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Back in february I decided to start my own business and got everything in order from february through march. April came around and I said okay, well I got everything except my website. I knew I couldn't do it myself no had the time so I researched the web and up came this advertisement for heritage web solutions with an eye-catching offer of $199 and up.
I contacted them, and locked into a packed of two payments of $279 with $60 a month hosting fees. I felt that the hosting fees compare to other companies were expensive but the package deal seem good and after one year you have the option to choose another hosting company.
Well people, it is now may 7th, and to date I have $1000 + taken out of my account with absolutely nothing to show for it. Nothing! No web design, no logo, no responses when you leave messages for these in charge account managers for like a week or more. It's frightening to know people who claim to be professional designers can do this. If I had diligently research this company like I do everything else, I would have never went with these people.
As I wait on the phone and listen to the prompts and I know there may be new customers calling in on other lines I wish I had the power to reach out and save them the difficult frustration! Please people, if you are serious about your business and customers do not use heritage web solutions. Your time as a business owner is precious and vital. Your monies would be put to better use with a company that puts you and your priorities first.
This company never fails to take monies from you account but can't seem to produce the works. I really, really don't know who gave these people licenses to work with consumers and why the hell are they still in business!
Look at this bull America! Are work is awesome they say, starting at $199.00 they say. A SET OF DAMN THIEVES AND RIP OFF WE SAY! Do you really what to do business with a company like this? They say they have built a website for me. Well HERITAGE, WHERE THE HELL IS IT?!
OH I'm sorry, I'm the only disgruntled unhappy ### right?! WELL, I don't think so. Why all those complaints about your company HERITAGE? WHY you so concerned about me contacting the BBB and persons of interest. YOU SCARED?!
WELL YOUR ASSESS BETTER BE! Keep on emailing me AMERICA and I will keep on telling you the God given truth about this company. Why should you pay these jokers your hard earn money for them to send you a bull ### letter like this?
They say they are professionals but as I tell America, DOES IT TAKE PROFESSIONALS FROM APRIL 1ST TO JUNE 25TH TO NOT HAVE A (OH I'M SORRY A 4-5 WKS TURN AROUND TIME AS HERITAGE CLAIMS) AND STILL HAVE ZIP, ZERO TO SHOW!
RUN [censored] RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN, DON'T LET HERITAGE CATCH YOU THEIR THE DRAIN YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS MAN! Check this letter out I received from them today:
Dear Ms.
Heritage has communicated to you our decision on the refund. We have essentially built your entire site and there is no basis for a refund. However, in the interest of good will, Heritage will offer a 25% refund on the condition that you sign a Settlement Agreement.
Otherwise, you are free to contact an attorney or the BBB, or to pursue any other legal means. However, in the event you do such, this offer is off the table.
Respectfully,
Operations Management
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.
I can no longer tell you that I have any confidence in this company. I have paid them about $1,200 plus 2-3 months of hosting fees. This is what they would do. At the initial sales call they sound really professional and all that and make you think that they would complete your web in 4-6 weeks. But be VERY, VERY CAREFUL! Go to their web page, go to the bottom and READ their TOS statement. They contradict themselves with what they tell you over the phone (4-6 weeks) then they tell you in their TOS statement on the bottom of their web page that they can't guarantee a finished custom design web.
America / Business Owners such as myself. I wish I knew about them from the beginning. After my first initial complaint on this board, that was when I received a phone call all of a sudden stating that my information has gone to a web designer and she will get in contact with me. Look at the date of my initial complaint on this board (Roxanne). They first took monies out of my account May1st, and at the date of my first initial complaint was when my web was built.
But get this, I was contact by one of their account managers and was told that my complaint on the complaint board was a violation of terms with heritage web and I need to remove it. My freedom of speech?! I don't think so. In the mean time they played the game really well. My web designer finished the web and you know like when you have changes to make and such and you resubmit it for the changes you want made. The designer told me she can't make anymore changes until I take the complaint down and this is what she was told by I know who.
I submitted my content from April okay, and was never contacted that I was submitting anything incorrect as far as format or the way I sent it. After the designer is finished you would think that they just upload the information on your site because after all you are the ones that have to do all the damn work because they would charge you I think $2.75 per entry. They had me send them an email stating that I have in fact submitted all my content so we could move on to the next stage. I confirm the email and sent it back. Their the ones suppose to be running the show and so if you send any additional content after that if they have a problem with that you would think they would say hey, we already started on your product entry and anything sent after your initial confirmation of content email would be inputed by you. Nothing of the sort.
Anyway I have only 103 products in my store and about 33 of those items I tried to input myself although I paid them an extra $297. to input up to 5000 products in my store. If they had any interest in finishing my product entry in a timely manner, they would have completed most of my categories. It 's like they say if you submit content after an initial email they can't start anything. If that were true then they would have told me not to sent anything and never started in the first place. They are full of it. Even if I submitted content why didn't they start on what was previously submitted?
