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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 [protected]@abc4.com
Let's make sure HIT Web Design will not continue doing this to customers!
i am also an ex-employee this as all true! i believe that the ABC 4 news story will air later this week.
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!
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 ### we all know they are!
WOW! Things are worse than I thought...
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.
What a good way to discredit everything, "grow up please". But it all ties into speech patterns, which, by nature, cannot be manipulated. all the postings have very distinct, and different, speech patterns. you know that "grow up please" is Dave Aitken..
Now Dave, you know you can not speak out of both sides of your mouth, even though we know you try! You would send emails stating that our compensation was so good we couldn't find work anywhere else to make the money we needed to support our families. That was EXTREMLEY intimidating and the money was the only thing that kept us there. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE WERE NOT WALKING OUT!
You would also tell us that there was no where to go and it was a dead job market but we are welcome to leave if we were unhappy. WHAT A MIND GAME! HOW DECEPTIVE!
I was told by a manager that they "only need one more paycheck and im out of here!"
Now Dave, dont do what everyone thinks you are going to do and flip out. I would sit down with your managers, suck up to them and let them know how much you appreciate them.
Or, maybe you could send one of your oh-so-powerful threatening emails. This is your choice...
Just to reitterate, "donebeingbullied" is referring to Dave Aitken's, aka "GrowUpPlease", threat to Bryce Turpin.
Dave was assumptive, as usual, in stating that Bryce is posting while he is at work.
I am paraphrasing as this thread is becoming VERY long...
Ryan, you are a smart guy and have been nothing but helpful to employees who asked you for help at anytime. I am sorry that they stuck you in the middle of this.
By your understanding you know HIT management to be reasonable and sensitive. You have never (for atleast the 2 and a half years i worked there) had close association with the sales team and how it was ran.
Please don't put yourself out there saying that HIT management is reasonable and sensitive. You dont have the capabilities to make a blanket statement like that. You have no idea what hell everyone on the sales team went through to bring in the money to support their families! There was even a sales manager who was constantly humiliated just to "motivate" the sales team. How sad is that?! This same sales manager was very sick one day and was forced to come in. He puked in front of everyone! How embarrassing!
THAT IS NOT SENSITIVE OR FAIR AND THIS ALL HAPPENED ALL THE TIME!
I know you have a nice family to support and need to protect the place you work at but please dont make blanket statements when crap like that is happening.
Also, why would HIT need to be told to be more sensitive or aware of family emergencies? That is basic business ethics.
The mere psychology of your post lets us all know that you are somewhat siding with us subconsciously, most likely due to the lack of training management/supervisors are given.
Every single person at HIT is encouraged to sell.
Just in the past week there has been a major change. There is no sales team!
The sales team has been absolved and lumped in to the account managers department.
Does this sound like a company that may have a problem here or there and may "stub their toe" once in a while? NO!
This all just makes the comments by HIT management all that more laughable.
It just goes to show that HIT is in a state of disrepair.
This is all very sad and I don't think that anything is going to change until we take this a step further...
You can contact Annie at ABC 4 at the email address annie@abc4.com...
The rest of the contact info is on my original complaint.
This is just like Dave... he loves to butter people up and make them feel good so he can use that as leverage at their most crucial moments.
Trust me, Dave is not this altruistic.
Not sure if Greg is unemployed by HIT - or if he's just working from home to save face for the company... Why would a company with this much greed ever actually get rid of someone who can manipulate an old lady with a severance check to use her social security check to line their pockets? ... hmmm... perhaps someone should try calling their sales line and ask for him, you might be surprised at the results.. unless you are familiar with the company. Then you wouldn't be surprised at all when they get him on the phone.
Yes and its a bunch of crap... just disregard it with a laugh and ignore it. There is nothing they can do to you. There is so much evidence that they are horrible, unethical business owners that would be foolish to even think about pursuing "legal action" against you.
Before I left on my own free will, months actually, HIT was hitting $30-40, 000 in revenue daily! This was expected and it was quite dreadful to management when we fell below this norm.
Now the latest from the HIT sales team... 3 days in a row at $12000 in revenue or less!
Having worked there 2 and a half years, 3 horrible days is deffinitley hurting their business. I've even got word from some employees that customers are sending links to reps from specific complaints done right here on complaintsboard.com.
These customers are demanding their accounts be cancelled! Let's hope this trend continues...
Actually they are failing miserably.
Plus, why would anyone take a stand for a company they have no relation to?
Thanks for trying though.
idiotswillalwayscomplain,
im sorry you are stuck at HIT. Obviously you have no where else to go. I'm sorry if we are harming the place you work at and we all would be mad if we were still there too because it would be hurting our paycheck.
The truth is, I have great friends that work there and they are amazing salespeople. Heck, I might even know you! We are not here to destroy your paycheck, in fact HIT is already doing that to you. We do not want you to fail but we do want HIT to change their ways. At HIT we had no voice! This is the only voice we have for the time being. Hopefully all of our collective complaints have been heard through out the state and government agencies we have made them to. There is only one way to fix HIT and hopefully bring it back to the positioning it was once in...
The Aitkens must go. I don't even think that is possible since they own a majority of the company from my understanding, but it is the only way. They once had HIT in a great position and it was the best place to work, now they have ran it in to the ground.
