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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.
To any customer who might be reading this thread, here is a petition for you to sign
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/hitwebdesign/index.html
If you all work together no other person will have to experience what you experience when you contracted Hit Web Design.
I want a picture of ethicalhit signed, framed and hanging on my wall!
I am going to echo what "how are they still in biz" is saying!
That was the perfect analogy. If a baseball team or soccer team, or football team doesn't perform it is the Coach who get's the axe not the entire team! Hit Web Design seems to believe that it is everyone's fault but the managers!
Every business organization the corporate culture is set by upper management which is then echoed down through the ranks. So the lack of customer fulfillment, the complete lack of customer service, all the complaints online, to the BBB, and this thread are a DIRECT RESULT of poor management.
I am sure that all the people who have left hit web design are not failures. If they were failures to begin with then why did Hit Web Design hire them in the first place? That would then be another example of failed management. If the employees are not properly trained, another example of failed management. If the employees are not following through with their obligations to your customers it is another example of failed management!
Management at Heritage Web Solutions wants to point their fingers at anyone but themselves. Even when they read this post I am sure they are going to blame this "shifty ethicalhit" when they have had every opportunity to communicate with me, and resolve the issues that I have laid out here... another examples of failed management.
per http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/web-designers/heritage-internet-technologies-in-provo-ut-10011699,
BBB processed a total of 456 complaints about Heritage Internet Technologies ( hit web design ) / hws in the last 36 months, our standard reporting period. Of the total of 456 complaints closed in 36 months, 180 were closed in the last year.
These complaints concerned :
6 regarding Advertising Issues
1 - Advertised terms not honored
1 - Advertisement misrepresented a product
2 - Advertisement misrepresented a service
2 - None of the Above - Advertising Complaint Issue
43 regarding Billing or Collection Issues
5 - Failure to correct billing errors
3 - Failure to substantiate charges
1 - Improper collection practices
11 - None of the Above - Credit, Billing or Collection Complaint Issue
4 - Unauthorized bank debits
19 - Unauthorized credit card charges
57 regarding Contract Issues
42 - Failure to honor a contract or agreement
2 - Invalid or false contract
10 - None of the Above - Contract Complaint Issue
2 - Unauthorized changes to the contract or agreement
1 - Work performed outside the terms of the contract or agreement
61 regarding Customer Service Issues
31 - Failure to provide promised assistance or support for products or services
12 - Failure to respond to phone calls or written requests for assistance or support
3 - Inappropriate behavior by customer service personnel
15 - None of the Above - Customer Service Complaint Issue
28 regarding Delivery Issues
2 - Late delivery of products
2 - Late delivery of services
8 - Non-delivery of products
13 - Non-delivery of services
3 - None of the Above - Delivery Complaint Issue
4 regarding Guarantee or Warranty Issues
2 - Failure to honor service under the terms of warranties
1 - Failure to provide promised written warranty or guarantee
1 - None of the Above - Guarantee or Warranty Complaint Issue
24 regarding Product Issues
4 - Defective, damaged, or incorrect product received
20 - None of the Above - Product Quality Complaint Issue
93 regarding Refund or Exchange Issues
23 - Failure to honor promised refunds, exchanges, or credit
19 - Failure to honor refund, exchange or credit policies
51 - None of the Above - Refund or Exchange Complaint Issue
44 regarding Sales Practice Issues
11 - None of the Above - Sales Complaint Issue
1 - Sales presentation did not disclose key conditions of the offer
5 - Sales presentation misrepresented the product
11 - Sales presentation misrepresented the service
1 - Sales presentation not consistent with advertisement
3 - Sales presentation not consistent with the written agreement
9 - Sales presentation used dishonest sales practices
3 - Sales presentation used high pressure methods
96 regarding Service Issues
Since, The above data concerns complaints processed by BBB over the last 36 months ONLY, since Heritage Internet Technologies ( hit web design ) / hws ( hitwebdesign.com) / heritagewebdesign.com, the other 500+ complaints are not publicly displayed by BBB anymore.
ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT NOT ALL CLIENTS COMPLAINTS ( RESEARCH SHOWS PERHAPS JUST 9/10 DO), AS ITS MORE WASTE OF THEIR TIME - THESE CUSTOMERS JUST TAKE THEIR BUSINESS ELSEWHERE !
