Page 2 - The web designer from hell

Could you really kill me any deader than I am… Take a closer look at my face!
raz

Its a total case of fraud !!

Companies develop policies to keep a good amount even in a condition when they do nothing for the client ..

If you're sure about the agreement which you have signed with the web designer company and strongly belive on your stand

Then I must say you can go ahead with filling a case against them ..

try to search more victimes of that company and try to communicate with them this will make your case better and more and more people will be fruitful in this manner ..

Announce the name of the company in bold letters, post it here, and then send the company the link to this thread. Their livelihood depends on the web. Let them see what the web says about them.

I can sympathize....I'm a web designer who has taken his chances and occasionally not gotten paid by a few clients. Kind of the opposite of your situation.

I hired someone to break legs.

Thanks everyone for the support. I sat down and put all of the facts together with all of the email transmissions as back-up. These are the "facts". Would you be upset if you were me?

1. This project was agreed upon because you informed us that you could start immediately.
2. I sent the check overnight by request on the 26th of July.
3. I was also told that we would start by Friday the 29th
4. I was then told on Wednesday the 27th you would contact me by the end of the week with no mention of start time.
5. I never heard from you during the week, so I sent Ken an email mid-afternoon on Friday inquiring about your contact.
6. I then received your documents at 6:30 pm on the 29th.
7. I sent the original drafts to you on Sunday the 31st. I also in that email explained that we did not have “content” and that we would not need you to implement the content and would you design another page in lieu of the content implementation.
8. You agreed to add an additional page on Monday the 1st of August.
9. You then informed us on Monday the 1st that the project would not start until the 5th of August, you also said “Feel free to send detailed emails” which I did.
10. You then sent us a new email on the 4th of August explaining that the project would now not start until the following Monday so you could “review the most recent information”
11. At no point was there ever any mention of the “format”. In fact you stated all of my information was “well-organized and detailed...thanks!” on August 4th at 8:25 pm.
12. I then inquired at 3:30 Monday the 8th for an update on all the materials I had sent over.
13. I was then told on Monday August 8th that the documents were not formatted correctly and the price quoted did not cover the design of new pages.
14. You then told me to contact my sales person “Ken xxxxxxx” which I did promptly asking for a phone call.
15. Ken responded with “Jeff was a partner and he would not be getting involved”.
16. I then sent both Jeff and Ken emails asking for an immediate phone conversation due to all of the confusion.
17. Jeff writes back and tells me that he was able to talk to Ken and that they would do the pages as originally agreed, but I would need to reformat the “content” before they would start the project.
18. I again asked to speak to someone in person when Jeff finally logs into MSN Messenger claiming “The phone lines were all in use”
19. Jeff proceeded to argue that the pages were formatted incorrectly and that we must have content or the pages would be blank.
20. I explained the nature of our content was dynamically generated from a database. All of these facts were explained to Ken xxxxxxx and Jeff seemed to know nothing about our needs or this information.
21. Jeff then told me that he would not be surfing through all of the information due to the price of the contract.
22. After a bit of go around between Jeff and our team, we agreed to again send over the information formatted into word documents. This was not “content” formatted into documents as stated in the contract, these were “instructions” for each page formatted into documents. The original content documents were sent to Jeff as agreed on Sunday the 31st.
23. We were assured there would be no additional delay once the documents were received.
24. I sent the newly formatted documents on the 9th of August at 1:30 am.
25. We have still not heard from you or your team and it is 4:15 on Wednesday the 10th of August.
26. I sent a follow up email on the 8th of August, no response.
27. I sent another email on the 16th of August.
28. I get a response yesterday of: Hi Tiffany, We've had some scheduling conflicts. We plan on delivering the design comps for your review on Wednesday, the 24th. I apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause.

I don't even want to work with these people now. So I get to wait another week for another excuse. Do I cut it here and loose the money and file suit or do I wait again? Mind you our deadline for all of this is looming =( Everyday this is not finished and up we are loosing money. This is a catch 22 situation and I am just torn.

You turn into the nightmare customer.
Phone them 30 times a day and bombard them with emails constantly.
Make it so they are so pi55ed they send you the $$ back.
Never walk away from money.

Hi Tiffany.

Boy have I been through this a few times.

The main issue is that they are out of state so in order to recoup your money you would have to file in their state, so that's almost never the answer.

Post-payment its tough to give you anything useful.

What I can do though is recommend Elance or GetACoder. I have several projects underway. They act as an intermediary, but you can still contact the individual or company before hand.

You can see other projects and work, and set your minimum requirements.