I really wish you the best of luck. There are many options for employment, employment that will pay you and treat well for the effort you put in.
wow "culture of fear" describes HIT perfectly.
By the way, Mark Strong and other HIT management have told their sales reps to say the same things to clients as Mark presented in the interview.
Its all fluff to make people feel good. The customer does not buy it in the end.
It may have worked for Mark because he is a nice, stately man who was speaking face to face with the news anchor. This is also why it hasn't aired.
I QUIT after the let one of the top consistant performers on the sales team go. This guy was awesome. He was always in the top 3 sales people pay period after pay period. Great guy with a nice wife and a few kids.
He was let go as an example that we were all expendable!
How sick is that! I was near tears to see him walk out, knowing he was going to have to go home, tell his wife he was fired and then hunt for a new job when he had kids to feed. I could not work for people that are vendictive as they are.
If you go to HIT management and try to talk about making $600 on a paycheck when you have earned them $20, 000 in a pay period is unfair they will say "So what?! We have kids to feed too!" (direct words from Jeremy Aitken). Keep in mind a pay period that productive would yeild a sales person atleast a check between $[protected] before management got greedy.
HIT sure is GREAT!
Now that is just greed... why would they fire someone and then say "oh you can work from home for us!"
Once again, they have no business sense at all.
awesome-company,
we all know you are not this altruistic.
In this case I think HIT was duped and was embarrassed to tell their employees that it really wasnt "national news".
It was deceitful as all employees thought that it was going to be a big break for HIT.
My_Compaint,
The reason they haven't been able to push our comments away is because they no next to nothing in regards to search engine optimization.
They follow antiquated SEO principles. They still think that meta keywords are KING! HIT tells their sales people to tell the customer that only custom sites can be optimized but templates easily can.
That will soon change as they are switching to template sites starting January 1, 2010.
TO MEDICINE AND ALL OTHERS WHO ARE TRYING TO DEFEND HIT...
It doesn't matter what you say or do at this point. You came in to this thread to late in the ball game!
This thread has been optimized for many phrases that are being searched when family, friends, ex-employees, customer, ex-customers and current employees search for "hit web design abc4". Just Google it.
Now if we do a quick search for "bad business abc4" (as we all know ABC4 is known for their investigative reports and consumer call to action stories) we pull HIT Web Design up in the number 2 spot. Ouch.
And YIKES! When we search for our favorite web design company under their new name "HIT Web Design" we find complaints immediatley under their own site. Bummer.
Sorry guys, try as you might but you are screwed.
Your business is failing and you are watching the ruins crumble.
Try doing something legitimate about it. You guys must be in real bad shape if you need to get on this board and monitor every little thing people are saying about you.
I wonder if the CEO of Wal-Mart does this?
Geez, you are right! What was I thinking?!
They know how huge they are, they don't need to stroke their own egos to prove it.
You know what I think is neat? If someone were to do a google image search for "Design by HWS" a TON of Heritage/HIT's websites come up. There usually is some contact info on the sites.
What could be done with that info?
Ryan, what about the grievances? I know for a fact Turpin's grievance is 100% legit as I was there.
Please address this. Thank you.
Ethicalhit,
If that is the correct link, it looks like he took it down.
What's there to be ashamed of Ryan?
This must be quite a bit for Ryan to take in. Notice he isnt saying anything...
By the way, accoridng to a source who is still at HIT Web Design, at te begginning of the year they had 400 employees and now they have about a tenth of that left!
January first there were 25 sales representative on the "sales team" now there are 7.
What a wonderful company! I'm glad to see they are doing so well.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
by clothing
I have the same exact complaint as the candle person. Heritage customer service once they have your money changes drastically. The designer of my website did not listed to one word I said. I constantly had to keep telling him what I wanted over and over and over again. I made him totally redo the website until I had something livable. I think people should really shop around and see what else is out there before hiring HWS. I paid close to a grand before everything was said and done. They'll give you one price and then say another 150 to do this another 50 to do that. And if you have a problem, there is a huge language barrier with many members they contract out for tech support, and I guarantee you they will almost never be able to answer your question.
Heritage Web Design Exposed
Posted: by Tina Kachmar
I paid Heritage Web Design $700 last February to create a NEW site for my candle business. They are in the "top 1%" so I figured they must be good, right? NOT! Once they have your money, forget it. For $700 I got a copy of the site that I myself created with some pink background and a candle graphic. I sent them a box, yes mailed them information, including pamphlets, brochures, pictures, candles, soaps, etc., (approximately $50 worth of product) hoping it would help create the mood for my site. Well, the receptionist 'supposedly' stole the samples because my designer never received it. Since she never received the box she built a site that had a black background and flowers? I emailed my 'account manager' and he just switched designers. So, in MAY my site was finally up and running and I was SUPER disappointed. It was nothing like what I had explained to them. I felt powerless because from that point on they have been so rude to me. Anyway, I built my own site and have one more month with this company stealing my $30 to host a site I haven't used since last July. BEWARE! They will steal your hard earned money and treat you like crap.
Good Evening Readers-
I work for an ultra secret government agency and I have sources that say that Kenton, Bryce, and Eric are connected with the assassination of Kennedy. I also suspect that they stole my bike.