SHAME ON YOU DAVE - STOP CHEATING POOR CUSTOMERS
I agree with ethicalhit -
Jeremy may be a major factor in the bad management - but bad management tends to fail at picking good management. Dave is taking a lot of crap here, but I'm sure if you're honest with yourself idontcryanymore, that you'll be the first to admit Dave Aitken is responsible. When a professional sports team goes down hill, it's the manager/coach that's fired - not all the players. The Aitkens are trying to say it's ok to fire everyone because it can't possibly be what they're doing! If it were the players and not the coaches - so to speak, then shouldn't the company be doing better by now? I mean since they've fired, laid off, or forced out everyone else?
The management is still there! That's why Hit Web Design / Heritage Web Solutions continues to fail. If the direction never changes, the end result will never be altered!
Well "Idontcryanymore"
Wasn't Dave Aiken recently made CEO? Before that wasn't it under the direction of Brad Stone? All the information that I have been able to gather really paints a picture that Hit Web Design / Heritage Web Solutions really began a deep quality, fulfillment decline once Dave Aiken took the reigns. Can anyone else speak for or against this?
Speaking from being there on the front lines everyday..for YEARS ...Dave has taken alot of the fall and bad mouthing but I feel the company went to ### when Dave let JEREMY take over...anyone agree..
After doing some research found this great article... How wonderful to think that Dave Aiken was once just a call center manager, and now he is blindly leading the company as CEO. I know I would want someone with no formal training or education leading my company!
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_9_33/ai_n15890763/
" WHAT: A marketing company that designs and hosts affordable, professional-looking websites for small businesses
WHO: David Aitken, Brad Stone, Mark Strong and Leah Young of Heritage Web Solutions
WHERE: Provo, Utah
WHEN: Started in 2001
HOW MUCH: $1, 000
"Give me $1, 000, and I'll give you results." Those were the words David Aitken used to convince the owners of The Heritage Group to invest in his idea. Aitken, 30, was a call-center manager for the Utah company, which specialized in residential mortgage refinancing. Aitken knew the refinancing boom they were riding would eventually end, so he approached owners Brad Stone, 52; Mark Strong, 58; and Leah Young, 36, with a new idea: Help small-business owners develop websites to rival those of larger companies. So little capital was necessary to get started, says Strong, that investing in it was a "no-brainer."
Armed with only $1, 000, Aitken hired a part-time telemarketer for $8 an hour to call business owners on a list he purchased for $250. Aitken made follow-up sales calls in his off hours. Once he started selling the $199 websites, Aitken brought on his brother Jeremy and friend Eddie Dockery to help build them. All three worked without compensation for several months, with the promise that if Heritage Web Solutions became successful, they would be guaranteed spots in the new company.
Heritage Web Solutions now has 65 employees, with Jeremy and Dockery still onboard. The Heritage Group has since ceased operations to focus on Heritage Web Solutions. The new company has grossed $1.3 million in sales to date--a figure it's on track to double by year's end.'
Great point Someone Who Knows! Why do they cherry pick? Is it because they have no answer? Is it because they know what they are doing is wrong? Hit Web Design needs to explain and address these issues, and admit fault where there is fault!
Just to clarify, I think 6 months after the complaint cycle is started - they take few months to even get a something going. Clients only realize they have been screwed after a while, so I would say the nightmare would run over a year sometimes.
Sadly those complaints about Heritage Web Solutions are a dime a dozen! It seems the average customer experience at Hit Web Design is as follows:
1. Customer stumbles on to Hit Web Design's google ads.
2. Customer see's ads, and see's the $199 custom web design price.
3. Customer fills out form on Hit Web Design's website.
4. High pressure sales person relentlessly calls the customer, promising a website that will solve all the customer's financial issues, and will help them be the next big thing on the internet, all they need to do is give them their credit card number.
5. Customer finally surrender's their credit card number.
6. Customer get's contacted by an Account Manager who tells them that they need contact... and oh yeah they need to add this to their website.
7. Customer waits for design interview.
8. Customer get's called relentlessly by Account Manager who tries to sell them additional products.
9. Customer buys products thinking it will help speed up the building process
10. Customer get's tired of being sold products and having nothing to show, customer calls and tries to cancel.
11. Customer is told they can't canceled because work has started, and that they can forfeit their money or keep going a long the process.
12. Customer get's upset and posts complaint.
13. Customer is told that because they posted a complaint that they won't get a website now, and they also won't get a refund.
14. Customer files complaint with BBB, Heritage Web Solution tells BBB that they are working with you.
15. Customer files Charge back with bank or credit card
16. Hit Web Design disputes charge back
17. Hit Web Design looses charge back
18. Customer is finally free of Hit Web Design
This whole process takes about 6 months, time that they will never get back. I feel bad for every customer caught in this cycle!
