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HIT Web Design/ Heritage Web Solutions Complaints - Bad business to work with/for! ABC4 NEWS UTAH WILL EXPOSE!

Review all HIT Web Design/ Heritage Web Solutions complaints

HIT Web Design/ Heritage Web Solutions

Posted: 2009-10-20 by   stopthegreed
Bad business to work with/for! ABC4 NEWS UTAH WILL EXPOSE!
Complaint Rating:  82 % with 34 votes
Company information:
HIT Web Design/ Heritage Web Solutions
1460 North Moonriver Dr.
Provo, Utah
United States
Phone: (801) 655-1600
hitwebdesign.com

As an ex-employee I can say that HIT Web Design, formerly known as Heritage Web Solutions, was once a great company to work for. Unfortunately this is no longer the case.

I had worked there for 2 and a half years and in the past year, HIT (who changed their name to run away from their bad reputation) has seriously gone down hill. It supposedly all started when customers began charging back on their credit cards due to a flurry of bad complaints in a scared economy (which actually never happened, they are just very greedy).

Needless to say the company is ran very unprofessionally. They were once the leaders in custom website design but have now abandoned their business model...

When you treat your employees so poorly they will not give the customers the kind of help they need. That is why there are so many customer and employee complaints.

This all has now come to a head as Utah's ABC4 News will soon be airing an investigative report on how HIT Web Design has lied and cheated their customers. The ABC4 News crew showed up Friday October 16th to interview employees on what has been going on.

The air date has yet to be released so please contact Annie Cutler of ABC4 News to express your disgust with HIT Web Design/ Heritage Web Solutions at annie@abc4.com

Let's make sure HIT Web Design will not continue doing this to customers!
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 31 days ago by   stopthegreed +8 Votes
i am also an ex-employee this as all true!!! i believe that the ABC 4 news story will air later this week.
 31 days ago by   HIT Management -9 Votes
Throughout the interview the point was made that HIT seeks to be fair in every undertaking we make. The essence of the interview was very positive and overall a pleasant experience. It gave HIT the opportunity to express to a news organization how proud we are of the progress we have made, the commitment our staff has to our customers and how our efforts are focused. Occasionally we stub our toe (we are human), but at the end of the day, we truly seek to to treat the client and employees fairly.

I am excited to see the final cut, and personally I welcome any customer with specific concerns to contact me. You can email me directly at CEO@hitwebdesign.com or QCA@hitwebdesign.com
 31 days ago by   ethicalhit +7 Votes
Personally, I do not consider deceiving people "stubbing a toe!"

If you have been a victim of Heritage Web Solutions or Hit Web Design or whatever name they go by please follow the following steps.

1. Call your bank or credit card company and file a "charge back." This is really the only way you can get your money back.
2. Contact the Utah Attorney General's Office and file a formal complaint with them about the Hit Web Design's practices.
3. Contact the BBB and file a formal complaint with them.
4. Contact your local TV, Radio, Newspaper and tell them about Hit Web Design's predatory behavior, and destroying your small business plan, and taking your money.
5. Contact ABC4.com and help them with their story.
6. Post HERE and on other sites about your situation with Hit Web Design.
7. Share your results with us!
 30 days ago by   stopthegreed +8 Votes
HIT Web Design will do whatever they need to in order to safe face and the company as a whole. No matter what, we all know their business is going down the toilet when all they do is ask for more and more from their customers and employees and give nothing in return.

Dave Aitken, CEO at HIT, is ignorant to think that just because employees make good money (or atleast used to), that it is considered treating them fairly. Is that fair? NO!
 29 days ago by   GBT  Best Advice +11 Votes
/currently removed/
 29 days ago by   stopthegreed +10 Votes
Well said. HIT's customers have no idea how bad it really is there and its disgusting how HIT management are such cowards as to deny the truth that has mounted up before them.

They should just "man up", "dial the phone" and admit they are the scum we all know they are!
 29 days ago by   GBT +9 Votes
/currently removed/
 29 days ago by   How are they still in biz? +8 Votes
well said Bryce!! U DA MAN!!
 29 days ago by   stopthegreed +8 Votes
WOW! Things are worse than I thought...
 29 days ago by   rnelson -9 Votes
My name is Ryan Nelson and I am currently employed in HIT’s legal department. I am somewhat taken back by the ignorant nature of the comments posted here by what are apparently disgruntled ex-employees of HIT. They are nothing more than mere allegations made out of frustration in an attempt to get revenge or to harm HIT’s reputation; yet they provide no specific instances or substantive evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever.