I love complaint board- you can make all kinds of accusations without any kind of proof.
Good evening readers
I work for the government and I have top secret information that ties Kenton, Bryce, and Eric to the Kennedy assassination. I also think that they may have stolen my bike.
I love complaint board. You can make all kinds of meaningless accusations without any type of evidence.
The Real Dave In Montreal,
Thank you for your insight! I find the insight from other people in the design world on Hit Web Design to always be valuable and normally comical!
Wow - what a thread. As a web developer myself, the first "red flag" was 'doing custom web site design for as little as $199'... Not a single job, no matter how small, would get me in front of my computer for less than $500 - and that's not arrogance talking, it's over 20 years of experience that I pour into my work every day.
Five sales reps for each designer? HIT's business model is not only flawed, it is guaranteed to commit fraud. Again, based on experience, it takes a minimum of seven days, and an average of 21-30, WORKING FULL TIME HOURS, to design and implement ONE approved website project - especially one that boasts the "features" that are being bandied about.
No... there is not enough time in a day - even if you forego the time needed to sleep, eat, and use the crapper - to have one designer competently satisfy five simultaneous project requirements. It's impossible.
What is extremely disturbing is the fact that I am seeing these numbers tossed about ($500 to start a project, an additional $650, then upsell of whatever else) that result in a website that my 9-year-old could design that in no way conforms to even the most basic web standards and compliance. I checked out at least a dozen sites that were tagged as "designed by HIT" and am insulted as a development professional that these people at HIT are muddying up the waters for REAL website developers.
I'm going to be following this thread (and the others regarding HIT) - it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I am particularly interested in seeing what happens with this Ryan Nelson fellow and how he responds to pointed questions rather than cherry-picking (am I alone in my concern that he was so readily available to downplay everyone - until challenged to be more forthright in obvious flaws in HIT's practices?)...
"youmakemesad"
I have never claimed to be an ex-employee. Just a concerned citizen for the truth.
ethicalhit, I thought you claimed to be an ex-employee... but some of your latest posts make it sound as if you are not. Who are you?
After seeing an early release of the movie 2012, I have to say that I really couldn't get Hit Web Design out of my mind! With all that carnage in the film, I kept making correlations between the complaints online and the images on the screen! Sure Hit Web Design is not a vast empire, or a captain of industry, but it is a crumbling tower.
The title character John Cusack in the film reminded me of some of the ex-employees of Hit Web Design who post on this board and are trying to escape the falling carnage.
So please Hit Web Design employees be like the hero of the film 2012 and escape by the skin of your teeth, and share your amazing journey with us!
Heritage Web Solutions - A complete disaster!
Posted: 2007-05-07 by Roxanne McFarlane
Back in February I decided to start my own business and got everything in order from February through March. April came around and I said okay, well I got everything except my website. I knew I couldn't do it myself no had the time so I researched the web and up came this advertisement for Heritage Web Solutions with an eye-catching offer of $199 and up.
I contacted them, and locked into a packed of two payments of $279 with $60 a month hosting fees. I felt that the hosting fees compare to other companies were expensive but the package deal seem good and after one year you have the option to choose another hosting company.
Well people, it is now May 7th, and to date I have $1000 + taken out of my account with absolutely NOTHING to show for it. NOTHING! No web design, no logo, no responses when you leave messages for these in charge account managers for like a week or more. It's frightening to know people who claim to be professional designers can do this. If I had diligently research this company like I do everything else, I would have NEVER went with these people.
As I wait on the phone and listen to the prompts and I know there may be new customers calling in on other lines I wish I had the power to reach out and save them the difficult frustration! Please people, if you are serious about your business and customers do not use Heritage Web Solutions. Your time as a business owner is precious and vital. Your monies would be put to better use with a company that puts you and your priorities first.
This company never fails to take monies from you account but can't seem to produce the works. I really, really don't know who gave these people licenses to work with consumers and why the hell are they still in business!
Thousands of customers are wrong - but Heritage Web Solutions is right, yeah sure !
from startupnation.com
Hi,
I wish I would have done more research on them before buying a website and hosting for 3 weeks straight I recieved phones calls asking me to buy more features and addon`s.
I just looked at my online banking statement and they had taken out $250.00!
for what? I called and som one told me I had agreed to do my own updates on my site and it was for letting me use the ftp server to up load changes.
I am so angry I have a head ache. The person I talked to said they have reversed the charge but in the mean time my account is over drawn until the bank proccess every thing tonight. Which means I have no funds to use. I am on a very tight budget right now and $250.00, though it is not much, is all I had right now.
___________________________
Shame Shame Dave!
