Design A

Review: [redacted] contacted me on [redacted] (which we were friends due to mutual contacts from [redacted]) because I was in a bind with my previous web developer and needed some assistance with my site. He told me that he would need to completely redo my site. I told [redacted] that I wanted to wait and generate some revenue from the site I had first in order to feel comfortable paying for another web developer. He assured me that I would generate more revenue with his site because he would link it with [redacted] and [redacted], it would be easier to navigate and he was going to create an amazing site for me. He offered me a discounted price so that I would work with him because he felt bad that I had to go through this with my previous developer and told me how horrible it is that customers have this experience. He told me he could finish the site in 5 days, but to tell my customers 10-12 just to be on the safe side. I paid him in FULL and was anticipating the completion of my site. We agreed to 20 products and when he uploaded my products, they weren't even the products I asked him to upload. He still has not uploaded and enabled the correct products. The due date for the site was 3/12/2014. On 3/10, [redacted] emailed me and said it should be right on time for the 12th. There has been one excuse after another and the site is STILL not finished as of 8/19/2014. I have had to cancel events because it was not available, I was unable to promote an event for over a whole week because my password wasn't working and he was not answering the phone or responding to emails for over 3 weeks. When he finally "returned" after I threatened to take legal action, he reset my password and I gave him a very long list of items that needed to be addressed and he said he would get to them within the next two days and would reply to each one of them. This was on 7/28/2014 and I have not heard from him since. I have called, left voice mails, emails, [redacted] messages, [redacted] comments (which he deleted), and have not heard back from him. As of right now, I am unable to login to one of my sites which is preventing me from uploading and promoting my events as well as preventing me from making money, my payment options are not correct so customers can't make purchases on my site, and he has not given me any of my login information and files that I have asked for numerous times. Not only has [redacted] cost me money, he has prevented me from promoting my business and has put me behind 5 months with his lack of ability to complete my website, his excuses, and his lack of communication and refusal to respond to my multiple forms of communication. [redacted] has told me many times he would be finished in a couple days, and that day never came. [redacted] also offered free hosting (even though I already paid [redacted] and he told me not to cancel it). As a compensation for my troubles, he offered free hosting for ten years. I can't even get him to call me back when he has locked me out of my account, or to enable the products he was supposed to upload, or to fix ANYTHING that I have asked. Why would I want to go through him for hosting? At one point he changed my password without telling me and I had to wait a day to be able to login to my own site. My business is suffering because of [redacted] and his company and I am very disappointed in the service that I have received. Not only has he made more excuses than I could ever imagine, he is now not even responding to me, leaving me with a non working site and a suffering business for the last 5 months. The amount of revenue I have missed out on far exceeds the amount of the refund I am requesting.Desired Settlement: I would like a refund of $1300, which is the cost of the website and cost of my year of hosting and would like to receive all information that pertains to my website. This isn't even NEAR the amount of revenue I have missed out on due to his lack of communication and inability to finish my product that I have already paid for (5 months late).

Business

Response:

Regarding the complaint, we work very hard to warranty all the work we do - this was a new product and service we provided to the customer at a discounted rate because we knew there was a possibility of hitting hiccups along the way, especially because they needed a "rush job". We're not perfect but the shopping cart and online store works, we were two weeks behind schedule because we were setting it up the same time a "heartbleed" OpenSSL bug was discovered nationally. Despite the delay we were still able to verify the shopping cart works exactly perfectly but the customer insisted it wasn't working correctly - I personally double and triple checked the software and verified that everything was working properly.

I helped the customer setup additional products because of the delay and extended additional services free of charge to help. We offered help applying for a [redacted] grant worth over $120,000 a year in advertising, setup additional products for the customer, offered extra hosting for the life of the business - rather than a yearly hosting fee and even began to help them setup an event manager so that the business could have online registrations. Despite our best efforts to satisfy the customer, they became increasingly agitated/hostile, I suspect this was because they weren't generating sales and expected these to somehow magically filter in. I'll admit that we're not perfect, this was a new product/service and there were unexpected delays but we double/triple checked all our work, code and designs to ensure everything in the software and on the website functioned properly. When the customer needed help or changes, we assisted any way we could despite being at a loss on the project overall, it was thought of as an investment on my part but ended up costing me a small fortune in labor. We were unable to come to terms with the customer, they demanded a full refund plus all the work we did to date and I respectfully declined because everything on the store worked perfectly - they complained that they couldn't accept payments - that's because they never added their payment processor like we instructed them to. We've offered the customer additional support and the option to return as a customer any time. In the meantime, the customer has complete access to the product, online store, the ability to add products, manage content and apply a payment processor. We will continue to host their website and SSL at no additional fee due to the delay, this is over $1,000 a year in savings as most companies charge on average $125/mo for this type of product, the customers fee has been waived indefinitely. I stopped working after they went out and publicly shamed me and my company after we made every reasonable effort to help, satisfy the scope of work and service and retain their business.

