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

HIT Web Design
Posted: by chesterpaw

I decided to go with Hit Web Design formerly known as Heritage web design. At first, they sounded great and one was supposed to get all of these things. Immediately after signing, all of the little extras cost a lot of extra money. I signed up in June, paid a lot of money up front and it's now the end of October and there is still no website. There are to many agents assigned to one account and noone is in a hurry to work on anything. When calling customer support or techincal support, most agents are less than helpful. This company is a well marketed and misleading company. At the end of the day, it's an expensive do it yourself design company. If you want something doen right, do yourself a favour and do not use hit web design. You'll turn old grey and very frustrated dealing with this poorly organized comapny. Just because they claim their fame to being in INC magazine, does not mean a whole of a lot anymore.

By Mike Schreurs

I used to work at Heritage for about 1 year. I believe their treatment of veterans is horrible and I know this from being a veteran. I was punished for going on training by having old used non- working leads given to me to sell. I had an instance where a motivation session was given and they talked about going on a mission in Iraq and equated it to sales. Many times I was told to promise customers some service just to get the sale.

___________________________________

Dave, Ryan and Aliases... Comments?

Heritage Web Solutions Complaints - Money scam
Review Heritage Web Solutions complaints
Heritage Web Solutions
Posted: by Victor

Money scam

Company information:
Heritage Web Solutions
United States

I spent over $3000.00 on my site. In 6 months, this is what they have done "whiteexpresscabulance.com"- two of the pages are "coming soon".

For 6 months all I did was baby sit the designer. If I wanted ANY one thing done to the site, I needed to repeat it 3 to 4 times before the designer did it. The design that is there now is what I personally put together on Photoshop and sent her. The original design she made was a gray box with black text and our logo on the top. I gave her all of the text for every page and she wrote it with no punctuation and with lots of misspelled words. It was written like a text message. After she put the design I created onto the site and fixed most of the mistakes, she told me that I need to approve the part of the site that she did so that somebody else would come in and finish the two pages that weren't done. I approved and she disappeared.

It has been a month now. I have written and called every manager and customer service and technical support. Last week I finally got a response from somebody via email. He asked what I need done on my site and I told him. He replied letting me know that he is going on vacation for 2 weeks and that he can start when he gets back.

I called to cancel everything and get a refund. The girl told me that they cannot make any refunds for any reason, even if its something that I paid for and they didn't do. There is over $1200.00 worth of things that I have paid for which are not done. She also said that they cannot release the files for the site so that I can have some other designer complete it. The only way they can release those files to me is if I pay them 12 months worth of hosting which would be $360.00. That's $360.00 for yet another thing they don't actually do, making it $1560.00 instead of $1200.00. I have not done it yet, I figured I would warn people first and show my site before I have a real designer finish it.

Overall the designers there have zero artistic ability or interest in your website.

The managers do not care about you or your site, as long as they have your money.

by rosegeorge

this company are the worst. I signed on and paid $2, 100 and after 3 months, still no website. They have also stopped communicating with me, and pass me from one person to another. My website is still not live and I have called my bank to do a chargeback as services were not delivered and fit for purpose. the analogy I use, is asking for a house to be built bricks and getting a house built with straw!

Heritage Web Solutions Alert! Warning about Heritage Web Solutions Sneaky Business Practices ripoff Provo, Utah
...Entitled to Full Refund! HWS Rebuttals of Nothing But Hot Air & More Lies!

Heritage Web Solutions
Phone: [protected]
Fax: [protected]
1460 North Moon River Dr
Provo, Utah [protected]
U.S.A.

Reported By
Lexington, Kentucky

My nightmare began May 9th when I hired Heritage Web Solutions to design my new internet business.

Unfortunately, I did not search for complaints against Heritage Web Solutions on the internet. Being the optimistic type, I was only searching for professional web designers and hosting companies that seemed reliable, trained, and professional. My final decision to hire this company was based on their extensive and impressive internet advertisements.

They sounded great, but little did I know at the time, that they had no intentions of helping me build a marketable web business that would produce income. I was only money to them! They did not live up to their promises, and it has cost me a lot of money, valuable time, and unnecessary stress! I was so upset that I could not sleep and all I did was cry. I am a hardworking, self sufficient, single Mom who is counting on this business for extra income to pay for my daughter's college tuition next year!

However, after dealing with them for two weeks it became apparent that I had made a huge mistake in putting all of my confidence and money into Heritage Web Solutions. By the third week, I had figured out all of their scheming business tactics. They are so good at lying and deceiving people, they probably conduct mandatory "scam training classes" for all of their employees.

In essence, I paid them $850.00 for a website and shopping cart to be setup. I paid them another $300.00 for a logo (which was a couple of pieces of clip art stuck together, and they didn't even use my company name as instructed.)