Found this on scam.com
______________________
Let me start by saying that upon viewing our completed sight, I was highly disgusted! Your company has done nothing but delay and destroy the timeline and vision established for this project. If this is the fashion in which your business is always run, I do not understand how Heritage is still active. You called me on Friday asking for the information for our store. We sent you a two minute re-draft but because I'm actually doing work compared to those of you at Heritage, it had completely slipped my mind that I had already sent the entire web-site layout to your good friend Robert. I am aware of how close you two are and I guess that is the reason for the apparent sabotage to our website. I am convinced that Heritage is not just unable, but too incompetent to complete even such a simple task. Please explain to me how the information I provided to Robert even remotely resembles what you put on our site. Yes, I like the colors and the layout, but where is the content I submitted?! I even sat on the phone with both Shane and Robert providing them with sample sites (prisongap.org, peterpanbus.com) and they still didn't get it right. How does the store provided to us reflect the purchase options and task on those sites? We basically paid $2, 500 plus...for a damn template! Robert sent me this whole long message about being sure to submit all the content by April 6th. Then he sent me another email asking me to confirm that everything I had sent him was all we were asking to be put on our site. After all of that, the information we submitted still never got on our site! What the hell is going on in Utah? I am beyond disgusted. Empire Transit has close to sixteen different contracts with state and government agencies. The owner also just started a high power fm radio station, a cable network, and a real estate company. You have no idea how much money could have been in this for Heritage but at this point, I wouldn't even refer Heritage to my enemies. I expect the changes to be made according to the information I am submitting AGAIN which is below. I would suggest that these changes be made and that this site be complete and correct by the end of Monday's business day.
15 days ago by Janet Boydell [send email to the author]
Wow, I wish I had seen this site before I agreed to the Heritage Web Solutions agreement. I have been charged in full, and am paying monthly hosting fees for a website that does NOT work, I have NO Logo or Banner, and I BEGGED them to make it go live so that I could go in to fix all of the content they screwed up. I am shocked they are still in business. I cancelled my service and to add insult to injury they emailed me to say I'm responsible for a year's hosting and I'm only a couple of weeks live.
This is unbelievable...how can they get away with this? I feel it is extortion! They say they'll do something, but I have dozens of emails and made dozens of calls without return. I actually feel as though they do all of this on purpose just to get the year of fees. Can anyone help us?
Is there a District Attorney in Utah that has the guts to look into their practices. I've NEVER had to a point where I was this outraged and actually write something like this. Can anyone help or make a suggestion about my rights? Thank you! Janet
12 days ago by Alan Wear [send email to the author]
I am in agreement with Janet. I contracted with Heritage almost a year ago, and I still do not have anything more than a placeholder site with some text and pretty pictures. Email doesn't work, no shopping cart that does anything, several blank pages saying "coming soon!", and now I am told to see the "terms of service" when I asked for a refund. Basically, at the bottom of the TOS, is says that if they do ANYTHING, they don't owe you a dime! What happened to the "100% Satisfaction Guarantee" that is posted on their own website? I would also be interested in pursuing some kind of legal action, and am starting to get everything together to give to my attorney and see what he thinks. Any other suggestions?
3 days ago by Giaana [send email to the author]
I wrote numerous alerts about Heritage web solutions internet fraud schemes on Hostdiscussions.com, dozens of e-mail responses were received by me substantiating Heritages business practices including fraud, bate and switch tactics, sub-standard web design, and failure to deliver web sites paid for. Hostdiscussions alerted me that I was not allowed to post any comments made by people who e-mailed me about Heritage( I posted the entire e-mails that were sent to me) most were from people who responded to Hostdiscussions postings. I asked Host to supply me with a copy of any rules that prohibited me from posting the e-mails I received and their site adm. responded with "I make the rules" and " I said no", I asked him about the freedom of speech rights in this country and their response was to shut down and delete all reference to Heritage Web solutions.
Soon after all links to Host discussions went to another site and guess who popped up as a sponsor of Hostdiscussions. Heritage web solutions.
Now it's evident that host discussions.com has no respect for our freedom of speech rights, and are willing to trash those right for a buck. At the same time promoting a company that has continuously ripped of consumer after consumer by either scamming them into contracting for a web site design that is either never delivered, told that the site will cost more and more money, take 8 to 10 months to deliver( promises are 4 to 6 weeks), employees call this company a sweet shop, with a requirement that custom sites be completed at a rate of 4 to 5 custom sites a day. Turnover is high at the company and customers are contacting law enforcement and lawyers.
Hostdiscussions for the almighty dollar has sold our freedom of speech rights and promoted a horrible horrible company on the net. Do they care about the public or are they just in it for the money? See [redacted]s.com, myspace.com, wordpress.com type in Heritage web solutions of go to your browser and type in Heritage web solutions complaints
2 days ago by Chris Henning [send email to the author]
First of all, let me say that this Gianna person is a liar. She is not being truthful at all. She has a 'score' to settle and I do not wish to be part of it whatsoever.
I manage the board she is mentioning. First of all, we respect freedom of speech. We do not respect those however who post OTHER PEOPLES EMAILS. I told her to notify the people who emailed her and notify them that they were completely welcome to login and post on their own. We have no issues with people complaining about others. However, she has gone totally overboard and simply did not have her normal post, she had 6 separate posts all full of other peoples emails to 'her'.
She has also been shut down on WordPress for the same exact thing. Posting your opinion is one thing, but she has abused our board and who knows how many others for her own personal vengeance. To be honest, she should use this rage to do something positive with her life. She has completely lost it.
She has abused our system and also threatened us legally.
I believe she has a vengeance to get Heritage. I do not know if they did a good or bad job for her. However, I do know she is filled with some sort of rage I've not encountered before and want no part of.
Furthermore, Heritage is NOT a sponsor on our site and this is a complete LIE told by GIANNA. We gave her a warning and she disregarded it and threatened us. Her abusive actions have led to us shutting down the complaints section on our site. She is furthermore not welcomed as she has lied about us.
