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Hit Web Design review: bad business to work with/for! abc4 news utah will expose! 528

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12:14 pm EDT
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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!

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 20, 2009 1:04 pm EDT

i am also an ex-employee this as all true! i believe that the ABC 4 news story will air later this week.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 21, 2009 4:35 pm EDT

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!

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 21, 2009 5:51 pm EDT

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!

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 21, 2009 6:08 pm EDT

WOW! Things are worse than I thought...

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 23, 2009 12:07 am EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 23, 2009 12:41 pm EDT

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...

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 23, 2009 1:09 pm EDT

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...

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 25, 2009 12:38 am EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 25, 2009 12:46 am EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 25, 2009 6:01 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 26, 2009 10:28 am EDT

This is all very sad and I don't think that anything is going to change until we take this a step further...

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 26, 2009 7:50 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 27, 2009 1:10 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 28, 2009 2:04 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 28, 2009 7:56 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 28, 2009 11:15 pm EDT

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...

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 28, 2009 11:20 pm EDT

Actually they are failing miserably.

Plus, why would anyone take a stand for a company they have no relation to?

Thanks for trying though.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 29, 2009 12:35 am EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 29, 2009 12:50 am EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 29, 2009 12:30 pm EDT

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!

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 29, 2009 5:04 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 29, 2009 11:26 pm EDT

awesome-company,

we all know you are not this altruistic.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 30, 2009 11:38 am EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Oct 30, 2009 12:00 pm EDT

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Nov 01, 2009 5:34 pm EST

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?

Update by stopthegreed
Nov 01, 2009 5:57 pm EST

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Nov 03, 2009 10:03 pm EST

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?

Update by stopthegreed
Nov 04, 2009 1:59 pm EST

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.

Update by stopthegreed
Nov 04, 2009 3:08 pm EST

Ethicalhit,

If that is the correct link, it looks like he took it down.

What's there to be ashamed of Ryan?

Update by stopthegreed
Nov 05, 2009 11:18 pm EST

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.

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528 comments
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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:15 am EST

by ITor

Same here,
9 months after the happy happy sales person sold me on a promise of a 4 to 6 week completion date
{without any explanation mind you about project size or intricacy -sneaky huh? I didn't hear about that till a MONTH after I signed my contract, though I gave them an outlined design and explanation of what I wanted on day 1- otherwise how could they quote me a price?}
and 700 dollars plus tons of stress and anger later. I had to walk away too.
I finally figured out they were never going to give me a site that worked without issues. This, after I'd lost my momentum, integrity with my peers {who were promised a completion date numerous times that came and went}, and the desire to even have a website.

My experience with this company sucked so bad it's almost unbelievable. I have no idea how they are in business. I have my own business and if I pulled any of what they pulled on me during that 9 months I'd have my ear yelled off. And rightfully so.

It's insane. They must have magicians and [censored]e working for them somewhere. Only their magicians can't finish websites.
Be warned.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:14 am EST

by Pat Reich

Yep everything you read about any of the complaints is true. Don't trust this company. I signed them up to develop a website that was botched so badly I cancelled the project after just 5 weeks of working with them. For that I got bilked out of $1, 340. This company is run by crooks.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:14 am EST

Heritage Web Solutions : unauthorized charges
by Bobo

Heritage Web Solutions has not only *not* finished contracted work 2 months out from the stated finish date but they continue to put huge charges on our company credit card for which there was no agreement.

Otherwise called THEFT.

Credit Card company was notified and stated they "cannot stop the charging" you can only dispute them, even if they are reported as fraudulent in nature. Its a Dickensian nightmare.

I have never seen dealt with a company that so consistently flirts with fraud and outright fraud so persistently without being busted.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:13 am EST

by ex-employee

I used to work for Heritage too, and everything that was written is completely true. From the very first day of training you are told to sell anything that you can, regardless of how you have to make the sale, and this includes lying to the customer. Once they have paid, they will never get all of their money back. The part about contacting the priority accounts department is good advice. Their direct extension is 1299.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:12 am EST

by rossmangifts.net

I have had my dealings with HWS also! Not good ones at all. I had a site that was started, when I sent back feedback as to problems I was seeing with the site, I never received resposes most of the time and none of the problems were fixed. I dealt with them on this for about a year and most of the feedback i did get was that my browser was probably not up to date because they didn't see the problems. This was a load of crap! Finally, I did get to the "Owner" of the company and things got rolling a little bit and eventually, I was "let out of it" with no refund and no real appology! All I ended up doing was losing about $1, 000 and a lot of time for a site that was never completed and never able to be put active to try to recoop any of the money I had sunk into it.

HWS is a very tough company to deal with and you will have to invest a lot of your own sweat and tears to get anything done, and done right (if it is even possible to get). In my opinion, you might as well try to roll a 30 ton boulder up a 45 degree hill before you think this is going to be a company that is out to help you. All they want is your money and then leave you hanging!

