[scoopster]

I traded on ebay for 2 years and decided to make the jump into an online shop. Unfortunitaly this experience has been stressful and troublesome. So in preparation i undertook a web design course to get some basic understanding on what i was talking about and get into the jargan!!!

In july Last year i commisioned a small Web Design Company to build my Web site inclusive of CMS System. The inital comunications were good, polite and helpful. It was a local company and although not much cheaper than a larger competitor i liked the sound of this company.

It is now 10 months later from design stage and them starting the web build and the site is not yet completed. Throught this time it has been full of problems and delays etc. All i want is a working site, i would like what i paid for. I have no problems with the quality of work, i just feel that he has over commited his workload and is unable to keep everyone happy! I was always informed that works would be completed in reasonable time and as fast ast they can! 12 months ago i was invoiced in full and paid upfront a sum of £2000. Is it really unreasonable of me to have expected this completed by now?

Our relationship has deteriorated and he has started to become rude and abrupt! You may say in responce to my emails, but this is not the case! He refuses to comit to any dates, i have no idea on when the project will be finished.

I have a problem, As they have built the site i dont think i am in any position to move to another company! They provide the cms so if i do so i loose the functionality of the site! Im left with an empty shell which i could not use! Any Advice?

I have the option of cutting my lossses and getting a new site built by another company, i dont want to do this but this may be my only option. Anyone any ideas on how i would or should proceed.


At the end of the day i want the site finished, i really just want what i paid for. I am an honest guy and it really leaves a bad taste in my mouth and feel shafted at the way i have been treated!

Look forward to hearing from someone who may be able to help.

Regards

Tom

[bocaj]

Ouch! i hate it when people post stuff like this makes me sad

10-12 months is pretty unreasonable, do you have any contracts? Plus you paid 100% upfront? so really there's no carrot left to dangle (so to speak)?.

Some people on here are far more clued up on the law, but i'm pretty sure you've got a good stance, after all you've paid in full for a product/service you have not received. What was the original committed deadline? and contractual agreements (written or otherwise)?

Although, someone should post with a great lengthy article on your rights, have a quick search through the forum, there have been quite a few cases like this in the last few months, you might find some helpful info there

I hope you get it sorted, we're in the process of moving operations from out ebay store, to two commerce sites before phasing out ebay. While i have hit numerous snags with commerce, i still think 10 months is unreasonable.

[scoopster]

Hi,

Many thanks for your response. I was a little naive, and fresh at the start of this project like so many are!

I was informed that the design stage would take 4-8 weeks but is dependant on how many revisions and the comunication speed of his Client. - This turned out to be correct!

I was then told that the build would commence once we were in agreement on the design, this was very important as once the build was started it can be costly to adjust etc which i agreed was fair! He said that he could not gaurentee how quickly the build stage would be completed by as it depended on their work load, problems arising although they would complete in reasonable time and as fast as they can!

I informed them i wanted to launch the site in Mid august! - This failed!
I informed them i wanted to launch the site in Oct at the latest to get the christmas sales! - This failed!
Start of November i was given access to the site - it looked good but so many bugs in the system it was untrue!
Dec had additional aspects which although we discussed was not documented in email at the start of the project - The designer then had no recolection of our discssion! My Fault for not puting everything in writing! A mistake i will not repeat! - Received an invoice for a further 400 for additional items.
March - I finaly had the majority of these system issues resolved -

Issues currently outstanding - Still do not have the ability to add a blog to the site, unable to add testimonials, unable to add meta or keywords for my products, address not coming through from system onto the order i have to obtain this from protx, not able to use random pictures with in header, Customers who register have no ability for password retrival, unable to veiw registared customer list.

All i want is the site up and running! I just want what i have paid for!

Any time i ask when he simply states - we never ever commit to any dates! Work will be done as fast as we can of which i am grown tired of!

[bocaj]

Just a question, is this a complete custom build? or modification of an off the shelf/open source product? Dates should always be committed, i've been stung by this on the other side of the coin.

I have a client, who's been dawdling for the past 15 months with finalising, and signing off, before i can get the rest of my money. All the signs that they're in financial trouble are there, so this is why i'm realising, contracts with contingency for every foreseeable, and unforeseeable circumstance must be accounted for.

Unfortunately, by the sounds of it, you, i, and many others have made the same mistakes. Things should be black and white for both parties, to prevent nasties like this.

When my mother gets back, i'll ask her about this, see what she says (she's an ex-lawyer) however, laws change daily, and she's been out of the loop for a few years, so the info may not be completely up to date, but should be a good basis on what rights you've got, unless someone else has better information they can post.

I'll see what she says, and i'll try and keep my post word for word what she says.

[ReaperWD]

Hi Tom,

just to give you the opinion of a small team that builds shop sites.

We tend to offer them at well below the £2000 mark (£600-1000 normally) using our own CMS that we modify as needed. Obviously, by using our own CMS, we are making it faster, but there is no way it should take as long as you have. We tend to say 2 weeks to design, 4 to build, with an extra 2 (bringing total to 8 weeks) incase something goes wrong.

Do you have a written contract? have you considered taking them to court for failing to provide a service?

I would also be interested in knowing what you intend to be selling.

Reaper

[scoopster]

hi bocaj


We do not have a formal contract as such but i have a design spec which we resolved prior to design stage. All the siite specifics were detailed in this. Just draging on way far too long..

Im going to brush up with what my rights are and also what is reasonable etc. I will push him on the phone sometime soon and hopefully get some comitment.

There are plenty of good web designers out there, and some not so good. There may also be good web designers who are just over committed and due to this is giving some of its customers a poor service.

Your help is appreciated.

Regards
Tom

[ReaperWD]

scoopster, on Apr 28 2009, 22:24, said:

There may also be good web designers who are just over committed and due to this is giving some of its customers a poor service.

In my opinion, that would stop them being a good webdesigner on the whole, they may be good at what they do, but customer service is a huge part of the job. If my workload is full, then i tell the customers there will be a delay.

Although if its a 12 month delay, i would expect it to be becasue they have hit a problem, and dont want to admit it.


Reaper

[Jarvooo]

Hey Tom,

I have no clue what they are thinking taking this long, its unspeakable, if they cant fulfil the job they should just admit to it and pay the money back; id say its blatantly clear now that they have no intentions of doing so.

If I was you; id take everything you have and start legal proceedings and get your money back, then find someone to do the job from scratch, before you know it, you'll have missed 18 months waiting for it and 2 christmas sales periods, which in fairness could have made you around 4 times your loss on the website.

I hate it when companies resort to this, gives the rest of us a bad name to be frank