In addition we will be pursuing a defamation lawsuit against her if these baseless accusations do not stop.
found this on scam.com
The Trouble with Heritage web solutions - Heritage customers and Employees speak out.
CAUTION !
Remember ! if you do not speak out then others will have the same experiences as you. If you had this information available would you have chosen Heritage?
"
Internet Fraud ( Heritage Web Solutions)
Heritage Web Solutions
Provo Utah
This site is dedicated to makeing the public aware of the business practices and prolicies of a company the advertises that they are in the top 1% of web site design companies.
Employees report that this company is no more than a swet shop with a ratio of 5 sales people to ever design tech) Employees also reoprt that they are required to design 40to 5 fully customised sites per day.( an impossible task according to other design specialists.) the norm would be 1 site per week or two at the most. Employees also report that most techs are not qualified to work on complicated sites yet they are required to do so anyway.
Customers report that even though promised a site within 4 to 5 weeks it often takes 8 to 10 months. Most comon problems reported are the sites do no operate correctly, are often sub-standard and the biggest complaints are sites never completed, the (bate and switch) sites cost much much more than originaly agreed upon. hosting charges are debited from credit and debit cards even befor the site is live. no return phone calls, boken promises and utter frustration.
Web design fraud is serious ( Heritage web solutions )
Links: To Heritage complaint sites
wordpress.com
[redacted]s.com
myspace.com
hostdiscussion.com
Internet Crime Complaint Center
Receives Internet related criminal complaints, and then researches, develops, and refers the criminal complaints to law enforcement agencies for any investigation ...
www.ic3.gov
Contact Info:
Name: Austin Family
Email: thericknann@yahoo.com
A sampling of the most recent complaints filed by customers and former employess
at Heritage Web Solutions
together with some insight into how to file a complaint and stop this company. Links to Law enforcement, Government agencies and other complaint sites are available on this site.
To File a complaint about Heritage use this link Filing a Complaint with IC3 IC3 accepts online Internet crime complaints from either the person who believes they were defrauded or from a third party to the complainant. We can best process your complaint if we receive accurate and complete information from you. Therefore, we request that you provide the following information when filing a complaint: Your name Your mailing address Your telephone number The name, address, telephone number, and Web address, if available, of the individual or organization you believe defrauded you. Specific details on how, why, and when you believe you were defrauded. Any other relevant information you believe is necessary to support your complaint.
However, I’ve been contacted by Heritage Web’s attorney, James Dunn, and been told that if I don’t take steps to immediately remove my complaint I can be charged $500 for each occurrence and $100 for each hit to the site. See his letter below. By the way, the agreement I signed did not have this clause in it, but it did have a 90 day satisfaction guarantee and stated I would be given a link to preview my website prior to going live. That did not happen and I did notify them within the 30 days that I was unsatisfied. I would never have approved an incomplete and non-working website. It’s cost me $700 plus 6 months of hosting that was charged the moment I got the agreement. I did my part. My content was up, loaded and ready to go in 2 weeks and after threatening to fire them on January 21st I was promised all would be completed…I fired them on March 27th for breach of contract citing non-performance. I received apologies from many employees and Mark Stone, listed as Chief Quality Officer (is he really the President?) who emailed me and apologized, offered 3 months of free hosting, and a completed website if I stayed with them. I nicely declined and got response back from Mark. But, instead received the letter from their attorney (below). Thank goodness I had already contacted my credit card company and now I’m in the process of trying to get my money back. The most bizarre thing about all of this, was that I was initially willing to walk away from the $700, but wanted the hosting back since the site was incomplete and didn’t work properly and they were never able to complete the DNS requirement for a “.com” website. So my “live” site is at a “.us” and of course all of my business cards and literature say my website is at “.com”. I decided to stay with my existing website and host and just updated my website myself. It took me all of 3 days and I’m not even qualified. What a mess!
If you could look into a crystal ball this is what you would have seen about Heritage web solutions
I hope that you do pursue this further even though
unfortunately that means more headache for YOU. NO,
Mark does not sound like he was in "the dark". He
sounds like he gave us our money back out of fear, not
out of genuine ethics. We've deposited our check
already and have no need to deal with Heritage Web
Solutions any further. Brendan and I are so relieved
it's over, and we are moving on with our new website
in hopes we can get it up and running before
Christmas... maybe in time to make a little money for
ourselves and get ahead for 2007.
So, honestly, from what you just sent to me, I really
don't want to deal with Heritage any further. They
broke trust with us months ago, so it is very hard to
believe anything they say. If Mark Strong were indeed
NOT in the dark, he would've done the right thing from
the beginning with you. So, let them fight it out.
But I will still tell anyone anytime to stay away from
them. They are just bad business. PERIOD.
Thanks Rick,
Kelli
Here is another email I got from Dave, the
ex-employee. For some reason, it would not forward.
Probably user error. :) Anyway, here's more of what
Dave had to say about Heritage from an insiders
perspective...
Yeah on the website designer end they underpay you,
over work you, and there are like 5 people or more
selling websites for every one person they have
designing websites. They don't offer any benifits to
their employees and yeah it sucked working there.