One issue I learned is that overseas companies may be alot cheaper, but between the time difference and reliability of their internet access, and in some cases even a cultural barrier.

You can even require that they provide references.

Sorry you had to experience this. I can recommend the comanies that I use if you'll drop me a PM.

Secret SEO Stuff from Mick?

LMBO!!! I am DYING!!!! Come on, do tell then you can kill be cause it's killin me already not knowing!!!!! lol

$2600? That's not much. I had quotes on a new sit I'm launching of $3000 - $20000.

Massive database, dozens of xml feeds, real time information (much like an atm or debit card type transaction). 128 bit SSL certificate, HackerSafe, CC processing, Affiliate Admin and tracking, a database built by uploads from individuals to populate inventory in addition to the xml feed, and numerous other details.

I got a great compaqny to do it for $3k, but its costing another 2k (@ $3.50 hr to some Indian Data Processors) just to build the database that consists of close to 5GB of manually obtained information.

Every website plan I've ever been involved with had some type of problem. Little ones that are inevitibly HUGE problems. Whether they are scheduling delays or whatever, they WILL happen.

Take for example the company I have doing the site I mentioned above. I furnished all of the information and precise job details, as well as an example of the xml feed. They failed to realize the feed (which for this example I'll just say items), has 7000+ items that go in specific categories. Since the feed didn't have this information each item had to be hand-sorted into a category.
This added weeks to the job. There was no easy way to do it.

Additionally the extra wotk I have these Indian Data Processors doing will add up to around a month to complete 50-60% of the project.

A 30-day launch date is now into its 3rd month with a 120-day launch date.

In some cases it is the webmaster and/or his companies fault, as in the aforementioned example, sometimes its the buyer fault. They want the site to do this or that, and what seems to be an easy add, in a complicated site, the "simple addition" could amount to days of additional coding.

There are walls in book stores full of books about the transition of the internet. Companies and websites need to be more than a gateway to window shopping, or a good informational source.

You need to offer something your competition does not.

New sites need to be intensly service oriented, and provide many things to keep them coming back. Hence the website I am launching. Its taken a ton of time,money and hard work, but once launched will be worth the development problems.

Tiffany, visit www.badbusinessbureau.com, and file a internet/sotware rip-off...

Tiffany,
If you still didn't find anyone, I would be happy to help you free of charge.
I hate when bad things happen to good people.
You can view my work and find some info http://www.patertech.net

I have to agree with Mick on this one. I would call and email as often as I could and let them know you have contacted an attorney (even if you havent) and will be taking action. Do nothing that will open yourself up to a counter-suit or anything of that nature but definitely hound them. I used to work at a web design company and we had a few experiences where the customer didnt pay up. Also, we had a customer breech their contract, we stopped work but kept the money that had already been paid for the work which had been done. They got pissed and were obnoxious and we ended up refunding the money even though we were in the right. It just wasnt worth the hassle for us. I suspect you could make this designer feel the same way about your $900.00

Anyone with a laptop and book on HTML is a web designer. And you don't even need the book any more!

Tiffany, you can contact your bank and explain the situation to them. They may have something in place to help you out. You can also contact the BBB and see what they say.

Otherwise as a web designer for 10 years I can tell you that delays do happen for all kinds of reasons. Budgets are tight, and one customer going sideways can really throw things off for everyone.

I suggest a candid conversation about exactly what is bugging you. Is it really the delay, the confusion, or just poor communication on their part? All the above? The thing is to be real clear and let them know that you are not satisfied without bringing the emotion into it as that will only add more confusion as they try to figure out the emotion instead of the actual problem.

If you are really unsatisfied let them know that you have everything tracked and are considering legal action unless [your terms here] or they can refund your deposit.

You can also look for any sites thay are listed on that allow reviews. Be careful to only post information you back up so they can't go after you for defamation, slander, etc.

About 60% of my clients come from experiences similar to yours. It's unfortunate and hurts the industry.

Anyway, whatever your next move be as informed as posible. And please, keep us up to date on this.

Noble offer. Nice to know there are some good folks left in the world.


......And that they wanted quick payment? Quick payment for what? As if they were in a hurry to get started? Sounds like a blatent scam. I think I would have retreated and dropped the hammer on them soon after that.

Tiffany Be very careful in here some of them sound good on the paper but you may be talking to the same ones that are taking your money...

I wouldn't forget about the 900 hundred. file a small claim against them, report them to the better business, post their link on the fourms.. Spread the word on this type of behavior Have no mercy on them stealing is stealing.

Get someone closer to home were you can visit them... I know there is someone there not many towns, cities don't have someone that can build a website the right way and you will have some hands on with the design as well...