>>>>>>>>>I retained a contact back in February to develop a simple contact management system. The client's data was in Access.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I wrote the app as a C# WinForms app against SQL 2005 Express. 3 key requirements were:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>1) Skype dialing
>>>>>>>>>2) Export to Constant Contact
>>>>>>>>>3) Save contact to Google contacts
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>I have been unable to get the Save contact to Google contacts feature working correctly. There have been numerous problems. Most of the time when it errors, the exception says "Operation failed", and the inner is "Bad request". This happens intermittently whereas one contact will save fine, the next won't. Theres' no ryme or reason to it. I'v spend well over 100 hours on this project. Most of that time has been on this issue
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>In the course of doing this project, the client has made a number of requests to change the software. I have a bunch of emails where he stated, "This doesn't really work for me. Can you make it do this instead", or, "I'd rather have this do that". In the name of good customer relations I have made the changes. (Shouldn't have, but I did).
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>Well, here it is 4 months later and I still have not completed it. The Google problems are unsolvable, in my opinion. The client agrees.
>>>>>>>>>2 weeks ago I decided enough is enough and I sent him an email stating that I was cancelling the project. He of course was not happy, and after we talked, I agreed that I would try one more time to get the Google thing working. Friday he called me and agreed that it's time to cancel this.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>He has paid me $400 as a retainer, and now he wants it back. The Skype dialing works, as does the Constant Contact export. He stated that he doesn't have what he paid for, so he wants his money back. My point is that not only does he have 2/3 functionality, I have made a number of upgrades at my own expense.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>When I emailed him 2 weeks ago to cancel, and we talked, in that conversation he hinted at sueing me. Thing is, it's only $400.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>What would you do?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>Out of curiosity, were you using the Google Contact API? I was planning on using that in a future product and if it's crap I want a heads-up.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>Yes, I used the Google Contact API. In my opinion it's crap. Very poorly documented. Useless exception messages. Not an easy model to work with.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>Hmmm, I was using their Calendar API this weekend and it seems to be just the opposite. I thought the ease of use was refreshing, although I haven't used it very long in a production environment.
>>>>>
>>>>>I used their gmail API a while back, and it was very easy. I don't get it. My opinion of the Contacts API is that they people who developed it are morons. Different teams I guess.
>>>>
>>>>Must be. That's disappointing. I'll have to check it out sometime and see if I have the same issues.
>>>
>>>If you find any decent docs, let me know will ya?
>>
>>I used their sample app for most of my development, and referred to the docs for reference on their schema.
>
>I found a solution last night. I went into Google Contacts and created a contact with as much info as I could. I then exported it using Google's export feature in Google CSV format. This gave me a CSV with all the column headers required by Google. Why this isn't documented somewhere is mind boggling.
>
>I then wrote a small console app that added rows to the CSV for each contact. Then I imported the CSV into Google. Took a few tries for misc tweaks, but in the end all contacts are in.
>
>Now this wasn't done using their API, but at least my client's contacts are now in Google.

Hey, whatever works. I hope it works out for you.