They're not evil people they're just ****ty awful
business people. They're WAY more caught up in
selling the websites than actually making them. Plus
they're one of the ****ty companies that WAY under
charge for webdesign so it makes it really hard for
actual decent webdesigner's to get paid what they want
on the open market. But people don't realise that
just because it's cheaper doesn't mean it's
the same product. If you get your product at all.
It's horribly stressful working there and i'm glad I'm
done. Doing it freelance has been much better for me.
It's really hard to find work or people to
pay what it's worth especially in Utah but it's better
than working there.
Dave
Kelli,
We are no longer with Heritage Web. To be honest with you, we didn't
have
very good service. It was a year into the process and the website never
got
done so, we had to hire someone else to do it. Not a good experience.
JoVon Pectol
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelli Ahern"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 7:39 PM
Subject: reference for Heritage Web Solutions
Take the money and run!
Complaint Rating:
I will post more later but it has been nothing but broke promises and lie after lie. I am personally looking at legal action since Heritage Web Solutions have cost me a few days of sales due to their lack of follow up.
I just love Tech support that keeps saying they will have to check with someone else because they do not know. I would say e-mail me but my e-mail is not working at this time. Their server is refusing to work.
John McCarty
Maybe Ryan got fired for using the grievance process?
Ryan is probably busy looking for new ways to threaten clients who voice their concern after getting ripped off and employees who blow whistles after being sick of their ways of making employees lie.
Shame Shame Hit Web Design!
_____________________________________________________________
44. Negative Comments/Slander
Client specifically agrees not to engage in negative comments or slander regarding HIT, including but not limited to publishing, or causing to be published, complaints or derogatory comments regarding HIT in any format, including but not limited to, print, newspaper, television, radio or on internet complaint sites, blogs or other public internet forums. Should there be a breach of this condition HIT will be entitled to liquidated damages in the amount of $2, 500.00 for each publishing or posting. If said breach occurs on an internet complaint site each hit to that website will be considered an individual breach of this condition, and subject to additional liquidated damages of $100 per occurrence. Further, HIT shall be entitled to litigate this matter, and obtain the money damages together with injunctive relief. The prevailing party to that litigation shall be entitled to an award of attorney’s fees. HIT reserves the right to terminate any account for any negative postings made by the account owner or it’s representatives, or employees.
_____________________________________________________________________________
$2, 500.00 for each publishing or posting ? ARE YOU KIDDING? - DO THEY THINK ITS LEGAL? HAVE THEY HEARD OF FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS?
TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN CHEATED AND THREATENED BY THESE DECEIVERS, DEFRAUDERS, FRAUDSTERS, SHARKS - DO NOT BE SCARED AND DO VOICE YOUR CONCERN . ITS YOUR BIRTH RIGHT AND REMEMBER WE LIVE IN A FREE COUNTRY.
Nor will they be! The day Dave Aitken steps down for the "good of the company" is the same day that Fidel Castro gives up his hold over Cuba, that nut job Iranian president dude gets baptized into the Mormon church, and Provo, Utah has weather year round similar to that of Miami, Florida!
The point is that no matter how much we want to see them change or step down, we're not going to. That would require them to admit that they're wrong in the way they've been doing things and nobody in upper mgmt (excluding Mark Strong and possibly Leah who I don't know) has the humility and integrity to do so.
We have all stated that it is not our desire to destroy the company, but rather to encourage change. My suggestion is if we want change, give the store clerk a $5 bill for a Snickers bar. Pride and greed are in the hearts (assuming they have them since their actions would not confirm it) and great will be the fall!
Hasta lasagna HIT/HIT Web Design/Heritage Web Solutions - don't get any on ya!
donebeingbullied,
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I was making the same point that you restated. That if they basically brought in a new management team, I would happily sit back, and cross my fingers that they could turn things around, and make it a wildly successful company that would provide hundreds and thousands of people with jobs, while providing their customers something of true value and worth.
As it stands now they are not.
Where is Ryan, did he get fired?
ethicalHit
I did not see where it was stated Tanner Wolsey, David Aiken, Jeremy Aiken, Lance Card were all let go, That would really make a difference. Let me restate, that would really make a difference if they brought in a new team that know how to run a company.
The complaint - Hit Web Design - Sold a Product they do not know, was one of the first ones I ever read, and really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was what got me really intrigued into learning more about Hit Web Design.
This company seems to continue to blame others for it's poor management, and horrible leadership. If there was a radial restructuring and the people who I have read the most complaints about i.e. Tanner Wolsey, David Aiken, Jeremy Aiken, Lance Card were all let go, I would be willing to take a sit and wait approach to see what they can do with a restructuring.
Some of the common customer complaints with these ### of a company.
HIT Web Design - Paid services not provided/charged credit card without authorization
HIT Web Design - Worst Business Experience
HIT Web Design - Took my money, 4 weeks behind orginal completion date, site is a template, not custom.
HIT Web Design - bitter sweet
HIT Web Design - Crappy company
HIT Web Design - customer service
HIT Web Design - Bait and switch
HIT Web Design - Sold a Product they do not know
Wow SickofHit!
Way to go through Hit Web Design's Terms of Service (TOS)! That Terms of Service that Hit Web Design has put together is a beast, and it provides nearly to protection to the consumer while completely shielding Heritage Web Solutions!