Ron Ross
Rossman's Worldly Treasures
rossmangifts.net

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:11 am EST

by Karma

I want to thank the former employee of HWS for writing this. When I read this, I found myself in many of the situations that were described. I have been offered things, after much complaining, that probably were in the standard gallery. Tech support always tells me to email updates to tech support with the issue I'm having. I thought that the whole reason that I was CALLING tech support was to get the issue resolved. Then I do the waiting game and completely get forgotten about. The last time that I called them, I needed to have a product removed from my online store. I had sold this item at a bazaar that I attended. Once again, I couldn't access my store admin because their server was down. I asked the tech to give me an aprox. time that the server would be back up and he told me, "hopefully sometime later in the day or tomorrow morning". I kept thinking, what if someone buys that item and then I can't deliver it since it doesn't exist anymore. I was angry and asked to talk to a supervisor, he put me on hold for a minute, when he got back to me he then told me to refresh my screen. The product was off my site... hmmm... I thought it would take a day or so. Seriously, 1 minute later my issue was resolved. The only reason that was done so fast was because I wouldn't let up on the poor tech who took my phone call. They don't have tech support on the weekends so if an issue arises Friday, after they're closed, you have to wait until Monday to talk to anyone. I know I'm on a low priority list because I refuse to spend any more money on my cheesy website. I've asked to talk to someone in customer service. Guess what, they say they don't actually have a customer service dept. They say that the dept that you've called can handle any issues you have. To not have a customer service dept. explains a lot about why they have such awful customer service. I just got 2 free months of hosting because of complaining but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the years of stress, neglect, disappointments, extreme lack of professionalism, waiting for nothing, etc., etc. When I first purchased my site, I was told that it would be up in 4-6 wks... almost 3 months later and after doing almost all the design work myself, my site was finally up. I've never been happy with it, the designer didn't listen to me at all. Now, after reading the former employees story... I'm wondering if HWS is going under. The only reason that I haven't gone elsewhere is because of having to start all over from scratch with a new hosting co. It would take me forever to start over. I have too many products to enter and I'd have to have a new design, plus paying the initial fees again. My experiences w/ HWS has left me feeling uninspired and fed up. I could go on and on w/ the problems that I've had w/ HWS but I think the former employees comments really sums up HWS hosting practices and I would definitely go with what they said. Once again, whoever you are... Thank you for the invaluable info about you ex-employer!

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:11 am EST

Heritage Web Solutions
by loyall worker

Heritage Web Solutions is not a company i would recommend to anyone... They do not care about customer service in any way what so ever. They give you cheep pages and low initial sale and once you purchase you are obligated to either pay a bunch more for minor upgrades or have a cheep looking website. By the TOS you are obligated to keep the website, and anything you add on after that will cost you a arm and a leg.

I was a employee for Heritage a few months back and was appalled by the way that they treated their clients that i could not do it and feel good about it. Some of the many things i saw go on a regular basis and even did myself due to manager pressure to do so is:

1) One time a client wanted to ad a feature that was available... because we charged so much and were ridiculously overpriced he looked elsewhere. Found a company that did the exact same thing but for free.. He provided a HTML code for the designer to place in the website (takes a matter of seconds... no work at all included) Because he refused to pay the money and found the same thing for free else where, my manager made me charge him a $300 integration fee for pressing ctrl V on the keyboard. My manager told me strait up that he was going to have to pay 1 way or another.

2) When we initialy work with clients as a company they call them 2-4 times a week and try to "consult" with them... when in reality they are trying to up sell products. That is all they care about. If employees of Heritage try to do customer service we would get in trouble for wasting our time when we could be selling. Many issues on a daily basis go unsolved cause they are customers that will not purchase anything.

3) we have many products that are overpriced but a lot of them are plain scams. There is a gallery that we can include for free in a website it is called the standard gallery. We are told to try to sell it before we give it for free for at lease $100. there is also a rollover gallery that cost $200 what is the difference from the free gallery and the $200 gallery? You just have to change the code that is pre done from "no" to "yes". It is the exact same product. You use the same codes and same format but have to type 3 letters instead of 2.

4) By Terms of Service which most clients do not read you are obligated to host with heritage web solutions for at least 12 months... They say it is cause they do not make money off the design process that all products are at cost basically. This is what they teach employees and tell them to tell the clients. But that is not the case. A typical sale cost $120 per page $10 going to the sales person that leaves $110 . They pay the designers per page of $40 which leaves$70 a page that Heritage is profiting. they do have expenses i understand but they are far from designing websites at cost. The 12 months TOS is so you are stuck for 12 months. If you say you do not want to deal with them or found somewhere better you have to pay the first year of hosting to be released from the contract. And that is where the sucker sales come in. If you want a decent website you are forced to at least spent $500 additional... and that is for a basic site with minimal flash. Once you spent the thousands of dollars or keep the cheep looking one you have you are forced to host for 12 months. By that time most people will not be as upset and will just continue to swallow it. There are some that refuse and pay the fee and leave.. but at that time Heritage already has your money.

what to do if you find yourself in these situations

1) any client that goes to the Better Business Bureau and complains will get treated better by the CEO of the company. Only because they need to have all issues with the BBB resolved. And make sure if a offer is made or BBB contact you that you stay in contact with the BBB rep or it will be closed to no contact and resolved.

2) Make sure you talk to the right people. The problem with Heritage is even the managers will refuse to help you with any problems unless you purchase things since they are being hounded by upper management to sale just as bad as they hound the employees. You will need to specificly ask to speak with someone in the Priority Accounts Department, they are actually retention agents who are more open to helping you solve issues cause they are graded on a save ratio.

3) make sure you have EVERYTHING purchased before you agree to the terms of service. If you do not agree to the terms of service they have nothing to bind you by. Talk with your sales agent or the manager of your account and make sure all flash, galleries, databases... Everything you want is purchased. Then sign the Terms of Service. I would suggest you never sign them and work with someone else but at least make sure you have everything before

4) you can expect after you have bought everything to have less contact. You will not be contacted from your manager. Your designers all work from home all over the US and do not have schedules so they will be very hard to get a hold of. You will need to exert patience cause once you have spent all your money you go an low priority.

5) any feature or enhancement that is pitched by an agent if you negotiate will easily be brought down $100-$200. They will place you on hold saying they need manager approval but only in rare cases will they talk to a manager. Be sure to negotiate price and not settle.

