My nightmare began May 9th when I hired Heritage Web Solutions to design my new internet business.
Unfortunately, I did not search for complaints against Heritage Web Solutions on the internet. Being the optimistic type, I was only searching for professional web designers and hosting companies that seemed reliable, trained, and professional. My final decision to hire this company was based on their extensive and impressive internet advertisements.
They sounded great, but little did I know at the time, that they had no intentions of helping me build a marketable web business that would produce income. I was only money to them! They did not live up to their promises, and it has cost me a lot of money, valuable time, and unnecessary stress! I was so upset that I could not sleep and all I did was cry. I am a hardworking, self sufficient, single Mom who is counting on this business for extra income to pay for my daughter's college tuition next year!
However, after dealing with them for two weeks it became apparent that I had made a huge mistake in putting all of my confidence and money into Heritage Web Solutions.By the third week, I had figured out all of their scheming business tactics. They are so good at lying and deceiving people, they probably conduct mandatory "scam training classes" for all of their employees.
In essence, I paid them $850.00 for a website and shopping cart to be setup. I paid them another $300.00 for a logo (which was a couple of pieces of clip art stuck together, and they didn't even use my company name as instructed.)
After two bad attempts of getting a cheap and ugly logo, I told them, to forget it, but they would not refund my money because according to their contract, if they did any work at all, my money would not be refunded. The account manager assured me that I would not have to pay for it until they designed something I liked, but my card was billed the very next day.
That same day, I also purchased 4 dibs (scroll boxes) for a total of $200.00 to go on the first page, but that never happened as planned, because the totally wrong layout they chose, would not incorporate it, so they put one dip on first page and that caused the whole page to scroll, instead the whole plan was to have them accent the individual topics so they could be seen right away.
Then they just put each topic one after the other, at the bottom of the page, therefore; no one could see what was available unless they took the time to keep scrolling way down the page! I added a $300.00 forum, and a $125.00 calendar, which no work was ever done at all concerning these two items, because I did not approve the useless layout of the design. The more they worked the more chopped up it became.
This would never have happened, if they had listened to what I needed and wanted in the first place. I have several emails of what I wanted my website to look like, what I needed it to do, and what I wanted, and my color choices. They asked me for all of this information in the beginning, stating they could not start work without it, but they apparently did not look over and read any of it.
Did anyone ever take anything I stated into consideration? No! They did exactly what they wanted to do, and tried to get me to approve a website with two home pages, slowly loading full pages and half pages, all done with the wrong layout! The entire left side of the design was useless and bare.
To make a long story short, they are not qualified to produce the results they advertise. They also do not live up to what they tell you on the phone. They would call me and talk a good game, but then still not produce or listen to my important input. Since they couldn't design the right website within the 4 week time frame they promised, I was billed $49.00 for June hosting too.
All in all, I paid them a total of $1,524.99 and I am still not in business, because I will not accept a website that is not built to support my business. I would be ashamed for anyone to visit that site.
Anyway, I ended up sending an email to the owner and this is his reply below: (for privacy purposes I have deleted my last name)
Dear Ms. *
I will bring your concern to the attention of the V.P. Of design and ask him to look into it. If the work is shoddy, then Heritage will remedy it. If we are "chasing a ghost", then our best efforts have to be sufficient.
Jeremy, will you please review this account and see that we communicate with Ms. Story.
Respectfully,
Mark Strong
Heritage Web Solutions
Please note, the use of Mr. Strongs his arrogant words. The email confirmed that I was correct in my observation of their sleazy and uncaring business practices, and compounded by biggest fear that the deception goes straight to the top of the corporate ladder! Again, they had no intentions to do a good job. They were also not "chasing a ghost." What I wanted, paid for, and expected, was not impossible by any means! They take and keep people's money by hiding behind their terms of agreement. As far as I am concerned, the minute they billed my credit card, they "accepted my terms of agreement" meaning that would to live up to their promises and what they advertised to get my business.
In the email I sent to Mr. Strong, I forwarded one letter that I had sent to a supervisor.in the email, I went into great detail about everything I had been through to date and again had to waste more time in explaining how I wanted each page to look and what I needed each page of my site to do. Week before last, I got tired of sounding like a broken record, and going being stressed to the max, so I sent an another email to Mr. Strong explaining that I no longer wanted their services or wanted to ever have to deal with their company again, and asked for a refund.
He did respond by stating that I could not be refunded any money due to the fact that I agreed to their terms of service. As for that, I abided by the contract in paying them for a custom website, it was them that did live up to the terms of agreement, so why should I settle for less than what I paid for and they promised?
At present I have hired another company to build my website, but I am in no way going to allow them to get away with what they did to me, and hopefully be able to make sure this does not happen to anyone else. So if anyone is in the process of suing them, etc. Please let me know and I will help you in anyway I can win your case too.
I will not go into all the details of everything; it would take all night to write it all! I just want to warn as many people as possible before they believe in this company and end up being scammed! Please investigate, check out, and get references before hiring a company that advertises on the internet.
This evening Mr. Strong sent me an email saying that, as per their terms of agreement, I was not entitled to any refund. He went on to state that they would work me until I was satisfied. After 10 weeks, I am tired of hearing this same promise, and after 10 weeks of being nervous and stressed over all the delays and uncaring staff at his company, I have decided, I will not allow myself to be a victim of their shady business practices any longer. I will not allow them to continue to destroy my mental health and my business! I will do whatever it takes to see that justice is done in my favor! I will no longer continue to give away money to a cold, ruthless, man! Again, if I can be of help to anyone else, let me know.
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