Posted By: cammspups on 9/21/2009 on http://www.my3cents.com/
I contracted a company by the name of HIT WEB DESIGN in PROVO UTAH. In short they promised me a website in 3 weeks...totally overcharged me by 500 and have NOT met the agreement we originally agreed on. I was told I would receive 5 pages, a finished LOGO design and a store ECOMMERCE with cart. I was promised that it was going to be a state of the art "CUSTOM SITE" FOR 640 dollars.
And NOT a dime more! When I asked about a refund on all my money if it there's any problem. This salesman told me I had up to 3 months that if I wasn't totally satisfied 100% they would refund all my money back all my contents and my domain name that I am currently known by and that my business has been known by in other website in the internet. At the end of all these headaches they flat out told me NO MONEY BACK! Even when I presented my situation to their "customer service representative E**** and their "Senior Accounts Service Rep E*****@hitwebdesign.com back on August 10th and stated that I was absolutely besides myself and totally NOT HAPPY with how I have been treated.
My dealing with "HIT" turned into a total nightmare, endless headaches, loss of my work sent to them via email and loss of my time. It was a unacceptable total maze of confusion as to where my graphics, my calls, my e-mails went. The information that in previous been instructed to send and email to the "many" different people they directed me to send it to over and over and over again. They purposely were stalling, lying to me, NOT answering my calls. Giving me the run around... escalating to other customer service reps, manager, switching logo designers, and account manager on me to create even more chaos etc., and NEVER getting a CLEAR answer. I have been shuffled around and passed around UNTIL I had enough of this.
I also, made many attempts to reach the QCA & CEO of the this company as I learned in the interim of googling, this company's name and finding out that there's alarming information made regarding the derogatory practices of this particular company also known previously AS HERITAGE INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES. Many site and forums have been set up by people such as myself that have been "taken for their money" that depict them and their business ethics and practices as "FRAUDS" on every level. And that they have treated many people in the EXACT same fashion and continue to deceive and change their company's name because they have a crystal clear UNETHICAL AND DECEITFUL reputation. Enough so that their ex employees have posted the same comments for not being compensated with pay for their work and many other issues. For this reason I need your help in helping me get my fair share of restitution.
I tried to make contact as I mentioned to the QCA and CEO that 'ALSO' POST rebuttals to "US" the consumers through the various FORUMS i. e, RIP OFF and COMPLAINTS BOARD. to "CONTACT THEM ONLY". They provide their company titles such as QCA@HITWEBDESIGN. COM or CEO@HITWEBDESIGN. COM and do NOT give a "real name". Well, I have tried to contact them based on their information posted and in addition, based on the information provided by their own people at HIT WEB DESIGN. And to my disappointment the emails came back to me 'HOST UNKNOWN, NO SUCH EMAIL ADDRESS' UNDELIVERABLE. I then decided to be proactive and thought to myself after reading and learning about this company's deceitful business practice AND since, I cannot make contact as again, they're running me around by not delivering what they promised. I will file a "CHARGE BACK - DISPUTE with my bank, CONTACT THE BBB, FTC. ATTORNEY GENERAL IN UTAH, AND also, your organization. I will also, and going forward, have posted my experience with them on [redacted]S, and COMPLAINT BOARD and will continue to EXPOSE THEM. Please understand that this has been going on for quite sometime as I stated in the first paragraph of this letter and regarding the email I sent to** E**** M. at HIT back in early August before the 3 months were up. I had asked for my MONEY BACK in one of the conversations and they told me absolutely NO. That I don't get my money back. And that what the salesman meant to say was that HIT has up to three months to deliver a website etc., and in between I, the customer, has to accept or deny until it's right. And that at one point, HIT will (only allow me several layouts) and then they will have to STOP and tell me that it's gone past the 3 layouts and to redo the site they will charge me more more money. HOw is that right? But, YOU NEVER GET YOUR MONEY BACK... EVER! So, in short the customer is stuck with whatever they feel they want to sell to you, or it will cost you even MORE money for changes since they can revise up to 3 times. And guess what...? you can never reach them to make these necessary changes "within their three months time". Is this customer satisfaction or your money back?