I would not recommended this company to anyone. I have friends that still work there and they have informed me that the company is not doing good. They are falling behind with the cash flow. They were forced to cut all employees pay by 10%. Multiple times in the past few months my friends direct deposit was not able to be put in on time due to lack of funds. And the hosting is way over priced. You will pay $20-$60 a month for the exact same thing you could get for $9.99-$19.99 even though they will tell you it is different!

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:06 am EST

Heritage Web Solutions : Unauthorized charges
by Polly

I spoke to Sepideh Hanks at Heritage Web Solutions on Friday (1/23/09) regarding website design and hosting. She sold me on their services over the phone and emailed me the contract to sign. When I received the contract it was entirely different than what was previously stated over the phone.

I immediately called back Heritage Web Solutions and was told Sepideh had left for the evening. I told the gentleman to cancel my account effective immediately. He assured me that there would be no charges to my debit card and that the account had been closed.

Today (1/26/09) I checked my bank account online and there was $170.00 debited to my account. I have been on the phone for the last hour with 6 different people from Heritage Web Solutions and they refuse to credit back the $170.

Anyone considering doing business with this company needs to beware. They are thieves!

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:04 am EST

by Malg

I recently cancelled after only a few tweks into the development process when they bait-and-switched me from free technical support to paid-for support. They have kept the $490.00 I paid in up front fees. Stating that they changed their support policies recently, regardless of the contracts in place and representations made.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:04 am EST

by Sirenbliss

Bill allowed to creep up for 2 years without an account suspension EVER? Yeah, right! What kind of joke is that?
I purchased a website with HWS in 2005; paid for its development and made regular payments on the Hosting etc; in 2006 I was told by customer service that I no longer needed to make payments and that I now owned the website. I was never sent a bill after that, my account was NEVER in suspension, and they continued upgrading my website throughout the years per my request, so its not as though they didnt know where to find me all that time! WHAT THE *INSERT EXPLICATIVE HERE" is that all about? So they call me up one morning and tell me I'm in collections OUT OF THE BLUE! I tell them-- what collections? And then they tell me I owe them 650 dollars in 2 years back pay on hosting fees! So now, the website I have invested in for 4 years is suspended and they wont put it back becuase they have some crazy notion of a bil owed to them which was allowed to collect for over 2 years?
I have contacted the FTC AND THE BBB; I am also in touch with an attorney who would be intersested in a CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT. I am so tired of this BS.
What bugs me even more is that the cases the BBB in Provo, Utah looked into that werent negotiated were found /decided to HWS as the winner, not the consumer!
Interesting imbalance there-- wont expect assistance from them after reading the report, despite that fact that there are over
440 complaints filed against this company to the BBB. When does the BBB get a hint over there?

_____________________________________________________________________________________

HIT WEB DESIGN / HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS / HERITAGE WEB DESIGN HAS NOW 478 COMPLAINTS WITH BBB
DAVE, RYAN ... comments ?

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 9:01 am EST

by helix

There are a lot of legitimate complaints. I've dealt with heritage web, lost money, got a ### website and a lot of worry, ended up walking away in the end out of frustration. Working people have been screwed by your company. Do you get it? You don't care do you? All you guys really care about are yourselves huh? That's sad.

And man... do you guys stoop low. Low.

You missed the day in Kindergarten when they were teaching morals. Hope that doesn't bite you in the ###, though you prolly need it to to wise up. Learn fool.

Your company- which if I understand correctly works like other companies (or should, right?) an exchange of product for money-)
is ###ed up and isn't living up to the basic principle.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 8:59 am EST

Heritage Web Solutions
by The Que

Heritage Web Solutions have got to be the most inefficient company I have ever dealt with. I submitted a request for changes on my site which after a month is still not done. This is the second time I have submitted changes and waited in excess of a month for results. They continually promise return calls that of course do not materialize. If business moved at the pace of this company, we would all be in big trouble! I am very sorry I picked this company to do my design and hosting. PLEASE stay away from them.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 8:58 am EST

by Humberto Effio

never got my refund they charge 250.00 for a total of 500 web page that never made, they charge extra 100 for logos, extra for noting. I toll them my refund they toll me only 50 pct off 250.00 that they charge ask why they don't ask before not refunds when starting conversations. They never deliver a service and was willing to send more money but I was worried by salesman from they own company, he was send email offering other services from other companies besides heritage web solutions.

Never that company was doing service only collecting money from many people like me, hope they refund the money to all.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 27, 2009 8:56 am EST

Heritage Web Solutions
by Lily

Countless business owners caught up in shady tactics of heritage web solutions!

For the countless people like myself who has been offered a valued package deal by heritage web solutions and was never delivered must less in 4-6 weeks do yourselves a favor and carefully read their tos statement. This is the only defense that heritage will offer your at the end after they have completely sucked you dry is look at our tos statement, if we did some work for you... Oh well web site completed or not, like it or not, you are not entitled to a refund.

You have your vision of a business, you pursue that vision. You apply for the necessary paperwork, license, permit etc so you feel all the hard work has been done on your behalf. You have your suppliers/distributors lined up. You reaching the home stretch and did all the research their is to be done. You google a web designer and you are bombarded with heritage web solutions at least in the first page even into the second. You research heritage web solutions, you see their advertisement of #1 ranking in the country/nation (whatever) you look at their testimonials and you believe that they must be good. You researched them on the bbb and you find that they have a satisfactory record. You call and they promised you a up and running web site with a turn around time of 4-6 weeks. You wish you could have it sooner but you know the type of professionalism your looking for you say to yourself maybe this is a reasonable time for excellent quality. You pay your monies down and they tell you when the second half will be taken out and then state, oh, in order for us to build your web you must host with us for one year.

