Carstens Creative
Scott Carstens, CarstensCreative.com, www.carstenscreative.com Failure to fulfill contacts for web design as agreed, AND WILL NOT FINISH

Contacted Scott Carstens with CarstensCreative.com in late September/early October about 2 sites that we needed built. The initial meeting went well, and he agreed to the terms of payment and specific requirements for the work to be completed.

About 1 week into work he completed the first site, an e-commerce site designed to sell wool products. We were happy with the first site, it was designed great, and the site was designed using Magento, an open source CMS. There are a lot of people that can work on this site, so we weren't limited to using him for assistance with updating and design work. The one thing left for the first site was image work, which was going to be done after we provided pictures of products. We let him begin the second site until we could provide images.

The second site started off a little bumpy, with questions being asked over and over again. He eventually recorded one of our meetings so that he didn't have to continue asking questions over and over again. A week went by and none of the issues were addresses, and the site was nothing more than a template with text changes to include some of our company names.

I was disappointed so I called and asked about the chages we discussed and he recorded. He said his laptop didn't record properly and the audio was destroyed. OK, so I sent an email. Again, a week goes by and no changes were made. He was beginning to become more difficult to reach by telephone. Finally he returned one of my phone calls and said his grandmother was sick. Ok, I'm human. I understand family is more important. So I let him return to work as things settled.

The following week he said he could not work until his computer was fixed. It crashed. Alright, so I decided I'd give him a few days. Now at this point, I figured it was most likely BS, but I didn't really have much of a choice. I knew he completed the other site quickly, and this may have been a difficult time for him.

Not but just a few days later he called and asked for a remainder of the payment. I told him the site was nowhere near complete, design was way off, and there was literally nothing more than some text describing the product on the original template. I told him that this was not acceptable. He said that he need the money to get his laptop back from being fixed.

So what did we do, we paid him 25 percent of the total. Originally we agreed and the contact states that 50 percent upfront, 50 percent upon completion. No I am investing 75 percent in a project that is no wheree near complete. After I made the 25 percent payment we lost almost all contact. I stopped by his home a few times only to be greeted by neighbors that weren't surprised to find someone waiting at his door.

At this point he stated that he is in drug rehabilitation and will work on things later. I managed to get a family friend to help get the remainder of my files from his computer. He stated that Scott has been doing this all of his life, and I'm not the first victim of his. I'm hoping that I will at least be the last.

So we got all files from his computer and gave them to another designer that could piece it together and at least we would have the first site live. Not the case. All files we not correct on the backend of the site, and he used an outdated CMS, which wouldn't have cost any money whatsoever to update, as it is free software. So now we are three weeks into trying to get the site live, after we paid a grand total of $9500.00 for two sites that were never actually completed. One which was barely started.

I am writing this because this guy is not work the time to take to court. He has no money, no assets, and is not even capable of completing the site. I have docs and emails if anyone is interested. I have saved contracts, all email, and information in case anyone decides to take him to court, we can help.

Company: Carstens Creative
Country: USA
Address: St. Louis, MO
Site: carstenscreative.com

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