After two bad attempts of getting a cheap and ugly logo, I told them, to forget it, but they would not refund my money because according to their contract, if they did any work at all, my money would not be refunded. The account manager assured me that I would not have to pay for it until they designed something I liked, but my card was billed the very next day.

That same day, I also purchased 4 dibs (scroll boxes) for a total of $200.00 to go on the first page, but that never happened as planned, because the totally wrong layout they chose, would not incorporate it, so they put one dip on first page and that caused the whole page to scroll, instead the whole plan was to have them accent the individual topics so they could be seen right away.

Then they just put each topic one after the other, at the bottom of the page, therefore; no one could see what was available unless they took the time to keep scrolling way down the page! I added a $300.00 forum, and a $125.00 calendar, which no work was ever done at all concerning these two items, because I did not approve the useless layout of the design. The more they worked the more chopped up it became.

This would never have happened, if they had listened to what I needed and wanted in the first place. I have several emails of what I wanted my website to look like, what I needed it to do, and what I wanted, and my color choices. They asked me for all of this information in the beginning, stating they could not start work without it, but they apparently did not look over and read any of it.

Did anyone ever take anything I stated into consideration? No! They did exactly what they wanted to do, and tried to get me to approve a website with two home pages, slowly loading full pages and half pages, all done with the wrong layout! The entire left side of the design was useless and bare.

To make a long story short, they are not qualified to produce the results they advertise. They also do not live up to what they tell you on the phone. They would call me and talk a good game, but then still not produce or listen to my important input. Since they couldn't design the right website within the 4 week time frame they promised, I was billed $49.00 for June hosting too.

All in all, I paid them a total of $1, 524.99 and I am still not in business, because I will not accept a website that is not built to support my business. I would be ashamed for anyone to visit that site.
Anyway, I ended up sending an email to the owner and this is his reply below: (for privacy purposes I have deleted my last name)

Dear Ms. ******

I will bring your concern to the attention of the V.P. of design and ask him to look into it. If the work is shoddy, then Heritage will remedy it. If we are "chasing a ghost", then our best efforts have to be sufficient.

Jeremy, will you please review this account and see that we communicate with Ms. Story.

Respectfully,

Mark Strong
Heritage Web Solutions

Please note, the use of Mr. Strongs his arrogant words. The email confirmed that I was correct in my observation of their sleazy and uncaring business practices, and compounded by biggest fear that the deception goes straight to the top of the corporate ladder! Again, they had no intentions to do a good job. They were also not "chasing a ghost." What I wanted, paid for, and expected, was not impossible by any means! They take and keep people's money by hiding behind their terms of agreement. As far as I am concerned, the minute they billed my credit card, they "accepted my terms of agreement" meaning that would to live up to their promises and what they advertised to get my business.

In the email I sent to Mr. Strong, I forwarded one letter that I had sent to a supervisor. In the email, I went into great detail about everything I had been through to date and again had to waste more time in explaining how I wanted each page to look and what I needed each page of my site to do. Week before last, I got tired of sounding like a broken record, and going being stressed to the max, so I sent an another email to Mr. Strong explaining that I no longer wanted their services or wanted to ever have to deal with their company again, and asked for a refund.

He did respond by stating that I could not be refunded any money due to the fact that I agreed to their terms of service. As for that, I abided by the contract in paying them for a custom website, it was them that did live up to the terms of agreement, so why should I settle for less than what I paid for and they promised?

At present I have hired another company to build my website, but I am in no way going to allow them to get away with what they did to me, and hopefully be able to make sure this does not happen to anyone else. So if anyone is in the process of suing them, etc. Please let me know and I will help you in anyway I can win your case too.

I will not go into all the details of everything; it would take all night to write it all! I just want to warn as many people as possible before they believe in this company and end up being scammed! Please investigate, check out, and get references before hiring a company that advertises on the internet.

This evening Mr. Strong sent me an email saying that, as per their terms of agreement, I was not entitled to any refund. He went on to state that they would work me until I was satisfied. After 10 weeks, I am tired of hearing this same promise, and after 10 weeks of being nervous and stressed over all the delays and uncaring staff at his company, I have decided, I will not allow myself to be a victim of their shady business practices any longer. I will not allow them to continue to destroy my mental health and my business! I will do whatever it takes to see that justice is done in my favor! I will no longer continue to give away money to a cold, ruthless, man! Again, if I can be of help to anyone else, let me know.