Anyway, information that they inputed ALL, AND I MEAN ALL was basically wrong. They're suppose to have a product entry department but yet the supervisor of my account manager is the one inputting my information? A supervisor? I don't think so! I have two kids I told this same person I would help her but resubmitting my baby shower content to help her out I did that in exactly one and a half days and it was because I was dealing with my kids in between. So if you have a product entry person doing product entry all day why have my items been on stand still for days in and out. ALL of my baby shower items had NO pictures and even when I resubmitted it the way she asked me to, they still weren't done. This one lady on /link removed/ said it took the 18 MONTHS to finish her website and all this time, they would but up a bull ### welcome site talking about you are now live. I said to the supervisor that was supposedly working on my product entry "so when is all of this going to be finished by Christmas" she said " yes, I should be finished by then." I told her okay, that was a joke but she tried to smooth it over. What kind of ### company is this.
Website has gone live my ###! They charge you $59.99 a month while they move at a slow snails paste doing ###. Even the product entry that I tried inputting myself was doing nonsense. For example I inputted several time that one of the cake pans were $18.99 several times and it always came back as $0.00. This company is ### America and if you don't want to waste your TIME and VALUABLE MONIES. PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE DO your research and stay away from this company. What a damn DISASTER, DISASTER! Anyone who has had problems or continue to have problems with this company, I urge you to contact their District Attorney Office in Provo, Utah and now telling our story to Dr. Phil so that he can expose these people nationally for what they are! FRAUDS!
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I have been working with these people since early September of 2007 and I still, as of today, February 29, 2008, do not have a site that works the way it was promised. I have paid every last cent... (WAYYY more than the initial lead-in of $199) and yet they still seem to have reasons for not getting my site to completion. As I type this, I am on hold with them to get to the bottom of why my site is not working.
I went through 2 account managers and 2 designers in 3 months time. My site should have been done in that amount of time...at the least! (FYI..My first designer resigned because he didn't like how Heritage did business... that should have been my first clue!)
People, it's going on 6 months, and I'm been paying their monthly fees all along... and I still don't have what they promised. They are quick to take your money... but very slow to help you get what you paid for. The other day, after all this aggravation, someone on their sales team had the nerve to call me and ask me if I wanted to sign up for another service for another $50.00. It was to have my "right click" disabled so no one could copy my art from my site etc. I told the guy, if you can get to the bottom of where my site is at, I will consider this service. Well, because it meant more money, and he wanted to be able to "close another sale" he called me back within a couple hours and gave me an update. See, they move a little quicker when you dangle the money carrot. That was Monday, Feb. 25th, I believe. Well, the $50.00 has been deducted from my credit card... but 4 days later... my right click has still not been disabled. See, I still didn't learn my own lesson. So, I now have to get on the phone and wait in line to get more answers. The other night, I was on hold for over an hour just to get some service questions answered.
The staff people have even told me, "Well, we are very understaffed, so things might not get done as quickly as you need them to be." Nice. Their own workers are telling customers that. Also, beware, they have all sorts of people working on your site, and the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. One person promises you one thing, and then you call and check on that and the next person tells you no, that's not how it's done. I have spent numerous HOURS on their phone line waiting to get help to get this thing up and running.
They farm out a lot of their designs to "outside" sources so then they put the screws to those designers to do a quick job and get the site done. It's all about the money with Heritage. They do not care about customer service. They don't care about you as a consumer. They only care that they get so many things billed in so much time. Time is money people. That's all they care about.
I have even had emails with the "higher ups" and they promise that things will be taken care of. Then they hand things back to the workers...and things get messed up again. This is the most frustrating, aggravating process I have ever dealt with in my entire live. I would never recommend anyone to deal with them. Feel free to contact me if you want more details. I'd be happy to provide them. Just please, let me save you the trouble and just take all these complaints for what they are. They are REAL. ABSOLUTELY REAL!
The above comment hit it on the nail!
Basically if you sign up for Heritage Web Design, you are using them as your middle man to India.
If you run a Small Business and you choose Heritage, you are basically saying that your company image is worth about the price of an Ipod at $199. R U SERIOUS!
Do some research, spend some money, and get a good product!
I'm an interactive producer for an agency and I've helped create sites for Reebok, Sony, and many local businesses. My friend asked me for help in producing his website and he hired Heritage to design it.