You submit your content as they instructed you. And then you wait, and email, and phone, and wait, and email and phone... Then a panic overwhelms you, is this company legitimate? You do some more research and you found a site called /link removed/ or the complaint board that you are now reading. What the hell is going on you say, why didn't i see this before?! You type in heritage web solutions and your mouth begins to drop. Oh my god! This can not be happening to me. Please god this can't be real!

For all you victims that check back here to see if their are any new victims, don't forget about the upcoming potential victims of heritage web solutions. Please, please, use whatever energy you have left to report your story to [redacted].com, this complaint board, ic3.gov (internet crime complaint), utah district attorney, local law enforcement in provo, utah, dr. Phil (stopping this company publicly may be more successful in reaching a larger audience), research who their local news people are and usually they will have an investigative department that will take complaints of abusive companies/services in their community.

This company must be held accountable for what they have done and continue to do. We are now victims and we should not walk away and just let this company tactics to continue. Each of us must, must do our part to bring this company to a complete stop. This is not the way we do business in america. We are a land of opportunity. And my opportunity was taken away from me. Two years of planning and goals. All i wanted was the best that web design had to offer at an affordable price. Victim, after victim after victim. This company spend a lot of our non refunded money and monies that they continue to take from existing customers to keep the complaint board and /link removed/ from showing consumers who google in web design. And that is exactly why some of us victims were not able to find these complaints initially.

They often say that companies like walmart and other companies have problems and complaints but the difference is between a company that rectifies the situation to please the customer and a company that just takes money from the customer and you can't make a u-turn after the monies are in their hands.

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Krouper Melinkoff
Royal Oak, US
Nov 26, 2009 7:00 pm EST

It sounds like HIT has hired slumdogs from India. Everytime a well run American tech company gets accused of bad customer service, it is always a fraud perpetrated by someone that has something to do with bringing workers from India or outsourcing something to one of their criminal body shops.

Simple solution: stop outsourcing work to India or using Indian H-1B's and everything will be fine.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 20, 2009 9:17 pm EST

HIT Web Design
Posted: 2009-11-05 by B Daniel

Paid services not provided/charged credit card without authorization

This company should not be in business. It overcharges, under delivers, and does not honor its contractual services. The development of my website was slow and tedius with very little assistance on their part. It took forever to get someone to assist me. Then, when it was time for renewal, they automatically charged my credit card without my authorization. When I protested this charge, they suspended my account and took my website off line immediately. This was done during the year's hosting I had bought and paid for. When I called to resolve this matter, I was told there is nothing they could do for me. I asked to speak with their CEO and was told they could not transfer my call. They said I would need to send him an e-mail.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 20, 2009 9:15 pm EST

they couldn't do the job what i was told that they would do for the price i was quoted - by Sam

Company information:
Hitwebdesign
California
United States
hitwebdesign.com

first i was quoted $600 for web design for 6pages plus web banner and database programming, i was really happy that they would do all that for $600 and plus with the recognized company. about 3-4 later they gave me different quote which was $650, i was still okay with it. as soon they started working on the web site they asked me another $325 for rollover options and hidden div, which i thought they would create a beautiful web site, and what ever i takes to do so. still couldn't do the web right even after $350. person (Nitti) who was assigned to do the web banner didn't know how to create web banner. she created a slide show and said this all she could do. and she told me that she doesn't tools to do more created job. then i end up buying the software $129 and created my own web banner so they could put it on. then they screwed up my database programming, instead of creating what ask for they just somply put calender on the web site for no reason and told me that work is done. not only that they charged me for 6pages and end up created 5pages web site. they over charge my account by $200 and took more then a month to refund. and still charging my account.

i tried to talk to Jeff harmon, Jeff Hill who suppose to resolve issue but end up not doing anything at all.

very hard to get hold of them, it always goes to voice mail and get hear back from them till atleast leave 3-4 msgs.
so fed up with the service.

Sam

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 20, 2009 9:14 pm EST

Heritage Web Solutions, Crooks and they know it (they even admit it) Provo Utah

Heritage Web Solutions... I am amazed at the fact that every one of these reports I read are exactly right on to what has happend to me.

It started with salesperson that had alot of energy and was very knowledgeable, it all sounded good.

It took all of one phone to realize that I made a mistake.

They promised it would be so easy and my "account manager" would help me through any problem I had. What a joke! After waiting for minimum of 15 minutes for technical support and sometimes up 40 minutes I realized that this company had no interest in helping me what-so-ever. No hope with the account manager, she would take at least three days and sometimes up to 7-10 days to call back.

HERES WHERE IT GETS GOOD

After realizing that this wasn't what I wanted, I FINALLY got in touch with my account manager and canceled my account. I then found out in section 55 of page 3 in the second chapter of the third article on page 156 of the terms of service agreement, it stated that they would keep 50% of the 800.00. Yep it would cost 400.00 to cancel. No full disclosure there!

Speaking with Josh Wahl (the accounting supervisor I guess) they maintained that they would stand by this bullsh** terms of service agreement even though they HAVE NOT PROVIDED ANY SERVICE TO ME. No compromise, just contact the Better Buisness Bureau!

Even after clearly stating that I was unhappy and felt like I was being screwed the only thing I could get is "Heritage Web Solutions stands by it's terms of service".