I'ts been impossible to get them to finish right.. or fix it right, or address issues.. Because they never answer, they can't be found, they are on a break, talk to somebody else, and you never get anything accomplished. They switch you from person to person and no one seems to know anything EVER! I had paid for a logo that was supposed to have been custom built they instructed me send what I would like to see my logo look like, videos, images, colors etc., I sent them a picture I took of a coliseum and a dog I have in my homes. And ... guess what I received after never receiving an update on progress or a call /emial. And ONLY when I kept making a bunch of phone calls. I received the same graphics I sent them just shifted the dog in front of the coliseum and that was the 'DONE PROJECT three weeks into the making. When I argued that what was that? they said they enhanced it .. but, "you cannot tell" because it's subtle. I told them that I was so unhappy with all of it... that my 5 year old son can come up with something original, creative. Also, for the record this has been the second logo designer ... who also had the same bad business habits as the newly assigned one.
Oh, also, let me share that they tell you that you should NOT contact them by phone.. only by email. Another weird and unethical deceitful lie is how they post a REBUTTAL on the sites ONLY after the customer has had enough of their run around and lies... and when they rebuttal they specifically tell you to deal with them. And furthermore, tell you to email them directly... well, as I said earlier ONLY to find that their email addresses were not working emails... 'RETURNED UNDELIVERABLE" "HOST UKNOWN, NO SUCH EMAIL ADDDRESS CORRPUT PATH" ... ETC.
NOW THEY ARE THREATENING ME and coersing me by intimidation of the following to sign their one sided contract that favors them only. Also, please take notice of their TOS/terms of agreement. IT'S a contract to "DEFRAUD the CUSTOMER" WITH ALL THE ADVANTAGES FOR THEIR COMPANY AND ABSOLUTELY NO RECOURSE FOR THE CUSOTMER. THEY ARE THREATENING ME OF SLANDER/DEFAME ... WHEN INFACT ALL I'VE SAID IS THE TOTAL TRUTH...! THAT IF I DONT' SHUT UP ... AND IRADICATE MY POSTS THAT I'M GOING TO BE HIT WITH LAWYERS FEES ON TOP OF FEES AND NOT ONLY THAT BUT, THAT IF I FILE A CHARGE BACK FROM MY BANK THAT I WILL BE CHARGED $200 FOR EVERY TIME I GO TO FILE IT AND THEY WILL WIN. THEY MAKE MENTION OF THEIR TOS OR TERMS OF SERVICE IS AND THAT I WILL LOOSE... THEY ALSO, TELL ME THAT BY NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL THEY REFUND MY MONEY BACK AND BECAUSE I POSTED NEGATIVE THINGS ON THESE SITES AND NO EMAILING ATTORNEY GENERAL AND BBB THEY WILL NOT GIVE ME MY WEBSITE... MY BUSINESS NAME OR MY CONTENTS...EVEN THOUGH I PAID FOR IT ALL... AND THE DOMAIN IS MY BUSINESS NAME... THEIR TERM OF AGREEMENT IS TOTALLY ONE SIDED. ALSO, FOR THE RECORD ... I NEVER RECEIVED ANY STATEMENTS BECAUSE COINCEDENTALLY THEY SAID THEY MAILED IT TO THE WRONG ADDRESS... I have supporting items emails from the OPERATIONS MANAGNER AND ALL THE REST...I WILL INCLUDE WITH THE EXCEPTION OF MY AGREEMENT THAT THEY NEVER BOTHERED TO SEND. THEY ONLY SENT A "MICROSOFT WORD TABLE OF THE CHARGES AND DEDUCTIONS ON MY ACCOUNT THAT'S IT! NO FORMAL CONTRACT., NO FORMAL BILLING AND THIS TABLE OF CHARGES CAME TO ME INBEDDED IN AN EMAIL AFTER ASKING AND ASKING FOR IT. THAT'S "MY 3 CENT'S ON THIS COMPANY...
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Dave, as you see from the complaint above, there are several problems and issues with Hit Web Design / Heritage Web Solutions. However the CORE PROBLEM with your company is that, you seem to promise more than you can possibly deliver.The promise of excellent product quality often turns out to be nothing more than a promise. The promise of excellent customer service rings hollow with many customers. The promise of expedited delivery or performance of some type often falls short. It is a dangerous and unwise practice to tell customers and prospective customers that your business and its people can do something when there is little chance that it will actually happen. Pay close attention to what you and your people are "promising" your customers and prospective customers. Can you actually deliver on those promises on a consistent basis? If not, stop and rethink what you can deliver. It is far better to exceed expectations than to fall short of them.
is Brandon still working there or was he laid off too with the other sales guys ? what about Regan?
idontcryanymore,
The same Greg Woods ( VP of Sales of Hit Web Design / Heritage Web Design / HWS ) - WHO WAS ARRESTED FOR DUI not to long ago?