In summary, we had some missteps here but went above and beyond to try to make this right. We always warranty our work and I've gone way out of my way to try to accommodate this customers needs.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

The payment gateway has been setup and API given to [redacted] on 3/12/2014 when he asked for it as you can see in the screenshot attached. It WAS working because I processed an order myself on 7/28/2014. At this time however, they still had options listed that I did not want, including a cash/money order option. When I asked for those to be removed, only the option I wanted was removed and the other two remained. I have since played with it to be able to at least have a paypal option so people can order (which is not working properly, and I am paying for Authorize.net).

It took them over a week to respond and enable my store because it was unavailable due to a “maintenance flag”, but they are still refusing to respond to my emails about my admin info and files. I am still not able to login to wordpress that will direct customers to my site when I have an event and I am also unable to blog. [redacted] setup my mailing list through [redacted] instead of [redacted] as requested. [redacted] is non responsive - as a customer I have asked over 10 times for my files and usernames and passwords.

I gave [redacted] a long list of items that were not working that he told me he would address back in July and has not responded about them since. When [redacted] originally added products, they were not the products I asked him to add so he has not uploaded extra products for me. The website is not finished. Please see my About Us that I have asked to be finished https://[redacted] (note the link even has the demo name to it). Please also see the multiple emails (I have more if needed) that have been sent to him in regards to items that have not been completed. One of the products he added he did not enable because he "said" he did not have the price list. I sent it to him 4 times. They are still not enabled.

My disappointment is not with generating sales because I refuse to promote a website that is not completely finished. I know that the sales aren’t going to show up overnight. However he did say that it would be linked with [redacted] and [redacted] and he has mentioned nothing of that working or responds when I ask about it.

Also, [redacted] did not give me a discount because this was a "new product" and never mentioned they may hit hiccups, it was because he felt bad that my last web developer stuck me with a crappy product and he offered to give me the discount, knowing that I needed a website. To me, having a working payment processor does not constitute a finished product. A finished product is one that is free of flaws (this one is not) and working as designed. Me being able to process an order should not mean his "job is done". I am not even getting emails when I receive an order.

There are many areas that need fixed and he has yet to even attempt to do them. Not only is he not responding via email, neither is Juan, who I have also asked twice for my files and admin usernames and passwords. He will not answer my phone calls or call me back. Hosting with him gives me zero benefit if I can't get a hold of him when I have a problem.

As far as public shame, that must have been me posting on his [redacted] page that I needed him to contact me asap because I could not login to my site and wanted my files (after no response for 16 days).

It has been excuse after excuse with [redacted]. I told him I don’t want excuses, I want a finished product. I still do not have that as of 9/18/2014 which is over 6 months later than the contracted date. The contract gives me three revisions. I haven’t even been able to get one revision because it was never fully finished in the first place.

I have attached the contract where it states what I would receive.

Regards,[redacted]

Business

Response:

I think I even offered an additional hosting and SSL extensions at three years and it still wasn't good enough. She ended up moving our design to Shopify and all they did was slap a "powered by Shopify" at the bottom. I'm insulted she expects skilled labor to work for free. She was even thoroughly optimized for [redacted]. I can't spend more time on this matter than I already have - it's cost me a weeks worth of business practically at this point. I've cut my losses and moved on and would appreciate an update on my listing. Please and thank you.I think you asked for a link to a copy of her terms of service signature audit, a link to our additional Universal Terms of Service and also copy of the service document which we exceeded the items listed by a great deal as described in my previous email. [redacted] just let me know if you would like anything else.

Business

Response:

I think I even offered an additional hosting and SSL extensions at three years and it still wasn't good enough. She ended up moving our design to Shopify and all they did was slap a "powered by Shopify" at the bottom. I'm insulted she expects skilled labor to work for free. She was even thoroughly optimized for [redacted]. I can't spend more time on this matter than I already have - it's cost me a weeks worth of business practically at this point. I've cut my losses and moved on and would appreciate an update on my listing. Please and thank you.I think you asked for a link to a copy of her terms of service signature audit, a link to our additional Universal Terms of Service and also copy of the service document which we exceeded the items listed by a great deal as described in my previous email. [redacted] just let me know if you would like anything else.