Just as a side note... This must happen alot as in my conversation with Josh Wahl everything was scripted, he knew exactly what to say to everything I would say and would repeat the same thing over and over like a robot. These guys are crooked and they know it to the effect that they have created a script for a countermeasure. Mr Wahl also stated that he was in court "just last week" for a lawsuit filed be a shafted customer.

Heritage Web Solutions does not have your interest in mind and will take advantage of you and your money at any chance they can

Shafted Customer
new iberia, Louisiana
U.S.A.

as Reported on /link removed/

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 20, 2009 9:12 pm EST

I am an ex-employee of the company and thus know how they operate and definately don't operate my business in the way they do..

The design they gave you, was probably done in about 15-20 minutes very simple design... then of course they're using frames on some of the pages which isnt very SEO compliant as robots (search engine spiders) don't read frames code. So good luck on the search engines I see that you currently have a page rank of 0 with google which means they see your website as a good for nothing website, or a website that is unimportant... and they force you to have a link to their website but they can't even recriprocate that with a link to yours on their portfolio? Yeah you're listed on google but only if someone searches specifically for your domain which isnt how people are going to find you.

Every page is in .html format, and so have you used their online 'wysiwyg' editor yet? Try it, I cant count the times that I had to manually go into a clients website for the good guys in Technical Support and remove unwanted characters because of the online editor when I Was working with the company.

HWSINET says that they are ranked #1 of utah's hosting companies and recently ranked #3 by inc, 500. Its 2008 Heritage! you were ranked #3 by INC, 500 FEBRUARY 20TH 2007! Thats over a year..

2006 Revenue $8.2 million of illgotten funds...

#1 of utahs hosting companies? then how come as of 06-01-2008 Goleman Networks, Inc. (not my company which does do hosting btw) is number one? I thought that was your spot?

I never understand why people use Heritage as their website provider instead of a different company, such as my own, that goes over the top for their clients. There are PLENTY of other companies out there that are aimed at giving you a very expensive website that still looks GREAT on your pocket book.

Take my company for example, as i can speak on behalf of my company.

We get a new client, whether or not we're hosting them or going to be hosting them. We do the design, with a minimum of 2 designs for them to choose from or have tweaked in any way they want. Once we have an approved design, it goes to our specialized programming team. which they dont mess with HTML as a base for websites -- they use a dynamic language and create a database driven website for our clients. COMPLETE WITH A CUSTOM ADMINISTRATION PANEL. this means no frills, or glamour, only the things you need to effectively run your website.

So whats the difference? The people employed with Heritage Web Solutions think of it as a job something they have to do day in and day out to get by making 10 bucks an hour. Only people getting rich when involved with Heritage Web Solutions, is the 3 owners which are all brothers...

My company, we do it not to get 'rich' but to help the consumer get a REAL website for cheaper... So you do the math..

a basic website from heritage in HTML: $800.00
a basic website from heritage in PHP/MYSQL (dynamic language with database): $5000.00

an extravagent website from my company in HTML: we wont do it
an extravagent website from my company in PHP/MYSQL: $750.00

See the difference in pricing there? You can find deals like that all over the place not just my company other companies do the same thing. I mean hell you could go on a freelance site and hire someone from india to do a site better than what HWSINET can do.

So you still happy with the price you paid with the quality of work you got? All the headaches you have over yourr website, probably the lack of TARGETED hits to your website.

In my oppinion, Heritage needs to seriously rethink being in business any longer. Perhaps they should take that building of theres and turn it back into a bowling alley -- They'll have less complaints, 'cause no one complains their bowling shoes are the wrong color.

signed, an ex-employee with a birds eye view of operations within heritage.

As Reported by Justin B on /link removed/

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 20, 2009 9:09 pm EST

Censorship/Held-up Store dev/opening
by chalkboardbandit
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
United States

Paid for store developement, paid in full, being held up due to censoring by designer. Robbers @ store: store design is "Held-up" to date and art is as well. From the beginning, they have known the images in question:they viewed, handled and manipulated images months ago, only now, they are keeping me from opening up my store and not communicating with the customer. How long are the people of America going to let these freaks solicite service, take money for service, then in the end screw & avoid responsibilities to the consumer?Aparently, consumer protection of Utah is in their pocket. We will see what FCC is willing to do. The complaints have been going on for years. Maybe the Powers that be should be responcible since they continue to let them practice stealing from unaware consummers. No matter what excuse they make, hit or governing entities, are guilty, like it or not.This kind of crap is exactly why I draw satire.Chalkboardbandit

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Chalkboardbandit
Oklahoma City, US
Nov 20, 2009 8:21 pm EST

THINK THAT'S BAD?:TRY BEING CENSORED AND HELD-UP AND WEAPON IS YOUR OWN ART!
ethics must be there in order to challenge them. Have these guys been so bad for so long that the AG of Utah forwards complaint to the Dept. Consumer Protection then they get a payoff and "YOU GET LOST IN Space". See, I am use to being screwed with no viable resource untill now. The wonderful world of the internet. Supreme Court Rules are on our side. I have been forced into FCC playgrounds-don't think for a moment that I WON'T draw a $%^*ing piece of ART concerning Hit and the flunkies I'm Fixin" to HIT_-UP.Chalkboardbandit.

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mravikiran
, IN
Nov 20, 2009 4:11 am EST

When any company does not have humane policies, fair process and effective mechanism to address employee grievances appropriately, this is exactly the out come. Most employees quit, some do stay back out of some or the helplessness, but all of them bad-mouth the company and abuse the managers in anonymity.

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ethicalhit
Provo, US
Nov 19, 2009 11:50 am EST

Things have gotten very quiet on here. Hopefully Hit Web Design has been fixing the issues that have been laid out here! If they are then two thumbs up! If not then I hope those employees and customers stay strong!

