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WinterInVenice.co.uk is one of the companies affected by the unethical practises of Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Limited. We helped setup the site for Mel from WinterInVenice.co.uk. We worked closely with her in the process of the whole setting up and deployment of WinterInVenice.co.uk into the fatcow hosting services account. After the deployment...

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Read full review of Black Widow Internet AKA Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Limited and 7 comments
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Black Widow Internet AKA Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Limited A brief summery into the way Scott Smith and Richard Short operate through their various companies including Digispike

BLACK WIDOW INTERNET : a cause for concern
Report Summary
The companies listed in this report all appointed Black Widow Internet Ltd (a trading name of Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Ltd) to develop various types of websites. The commonality is that in each case Black Widow Internet have failed to deliver a completed website that can be hosted. This situation is not a one-off case where Black Widow Internet may have been facing staffing difficulties over a short period of time. Since 2006 to date Black Widow Internet Ltd have consistency failed to deliver on their contractual agreements with the listed clients.

There is a commonality in approach that all the clients listed have experienced:
• Richard Short, a director of Black Widow Internet, is an excellent sales person. He is very persuasive and gives potential clients the reassurance they need to appoint Black Widow Internet
• Once appointed the clients sign a terms and conditions contract and pay 50% of the total cost up front
• Once this payment is received an account manager is appointed to the client account
• From this moment on the problems arise:
o No clear understanding of brief
o Failure to deliver on brief or timelines
o Poorly designed sites with incorrect functionality – riddled with bugs and mistakes
o Constant delays and delaying tactics
o Account managers fail to call back or contact for weekly updates
o Constant change in account managers
• When a client begins to express their concerns to the directors they are asked for additional money, as they claim additional work needs to be done to the site to meet the brief
• Many clients have found Scott Smith to be personally intimidating using bullying tactics to demand additional or final payments
• Despite websites not being completed Black Widow Internet Ltd demand final payment and are willing to take legal action if this is not forth-coming
• We are aware that when a client posts a negative review on a review site such as [redacted] or Review Centre, Scott Smith writes to the company claiming to be from the Legal Department in order to get the report removed
• The terms and conditions of their contract are very tight, so clients feel forced to pay the full amount without finally being given their website
• If a client cancels the contract Black Widow try to force payment of the full amount

This is also a typical response from Scott Smith if he sees a company complaining about their service

From: Scott Smith
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010
Subject: Notice of intent of legal proceedings for liable comments

Dear

I write regarding the liable comments you have made stating that my company is a fraudulent business. I write you give you notice of intent of legal action if the comments are not removed within the next 4 days. Failure to remove the comments will result in legal action against you.

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/black-widow-internet-aka-crystal-clear-global-solutions-c318474.html

Warmest regards,

Scott Smith,
Director, Crystal Clear Global Solutions Limited

www.CrystalClearGlobalSolutions.com – tel: [protected] – fax: [protected]
www.BlackWidowInternet.com – tel: [protected] – fax: [protected]

Crystal Clear Global Solutions Limited, Suites 40-42, Red Hill House, Hope Street, Saltney, Chester, CH4 8BU, UK.

CONFIDENTIAL & PRIVILEGED.
This transmission contains information that is confidential and/or privileged. This information is intended to be for the sold use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, please be aware that any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please notify us immediately.

Name of Company Completed Website Date of Appointment of Black Widow Internet Money Spent To Date
Company 1 No August 2006 £11, 619.81
Company 2 (no full report) No August 2007 £7, 000
Company 3 No February 2008 £17, 000
Company 4 No June 2008 £907.34
Company 5 (no full report) No September 2008 £7, 000
Company 6 No Oct ober2008 £3, 000
Company 7 No November 2008 £4, 800
Company 8 No February 2009 £2, 400
Company 9 (No full report) No February 2009 £3, 700
Company 10 No June 2009 £1, 400
Company 11 No September 2009 £1, 749.15
Company 12 No September 2009 £1, 900
Total £61, 568.96

If you have been affected by Black Widow’s activities please contact [protected]@yahoo.co.uk

About Black Widow Internet

Company Name: Black Widow Internet Ltd
Date Incorporated: 19th December 2006
Incorporation Number: [protected]

Status: Active
Registered Address: 40-42 Redhill House
Hope Street
Saltney
CH4 8BU
Trading Address Suite 17,
Deeside Enterprise Centre
Shotton
Flintshire
CH5 1PP
Directors: Richard Short
/address removed/
Scott Smith
/address removed/

They also trade under:

Company Name: Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Ltd (previously Crystal Clear Global Solutions)
Date Incorporated: 20th April 2004
Companies House Reg No: [protected]

Status: Active
Registered Address: 40-42 Redhill House
Hope Street
Saltney
CH4 8BU
Trading Address Suite 17,
Deeside Enterprise Centre
Shotton
Flintshire
CH5 1PP
Directors: Richard Short
/address removed/
Scott Smith
/address removed/
Directors: Richard Short
Scott Smith

We also believe they have recently created a website under the name of Digispike but this company is not registered at Companies House.

