Website Design Frustrations: Disputed the Charge: How Should I Deal with the Situation ?

CALTCAgent

Guru
1000 Post Club
2,584
Hello,

I am a novice still at website design and online marketing. A bit technically challenged too, lol.

Sorry about the long post, I tried to shorten it as much as possible.

Here is the situation:

I decide to proceed with the website after talking to "Jason" the website design sales guy. This company had good ratings on Yelp. I wonder about if they are all legit now. Didn't see 1 bad rating.

On 12/31/15. I give the initial deposit of $250. The charge goes through paypal and then charges my credit card company. This was the initial deposit and the site would be $500 total, another $250 at completion.

Granted not a lot of money, but he said he was giving me a great deal. He felt there would be more potential as I needed more services. I feel I didn't have too high of expectations and the site and process did not meet my expectations.

I talked about another experience I had with a website designer and we agreed that if after 5 "build" days of the site, I could cancel for a full refund. This was so I could see how the process went and if I was satisfied with it.

He wanted 5 business days and we decided on 5 build days. Glad I didn't do 5 business days as he didn't call me for I believe a week after the initial deposit. That was only after an e-mail from me asking where things were at.

He said initially that the site would be completed after 5 business days. I guess that changed after I clarified and we went to the "build days". Because in retrospect, no site was complete after 5 business days.

He said we would agree after each "build" day as to proceed. That way I knew where we were at. He assured me there would be no jumping ahead on days. Total build days would be 8 according to him.

Long story short, on 1/20 I decided to pull the plug. I ask what day they are on, they say day 6, too late to cancel. I see only a basic homepage that was not complete was on the server test link. Had my wrong business name, no inner pages, with some images. They tell me much more is done and I must clear my cache. I clear my cache, and I see nothing more. In fact several days later (1/26/15) I still see nothing more. Maybe I didn't clear cache properly ?

I don't know how hard that must of been in worpress but they told me they have been working for hours at fine tuning the site to optimize it to be fast and for SEO and so forth. Since I am a novice, could be true, could not, but I am tired of the process at this point and not impressed.

I only talked to Jason 1 time on the phone from 12/31/15 and the time I cancelled. There were many e-mails back and forth. Everything sounded good, they were going to do all this great stuff according to them. Bottom line, up until 1/26/15 only a very basic looking homepage was visible on a test server link. Nothing was complete on it though. No inner pages or personal stuff was visible.

I cancel at my credit card company and all of a sudden they call and e-mail me. They say I am committing fraud by lying to my credit card company that they never delivered services. I never said that, I just disputed the charge as I felt I had the right because of the 5 day build cancel thing.

They also say they will report me to the better business bureau. They will sue me in small claims court. I am also committing fraud per their e-mail. They want the full $500 dollars and they say the site is NOW finished. I do see a few changes recently, my bio, etc.

Side note:

I called them after I had e-mailed to cancel. Nobody would answer (typical), until finally someone picked up. It was a voice I did not recognize. I asked for their name as none was given. They said don't you know who you are calling ? I said no, I have only dealt with "jason" before this. I again asked for a name and gave mine. They said stop calling or they will call the police on me for harassment. Naturally I said go ahead and a few expletives about this treatment as I was not happy, lol.

Thoughts, ideas, opinions ?

Will I have to pay them ?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
They are strong arming you. You can dispute it with your credit card company and it will be up to them to prove they delivered. There are a lot of companies that do exactly what you described. Take the up front money and deliver a half baked product then say they did "something".

Hope you get it sorted out.

I've also sent you a PM.
 
They said stop calling or they will call the police on me for harassment.

there's no reason for them to tell you that unless they have something to hide.

I agree with Irixford. you're facing a bully in the playground. keep fighting!

if the credit card company doesn't make good on this, then complain to your state's attorney general (and maybe do both anyways).

state AG's get things done! Too many people waste their time complaining to the BBB, which is a sham within itself. but complain to the AG, and they will straighten them out if the CC companies don't.
 
I don't know what to tell you about your current situation but moving forward I think you should just do it yourself. Its really not that hard it just takes a bit of time.

With today's technology anyone can build a website and have it running within a week or two. Before I launched mine I was looking for a place to host it and also the cheapest and easiest way to build the website. I compared square space and wix and I decided to go with wix. They had a special going on for about 80 bucks a year so I went ahead and pulled the trigger. You can actually create a free account and spend as much time as you need to building your website. Once your done than you can pay them and publish your website. They do have a nice template for an insurance agent and thats the one that I used.

And editing the website is really easy, all you have to do is drag and drop and its basically done.

Let me know if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer.
 
there's no reason for them to tell you that unless they have something to hide.

I agree with Irixford. you're facing a bully in the playground. keep fighting!

if the credit card company doesn't make good on this, then complain to your state's attorney general (and maybe do both anyways).

state AG's get things done! Too many people waste their time complaining to the BBB, which is a sham within itself. but complain to the AG, and they will straighten them out if the CC companies don't.

Thanks for this advice. I hope if it goes that far the AG would side with me. I can also see how easy it would be for someone to take the side of the website designer since they did do something. I have to prove they went past the day 5 build without me knowing.
 
I think you should have called my Bay Area designers that I referred you to---stroked a check for $15,000---and you would have a website by now that would generate

:yes:

I am thinking you are right. I wish I was more technically inclined. Do you do it all up front or at certain installments as the build goes along ?

My fear is not getting what I paid.

I admit I was looking to get it done for less. I am starting to think you get what you pay for here.
 
I am thinking you are right. I wish I was more technically inclined. Do you do it all up front or at certain installments as the build goes along ?

My fear is not getting what I paid.

I admit I was looking to get it done for less. I am starting to think you get what you pay for here.

I am not tech savvy either. And I could have taken the cheap way out too. I financed my site with a credit line in the middle of the recession 6 years ago! Site paid me back immediately.

They designed my site after we had a number of in-depth consultations. Process was easy.

The time consuming part was my time to write content. Once I wrote the content, my phone rang----every day.

The content you write will be your key so YMMV.
You need to detetmine your objectives, target market; your strengths and weaknesses; etc, before you sink a lot of money into a site though.
 
I am sorry to hear about your website nightmare.
Do you have a written email of the services they promised to deliver?
Do you have the refund policy in writing?
Paypal has a dispute claim you can file - under "services not delivered as promised. "
Get the name of the web company and file a report with Consumer Financial Protection Agency .

As far as your site is concerned:

You can basically buy a domain that is keyword rich or exact match domain
for $10 or less if you have a godaddy coupon for $2.00/year, get hosting ($10/year) go to wordpress (free) choose a template (free) or buy one super cheap if you dont like the hundreds of free ones. Upload it to your hosting site
and the theme and everything populates quite fast - use fantastico
if this is a learning curve then go to godaddy DIY website builder :
it is click and go all set up for you -
BUSINESS
Ideal for small businesses
$5.49/month
ON SALE - SAVE 45%
$9.99 /month when you renew

that is straight from their site

from beginning to end a web guy can throw up a site in about
1 hour without content .
but you can always find trending keyword rich content all over the web then use a free trial spinner and make it unique
boom - you now have site with fresh content and opt in box (30 day free trial with aweber) and banner (use google images) and all the other jazz - done within 2 hours and under $25.00
 
Back
Top