I am [redacted], I hired [redacted], DBA Design A, to build a website for me. I paid him in FULL, $2300.00 on Feb. 13, 2014, as he requested. He would not accept half payment down, which I felt at the time was a bit odd for a big business as he proclaimed to be. He promised the website would be complete in 3 weeks. It is now June, 11, 2014 and it is still not up and running. He had one excuse after another as to why it is not done.
I met with him 2 weeks later to see the completed site and he didn't even have his laptop with him. So he had nothing to show me. He promised it would be done AGAIN in 3 days. This went on several more times, meeting and nothing but empty promises. Well it is not done.
He also proclaimed to be a photographer and would take all the pictures of my jewelry and upload it onto the site. Well, he is NOT a photographer, the pictures were very poor and his expertise at Photo Shop was VERY POOR also. I would not be able to sell anything with his pictures so I got the manufacturers pictures and sent to him to use. I never even saw those pictures, he never uploaded anything for me to see.
He is a VERY POOR businessman. I requested all my jewelry back from him, he wouldn't return my calls or emails as to when we can meet. I had to request a Civil Standby with the [redacted] in order to get my jewelry back. When the Police Officer gave me the bag of jewelry, it was returned all tangled together and out of the original packages, he threw them all away. It was a big mess and he had promised me it would all be back in the original packages. I can not sell any of the jewelry he returned.
As for the website, everything was like a generic website. Some of it is in a foreign language. He only had one picture item in each category after 4 months working on it, instead of 3 weeks to be up and running as he promised me.
Andrew can really pitch himself as a very knowledgable person for web design, but what he showed to me was nothing near being professional. My experience working with Andrew I would NOT RECOMMEND DESIGN A to anyone wanting to build a website or have him do any online marketing.
As it is now...I have lost time and money that I have invested in my business along with any potential sales I would have had online.
I REQUESTED A FULL REFUND FOR MY $2300.00 I PAID TO ANDREW. I TOLD HIM I WOULD NOT PRESS CHARGES OR GO ANY FURTHER WITH LEGAL ACTION, BUT HE IGNORED ME AND TOLD THE POLICE TO HAVE ME CONTACT HIS ATTORNEY, WHICH HE HAS NOT GIVEN ME ANY NAMES OR NUMBERS.

Review: On March 10, 2014, we contracted with Design A for the development of a new 80 page website, as well SEO services on those pages. He required that we pay in full, $1,960, upfront. The contract states that setup and design will take 10-15 business days. It is now over 6 months since we paid him and signed the contract. We only have 6 incomplete pages of our website up so far. We have repeatedly requested changes to the pages that are up, and they have not been made. Every time, we inquire about when the remaining pages, and changes we requested, will be done, we get excuses, and promises that it will be done in a few days. Every deadline is missed. It has now reached the point where Design A is not returning our calls or emails. We rely on our website to attract new customers, and Design A's delays and poor business practices are harming our business.

Every step of the way has been a challenge with Design A. The customer service is horrible. There is a lack of communication. Design A makes promises, whether taking photos of our showroom, working on the website or delivery deadlines that are not met. We have completely lost faith in Design A's ability to do the work. Design A has been holding our money for over 6 months now, and we have little to nothing to show for it.Desired Settlement: We want a refund of our entire $1,960.

Business

Response:

Attached you will find a report on what [redacted] primarily paid for - website development and search engine optimization. They rank for over 100 relevant keywords now and have a better website that will convert for their business. It did take longer than expected, the client wanted multiple revisions on the design and we were slammed - because of the delay I offered to do a complimentary logo upscale and we provided them free e-commerce hosting for their business with us (over a $1,000 value) which is fair. I also did a complimentary round of photography in their gallery. The customers requested revisions weren't part of what they paid for but we did them any way to keep them happy. There's still approximately 20 to 30 category pages that we are setting up, but after that we are completed with their project in full. We're not perfect, Design A is a small company with limited resources but we work very hard to try to keep customers beyond satisfied.

On top of all that, when the project was running behind, I went out to meet with the client and brought them lunch - I felt I owed them an explanation and some assurances. I was met by a hanging rug with swastikas on it... I'm Jewish, this insulted me but I got through the meeting without saying anything for the sake of the relationship and to get the project completed - it made me uncomfortable and I'll admit that it influenced my desire to want to go out of my way to work with or speak with the client. 50 of 80 pages are completed and the remaining thirty are category pages that take approximately one business day to finish. For the sake of not overpromising - the pages will be posted in their blog for use by 10/15, if not sooner. Ultimately I work very hard to bring our customers a superior product and service they can count on, sometimes we get delayed - mainly due to accommodating revision requests and going above and beyond for all our customers, we provide a lot of extras free of charge. I can tell you from this experience and a couple like it over the last year we will be doing less and less of this and just adhering to a really rigorous terms and conditions for our product.

Ultimately, the customer has been delivered a superior product, good service (albeit not the fastest I'll admit) and I've stomached their anti-semitic propaganda hanging on their wall even though I shouldn't have had to. I would sincerely suggest they consider not displaying that kind of merchandise front and center on their showroom floor, it's beyond insulting. Maybe they didn't know I was Jewish, but I think in general as a Revdex.com businesses, you should try to be sensitive to others cultural and religious beliefs.

In summary, their website is now done after multiple rounds of revisions - there's a style update that's being pushed out and an update to add [redacted] to their webform. There are 20 to 30 category pages the customer has provided, those will be added to the blog for their use. If the customer wants to know why I don't want to really speak with them, it's because they hung a swastika right in front of me on their showroom floor. That's bull...

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I have attached a copy of the agreement with Design A, promising a custom website consisting of at least 80 pages, and that we would be pleased with the design. Since our initial complaint, Design A has thrown up additional pages but they are of exceedingly poor quality in terms of layout and design, and there are still many pages missing, or simply not working. Since filing our complaint, we've been working on a website through the platform SquareSpace, and have created a better quality website in 2 weeks than this allegedly expert website developer was able to create in 7 months. Design A has violated the terms of its own Agreement, and we have no interest in further working with him or intention of using this poor quality site that doesn't reflect our brand. We have received nothing for the almost $2,000 we paid upfront, and insist on a refund.