I have to give Bryce Turpin credit for being man enough to provide his identity. If what Bryce says about his time off requests is true, then I would have to concur that it is unfortunate. However, it is certainly not typical of what I have seen in my experience at HIT and without knowing HIT's side of the story, I can't formulate a fair opinion of Bryce's claims. HIT values family and tries to accommodate personal and family leave as well as vacation leave and sick leave and I have seen that throughout my career at HIT.

The rest of you—what are you hiding from? I suspect that most of you were terminated as employees for some shortcoming or violation that you committed and you are now feeling embarrassed and revengeful. Why don't you come out of anonymity and tell us about it? I'm sure that it’s easier and safer to hide behind an anonymous online nickname and take pot shots at HIT’s reputation than it is to identify yourself and raise some legitimate issues for discussion.

Consider, for example, the blatant ignorance of stopthegreed’s assertion that Dave and Jeremy Aitken are “uneducated idiots” – two guys who established and currently direct a company that sells and produces millions of dollars’ worth of work each year; and who made their company rank #22 in the Inc 500 list in 2007. They obviously must be doing something right to have accomplished all that they have accomplished.

Now, before you go calling me an “uneducated idiot, ” I will have you know that I hold three college degrees, including a juris doctorate, and have worked in web development since 2000. I have personally performed probably all of the job functions that you ex-employees have performed and more. I have sold products and services to HIT customers; I have personally built websites and fulfilled orders for HIT customers; I have managed a developmental department at HIT and have overseen HIT employees and hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of projects; I have personally helped and continue to help many customers with concerns; I have personally investigated and responded to BBB and other complaints made by customers; I have also personally represented or been involved in representing HIT in legal proceedings and have represented HIT in arbitration cases.

I will tell you from experience at HIT that not everything is as black and white as your cowardly allegations make it seem. I won’t lie and tell you that I think that HIT has never made a mistake. However, I will tell you that HIT consistently works diligently with customers to resolve their concerns when they arise, especially in cases where HIT has made a mistake.

For example, I remember one particular occasion where HIT completed a customer’s custom database website exactly as specified in the database write up. The customer was very dissatisfied and wanted something different. I personally took the matter to Dave Aitken, who told me that we should start over from scratch and give the customer what she wanted at no additional charge - something which had a value of a couple thousand dollars beyond what the customer had originally ordered. We did. The customer was thrilled with the result and expressly told us how pleased she was. She thanked HIT by walking away and not paying her original bill, to say nothing of the free thousands of dollars of work given to her by Dave Aitken.

I have worked personally and closely with Mark Strong, a partner of HIT, and a man who I greatly admire and consider to have a great amount of integrity. Mark is the Chief Quality Officer of HIT and personally responds to BBB and other complaints. Mark has told me on numerous occasions that in dealing with customer issues, HIT wants to do the fair thing and be treated fairly in return. I have seen Mark on countless occasions offer free work to customers, give substantial discounts to customers, give refunds to customers and follow up personally on customer concerns.

The nature of HIT’s business is challenging in and of itself. HIT tries to take an abstract concept from the mind of an unknown third party and make it into reality through a creative process. This is not easy to do. It is hard for customers to communicate clearly what their expectations are and those expectations frequently evolve over time. Customers, for example, will order websites with particular features. Then during the course of development, they think of ways to improve upon their websites. They expect HIT to honor their change orders to make their site conform to their latest mental picture, but they don’t want to pay HIT for the extra hours that it takes to complete the modifications; and those extra hours do cost HIT.

Some customers have buyer’s remorse. They order something worth thousands of dollars, then decide later that they really shouldn’t have spent the money and want a full refund. That’s not fair to HIT after work has been completed in good faith and in reliance on the customer’s order.

In short, some complaints are not fair and do not portray reality fairly. Some are legitimate and HIT diligently strives to resolve them. Unfortunately, it seems to be human nature to complain rather than to give compliments. Upset customers post complaints and those relatively few complaints we find online seem to get a lot of attention. But, HIT has thousands of silently satisfied customers as well and the few customers that do complain represent a very small percentage of HIT's actual customer base of approximately 20, 000.