I JUST WANTED TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS WITH YOU ALL,
Today at my new Job, we had a company party at Noahs in Lehi, food, fun, Ect, the owner of the company
stood up and addressed us all, while he was speaking telling us about company changes, growth, Dreams, Goals marketing, ect...one thing he stated over and over was how much he APPRECIATED all of us,
he said HELP THE CUSTOMER...Make sure you ARE NOT SELLING THEM WHAT THEY DO NOT NEED ...Do not put money in my pocket to screw the small business owners, WOW he never looked at his watched, to see how long we were out of the office and off the phones, just the fact we were all out of the office at one time was amazing, He had PRIDE, COMPASSION, HONESTY IN HIS WORDS, Dave had that at one time years ago he had PRIDE and full of hope for his company, WHAT HAPPEND? I hurt for him and the Dream he let Die with Greed..HOW SAD..
From what I have read on here, we can paint a picture of what management at Hit Web Design is like!
Dave Aiken - Owner/CEO - The Ends always justify the means.
Jeremy Aiken - Brother/ COO - The Ends always justify the means.
Greg Woods - VP of Sales - The Ends always justify the means.
Tanner Wolsey - Manager - The Ends always justify the means.
Greg Woods
The more I read about what happened to people at Hit Web Design the more I feel like we all really need to take a stand!
I do, also, remember a time when we had to all stand without chairs until the sales quota had been met or something. I was fairly pregnant at the time and it was extremely uncomfortable. They forced me to do it"
_____________________________________________________________________________________
This is really unbelievable, another Barbarian practice by Hit Web Design. Shame on you Dave !
I actually never really had problems with Tanner... I always found him to be helpful and informative when I had to ask questions... but I wasn't under him directly, so I am not sure what the AMs had to put up with. I do remember dealing with a friend of Tanner's who had called into TS/CS, and whom informed me of the wrongs that had been done to him while working with us on his website... fairly common issues that had happened to other customers that I'd spoken with. I gave him the usual spiel about the TOS and how he couldn't do this or that or take his content or his domain name until he'd paid a year of hosting, etc, like I had been told to do with every customer with similar complaints and he got upset and told me to talk to Tanner about it.
So I went and spoke with Tanner. And guess what? Tanner told me "Well, we really did kind of screw him over, so we're giving him a full refund and he can take his content..." etc. WELL GUESS FREAKING WHAT? HIS COMPLAINTS WERE THE -EXACT- SAME ONES I HAD DEALT WITH MANY OTHER CUSTOMERS DAILY and they were all told to basically screw themselves because Heritage Web was legally on the "right" side. But not Tanner's friend! Oh no, suddenly we did screw this one customer over, just because he was Tanner's friend. But any other instance of this would have resulted in a "Sorry, but Heritage's policies are clearly stated in the TOS and well, even if we did do something wrong and didn't deliver, you have no recourse because the TOS says no refunds after we've started working with you. So either keep working with us and get used to it, or lose your money." But Heritage Web Solutions never does anything wrong... it's always the customer's fault.
I do, also, remember a time when we had to all stand without chairs until the sales quota had been met or something. I was fairly pregnant at the time and it was extremely uncomfortable. They forced me to do it, until I complained to several people and they finally let me have my chair back. Boy, that made me loooove working there.
"I knew you to be a very down to earth guy that really did listen. So if you really want to get down to why alot of us are very hurt by the heartless management go through the papers that we filled out when we chose to leave hit and read the reasoning. You will be surprised what HELL we went through!
In my exit interview HR was shocked to hear what was going on and still did nothing. She told me what we wrote down would be shown to upper management to look into and try to improve. I kind of laughed because we as a team and individually met with both Jeremy and Dave and expressed our concern and were told we have to do what we have to do to keep the doors open and if you don't like it leave. Employee's can only take it for so long."
I just wanted to ditto this (both in that I knew you, Ryan and you're a great guy and the exit interviews). Ryan, if you read through the exit interviews we left, I think you would be surprised. Mine is along the same lines as the above and so were several other employees that I know personally who left and wrote the same sort of things. I know I brought all of my grievances mentioned in my exit interview with management before I left. I also offered many suggestions to improve the business model (once it started going downhill), but the only suggestion they ever paid attention to was the one that I offered involving direct sales... which was the suggestion that we offer daily sales on website items (10% off something, etc). Yep! You have me to blame for that one, people who still work there... I was the source of the "daily sales" idea. I had multiple other good suggestions, but apparently the only one they cared about was the one that made them more direct money. "This a one day deal! Better buy it NOW or it will be GONE!" All my sales pitch idea. Everything else was responded to with "oh, that's a great idea... but we just can't do that right now because Dave said so... but hopefully we will implement it in the future."
