Bry-westmids

Just a quick note to thank everyone for the feedback, and if anyone is interested I've posted a thread on looking to hire, to hopefuly get it up and running. Thanks again Bryan

Ok, am gonna sleep on it tonight and more than likely place a post for some assistance in getting it back on track, and yes, my initial thoughts were a studded baseball bat for that guy you were referring to. If I stick the full brief on a pdf file, an idea of what I should expect to pay would be appreciated also, thanks everyone. Bryan

A fair question, and I was waiting for someone to ask, I have done a ridiculous amount of research into my new business (18 months worth) and have tried to anticipate everything (impossible) from this I learnt that India was one of the world leaders in software/web design, this was from wikipedia and other sources, the price I have paid so far would be similar to what I would have paid in the UK, I just thought I would get more for my budget, and as the world is a lot smaller these days, any research into my business could be done online, wherever they were based. The bottom line is I made a mistake, and I'm not in any way trying to hide it, with hindsight I should have gone with a UK company, although it still didn't have to be in my local area. Hope this answers your question By the way, I am taking this all in and will take it into account when giving the new brief, so thanks. Bryan

I have no contract, this was my first website so am obviously inexperienced, the company were sourced by simply visiting various web design companies online. To be honest, I just want this back on track now and thought this site might be the best solution, but where do I begin? write another brief and post it? on which forum? Thanks for looking Bryan

Whats the chances, just in the last few minutes the current designer has inserted the town names, ok the spelling needs corrected but this is the first changes they have made for over 2 weeks, they've had the details for 4 weeks. I sent them an e mail a few days ago and they didn't tell me they were doing this or anything new, I just noticed it when I was checking my original post, so if you like you can see how they get on, you might understand where I'm coming from! If you managed to see the site before the changes....what do you think?? Bryan

Ok, the current design was to include the map, which was to include all the major areas in the west mids area, this was supplied by myself, the postcodes were included, but again were also somehow changed, I supplied some information as to how I seen the calculator functioning, and although I'm not sure if more information is required, none has been asked for though, the main thing is that this has been going on for several weeks and I have had to prompt them to see if they need further clarification, I've replied to all e mails immediately and sometimes have gone over a week without hearing anything. I have various correspondence stored but have just given a brief background...and that was long enough! The company is based in India and although there own website in no way suggested so, I suspect a language barrier problem. And believe me, I have taken the problems up with them! I really just need this completed now as I fear this could drag out for ages. By all means, anything else you need to know regarding the history, just ask Bryan

What started off as something that was to be my pride and joy has turned into a disaster, this was supposed to be my new business website, and had funded it from savings I had from my current mediocre salary, the homepage is lacking content at the moment, but that isn't the problem. The main feature of the homepage was supposed to be a flash map of my area (west midlands) where the user clicks on their area where a further larger detailed map appears with a simple calculation tool where they select some details from a limited amount of options, click a "generate quote" button and a price appears with a link to a booking screen where they enter further details which can be e mailed to me. Other stuff which was supposed to be included are: Animated flash banner Paypal/google checkout integration Submission to hosting company Advice on setting up e mail accounts The actual layout itself seems ok, apart from the many schoolboy errors seen throughout, the current design http://66.45.227.103/ambient/index.htm shows what I think is a reasonable layout, and a previous version http://64.22.86.138/~excelser/ambient/default.htm shows a terrible layout, with the map (a little) closer to what I had hoped for. I gave both designers full map details, along with a good brief and access to further literature...sales leaflets, stationery design and a further brief which I paid for from a professional copy editor So...I was hoping to get it finally up and running on this site, I have limited knowledge in this field and was toying with the idea of running a competition to get it resolved....although to be honest I have to be very careful of what I spend now. To say any ideas/suggestions and ideas on costs would be appreciated would be a vast understatement! If you like i can supply further info as I've accumulated stacks of the stuff! Bryan

Point taken I think I will post the website on the reviews forum and get some sugestions as to what else it needs, as long as its easy enough to update that answers my question, don't know how I'm gonna get hold of the flash code/files though. Is it standard practise to ask the designer for these on completion? Thanks again Bryan

You'd think so, but this has been going on for 2 months now, I tried changing designer and they changed the entire site layout, after telling them to keep it, thats what made me think there may be a problem updating it, I have a small flash map embedded and understand that they would need the original code? to make amendments Seems a daft question but there is a fair bit of history behind it! Thanks anyway

Hi I'm in the process of trying to get my website up and running, I havent designed it myself and have used a third party, my question is...when the site is uploaded to the..web hosting service? If I wanted to make some minor changes, can a different designer do this, I'm sure they can but just wanted to know what was involved. The reason being is that I have used a company in India to do the design but they certainly lack the local knowledge needed for some aspects (try telling a designer in Delhi you want an image inserted of a "coronation street style house!) So..my plan was to let them compile the site as far as possible then get the finishing touches done by a local source. Thanks in advance for any help Bryan