It’s would have been an ambitious project if it only were a research project but this is a serious business and revenue generating venture which now has very high chances of rejection.
The team has already invested a lot of time into this project without much success and their suggestion is to now stop putting any more effort into this project. I know this is disappointing but we are now left at the mercy of policies of Apple and the technology it dicates. What are your thoughts..??
%%%%%%%%%%%%
CEO to Gyanendra, me
show details Apr 19
Hey Alex
There has been a lot of mess here as Akshay has not been around. I will come back to you with an update tomorrow for sure. Sincerely apologize for this delay in communication.
Personal Regards
Shri
%%%%%%_
CEO to me
show details May 10
Hi Alex
I have some serious familial emergency ****** and so have not be able to get back to you. Will get back to you within 24 hrs on this.
WRgds
Shri
%%%%%%%
At the end, he tells me that the project can’t be done, and they can do me a favor by giving me a credit of $1600 for the next project and all I have to pay is $3400.
Conclusion: I have worked with 5 different development companies since and none of them has ever given me issues like this. Their communication and customer services was the WORST I have ever experienced, and I WILL NEVER EVER recommend or use them in any of my projects.
I hope this helps anyone looking for development companies and that this help as an example no to ever use GARVE TECHNOLOGIES for any project.
Company info below:
India Development Center
Address :
Garve Technologies Pvt. Ltd
136/1A/6, 2'nd Floor,
Mumbai-Bangalore Bypass Highway,
Wakad, Pune-411057
Phone: 020-67919300,
Fax: 91 20 67900333
US Sales Office
Write to Us :
Sales: sales (at) garvetechnologies.com
Information: info (at) garvetechnologies.com
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