Speaking as a professional who produces websites for a living, IN NO WAY DOES HERITAGE EMPLOY ANY PRODUCTION PROCESS THAT COMES CLOSE TO THE BASIC INDUSTRY STANDARD. I'm talking about things like client review/input, ongoing communication, even knowledgeable designers. The "project manager"(who I had to make repeated attempts to contact), could not carry a conversation with the most simple production-speak. Basically they made my friend sign a contract, ignored us for a month, and crapped out a POS site that a high school kid could've made. If you don't believe me:
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.
Ridicoulous. I have been through 3 designers and still have nothing that resembles a website. We just had commercial site built in 10 days. Heritage was paid in November, it is now March. Don't do it. Wish I would have read the comments first.
Brad Stone. Wake up. When a customer calls to complain, they are not interested in the many happy clients you suppossedly satisfied and small amount of unsatisfied clients as the people calling are the unhappy people...Tell people the truth. You took on too much business, refund their money and move on. It's the jacking people around and arrogance that piss people off.
Heritage Web Solutions is the absolute worst, I have never received my web site, nor have I received any funds back, empty promises and delay after delay, it has been almost one year since I paid $800.00 and strated dealing with them. It has cost me my buisness.
Linae Jackson
Heritage Web Solutions values all of its customers, especially those who have voiced complaints. It is in our best interest to work with these customers to reach a reasonable and fair resolution. In most cases Heritage tries to go beyond what is fair for the company and errors on the side of the upset customer.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for some customers who, no matter what we do, are never truly satisfied. This is especially disheartening, as Heritage has the solid reputation of providing excellent customer service.
Some customers, as illustrated on this complaint website, have resorted to airing their grievances on the public Internet, in hopes of resolving their particular complaint. We do all that we can to help meet a fair resolution to their satisfaction.
However what becomes unfair to us, are those customers who we feel have received everything they have asked for, and more, but then take it upon themselves to have an ongoing vindication against Heritage. To us, there is nothing more we can do to satisfy them. They are who they are. Vindictive and angry people do more harm to themselves than they think they are doing against a company. It is sad but true.
Heritage Web Solutions, with a customer base of over 10,000, receives less than one half of one percent in complaints. That is an impressively low number compared to the standards of today. We certainly would like to have zero complaints, but that is just not realistically possible. There will always be those people who cry foul, no matter what.
What you don’t see on this complaint website are all the positive emails and letters we receive daily from customers who are extremely happy with the service and work we have provided for them.
Heritage Web Solutions is a good, solid custom web design and hosting company that has an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau and the Utah State Department of Commerce. We are ranked in the top 1% of web hosting companies in the United States and have recently been recognized by Inc 500.
If you feel that Heritage Web Solutions is not taking care of you, I would invite you to contact me at my personal email address at ceo@hwsinet.com, and I will personally follow up on your issue.
Warmest Regards,
Brad Stone
CEO/Heritage Web Solutions
I totally agree with the complaints. I am currently a customer of hertitage web solutions. About 5 mins ago I tried going to my website and something else came up instead of my site. They have taken money out of my account after I asked them not to unless they notify me and what happend they took the money anys and did 3 separate transactions and my account was overdrawn with over drafts. i spoke with the accounting dept about this matter and what they apologize gave me 3 months of free hosting and guess what they took out of my account again another overdraft. i thought I had free hosting for 3 months. I sent in for the company to update my site going on 5 weeks ago guess what my home page is still the same. I wish I would have read this before going with their company. i don't know whats up with my site it comes up as something else now.
I agree with all the above compaints regarding HWS. Starting in 3/07, i began researching web design companies for my new business. That process was carried out off and on until 10/07 when i decided to hire HWS to design my website. At the time, this wonderful website (complaintsboard) did not show up when Heritage Web Solutions was put in the google search box.
Let me just say that my entire web design experience with HWS was a disaster. I had to ask them to assign a new service manager for my project because the original lady never returned calls or emails sooner than 4 days (or later) after i contacted her. After i was assigned a web designer, i found her myspace page and a link to her personal web design site. I was not impressed AT ALL, but decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and see what she could come up with. That was another disaster. Honestly, talking with her was like talking with a teenager or adolescent. I speak slang when i'm with my friends or family, but never in a professional setting in a phone conversation. My discussions with the web designer were ridiculous. Often times, she didnt follow my instructions which led to multiple unnecessary revisions. The final insult was when the site went live without my approval. Just a horrible experience with HWS. I will NEVER recommend them to anyone.
I think my site finally went live (against my wishes) almost 10 weeks after contacting them. Just awful.
