Poor quality website. £1,400

Been ripped with the worst website ever.

[inkman]

Hi all,

I have recently started a new job with a relatively new company who remanufacture and sell printer cartridges. They have been going for around six month and as with most new companies they wanted a website to sell their products online.

They went to a company that promised them the world. A nice website, 12 months marketing and a shopping basket.

I fully understand that you get what you pay for and £1,400 is peanuts compared to some of the prices you can pay. But I would at least expect non pixalated images, a half decent design and a shopping basket that didn't present errors every time you try and buy a product and at least some basic META tag optimisation.

I have spoken to the website design company and made my feeling perfectly clear but have received nothing but bad attitude and ignorance.

Ideally I would like to receive my money back for the website. I don't know what the best approach is for this matter but I would be very interested in hearing from anyone who has had similar problems in the past.

We are currently in the process of having a new site built so hopefully things should be a little better this time round.

Any Help appreciated.

[DaveN]

you do get what you pay for! and you paid for a fully working site which it appears not to be

a half decent design and a shopping basket that didn't present errors every time you try and buy a product

design you should have agreed that before they even started building the site, sounds like you chose the wrong designer for the job, in my experience you will find it hard to get you money back but they should fix the basket for you.

DaveN

[balinor]

Was there a contract signed? The contracts I use with my clients state that I don't get paid until the site is fully functional. I also get the client's sign-off on the design in writing so that they can't come back to me 3 months later and say 'it looks like crap, I want my money back'. If you have no contract though, you might be out of luck.

[Rincewind]

Goods and services suppied must be fit for purpose. If the shopping cart did not work then it was not fit for the purpose, so you are due your money back. Getting your money back is another story. Really you shouldn't have paid untill the job was complete or at least only paid a deposit prior to completion.

When shopping for a designer:

- Get quotes form as many different sources as possible and compair them. Through out the most expensive and also the cheapest.

- View the desginers previous work.

- Ask for references. Talk to the designers previous clients.

- Hold some money back untill you are satisfied with the quallity. Most designers will require some payment up front or during work but never pay the full amount till the jobs done.

- Give a clear design brief. Specify exactly what your web site is to do, how it is to apear and what technology to be used (php, asp, flash, html, xhtml, css) Ideally in writing.

- Get a clear design quote specifying in writing what will be supplied, when, at what cost and when payments are due.

- Remember to add on hosting and maintenace.

- Agree a rate for updating the pages with fresh content on a regular basis.

[hartlandcat]

At least you actually got a website from them! I know someone that paid £1,000 for a website with shopping cart etc... 1½ years later, the designers still haven't finished, and probably never will.

[Essex_boy]

Ok your problems with quality and not quantity, you ordered one site you got one site.

If your in the UK I suspect you are as used £ try the small claims court. State in your claim the site doesnt work as it should. You may be luck and teh defendant wont reply so youll win by default however if they do and bring a lawyer... @ £120 per hour things get a bit tricky and pricey.

Even if they dont and you win, you still have to get the money from them.

forget about it. Start again. Have a new site built and only pay once your happy with the design and sure that it works.

[inkman]

Thanks for all your help and advise! I am still looking into this matter and I don't want to give up on it just yet