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Your Not Alone
, US
Nov 19, 2009 3:13 am EST

Nobody is wanting them to be shut down... Just for things to change and go back to the company they once were...
Nobody at least employees or former employees want to see that happen! Thats not the intention here!

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Consumer Crusader
Chicago, US
Nov 19, 2009 1:21 am EST

As a web designer in the industry I've come to the rescue of quite a few clients who have been duped by similar companies. It sounds like these people are still preying off of the collective ignorance behind the "mystery of the interwebs" and generally being a bunch of greedy ### much like shady auto mechanics do. Anything to do with computers still has the air of mystery surrounding it where unsuspecting people get taken for a ride, but I hope that changes someday.

My question to everyone here that has issues with it is... Why hasn't anyone built a website and promoted it in such a way that it comes up like a rash and drives business away from the company? If enough of you got together and pooled some resources, got the facts together and maybe even spawned a class-action lawsuit, you could drive these people out of business quickly.

Then keep chasing the owners around and if they rename the company, bring that one down too... This can be done LEGALLY without being considered defamation and can be done in such a fashion where it emulates sites like this, but dedicated to shutting them down and driving the owners into the street. Personally when owners and managers of a company become overly greedy, take people for a ride and sit back and laugh at how much they've duped people, they deserve to have their children's children never see college funds...

The recession in this country shouldn't make people feel like their back is against the wall... It should empower them to FINALLY grow some balls and band together to change the world. It is people with this mentality that need to be reminded that they are not all powerful and untouchable. It is people like this that make up the personality types and greed found within companies like Enron. The more we let them get away with this when they're lowly owners of a shady web design firm, the more we allow them to continue giving this industry a bad name, but also allowing more people like them in other industries the luxury of thinking they can get away with anything they want.

Seriously... I do love this site, the [redacted] and such, but everyone can be Xena the Internet Warrior Princess and hide behind a monitor with silicon balls of steel, but I think more people should just demand justice and do it with PROPER CHANNELS and EVIDENCE, but don't stop with courts... Sure you might win a court battle, but how does this help everyone else? How does this make them not do this to ten other people to make up the loss?

Make an example of them. Shut them down. Bring them down. Make them pay.

Hopefully even their own family won't trust them anymore and MAYBE the other business owners around the country will think twice.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:52 pm EST

@ growupplease,

Fake complaints huh ?

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:50 pm EST

by D_A in Spanish Fork, Utah

I worked for them for a while and am prone to believe nearly every horror story about them. Customers would consistently call in with complaints (some were outrageous, but many were legitimate). Management claimed they needed more qualified people to hire but devoted customer service representatives to sales-only positions at the same time they were outsourcing some of the inbound calls and emails. This only exacerbated the situation, as customers would routinely hang up on the outsourced support and call until they reached a native English speaker. I hear they actually laid off around 45 employees on Halloween as a result of outsourcing and general downsizing.

The owners of the company clearly enjoyed the spotlight from being in the Inc 500 last year and are doing everything they can to claw their way up higher on the list by increasing revenues. This attitude permeated every decision they came up with and made customer service a genuine nightmare for those of us actually answering the phones.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:48 pm EST

by programmer in Sebastopol, California

Unfortunately many of the negative comments are true.

I have just done this project, where I was supposed to create a combination of BuzzDash, MySpace, and U-Tube in four to five days. So, the customer thought. And, what's more they had sold him on it as written from scratch by one programmer for $4K.

I actually asked the customer if he meant 45 days. But, I told him that I was going to use a package like Drupal or Dolphin, because from scratch would be impossible. And, most programmers would agree. But, the PM told me to use whatever works. And, I did. So, the customer then complained that it was not from scratch. So, now they are not going to pay at a time, when I am my most broke ever. So, after working from morning to late night for nearly a month, I might have to get public service.

Then, they told the customer that just the DB phase of the project had been completed and that his site would now be built from scratch on top of what had been done. And, they moved the task to other programmers. But, I had put in Dolphin and created a new Dolphin module to get the customer his features. So, they just simply lied to everyone about their process and shifted the blame to me.

But, now that they have the code in their nasty hands, they came up with some excuse to kick me off their team and not pay.

And, there is more to tell, but space is limited.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:39 pm EST

by gkdiva6 in North Wales, Pennsylvania

I recently tried to get an account an heritage and they charge my account the initial $350. I tried to reach my account manager and she did not call me back which meant I lost 3 days into this tight timeline that Heritage has. Their phone lines were messed up and I could not get in contact with anyone, and because of this I got nervous believing that if I can't get in touch with them now what is going to happen when I have an ccount with them. I have had no work done and wanted to cancel my account and since my total charge to them was going to be $700 they said I can not get my $350 back, their terms of service say they will retain 50%. and to them it's 50% of 700 and not 50% of what I put down, isn't this unfair?

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:37 pm EST

By Ex-Employee of HWS in Provo, Utah

On average, the clients I worked with were paying $50/month.

It's true, they get more service--most of if will never be used, or it is faulty--but they get service. You can get most of this "service" for free, and better quality, from companies like Google. If you hired someone to make your site the right way, and then hosted with GoDaddy, you'd be better off. The web-editor is a complete joke. More time was spent fixing problems that resulted from the faulty editor than was saved.

Who's making these sales investigations? Perhaps the sales people themselves? I sat not too far from the Sales Team, and you could often hear them promising deadlines, when it was against company policy to do so. At one point, a Sales Person was fired and re-hired at least 3 times, because he broke several company policies, but they wanted his good sales numbers.