Again another sign of Hit Web Designs UNETHICAL behavior! The Terms of Service is a direct reflection of the upper management/ owner's priorities.
And GREAT points "someonewhoknows!" We we all clearly like and appreciate P373r hard work and dedication that person was fired because he was not in a position where he could sell, sell, sell! It is sad.
I just hope that more people read up on Hit Web Design before they sign up with them so that they can make a truly informed decision.
WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE !
________________________________
The Client understands and agrees that if the Client does not respond within 5 business days to HIT's request for approval and notification that the website has been completed, the website along with the functionality of the website and services rendered, will be deemed to be approved by the Client, and the website will be taken live “as-is”.
_________________________________
So you are busy or sick or whatever for few days and they will consider your project FINISHED . How nice is that ?
WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE ! WARNING ! BEWARE !
FROM http://www.heritagewebdesign.com/tos.html
__________________________________________
"Domain names purchased by HIT and website designs, databases, stores, or programs created by HIT are the property of HIT until Client has paid all fees including one full year of monthly hosting. (See Domain Names Purchase/Hosting Agreement)"
__________________________________________
So basically you don't like their work or have any disputes, you screw yourself out of your business name and domain name and all the emails associated with them.
Just wanted to respond to the people who asked me what manager made me stand up while I was pregnant. I can't remember for certain whether Manuel Cobarrubias was still manager or Matt Nelson was, but regardless, one of them or one of the higher ups instructed them to do it.
P373r... I'm impressed that they kept you on for so long if you didn't push sales. When I was there, they pretty much fired every AM that didn't push sales at every call, whether the customer needed it or not. TS, where I worked, was getting the same thing "Offer something at every call and sell, or your job might be in danger." Then they'd have some kid devoted to calling and pushing the sales I'd offered, who then took half my commission and credit and made my customers hate Heritage Web. Fun times.
I also wanted to say, my husband works at another hosting company and they are doing great! They just sent out an email to their employees stating that they still have no debt, they've really not lost any revenue at all from the recession and so are still profitable, have 500, 000 accounts (their BBB record has 3 complaints, I think) and they aren't cutting pay or doing layoffs (they have about 200 employees, I think, so the same size as HIT used to be). They're paying my husband $15 an hour to do far less than Heritage ever made me do and they give their employees food to eat for lunches at no cost. They're also still giving their annual Christmas bonus, which is at least half a grand; morethe longer you've worked there. I think I got a Holiday greeting card and a $20 gift card to Walmart for Christmas when I worked at Heritage Web.
It just boggles the mind that Heritage Web is paying its employees $8.50 an hour and yet is selling things that give them FAR more money than just a straight $7 a month hosting account, like this other hosting company does. They're randomly laying off people and cutting commission and pay, and heh... good luck getting a nice Christmas bonus from them! How can Heritage be doing so crappy? Oh yeah, 'cause they suck at managing and making their customers happy and keeping people around. I really hope they get a clue sometime soon... something is obviously wrong with their business model.
Ripoff Clients + Rob Employees = Make lot of money. That's HIT Web Design in few words.
idontcryanymore,
Don't worry there are enough of us to back up what you have to say on HIT/heritage web solutions and there mind games of pay cuts. Put down references and ask for other emails from people on your appeal. You would be surprised what info people have. They can lie all they want but it's funny what power emails have all in black and white.
Great Advice "your not along"
Please keep us updated "idontcryanymore" to your situation. Know that we are all hoping that you are able to get your unemployment from Hit Web Design!
idontcryanymore...
Thats ridiculous! File an appeal! Thats what I had to do! After 6 weeks I got it and they had to back pay me! You will then have a phone call with the judge, HIT, and yourself... Its worth it and when I had mine HIT sure was fumbling for words on everything they were asked... They don't have a book to read right from or a prewritten statement like they post on everything... They won't have time to lie! Trust me I did this!
UNEMPLOYMENT DENIED ME...Why because Hit Web Design lied and said there have been NO pay cuts or commission changes in the last year? WTF..I sent all emails I had regarding pay cuts threats and 15% bull ### to the Unemployment Board if anyone can help let me know 4 1/2 years there you bet i want what is MINE...
P373r,
Thank you for the great post, and the great insight. It looks like you had real pride in your work, and that you tried to provide all your customers at Hit Web Design with great customer service. I am going to pose a question to you. Why do you think that you got laid off while other Account Managers kept their job?
Thank you again for the very honest post.
Behold the cunning of Dave and Jeremy Aitken! Sign up with HIT Web Design or Heritage Web Solutions! You of course have nothing to worry about as you are backed and protected by our satisfaction guarantee! However if (or rather, when) you're unsatisfied by shady and unethical business practices or lack of fulfillment, or you are a disillusioned ex-employee who has had the mists of lies finally removed and want to voice your view of what is occurring to friends, coworkers and small businesses you have no right to make your claims public.
But these "unethical" people who make postings on these public forums about Dave Aitken, Jeremy Aitken, Brad Stone, Mark Strong, Leah Young, Ryan Nelson or Tanner Wolsey are the root of all woe at HIT Web Design or Heritage Web Solutions. And the company portrays itself as not being given it's "fair shake" at business.
Hit Web Design management will do anything as long as it doesn't result in accepting responsibility for their failed management.
