Stiffed by a web designer!
Author
Discussion

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Recently our family business was looking for a web designer to remodel our website.

We got in about 5 companies to quote us- the one we eventually plumped on quoting around the £1200 mark to do everything we were looking for.

So, we ended up with this best effort:

http://stylusengravers.com

rofl

Now, it seemed par for course that we had to stump up half the money & pay the remainder once they'd finished the site.

Now, I was busy when the old man was in a meeting with the 'web designer', but I understand he was told to sort it out very quickly.

How he is going to sort it out, I don't know, as frankly, if that's his best effort- I want my money back.


To say we're not happy is quite an understatement, given the samples of previous efforts we were shown- this does'nt live up to expectation.

What sort of recourse can we expect & how to go about it?


superkartracer

8,959 posts

238 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Shocking.

£50 would get you a template, you could change content yourself, if you need pointers let me know!

Some stunning stuff out their for little money

H

nonplussed

3,338 posts

245 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Peanuts and monkeys spring to mind a bit. Didn't you OK the design before he built it?

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
nonplussed said:
Peanuts and monkeys spring to mind a bit. Didn't you OK the design before he built it?
This is the thing- I'll have to check on that.

As far as i'm aware, we (the company) went on previous examples of his work & let him crack on.


How long would that have taken to knock together?

Just so & if an argument arises, he agrees to refund the £600 but wants paying for the hours involved to create said masterpiece- we don't want to end up getting stuffed again.

john_p

7,073 posts

266 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Plymoth rofl

superkartracer

8,959 posts

238 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
About 30 mins in Frontpage...

I'd get ALL money refunded.

Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder he he


Edited by superkartracer on Monday 13th July 15:31

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
john_p said:
Plymoth rofl
Well spotted! furious

Would someone be kind enough to do a screen shot of this for me please- before he changes anything.

I don't seem to be able to do this on my PC at work.

Edited by Vidal Baboon on Monday 13th July 15:30

Mojooo

13,231 posts

196 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
vidal baboon,. you somesort of monkey?

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Mojooo said:
vidal baboon,. you somesort of monkey?
Maybe!

SeanyD

3,420 posts

216 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
That is crap, I'd not be paying a penny for that. If its the company B**** N**** (logo on the bottom of your website), their own website is no better.

If you want something done on a tight budget, do it yourself or find a relative/friend enthusiast, who will actually care about their work.

If you want something done on a generous budget, plenty of good design houses out there.

jardinec

391 posts

228 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
not pretty, but I have to back up the peanuts and monkeys comment.

I take it you were expecting a static marketing website?
no e-commerce?
no cms?

For your budget you should have gotten a decent site, and I agree we would never commence with a build until the design was signed off and the client was happy with all aspects of it.

Valuing the chaps efforts is a tricky one. Ok so it looks totally pish, but he might be equally pish and hence it may have taken him several days of work to get it to that stage.

Seems strange that he would produce something of a far lower quality than his other work?

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
SeanyD said:
That is crap, I'd not be paying a penny for that. If its the company B**** N**** (logo on the bottom of your website), their own website is no better.

If you want something done on a tight budget, do it yourself or find a relative/friend enthusiast, who will actually care about their work.

If you want something done on a generous budget, plenty of good design houses out there.
This is true, every meeting I sat in on I felt it was relitively easy to spot the good from the bad.

I just was'nt there when my Father arranged a deal with this chap.

I've told him to contact him to get a full refund & not to bother taking things any further.

ShadownINja

78,634 posts

298 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Wow. It's like when the web first appeared in the public eye. I'm getting deja vu.

Their own website sums things up nicely.


Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
jardinec said:
not pretty, but I have to back up the peanuts and monkeys comment.

I take it you were expecting a static marketing website?
no e-commerce?
no cms?

For your budget you should have gotten a decent site, and I agree we would never commence with a build until the design was signed off and the client was happy with all aspects of it.

Valuing the chaps efforts is a tricky one. Ok so it looks totally pish, but he might be equally pish and hence it may have taken him several days of work to get it to that stage.

Seems strange that he would produce something of a far lower quality than his other work?
We have an ecommerce site already- but it's quite dated & needs a fair wedge thrown at it. (not as dated as the example shown mind hehe )

We were told our existing database (ASP) could be easily copied over to a newer format & a redesign of the front page could be formulated.

I don't know what was shown to my Father, but he was impressed with his portfolio.

We've just finished a contract with our previous WD as he did'nt seem interested in making progress with our site- so we were keen to get a WD on board that would help push things forwards for us, rather than the other way around.

SeanyD

3,420 posts

216 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Vidal Baboon said:
SeanyD said:
That is crap, I'd not be paying a penny for that. If its the company B**** N**** (logo on the bottom of your website), their own website is no better.

If you want something done on a tight budget, do it yourself or find a relative/friend enthusiast, who will actually care about their work.

If you want something done on a generous budget, plenty of good design houses out there.
This is true, every meeting I sat in on I felt it was relitively easy to spot the good from the bad.

I just was'nt there when my Father arranged a deal with this chap.

I've told him to contact him to get a full refund & not to bother taking things any further.
might be a bit fiddly as I see your domain is registered to the guy (M***L B***Y) who did the admirable job on your site design. Good luck with it all.

Soir

2,275 posts

255 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
that is pretty awful and similar to their own website which is also terrible

chap on here had someone create one for him for about £500 think his name was m3sye? (look business or finance pages for 'website') I think it looked very good for the money

eddited as have found the posting link:
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

he paid £250 and I think it looks quite good

Edited by Soir on Monday 13th July 16:00

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
SeanyD said:
Vidal Baboon said:
SeanyD said:
That is crap, I'd not be paying a penny for that. If its the company B**** N**** (logo on the bottom of your website), their own website is no better.

If you want something done on a tight budget, do it yourself or find a relative/friend enthusiast, who will actually care about their work.

If you want something done on a generous budget, plenty of good design houses out there.
This is true, every meeting I sat in on I felt it was relitively easy to spot the good from the bad.

I just was'nt there when my Father arranged a deal with this chap.

I've told him to contact him to get a full refund & not to bother taking things any further.
might be a bit fiddly as I see your domain is registered to the guy (M***L B***Y) who did the admirable job on your site design. Good luck with it all.
Thanks, but you've lost me there!

This means what?
He can keep the web address?


Andyuk911

1,979 posts

225 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Do it yourself ...

Here is a good place to start


http://www.freehostia.com/

worth a read

Andy

SeanyD

3,420 posts

216 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
Vidal Baboon said:
This means what?
He can keep the web address?
He is the owner of the domain stylusengravers.com until 5th July 2010, registered at a PL6 address

Vidal Baboon

Original Poster:

9,074 posts

231 months

Monday 13th July 2009
quotequote all
SeanyD said:
Vidal Baboon said:
This means what?
He can keep the web address?
He is the owner of the domain stylusengravers.com until 5th July 2010, registered at a PL6 address
Thats fine, our proper site is .co.uk

He can keep it!