HIT will work to address all reasonable concerns and I invite you to bring them to HIT’s attention. You may email ceo@hitwebdesign.com.
 29 days ago by   DaveAitken +8 Votes
Ryan,

The reason people post comments as anonymous is because they don't want to be sued by the legal team of HIT Web Design, are you serious? Ryan you know as well as I do that if I blast the sacred name of HIT Web Design, you will take everything I own. But you can't slander when what all these people on here are stating as fact. We should stop selling websites and complete the ones we have here and make these customers happy. The incoming phone calls we are taking are all pissed of consumers. When they ask for a simple change on there sites it takes 3 weeks. We don't know how to run a business and our customer service sucks, let's stop lying and take care of these customers. As far as our team here at HIT quit threatening to decrease our pay, oh wait you didn't threaten you did take away our pay!!! Any legit business makes room for a slow economy any moron knows that. If you take care of your people they will take care of you. The scare tactics needs to stop!!!
 29 days ago by   DaveAitken +8 Votes
We started to be forced to stay after our shift, keep in mind this is after our 8 hour shift. If we wanted to leave at 5:00 we had to talk to the supervisor first. They then would pull you into a room in the back sit you down and poor out a sorry excuse for a guilt trip.

I am quoting Tanner Wolsey Supervisor over Account Managing dept. Again keep in mind this is after working our 8 hour shift. "If you do not stay after I will be putting your name on a list, this list will be shown to upper management, if you do not stay late we have plenty of people that apply here everyday that will".

My response "well I have a family I need to get home to".

Tanner's response "I don't care if your wife is labor right now, that is not a good enough reason to leave right now."

WHAT THE $%^&!!!

This is the kind of crap that is happening RYAN, of course you would not see any of this going on. Quit making excuses for them Ryan just because your a still receiving a check. Needless to say it didn't take me long to find a new job and quit this company. This company needs to held accountable for their business practices, this can't continue to happen.
 28 days ago by   all4money +7 Votes
Ryan,

Glad you got a call to try to backup a company that no matter what you say or do is going under. All because the owners are GREEDY! If I were you I would look elsewhere if you really have that much education. I will agree and Say that Mark is a very nice man but he is behind closed doors and really does not know the amount of mental abuse that his employees go through DAILY! The biggest mistake is when they let Jeremy TRY to manage a company of fear and fear alone. If that is how he treats his employees that he says he considers "family team" then I'm sure glad I'm not part of his real family!

At one time this place was enjoyable and there were happy clients until they chose poor management that only sees number signs!
 28 days ago by   Turpin +7 Votes
There are always some exaggerations that need to be taken into consideration from both sides. But the basic fact of the matter and why Heritage is obligated to do so much work for free is because the sales team is not just pressured, but ordered, to "just get it on the board" - knowing full well that they are putting something up that will not work for the client. I remember several of these occasions, but I respect the clients enough not to post their names on this kind of a posting. Dating sites sold as community software. The shopping cart system, which is free software that is re-sold with a hefty price, does not perform many of the functions that are promised that it does.
Also, selling clients on split billing, delayed billing, and promises that have no credibility, such as "by the time your second payment goes through, your site will be live" - the account managers are pushing half finished websites live in order to meet this expectation. That is NOT fulfilling on a promise, it's manipulative and wrong. I'm not an "idiot" or a "coward" - after all, I posted my personal cell phone number - how many of the CEO's or COO's or whatever title they give themselves are willing to do this? None. Can you imagine... thousands (literally, THOUSANDS) of upset clients, current and former employees calling the people directly responsible for burying their business in lies and manipulation?
That'd be a big hefty phone bill, I imagine.

Not all of the people who work there can be lumped into this category. I did it because they fed me a story on how there were no other jobs in the marketplace, and I did not want to lose custody of my kids due to unemployment. Wow, though. The hiring market in Utah for technology is huge. I just hoppe that the current employees who are letting their morals and ethics be bought by a dwindling paycheck can see that their pay is no longer even competitive with the newest fast food chain and get out. Several have already, and I expect over the next two months, Hit will only be left with the shell of immorality that has unfortunately been allowed to seep into their ranks.
 28 days ago by   donebeingbullied +6 Votes
Abusive is putting it mildly. Tanner Wolsey is by far the very worst manager I have ever worked for. I have never seen a manager allowed to stay in a position of power that is so abusive. I have had golf balls hit me, Nerf darts, playing cards thrown at me just to name a few. Everyday I made my revenue goal and it still was not good enough. I would exceed my goal and It still was not good enough I still was not allowed to leave at the end of the work day. I spent many evenings until 7, 8, 9 o'clock. This was not because I wanted to to, it was required. If you did not stay, you were not a team playing. Non team players are fired.

