The number of complaints processed by the BBB for Webxites in last 12 months: 72. That is huge! Never, ever do business with a tele-marketer. Fourteen day free trial? Someone is going to design a web-site for your business just to see if you like it - for free? I don't think so.in the words of Bob Dylan, "Everybody must get stoned" or billed in this case.
It's true, they have automated the designing aspect of producing a web site. They have integrated Flash and Java Script and can produce a decent site if you are willing to spend hours on the phone with them. And $39.95 a month and a $39.95 one-time design fee is a bargain in the sense that a design fee is usually in the $800 and up neighborhood and you will have to pay again to make updates.
So why does a good product that has a good market need tele-marketing, high pressure sales, deceptive billing practices? I don't know either. Greed, I suppose. If you would like to hear how they do it, stick with me because, I work there. Or I used to, anyway. Sit back and listen to the whistle of an insider.
It all starts at the top of this organization with the President, Gene McCubbin. Gene runs adds in Monster.com looking for Technical Support & Customer Service people. So you send in your resume and they set up an appointment to interview. When you get there you find it's a gang interview with 6-12 people and this happens 2 times a week. As you look around the room you notice that Gene is not too perticular who he askes to come interview. While you fill out paperwork Gene tells you it's a sales job, telemarketing, selling websites on the phone. So there is lie number one: Technical Support, Customer Service, Telemarketing? It's all the same, right?
You complete a 2 day training period; where you are taught to decieve right off the bat. "Hello my name Kevin and I am calling from Webxites. We have designed a demonstration website for your company and I called to ask for your Fax number or email address so I can send you the information." In actuality "we" have designed nothing. But it's close enough, since it takes about five minutes to design the demo anyway. Day Three: you are on the phones bothering nice people, hard at work, with no need for a website, but hey, you never know until you call.
Here are a few of the things the telemarketers were taught by Webxites to tell the customer as fact, and later I was to find it to be an untruth...
You will have unlimited time to spend with the design team during your 14 day free trial, so you can create and great website. Actually it is 4 hours.
Your 14 day free trial will not begin untill you are satisfied with the design. Actually it starts when Webxites sends you that fax or email.
It's one call, one close. When they ask for your Fax or email to send you info, they don't send you anything until you sign up for the free demo.
Now, the Third Party Verification: They tell you it's an automated system that will repeat the offer and ask you questions for their verification, just so nothing was promised by the telemarketer that isn't true. I have even heard the telemarketers say that it is our quality control system.in reality you are connected with the company that authorizes them to place a charge on your phone bill. Before Webxites was a website shop they were a long distance phone carrier that catered to the Hispanic market, so they have that all hooked up.
I don't have any knowledge of the billing practices performed by Webxites, beyond what I have read hear at usacomplaints.com. I had always assumed that Webxites would like you to forget to cancel before the 14 days, and it would not surprise me if they would drag their heels to help you go beyond the 14 days. And the telemarketers do not get a commission if you cancel during the trial period.
If you listen to the automated recording it says, "You will be billed after the 14 days." Then later it says, "You may cancel at anytime and there will be no penalty." The second statement is not refering to the first, is my take on this. It is refering to the month to month agreement. You CAN cancel, you CAN have the website up for one month then cancel and not incurr a penalty. You will be billed after 14 days. That's all I need to hear to get a hang-up from me.
So, for you people that signed up for this and decided you didn't want the product for whatever reason, and had a hard time cancelling - sorry, but you answered "Yes" to the, "Do you authorize this" question.
For you people that like your website and it actually does enhance your business, keep the site it's economical.
For you people reading this that are thinking about carring a website with Webxites... I say do it. Just forget about the free trial, plan to pay the $60 for the first month and $30 a month for the next 5. Give your website a good six months before you decide weather to keep it or not. $210 is not a lot of money for what advertising on the internet will do for you.
Sukki
Houston, Texas
U.S.A.
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