We highly recommend corresponding regularly with your coder to best guarantee that the end result is exactly what you want. There are 2 ways to do this:

1) Onsite Communication: Via the same Rent A Coder bidding system that you used to communicate with your coder before you accepted their bid.

This is the recommended method for communication, because it fully protects you in case of a dispute.  Onsite communication is legally binding, and offsite communication (for example, via direct email) is not.  If a dispute occurs, we cannot protect you concerning non legally binding changes to the contract.  As an example, if you communicate via direct email and the coder agrees to add 3 features to the deliverables, and later changes their mind...they could do so without penalty.  That is because you would have no legal proof of the change to the contract.  On the other hand, if you communicate onsite, then the 3 features become a legally binding part of the contract.  On your behalf, we would either force the coder to complete the terms or face the penalties for not doing so.

The other reason to communicate onsite is that it is a convenient place in which to save a complete reference of all your conversations about a project.

2) Communicate offsite with the coder (Email, IM, Skype, etc.).

This can be a fast way to contact the coder. However it is potentially dangerous because everything you agree upon is NOT legally binding.

Despite this, it is possible to communicate offsite AND still protect yourself at the same time against a possible dispute. To do this, after your offsite session, simply come back onsite and summarize everything you agreed upon.  Then get the coder to post onsite that they agree to everything that you posted.  In this way you can have the convenience of offsite communication with the protection of onsite communication.

If your project is > $150, then you will also be receiving weekly status reports from the coder via email. This helps you keep tabs on the project progress so you can make adjustments, if necessary. You can see a complete history of status reports online at the bottom of your bid request (don't forget to login).

If there are problems at any time, you can contact a facilitator to work out difficulties.  Or if you do not get 100% of what you asked for, you can initiate an arbitration for a full or partial refund (Simply click on the 'contact arbitrator' link from your buyer control panel).