Everyday I was told that it does not matter how well I do, because they can fire me just to set an example. Who fires a good employee just to set an example for the bad employees. Does that sound as crazy to you as it did to me?

I would never put my name on a compliant, because we were told that they will sue me. Someone has to stop this BULLY of company. They are destroying peoples lives financially and emotionally. Both customers and employees alike.


THEY ARE A BULLY!!!

I have as many others have gone to the Utah Labor Commission only to be told that "it sounds like you have a bad boss". They did not perform any investigations. How many complaints do they have to have to do something? They have allowed incomprehensible practices at this company for to long. They need to step in NOW.
 28 days ago by   stopthegreed +6 Votes
Someone who knows, it seems you have some great perspective on this. I do not apologize for anything that I've said but I should not have called Dave and Jeremy "uneducated idiots". It is not easy to create a business as successful as HIT once was.

It is disappointing that they have abused their power and have got so greedy over time.

Someone who knows, thank you for your words, integrity and honesty.
 28 days ago by   GrowUpPlease -6 Votes
Honesty & integrity are certainly words that should not be used coming from former employees at any company that would consider going to these great lengths to slander their previous employer for the purpose of vengeance.

Had any of you been this altruistic while working at HIT, why did you continue to work there? After seeing or experiencing your first, second or third disturbing event why didn't you leave immediately?

Look up specious on dictionary.com and consider applying it to all of your previous statements. Suggesting someone throws golf balls at employees, really?
That is specious.

So let's throw out everyone's complaints about taking advantage of customers. Because all of you kept working regardless of these perceived events.

This leaves the primary complaints that HIT used fear tactics to motivate employees, that HIT was unfair in pay cuts and that HIT was unfair regarding time off.

So let's discuss fear tactics. "Work late or lose your job..." This could also translate to "work hard or lose your job". I would hope everyone knows that a failure to work hard would result in losing your job.

Yes, it's heartless to not allow someone to take time off for family emergencies. The supervisor who denied that should be reprimanded, or worse.

One aspect of using fear is pay cuts. To be fair to HIT, the entire company was warned 3-4 times that if we do not better our efforts, then pay cuts or lay-offs were unavoidable. Most of the company chose a pay cut while maintaining the same recidivism rate. Given the option of a pay cut or a job loss, I think it's clear what option makes sense.

Now what doesn't make sense is that all of you chose to stay even after the pay cuts. So now you've witnessed (or heard of) apparent illegal activities or horrible working conditions and still stayed even after pay cuts are levied. Really? The wretched working conditions, the abuse with golf balls and illegal activities combined with a pay cut simply weren't enough for any of you to quit (save for Bryce). All of you had to wait until you were fired.

Now let's drill down deeper and expose the farce that is this thread. Everyone complaining here earned a commission at HIT for sales. It was part of your pay structure upon employment. The primary objection from non-existing customers is due to bad word of mouth via extortionist sites. (you know sites that allow anonymous complaints while charging companies to get the complaints removed)
So it would behoove all the recently fired employees or recently upset employees to take their proverbial pound of flesh from HIT by furthering negative rumors.


Honesty & integrity. Really? Not one of you is this altruistic.

PS. Bryce, does your current job know you're posting about your previous. employer while at work?
 28 days ago by   rnelson -3 Votes
Wow, lots of comments today. Someone who knows, while I disagree with you, I do have to at least commend you for being civil in your response. I get tired of seeing unintelligent complaints that serve no purpose beyond muck-slinging and allege egregious near-criminal activity by HIT. I can assure you that HIT's modus operandi is not to defraud its customers, but indeed to timely deliver the services that are ordered. As I mentioned previously there many factors that contribute to customer satisfaction, some of which are beyond HIT's control.

Bryce, I apologize if I sounded unsympathetic in my previous response. If what you say actually occurred, then I am indeed sorry to hear it.