The reason designers have to make sales is that customers buy something, are NOT educated on what they are buying, and end up having to pay 2 or 3 times as much for what they really wanted in the first place. Should not companies educate their customers as well as sell them a product? The reason 99% of clients go to a web design company is because they don't know how to make websites, so you can't expect them to know exactly what to ask for.

Another thing. The sites Heritage makes are extremely insecure. 90% of forms are vulnerable to simple MYSQL Injections or Cross-Site Scripting. The fact that they use Zen Cart is a tragedy, because it is infamous for security risks. Many of the databases don't even have encrypted passwords, meaning that if a hacker DOES gain access to a database--perhaps through one of the passwords that only involve the customer's first initial and last name--then they have access to every users' password.

SOURCE : http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/Heritage-Web-Solutions/Heritage-Web-Solutions-News-Gossip/t12677
___________________________________________

RYAN, IS IT TRUE THAT YOUR WEBSITES ARE NOT SECURED PER THE ABOVE EX-EMPLOYEE ?

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:34 pm EST

By Eeks in Draper, Utah

Any company that does true design and true development for websites puts Heritage to shame.

I never once, as a PHP Dev at Heritage, was told to make sure the site was secure. Most developers at Heritage never spent a second on securing their systems. I'm fairly sure I could easily do sql injections on any of the sites "custom" built by Heritage.

I once was given a task to create a "THIS SITE IS SECURE" image and place it on a site, WHICH WAS NOT SECURE NOR ENCRYPTED. The client paid $50 to have this added on their site, so of course we had to do it.

Putting people on a contract for a website that they DON'T OWN (read their contract with you) isn't good business.

Heritage needs to slow down. Get some real managers. Kill half their totally ineffective managers and other employees.

Maybe move out of a bowling alley too.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:27 pm EST

by Another Ex Employee in Salt Lake City, Utah

I would not recommend anyone to work for Heritage. They have terrible management, along with a horrible pay structure. They are caught lying to customers and employees alike. With over a hundred FULL TIME employee's, it took them years to actually get something called "benefits". Even now their benefits are sub-par in comparison to places such as, a fastfood restaurant. Their management (except for ) know nothing about the internet and also know very little about running a business. I don't understand why this company is this big, basically they were in the right place at the right time. Their pay is horrible, but all their employee's are college students, so they don't say a thing about it. Their management routinely (every 2 weeks or so) changes their policies. They just can't get it right.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:20 pm EST

by terry

Here are my expreiences with Heritage Web Solutions. Feb 2nd Heritage takes my deposit. Nothing done to build my website. I call account manager and leave 4 messages and 3 emails before contact is made. Nothing has been done with my website. Feb 20th called to check on my website, no returned calls. Feb 28th, Heritage debits my account for full price of product, I have nothing. March 1, my account manager is changed, promisses to get things moving, I say great this thing is time sensitive. 4 days, 3 phones calls and 2 email later I find out new account manager is no longer with Heritage(and yes, no retured calls). I'm tranfered to the "Head account manager" and am told to leave message. No returned phone call. Yesterday, I call credit card company to begin a paper trail. Today, mortified to see all of the complaints against Heritage Web Solutions, I thought it was just me. I'll call again, leave emails, its what I do. I'll give them a few more days, however I'm talking to another company to build my website.

___________________________________________________

RYAN, SURE THESE ARE ALL MADE UP COMPLAINTS...RIGHT?

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:18 pm EST

by Nikki

We had the same problem with Heritage. Bad follow up, terrible writing, little to no contact with designers, writers or anyone outside of their sales department.

We asked for a refund of the work NOT even started and they said they can only give 50% because its in their terms of service.

Stay far far away from this group.

We are calling our lawyer to get involved with these people.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:17 pm EST

by John L

The design phase went fairly smooth. However, the updates department was terrible and slow. I had to hire an outside designer to make changes. Then their email server had issues and I wasn't getting mail for days. I tried to get a refund for the "year in advance" hosting payment. I was denied a refund. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY! I'm contacting the BBB to file a report.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:16 pm EST

by Stacy

I have had it with this company. I ordered a website from them over a year ago. Every time I asked them to complete it they simply told me that I approved the website already when in reality I was told by the designer that I had to approve the design of the site in order for them to complete the website. This has turned out to be a total nightmare. They are unwilling to offer me a refund even though it has been over a year and my website is still not complete so that is $1500 down the drain. Please save your money. These people will take your money and leave you hanging.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:10 pm EST

Reviewer: Mark P at http://www.web-design-review.com/designers/heritage-webdesign-reviews/2009/06/01/review-8165.html

About Hit Web Design / Heritage Web Solutions Reviews

Pros:

They're anxious to sign you up.

Cons:

They convince you to sign up, though the $199 advertised price goes out the window and never sees the light of day again. They constantly try to sign you up for more services even though they've yet to perfect your initial service, the web design.
Other Thoughts:

I'm beyond through with doing business with this company. I initially spoke with Matthew Kenison April 24 or so. I signed up, paid $750 for a custom web site that would allow me to add audio and video which would play on my site. No more than 2 days later, that amount changed to needing an additional $250 because of the flash intro design I wanted. I looked over my paperwork and it did state flash 'banner, ' not intro, so i made arrangements and paid for the intro.

