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The Plum Tree Group Complaints - Scam Artists

Review all The Plum Tree Group complaints

The Plum Tree Group

Posted: 2008-06-13 by Andy [send email]
Scam Artists
Complaint Rating:  50 % with 2 votes
Company information:
The Plum Tree Group
1127 W. Farwell #306 60626
Chicago, Illinois
United States
Phone: 001-877-404-3849
www.plumtreegroup.net

This group was an absolute nightmare. From the moment they received my check things went wrong. They are University of Illinois graduates so they give-off a very polished and sincere first impression. Once the initial check cleared, the project details suddenly changed. The designs they offered were embarassing, the basic features of the sitedid not function properly, the project was a scheduled for 2 months and was 6 weeks late. There was a total lack of professionalism and every mistake they made, they turned around to blame on me! I made the mistake of trusting them and letting them new that I was new to this technology, that I need help, someone I could trust to guide me through the process...what a joke. I realize now that the site I paid $3, 900 could have been done for about $500 ( and probably was). I feel so deceived and robbed by Plum Tree Group, please please stay away!! Any other developer on the planet would be better. HORRIBLE!
Comments United States Hosting & Web Design
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Comments

166 days ago by Karen [send email]
I had to deal with The Plum Tree Group as well, it almost cost me my business. The seem to specialize in taking advantage of start-ups with few resources to spare. They have perfected the art of trapping the little guy. Beware
162 days ago by Alysia [send email]
I find your comments interesting. I represent a small startup in a medical related business and have had a completely different experience with these guys. Communication was frequent (which was important for me as i'm not a very tech savvy person, price was better than most of the other bids that i received and the project was delivered a few days late but i also have to admit that i added several items to the scope of the project along the way. In the end, i was very happy and we're on to another project and would feel comfortable recommending them.

alysia
137 days ago by Frank [send email]
The Plumtree Group did an excellent job for my company's startup. They were very professional in every aspect of the services they provided for my company.

They provided great professional insight as to what direction we should take to meet ever changing market demands. We felt the price was very fair. They delivered!!
137 days ago by Frank [send email]
I am correcting my email address for the previous post.
137 days ago by Ken Ventura [send email]
Hello Andy,

This is Ken Ventura, a Senior Project Manager at The Plum Tree Group. It appears that you are deliberately trying to deceive the visitors of ComplaintsBoard by posting numerous false accusations and impostor comments (Karen & Johns) regarding my company. While I did not work directly on your project I want to justify a few items in this forum as well as bring to light a few things you failed to mention.

1.Embarrassing designs – All designs provided were from professional designers with 10 years of experience. If anyone doubts the quality of these designers I will refer them to our portfolio on our website. The original proposal called for 2 design concepts to be provided and 4 were given without additional charges. http://www.plumtreegroup.net/projectcentral/index.html

2.Basic features of the site did not function – By request of the client OSCommerce was used as a platform but then modified with custom modules. The client was fully informed that additional days of testing would be needed to ensure quality and no development comes “out of the box” bug free. Furthermore our agreement is based in milestones, we do not sign off or expect payment on milestones unless the client approves of the progress.

3.6 weeks late – The client later contracted a designer that had never done web design before, only print. The designs provided took an extended period of time to resize, create navigation, slice for the web, and integrate into the OSCommerce platform. The client also requested that developers be taken off the project to create a “Coming Soon” page that collected email addresses that also was not designed for the web. This was also not in the original agreement and provided free of cost.

4.Could have been for $500 – In addition to the items above developed at no extra cost the client requested that personal invites depending on event be created in addition to the standard OScommerce invites – This again was out of scope and done at no extra cost and added 5-7 days to development. If anyone can find a developer that will complete the scope of this entire project for $500. I will give $1000 of Plum Tree Credit.

5.To blame me –The client contracted a designer that does not know web design for a web site, and placed the wrong personal information on the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificate causing the SSL not to function – These items are not of the fault of the web development company.

I am by no means saying that every project moves along without error on the development side but we do not collect payment unless milestones are reached and signed off by the client. If the site did not function as so you say how were you able to process orders?

If anyone would like to reach me regarding my company, our standards and policies you can reach me at ken@plumtreegroup.net
118 days ago by John B. [send email]
I dealt with The Plumtree Group sometime last year on a failed project (Carmony). Make no mistake though the failure was definitely not due to them...it was due to a partner who misappropriated funds.

During my brief experience with them (over a month or so) they kept in touch with me t least 2-3 times a week keeping me abreast with the development of my web app. They were such great guys that I was pretty bummed when I couldn't come through on my end...and even so they still went on with the milestones without funding giving me opportunity after opportunity to keep the project going.

I'm hoping that I can bring my next project to them.

My e-mail address is correct and anyone and everyone who is thinking about working with these guys can contact me.
95 days ago by Jay [send email]
I have just started working with plum tree group and they have been nothing but professional. My friend and I have a small start up and we haven't had any problems with the quality of the work done or with the cost of the services provided. They have even given us advice and materials on how we can improve our business from a marketing stand point at no cost. They are definitely a first class company which I would recommend to other companies both large and small.
47 days ago by Paul [send email]
these posts are so difficult to figure out who works for the company and who is unfairly judging the company. i do know this: i looked into working with a company to develop a site. luckily (unlike the originator of this post) i had a pretty good understanding of osc, zencart, miva & magento among the other processes of developing a site. I also have worked on hundreds of projects and have had experience receiving quotes for development and graphic design. So, i knew that the quote(s) i received from a specific company were overpriced even though they claimed they were extremely cheap. this company was like many affiliated with plum tree. they work under a different name but are part of plum tree. I don't know exactly how the arrangement works but i'm sure it is similar to many print shops. the issue is that it is just not possible for a company like that to compete in price. furthermore, you can tell by the communciation process that they are offshoring programming. you could do an osc cart offshore for $350-1250 including the graphic design so there is no issues with web experience. I do feel bad for the person who originated this complaint because OSC is garbage and to think someone paid $3900 plus graphic design work is rediculous. they should have done their research. OSC is open source. its free. and cost usually incurs for custom shipping modules and graphic design. OSC has so many free mods out there that it would be shocking to believe that a custom one had to be written. This is the primary reason I don't believe the guy from plum tree. I never dealt with ken though so maybe im missing something. eitherway, too many bad experiences with web developers and too many web developers out there that there is no reason to risk using a company like this anyway.

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