Dear Mr. Stone, owner heritage web
I feel like I'm going to break down and cry with frustration. Can you please explain to me what is going on. I phoned Heritage web to inquire about a web-page. I spoke to Jay Scoby. Our conversations (I thought) were good. He explained to me that for the web-page it would be $178.00 for a year. I told him that sounded great, and agreed.I have never done this before but it sounded like a good price for what it included. I asked that he not submit the payment until 4/3 as that is when I get paid. We had also discussed $105.00 for a writer to help me as I am not too computer savvy. ALL I said to Jay in regards to that was that it sounded good, I had NOT agreed. On 4/1 I was very upset because the payment went through as well as $105.00 for the writer and it over drew my account. I e-mailed and called Jay several times that day and finally asked one of your people to tap him on the shoulder because I needed to speak to him. I asked him why it went through and his EXACT words were that he was pissed off at the accounting dept. because they put it through early. At that point I was ready to cancel but we talked and he said to help cover my $220.oo in overdraft charges he'd sneak me another page, I agreed, what else was I to do, he said he could not get that back and assured me an awesome web-page. At this point NOTHING'S been done to build any type of web-page. This morning I check my bank account and yet another $199.00 is taken from my account. I called Jay, and just like the day before he says to me, well we discussed that. NO we did not! Now I'm starting to realize what's happening here, Jays getting commission off this and is being very scandalous in going about it. So then I speak to Mike (don't know his last name) he's telling me I can get some news-letter package with a value of over $400.00, that's just great but I could not afford to be spending $500.00 for a web-page not to mention over $200.00 in over-draft charges..I would have NEVER agreed to another $200.00, I did not have it. Oh, also..the $178.00 Jay NEVER once mentioned that it's $178.00 TWICE, I swear, he's making me feel like I have Alzheimer's. Then Mike tells me I've received e-mails (invoices) No, I have not! Im going crazy over here with this. I know what I have in my account and what I can and cant afford, I would not have agreed to all this. Now Mike is telling me that he is as high up as I can go and that they will give me my money back aside from 50% of the $199.00..Im SO upset, this has been the worse experience, the biggest lack of communication I have ever had to deal with. Mr. Stone, I feel like I have seriously been swindled, I'd never do that to anyone, its ruthless...I really did want to move forward with a web-page, I was looking so forward to it, but I feel like I have been very much lied to. Oh, and when Mike was talking about looking at Jays notes, he said it was to come out on 4/1 I told him that Jay is a liar, he had told me yesterday about how it was the accountants fault. Grr...I do hope I get all my money back, this will be a HUGE disappointment to me if not. I think it is terrible that I could have been manipulated so bad. I know how much money I had for food etc..To take care of me kids for the next 2 weeks, this is all going to take me a month to recuperate from. I hope you will check into it. I liked Jay at first, but its become very clear that he's just looking to make a buck, regardless of what it just did to me and my kids. Sincerely, Robyn Davis
The problem here is that small businesses tend to be very susceptible to pricing when considering a very important part of their business model. A website is a marketing vehicle. Therefore the design, architecture, color, text, navigation, usability and everything you could think of is important. Not how much for 5 pages. A website design typically takes about 40-80 hours. If this is the case and someone offered you a web design for $199 for the 1st page and $99 each additional page then you should be very very skeptical. Since when do web designers make McDonalds wages? There offer sounds more like a late night 1-900 advertisement. Do your proper diligence before making a selection. If you budget is not there don’t spend your money! You probably WON’T BENEFIT from a website at this point in your business. And all of the people that post after this should be ashamed that they didn’t research the company that they chose.
HERITAGE WEB SOLUTIONS IS A JOKE! How can one company charge $3000-$5000 for a website and they charge $199. Something is wrong, so STOP SENDING THEM YOUR MONEY!
Wow I'm sorry to hear about all of your problems. I am a freelance web designer and I saw an ad for Heritage Web Solutions online, they were looking to hire freelance web designers like my self that could work on their web projects. I figured that would be cool for me to make some extra money on the side, but after reading your article and finding all these complaints online about this company. I will not be doing any design work for them. I will keep working directly with clients. Thanks for the article.
It's difficult for a freelancer to compete against big companies like Heritage web solutions because they offer clients dirt cheap prices with hidden fees. I always try to focus on quality
clients appreciate the completed product more.
if your ever in the market for a custom website here is a link to my
online www.thegnrgroup.com
http://www.heritagewebdesign.com/tos.html... Need I say anymore? google search... do your research first.
Thank you all for your warnings. I am a programmer researching Heritage Web Solutions and it is obvious I do not want to associate with such business practices.
My personal advice for people seeking a website is to look locally first in your own town or nearby city where you can visit the web design firm in person. Preferably find someone who will give you an estimate and contract when doing business so that your price is locked in and they will not be able to slid extra costs in.