I know this sounds cynical, but I believe that several (not all) of the above comments relating to this post were actually made by the same individual using different user names. I don't believe that as many individuals have taken part in this discussion as it would appear.

I welcome your individual comments or concerns (anonymous or otherwise). My email address is rnelson@hwsinet.com. Particularly, I would welcome "helpful" comments and/or suggestions to improve rather than baseless allegations of wrongdoing.
 28 days ago by   Ethics 101 +4 Votes
There is much to be said on these topics, I am another employee of HIT that can attest to the unfair and sometimes illegal tactics used at this company. Forcing employees to come in when they are sick is illegal. Making your hard working employees feel like if they don't stay late on a daily basis just because the team has goals that are unrealistic to hit that their jobs are not safe is unethical. These are things that I also personally have experienced. I must say Ryan from the legal department of HIT I am taken back by your response to these postings when you made it a point to create a laundry list of just how intelligent you are and then quoting

"I am somewhat taken back by the ignorant nature of the comments posted here by what are apparently disgruntled ex-employees of HIT. They are nothing more than mere allegations made out of frustration in an attempt to get revenge or to harm HIT’s reputation; yet they provide no specific instances or substantive evidence of wrongdoing whatsoever"

The post by Bryce sites 3 specific instances where this has happened. Saying that people are cowardly by not postong their real name is nothing more then a childish ploy to get people to post their info so you can try and stand by your bogus Terms of Service and treaten them with a law suit (that will never go through) to try and hush them up and hide the truth. I realize that in your position you are ignorant to what is really happening now in the various departments to try and motivate employees to perform, because you are not there to see it. Another interesting fact I might point out, I happen to know 3 of the employees posting on this forum and they all quit of their own free will because of the abusive nature of the enviroment they worked in. So you may not argue that these are just random employees that didn't perfom their job well enough and so they got canned.

I remember a employee that was a assest to the company that was forced to quit because he called in sick to work and they told him that he had to come in or would lose his job. He refused. I too have been forced to work when I had the flu and even when my voice was lost. It's hard to leave a good impression as a professional when you are calling to sell a product, but you sound like a dying lung cancer patient.

I have talked with every single person in the department where I work and they all secretly hate the management style at this company. Telling your employees that every time they don't hit goal that they are just not trying hard enough or don't care is bad for moral and then backing it up with " kids are going to die at the orpanage we fund in Haiti because we don't care enough to give 100% to hit our goals" is not a fair motivational tactic and then on a daily basis when employees are feeling the pressure and it shows on their faces using the term " come on guys it's not like we are saving babies" is kind of a oxy moron in my book.

I will not be at this company much longer. Will write more later
 28 days ago by   ethicalhit +4 Votes
The reason why I post, and have taken up quit a passion on following this company is because I see a cycle of mistreating customers, and mistreating employees. Looking back to posts posted in 2007, NOTHING HAS CHANGED! The complaints are the same, but the people making the complaints are different! How they have stayed in business for as long as they have I honestly have no idea. What I do know is that people who operate like Hit Web Design don't last forever.

Reading the stories from people who have endured intimidation, manipulation, and unethical business practices, to them I am truly sorry. It saddens me that there are people out there who take advantage of those who need to feed their family and pay their bills.

The "person" with the user name "growup" needs to take some of his own advice. It is clear as day that she/he is a member of upper management. So quick was that "person" to dismiss everyone's complaints, so quick were they to flip the coin and turn them self into the victim.

I hope people read that comment OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. It is a clear sign, and example of the manipulation and intimidation that these employees have suffered.

If you are a customer of Hit Web Design or Heritage Web Solutions PLEASE stand united and take this as a clear sign that we as consumers cannot stand for this kind of companies to exist! CANCEL YOUR ACCOUNT TODAY! Call your credit card company or bank, and dispute your charges, then contact the Utah Attorney General's Office and file a formal complaint about your experience with Hit Web Design, the file a formal complaint with the BBB, then contact your local newspaper, radio, TV station and tell them about Hit Web Design's unethical practices, then POST your results online, everywhere! Let people know that this is not a company that you want to give your hard earned dollars to!

I again feel for all of these poor employees and ex-employees! Shame on you "growup" and Ryan Nelson, and shame on the managers like Tanner Wolsey, Matt Nelson, Lance Card, Davide Aiken, Mark Strong, Brad Stone, etc... You all should be ashamed of yourselves!

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