Lame.
And Ryan, I KNOW you agreed with me when you were head of the programming department, because I talked to you about it and you agreed with some of the things I discussed with you at the time! There were some things that you didn't agree with, but I know you noticed some of this stuff yourself because we chatted about it on occasion. I was fairly vocal about my problems with the company.
We should come up with a list of the questions that have gone unanswered on this thread vs. the questions that Hit Web Design has answered!
From [redacted].com
HIT WEB DESIGN, FORMALLY HERITAGE WEB SOLUTION Heritage Web Design Makes False Promises, Does not respond, Takes your money Provo, Utah
Submitted: Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Reported By
chesterpaw
Sanford, North Carolina
USA
I signed up with hit web design in June and was told that I was have a website in approximately 4 weeks. It's now the end of October and there is still no running website.
I was suckered into signing up with this company under the assumption that they custom desgin your site and help you along the way. Unfortunately, this is not a fact. In actuality they take your money and then want to up sell on everything else.
When contacting customer service or anyone else within that company one does not get any responses. I emailed the CEO yesterday so see what we can do in order to remedy my concerns and issues, but of course, he did not respond either.
Looking at all of the complaints against this company, I am shocked that a leading business magazine had recommended them.
________________________________________________________________________
Dave, how can you rectify this situation?
From [redacted].com
_
Camila
Apache junction
Usa
I am trying to fight these crooks to get my money back.. how can hit web design get away with these horrible acts of thievery, scamming, it makes me sick and where's attorney general, fdc, bbb? where
I'm camspups.. thank you for having the courage to leave that dirty, unethical, shyster company. congradulations! i've been in sales too, "loan officer" and know what it is to work under the gun for unscrupolous people. you can write me at maquablue at america on line dot com if you wish. I am still trying to get my money back. have filed complaint to bbb, attorney general in utah, fdc and have exposed them to as many site like these. what more can be done? anyone have any ideas?
_
Dave, can you explain this?
I wish I could read all of these messages before I decided to create a website for my practice using this company. I came to get a customer design and as the result cheap pages were posted on the web breaking all of the promised terms. Never got what they had agreed to provide in the beginning. I could not afford wasting my time and money like that. Now fighting for the chargeback built my website all over again with site2you.com. Not a custom design but really nice templates they got. No contracts and hidden fees, upfront quotes on the services and no lie about something they can’t perform. Price does not depend on the number of pages and you always deal with the same person. Customer Service and Tech Staff seem to be professional unless I get what I want so far.
Come on now stopthegreed,
This is all part of their focus to get back to the way things used to be - because it was so many employees that made the ship sink. But I second your comment "I'm glad to see they are doing so well."
OhioLady,
I am thrilled to hear that you were not selected to be employed by Hit Web Design! As you have read on this board, it is clearly an unhealthy place to work!
I think that all former Hit Employees who have knowledge of any fraud, or intent to commit fraud, or other unethical behavior at Hit Web Design should contact the Utah Attorney General's Office!
I do not work for HIT or what ever this company calls them self's but did apply too. What a joke that was. I have to tell you just sitting there I thought to myself do I really want to go thru this everyday. To start with it was soooo noisy I could hardly hear the receptionist speak & had a hard time concentrating on the application. You have a tall guy in the middle of the room talking very loudly and acting like a clown. A bell ringing. Yeah I wondered if I was in Oz. As I was sitting there with about 4 other people a lady walked in and came to the table to fill out her application. She pulled out a book and copied the answers out of it! Why didn't I think of that. But then again I wouldn't have done that & what happened next I am glad I didn't even bother. I took a couple of the test and after sitting there about an hour the receptionist came up to me & in front of all tells me that I "did poorly on the test and they did not need me". Not only was I very embarrassed so was the others sitting there. I am 51 years old & have worked with computers the past 9 years. I just don't know terminology but can do Excel, Word, DP & also type over 150 words a minute. I never got to talk to anyone but this girl who seemed to enjoy the part of her job where she can embarrasses people. How unprofessional. My friend worked there & she could not believe it. I shouldn't have been shock by this due to what all I got to see that day of this company. A company should not over look anyone who does poorly on a test. Some people just don't test good. And some are like me. My last job I missed 2 days of work in 4 years. I was never late and would work over when needed & did not complain about it. I trained my boss in Excel. I was laid off due to the issues everyone is having & was topped out with my pay. My boss called me for over 2-weeks after I left for help on projects. And me the kind of work ethic I have was more then happy to help him out. I think not getting hired was a blessing. A big blessing. When will companies learn that to keep happy employees is not just giving them a pay check that they worked for but how they treat them. And most important how they fill everyday when they walk in and leave work. This company will go out of business. There is no doubt in my mind. They aren't just hurting due to the economy. They are hurting due to what they are doing. You cant make anyone believe that all these stories are just angry ex employees! Really. Maybe they should roll there sleeves up and come out of their office and get to work for their company for a change. WOW actually work. My friend has moved on to a better company. A company that is treating her the way every employee deserves to be treated. And she is finally happy. You know there are good jobs out there. But you cant buy into what HIT says about no work to be found. I am glad I did not get the job. I could would not have been happy going to work one day and finding the doors changed shut. And that is what is going to happen if HIT keeps going the way it is going. But then maybe that is what it will take for the workers that is still there to finally get in a job where they are appreciated.