Customer Testimonials for Black Widow/Digispike
Most if not all of these are provided by Black Widow itself. Since the email address is the same, one of these, leadadminsuite.com, is clearly registered by Mr Scott Smith, although the name given is Scott Jones (http://whois.domaintools.com/leadadminsuite.com). The www.extravisitors.com is registered to a Scott Smith (http://whois.domaintools.com/extravisitors.com). Ukmortgagesaver.com is protected, so it is impossible to track the owner, but we suspect that it might perhaps be a Mr Smith, particularly as the name of one of those who promote it is scottaxa (http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/merchant-promotions-incentives/18918-increased-commission-uk-mortgage-affiliate-website.html).

Ukmortgagesaver.com says that they will be using Digispike again, but since they have vanished without trace, it is hard to believe that they will be able to do so. It appears that Scott Smith is very happy to change his name and to promote his own company pretending to be an unrelated customer.

Read full review of Black Widow Internet AKA Crystal Clear Digital Solutions Limited and 3 comments
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C
curve
Reading, GB
Feb 23, 2011 3:29 pm EST

We have been stung by black widow. After working for over a year on our web site we now have nothing to show.Just £5000 worse off + all the lost revenue. No contact number to retrieve this site after all the work we had put into it. Gutted . Just another rip off merchant!

O
O
On Behalf of Companies Taken For A Ride
London, GB
Mar 14, 2010 8:24 am EDT

This is an e-mail that Scott Smith has sent to me for complaining about his company. Scott is desperate to find out which companies are posting negative reviews about Black Widow internet and Crystal Clear Global (Digital) Solutions. The fact is a significant number of companies who have all legitimately paid Black Widow to develop sites for them and have received nothing in return. These companies have all got together to highlight how the company takes people money off them and gives them nothing in return - so far there are at least 20 companies. One tactic they use when companies complain is to ask for a further £3000 as the brief has changed. So companies pay this in the hope of getting their site and guess what nothing else happens.

If this was a one-off situation or had only happened over a short period of time then fair enough. But there has been a consistent pattern of similar behaviour from as far back as 2006. I have heard Scott Smith's side of things having read the transcripts from court cases he has won and lost.

I have also seen e-mails he has sent to others threatening legal action if they do not remove negative posts - these are people that he has happily taken several thousand of pounds from without giving them anything in return.

You will see in this e-mail Scott claims that he knows who I am - well that claim is totally incorrect. If he was the internet expert he claims to be he would know the difference between someone who simply blogs on their own website and professional bloggers. He also claims that a client called John who is Karen Winterhalter's business partner has never complained about Black Widow Internet - but I found this report on /URL removed/

E-mail from Scott Smith

So you not even a customer but have decided to get involved and try and destroy us. And you are the type of person that is happy to put peoples home addresses online and scare our wives and young children with sinister posts, hide who you are, and then state that I am the bad guy.

Surely if you are not a customer, you are only taking one side of the situation and I am sure you are clever enough to know there are always two sides of every situation but you appear not to even want to to hear that, just hide in the background causing problems.

I have many happy clients but sometimes things do go wrong, and I always work hard to correct them. If any legitmate client wishes to contact me with a legit complaint, I will always investigate it and do the right thing. However I suspect whoever is feeding your mind, that you are fully listening to, will tell you different.

I am also curious if you are Karen Winterhalter, as one of the people in the "group" has sent me a signed letter mentioning names and details of what is happening and Karen is mentioned, who owes a PR company that has blogging on her website and is business partners with John, a past client of ours that has never made any complaints, is this you ?

Scott

O
O
On Behalf of Companies Taken For A Ride
London, GB
Mar 11, 2010 4:47 am EST

Today more comes to light about Black Widow Internet it seems that they do not like the companies they have let down sharing their experience with others. As well as all the companies involved in this group receiving e-mails from Scott Smith threatening legal action, he has also decided to stop building sites for other companies if he thinks that they are involved in any way at all.

The tragedy for Black Widow Internet or Crystal Clear Digital (Global) Solutions and Scott Smith is that since these posting more companies have come forward to further support the above report. If your business has been affected by Black Widow Internet or Crystal Clear Digital (Global) Solutions please get in touch with bittenbyblackwidow@yahoo.co.uk

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