Stephanie
Lexington, Kentucky
U.S.A.

by Stephanie

I do hope everyone has taken the time to read all of my complaints against HWS. It is scary to think that people are suppose to sit back, not say, or do anything, after they have been swindled and lied too! Mr. Stone, we are not being vindictive! We are only warning others before they too, fall pray to your false advertisements and end up losing their hard earned money, by putting their faith, trust, and money in a company that is uncaring, ruthless, and money hungry. Making money is the reason why everyone goes into business, but literally and knowingly not doing what a client pays you to do, is unjust and Anti American! Business practices like yours should not be tolerated by the public and our government.

Again, I will do everything in my power to see that your business practices are investigated by all government agencies that regulate the business industry. I intend to be advocate for all of those you have wronged. These are innocent people that had a dream of starting a productive, successful internet business and your company stole that dream along with their money.

I have moved on, and at present, the $1, 524.99 dollars that your company took from me, is no longer important to me. What matters most is that no one else get taken advantage of by your company. In other words, I intend to follow through to make sure you will not get the opportunity to cheat anyone else.

Attn Everyone: Heritage Web Solutions "Terms of Service Agreement" is one sided, there is not one word or clause that protects the consumer! As I and everyone else that had agreed to the terms, we did so in good faith thinking that they would live up to their claims of building a custom website. However, this was not the case. They did not even try to build a nice site for me. So please, please, please, read their terms of agreement, then go back and reread my complaints. It is important before deciding to give them your credit card information. HWS hides behind this agreement. Their big excuse for not refunding a client's money lies in this agreement. In other words, it is their scapegoat for not having to do as hired. Everyone, please pay attention and do not allow them to bring harm to you financially.

To Mr. Stone personally; I was stupid to have hired your company in the beginning, therefore there is no way I would even consider giving your company another chance while having to wait around for another two months, deal with your lying employees, and end up with another ugly and cheap website that does not accentuate by business. Why would I even want to deal with that kind of stress, two months was enough! Then to only end up with a website that say I have to live with whether I like it or not! Furthermore, I will not change my business plans to fit your companies lack of talent. So stop saying you care about good customer service. The only good service your company provided to me is that they always remained nice, while they were lying to me.

End of Story

Stephanie
Lexington, Kentucky
U.S.A.

By Jimmy Thing in Provo, Utah on indeed.com

I have worked for a number of successful software companies in Utah Valley, and I can tell you, this is far from one of them. IF anyone of the major players in utah valley knew about "HIT", they wouldn't stop laughing. This place has a permanent Hiring sign up because of the high turnover. I was an Account Manager, and the average account manager made ZERO commission! They had a few major AMs that sold a lot, but the bulk of them didn't. Of course, I didn't know this until after I quit my job, and started there. As an Account Manager, I assumed I would be given a list of clients, have weekly meetings, and an established relationship with each account. That was far from the truth. Instead, when i called my clients, 5 other AMs had called them that month, trying to sale. Not to mention, 8/10 clients hated HIT and couldn't wait to leave, which made it nearly impossible to sale. I frequently asked for training on the tools we were asked to use, in which I was denied. They told me they'd rather have the client on hold, while I go ask every question I have. I felt they had NO investment in me at all. The equipment was very dirty and old. My monitor was constantly changing colors, but they wouldn't replace it for me. its in an old, run down bowling ally, that literally smelled, and was never clean. it was a horrible work environment.
HIT doesn't care about its employees, or its customers. I never felt like they were being honest with me. I talked to hundreds of their clients, and none of them ever said they were satisfied customers. Its an extremely small fish. They are a joke.

465 complaints filed against S hit web design - with BBB in last 3 years

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

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

living.powerfully Says:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Hit Web Design / Heritage Web Solutions Reviews

Pros:

They're anxious to sign you up.

Cons:

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Stacy

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

by John L

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

by Nikki

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

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

Stay far far away from this group.

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

by terry

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

___________________________________________________

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

by Another Ex Employee in Salt Lake City, Utah

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

By Eeks in Draper, Utah

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe move out of a bowling alley too.

By Ex-Employee of HWS in Provo, Utah

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by gkdiva6 in North Wales, Pennsylvania

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

by programmer in Sebastopol, California

Unfortunately many of the negative comments are true.

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

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

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

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

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

by D_A in Spanish Fork, Utah

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

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

@ growupplease,

Fake complaints huh ?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2006 Revenue $8.2 million of illgotten funds...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As Reported by Justin B on /link removed/

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

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

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

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

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

HERES WHERE IT GETS GOOD

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

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

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

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

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

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

as Reported on /link removed/

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

Company information:
Hitwebdesign
California
United States
hitwebdesign.com

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

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

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

Sam

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

Paid services not provided/charged credit card without authorization

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

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

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

Heritage Web Solutions
by Lily

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by Humberto Effio

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

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

Heritage Web Solutions
by The Que

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

by helix

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

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

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

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

by Sirenbliss

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

_____________________________________________________________________________________

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

by Malg

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