What has hit web design/ heritage web solutions to say about the below mentioned complaint about ripoff
HIT Web Design
Posted: 2009-11-02 by EJM6234
Terrible service
Complaint Rating: 100 % with 2 votes
Company information:
HIT Web Design
Utah
United States
hitwebdesign.com
I began my business with HIT Web Design on 6/5/09. I requested to have a website created in order to support my business, Power Chord Guitar Lessons, LLC. They seemed very eager to help and answer questions up until the point where they have your credit card information. After that, everything went downhill. I was told to wait 7-10 days before a website designer would contact me. After about fifteen days, I called back to see what the hold up was. I was told my account manager had changed and I had to wait another 7-10 days to speak with a website designer. After 5-7 days of persistent calling, speaking with supervisors and speaking with the supervisor's supervisors, I finally got a call from a website designer. My website was done very quickly and to my liking. That is the only time I have ever been satisfied with their service. Since then, I have requested an update on my website. The update took a little longer than I had expected, but I was not too upset. The update took a couple tries to get to something that I liked, but there were still flaws. After calling the editor, Donald Lannon, several times to try and fix the situation, the problems still remain. You can see the problems with the front page of the web site at www.powerchordguitarlessons.com. The unsightly red box to the right of the page can only be seen on browsers other than internet explorer. You can also see that there is an unsightly dark square around the home and information pages and there are shifts around the border of the graphics. Also, after the initial update was made, the website editor that HIT Web Design provides began malfunctioning to the point where I could not use it to make simple edits to my website, as I had been able to do in the past. To clarify, the website editor is used to make simple text edits to the website. In order to get a graphic edit done, the customer has to request an edit from the company. In the past, the web editor shows the entire page and you can edit it to your liking. Now, the editor only shows plain black and white text and is insufficient in making simple edits. Over the past two weeks or so, I have been calling both technical support and Donald Lannon persistently to no avail. When I called technical support, they told me that they could not help me and Jeremy Nelson, a supervisor, had been tasked to fix my web editor. After several attempts to contact him over the phone, including a message or two, I still have not found anyone to speak with about my web editor. Whenever I call HIT Web Design about a problem, it is passed on to someone else. I have spent two hours on the phone trying to get someone to help me before. I have never seen a company who's customer service operates so poorly. If I would have had the foresight to look for complaints on this company before I committed to them, I would have never given them my business. I Googled their name and searched BBB.org to find a plethora of complaints from employees and customers alike.
Here is the link http://attorneygeneral.utah.gov
No, most of these employees will not hush because they realize what they did was wrong at the time. Scamming customers and then remaining "silent" about it because they were complicit is ungodly. People should speak up about their abuses and sins, without regard for the powers that be, who would like to see that NOT happen.
If HWS/HIT has nothing to hide, and has been an honest business entity, what's the worry HIT?
Render unto Ceaser what is Ceasar's. Everyone come clean ASAP>...send correspondence to Utah Attorney General.
How Tanner Wolsey has not yet been fired or laid off is anyone's guess. I would personally love to read all of the exit interviews that deal with Tanner Wolsey!
Though it will be a sad day for Tanner Wolsey when he is fired or laid off, because who is going to hire a person who uses intimidation, humiliation, and manipulation in their management.
thats got to be the big thing that frustrats me about HIT Web Design / Heritage Web Solutions. all of these uper management people like Dave Aitken, Jeremy Aitken, Ryan Nelson or even Tanner Wolsey twist you to do watever they want you to do and cheat their customers and employees. but wen people try to say something about it they come back with these shady answers about the grievance process. we all know none exists.