Like the rest of you, we were schmoozed by the sales department too. After months or prodding, calling (with no response) they finally sent us the link to check their progress. Not only was the website a mess, we disovered quite by accident in our review of the website that Heritage had in fact farmed out our project to a company in another country! We were given a full refund when we contacted CEO at Heritage and told him in no uncertain terms we intended to drive to Provo Utah and pursue our case in small claims court. It was a matter of principle, we were prepared to go and we had the screen shots of the mess the website was in. Screen shots of the website is a perfect way to document the shabby work by these kinds of con artist companies. SMALL CLAIMS COURT WORKS IF YOU ARE ORGANIZED AND COME PREPARED WITH PROOF OF YOUR CLAIM. Good luck to you!
Complete idiots!
They burned me for over $6000 and please do NOT use these people.
4-6 weeks became 4-6 months and all I could do was pay them off and go somewhere else.
They are in Provo Utah in a Rat hole of a building that smells and most of there employees are...
Just stay away and be thankful you found this before signing up with them.
They give the web a bad name.
I am so glad I found this website before doing any business with them. I need someone to do some minor updates to my website and their sales pitch is horrible. It reminds me of an MLM or timeshare type operation the way the put you “on hold” to talk with their “managers” to negotiate a lower price. I do not want to give them complete control of my domain names. The agent/account manager is supposed to call me back this afternoon. I know what to say to him now!
Thank you everyone for sharing your experience and I am so sorry that many of you have been victimized by these con artists.
SCAM ALERT
Heritage Web Solutions
1460 N. Moonriver Drive
Provo, UT 84604
www.heritagewebdesign.com
SCAM ALERT
BUYER BEWARE
Sales reps deceive you into believing things contrary to fine print Terms of Service. Fraud? You decide. In the middle of 8 PAGES of fine print Terms of Service with 47 items, #29 says they get to retain 50% of your funds even if you cancel the next day and haven’t sent them any content and they haven’t begun to work on it. Wouldn’t you agree that something so important should not be buried in the middle of 5 pages of fine print?
They say, “why buy your domain through Godaddy for $10, we will buy your domain “FOR YOU” as part of your package, but then they buy it in “THEIR NAME” and if you want it you can buy it from them for $50! Deception? Fraud? Misrepresentation? You decide.
Then when you “catch them” and try to cancel they’ll delay several days before telling you what they’re going to do IF they do anything and they’ll steal keep 50% of your “Total Cost” EVEN IF THEY DIDN’T DO ANY WORK ON YOUR SITE! This one consumer feels he was deceived.
Hey every one. I want to speak out as a former employee of this company, who has seen first had how this company rips you off. Every time customers call in they are told they need to purchase 'enhancements" and often times the employees are pressured in to upselling. You cannot sign on with this company for the minimum price and get out of there having spent only that amount. The management has a saying that states that every employee is a salesman. If an account manager or a tech support agent doesn't meet a sales goal they are fired. The management of each department get paid a percentage of their departments sales, either 5 or 10 percent per day if the sales goals are met. Account managers are forced to hit a 14000 dollar a day goal, and the manager of that department gets 10 percent of that if it is hit. So most managers use cut throat tactics to hit that goal. This is a department that is supposed to be used to gather content and provide customer service. They don't even say anything if the sales are dishonest as long as the number is there. These people care nothing about you your site, or your future, while working there, I saw people spend thousands with no results, no revenue coming in from their sites. They will sign you up and make you think that they will market your site only to tell you that you have to upgrade your hosting, and get a web traffic directing program going for an extra 39.95 a month on top of the 39 dollars a month you are already paying. These people will straight up tell you that you have to have things to be a success, and it won't happen. They outsource most of their design work with nothing more than a phone call interview to hire people, and I'll first hand tell you that compared to the portfolio, the majority of the designs that come out are mediocre at best. They are so cut throat, that they made me come into work the day after my wife had our baby earlier this year, and threatened termination if I didn't come in. My mother died earlier this year from breast cancer, and even when I told them that she only had a couple of months to live they wouldn't give me the time off to leave the state and be with her. That was what threw me over the edge. All in all I hope that anyone who reads this will spread the word that if you are looking to do web design look beyond the inc 500 badge that they have shining on their door...Inc 500 has nothing to do with quality, it has to do with the fastest growing companies, and the reason they are so fast growing is that they snag you and your stuck in their web. If you accept their terms of service and want to cancel the next day they will send you to a "priority accounts" (retention) department where "supervisors" will inform you that they are keeping 50% of your money per the terms of service, and attempt to stop you from canceling, and if they succeed will be paid a 20 dollar bonus. Bottom line...This company wants one thing, and one thing only your money, and if you sign up, they will take it. Good luck and steer clear of heritage web.
In case any new readers of this thread feel inclined to give CEO Brad Stone the benefit of the doubt, just scroll through all the comments and you'll see that Brad--or more likely his assistant--simply posts the same spiel over and over every so often with no changes whatsoever to his message. In fact, he has even posted exactly the same response on [redacted].com (/URL removed/#250926) where there are also a great many complaints about Heritage Web design.
