how is this different from posting up a splash page asking for email addresses for a future public release?
You really don't see how lying to a customer's face about having code written is different from putting up a splash page saying something might exist in the future?
could you point out where they lied? maybe i missed it.
They implied they were writing code by telling the customer that "development was progressing". Could you argue this was not a lie? Yes, if you are a weasel.
well, i think i could justify it if i wanted to. but i don't want to continue down this thread, sometimes i like to argue for the sake of arguing and i think i should stop now.
i'm not really here to agree with how they went about doing things with respect to how they claim to have pitched the product.
the process that they took would work the exact same if they were completely upfront about what they were doing, though, and i think its worth learning from.
1) if i were in the shoes of the customer, and i didn't have a prototype in front of me, i'd either ask for one or assume it didn't exist.
2) how is this different from posting up a splash page asking for email addresses for a future public release?
3) is the false impression the only thing that matters to you? if they instead implied that they were designing it and there was no implication of cut code or working prototypes, would that make this somehow a better situation in your eyes?