So the employee's that are still at HIT and are believing that HIT is doing fine are angry at everyone posting on this board. Why you ask because 1 out of 3 leads they get ahold of will not go with them because they have read these true statements.
So HIT is now having employee's write down company names of leads that won't go because of this board so they can sue and press charges against the posters. AKA another scare tactic? Spend your time helping and fixing the problems you have instead of mistakes you've made. Good Luck!
ANYONE HEARD OF FREEDOM OF SPEACH?
Jimmy.Thing,
Sounds like a horrible place to work! Does anyone have pictures of the interior of Hit Web Design? This place sounds disgusting. I knew that it was an old bowling alley, which I thought was pretty funny.
Can anyone share some more stories?
I won't be surprised, if I start printing all the complaints and reviews about Hit Web Design and end up with something fatter than a regular phone book!
I have worked for a number of successful software companies in Utah Valley, and I can tell you, this is far from one of them. IF anyone of the major players in utah valley knew about "HIT", they wouldn't stop laughing. This place has a permanent Hiring sign up because of the high turnover. I was an Account Manager, and the average account manager made ZERO commission! They had a few major AMs that sold a lot, but the bulk of them didn't. Of course, I didn't know this until after I quit my job, and started there. As an Account Manager, I assumed I would be given a list of clients, have weekly meetings, and an established relationship with each account. That was far from the truth. Instead, when i called my clients, 5 other AMs had called them that month, trying to sale. Not to mention, 8/10 clients hated HIT and couldn't wait to leave, which made it nearly impossible to sale. I frequently asked for training on the tools we were asked to use, in which I was denied. They told me they'd rather have the client on hold, while I go ask every question I have. I felt they had NO investment in me at all. The equipment was very dirty and old. My monitor was constantly changing colors, but they wouldn't replace it for me. its in an old, run down bowling ally, that literally smelled, and was never clean. it was a horrible work environment.
Their horrible relationships with their customers will keep them where they're at. There are enough small business who need a cheap website to keep HIT afloat, but with their poor customer relationships, they cannot grow too big. We got emails from Jeremy Aiken daily, saying that if we can't sale more, then they will start cutting wages.
They also had a charity, where they asked every employee to donate to. Granted, I love charity, and feel that it is a great service, but with the integrity of the company, I never felt comfortable giving to their charity.
HIT doesn't care about its employees, or its customers. I never felt like they were being honest with me. I talked to hundreds of their clients, and none of them ever said they were satisfied customers. Its an extremely small fish. They are a laughing stock to other software companies in Utah.. if they've heard of them. They are a joke.
MyThoughtsOnHIT wrote :
"As another former employee who is now out from under the thumb of the owners (Dave Aitken, his brother Jermemy Aitken) and unethical staff and managers (such as Tanner Wolsey and Greg Woods), I cannot even fathom the pain and stress Heritage Web Solutions, aka HIT Web Design has caused you. The depths to which this company has sunk are truly remarkable. It seems like it was so recent that the company grew out of a mortgage company into the giant it is today. Unfortunately the company became a virtual scam when leadership was turned over from Mark Strong to the Aitken brothers.
Currently, the environment inside the company works something like this: An employee may have a daily sales goal of $600 (primarily sold through "enhancements" aka upgrades to current customers), if you do not achieve this sales number by the end of the day you are expected to stay as late as it takes. If the team you are on does not achieve it's overall daily goal you are expected to stay late. If you are one of the few who has actually completed his daily goal you are still expected to stay late for the good of the company. If you refuse to stay late, whether because you have a family to get home to or perhaps a school class to reach or even if you just don't want to lose your evening, you are immediately added to the "### list" of your manager and I wouldn't expect to work there much longer.
Add on top of this the continuous flow of emails and messages you receive from supervisors, managers, VP's and the owners about how lucky you are even to be employed because of how bad the economy is, and the fear atmosphere is set and ready to break someone.
And who breaks most often? The customers. Due to the extreme level of oppression are on and the scrupulous nature of management, there is virtually zero net of support in place to ensure a customer is not taken care of. You agree to have a site built for a minimal fee which seems almost to good to be true when you're verbally guaranteed a custom site that will blow any other site out of the water. But then this is never followed up on, and the conclusion is the customer spends more and more on different products hoping to keep the process going until months later they realize nothing will ever look the way they wanted it to. Bad luck for the customer however when they realize that despite a "satisfaction guarantee" described to them in glowing terms at the beginning, they are now told they are ineligible for any refund due to how much "work" has been done on the site.
The overall conclusion regarding Heritage Web Solutions / HIT Web Design or whatever they may call themselves currently? This is an uncaring, unfeeling and unhappy company, designed entirely to take customers money without providing anywhere near satisfactorily level services and to verbally and mentally maim their own employees into compliance.
Please never use this derelict company for any reason, whether as a customer or as an employee. Happiness is not to be had there, and only your wallet, not your heart, will be lighter."
sooo, the emails from management are still coming down from everione like dave aitken and tanner wolsey. hit is doing fine they say and no one should be concerned for their job. i seem like the only one who sees through the ###. i listen to peeple talk around me and they actually believe what is being fed to them. whats going to happen to all these peoples familys when the chains are on the doors one morning and no one gave them the heads up?