I own my own small web design business and my target clients are small businesses and young non-profits. I can't tell you what kind of ringer many of my clients have been put through by web design predators like HWS. I actually know of HWS because one of my clients is at this very moment embroiled with them. Ugh!
Before you ever give ANYONE your credit card number, you should examine their Terms of Service (TOS) in real detail. Caveat emptor, right folks?!
As for pricing, I agree with what others have said. Go to Google Maps and search for a local web designer whom you can actually meet and whose portfolio you like. Or go to Craigslist and search for a listing that makes it obvious it is an actual, local designer. You really cannot get something nice and unique for $200. If you can spend 4-weeks and $700-$900 on your site, then I think if you look very carefully you can get it done nicely (That's about what I charge for a non-e-commerce brochure-style site, and it includes domain, hosting, design, upload, lots of consultation, email exchanges, phone calls etc. But I think I am on the very inexpensive side.)
I had exactly the same problem as you except I paid a lot more money. I have my website thank goodness...at the end after several months of frustration and hell, I got it. But I paid through the nose for every last piece of progress. I can't understand how they are still in business. I am surprised a class action hasnt been taken against them yet.
The same money spent elsewhere would have gotten the same result and at a cheaper price.
I have seen these $199 ads and was always suspicious, because the site itself never gave any additional information, so you had to ask, "what's the catch?" The catch apparently is that you can't actually get anything for them for $199, not anything that you could actually put out there anyway. Everything, even the most basic things are charged as add-ons. From the sound of it, it looks like people on average spent closer to $1800 for their websites, and were generally not satisfied.
So the bottom line is that your local freelancer will do a better job for you at a price that is more or less the same, maybe less.
Terrible company. I ended up with a site a 5th graded could do. The whole time they charged me for hosting. I complained and they bascally said tough. I went to another designer and got a great site for half the money, half the hassle, half the hosting and twice as much professionalism.
RUN FORM THESE GUYS UNLESS YOU HAVE MONEY TO BURN.
I assumed this company was legitimate because they had an impressive looking website. I was fooled by glitter. If you are thinking of getting a website I would strongly suggest you look locally. I learned the hard way. My advice is to stay away from Heritage Web Solutions. Don't be fooled as I was with a good looking web page. I am surprised someone hasn't brought criminal charges against them by now.
Heritage Web Solutions values all of its customers, especially those who have voiced complaints. It is in our best interest to work with these customers to reach a reasonable and fair resolution. In most cases Heritage tries to go beyond what is fair for the company and errors on the side of the upset customer.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for some customers who, no matter what we do, are never truly satisfied. This is especially disheartening, as Heritage has the solid reputation of providing excellent customer service.
Some customers, as illustrated on this complaint website, have resorted to airing their grievances on the public Internet, in hopes of resolving their particular complaint. We do all that we can to help meet a fair resolution to their satisfaction.
However what becomes unfair to us, are those customers who we feel have received everything they have asked for, and more, but then take it upon themselves to have an ongoing vindication against Heritage. To us, there is nothing more we can do to satisfy them. They are who they are. Vindictive and angry people do more harm to themselves than they think they are doing against a company. It is sad but true.
Heritage Web Solutions, with a customer base of over 10, 000, receives less than one half of one percent in complaints. That is an impressively low number compared to the standards of today. We certainly would like to have zero complaints, but that is just not realistically possible. There will always be those people who cry foul, no matter what.
What you don’t see on this complaint website are all the positive emails and letters we receive daily from customers who are extremely happy with the service and work we have provided for them.
Heritage Web Solutions is a good, solid custom web design and hosting company that has an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau and the Utah State Department of Commerce. We are ranked in the top 1% of web hosting companies in the United States and have recently been recognized by Inc 500.
If you feel that Heritage Web Solutions is not taking care of you, I would invite you to contact me at my personal email address at ceo@hwsinet.com, and I will personally follow up on your issue.
Warmest Regards,
Brad Stone
CEO/Heritage Web Solutions.
Heritage Web Solutions values all of its customers, especially those who have voiced complaints. It is in our best interest to work with these customers to reach a reasonable and fair resolution. In most cases Heritage tries to go beyond what is fair for the company and errors on the side of the upset customer.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for some customers who, no matter what we do, are never truly satisfied. This is especially disheartening, as Heritage has the solid reputation of providing excellent customer service.
Some customers, as illustrated on this complaint website, have resorted to airing their grievances on the public Internet, in hopes of resolving their particular complaint. We do all that we can to help meet a fair resolution to their satisfaction.
