Why some companies are giving web development a bad name!

What happened to customer service? Exceeding the customers expectations with outstanding work and customer service? Apparently for some its non existent.

After meeting with a client this week I realized that some companies are giving web development a bad name, and its time for us to clean up the mess. This client not only had to pay in full up front, but they were also taken advantage of by the company. Since when do we as developers trap our clients into staying with us? Isn’t the idea to give the client the best product for their money, to give them what they want?

So let me layout for you what happened. The client had an outdated website and the company who built the original site called up in December of 09 and told them it was time to update the site. After convincing the client they needed a change they crawled in a cave and hid for 8 months and provided no progress of what was being done to the clients “new site”. After the hibernation period was over they presented the client with a site that looked worse than the original site they were updating. Not to my surprise the client was not happy. This is where I enter the picture, having worked with this client on a different venture in the past.

Said client calls me and asks for a meeting and in the meeting shows me the work of the other developer/designers which is by far less than subpar and I leave the meeting confident we can do much better. After reviewing the current site and the new site the company designed we came to find out the site is unmovable. “Java strikes again…” Both the existing site and the new site have been created in such a manner that moving the site from their current host would be next to impossible. So I ask again, since when is it ok to trap a client? This client is unable to move to a new host without a complete redesign of their CMS (content management system for my less tech savy readers). And the icing on the cake is their check has already been cashed!

So I ask those people in the industry, would you trap a client by making them a site that has to function on your server and only your server? And would you charge them up front in full for work that is subpar? This clients options now are to pay us for a complete redesign or remain unhappy with a company that has not come clost to meeting their expectations.

What a sucky day for the web development industry!

July 7th, 2010 | Meghan Donnelly | Leave A Comment

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.