Scott Greskovic review: Unethical billing practices

I will start off by saying that my actual experience working with Scott Gresokiv design was in complete contrast to what my initial feelings indicated they would be. In the introductory phase Scott came across as a quite competent professional – he was responsive, exhibited a solid understanding of his field, and seemed reasonable. It was for these reasons which I decided to move forward with him in creating a responsive website.
After a considerable amount of time elapsed answering all questions and providing all requested information necessary to gain an understanding of the scope of project, I was then provided with a quote to begin the project. I agreed and submitted 1/3 of the project’s cost to begin work the beginning of May 2015. This is where the problems first began. After a month passed since submitting the deposit, I was then informed that it was no longer possible to accomplish what was originally agreed upon as Scott and his developer now mentioned that as they gained a deeper understanding of the project that it was more difficult than they first anticipated. I was told that the scope of the project would need to be greatly reduced. And that the critical deadline which was stressed from the get-go was now in jeopardy of not being met. The Christmas holiday season accounts for a huge amount of my business, and Scott was first made aware in March of 2015 that the project needed to be wrapped up by the end of the summer to allow for ample testing before going live no later than October 2015. As they were estimating the project to only total approximately 80 hours, this initially did not seem like it could possibly be an issue.
So now after 3 months of first commencing discussions with Scott, we then agreed upon a new, revised contract in June of 2015. After pressing the issue on numerous occasions, I was assured that the cost of the project would fall somewhere between a range they stated, and would not go beyond the upper-most threshold outlined. A test site was created for Scott in June 2015 to enable him to promptly begin the project, at which time he confirmed that his developer would begin working the last week of June 2015. Development seemed to be adequately progressing for the first month or so, then tapered off. In August of 2015 I started sending Scott numerous correspondence expressing my concern that there seemed to be minimal progress at best, and that I was starting to become concerned that my critical deadline would be missed and that my entire holiday season would be missed with the new responsive site. After pushing the issue again and again, I was informed by Scott that his developer had personal issues to tend too and that his availability was greatly reduced. I was also informed that lost hours due to this situation would not be made up as his developer did not work nights or weekends.
Fast forwarding to October of 2015, my deadline was now missed due to the project not going beyond anything in scope, but simply due to the appropriate amount of time not being allocated to it. And to make matters even considerably more frustrating, I received vague correspondence from Scott eluding to the fact that there was some adjustment needed in what he would be charging me. After a follow-up phone call to discuss the matter I was informed that he had not closely paid attention to the hours spent on the project, and that he now wanted to charge me roughly 20% more than the upper-most threshold that was agreed upon in the second revised contract in June of 2015. I had told him that this was not acceptable, and that I knew of no circumstance where a client didn’t need to be notified of such a change beforehand, and also needed to agree to such a change before proceeding. Scott did not agree with this, and believed that it was acceptable/appropriate to proceed with attempting to charge me this additional amount.
In my best efforts to satisfactorily wrap the project up, I went ahead and paid Scott Gresokiv design the upper-most threshold outlined in the contract agreed upon in June of 2015. As the project missed my critical deadline, in addition to me having to use a 3rd party developer who I needed to pay a considerable amount of additional billable hours to complete what either Scott wouldn’t, or couldn’t do to complete the project, I believed that I was being more than fair for even paying the upper-most threshold agreed upon. Again Scott didn’t agree with this, and as a result had a lawyer friend of his contact me threatening litigation to resolve the issue.
In the event that others are considering Scott Gresokiv design, I would strongly recommend having an airtight legal agreement in place before proceeding with anything. My experience has shown that you will most certainly need it. Additionally, if a critical deadline is necessary, I would think twice about believing it will be met at Scott Gresokiv design. And lastly if one is need of services that go beyond a very basic project, I would recommend shopping around for others with significantly more know-how in the field. I had quite an unfortunate experience on multiple fronts with this undertaking and hope that others don’t too.