However what becomes unfair to us, are those customers who we feel have received everything they have asked for, and more, but then take it upon themselves to have an ongoing vindication against Heritage. To us, there is nothing more we can do to satisfy them. They are who they are. Vindictive and angry people do more harm to themselves than they think they are doing against a company. It is sad but true.
Heritage Web Solutions, with a customer base of over 10, 000, receives less than one half of one percent in complaints. That is an impressively low number compared to the standards of today. We certainly would like to have zero complaints, but that is just not realistically possible. There will always be those people who cry foul, no matter what.
What you don’t see on this complaint website are all the positive emails and letters we receive daily from customers who are extremely happy with the service and work we have provided for them.
Heritage Web Solutions is a good, solid custom web design and hosting company that has an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau and the Utah State Department of Commerce. We are ranked in the top 1% of web hosting companies in the United States and have recently been recognized by Inc 500.
If you feel that Heritage Web Solutions is not taking care of you, I would invite you to contact me at my personal email address at ceo@hwsinet.com, and I will personally follow up on your issue.
Warmest Regards,
Brad Stone
CEO/Heritage Web Solutions.
Heritage Web Solutions values all of its customers, especially those who have voiced complaints. It is in our best interest to work with these customers to reach a reasonable and fair resolution. In most cases Heritage tries to go beyond what is fair for the company and errors on the side of the upset customer.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for some customers who, no matter what we do, are never truly satisfied. This is especially disheartening, as Heritage has the solid reputation of providing excellent customer service.
Some customers, as illustrated on this complaint website, have resorted to airing their grievances on the public Internet, in hopes of resolving their particular complaint. We do all that we can to help meet a fair resolution to their satisfaction.
However what becomes unfair to us, are those customers who we feel have received everything they have asked for, and more, but then take it upon themselves to have an ongoing vindication against Heritage. To us, there is nothing more we can do to satisfy them. They are who they are. Vindictive and angry people do more harm to themselves than they think they are doing against a company. It is sad but true.
Heritage Web Solutions, with a customer base of over 10, 000, receives less than one half of one percent in complaints. That is an impressively low number compared to the standards of today. We certainly would like to have zero complaints, but that is just not realistically possible. There will always be those people who cry foul, no matter what.
What you don’t see on this complaint website are all the positive emails and letters we receive daily from customers who are extremely happy with the service and work we have provided for them.
Heritage Web Solutions is a good, solid custom web design and hosting company that has an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau and the Utah State Department of Commerce. We are ranked in the top 1% of web hosting companies in the United States and have recently been recognized by Inc 500.
If you feel that Heritage Web Solutions is not taking care of you, I would invite you to contact me at my personal email address at ceo@hwsinet.com, and I will personally follow up on your issue.
Warmest Regards,
Brad Stone
CEO/Heritage Web Solutions.
Heritage Web Solutions values all of its customers, especially those who have voiced complaints. It is in our best interest to work with these customers to reach a reasonable and fair resolution. In most cases Heritage tries to go beyond what is fair for the company and errors on the side of the upset customer.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for some customers who, no matter what we do, are never truly satisfied. This is especially disheartening, as Heritage has the solid reputation of providing excellent customer service.
Some customers, as illustrated on this complaint website, have resorted to airing their grievances on the public Internet, in hopes of resolving their particular complaint. We do all that we can to help meet a fair resolution to their satisfaction.
However what becomes unfair to us, are those customers who we feel have received everything they have asked for, and more, but then take it upon themselves to have an ongoing vindication against Heritage. To us, there is nothing more we can do to satisfy them. They are who they are. Vindictive and angry people do more harm to themselves than they think they are doing against a company. It is sad but true.
Heritage Web Solutions, with a customer base of over 10, 000, receives less than one half of one percent in complaints. That is an impressively low number compared to the standards of today. We certainly would like to have zero complaints, but that is just not realistically possible. There will always be those people who cry foul, no matter what.
What you don’t see on this complaint website are all the positive emails and letters we receive daily from customers who are extremely happy with the service and work we have provided for them.
Heritage Web Solutions is a good, solid custom web design and hosting company that has an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau and the Utah State Department of Commerce. We are ranked in the top 1% of web hosting companies in the United States and have recently been recognized by Inc 500.
If you feel that Heritage Web Solutions is not taking care of you, I would invite you to contact me at my personal email address at ceo@hwsinet.com, and I will personally follow up on your issue.
Warmest Regards,
Brad Stone
CEO/Heritage Web Solutions.
Heritage Web Solutions values all of its customers, especially those who have voiced complaints. It is in our best interest to work with these customers to reach a reasonable and fair resolution. In most cases Heritage tries to go beyond what is fair for the company and errors on the side of the upset customer.
Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for some customers who, no matter what we do, are never truly satisfied. This is especially disheartening, as Heritage has the solid reputation of providing excellent customer service.