I am calling Tanner out. What does Tanner want to say to this, I for one was under Tanner as well. Every time I had to torture myself talking to him, I would walk back to my desk thinking that guy is a nothing but a puppet, in fact I thought I would look just to see if Jeremy's arm was sticking out of his ###.
Tanner is that way because management trained him to be that way. He has no business managing 3 year olds. Tanner if you are reading this please respond, quit hiding behind the walls of Hit Web Design and address these issues.
I hope we're not really expecting an answer here -
The term "cherry picking" comes to mind. This is way too close to home for the management to have the balls to do anything about it.
Donebeingbullied - well said and we stand with you
WOW Donebeingbullied!
I am so sorry that you had to endure that! I have heard stories similar to yours, and where THE OWNERS were told directly by employees the humiliation that Tanner Wolsey put them through, and they either laughed or turned a blind eye!
Ryan Nelson, or Dave Aiken, or anyone in Hit Web Design Management please explain this!
believe me ryan, this isnt drummed up at all. good job donebeingbullied. i just cant tell you how sik i am of those damed nerf guns
Ryan,
I agree with EthicsCommitee, How can you say that Hit is ethical? They steal from their own customers and steal from their employees. There is nothing ethical about Hit.
- I filed a complaint against Tanner, nothing was done.
- I put in a vacation request 2 months in advance. The Friday I was to leave, I asked Tanner if my request was granted, he said that he didn't know. It was
between me and someone else. I do not know about you, but I plan ahead and the reservations and plane tickets were bought.
- When I was hired I was told my base would be $12 per hour and 5-10% commission if I get $500 a day in revenue. You know how well that went. Needless to
stay that I brought in an average of $1200 per day and I was not paid what I was promised. Due to all of the pay changes.
- Tanner would have he favorite groupees call some of my accounts and close sales while I was at lunch - he took money away from me. He messed with my
livelihood. I was not alone. This happened to everyone except for the FAVORITES.
- I would be talking on the phone doing my job (collecting content) Tanner would through playing cards at me. I know that does not sound like much, but they
were thrown hard, I once got a paper cut on my neck.
- On many occasions the team was told by Tanner that he would fire someone just to set an example. He would fire a good employee to prove a point to the bad
employees. I know this makes no sense.
- Tanner in our many team meetings would make very derogatory comments. He is very discriminatory.
- Tanner would yell across the call floor and humiliate you in front of your co-workers
- Tanner would humiliate you if you asked him for help. Besides he never knew the answers, he would have me talk to Joe
- Tanner would hold the most ridiculous contests to see how far he could push you, he would have stand on one leg and other leg in a chair just so that you
could get spiff money.
- the company will not refund customers money if they changed their mind on the new purchase. If they canceled before work hard started. That is on the
TOS. A customer can get a full refund if request is made within 90 days and no work had been started on the added feature. Still not honored. Customers had
to threaten legal action to get a response from HIT.
- I was told many times that we are sales people. Yet we were being required to move content, customer service and build web sites. This does not make sense
either. Sales people make money they do not project manage!
Ryan, the list goes on and on. It has been happening for years. There have been to many complaints filed against Tanner. How could you not know? If you are unaware of all of this then you are not very good at your job. I am sorry, but there is way to much going on and 100's of past employees that have experienced the same abuse for you not to know.
Here is a great link to Hit Web Design or Heritage Web Solutions bullying tactics. http://www.calcoastnews.com/news.php?viewStory=172094
"...Heritage Web Solutions Legal Administrator Ryan Nelson said of his company’s cancellation of UncoveredSLO: “It’s a decision usually made by upper management. It depends on the liability posed to our company. If we think something violates our terms of service, then we are within our contractual right to terminate the relationship. We may take down a site at any time without notice.”
So that’s what Heritage Web Solutions did. And it happened right at a time when the minimal expenses of simply funding and establishing a new site was well out of reach for us. (Still might be.) But Fate intervened, as we already were settled on our new site..."
How are they still in biz,
Agreed. We should stop holding Ryan Nelson's feet to the fire! It is nothing personal Ryan, that is why I posted your LinkedIn profile and not your Facebook.
Ryan if you are laid off in the near future, know that I would fight vigilantly for you too! And as others have stated, Hit Web Design going out of business does not serve their current customers, employees or the community well. What does need to happen is that Hit Web Design needs to REFUND all customers who have requested refunds. They must stop targeting financially vulnerable people. They need to fulfill their contracts with their customers, and not force their customers into purchasing upgrades to get their original contract fulfilled. They need to start being a good employer by honoring their own employee policy manual. Bullying, intimidation, harassment of employees MUST STOP!
This is what this board is about.