Ok, so we start the process and i'm assigned an acct manager, Sara Nilson. I'm telling u, right out the gate, I'm picturing their work environment as a big telemarketing center where the reps hit a bell when they make a sell. Anyways I get my acct manager and we play phone tag a few times, but it's no issue. Throughout the entire process, even before it starts, I reiterated to both Matthew Kenison and Sara Nilson that I have to have accessibility to my site because I'm an indie film maker and would update my site quite frequently. So I can't afford the luxury of sending my audio and videos to HWD to upload. In the end, after my "custom" site was completed, I still can not add video and audio to my site. To do this, per Austin in Tech Support, I'll need to spend an additional $1200 to add a juke box for the mp3' and some other contraption for the videos. I'M LIVID. I had been communicating my needs well before the design stage took place.

When I began complaining, this is where communication ceased. My acct manager Sara would not return emails or phone calls. Matthew Kenison who signed me up would no longer take calls or answer emails. When you call customer service, you always get someone who's going to take care of it, but ask for a Supervisor, and that person is ALWAYS in a meeting and can't come to the phone. My designer finished my site May 13th. As of May 22nd, my site looked completely the same. The flash intro I paid additional monies to had yet to be completed. At this time I also found out that I can either add LINKS TO MY footage, which will take my visitors away from my website, OR I can embed video. Yes EMBED VIDEO like you can on myspace and facebook, only with them IT'S FREE OF CHARGE TO HAVE A PAGE ON THEIR SITE. Why would I have spent over $700 for a blah web site with embedded videos?

When I contact Heritage/Hit web design for a refund, JoshW (Yes, he's the Josh Wallace you will read about from other complaints when u search the web) tells me all accounting's offering is $83.33 (yes, out of the $700+) out of what I spent for a site that was still incomplete and not functioning the way I was told it would. RUN RUN RUN RUN. This company should not be allowed to conduct business. I contacted the better business bureau and they had well over 400 complaints, but the trick to their madness is they resolve the complaints, so in essence, it appears they're doing everything right. What the BBB should be investigating is why these complaints are coming up in the first place, not simply as complaints resolved so it's no harm, no foul.

The time and energy it takes from you to deal with this on a daily basis is so draining. And I thought all I signed up for was a custom website. Nightmare. Do not use this company. My first red flag should have been I'm in GA and they're in UT. You can[t conduct business this way. You have no control as the consumer because it's not like you can make an apppointment and meet with the design team face to face. I'm regretting ever coming across this website. I simply want a full refund for services not rendered and I'm battling in a tug of war for that.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 9:05 pm EST

from http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=498791277&blogId=513312247

I have started contacting lawmakers in an effort to change the law regarding the timeframe for disputing credit card transactions when dealing with service oriented purchases. Several months ago, I contacted Heritage Web Solutions to develop a website for my business. This company has dragged this out for a ridiculous amount of time, and still has not provided a viable website. I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, claimed they have tried to resolve the problem, then stopped responding. I have recently been doing some research. Heritage Web Solutions has apparently racked up 4909 complaints in 3 years filed with the Better Business Bureau according to an article I read. The company's website actually mentions the Better Business Bureau, but makes the fact that there have been complaints filed as just a few malcontents who are never satisfied.

The kind of crap I have experienced with them includes ridiculous delays (several months), billing for hosting even though they have yet to provide a viable site. I was given incorrect information early on by the first account manager assigned to me. The explanation for that was that he had not been trained for e-commerce accounts. This was probably meant as an excuse, but turns out to be an admission of inappropriate staffing. When 1 member of the "product entry team" goes on vacation for 2 weeks, noone is assigned to fill in. I thought there was a team, apparently not. When someone in the prodcut entry team does actually show up to do some work, that work involves covering up and denying the programming issues that I report. There were issues with how many items were displayed. Some items had extra images that did not belong, others were listed twice, and still more items had the product codes listed as the manufacturers, not just in displaying the item, but also in a search by manufacturer function. After I explained that I was concerned about the programming issues continuing to be a problem after the site goes online, the product entry person responded by telling me that she was unaware of any programming issues. She had me reporting these problems just so she could adjust the appearance instead of getting the programming department to fix the problems. This would mean that every time I loaded more items, I would have the same display issues. My site would never be taken seriously or sell anything with such obvious problems. I reported this to her supervisor who kept asking me to provide links to the items that had those issues, even after I had explained multiple times that his subordinate had covered up the problems.

I have been contacting other companies trying to get a viable website, and more than half of the other companies are quite accustomed to getting people fed up with Heritage Web Solutions. It has even been rumored that Heritage Web Solutions changed its name to HIT because of the complaints, just to try to distance themselves from the reputation of so many complaints. That is not something a legitimate company needs to do to just because of a few malcontents that are never satisfied. I am now trying to get the law changed for the timeframe for credit card disputes. I urge anyone who reads this to do the same even if you have not been victimized by this company. Companies that operate like this simply drag things out beyond the current timeframe so they can fail to provide the service and reject the dispute.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 8:54 pm EST

living.powerfully Says:

I had a terrible experience with Heritage Web Solutions. Their shoddy work cost me $250.00.

1. I was told if I hired their "professional writers" I would get college term paper level research on my industry. What I got was a one page sales letter I could have knocked out in 20 minutes.

2. Customer service was terrible. I was assigned several account reps and at least two artists.

The result was a terrible website with poor, no make that terrible content. I complained and gave them multiple opportunities to correct and give me what they promised. After I had finally had it with the waiting and poor service, I canceled the service and received a refund of only $50. I paid for a 3 page website, one month of hosting and the writing. TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE! Don’t waste your money! Find a web developer that specializes in your niche, market or industry.

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sickofhit
, US
Nov 17, 2009 8:49 pm EST

IF YOU ARE RIPPED OFF BY HIT WEB DESIGN COMPLAINT TO UTAH AG AT

http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/contact_us.html

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