Some customers, as illustrated on this complaint website, have resorted to airing their grievances on the public Internet, in hopes of resolving their particular complaint. We do all that we can to help meet a fair resolution to their satisfaction.
However what becomes unfair to us, are those customers who we feel have received everything they have asked for, and more, but then take it upon themselves to have an ongoing vindication against Heritage. To us, there is nothing more we can do to satisfy them. They are who they are. Vindictive and angry people do more harm to themselves than they think they are doing against a company. It is sad but true.
Heritage Web Solutions, with a customer base of over 10, 000, receives less than one half of one percent in complaints. That is an impressively low number compared to the standards of today. We certainly would like to have zero complaints, but that is just not realistically possible. There will always be those people who cry foul, no matter what.
What you don’t see on this complaint website are all the positive emails and letters we receive daily from customers who are extremely happy with the service and work we have provided for them.
Heritage Web Solutions is a good, solid custom web design and hosting company that has an excellent rating with the Better Business Bureau and the Utah State Department of Commerce. We are ranked in the top 1% of web hosting companies in the United States and have recently been recognized by Inc 500.
If you feel that Heritage Web Solutions is not taking care of you, I would invite you to contact me at my personal email address at ceo@hwsinet.com, and I will personally follow up on your issue.
Warmest Regards,
Brad Stone
CEO/Heritage Web Solutions.
The service appears to be deteriorating. I requested an update to my website. I have not received any feedback for over ten days. As yet there is no one assigned to make the changes. I signed(too hastily) a one year contract. I have asked the operations manager to contact me yesterday, so I could cancel my contract.This may also be an interminable wait.
Count me as an unsatisfied customer.
I am a dissatisfied customer. Over ten days ago, I requested an update. As yet here is no one assigned to update my site. I signed(too hastily) a one year contract. I am seeking a full refund.
A total disaster
This is a terrible rip you off company. They take money and don't perform nothing correct. I paid for a logo i designed to be uploaded and it took almost 2 weeks. I have tried to cancel my hosting with them and they are telling me i have a one year contract and i need to pay the balance. The reason I am terminating them anyway is because the correct services weren't rendered so how could they hold me to a contract. I spent 1200.00 dollars on a inadequate data base. I cant even load my own pic on my own site. So how can i get consumers to subscribe and try and do the same.
This company is a total rip, They are still up to old games. They claimed to be a fortune 500 compnay, if they are so great why are they constantly ripping people and businesses off. I had such a headache with them, I wish I would have research the company a little more before purchasing. To date, we are out of 500.00. You would not believe the amazing stories this company has told me in regards to why it was taking so long to add three little pages to my site and host. No to mention, my site is already developed...so, all they had to do was transfer...They could not even do that. However, they continued to bill me a montly hosting fee, crazy...crazy. Then the reprensentative told me he would check to see if I could get a refund. I receive their, "Account Termination Agreement", which stated they would happily refund my money, if I promise not to disclose the information to the public. I wish there was a way, I could add the attachment so everyone can see. Well, I plan to file a complaint with eveyonr possible.
So this company said they are giving you all your money back? How is that ripping you off?
Ron Carlos,
I invite you to communicate with me directly and I will do whatever I can to resolve the issues you have to your satisfaction.
Brad Stone
CEO@hwsinet.com
I currently work for the company, so take what I say with a grain of salt.
HWS isn't the best-run company around, but they're hardly scammers.
As far as not getting what you paid for from them, did you expect a gem of a web site for only a few hundred dollars? I've got news for you... it takes time and money to build a really nice looking and well-working site. No, their sales department doesn't exactly consider that a selling point and will happily show you the nicest pieces in their portfolio, but the fact is, if you expect to build and run a really professional site, you are either going to have to learn to do it yourself or pay somebody who can. $50/month isn't exactly spendy for well-managed servers, decent support, design updates, (virtually) unlimited bandwidth and disk space. Their programmers are decent (not top-notch), and QC in the design and programming departments has been improving greatly over the last few years.
If you think you are going to get top-notch service, support, and a fully customized design for only a few hundred dollars, I've got a lovely bridge to sell you too. Yes, the salesmen are the ### of the earth and will tell you anything you want to hear, but that's not unique to the company or even the industry. If you'll believe them, I have a hard time feeling sorry for you.
As for the other departments' heads getting bonuses for sales, the company wanting "only your money", or them trying to upsell you at every opportunity... Do you think that is a new or shady concept? If so, you have absolutely no idea how the business world works.
Some companies are worse than others. HWS isn't the best, but they are hardly the worst. As always, you get what you pay for. If you are willing to spend some money to get a well-built site, you'll get it.
Roxanne, you need to make up your mind. Is HWS good or bad, i've seen it both ways from you.
childish ranting ... This complaint is teh sux.